(This article is part of our Best of 2024 series.)
It’s that time of year again to look back at our top five films, and I don’t think it’s ever been this hard for me. There have been a lot of great movies, but I’m not sure five separated out for me. If you check out my Letterboxd, these probably won’t even be my top five on my 2024 Ranked list. But it’s a fluid thing. These are the five I wanted to single out for this particular list.
Hundreds of Beavers
How can you be a film fan and not at least be inspired by this film? There are tons of VFX shots in here that a single person had to craft by hand in Adobe AfterEffects on no budget. This movie is a miracle! It’s also hilarious with its Looney Tunes slapstick meets silent film sensibility. Watching a man punch hundreds of beavers (particularly anthropomorphic, human-sized beavers) never gets old, it turns out.
The Substance
There are some movies that just stick with you, and Coralie Fargeat made sure The Substance is one of them. The sci-fi setup is propulsive and provocative as it explores society’s superficiality when it comes to women, how that can turn a woman into a hollow husk, and how threatening age is when your identity is only skin deep.
Rebel Ridge
As soon as I saw this was from Jeremy Saulnier, I was in. Most people know the director for Green Room and Blue Ruin—I’m personally a fan of his debut Murder Party, which has become a Halloween staple. He brought the sauce here, with Aaron Pierre playing the level-headed ex-Marine Terry Richmond who gets entangled with a racist and corrupt police force. Where some movies would have brought that confrontation to violence, Saulnier takes an interesting turn as Terry uses his experience to actually handle business without violence, although he still crosses legal lines at times. Anna-Sophia Robb also resurfaces out of nowhere and gives a performance so subtle that most don’t really recognize it for how good it is. The setting isn’t far off from my experience, which only heightened the enjoyment for me.
Wicked
I had a lot of doubts about Wicked from the trailer. I had never seen the original show, although I’d heard the most popular songs and enjoyed them. Although a few lighting issues carried over, I found myself not caring really in the slightest as Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande carried the movie, along with the direction of Jon M. Chu. Some people have criticized Chu’s consideration among the year’s best directors, but few have been able to make a movie musical that has this propulsive energy—they have a tendency to feel awkward and clunky. I saw it a second time in theater just to confirm that, yes, Wicked truly is one of the best movies of 2024.
Alien: Romulus
I still can’t shake the visceral experience of watching this movie in the IMAX theater. The score and sound design of this movie are overwhelming, and seeing it on the biggest screen with the fullest sound turns this film into a rollercoaster ride. Cailee Spaeny has proven to be a great young leading actress, and even though these characters aren’t that deep, she still brings a great performance with the kind of physicality to give a hero to root for. I benefited, I think, from only having seen the original Alien once and only half of Aliens and no other movies in the franchise. Where some people complained about retreading old ground, I didn’t have that context to weigh me down.
I loved how Romulus first and foremost took the franchise back to its original horror roots, but threw in the action feel of Aliens in spots. That anti-gravity blood scene is still absolutely sick. David Jonsson is the standout of the cast, basically playing two characters with Andy’s switch about a third into the movie.
Those are my five favorite films of 2024. Honorable mentions include Anora, Sing Sing, My Old Ass, Heretic, and Red Rooms.
What are your thoughts on the movies that made my top five? Share them down below!
