Top 10 Movies of 2024

The theatrical business is still recovering from COVID, but a handful of films still managed to impress our writers this year

As fellow Substacker and cultural critic Ted Gioia was swift to point out on Twitter, 2024 could have had a lot more to offer when it came to movies:

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Reheated, recycled franchise fare absolutely dominated: as more and more folks return to the theaters, familiar names from before the pandemic were considered the safest bets to shell out the average $10 a head it costs in this country to go to the movies. However, not every franchise ploy landed, as audiences were at least discerning enough to dismiss Sony’s failed Spider-Man spin-offs Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter and the miserable Joker: Folie à Deux, but corporate trickery like Mufasa and Venom: The Last Dance, still found many willing viewers.

In total, our reviewing efforts this year found us tackling 28 films, 10 more than we were able to cover last year! Our new reviews have been some of our most popular posts, and we hope to cover even more in the exciting year to come (most anticipated list coming soon!).

Here are some films that we did get to cover that didn’t make the top 10, and a few we didn’t get to review for the site but our writers endorsed:

Honorable Mentions:

• Alien: Romulus (Disney)

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (WB)

• Bonhoeffer (Angel Studios)

• Carry-On (Netflix)

• His Three Daughters (Netflix)

• September 5 (Paramount)

• Sing Sing (A24)

• Twisters (Universal/WB)

• Unsung Hero (Lionsgate)

And now, on the top 10! This is a cumulative aggregate list sourced from polling our writers for their personal top 10s of the year.

#10: Gladiator II (dir. Ridley Scott)

“Gladiator II feels very much like a throwback. It stands out among the films of this year, feeling more like a film from the same era as The Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander, or indeed the original Gladiator itself. It is a grand epic narrative, of a mold that we rarely get to see in theaters these days. True, the spectacle of big blockbuster movies these days seems to be getting bigger and bigger (as do their budgets) but rarely do we see the sort of grand narrative and epic scope that really makes these movies interesting. Superhero movies are endlessly mocked for finales involving “giant sky beams”, but they continue using that trope because destruction of the physical world/universe/dimension is the only way they can attempt to inject true stakes or a sense of scope into their films.” (Joe Wilson)

FULL REVIEW

#9: Hit Man (dir. Richard Linklater)

“Richard Linklater has a pretty diverse filmography, ranging from highbrow romances to semi-autobiographical coming-of-age flicks to comedies verging on the screwball variety. With his latest flick, 'Hit Man,' the idea actually came from his friend (and the lead actor of this movie) Glen Powell, who shot him an article he had read about one real-life Gary Johnson, a college professor turned undercover cop in New Orleans. The result is a wholly entertaining summer movie that's more clever than anything else out right now with a good amount of heart to boot. Glen Powell absolutely dominates this film with his comedic chops and makes this one a must-see. Streaming on Netflix!” (Samuel Morales)

#8: Megalopolis (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

“Megalopolis is almost impossible for anyone to coherently review. Its detractors will snark that this is because the movie itself is completely incoherent; I, a defender, believe that it is because Francis Ford Coppola’s ambitions were too big for cinema. Coppola has been working on this film for more than 40 years; in that time, the scope of his story grew to such a proportion that it cannot be contained on a movie screen. Superhero movies often involve a battle between the heroes and an existential threat for the human race; Coppola attempts to draw us, his audience, into the battle ourselves, giving one great plea for humankind to save itself by entering into conversation with his movie. I think Coppola is truly convinced that Megalopolis can save the world.” (Joe Wilson)

FULL REVIEW

#7: Cabrini (dir. Alejandro Monteverde)

“Overall, Cabrini is an encouraging step forward for 21st century Catholic filmmaking. Monteverde has crafted a truly admirable film, one full of wonderful performances, beautiful visuals, and a strong and compelling story. Catholics must retake the arts if we want the Church to survive in the West, and I for one am very excited to see what projects Monteverde has lined up in the future. Hopefully other Catholic filmmakers will take up the banner as well and craft films as beautiful and excellent as Cabrini.” (Joe Wilson)

FULL REVIEW

#6: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (dir. Wes Ball)

“The Planet of the Apes reboot franchise- ushered in by Rupert Wyatt’s Rise and seemingly concluded with Matt Reeves’ excellent Dawn and War- has seemingly been given another breath of fresh air. It’s really a marvel that this franchise has been allowed to be as good as it is: there’s rarely a sign of corporate fingerprints on any of it. This is the first Apes film released since the Disney-Fox merger that was completed in 2019, and it’s really a testament to 20th’s president, Steve Asbell, who unlike most film executives seems to be a genuine fan of cinema, and longtime franchise producers Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver that both director Wes Ball and veteran sci-fi screenwriter Josh Friedman were able to really cook up something special with this one.” (Samuel Morales)

FULL REVIEW

#5: The Wild Robot (dir. Chris Sanders)

“This film has already proved to be an overnight box-office sensation (its the first original animated studio film to open above expectations since Covid), but it also marks the end of an era. This is the last DreamWorks animation film to be animated entirely in-house, all subsequent films from the studio will be relying heavily on outside vendors after this year (which is exactly what Illumination Animation does), but if this is the final "true DreamWorks film," it's a great note to go out on. This is one of the best animated films I've seen in a long time: directed and produced (respectively) by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the dynamic duo behind Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Croods, it tells the story of a service robot (Lupita Nyong'o) abandoned in the wilderness, who, lacking any human being to serve, takes it upon herself to serve the animals around her. Once she learns their language, she can speak to them, and ends up making an alliance with a fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal) to help raise a young orphaned gosling (Kit Connor). The story ends up being a surprisingly nuanced and poignant tale about what it means to be a mother (as my own mother, who enjoyed the film, can attest) and the animation itself is stunning. Hopefully, following in the footsteps of recent hits The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, this can continue to bring the studio closer to being the excellent Disney/Pixar rival Jeffrey Katzenberg always intended it to be.” (Samuel Morales)

#4: Nosferatu (dir. Robert Eggers)

“A beautiful nightmare. Steeped in breathtaking period authenticity and pulsing with tangible dread, this is the Eggers I’ve grown to love and respect. I haven’t felt this frightened since The Witch. The man has the audacity to make darkness into something deeply repulsive, a shadow part of self ready to burst out of a person any moment. Yet this darkness is not liberating. It is death itself. The mounting temptations are kept at bay through the sacrament of marriage, yet once a soul sets out on a path of righteousness, the temptation comes back in full force. This stirring combination of simple black-and-white Western morality, a dose of Jungian mania, and Eggers’ immaculate visuals, creates a period horror film that feels like a window into a terrifyingly realistic past, when the enlightened world stopped believing in the supernatural and was no longer prepared to fight it. But Eggers doesn’t care about offending the supposedly enlightened. There is no modern morality to be found; only the cold hand of spiritual and physical death invited in through the workings of evil. And evil can only be defeated by acknowledging its existence. This is a powerful horror film because it, too, acknowledges the existence and allure of evil. No misunderstood monsters anywhere. Eggers has made vampires scary again.” (Stephen Hyland)

FULL REVIEW BY CHARLIE SCOTT COMING WEDNESDAY

#3: Trap (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

“Trap is the most hilarious experience I’ve had at the cinema in years. All the typical ingredients for a Shyamalan thriller are here; a gimmicky hook, family drama, alien dialogue, and plot coincidences galore. But something feels different this time around; Shyamalan is completely in on the joke now. Whether he’s gained self-awareness from his critics or just finally realized that he’s always been a comedy director, he leans into the absurdity of Trap’s premise with the confidence of a master, ready to carry the audience along on one implausible ride. The result is a tightly paced, claustrophobic story that becomes downright unhinged as it barrels towards its dramatic, hysterical climax. If I’m using contradictory language to describe this unique thriller, it’s because Trap is a contradiction of terms: smart yet dumb, scary yet funny, well-acted yet poorly-acted, family-oriented yet not for families, etc. All of Shyamalan’s films, the good and the bad, have carried this blend of tones, but this is the first time he’s fully embraced his own contradictory career and allowed himself to just have fun.” (Stephen Hyland)

FULL REVIEW

#2: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir. George Miller)

“Miller is a true anomaly in Hollywood. He is one of the few directors working today who has his finger on the pulse of pop-culture, and yet refuses to compromise his extraordinary imagination and intelligence. Well-versed in the Western Canon, he brings a literary significance to action cinema and gives his continuously evolving Mad Max franchise a new chapter that can be called an epic in the classical sense of the term. [Furiosa] is a must for fans of the franchise, but equally compelling for viewers hungry for bold, poetic storytelling of a caliber rarely seen today.” (Stephen Hyland)

FULL REVIEW

#1: Dune: Part Two (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

“I was determined to not like this due to all the hype (and aversion to part one). But Villeneuve seems to have struck a universal chord here. The cinematography was simply exquisite. Few fantasy worlds have seemed so real. The narrative stuck to simple tropes of the heroes journey, giving us something far lighter and less murky than part one. Zimmer’s score focuses on heart rather than bombast, delivering an achingly beautiful motif that has stuck with me these past 24 hours. My quibbles mainly deal with the pacing of the third act which felt rushed and the hokey villain backstory dropped in halfway through. But I’ll let those be and bask in the warm glow of this cinematic achievement. If you’re not watching this in theaters, what are you even doing?” (Cameron DeLaFleur)

Thanks again for reading and we hope you continue to support our writing and projects in 2025!