Taking On 2024 - Top Films

Another long pause between posts, and one I had intended to do earlier but was derailed by having to wait for I'm Still Here (2024) to play locally before I could realistically finalize a list. Such is life, the fragility of permanence. But a list thankfully was finalized, and this year I broke with a Top Ten to include a bonus film, or perhaps it's the New Normal(tm) since it's the second year running where the list has expanded. Kind of in line with the year though, as it had a number of notable strong titles, some of the best would have contended for last year's list had they played the local festival in October. One can only speculate on the battles that were never fought.

This battle, however, is one that will be conquered. We have, as usual, a list of every film I considered eligible for the year, if you want to see what missed the cut in no real order. Nothing else really to plug, and perhaps one day I will return more regularly to blogging. There's always something fun about getting back to sit with and think through the year that was in film. But, as they say, fuck all that, let's get to it.

11. The New Year That Never Came

When thinking back on the past decade or so, I can think of so many fantastic films from Romania. Honestly need to seek out more, because there's still so much culturally and historically that I do not know, and this film reminds you that we aren't actually all that far removed from this major event. Taking place on the eve of revolution in Romania, it follows multiple characters from different perspectives of society. Ones that rarely intersect, but are all heading towards the same destination. What's impressive is its ability to make even the more banal moments feel heavy, and manages to weave in a wry sense of humor to offset everything just enough. Muresanu balances tone in his film with a rigor that makes it so surprising that this is a debut feature.

10. Megalopolis

Hasn't been one like this in a while. Francis Ford Coppola's latest embraces its epic scale (looking stunning even on a fake IMAX), and so much of the film is better for its willingness to lean in to the theatrical. Anchored by an expectedly great turn from Driver in the role of quasi-superhero super genius pushing for the perfect society, where things begin to elevate is in the smaller moments where it leans in to  the theatricality and world that it creates. Coppola puts past, present, and future in heavy handed conversation with each other, and that lack of subtlety allows for some beautiful visual sequences. The moving statues, the extravagant party, the parts overlooking the city, rarely is there a moment where you don't have something to appreciate on a purely visual level. And it helps that the 'pick up my hat' scene is among the funniest moments from film last year.

9. The Substance

Following along with heavy handed social commentaries, the latest from Coralie Fargeat makes no effort to hide the targets of its satire. Which kind of pushed me off it at first, and is similar to the reaction I had to her previous film Revenge; however, as the months passed what stood out most were the great parts. The propulsive score, the sledgehammer subtlety that allows Moore, Qualley, and, especially, Quaid to get the most out of the characters, and just how fun the film is when the third act begins. By that point it already has felt relentless, but in those final forty minutes it shows you exactly what that means as the blood starts to flow. A delight, and electric in a way that you rarely see handled with such artistry.

8. Baby Invasion

As chance would have it, I was fortunate enough to attend the North American premiere of the latest from Harmony Korine's EDGLRD film division. Had some idea going in about the concept of it being a spin on a home invasion thriller where the faces of the invaders are, as the title so clearly states, replaced with generative AI babies. What I didn't realize was that it's a mostly silent film (aside from visual cues and the ever present soundtrack from Burial) where a copy of the game made its way to the dark web and we're watching essentially a livestream that pushes between artifice and reality as the crew breaks in to these mansions in a Payday-like series of missions. The near constant scroll of comments from the live chat add to the hyperstimulation that Korine is examining, and he does so with such an awareness of gaming visual language that goes well beyond even something like Hardcore Henry in terms of how the silent protagonist and first person perspective can be used in this medium. Despite its brief run time, it's a surprisingly dense film in terms of how much it packs in to every frame, and one that I hope to be able to revisit when it gets a proper release. An uncompromising work of art and ambition, and the first film so far that I kind of feel I'm slotting too low.

7. Grand Theft Hamlet

From one undeniable win for Gamers to another, this doc from Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls about the attempt to put on a production of Hamlet within the world of Grand Theft Auto Online surprised me not simply because it was a doc, but because of the lengths it must have taken to create this documentary at all. My own experience with GTAO is limited, having only messed around with it in a broken state on launch day, though I'm definitely aware of the shark cards, the constant updates, the money printer is continues to be for Rockstar. And, as the film shows, an open world where a constant threat of chaos is always lurking in the form of random players. The actual staging of Hamlet becomes less important as the film develops, shifting its focus to the toll that lockdown has had on its creators, on the connections being made in the game, and the interplay of bringing one of the most notable dramas in history to this modern medium where this specific game thrives on constant action. And all are explored well, but what most stood out to me was the construction itself, and the connection between the creators and the world Rockstar created. GTAO is, at this point, not the best looking game, but the tools within the game allow it to be experienced cinematically, and it's fascinating to watch the game be pushed in ways which are completely at odds with the design ethos. Creates moments of beauty between mediums, and is as much a testament to the scope and splendor of what Rockstar created, what games can mean, as it is to the power of art and connection.

6. Anora

Sean Baker's latest doesn't have him straying too far from the qualities that have made his work so great, and there are long stretches of Anora where it finds the propulsive energy that sees him operating on the same wavelength as his breakout Tangerine, but this film feels like an inevitable culmination of his growing success. Through Mikey Madison's titular Ani we get a glimpse in to the world of a dancer as she is swept up in a whirlwind romance with Vanya, a man (technically speaking) of near limitless money on a holiday retreat to the United States. And in the first portion the way Baker films the world, the club, the opulence, is brilliantly juxtaposed with brief glimpses in to Ani's life removed from all of this, just as easily sweeping us as viewer up in the dream of excess. Of course, this gives way to a second act that has the veneer begin to shatter, while the harshness of reality is cushioned some with moments of manic comedy. It requires a delicate balance, especially to not lose sight of its thematic concern with the class dynamics and manifestations of power as a result of Vanya's wealth, and both Baker and Madison handle it perfectly. Anora is, top to bottom, stunning.

5. Trap

Would be easy to say that 2024 was a massive year for Gamers, and while M. Night Shyamalan does spend about 45 minutes or so letting Josh Hartnett's father turned serial killer (or serial killer turned father) run through what would make a great Hitman level, his thriller has much more up its sleeve than the quasi-concert film first half. In what very well may be the best performance of the year, Hartnett gets to oscillate between completely in control and completely unhinged, bringing a depth to his Cooper/Butcher character that puts an interesting spin on the traditional serial killer formula. Shyamalan's camera is, as one would expect, beautiful, effectively framing the scale of the fake real concert that serves as the initial trap, though it's the script where the film elevates itself from fun entertainment to one of the year's best. It's not just the willingness to situate the film from a killer's perspective, the familial dynamic takes on its own richness as Cooper's desire to hold on to his family amidst his turbulent other life at least evokes Shyamalan casting his daughter in one of the film's key roles. That personal touch, a mark of so much of Shyamalan's work, blends seamlessly with Hartnett's performance to create probably the most purely entertaining film of the past year.

4. Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World

One film that straddles the line of what is actually a 2024 release, Radu Jude's follow up to previous best of list occupant (not linked as I didn't finish writing that year in time, but it would have been 1 or 2) Bad Luck Banging of Loony Porn is just as daring, but approaches its subject differently than his previous work. Following Angela, a cog in an advertising firm that is charged with putting together a workplace safety video for an international conglomerate in hot water for workplace tragedy in a Bucharest factory, we see a day in her life as she wrangles people to film a spot that ostensibly is HR's wet dream, along with a few breaks as she films filtered TikToks under the guise of her Bobita, a hyper misogynist spin on the Alpha Male Andrew Tate figures. A fine enough playground on its own for Jude to showcase his humor and wit, though where his previous film segmented itself in to three distinct acts, this has Jude blending footage of Angela Merge Mai Departe (according to Wikipedia anyhow), a 1981 film about a taxi driver in Bucharest to create echoes of the city's past and place it in conversation with the present day. Again, my own knowledge of Romanian history is limited, so some parts are a bit more beguiling than the more straightforward Bad Luck Banging, but even with only a loose knowledge it's easy to appreciate how Jude explores the themes of labor, economy, and government as a machine that grinds down those on the fringes. The ways we grapple with limitations and these systems of confinement. It's a predictably dense work, but a rewarding one, and further cements Jude as one of the most exciting filmmakers working in comedy or otherwise.

3. A Different Man

Don't think there was a more surprising film last year than Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man, one where the basic plot description of a deformed man undergoes an experimental treatment, becomes attractive, and learns that it doesn't make his life perfect does not do the film itself justice. Sebastian Stan, in one of two great performances from him this past year, plays Edward, a man with neurofibromatosis causing a disfiguration in his face, who is a struggling actor in New York getting by on demeaning roles that focus only on his condition. His appearance is eventually changed, allowing him to assume a new identity and start over, but his happiness proves only temporary as he crosses path with Oswald, played by Adam Pearson, a successful man with the same condition as Edward. Where the film succeeds though is in its nuance, how it takes the simple premise and actually grapples with what it means to not only be different, but to be perceived that way. Stan and Pearson give two great performances, and Schimberg smartly plays them against type to explore identity and relation with both self and the world. It's a deeply human film, and one that effectively drops the hammer on its character study in a way that left me shook in its final moments.

2. I Saw The TV Glow

Returning to the near top of my yearly list, Jane Schoenbrun's follow up to the phenomenal We're All Going To The World's Fair has them shifting focus from the digital age and looking backwards to the days where Snick reigned supreme. Schoenbrun showed plenty of talent visually in their previous film, but it is all elevated pretty much from the opening moments here, and the integration of 90's staples as such a big part of the narrative allows for not just clear formal talent, but also encourages a change in the visual construction of certain scenes. Justice Smith plays a reserved high schooler, in a surprisingly powerful performance given how reserved he is asked to be, and bounces well off of Jack Haven's much more forceful Maddy. Each find common ground early on over an Are You Afraid Of The Dark-esque show, which serves as an entry point for the film's exploration of identity formation and sense of belonging. This manifests in a trans reading, one that's certainly valid, but reaches beyond that to a more universal fear of inertia, of becoming stuck, of losing one's sense of self that are universal. The film itself is not very scary, at least not in a traditional sense, but its final twenty minutes or so are terrifying. As with We're All Going To The World's Fair, it taps in to both modern and timeless fears, laced with tragedy, and asking the audience to engage with their own sense of self. Remarkable work once again from one of cinema's most exciting new voices.

1. The Beast

Still remember very well my moments after The Beast, Bertrand Bonello's decades spanning spin on Henry James's novella "The Beast In The Jungle", how shaken I was by the final moments, how the QR code credits were met with people quietly filtering out of the theater, the wind blowing as I walked back to the train station and paused, realizing just how special of a film I had seen. Taking place across three different time periods, Bonello weaves together the 1910's, 2014, and the near future to use the framework of a doomed romance to reach beyond the limitations of physical. The film achieves this in two ways: first by framing the distant future portion as an idealized world where AI has solved most global problems and is sanding down human fail points by purifying people of their past selves (allowing the film to jump around in time), but also has Lea Seydoux and George MacKay play the would be lovers across the three different times so that we as the viewer are aware of the inescapability of their story. I have not read the James novella, but early on in the 1910's section it outlines the central quandary that drives it (and the film) when one of the characters remarks that they have always had an awareness that their life will be defined by a terrible, spectacular event, which lets us and the characters constantly aware of and waiting for this mysterious moment that could happen at any time.

This central tension is maintained deftly by Bonello throughout, as he plays with echoes of the future and past to explore the characters, but more importantly to examine the existential dread at the emotional core of the film. Given the current rise of AI, it feels particularly prescient, and it's smart to place the future portion only about 20 years from now, making everything feel much more immediate. This idea is further refined in the relatively contemporary portion, likely the strongest section (and not just because of the blink and you'll miss it clip from Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers that makes an appearance) because it presents the most perverse form of attraction. Seydoux plays an aspiring actress watching a house in a well to do area of Los Angeles, and she is juxtaposed with MacKay's Louis Lewinsky, the quintessential Elliot Rodger incel spewing his manifesto to what one can assume is a near non-existent social media audience. While the Lynchian impulses are more direct in the future portion, Bonello best blends the surreal with the human in this contemporary section, with a darkness and humor that has the viewer hyper-aware of the dangers, both physical and beyond. This fear, this beauty, it is harrowing on such a raw level. Not sure there ever could have been another option for the year's best.

Brings us to the end of the list, another year in cinema in the books. Didn't see everything that I wanted, but was able to see a lot. As usual, feel free to follow along with my logs on Letterboxd, and feel free to leave any comments below. Until next time.

Comments are welcome and, for anyone with a literary mind, I encourage checking out my poetry blog filled with all original works for your reading pleasure.

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© 2025 Richard James Thorne