Ten Films of Substance
While 2024 wasn’t a particularly strong year for movies, putting together a top ten personal favorites list at the year’s conclusion was still tough. I’ll give an honorable mention to Smile 2, an ambitious, audacious, and scary movie that I’m sure will hold a dedicated fanbase as the years pass. Justice for Skye Riley. The worst new releases that I endured were Challengers (sorry, Trent), The Watchers (sorry, Dakota), and Elevation (sorry, tank roaches).
Here are the ten films released in 2024 that I enjoyed the most.
10. The First Omen
Director Arkasha Stevenson’s first feature film is far better than you may expect for a prequel to The Omen, Ruchard Donner’s 1976 classic. The First Omen’s production design (by Eve Stewart) and costumes (by Paco Delgado) are second-to-none, and Nell Tiger Free’s performance is shockingly strong. Stevenson takes influence from horror classics like Soavi’s The Church and Żuławski’s Possession, and crafts her own terrifying tale.
9. Rebel Ridge
Jeremy Saulnier is a talented writer/director whose films often focus on a character who employs violence to escape their desperate situation. His latest shares that concept, but Rebel Ridge has no interest in being a macho might-makes-right fairy tale. Instead, it taps into the frustrations of a segment of society that feels held hostage by the very forces sworn to serve and protect them.
8. Flow
With the help of dazzling animation and a memorable score, viewers instantly become concerned about the safety of a black cat and its animal companions that are doing their best to survive the aftermath of a tsunami. With Flow, director Gints Zilbaldois may have created a new genre of film: the family-friendly disaster movie.
7. The Substance
There is no film that has lingered in my thoughts this year more so than The Substance. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat follows up her impressive debut Revenge with a horror film that has successfully captured the zeitgeist. Fargeat’s bravura filmmaking is a sight to behold, bringing her smart script to life in bold fashion. She’s created an intelligent body horror film that’s about a great many things, including motherhood, capitalism, sexism, and the lengths one will go to in order to recapture the past. Remember, you are one.
6. Longlegs
A truly disturbing motion picture, Longlegs is a film that feels dangerous, like watching it may unleash some demonic force into the world. I recommend putting together a playlist featuring Lou Reed and T. Rex to cleanse your soul after you watch the movie. Maika Monroe and Alicia Witt are both excellent in writer/director Oz Perkins’ latest nightmare, and Nicholas Cage is pure white evil. Hail Satan.
5. Drive-Away Dolls
Possibly the most divisive movie on my list, Drive-Away Dolls is downright hated by a few of my film critic colleagues. I do not understand how one could dislike this smart, breezy, hilarious film from Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen. Maybe they’re just not fans of Russ Meyer, Gregg Araki, or John Waters? Well, I am, and Drive-Away Dolls is a glorious romp through that degenerate, lowbrow style of filmmaking that is all but forgotten among newer film fans.
4. His Three Daughters
A film about re-contextualizing what family means in the face of dealing with inescapable shared grief, His Three Daughters has a few scenes that may hit a little too close to home. That I found the film so moving speaks to how successfully I believe it navigates such rocky emotional terrain. Watch it for the unexpected laughs, and the compelling performances from Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olson, and Natasha Lyonne.
3. Lisa Frankenstein
Most modern films that are set in the 1980s just mock the decade instead of attempting to accurately recreate it. Lisa Frankenstein feels like a video store rental you might have discovered in the fall of 1989, with the fashions, music, and vernacular coming across as authentic rather than standard manufactured nostalgia. This is a delightful movie that will appeal mostly to a very specific group of people (goths!) and I hope it eventually finds an audience that will embrace its specific brand of quirkiness.
2. Nickel Boys
This is the hardest film to recommend on this list, because the subject matter is so harsh. When I’ve told people to see Nickel Boys, a film about boys being mistreated at a reform school, they usually balk. I get it, the story is sad, and it’s even more sad when you learn it’s based on actual events. Based on the book by Colson Whitehead, the film is directed by RaMell Ross, who does an extraordinary job placing the audience in the shoes of the main characters. Jomo Fray’s powerful cinematography and an interesting score by Alex Somers and Scott Alario help to bring this important tale to life.
1. The Outrun
Scottish writer Amy Liptrot, working with Daisy Lewis and Nora Fingscheidt, adapted her sobriety memoir into a screenplay directed by Fingscheidt. Saoirse Ronan is extraordinary as Rona, a fictionalized version of Liptrot. Some movies romanticize drinking or drug usage; some demonize those who are in the throes of addiction. I appreciate that The Outrun presents this story in a matter-of-fact fashion. Bad things happen in Rona’s life, and through hard work and dedication she is able to make changes for the better, one day at a time.