I've been procrastinating posting my end-of-year movies list, but the Oscar nominations drop tomorrow morning so now's a good time! Like last year, I plan to post an updated list after the Oscars, because I still have a bunch of 2024 releases on my to-watch list.

I saw almost all of these in the theater; the ones I saw streaming online are marked with an asterisk below. (Technically I saw Majority Rules on a DVD player in the Somerville Public Library but it was a pretty crowded room so I'm calling that a "theater"!) I've separated them into buckets based on what rating I gave them on a 1-10 scale, and they're sorted from best to worst inside those buckets. I'm wondering if I need to start recording fractional ratings, because it was hard to remember enough details to fully rank the 48 movies that I rated a 7! So, take the precise relative rankings in this list with a grain of salt.

My number one favorite movie is a documentary, which I'm fairly sure has never happened before. Flipside is an unassuming doc about an unassuming run-down indie record store in New Jersey, but, much like Chris Wilcha's previous documentary The Target Shoots First (from 1999), it's also part autobiography, part sociological critique, and part psychoanalysis, with many fun tangents and surprising cameos. To quote DOC NYC, it's "the existential Gen-X movie we didn’t know we wanted."

I'm too tired to write up my other faves right now, but feel free to ask in a comment if you want me to expound on anything. Or just go stream it! I try to watch most movies without knowing anything about them (other than whatever it was that made me curious to see it: a director or actor I like, say, or its appearance on someone else's favorites list); it can lead to some fun surprises, and I recommend trying it out.

    9:

  1. Flipside
  2. Sometimes I Think About Dying
  3. Challengers

    8:

  4. Hundreds of Beavers
  5. Flow
  6. Riddle of Fire
  7. Good One
  8. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
  9. Dune: Part Two
  10. Conclave
  11. The Dead Don't Hurt
  12. Knox Goes Away
  13. Hard Truths
  14. Nickel Boys
  15. Heretic
  16. The Fall Guy
  17. Hit Man
  18. Touch
  19. Nosferatu
  20. Thelma
  21. Wolfs
  22. Daddio
  23. Brats*
  24. Afraid

    7:

  25. Ghostlight
  26. Janet Planet
  27. Snack Shack
  28. Evil Does Not Exist
  29. The American Society of Magical Negroes
  30. Dìdi (弟弟)
  31. Anora
  32. A Real Pain
  33. The Room Next Door
  34. The Beekeeper
  35. The Beast
  36. Problemista
  37. Daaaaaalí!
  38. Jim Henson Idea Man*
  39. Drive-Away Dolls
  40. Meanwhile on Earth
  41. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
  42. The Instigators
  43. Rob Peace
  44. Juror #2
  45. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
  46. Slingshot
  47. My Old Ass
  48. The Outrun
  49. The Count of Monte Cristo
  50. Wicked Little Letters
  51. Self Reliance*
  52. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
  53. Saturday Night
  54. Blitz
  55. Piece by Piece
  56. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
  57. I.S.S.
  58. The Piano Lesson
  59. Firebrand
  60. Strange Darling
  61. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
  62. Inside Out 2
  63. Tuesday
  64. Skincare
  65. Deadpool & Wolverine
  66. Here
  67. Babes
  68. Seeking Mavis Beacon
  69. Stormy*
  70. Alien: Romulus
  71. Y2K
  72. Kiss the Future

    6:

  73. Elevation
  74. Lisa Frankenstein
  75. Civil War
  76. Trap
  77. Out of Darkness
  78. 1992
  79. The Watchers
  80. The Last Showgirl
  81. Unfrosted*
  82. The Order
  83. Wildcat
  84. Coup!
  85. Young Woman and the Sea
  86. National Anthem
  87. Blink Twice
  88. A Quiet Place: Day One
  89. Borderlands
  90. Notice to Quit
  91. Babygirl
  92. I Used to Be Funny
  93. The End We Start From
  94. Majority Rules
  95. Abigail
  96. Cuckoo
  97. Joker: Folie à Deux
  98. His Three Daughters
  99. The Critic
  100. Between the Temples
  101. Wicked
  102. The Peasants
  103. The Killer's Game
  104. Kill
  105. Longlegs
  106. Rumours
  107. The Fabulous Four
  108. Smile 2
  109. Goodrich
  110. Gladiator II
  111. We Live in Time
  112. Queer
  113. Lee
  114. Madame Web
  115. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
  116. Tarot

    5:

  117. The Bikeriders
  118. Sing Sing
  119. Love Lies Bleeding
  120. Boy Kills World
  121. Kneecap
  122. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
  123. The Substance
  124. Kraven the Hunter
  125. Monkey Man
  126. I Saw the TV Glow
  127. The Book of Clarence
  128. The Apprentice
  129. The Crow
  130. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
  131. The Return
  132. Twisters
  133. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

    4:

  134. Kinds of Kindness
  135. It Ends with Us
  136. The End
  137. Nightbitch

    3:

  138. The Wild Robot
  139. Emilia Pérez
  140. Megalopolis
  141. Venom: The Last Dance

    2:

  142. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Here's my current list of 2024 releases I plan to see in theaters soon:

The Brutalist
All We Imagine As Light
A Complete Unknown
September 5
I'm Still Here
Better Man

And a selection of other 2024 releases I hope to catch up with:

A Different Man
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
Aggro Dr1ft
Backspot
Butterfly in the Sky
Coup de Chance
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Dogman
Ennio
Eno
First Omen
French Girl
God & Country
Green Border
Immaculate
Je Suis Auto
Late Night with the Devil
Melomaniac
My Dead Friend Zoe
Poolman
Rebel Ridge
Red Rooms
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus
Sacramento
Sasquatch Sunset
Scoop
Small Things Like These
Spermworld
Stress Positions
Sugarcane
The Killer (John Woo remake)
The Last Stop in Yuma County
The Monk and the Gun
The People's Joker
Trust (Confidenza)
Winner

Let me know what else I missed!

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