Top 24 of 2024
It’s that time of year again! Exercise and productivity are but a distant memory, the days blur into a booze-fuelled purgatory and I rank my favourite films. This time, I’m listing 24 films that were ‘released’ here in 2024 (I use the term loosely because one doesn’t come out until January 1st and one is technically from 2022).
The Cannes 2023 program is heavily represented thanks to the strength of last year’s Perth Festival lineup, so thanks to whoever was responsible for that. There are also several actors who appear not once but twice on this list, so congrats to Sandra Hüller, Sebastian Stan, Josh O’Connor, Zendaya, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons and Léa Seydoux for their excellent career choices this year.
And speaking of career choices, I left my job in advertising so I’d have more capacity for things like this. 2025 will reveal if this was a good decision but in the meantime, let’s rank some movies!
24. The Apprentice – Ali Abbasi
The first of Sebastian Stan’s outings in this list is the one where he plays Donald Trump in the 80s. But it’s not a caricature; it’s actually a humanising (but not forgiving) look at the making of the man we all know today. The Apprentice was pretty unfairly maligned when it came out; his supporters wrote it off as election bait for Democrat voters and his detractors didn’t want to see a film about Donald Trump. But Ali Abbasi has made a solid biopic that’s shot like Succession (complete with Jeremy Strong) and serves as a pretty balanced early look at the percolation of a divisive modern figure.
23. The Iron Claw – Sean Durkin
The unfortunately true story of the ‘curse’ that spread through the Von Erich wrestling family is softened slightly in Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw, leaving out the extra death because it would’ve been “too much” for audiences to take. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of tragedy to feast your teary eyes upon. A tale of a father’s abject determination to live vicariously through his sons no matter the pressure it exerts on them, it is one that requires a stiff upper lip and a backup box of tissues. But it’s also a film that makes you believe in the healing power of fraternal love, and the acting chops of one Zac Efron.
22. The Taste of Things – Trần Anh Hùng
Seeing this at Perth Festival meant sharing the outdoor cinema at UWA Somerville with a bunch of food horny Western Suburbs Boomers who couldn’t contain their orgasms as Juliette Binoche made dish after delectable dish for her gourmet suitor/employer. It’s a hot concept, I get it, but I really could’ve done without the assault on my ears. Still, the commotion in the audience didn’t detract too much from the sumptuousness onscreen. The Taste of Things’ portrait of upper class eating in late 1800s France is an aesthete’s delight and a romantic’s wet dream, featuring gorgeous performances by Binoche and her real-life ex-husband/baby daddy Benoît Magimel. And it’s not just the food that treats the senses; there is something quite spellbinding about its cinematography, costume design and use of locations that transforms the film into a moving oil painting.
21. Evil Does Not Exist – Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Another Perth Festival entry and another thought provoking slow burn from the writer and director of Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (both of which featured in my Top 22 of ‘22 list). A quiet tale of the ever raging battle between man and nature, Evil Does Not Exist is a film that refuses to give answers, but does present a vaguely threatening warning about the consequences of rampant capitalism for the sake of subsidies. This is a film that I’d like to revisit again as I found myself distracted by the non-diegetic sounds of UWA Somerville on my first viewing. Oddly, a film whose soundscape is made up of woodsy instruments and faint gunshots doesn’t benefit from an outdoor cinema experience.
20. Love Lies Bleeding - Rose Glass
Since her psychologically horrifying debut Saint Maud I’ve felt deep pangs for a second film from Rose Glass. A tedious five years later, I finally got it with Love Lies Bleeding, a lesbian romantic thriller about a gym manager with crime family ties and the object of her affection, a Hulk-coded, steroid enthusiast bodybuilder. This ultra stylised, 80s set Americana tale is like if True Romance took place in a New Mexico town; it’s funny, violent and urgently paced, but at its heart is a love story between outcasts. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian have infectious chemistry and Ed Harris’s hairstyle channels Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What more could you want?
19. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – George Miller
It’s hard being the younger sibling of one of the greatest action movies of all time but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is its own film that, while not reaching the heights of its predecessor, still marks a staggering accomplishment for a 79-year-old pillar of Australian filmmaking. George Miller returns almost a decade after Mad Max: Fury Road to make the film he actually wrote prior, an origin story of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa. While Fury Road took place over only three days the new film spans 15 years, so the character is played in the first act by child actor Alyla Brown and then by Anya Taylor-Joy after a time jump. Highlights include a genuinely interesting villain in Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus, a properly executed Australian accent from Tom Burke and an appropriately rage-filled performance from Anya Taylor-Joy.
18. Kinds of Kindness – Yorgos Lanthimos
I counted three walkouts during our screening of Kinds of Kindness and I have to say, I’m not surprised. The success of Poor Things may have lulled normies into a false sense of security in entering this, a film that represents Yorgos Lanthimos at his Lanthimost. Co-written by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou (of Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Kinds of Kindness is a triptych anthology of stories all starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe. The narratives are absurd, the comedy is pitch black and the morals are decidedly Greek. Expect cannibalism, cults and all manner of animalistic debauchery set to the music of Eurythmics and COBRAH.
17. Monster – Hirokazu Kore-eda
I haven’t seen anywhere near as many Kore-eda films as I should’ve but I enjoyed Broker and I really enjoyed Shoplifters when they screened under their respective Perth Festival programs. This year’s Festival lineup featured the director’s latest, Monster — a story of a single mother’s altercation with her son’s teacher and the truth of the matter unfolding through three different perspectives. This film really surprised me with the unexpected places its narrative goes; it’s bittersweet in its messages and turns the audience’s biases into a final act gut punch. It also features the final score from legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Vale, Sir.
16. The Wolves Always Come At Night – Gabrielle Brady
Laziness and the heat almost kept us from attending the media screening of The Wolves Always Come At Night but as the credits rolled I turned to Alex, slightly weepy, and said “I’m so glad we didn’t bail.” From Australian director Gabrielle Brady and co-written by the film’s stars/subjects, The Wolves Always Come At Night is a hybrid film in the vein of Honeyland, meaning it’s part documentary and part narrative recreation. Like that film, it shares themes of climate change and its impact on a remote community reliant on the land and their livestock. But this film is also about mourning a way of life that is, through no fault of the characters’ own, no longer viable. It’s set in Mongolia but its story is as universal as they come.
15. La Chimera – Alice Rohrwacher
Another day, another Perth Festival film. This one is about a gang of grave robbers led by Josh O’Connor who pillage Etruscan artifacts and sell them as a way of making a living. But it’s also a tragic love story about a man searching for something invaluable he’s lost, and dreaming about the last time he saw her. The film is set in the 80s but there’s a sense of its events existing outside of time, with O’Connor’s character travelling unbound by possession, like a man who yearns for the grave himself or a ghost who doesn’t realise he’s already dead. Director Alice Rohrwacher paints her own classic with this film; its sense of mystery is as intriguing as its imagery, and its use of red string is haunting.
14. Tótem – Lila Avilés
A 7-year-old girl named Sol spends the day at the home of her grandfather where her family convenes for a birthday party. But the mood is slightly dampened by the fact that it’s also probably going to be the person’s last party. That person is Sol’s father, who is terminally ill but putting on a brave face. As the day goes on we witness family tensions, sisterly squabbles about whose turn it is to use the sink and murmurs of financial trouble uttered in hallways and heard through eavesdropping. Lila Avilés film is a dance between grief and celebration and features one of those lump-in-the-throat crescendos that I’ve been searching for since Aftersun. It perfectly reflects what it’s like to be a child listening in on adult conversations and trying to understand concepts beyond your level of development. Very surprising, very beautiful.
13. How To Have Sex – Molly Manning Walker
I saw this in a completely empty cinema at Luna SX one night. This makes me both sad (because it’s a great film that more people should see) and relieved (because no one was there to see me cry). Written and directed by Molly Manning Walker in her directorial debut, How To Have Sex is about three 16-year-old English girls who go to a Greek party island for a coming-of-age end of year holiday. It’s the most realistic look at sexual pressure and feeling like you maybe didn’t consent to something that I’ve seen on film. But it’s also about the importance of solid female friendships at this turning point in a girl’s life. This should be shown in high schools.
12. Civil War – Alex Garland
Some see Civil War as a depiction of the un-United States in the not-too-distant future. Others see it as a failed anti-war movie. Its director sees it as a love letter to journalists. One thing’s for sure; Civil War was one of the year’s most talked about, contentious films. It is violent, loud and extremely unsettling, like its trailer led audiences to believe. But it’s also about the unpalatable business of capturing atrocities on camera, and therefore capturing the truth. Kirtsen Dunst and Cailee Spaeny are phenomenal, their mentor/mentee relationship serving as the emotional centre of the story. The film’s sound design is also a highlight; it creates an experience immersive as they come, especially during the climactic final scene. If you’re comfortable being confronted, Civil War is unmissable.
11. The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer
And speaking of confronting images, you simply must try the year’s most essential and uncomfortable experience, The Zone of Interest. I saw this at Perth Festival the week after the audience wouldn’t shut the fuck up during The Taste of Things. Unsurprisingly, proximity to the Holocaust had a more quieting effect. From the director of Under The Skin and Sexy Beast (two films I love) comes a film based loosely on the Höss family and their life in the house that neighboured Auschwitz. But it functions equally as an art installation, its imagery and sound design curating the collective feeling that we shouldn’t just be sitting here listening to the screams in the distance and watching the wives sort through jewellery stolen from the dead. At one point Sandra Hüller’s character talks about why the garden is so lush. We then see carbon-rich ashes flowing into the garden beds. It’s sickening, but don’t you dare look away.
10. Nosferatu – Robert Eggers
When I heard that Robert Eggers was remaking F. W. Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu (itself an unlawful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel), I got quite excited. Then it sat in development for ages and I completely forgot who was cast as the titular vampire, so I spent half of Eggers’ version enamoured with its aesthetic beauty and the other half trying to figure out who lay beneath the makeup and prosthetics of Count Orlok. That is to say, Bill Skarsgård gives his most immersive and impressive performance to date, alongside equally spirited performances from Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe as Willem Dafoe. If you found Coppola’s 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula a bit camp for your tastes, Eggers’ more Gothic, self serious Nosferatu might be more pleasing. Personally, I hold space for both.
9. Challengers – Luca Guadagnino
This year, Luca Guadagnino did the unthinkable — he made tennis hot. With Challengers, he and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes weave a scintillating back and forth between Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, all tennis pros whose personal and professional lives converge through the years and come to a head in the film’s thrilling final game. But this is not your Twilight-loving mama’s love triangle; this is romance as sport and competition for the sake of sexy competition, set to a pulsing score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I really wasn’t expecting to love Challengers as much as I did but the chemistry of its three central stars and the assuredness of the filmmaking made it an early highlight of 2024.
8. A Different Man – Aaron Schimberg
I love an unexpected surprise and so does everyone I’ve spoken to who’s seen Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man. It’s the story of Edward, a man with neurofibromatosis who undergoes an experimental procedure that leaves him with the objectively handsome face of Sebastian Stan. Unfortunately for him, the woman he’s infatuated with (Renate Reinsve) is a playwright and the lead role in her production calls for someone with that very same genetic condition, for authenticity. Enter Oswald (Adam Pearson), a bubbly, popular man with neurofibromatosis who lives life to its fullest despite (or perhaps because of) his condition. What ensues is a Charlie Kaufman-esque black comedy with a pitch perfect tone and a surreal, unsettling atmosphere that I absolutely loved. It’s a strange, darkly funny and very different film.
7. Anora – Sean Baker
When I ranked my favourite films of 2022 I listed Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car as my number one film. But if I’m really honest with myself, that honour actually goes to Sean Baker’s Red Rocket. So when it was announced that Baker had a new film coming out that had just won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, I knew the likelihood of it appearing in my Top 10 would be high. His new film is Anora, a stylish, 70s-inspired dramedy about a sex worker and her merry henchmen casing the streets of New York in search of her husband, Ivan. Why? Well, because he’s the son of a Russian oligarch and his parents want the marriage annulled, of course. It’s a film that is far funnier than I expected but also far more poignant. Baker’s affinity for destigmatising sex work and telling stories from the perspectives of marginalised groups is evident again in Anora, a film that explores the aftermath of being disposed of once the elites have had their fun.
6. Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet
This was the first film I saw on the first day of 2024 at Perth Festival and for quite a long time, it was at my number one spot. It’s the film that earned Justine Triet her rank as the third female director to win the Palme d’Or (after Julia Ducournau for Titane and Jane Campion for The Piano), and rightly so, because Anatomy of a Fall is a knockout. The French legal drama about whether or not Sandra Hüller pushed her husband out a window features brilliantly written dialogue, a captivating narrative and excellent performances across the board (including French border collie Messi, who won the Palm Dog for his very important role as Snoop). It also subverts gender roles in a really interesting way, exploring what happens when female rejection of the primary caregiver role interferes with the male desire for a traditional household.
5. Dune: Part Two – Denis Villeneuve
I’ve loved every Villeneuve movie I’ve seen but I do remember being a bit ‘meh’ on his 2021 Dune adaptation. Maybe it was the oversaturation of Timmy Chalamet at the time or the film’s unfinished feel — it was only half of Frank Herbert’s first Dune book, after all. This lukewarmness was why I was so shocked to find that I absolutely loved every second of Dune: Part Two, the long awaited sequel that picks up directly where the first left off. Everything about this film is superior; its epic tone, Chalamet’s performance, Zendaya’s character’s involvement and the space politics of it all. But the biggest highlight for me is the evolution of Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica from Paul’s Bene Gesserit mum to the Palpatine-coded, tattoo-covered Reverend Mother. Oh, and Paul’s triumphant ride on the granddaddy sandworm. And Stilgar’s unshakeable faith in the prophecy providing comic relief. And Austin Butler’s black and white gladiator fight. It’s all so good.
4. Hundreds of Beavers – Mike Cheslik
I had a small window of opportunity to see this film at Revelation Film Festival and I’m so glad I took it, because Hundreds of Beavers is an absolute riot. The result of five years of blood, sweat and tears from director Mike Cheslik and writer/star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Hundreds of Beavers is a modern slapstick comedy with entirely homemade visual effects. Tews plays an applejack salesman named Jean Kayak who must hunt, skin and sell the pelts of the pesky beavers who destroyed his business and homestead if he has any hope of surviving the snowy winter of midwest America. The beavers are played by crewmates in costumes that were purchased off a Chinese mascot website and the opening song is written and performed by Tews’ father and his band. So impressive, so funny and a perfect example of the importance of commiting to the gag.
3. Perfect Days – Wim Wenders
Many people ask me “why do you watch disturbing, fucked up movies?” but a person can be two things at once, and I can enjoy the Terrifier franchise AND the contemplative slowburn films of esteemed German directors. And when directors like Wim Wenders have the ability to make a film about a man who cleans public toilets a profoundly moving experience, it makes my ability to enjoy the kaleidoscope of human emotions available onscreen that much more pronounced. Perfect Days is the kind of film, at least to me, that makes the daily grind more tolerable. It’s about accepting that things don’t always go to plan and refusing to wallow in self pity, instead taking little moments to indulge in something beautiful, like light patterns in the trees and cassettes of Lou Reed. Kōji Yakusho’s performance as Hirayama is heartbreaking, life affirming and most of all, a reminder that we do have some control over our days, no matter how much shit (literal or otherwise) comes our way.
2. The Beast – Bertrand Bonello
Then again, overdosing on happy feelings leaves a person vulnerable to disappointment. That’s why I like to balance out my Letterboxd log with experiences that make me feel icky and unsettled, like a vaguely threatening dream that you can’t explain once you’re awake. And that’s why I love The Beast, the biggest surprise I had at the cinema this year. Bertrand Bonello’s sci fi fever dream spans multiple time periods and realities in the life of Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), a woman who undergoes past life regression therapy to get to the root cause of the ever present and unexplained fear that holds her back from living fully. The film is based on a 1903 Henry James novella called The Beast in the Jungle and is brought spectacularly to life through cleverly incorporated themes of artificial intelligence and the blending of real life events with a science fiction story. It’s Lynchian in its atmosphere, which is the greatest compliment that could be bestowed on a film not directed by David Lynch. The Beast is not for everyone, but one or two of you are gonna love it.
1. The Substance – Coralie Fargeat
Are you really surprised?
Probably not, because The Substance has appeared on almost every Top 10 list I’ve seen this year. But if people had as enjoyable a time as I did at its sold out advanced screening, then it’s no wonder. Coralie Fargeat ramps up the crazy from her feature debut Revenge, this time spinning a body horror fairytale that serves as The Fly for ladies/anyone who’s ever felt a bit disgusting in their own skin. Demi Moore is at her most vulnerable and most powerful as Elisabeth Sparkle, an ageing star who ‘slightly misuses’ a black market drug that creates a younger, more beautiful version of herself called Sue (Margaret Qualley). The Substance is heightened, goopy fun despite being entirely relatable, and its final act had our audience howling. I am utterly obsessed with it and cannot wait to see what Fargeat does next.
All in all, 2024 was a pretty rad year for film. I watched 228 of them in total, 83 of which were new releases. I was introduced to the classics of Kurosawa. And John Ford. And Howard Hawks. And Alfred Hitchcock. I watched It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time ever. And Rocky II (and III, and the one with the ‘Happy Birthday Paulie’ robot)!
And if the world doesn’t end in 2025, I hope to watch more.
