Over the course of 2024 and January of 2025, I was able to see 242 2024 movie releases, which is a record for new movies that I have seen in a year, smashing 2023’s previous record by 60 movies… so clearly, I dedicated way too much time to this, but here we are! So this is an entire ranking of all the 2024 movies I saw, but I am going to go more in depth about the top ten, and a few others if you keep scrolling.
1. Dune Part 2: This was the best film of the year. It was grand in scope and story, and it was one of the most visually stunning movies that I have ever seen. It needed to be seen in IMAX, and I went and saw it there twice, and despite it being two and a half hours long, I did not regret it. It is also boosted by some great performances by some of my favorites like Chalamet, Zendaya, and Pugh. The most memorable scene of course is when Paul rides the sandworm, but there are so many others as well. Like the colosseum fight on the black and white planet, the final battle, and the knife fight in the throne room. I also have a huge affinity for desert landscapes, and they abound in this film, and Denis Villeneuve knows how to capture them in stunning fashion. Also I think it is impressive that I was able to love this movie this much and not like the book at all!
2. Sing Sing: The battle for my favorite movie is a tough one. It is between this and Civil War. I think that this is the most powerful movie of the year. I was emotionally moved by it multiple times, and I love the idea of bringing some light into a dark place and subverting the expectations of how prisoners behave. It also makes you frustrated when they show you how messed up the prison system is, but they still find a way persevere despite the environment that they are in. It also has Colmen Domingo and Clarence Macklin’s performances, and those are two of the best of the year.
3. Civil War: This is the other contender for my favorite movie of the year. It is directed by Alex Garland, who is one of my favorites, and although it is not quite as beautiful as Dune 2, I do love the way that it is shot. It is an incredible story about war photojournalism that had me engaged the whole time. I love how they weave the photos that they take into the movie, and it is also an incredibly tense story. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, and the sound is so good that it will make you jump when a gun goes off. There is even the incredible Jesse Plemons scene that really stuck with me. Plus the story feels all too real now.
4. Conclave: This movie was so propulsive. It is about a group of cardinals meeting to vote on the next pope, but it is framed like a political thriller. It turns more into an investigation instead of an election, and as more information comes out, the direction of the election changes. It has an incredible score, and it comes with a great twist at the end, and it looks great. Some shots look like they belong in a museum.
5. Red Rooms: One of the most intense movies of the year. It does not show any gore, but it still manages to be very disturbing. The audience sees how the violence affects the people who see the grisly murder videos, and we also see how seeing the videos does not affect one of the main characters. This helps lead to the contrast between the two leading women, and the depth to Kelly-Anne’s character is incredible, and it plays the biggest role in the movie being as great as it is. The movie made me hold my hands up to my face multiple times in disbelief. It is not scary, but it is haunting.
6. Juror # 2: This was released straight to Max, and it is a courtroom drama. A man is selected to serve on a jury of a murder trial, and he realizes that he was the one that accidently killed the woman on a rainy night on his drive home. So then he must try to convince an already biased jury that the angry boyfriend did not kill her. It is a very intense story, and it is dialogue heavy, but that keeps it moving and keeps it interesting. It also raises an interesting moral question of what responsibility the guy has to confess to crime even if he did not mean to do it.
7. The Brutalist: A true work of cinema. A 3.5 hour tale about a man chasing the American Dream and trying to drag his family along with him. Sadly, chasing the American Dream is never as glamorous as it sounds, and the architect Laszlo must fight hard to get his vision created, and he gets treated lesser while doing it just because he is an immigrant. Each shot in this film is a work of art, and it deserves to be seen on a massive screen, and the sound is important too, because the score is amazing. Plus Adrian Brody will be a top contender for best actor and this will be a top contender for best picture.
8. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Anya Taylor Joy always deserves to have a movie in the top 10. She is incredible, and she kills it in this. Also Chris Hemsworth as the villain was great. Similar to Dune, this takes place in a vast desert landscape, which again I love, but what this movie struggles with are the comparisons to its predecessor, Fury Road, which is a five-star film. This movie does not quite reach those heights, but it still has some incredible action sequences, and it keeps you entertained. George Miller is getting old, but he still has it.
9. Out of my Mind: This is one of the best representations of disabilities in school that I have seen. To be honest, I do not think there are many movies about it, and the ones that are out there probably do not compare to this. This was basically an encapsulation of my master’s degree into something that is digestible for tweens. They talked about presuming competence, and they showed that just because a person cannot talk does not mean that they can’t communicate or that they can’t be brilliant or a good friend. It is well worth the watch, and it is a beautiful story about showing what people are capable of.
10. Heretic: This one was a struggle. Choosing between Heretic and Longlegs was a tough choice. I love both of these horror films, but they both falter in their final act, but I think that Heretic makes the audience think more, and I really appreciated that. It was tense, but it was also grounded in theology and dialogue heavy. It kept me on my toes throughout, and even though I did not find the ending as fulfilling as I had hoped, it kind of leads itself to the theological discussion that was being had throughout. Also Hugh Grant gives an incredibly sinister and smug performance. I do not usually like him, but this changed my mind.
11. Longlegs
12. Anora
13. Didi
14. Twisters
15. Fly: This was my favorite documentary of the year. Unsurprisingly, it has to do with nature and people out in it doing what makes them happy. It does not reach the heights of something like Free Solo, but it does ask a similar question: How much are you willing to risk doing what you love. Base jumping is inherently dangerous whether it jumping off a cliff or jumping out of a plane and pulling a parachute or gliding feet away from the face of the mountain death is right there waiting for the slightest mistake. The visuals in this were insane, and it made my palms sweaty and my heartbeat faster in my chest. It was an immense pleasure to see this in IMAX, even though I was the only one in theater to see this masterpiece. (On Disney+)
16. His Three Daughters
17. Monkey Man: I love Dev Patel, and he stars in this, and it is his directorial debut. It has some great action sequences, and it does not take place in America, so there is some cultural education as well! (Peacock)
18. Mean Girls
19. Challengers
20. Evil Does Not Exist
21. The Substance
22. Nickel Boys
23. A Real Pain
24. Inside Out 2
25. A Complete Unknown
26. The Devil’s Climb
27. Rebel Ridge
28. We Live in Time
29. A Different Man
30. Nosferatu: I wanted this to be my number one film of the year so bad. I waited all year for it. I love Robert Eggers and his films, but I was so disappointed by this. The visuals were incredible, especially on the IMAX screen, and that lived up to Eggers’s reputation, but the story was lacking something. The final shot is still engrained in my head though.
31. Out of Darkness
32. Perfect Days
33. Gladiator II
34. Woman of the Hour
35. Mountain Queen: A nature documentary on Netflix about the woman who has climbed Everest the most times, but she is basically unknown. She has done this incredible feat, and she did it with basically no money and while living in an incredibly abusive household. By the end of the movie, I was in tears. I will be happy if Netflix keeps making one mountain documentary a year, that is at least one thing they are good at.
36. The Wild Robot
37. My Old Ass
38. Alien Romulus
39. Hit Man
40. Young Woman and the Sea
41. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
42. Oddity: The scariest movie of the year!!!
43. The Fall Guy
44. Snack Shack
45. Skywalkers: A Love Story
46. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
47. Sweethearts
48. Wicked
49. Babes
50. In a Violent Nature
51. The Bike Riders
52. Here to Climb
53. Rap World
54. Hundreds of Beavers: If you want to watch something completely different than any other movie you have seen this is it. It is a silent comedy about a fur trapper who gets into a fight with beavers. It has been described as a live action looney tunes, and I think that is a fair description, and it is such a fun watch.
55. The Fire Inside
56. Smile 2
57. Problemista
58. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
59. Infested
60. Cunk on Life
61. Janet Planet
62. The Line
63. Simone Biles Rising
64. Musica
65. Etheria Film Fest
66. Sometimes I Think About Dying
67. Stopmotion
68. Better Man
69. It’s What’s Inside
70. Maxxxine
71. A Quiet Place Day One
72. Kneecap
73. I Saw the TV Glow
74. The Devils Bath
75. Rez Ball
76. Fallen Leaves
77. The Monk and the Gun
78. Strange Darling
79. Arthur the King
80. Road House
81. Fly Me to the Moon
82. Saturday Night
83. Queer
84. Terrifier 3
85. MadS
86. Joker Folie a Deux
87. Living with Leopards
88. Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold
89. Some Other Woman
90. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
91. The Beekeeper
92. Scrambled
93. The Strangers Chapter 1
94. Einstein and the Bomb
95. Late Night With the Devil
96. Wicked Little Letters
97. In the Land of Saints and Sinners
98. Land of Bad
99. Daddio
100. Stolen
101. Immaculate
102. Am I Okay
103. Cuckoo
104. Beatlejuice Beatlejuice
105. Inside the Mind of a Dog
106. Turtles All the Way Down
107. The Greatest Hits
108. Afraid
109. Moana 2
110. Emilia Perez
111. V/H/S Beyond
112. Carry-On
113. Babygirl
114. Last Straw
115. Deadpool and Wolverine
116. Lonely Planet
117. Time Cut
118. Inheritance
119. Tuesday
120. Exhuma
121. Will and Harper
122. Thelma
123. The First Omen
124. Despicable Me 4
125. Blink Twice
126. Here
127. Boy Kills World
128. Love Lies Bleeding
129. The Idea of You
130. Secret Life of Orangutangs
131. Night Bitch
132. You’ll Never Find Me
133. I.S.S
134. Wallace and Gromit a Vengeance Most Fowl
135. The Last Show Girl
136. The Outrun
137. Kung Fu Panda 4
138. Spaceman
139. The Watchers
140. Drive Away Dolls
141. Rebel Moon: Part 2
142. Tarot
143. Trap
144. The Apprentice
145. Transformers: One
146. The Lost Children
147. Rhythm Masters
148. Don’t Move
149. The Courier
150. Incoming
151. Thelma the Unicorn
152. Small Things Like These
153. The American Society of Magical Negroes
154. Players
155. Sign Stealers
156. Upgraded
157. Sting
158. Godzilla x Kong
159. One Life
160. Trunk Locked In
161. Damsels
162. Lisa Frankenstein
163. Rumours
164. Mr. Crocket
165. Role Play
166. The Underdoggs
167. Ricky Stanicky
168. Sasquatch Sunset
169. Daddy’s Head
170. Find Me Falling
171. Lift
172. Mysteries of the Terracotta
173. Space Cadett
174. Night Swim
175. Ezra
176. Adam Sandlar Love You
177. Yacht Rock
178. Moviepass Moviecrash
179. Orion and the Dark
180. Never Let Go
181. Irish Wish
182. Y2K
183. Mufasa
184. Out Come the Wolves
185. Harold and the Purple Crayon
186. The Damned
187. 12 Final Days
188. Salem’s Lot
189. Imaginary
190. Hot Frosty
191. Our Little Secret
192. Unfrosted
193. If
194. Bob Marley: One Love
195. Arcadian
196. Azrael
197. Founders Day
198. Jackpot
199. Madame Web
200. Uglies
201. Abigail
202. Demon Disorder
203. Mother of the Bride
204. Under Paris
205. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
206. Blame the Game
207. Cinderella’s Revenge
208. The Exorcism
209. My Spy the Eternal City
210. Killer Heat
211. Get Away
212. The Man in the White Van
213. Elevation
214. Red One
215. Ghost Busters Frozen Empire
216. (Un)Lucky Sisters
217. How to Date Billy Walsh
218. Outlaw
219. Miller’s Girl
220. Black Cab
221. Trigger Warning
222. Destroy All Neighbors
223. The Union
224. Skeletons in the Closet
225. Argylle
226. Kraven the Hunter
227. Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey II
228. Cat and Dog
229. Vanished into the Night
230. Garfield
231. Baghead
232. Die Hart 2: Die Harters
233. Non-Negotiable
234. Megaopolis
235. Director’s Cut
236. Humane
237. Werewolves
238. Hell Hole
239. Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp
240. History of Evil
241. Prime
242. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie: A Netflix movie I watched one weekend morning, and it was sooooo bad. Sponge bob should feel ashamed.
Hopefully I will have less movies next year, but I am off to a hot start, and I get addicted to bettering numbers, so we will see what happens…
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