Top 10 Films of 2024

A belated list of beloved 2024 theatrical releases. Plus: 10 honorable mentions.

Greetings, MTWZ readers. The response to my inaugural Substack, posted two days ago, was even warmer than I expected. I am grateful to each and every one of you have subscribed to the newsletter so far. And if you are reading this and have not yet joined the mailing list, consider subscribing now.

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Alright, onto MTWZ #2.

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Matt and Mara (2024, Kazik Radwanski)

The Academy Awards are this weekend, placing today as the last remotely acceptable day to share a Top 10 Films of 2024 online. Of course, the prime SEO window for this kind of list has long passed—there’s a reason IndieWire and Pitchfork both posted their “Best of 2024” lists on the same day, December 3.

Considering I just launched this Substack, and have yet to publicly elaborate on my favorite films elsewhere, I figured this would be a worthwhile indulgence, even now. I can rationalize its tardiness in part by living in the Midwest, where several of the films below did not screen until just a few weeks ago, or ever at all. I have yet to see a few that have a reasonable chance of making it on this list, such as All We Imagine as Light, Meiyazhagan, Pepe, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Spermworld, and Union.

But I have seen enough—specifically, well over 100 “2024 U.S. theatrical releases” at this point. The films listed below are all culled from this pool, meaning they received some sort of theatrical release in New York last year. Most of them also eventually screened in Madison, though many did not. (If you are interested in how arthouse fare travels across regional U.S. markets and between shifting pay windows today, then do I have the essay for you.) I have seen a few films that premiered in 2024 and will (or at least should) be properly released later this year. One of them gets a shout-out below.

So, here are my ten favorite films of 2024, preceded by ten honorable mentions. For some titles, you can find more writing from me if you click the hyperlinked/underlined title, which takes you to my Letterboxd review of the film.

Ten Honorable Mentions, Ordered Alphabetically:

Between the Temples (dir. Nathan Silver)

Dahomey (dir. Mati Diop)

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (dir. Joanna Arnow)

Flow (dir. Gints Zilbalodis)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir. George Miller)

Hard Truths (dir. Mike Leigh)

Juror #2 (dir. Clint Eastwood)

Oddity (dir. Damian Mc Carthy)

This Closeness (dir. Kit Zauhar)

Trap (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

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10. The Wild Robot (dir. Chris Sanders)

The older I get, the softer I get. I cried three separate times watching this in a theater last September—there, I admit it! Beyond the mere passage of time, becoming a “film and media scholar” has enhanced my appreciation of animation, too. I agree with Kristin Thompson’s assessment that the five best animated films of any recent year usually outclass that year’s Best Picture nominees, by a long shot. Extending this logic, I would rank The Wild Robot (as well as Flow and the new Wallace and Gromit) above all of this year’s Best Picture nominees, except item #5 below. This one succeeds not simply because it looks pretty, but more fundamentally because it delivers emotional melodrama according to the classical Hollywood playbook. The story of robot Roz’s relationship with an orphaned gosling is one of maternal sacrifice and instinct, deepened further by a devastatingly clean act structure, Lupita Nyong’o’s vocal performance, and gestural grace notes that leave just-enough unsaid. Roz is the Stella Dallas of our automated future.

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9. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (dir. Johan Grimonprez)

Typically I have several documentaries on my year-end list, but this year, either I didn’t watch enough or what found its way to theaters was simply wanting.¹ Thankfully, we have Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which narrates the Cold War history of pan-African decolonial movements with an eye and ear for the dialectical contradictions and musical expressions that animated these conflicts. Watching this breezy, voluminously annotated chronicle is almost too pleasurable given the content, and I do wonder how my reaction would shift if I were better versed in this era of Congolese history. But rare is the 2.5-hour essay film I would gladly watch again. To me, the most inspiring film of 2024, in modeling the vital directions more audiovisual scholarship can and should go. (Currently on VOD)

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8. In Our Day (dir. Hong Sang-soo)

I liked In Our Day more than Hong’s other 2024 U.S. release, A Traveler’s Needs, but less than his other 2024 premiere By the Stream, which hits U.S. theaters this year. Both In Our Day and By the Stream deal with similar subject matter: namely, the relationship between older artists and a younger generation that variably spurns and aspires to be them. By the Stream has a few dramatic nuances that the former lacks, but In Our Day is funnier, features more cats, and ends perfectly on a note of quotidian bliss, as glimpsed above. (Currently on VOD)

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7. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (dir. Tyler Taormina)

The most nonstop, effervescent energy I have felt from an American independent film in a long time. Also irresistible for anyone who grew up in a loud, proudly “ethnic” family with all sorts of enduring traditions of questionable origin (the film’s Italian, Long Island family resembles my own Greek, northern New Jersey one in so many ways). If you haven’t seen it yet, pencil it in your calendar for this December, or sooner. (Currently on VOD)

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6. Problemista (dir. Julio Torres)

Of all titles on this list, this has arguably gone the most overlooked by critics and cinephiles. Perhaps people thought the trailer looked too twee or quirky, when the film is in fact much more confident and specific than that. With a vibrant and clean visual style, Torres satirizes the indignities of the modern gig economy, the nonprofit art world, and the U.S. immigration system. Perhaps shy of “greatness”—which is more an attribute of marketing anyway, as a swing-and-miss like The Brutalist makes clear—but the righteous anger, humor, and queer sensibility have all stuck with me. Tilda Swinton threatening Torres with the question, “Do you know how to use File Maker Pro?” is my line reading of the year. (Currently on Max)

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5. Nickel Boys (dir. RaMell Ross)

The only Best Picture nominee I really liked, so naturally FanDuel has its odds at +10000. The opening half-hour sustains a lyrical style of filmmaking so beautiful and detailed, I could not believe I was watching it in a multiplex. (Currently on VOD)

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4. Janet Planet (dir. Annie Baker)

It’s been nearly a year since I’ve seen this, but I still frequently think about stray moments: Will Patton’s migraine episode; Sophie Okonedo’s scenes in the car and house loft; the final scene. With a Pulitzer Prize for Drama already to her name, Annie Baker turned in the most textured (both visually and sonically) and overall impressive directorial debut I saw last year. (Currently on Max)

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3. Last Summer (dir. Catherine Breillat)

I’m bringing Béla Balázs back from the dead to show him this movie’s close-ups, killing him instantly once more. (Currently on Criterion Channel)

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2. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (dir. Radu Jude)

As inventive and galvanizing as the late '60s Godard films everyone remembers, plus much bawdier and funnier. If I had to pick one 2024 movie to save from sure annihilation, it would be this, . Plus, before the final long take that’s attracted so much critical attention (above), it turns into a silent, John Gianvito-style experimental documentary for about five minutes! (Currently on MUBI)

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1. Matt and Mara (dir. Kazik Radwanski)

I almost distrust how much I like this movie. I have to remind myself at least a bit of that comes from seeing my own foibles in Deragh Campbell’s Mara, a professor of literature in Toronto. This is a person who can only haltingly describe her professional endeavors, and who grows frustrated at the words she ultimately decides to use. When faced with a logistical setback, she rubs her temples—in a tell of immense psychic pain—and intones into the middle distance, “It’s ultimately fine, I just need to wrap my head around it.” Mara has, just in general, marinated in academia for too long. My incredulity that this didn’t make, like, $10 million domestic is my own esoteric update to Pauline Kael’s (apocryphal) “I don’t know anyone who voted for Nixon.” I accept all this to be true.

But having now watched this twice and heard from others who love it, I regard Matt and Mara as plainly great. There is no need to second-guess something so pleasurable: a verité romantic comedy somehow indebted equally to Curb Your Enthusiasm and Abbas Kiarostami. Radwanski unlocks the more latent humor of his earlier work with Matt Johnson as co-lead, with his clown-like gifts of expression and pantomime. Meanwhile, Campbell’s performance pushes Mara’s many small violations of social norms far beyond “cringe comedy” and into unmapped existential territory. Watching Mara surprise herself, through her own actions, was the cinematic attraction of the year. (Currently on MUBI)

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Coming up: Expect a (comparably text-light!) favorite 2024 albums list on Sunday, and a short essay on Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild (1986) sometime next week. Much more to come—my thanks to you, the person reading this!

1. I also recommend the West Bank-set documentary No Other Land, which despite not receiving proper distribution is nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this Sunday’s Oscars. I recommend reading Anthony Kaufman’s well-reported piece on Documentary.org about this film’s unfortunate distribution journey.