2024 has already been an exciting year for filmmaking, so much so that I had some trouble condensing this list to ten films. These are my favorite films I have seen before 6/30/24. I’ve added some ‘honorable mentions’ at the end that were technically 2023 releases that I did not see until after my lists went up, and therefore can’t live on either 2023 or 2024 lists. My rules make sense in my mind and my ranking is as follows. These films are more or less in order.

1) CHALLENGERS – Director Luca Guadagnino may have made his true masterpiece. Challengers is a grippingly intense, palpably sexy, shockingly funny and endlessly captivating good time. It’s a fascinating study of human relationships, and the sniping and backstabbing and underhandedness that is so engrained in all of us. Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor deliver a trio of instantly iconic performances. The pacing, the cinematography and score all make this an unforgettable experience, and one of the most viscerally exciting and tense films I’ve seen in years.

2) THELMA – June Squibb, at age 94, finally first on the call sheet in a feature film, delights in every second of having a role finally worthy of all she always has done so well. Thelma is a warm, thoughtful, hilarious and deeply moving film about a 93-year-old woman who isn’t ready to slow down anytime soon. Every performance is pitch perfect and the story is fast-paced and genuinely has something to say about what happens to a person as they age.

3) GHOSTLIGHT – A small-scale, yet enormously effective family drama about grief. Ghostlight is a tribute to the healing power of live theatre. It is mores specifically a love letter to community theatre, and the concept of having a community where you feel seen. It is such a beautifully acted, beautifully told story. It is overwhelmingly moving, deeply meaningful and remarkably true. One of those little films that sneaks up on you in a profound way.

4) INSIDE OUT 2 – The rare kind of sequel that expands upon what’s explored in the original in natural, compelling ways. A worthy successor to the remarkable film that preceded it, that avoids so many of the problems typically associated with sequels. The themes continue to be explored with the kind of emotional wisdom that made the first so unforgettable. It also feels like we’re doing something very different here from the last film, and it’s almost cliche to say, but there truly are just as many worthwhile takeaways here for adults as there are for kids. 

5) KINDS OF KINDNESS – It feels like director Yorgos Lanthimos, following the success of Poor Things, the closest thing to a mainstream hit so far in his career, broke out of the psych ward and went off his meds and let his imagination go to some truly nutty places, and ran with it. I’m deeply thankful for that. Kinds of Kindness is a dark, savage and hateful little movie, one that’s delightfully out of its damn mind.

6) DADDIO – Full disclosure, a film like this is admittedly very much my kind of thing. I love where you have two actors in a claustrophobic setting and you’re just watching two talented people play off each other, and if you’re lucky, if the film is good, it feels like you’re seeing two genuinely vivid people beyond what the actors are doing in their parts. And Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn are acting their asses off in Christy Hall’s dazzling debut Daddio.

7) FEMME – An anxiety inducing thriller about queer identity, trauma, shame, internalized hatred, and redemption, maybe? There are no emotionally easy answers to be found in Femme. There is an incredible murkiness here and the emotional complexity of this lead character’s journey is compelling and stressful and harrowing and shocking. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay are doing incredible, harrowing work. There is so much to think about after you leave the theater, and that’s what makes this story so fascinating and unforgettable.

8) PROBLEMISTA – Writer/director/star Julio Torres’ singular directorial debut, a story about an immigrant in America and the general concept of the American dream, a film that somehow finds a way into that story that feels like a version of it we haven’t seen before. It also brings up plenty of interesting ideas about how to succeed in life, to deal with the person in life who is ‘the problem’, to get what we really want, maybe we have to become the problems ourselves. And that maybe in the end that’s okay? Also features one of the great Tilda Swinton performances.

9) I SAW THE TV GLOW – A film I admittedly had to see twice to really encapsulate my feelings on. The first time, I was a bit confounded and bewildered, not knowing what to make of everything, but was fascinated by the whole thing. On round two, I was deeply moved and mesmerized. The story of finding your identity and how some of us when we’re young connect that to pieces of media, the specificity of it and yet the way these characters which can seem enigmatic to a fault on the first viewing, feel so deeply realized when you give the film a second look. Jane Schoenbrun is definitely an exciting filmmaker worth keeping an eye on.

10) LOVE LIES BLEEDING – Director Rose Glass follows up her terrific 2020 debut Saint Maud, with something that cements her place in the business. Instead of making another horror picture, Glass has made a gritty crime noir that is also darkly funny, edge-of-your-seat gripping, wildly unpredictable, romantic, nutty and high off its own weird energy. There are many thematic parallels between Love Lies Bleeding and Saint Maud, but Glass has not even close to have made the same movie twice. This is borrowing a lot from decades of cinema and yet feels totally original.

Honorable Mentions:

PERFECT DAYS – A quiet little slice-of-life drama about a man who cleans public toilets in Tokyo, and the joy he takes in his daily routine and the pride he takes in his work, and pleasure he finds in the little things in life. Without the lead performance from the legendary Koji Yakusho, this film does not work. If you don’t believe the joy on Hirayama’s face when he leaves his apartment, looks up at the sky, and smiles with his whole face, the movie does not work. And it is one of the most singularly beautiful pieces of acting I have ever seen. This is one of the most memorable film character studies in recent memory.

LA CHIMERA – It seems to be the year of Josh O’Connor and I am absolutely here for every minute of it. This is a beautiful, absorbing and confounding story and the performances are top notch.

ROBOT DREAMS – An animated movie about a dog and a robot and their friendship should not have made me ugly-cry the way Robot Dreams did. An absolutely lovely story about friendship, connection and what it means to let go. This movie is devastating in the best possible ways. It’s borderline essential filmmaking.