Before the year ends I wanted to share my Top ten (and worst) movies of 2024. This year has been very interesting for film definitely not as good as last year I’d say due to the strikes pushing a lot of stuff back into next year and 2026 but still a solid year for film regardless. This is the year I fully started to appreciate smaller indie movies over the big blockbusters that shift started to happen end of last year but this year I fully made that shift. Only three out of the ten movies in my top ten this year are blockbusters. Not sure if that really says more about me and how my tastes have evolved or how weak the releases were from the big studios this year. Maybe a mix of both. 

Honorable Mentions: 

Longlegs: Just shows what a good marketing campaign can do that this ended up becoming Neon’s highest grossing movie yet. Cage really caged it up here and Maika Monroe gave yet another good performance here. I will admit upon rewatch I didn’t think this was as good and I saw better horror movies this year so this didn’t make the cut. 

The Fall Guy: A fun high budget studio action/ comedy with a little heart as well that unfortunately bombed at the box office earlier this year. Gosling was great (when is he not) Blunt was good but could’ve been given more to do. David Leitch’s most personal movie yet but unfortunately considering the amount of money Universal lost on this hopefully David Leitch doesn’t get put in director jail or even worse forced to do a “one for them” movie like a Jason Bourne reboot or some shit. Ugh. 

Challengers: Guadagnino’s best movie of his career so far in my opinion at least. Wasn’t a fan of Zendaya before seeing this and didn’t get the hype at all (thought she was the weakest link in Dune Part 2) but I remember seeing this in the theater earlier this year and thinking “yeah, I get it now.” She was great here and this movie made me do a complete 180 on her. 

Rebel Ridge: A return to form for Jeremy Saulnier after Hold The Dark is sort of a modern day mix of Rambo and Jack Reacher. Also one of the three genuinely good movies Netflix released this year. A star was born in Aaron Pierre with this. 

Juror No 2: A great morality tale of a movie. Clint Eastwood putting out a movie as solid as this in his 90’s is a damn impressive feat in of itself. Some plot choices and character choices in this are a little dumb and didn’t like the ending but this is really solid and Clint went out high if this is his last. Fuck WB and Zaslav for burying this. 

The Apprentice- When I watched this in early November I thought it was a solid movie but also simultaneously uneven. The more I thought about it though the more I started to like and respect this. Bakalova and Strong are great and Sebastian Stan might be the most fearless actor working today to take on the task of portraying Trump here but I think he nailed it here. He made the man come across as human during the first two acts of this which I thought was impossible. Stan might be fearless but Hollywood definitely isn’t since no other actor was even willing to talk about this movie with him for Variety’s Actors on Actors segment this year and I’m sure him and Strong will also be shut out by The Academy as well which is a shame. I could see this movie gaining like cult classic status in a few years. 

Top Ten Of 2024: 

10| Alien: Romulus- Best Alien movie since James Cameron’s. Fede Alvarez is the perfect guy to be running this franchise going forward, keep Ridley away. Also Cailee Spaeny is a star. 

9| The Substance- Easily the most batshit insane movie of the year. Everyone will be anticipating Coralie Fargeat’s third movie after this. Demi Moore gives a career best performance here, Margaret Qualley is once again a scene stealer and with any luck they will get nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting respectively. 

8| Day Of The Fight- A movie that no one really saw or is talking about due to the very limited release this got in NY and LA for like 2 weeks. Luckily I got to see it and it’s one of the best of the year for me. Michael Pitt put his all into this and you could see it with every scene he has on screen. A great redemption story and no this isn’t really a boxing movie if that’s a turn off for you. Hopefully everyone discovers this whenever it hits digital and streaming. 

7| Nosferatu- Best horror movie of the year for me. Gorgeous cinematography, great performances from the whole cast especially Lily Rose Depp who was a revelation here. Hope we see her in a lot more going forward. 

6| Civil War- Not sure which Alex Garland movie I prefer this or Ex Machina but it’s close. It’s scary that if this released 10 years ago, even five years ago you would say another Civil War would never happen but now that’s not such a sure thing anymore. Cailee Spaeny is the MVP of the year for two of her movies making it into my top ten. Also how good is Jesse Plemmons that he is able to steal this whole movie with one fucking scene. Unreal give this man more leading roles. 

5| Dune: Part Two- Not much to say about this that hasn’t already been said or that I already didn’t say in the two reviews I did for this movie. Easily a top two blockbuster of the year. Cast is great, one of the best sequels ever made, I think Villeneuve has ascended to Nolan level after this in terms of having a built in audience for whatever else he decides to do for the rest of his career. Can’t wait for Messiah. 

4| A Different Man- A great movie about self perception and confidence. Essentially The Substance from a Male POV. Stan is even better here than The Apprentice which is impressive and Adam Pearson is great as well. 

3| Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga- A great revenge story. Anya Taylor Joy and Chris Hemsworth at the top of their game, George Miller at the top of his. Go read my review for this pinned to my page if you haven’t to see my full thoughts on this movie. If this is the last Mad Max movie we get George Miller made sure he put everything into this. 

2| Anora- Sean Baker’s best in my opinion. Mikey Madison deserves to be the next big thing after this. Hope she wins an Oscar in March. 

1| Hit Man- Top two Linklater for me tied with Boyhood. Just like I understood the hype for Zendaya after Challengers the Glen Powell craze made sense to me after watching this. This dude is going to be the next A list movie star. Arjona and Powell have the best romantic chemistry I’ve seen in years. I watched and logged this three times since it released on Netflix back in June so I think that speaks for itself. The biggest crime is that Neon didn’t get to acquire this over Netflix. 

Worst of 2024 

10- Joker: Folie a Deux:  Todd Phillips putting his middle finger up to everyone and likely putting himself in directors jail in the process. Suprised Zaslav didn’t use this one as a tax write off. Also remember when people were predicting that Gaga would win an Oscar for this back in like February? lol. I guess Todd Phillips was the real Joker the entire time. 

9- Subservience: Megan Fox as an evil robot sells itself so not sure what the hell happened here. 

8-  Argylle: Apple gave Matthew Vaughn 200 million to make garbage. Vaughn go make an indie movie to prove you can be a good storyteller again. 

7- Kraven The Hunter: Aaron Taylor Johnson you did what you could… 

6- Damsel: Millie Bobby Brown running around a green screen set and fighting female oppression with a CGI dragon. 

5- Red One: Essentially movie money laundering because what is the explanation for this mess. Thank god Dwayne and Chris are going the indie route next year.

4- Night Swim: Best part about this was the demon looking like a muppet Danny Devito 

3- The Crow: Imagine a movie being in development hell for 19 years and this is the movie that ends up seeing the light of day. 

2- Trigger Warning:  Jessica Alba fire your agent. 

1- Madame Web 

2025 Anticipated