The Best Films of 2024

Here we are again, standing on the precipice of the new year. With 2024 in the rear-view mirror, it is time to engage in my yearly tradition (yearly self-torture?) of listing my favourite films of the year, in a neat, ordered list. After much extensive deliberation, last-minute removals and additions (with list order changes as recent as yesterday), and too many unfortunate exclusions, I proudly present this year’s list. Despite the often difficult work of putting together a coherent article, it remains a highlight of my blog-writing year, allowing me the opportunity to reflect and appreciate the films that made the past year what it was. This past year has been full of excellent cinematic highlights. While it has been a sluggish year for blockbusters and other high-profile hits, with the summer marking a significantly slower box office turnout, the rest of the film world showed up where it mattered.

The year was full of indie surprises, low-budget action hits, and some incredibly solid prestige dramas. Dev Patel’s Monkey Man and Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding were two brilliant early-year indie action thrillers that burn on screen with ferocious creative energy and some of the most memorable movie moments of the year. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light was one of the year’s finest international flicks and a gorgeously shot urban odyssey. Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow was one of the most visually arresting and challenging movies of the year. The power of local theatre was celebrated threefold with the moving grief story Ghostlight, the bizarre A Different Man, and the socially conscious Sing Sing. Canada as a nation had a great year with both Universal Language and Rumours. Mike Cheslik’s Hundreds of Beavers was a brilliant, relentless, and incredible cartoonish comedy that made for my favourite directorial debut.

Many well-established directors also had excellent years. Luca Guadagnino leaped into theatres with two features this year in the form of Challengers and Queer. Denis Villeneuve came swinging for the fences with Dune: Part Two. Sean Baker made his biggest mainstream impact yet with Anora. Lanthimos came back less than a year after Poor Things to obfuscate and confuse with Kinds of Kindness. It was a solid year for mid-budget prestige dramas, with Edward Berger’s Conclave and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 putting in solid work for the oft-maligned “Oscar bait” category. George Miller’s Furiosa was explosive. Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, which isn’t out in theatres until the new year, unfortunately, was one of the most creatively-told and emotionally moving ghost stories. And while divisive amongst audiences and critics, it’s impossible to deny that Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis was one of the most . . . interesting cinematic feats of the year. I could go on, but I’ll save many more of my favourites for the list proper and the honourable mentions section at the bottom.

My usual disclaimer, as with every year-end list, is that I could not see every notable film that came out in 2024. Certain films were just not released in my country by the year’s end or I simply could not make time to fit everything in. I am just one amateur. Some notable movies not considered for this list include Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist.

If you’re looking for more best-of-the-year content, check out my list of my favourite albums of 2024.

With that out of the way, I proudly present . . . My Favourite Films of 2024.

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10. Kinds of Kindness

“She’s clearly insane.”

This one is for the weirdos. Last December, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things came second on my Best Films of 2023 list. It also received many more prominent accolades, including eleven Oscar nominations and four wins, eleven BAFTA nominations and five wins, seven Golden Globe nominations and two wins. In the afterglow of his incredible critical and awards reception and the most financially successful film of his career, Lanthimos retreated into the weirdo recesses of his brain and released Kinds of Kindness. While not as outwardly expressionist as Poor Things, this film is certainly more upsetting. A triptych of modern fables about cults, strange boss-employee relationships, and a woman brought back from apparent death who might not be who she says she is. The same ensemble takes on different roles throughout the film, moving frantically between roles and dynamics while preserving the same sense of internal coherency.

Kinds of Kindness is not an easy film to digest. It’s a story about power, and the lengths people go to keep it, while also being a larger story about a man named R.M.F., who seems to duck and weave out of the lives of our primary characters. Lanthimos seems to deny any sort of inherent subtext to the proceedings, letting his off-putting, darkly humorous play out for what they are. The text’s mysteries remain mysteries and the quirks remain unsolved. Instead of solutions, we’re treated to ambiguous endings, shifting identities, foreboding dialogue, self-mutilation, cult politics, and unethical morge practices. The three tales begin to swirl together into the viewer’s imagination as the lines between the characters start to slip. Are they all truly separate people? While it remains challenging, those up for something odd and bizarre will certainly delight in sinking their teeth into Lanthimos’ latest. Returning to a darker, meaner side of the director, Kinds of Kindness makes for a disturbing and oh-so funny three-hour trip, if you get used to its specific sense of black humour.

Kinds of Kindness is streaming on Disney+ and available on VOD. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

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9. Universal Language

“We are all connected.”

My favourite Canadian film of the year, and Canada’s Best International Feature submission for the 2025 Oscars, is Matthew Rankin’s absurdist Universal Language. Set in a snow-covered Winnipeg, albeit one where Farsi is the dominant language and Tim Hortons is a Persian tea shop, the film follows a fictionalized version of Rankin returning home from a job in Quebec (where they still speak French) to visit his aging mother. The narrative weaves in and out with two others running in parallel: one following two children trying to thaw a stack of frozen money out from the ground (here, the Canadian currency is Riels) and another following a pitiful tour guide as he shares Winnipeg to uninterest guests. Rankin’s film is a quite, subtle, dreamy, absurd, and surprisingly moving affair. It’s a deeply understated comedy, that manages to pack one memorable punch by the film’s end.

Universal Language exists somewhere in the liminal space between Tehran and Winnipeg: two cities divided by language and weather, but united through a mutual reliance upon brutalist architecture. The film channels a multiplicity of cinematic influences from both Western and Eastern cinema. From Iran, there are tasteful homages to Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s neorealism, while from the West, Rankin balances notes of the black comedy of Roy Andersson and the dreaminess of fellow Canadian Guy Maddin (who will appear over in the “honourable mentions” section of this list). The film is full of curious and imaginative imagery, from its riffs on Canadian landmarks and strange production design choices, and some incredibly clever comedic writing. It’s a bone-dry love letter to the Iranian cinema that formed Rankin as a young man, to the city of Winnipeg and Canadian culture, and the strange, amorphous place that Canada can be.

Universal Language is coming soon to theatres. Stay tuned for its release in January 2025!

Directed by Matthew Rankin.

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8. Challengers

“I’m taking such good care of my little white boys.”

A tumultuous, aggravated, and destructive ménage à trois, Luca Guadgnino’s Challengers is a vicious, angry sports drama. Set around a match at an ATP Challenger tournament, two bitter rivals pour their years of resentment, heartbreak, and messy personal lives into the most ferocious of their careers. Cutting back and forth from past to present with the kinetic energy of the tennis match as a propellant, Mike Faist’s Art and Josh O'Connor’s Patrick serve as catalysts for a story about desire, masculinity, and ego as two volatile men set themselves up for disaster. Faist and O’Connor bring layers of repression and anger to their characters giving this complicated, decades-spanning relationship the depth it needs to truly excel. Zendaya gives a career-best performance as Tashi Duncan, Art’s now-wife and coach, a former lover to Patrick, and a once-upon-a-time up-and-coming tennis star, who forms the killer third piece of this unhealthy dynamic.

But this is no middling drama about repression held back by layers of its own emotional immaturity. Challengers is one of the most energetic and exhilarating movies of the the year. Guadagnino’s fascinating directorial vision excels with flashy camera tricks, an explosive score, and high-impact editing. But it’s more than just style for style’s sake. These flashes and flourishes accentuate the aggravated, ferocious emotions simmering below the surface. Challengers is an electrifying drama that excels in its perfect melding of form and thought. It’s not just an extremely entertaining and high-energy sports drama, but a fascinating reflection on history, memory, and relational breakdown.

Challengers is available to rent through digital platforms.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino.

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7. A Different Man

“Oh, my friend, you haven’t changed a bit.”

The most simplistic pitch for Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man is that it’s a black comedy about the power of self-acceptance and community theatre. While that’s a perfectly apt description, it sells short just how strange the completed film is with its bizarre internal logic and borderline surrealistic visuals, although it never truly dippings its toes outside reality. Sebastian Stan plays Edward, a wannabe actor with Neurofibromatosis type I that manifests in tumours on his face. Disgusted with himself and wanting to impress his neighbour Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), a local playwright, Edward signs up for an experimental surgery that would cure him of his condition. Now with a more traditionally attractive face, Edward fakes his death, takes on a new name, and tries out for Ingrid’s new play, which he quickly realizes is based on his own life story. But before he can get anywhere in rehearsals, into the room enters Oswald (Adam Pearson), a man also with NF1 who exudes confidence and self-assuredness and quickly begins infiltrating and taking over Edward’s life.

Schimberg leads the audience into a strange, off-putting, very atmospheric, and often comical journey of anger, jealousy, and repression. Stan, Reinsve, and Pearson are each incredible, with Pearson delivering one of the most magnetic performances of the year. Stan makes for one of the most understated and devastating performances of the year with all of the anger, sadness, and weakness he brings to Edward, aggravated as his life spirals out of control. There are notes of Kafka and Escher sprinkled throughout, as Schimberg creates a world that feels so strange, yet never truly loses its grip on reality. The camera work and editing are particularly inspired, each adding to the rich idiosyncrasies that give the film a palpable sense of identity. A Different Man is a deeply funny and incredibly smart movie that is bound to make you talk about it for hours on end. Can anyone really change?

A Different Man is available to rent through digital platforms.

Directed by Aaron Schimberg.

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6. The Zone of Interest

“The life we enjoy is very much worth the sacrifice.”

While a part of the 2023 awards conversation, The Zone of Interest finally got its wide release back in January, meaning I grouped it into my “best of 2024” list. If you were following the 2024 Oscars at all, you might remember this film winning the Best International Feature and the Best Sound awards and all of the surrounding conversation about the “banality of evil” perfectly distilled in one of the most effective films about the Second World War ever made. All of this extensive hype is well warranted. I don’t know if I have seen another movie that has so disturbed me in such a soul-crushing manner. This film is a family drama, following the lives of an average German family in the waning days of World War II. The father is a German military commander, the mother is a housewife. The father works hard at his job, the mother cares for the home, and the children are diligent in school. They go for family picnics and swims, enjoy the company of their friends and grandparents, and spend their free time reading and playing. Just over their garden wall, however, one can make out of smokestacks and the brick barracks of a Nazi concentration camp.

The Zone of Interest, named after the intentionally vague codename the Nazis gave the area surrounding Auschwitz, is a morality tale. With long, lingering CCTV-like cinematography and some of the greatest sound design in a film ever, director Jonathan Glazer makes the life of all-too-real Nazi commander Rudolf Höss into something pitifully ordinary. Evil, here, is stripped of its pomp and reduced to something so tangible and insignificant. Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller are excellent as the Höss couple, with two perfectly unassuming performances. The film is not only one of the most effective explorations of a tragedy as incomprehensible as the Holocaust, but it is also a shockingly political film for our current day and age. It’s a condemnation of complacency and the human tendency to follow the status quo. If someone as fully evil as Rudolf Höss could be so mundane, how much evil are we capable of? And all you need to do is listen. 

The Zone of Interest is available to stream on Prime and to rent on online platforms. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Jonathan Glazer.

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5. No Other Land

“They will destroy us slowly”

One of the most interesting things about No Other Land, an expressive, ferocious documentary that was the most emotional cinematic experience I had all year, is that it’s not about the war. Set primarily in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank, Palestine, a collection of 19 hamlets and villages in the very south of the area, the film makes no mention of Hamas, or rockets, or Gaza, or the Iron Dome, buzzwords now all too familiar to anyone who has spent even the slightest moment observing the ongoing destruction of Palestine. Instead, the documentary focuses solely on the lives of ordinary, small-town people faced with an aggressive bordering military force, routine beatings and violence, and ever-expanding settlements encroaching on their land. Shot with an assortment of cellphones, camcorders, and cinematic cameras, this hodgepodge of first-person accounts, unaltered footage of protests, and horrific moments of military-sanctioned destruction to people and property makes No Other Land the most vital movie of the year.

Directed cooperatively by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor — a Palestinian-Israeli collective of filmmakers and journalists — goes beyond the headlines in a personal, insightful way. While searching endlessly for peace, neither the film nor its primary narrators can truly figure out how to achieve it in a place plagued by so much senseless violence. Its story begins in 2019 and closes in October 2023, with some hastily recorded footage from the village just days after the outbreak of renewed war in Gaza with gunfire from settlers against the villagers. The filmmaking is excellent as well. Despite the rush of perspectives and moments, the film feels so cohesive, creating an overwhelming depiction of destruction and fear. The editing is quick and clever, moving between moments of heartbreak and joy with precision. There’s love that radiates here, love intermixed with horrifying pain and loss as the bulldozers and assault rifles come stumbling over the hills. It’s often oddly poetic in the darkest way and too human for comfort. It’s a cry for help from the people who need it most.

No Other Land is playing in select theatres, with a wide release coming in the new year.

Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor.

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4. Nosferatu

“Tell me, does evil come from within us? Or beyond?.”

Robert Eggers has made vampires scary again in his sinister and atmospheric remake of 1922’s Nosferatu. Set in 19th-century Germany, it’s a loose retelling of the Dracula story primarily following the dual perspectives of newlywed couple Thomas and Ellen Hutter (Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp respectively) who each become haunted by the sinister Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). With its rich cinematography, off-putting performances, and distinct sense of history and folklore, the atmosphere of terror created by Nosferatu is second to none. Jarring musical choices undercut the vengeful throws of Ellen’s possession, cut with nightmares of a creature cloaked in darkness, with a hand of evil turned fiercely towards her. Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography, the year’s best camera work, is full of brilliant ashen colouring, brilliant uses of shadows and light, gorgeous practical effects and matte paintings. The film is ghostly and unsettling, with blood and death flowing freely from every frame.

The performances from the entire ensemble — which also features Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, and Ralph Ineson — are incredible without exception. The film cleverly avoids the trappings of more contemporary understandings of vampiric lore by firmly and completely steeping itself in the mythology of old Europe, when these undead monsters were truly forces to be feared. By dragging his audience back into the past, into a time full of mystery and superstition, Eggers’ retelling of Nosferatu is one of the most effective horror films in recent memory from one of the past decades’ most exciting filmmakers. It is a clever reinvention of an old story, and a legendary original film, that pulls the past into the present in thrilling fashion. It updates the expressionism of the original with all the flourishes of contemporary filmmaking while expanding upon its themes and characters, making a familiar story feel oh-so-new. The darkness has never been so visible.

Nosferatu is now playing in theatres. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Robert Eggers.

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3. Dune: Part Two

“The Hand of God be my witness, I am the Voice from the Outer World!”

This sequel to 2021’s Dune takes everything that worked about the original — the massive scope, the grand worldbuilding, the intense performances, and the explosive action — and cranks it up to eleven. Adapting the second half of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi magnum opus, Part Two picks up right where its predecessor left off with Timothée Chalamet’s Pual Atreides venturing off into the deserts of the planet Arrakis with a vengeance on his heart and an ancient messianic prophesy on his mind. As Paul stirs up the desert-dwelling indigenous Fremen people to holy war, his family’s ancient enemies, the Harkonnens, gather their warriors for a fight that might determine the future of the known universe. Chalamet’s charismatic turn as Muad’Dib is evocative and effective, crafting a brilliant leader, who ultimately seems fated for destruction. Zendaya delivers her second great performance of the year as Channi, Paul’s love interest who finds herself caught between her convictions and her love of her people. There is an assortment of other brilliant performances throughout as well, with excellent work from the likes of Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Further, the world-building and technical elements are truly extraordinary. Denis Villeneuve flexes his muscles as one the most talented filmmakers of our generation by weaving together a grand tapestry of technical achievements and incredible characters into a masterwork of science fiction. The world feels lived-in and fully realized, with its gorgeous cinematography, costume and production design, locations, and fictional cultures given so much attention to detail. This is a world one can become fully lost in: a world that is alien, yet also strangely familiar. The film plays out like an epic revenge tragedy of antiquity, including all the prophesy, murder, royal politics, and family drama. And, like an ancient tragedy, Dune: Part Two won’t give its audience an easy or comforting conclusion. While Paul is certainly not the hero we would want him to be, one cannot help but feel compelled to join in the chants of “Lisan al Gaib!” This is a film that needs to be seen to be believed.

I didn’t expect there to be two Zendaya-starring films on this list, but here we are!

Dune: Part Two is available to rent through digital platforms. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve.

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2. The Substance

“Pretty girls should always smile!”

Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is devoid of subtlety, but it never needed it in the first place. Here, Demi Moore takes centre stage as Elizabeth Sparkle, an award-winning actress and beloved TV personality, who finds herself at the end of her career due in no small part to her age. But when a mysteriously marked object called “The Substance” arrives at her door with the possibility of unlocking her DNA and making her young again, Sparkle embraces it, without realizing the horrifying future she has created for herself. Instead of just rejuvenating her own body: she’s created a younger, more beautiful double, Sue (Margaret Qualley), who might just tear Sparkle’s life apart. Through a cavalcade of Weinstein-esque movie producers and an industry hungry for young blood, the terse relationship between Elizabeth and Sue becomes all the more vicious and upsetting. If Challengers was a film about the psychology and interiority of desire and sexuality, then The Substance is about the external and visual. It’s about objectification and commercialization in the modern world of entertainment.

Fargeat cleverly uses this vehicle of “cinematic gaze” as not just a mode for satire about the film industry and our contemporary relationship to women, but also for an exploration of human relationships to the body. Like so many of the great body horror films, The Substance makes the viewer uncomfortable in their own skin. It is not just a comment on objectification, femininity, and sexuality, but also on the profound disconnect and alienation between mind and body, where the corporeal is secondary to the spiritual. Perhaps there is also a relationship between the themes of self-hatred in the Sue-Elizabeth relationship and the self-hatred in the Edward-Oswald relationship in A Different Man. All of the anger, isolation, and degradation of the external gaze is played to perfection by the primary trio of Moore, Qualley, and Dennis Quaid, who serves as our villainous producer with a predatory relationship with Sue. The Substance is an utterly visceral and revolting cinematic achievement, embracing the maximalist Gesamtkunstwerk that only the art of cinema can truly embody with its garish production design, squelchy sonic textures, and outlandish final act. Its frenetic pace and skin-tearing sound design mean that it is impossible to be unaffected by Fargeat’s latest. Just respect the balance.

The Substance is now streaming on MUBI. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Coralie Fargeat.

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1. Anora

“Hi, I’m Ani.”

Anora, this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner stands tall and proud as my favourite film of 2024. Described as something of a Cinderella story — albeit one with considerably more sleazy Russian billionaires than fantastical princes — Sean Baker’s latest follows Ani (played by Mickey Madison), a Brooklyn stripper and sex worker who falls for Ivan (played by Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. Jumping between New York City and Las Vegas, the two’s relationship is fueled by a string of parties, clubs, drugs, and gambling, eventually culminating in a rushed marriage in a Vegas wedding chapel. But when Ivan’s family finds out, their future together quickly becomes uncertain and the story descends into a madcap scramble. While boasting a significant budget increase, Anora is very much in the same vein as Baker’s previous films like The Florida Project and Red Rocket, with its themes of social marginalization and stigmatization through the story about sex work. Baker always manages to find the right balance between entertainment and tragedy, which is complimented by bold visual choices and striking imagery. While descending into the territory of a screwball comedy in the second act, these comic impulses are undercut by a downer of a finale, bringing all of the film’s tragedy to the forefront.

The highlight of the film is the terrific leading performance from Mikey Madison, who is a force to be reckoned with. She brings layers of grace and empathy to a character who exists in a place on the outskirts of polite society. Madison’s abrasiveness and sincerity turn Ani into a fully realized, profoundly insecure, and deeply emotionally needy character whose self-actualization runs in parallel to the collapse of the fairytale. Madison is bolstered by an assortment of brilliant supporting performances and some of Baker’s most impressive technical work to date. The film is outrageously funny at times, disgustingly profane at others, and violently heartbreaking by the end. Anora is a carefully considered, cleverly written, and beautifully executed story that is a powerful statement from one of America’s most interesting contemporary filmmakers.

Anora is available on VOD. You can read my full review here.

Directed by Sean Baker.

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Honourable Mentions

Stills from (top) Hundreds of Beavers, Rumours, (bottom) Ghostlight, and Sing Sing.

I see plenty of new releases within a calendar year, many more than I have time to write about in depth. While I try to keep the main list to a somewhat manageable number (anywhere from ten to twenty, depending on the year), there are a great deal of other movies that also came out in 2024 that are worth your time. Here are a few additional favourites . . . 

• All We Imagine as Light (directed by Payal Kapadia) — As universal as it is poetic, Kapadia’s film is a moving, emotional portrayal of three women in contemporary Mumbai navigating their way through sexism, loneliness, poverty, and religious tensions. Beautiful cinematography and gorgeous musical accompaniments abound.

• Civil War (directed by Alex Garland) — Some of the most inventive sound designs of the year can be found in Alex Garland’s brutal Civil War. While it might not satisfy your need for answers, it will keep you on the edge of your seat.

• Conclave (directed by Edward Berger) — What happens when the Pope dies? Berger’s thrilling drama of Vatican secrecy and religious division is an effective and engrossing drama. Ralph Fiennes is amazing, but Carlos Diehz steals the show.

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (directed by George Miller) — 2024’s best big-budget action movie is Furiosa. While not as singular as its predecessor Mad Max: Fury Road, the stunning action set pieces and stellar character beats are spectacular.

• Ghostlight (directed by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan) — An ode to the power of theatre. Following a family reeling from the death of their son, Ghostlight is a subtle, healing movie that’s surprising and relatable in all the best ways.

• Hundreds of Beavers (directed by Mike Cheslik) — This is the funniest movie of 2024. Full of big, brash slapstick and a general air of absurdity, if you need to laugh, Hundreds of Beavers is the movie for you.

• Love Lies Bleeding (directed by Rose Glass) — A distinct mix of action, crime thriller sensibilities, magical realist dreams, and ooey-gooey romance, Love Lies Bleeding is an incredible piece of southern, queer Americana.

• Monkey Man (directed by Dev Patel) — Dev Patel’s directorial debut shows that he’s not just a force to be reckoned with on-screen, but has the filmmaking sensibilities to make a cut-throat, pulse-pounding action movie.

• Rumours (directed by Guy Maddin, Galen Johnson, and Even Johnson) — This strange, absurdist comedy follows the leaders of the G7 nations and their quest to write a statement regarding an ambiguous international incident that becomes quickly overrun by bog people. Large brains and jokes against the Swedish abound.

• Sing Sing (directed by Greg Kwedar) — An(other) ode to the power of theatre. This time, Coleman Domingo and Paul Racci star in a story about the real-life “Rehabilitation Through the Arts” program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and also features many of the programs’ actual participants. It’s a gorgeous movie about art, self-discovery, and forgiveness.