Kristen's Best Movies of 2024

Best? Favorite? It's the movies we loved more than anything this year!

I’ve talked to several people about the movies of 2024 and one word keeps popping up “weird.” There are multiple definitions of what that word means in this context. Some said this year’s releases were a bizarre hodgepodge of shameless IP cash grabs or high art with little in-between. Some pointed out they just had less interest in the year overall for reasons they couldn’t articulate (this is where you’ll find me). Others just said they were surprised on what a mediocre or bad year it was for movies. I can’t go that far, as I was able to find several movies I was ride or die for. So, as we say “Goodbye, 2024” and “Hello, 2025” it’s finally time to share the movies I deemed the best (or favorite, don’t get on me about that) movies of 2024.

(Clicking title links will take you to my original review.)

19. Immaculate

Horror was on point this year and it kicked off with Michael Mohan’s Rosemary’s Baby-esque Immaculate. If you’ve watched the end, no doubt you’ll get the humor when I say it certainly set up the type of year that would be 2024. Mohan said he borrowed imagery from Ken Russell’s The Devils, which makes sense because of how beautifully filmed it is. Sydney Sweeney goes for broke with a performance that vacillates between confused and outright terrified. It’s just a fun movie in a year where the movies I gravitated toward were also entertaining as well as cinematically poignant.

18. Trap

I promise, I’ll get to the “real” movies soon but M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap kept social media in a chokehold from the minute that trailer dropped. We all held our breath wondering if he’d stick the landing and he certainly did, with a bonkers story of a mild-mannered dad who was a serial killer in his free time. The movie would never have worked without Josh Hartnett’s phenomenal performance. I remember a social media post saying, “I didn’t know I needed Josh Hartnett shirtless holding a meat cleaver, but I did” and it said a lot about how we were envisioning this year. On top of that it had a fantastic soundtrack and, like Shyamalan’s best movies, it compelled critics to look deeper at the movie, whether that be the way it explores serial killer culture to masculinity. A movie I’m still deconstructing today.

17. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

My first foray into the Wallace and Gromit universe was such a fun one. What makes Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl work so well is the strong comedic timing of its animators and screenwriters, coupled with one of the best villains ever conceived: Feathers McGraw. Seriously, Feathers is everything! Outside of him the movie never treats its audience as either children or adults, the humor is universally funny. A sweet, fun, wickedly smart animated film.

16. Hard Truths

I’m not the biggest Mike Leigh fan but his latest, Hard Truths, truly espoused everyone’s frustration and lack of people skills. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is flawless as Pansy, a Black English woman whose anger at seemingly everyone causes her to be alienated from her family. There are moments of humor in Pansy (my mom still quotes “what baby needs pockets” on the daily), but Pansy, overall, is such a beautifully broken character in how Leigh writes her. And Baptist’s performance is passionate and fiery, though used to cloak an air of sadness and futility.

15. Bird

I’m always ride or die for Andrea Arnold and her latest, Bird, was a change of pace. Long known for her more dour looks at teendom and London life, Bird brings in moments of levity and magical realism to, dare we say, craft a hopeful story of adolescence blossoming in the aggressiveness of the real world. Nykiya Adams’s Bailey is a 12-year-old seemingly being raised by a 12-year-old in her equally immature father, Bug (Barry Keoghan). Where Arnold has tended to explore young girls living without fathers, the relationship between Bailey and Bug, at times, can be as tender as it is volatile. Add in the arrival of Bird (Franz Rogowski) and the story takes a turn into the magical worlds children of trauma create for themselves. Another stunner from Arnold.

14. His Three Daughters

Azazel Jacobs’s His Three Daughters crept up on me. The story of three estranged sisters forced to stay together to help their dying father is a familiar tale told so beautifully, with all the tense family drama you’d expect but one that finds the humor in how families poke at each other. Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen treat this almost like a stageplay, with each finding their own moments of calm and serenity, yet just as quickly ready to jump into the fray and tear each other apart. They’re all fantastic though Olsen’s meditative Christina was the MVP (I’m biased). The ending here is also just so gorgeous.

13. September 5

Director Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 is a breathless, fast-paced movie that, like another entry on this list, takes you back to the dramas of Sidney Lumet, Sydney Pollack or Alan J. Pakula. The film follows the ABC Sports crew, broadcasting from the Munich Olympics, and what happens when they bear witness to the 1972 terrorist attack that took place there. I’ve heard some compare this to Network, and though I see them, the movie feels more expressive than that. If anything it makes me think of the ending of Three Days of the Condor and the hope that that movie ends with in the free press. Watching the news team in the film try to figure out what to broadcast and when, how to investigate in the face of others seeking to stop them, it’s a movie about the power of media in a time when, dare I say, that truly meant something. Also, Peter Sarsgaard has a small role but he makes such an impact in the scenes he’s in. If this slipped by you make a point to see it. It’s a LEAN 95 minutes and sails.

12. The Last Showgirl

I’ve watched Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl twice now and it never ceases to amaze me the performance she draws out of actress Pamela Anderson. Anderson’s Shelly, an aging Vegas showgirl set to lose her show, is equal parts elegant, ditzy, endearing, and tender. This is a movie that, if made in the studio era, would see someone like Jean Arthur make a meal out of it as Anderson does. She’s flanked by equally stellar performances from Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Brenda Song to create a DIY family all living on the fringes.

11. Heretic

I absolutely loved how religion got deconstructed in film this year, whether it was Immaculate, my Lord and savior Conclave, or this amazing thriller from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East bond the audience to them immediately as two Mormon missionaries caught in a cat and mouse game of theology with Hugh Grant’s Mr. Reed. Grant, a Golden Globe nominee for this role, is terrifying. He perfectly encapsulates the true believer you’ve no doubt met on social media or in the world. A guy who truly believes he’s right thanks to a few straw man arguments and things he’s no doubt read on Wiki. But what Beck and Woods do so well is leverage Grant’s nice guy persona, coupled with his elegant way of explaining things, to show how this is utilized in every day life. There are countless Mr. Reed’s out there, no doubt doing things in the shadows that only live in our nightmares. Brava!

10. Thelma

I fell in love with director Josh Margolin’s Thelma the minute I saw it at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and that love continues. June Squibb is hilarious as Thelma Post, a grandma whose life savings gets taken in a telephone scam and who becomes hellbent on getting it back. This is a loving tribute to not only Margolin’s own grandmother, but Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree who make a fabulous action pair. What I also appreciated is how it delicately details the way we treat the elderly. The audience may chuckle at Thelma calling up friends, only to discover they’re dead, but the film captures the isolation and infantilization that comes with age (akin to being disabled). Thelma doesn’t want to be treated like a child, but everyone in her family thinks of her as one. It’s a charming little gem that equally makes you laugh and think.

9. Wicked

There’s been a lot of criticism of Jon M. Chu’s Wicked that, frankly, I just can’t get around. This was the musical of the year for me. Cynthia Erivo made Elphaba her own, a fierce woman whose confidence is smothered by internal self-loathing and familial discord. Chu’s clear love for Old Hollywood musicals was on remarkable display, coupled with Paul Tazewell’s utterly breathtaking costumes. When I think about movies that clearly hearken back to the elegance of the studio era, this is the one I think of. Honestly, Part 2 could very well stumble considering how much I loved this first half. And now I’m gonna sing “Defying Gravity” for the next three hours.

8. Sing Sing

There are moments I wake up and think about Colman Domingo’s performance in Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing that begs the question: When the hell are we giving Domingo an Oscar? But outside of his soul baring performance as an incarcerated man leading a theatre troupe in Sing Sing prison, the rest of the movie is such a multilayered, nuanced tale about the prison system and art’s ability to heal trauma. Domingo is stellar as is Clarence Maclin, Paul Raci, really everyone in the ensemble. There’s a moment in the movie where Domingo’s character, after learning some bad news, just loses it on-stage. It’s a moment of cringe, sadness, power, all wrapped into one moment of pure anger. The script does such a fantastic job of emphasizing that art is sometimes all one has to get through the harshness of life.

7. Hit Man

It might surprise you to hear this, but it was Richard Linklater’s Hit Man that finally made me a Glen Powell fan. I know, I’m late to the party but everything people had said about Powell as a performer just clicked with me in his performance as Gary Johnson, a man who finds his own inner swagger playing a fake hit man. Linklater blends elements of the screwball comedy and the murder mystery here, with Powell fully game to the master of disguise that is Gary. There are so many little moments of hilarity while also being a remarkably sexy (and sex positive) story. The Notes app scene is still a chef’s kiss and might be my favorite moment of 2024.

6. The Substance

Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, the movie that has swiftly consumed all our brains for 2024! Fargeat made us gag, weep, cheer, laugh and overall celebrate the story of fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore in what better be an Oscar-nominated performance) and her desire to stay youthful by using “The Substance.” Moore’s performance was a nuclear bomb, dominating from beginning to end. It’s even more remarkable to think how Margaret Qualley, as Elisabeth’s younger half Sue, was able to match her performance, scene for scene. There are moments in this movie that will no doubt be deconstructed in film schools. The ending is pure Cronenbergian disgust and we were all here for it.

5. The Wild Robot

I spent nearly the entire runtime crying in the Universal screening room while watching Chris Sanders’s Wild Robot. The movie isn’t just gorgeously animated — though it is — but is an equally emotionally resonant story of a reluctant mother/android (voiced brilliantly by Lupita Nyong’o) trying to raise a gosling in the harsh wilderness. This year was heavily focused on the families we create and this was perfectly encapsulated in the relationships between Roz, the wily Fink (Pedro Pascal), little Brightbill (Kit Connor) and the others Roz encounters in the wilderness. Much like Sanders’s other famous film, Lilo & Stitch, the movie isn’t afraid to get dark, or even find the humor in the bleak (like Catherine O’Hara’s mother possum not necessarily mourning the loss of a child). This was a movie aimed at everyone, that wrapped us in its arms and just made us all love our moms a little bit more. Shout-out to another impeccable Kris Bowers score, too.

4. Fancy Dance

I love Apple Studios, but it’s unforgivable how little love and support director Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance got this year. After struggling for far too long to get a distributor — in spite of having a goddamn Oscar nominee in the lead — it was finally snapped up by Apple and then given a tiny theatrical release and award season push. It’s a shame because it is hands-down one of the best movies you’ll see all year. Lily Gladstone plays Jax, a young woman trying to raise her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olsen) in the wake of Roki’s mother’s disappearance. As Gladstone herself said about the movie, it’s a beautiful love story with a queer Indigenous character, and it’s true. Tremblay’s script tells a story about people, who are flawed but trying to do the best they can with what they have. Gladstone and Deroy-Olsen have phenomenal chemistry, and the movie doesn’t ever prioritize Native trauma. It’s a great story about being Native and the ways people craft meaning and love out of negative circumstances around that. It deserved better and you should make up for it by streaming it now.

3. A Different Man

I have probably spent the most time talking and writing about Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man than any other movie this year. When I talk about movies that showcase the various facets of being disabled this is the movie I’m talking about. Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson work magic as Edward, a disfigured man offered a magic cure, and the equally disfigured man living his best life, respectively. There are so many little nuances of the disabled experience this movie gets so right — from the random waves, the misplaced comments, and the internalized ableism — that it dazzled me. It’s bleakly funny, surreal, just perfection.

2. Conclave

Conclave is still my everything even though it just barely made #1. That being said, this movie was taut, thrilling, thought-provoking, and entertaining which, who’d have thunk from a movie about Catholic Cardinals writing down names on a piece of paper? I keep saying, I don’t know how best to talk about this movie other than urging everyone to go see it and witness how fantastic it is.

1. Anora

My soul belongs to Conclave but my heart belongs to my girl Anora! Sean Baker’s Cinderella story about a stripper (Mikey Madison) who gets involved with a Russian playboy never fails to put a smile on my face even as it slowly devolves into sadness. Mikey Madison’s Ani is a breath of fresh air, a hotheaded young woman desperate to escape the grind, and every time she is on-screen is electric. It’s a perfect movie, downright perfect!