Rudie’s Top Ten of 2024
The year 2024 has been a strange one in movies, as Hollywood’s coming off the end of a global pandemic and two workers strikes in 2023.
We’ve seen the rise of the collectible popcorn bucket and the rise of A.I. in movies this year. In fact, the list below features a number of films that actively used (or reluctantly admitted using) the technology in the filmmaking process.
Overall, the year offered up a lot of great films that will be remembered for generations to come, while there have been a few stinkers that will thankfully be forgotten once 2025 is in full swing. The films on this list vary from legacy filmmakers, like Robert Zemeckis and George Miller, to new, exciting, and diverse voices, like RaMell Ross and Rose Glass. It’s a great time to be a moviegoer and cinephile!
Honorable Mentions 2024
- Alien Romulus
- All We Imagine as Light
- Conclave
- Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
- Heretic
- Kinds of Kindness
- Longlegs
- September 5
- Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
- Twisters
10. Here
Although it’s an unconventional film, Robert Zemeckis’ Here is a cinematic marvel that shows just how far you can move filmmaking technology into the 2020s. The film follows… well, here. It’s about the events, stories, heartbreak, tragedy, and joy that takes place in one spot throughout time. It’s bold and ambitious with a bit of sentimentalism, in which Zemeckis’ films are known.
9. Love Lies Bleeding
Written by Weronika Tofilska and Rose Glass, and directed by Glass, Love Lies Bleeding is a love story between the manager of a gym (Kristen Stewart) and an aspiring bodybuilder superstar (Katy O’Brian) that quickly goes wrong, thanks to jealousy and rampant drug use. From the start, Glass’ expert direction and storytelling locks into an audience’s attention and never lets go, as the film unfolds with loads of twists and turns that reminds me of the best of the Coen Brothers.
8. Late Night with the Devil
Structured like a late night talk show with elements of documentary filmmaking, Late Night with the Devil bounces around from on-air to behind-the-scenes with ease. It tells the story of an on-the-rise TV show host dealing with the loss of his wife, his rocky career, and his own “bargain with the devil” — all on live TV on Halloween night in 1977. The film is pure pulp, while the craft is top-tier and exceptional, especially with a low budget.
7. The Substance
The Substance proves that there’s a place for original horror movies with mainstream audiences. Starring Demi Moore as aging movie star Elisabeth Sparkle and Margaret Qualley as her new and younger body Sue, the film is the wildest moviegoing experience of 2024 with joyous genre schlock and social commentary about aging women and beauty standards in America. The Substance is a bloody good time at the movies!
6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Although it fell short of box office expectations, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is yet another masterwork from master filmmaker George Miller. Instead of a straight up sequel, Furiosa is an origin story, with Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role instead of Charlize Theron, that leads up to the events in Fury Road. The end result is something more touching and sensitive compared to its predecessor, but with all of the strangeness, stunt work, and spectacle you’d come to expect from a Mad Max movie. George Miller doesn’t disappoint.
5. A Real Pain
Written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain is a heartfelt, but gut-wrenching, movie about two estranged cousins, played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, reconnecting on a trip to Poland to visit the home of their recently-deceased and holocaust-surviving grandmother before she migrated to the United States. The pair embark on a journey of discovery and heartbreak that serves as a cathartic exploration of themselves and their relationship to each other. A Real Pain is an extraordinary film that feels honest and well-considered.
4. The Brutalist
The Brutalist is an epic film in the same style as The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, especially when it comes to scope and themes of European immigration at the turn of the 20th century. It even has an intermission, something this moviegoer doesn’t experience on a regular basis. Director Brady Corbet’s ambition with The Brutalist is evident within the opening minutes of the film, while its pacing, subject matter, and performances (namely Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce) keep audiences engaged throughout its 215-minute running time.
3. Anora
Filmmaker Sean Baker has consistently outdone himself with every new film release, so it’s not surprising that Anora is one of the best films of 2024. He has a knack for portraying humanity to, what some would consider, some of the lowest forms in society, I.E. sex workers and street hustlers — especially with films like Red Rocket, The Florida Project, Tangerine, Starlet, and Prince of Broadway.
Anora follows the whirlwind love affair between a stripper from Brooklyn (Mikey Madison) and a wealthy Russian oligarch’s son (Mark Eydelshteyn). The film is split into two parts, sexy escapades and sobering fall, all while Baker expertly balances its dizzying highs with its grim realities to deliver a knockout film with Madison as its charming centerpiece.
2. Nickel Boys
Based on the novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys is an historical drama that follows the two young men Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) living at a reform school in Florida during the early 1960s. The film is told through the switching point-of-view of the young men, so the audience is literally experiencing institutional racism of the era. In this way, director RaMell Ross, who also wrote the film with screenwriter Joslyn Barnes, is not just telling a compelling and ultimately tragic story about a broken society, but an experiential one that challenges audiences to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
1. Challengers
Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is the most electrifying film of 2024 with star performances from Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist, as a throuple of tennis players coping with their co-dependent relationship. It’s raw, exposed, and passionate — everything you’re looking in a tennis movie with a pulse.
