The ten movies I loved, loved, loved this year.
I don’t know if great movies have a destiny, or if they’re floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both get happening at the same time. I hope that “Forrest Gump” reference delivers on the notion that I find great movies even in a time of great cynicism. And while I prefer the past, I still look for the very best that modern cinema can offer.
I always find it difficult to keep the rooster to just ten. Here are the other 10 honorable mentions I would have added if not for these other great 10s.
- “Conclave”
- “Wicked”
- “My Old Ass”
- “Aisha”
- “Challengers”
- “Nosferatu”
- “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
- “Longlegs”
- “Small Things Like These”
- “Ezra”
Here are the ten movies that I loved in 2024.
10.) “The Wild Robot”
Under Dreamworks Animation, writer/director Chris Sanders retells Peter Brown’s book about a robot nicknamed Roz (voiced wonderfully by Lupita Nyong’o), who finds herself on an island inhabited by animals, learns their language (Pedro Pascal and Catherine O’Hara are among the voice talents), and helps a gosling runt prepare for his migration. In the tradition of Disney and Hayao Mizayaki, the movie has a dazzling, hilarious, and heartwarming quality that makes it a gem.
9.) “Civil War”
Alex Garland’s vision of a violently evil America in the future is a riveting and dangerous movie that I was glad I saw on an IMAX screen at the time of its release. Kirsten Dunst owns the screen as the ambitious journalist, who, along with her colleagues (Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson), is willing to get the story of her career, while all the guns are shooting. You better wear your press badge.
8.) “His Three Daughters”
Azazel Jacobs’ latest entry is a searing and powerful film that ranks with some of the best movies about dysfunctional families. This one, however, regards three stepsisters (played universally profound by Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, and Carrie Coon), who all come together to help aid their dying father. Their respective personalities and issues come crashing down faster than a leaky ceiling. Brace yourselves.
7.) “Inside Out 2”
The original Disney-Pixar masterpiece, which was my favorite film of 2015, introduced us to the characters of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. And now in “Inside Out 2,” their human girl Riley is a teenager, which means they now have to deal with Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment, while telling Nostalgia it’s not time for her to recall old memories yet. This sequel is every bit as emotional and visually stunning as the first, and I want to thank Joy for taking over my mind again.
6.) “Flow”
The best animated feature of the year has no words or celebrity voices. Just a black cat, a capybara, a yellow lab dog, a white secretary bird, and a lemur learning to cooperate when their forest is flooded and their only sanctuary is a sailboat they find. The animation rendered by Blender looks state of the art, the animals have realism and some whimsey, and what’s really uplifting is the big heart that connects these creatures together.
5.) “A Complete Unknown”
Another great Timothee Chalamet movie on this annual Best of list, but this one has him playing a young Bob Dylan, who introduced audiences to his taste in music. Sometimes, he had some controversy, but most of the time, he has his fans. Director James Mangold (in his first music biopic since “Walk the Line”) delivers another love letter to the singer. And with a terrific supporting cast of Elle Fanning, Edward Norton, and Monica Barbaro, this is a relaxing and fantastic experience.
4.) “Sing Sing”
Now this is one of the best prison dramas I have ever seen, one that forgets the cliches and focuses on the bigger picture. How acting can bring out one’s best qualities, even in the most difficult circumstances. Based on a true story, Colman Domingo plays a wrongfully convicted man, who has an acting team (a majority of them are played by real-life former convicts like Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin) in the Sing Sing Correctional Facility’s program Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA). This is like a breath of fresh air.
If you missed it in theaters, it’ll be re-released on January 17.
3.) “Dune: Part 2”
Denis Villeneuve has made the better decision of splitting up Frank Herbert’s novel into separate films than David Lynch did cramming the book into a small bomb. Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, and Josh Brolin are among the big names in this epic sequel that follows the tradition of “The Empire Strikes Back.” Everything about this movie is a visual wonder, and I apologize to those who were disappointed that the first part only made my honorable mentions three years ago. This is how I make up for it.
2.) “Anora”
Director Sean Baker has one of his most entertaining films-a sex comedy like no other. Mikey Madison (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Scream”) is quite the revelation as a Uzbek-American sex worker named Anora, whose latest client (Mark Eidelshtein) is the immature son of a wealthy and domineering Russian oligarch. They elope in Las Vegas, but word gets out through his family, and now things go crazy. The behaviors are handled with honesty by Baker. It makes us laugh without being so desperate, it has characters we want to acknowledge (or maybe we don’t for some of them), and it has high aspirations in the independent circuit.
1.) “The Brutalist”
Yet another epic about the American Dream. Only instead of Francis Ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese directing it. It’s Brady Corbett, who uses old-fashioned filmmaking to tell the story of a Hungarian-Jewish architect immigrant Laszlo Toth, who is played authentically and memorably by Adrien Brody, and arrives in America to avoid the Holocaust and to make a difference regarding his work. By old-fashioned, I mean there’s an overture, an intermission, an epilogue, and a character development so complex, it’s impossible to resist.
The Best Animated Films of the Year
- “Chicken for Linda”
- “Piece by Piece”
- “Transformers One”
- “Robot Dreams”
- “Memoir of a Snail”
- “The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie”
- “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
- “The Wild Robot”
- “Inside Out 2”
- “Flow”
The Best International Films
- “Chicken for Linda”
- “Driving Madeleine”
- “The Promised Land”
- “The Taste of Things”
- “Red Rooms”
- “Perfect Days”
- “All We Imagine as Light”
- “I’m Still Here”
- “The Beast”
- “Emilia Perez”
The Best Documentaries
- “Will & Harper”
- “Piece by Piece”
- “Lover, Stalker, Killer”
- “The Cowboy and the Queen”
- “Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field”
- “The Greatest Night in Pop”
- “Skywalkers: A Love Story”
- “Return of the King: The Rise and Fall of Elvis Presley”
- “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band”
- “STEVE! (martin): a documentary in 2 pieces”
The Best Movie Performances of Both Sexes
- Jennifer Lopez in “Unstoppable”
- Kieran Culkin in “A Real Pain”
- Zendaya in “Challengers”
- Adrian Brody in “The Brutalist”
- Ryan Reynolds in “Deadpool & Wolverine”
- Ralph Fiennes in “Conclave”
- Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin in “Sing Sing”
- Natasha Lyonne in “His Three Daughters”
- Kirstin Dunst in “Civil War”
- Demi Moore in “The Substance”
The Best Celebrities I’ve Met
- Laura Linney
- Peter Browngardt
- Elizabeth Banks
- Jesse Eisenberg
- Selma Blair
- Anika Noni Rose
- Tiffany Haddish
- Kelsey Grammer
- Tony Goldwyn and Tony Spiridakis
- Nick Park
Categories: List
