My movie runners-up for 2024
Let’s talk picks 11-20.
Earlier this week, I released my picks for my 10 favorite movies of 2024. As I said in that entry, it was tricky to narrow that list down. There was A LOT I liked, and there’s a lot that just didn’t make the final cut. While I know a lot of critics have started to release top 25 lists, I’m still a bit old school. I stick to a top 10 list because I think that recognizes the cream of the crop. There’s a clear delineation after No. 10 for me; any of those films are ones I unabashedly love.
This runners up list is movies that I really like but that, for whatever reason, just didn’t rise to that level of greatness. Something held me back – not always something I can describe, either. They just lack a resonance that makes them top 10 worthy, if that makes sense. But I still want to call them out, because these are 10 movies worth seeing and celebrating (and many people disagree and will put these in their top 10, and I have no problem with that). So, here they are, my runners-up for 2024.
11. Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colton Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a deeply immersive and powerful experience. Following two young Black men as they endure abuse at a Florida reformatory school in the 1960s, the movie is told in first-person POV, letting us experience the story through the eyes of its two leads. It takes a little bit of time to learn how to watch the movie, and I’d be curious to see this again to know whether better preparation for its approach might bump this up a little higher. But it’s still a beautifully photographed and powerfully effective work of witness bearing.
12. Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot’s latest stop-motion treasure is a bittersweet and funny story about resilience, trauma and the cages we lock ourselves in to avoid hurt. Sarah Snook is heartbreaking and wry voicing Grace, an Australian woman who recounts her very hard life to a pet snail after the death of her best friend. In live action, this would be too sad to endure; in animation, it gains a whimsy and humor that leaven the heavier moments (just don’t let the medium fool you into thinking this is kid fare; it’s an R-rated film). And the film’s handcrafted aesthetic perfectly fits this story of fragile, wounded people.
13. Didi
As I said in my review, Sean Wang’s directorial debut would make a fitting double feature with Bo Burhnam’s Eighth Grade. Both films chronicle the difficulty of growing up in the electronic age. Burhnam’s film focused on a young woman coming of age amid influencer culture, where Wang observes a young Taiwanese-American boy enduring adolescence in 2008, when we were just beginning to grapple with Facebook and YouTube. Being 13 sucks, and Didi is awkward and funny as its protagonist wrestles with that fact, using the internet to discern his interests, charm girls and understand his heritage. Wang’s film is emotionally honest; it lets the main character be abrasive and confused in equal measure, which allows the emotions to hit honestly. As someone who was once 13 – and has a son who will turn that age next month – this one stuck with me.
14. Conclave
A lot of critics have Edward Berger’s papal thriller in their top 10, but for me, the joy of this film is that it’s very much not trying to be a prestige pic. As my podcasting partner Perry said, it’s an “airport read” of a movie, a twisty soap opera in which Ralph Fiennes tries to orchestrate the vote for the next pope amid a college of ambitious, back-stabbing, political cardinals. Don’t let its beautiful set design and great performances – particularly Fiennes, John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci – fool you; this is a beach read, complete with a sequence in which one character breaks into the dead pope’s bed chambers and finds his much-needed piece of evidence in a secret compartment. That lack of heavy-handedness helps Conclave constantly be a gripping, thrilling and delicious bit of entertainment. As I’ve said before, if it were any better, it would be worse.
15. Hard Truths
Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives the performance of the year in Mike Leigh’s drama as Pansy, a woman who almost reflexively excoriates and abrades every person she comes across. This could easily be an As Good as it Gets situation, in which Pansy is a curmudgeon with a heart of gold who learns the importance of being kind. But Leigh’s film is more clear-eyed and bracing. Baptiste plays Pansy as a woman for whom living hurts – imagine Kieran Culkin’s character from A Real Pain, but without any of the gregariousness, charisma or moment of joy. She’s a hard character, and her anger has alienated her husband and son. Only her sister puts up with her, and we get the sense it’s only a matter of time before her goodwill runs out. Leigh lingers on Jean-Baptiste after her tirades, showing us a woman disgusted by herself, terrified of everything and angry not at the targets in front of her but at a life that has thrown her a rotten hand. This isn’t an easy film to like, but it’s a performance to love.
16. Ghostlight
Another of the year’s great performances. Keith Kupferer is amazing as a father who finds healing through community theater (he would have been my pick for actor of the year, except for Colman Domingo’s work in the very similar Sing Sing). You have to go with a few contrivances in the story and a few shallow supporting characters, but it’s worth it. Early on, Kupferer perfectly captures a man so lost and mourning after tragedy that he feels uncomfortable in his own skin; the electricity that fills him as he learns to process tragedy through Shakespeare is palpable. And Kupferer is joined by his real-life wife, Tara Mallen, and their daughter, Katherine, creating a central family whose hurt, love and joy feel real and lived-in. This is a small, beautiful movie.
17. Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s drama opens with a five-minute tracking shot of trees. It sets the tone for this quiet, contemplative Japanese drama, one of the most gorgeous films of the year. Taking place in a small community as a company tries to push ahead with a glamping resort, this is a thoughtful and meditative examination of the delicate balance between nature and society, and the compromises we make that can upset it. Hitoshi Omika is fantastic as a local jack of all trades who finds himself on the frontline of this battle, concealing his true thoughts and opinions until it’s ready to burst. The film moves deliberately, soaking in the quiet grandeur of its settings. I’m not quite sure the final five minutes come together perfectly, but they end on a haunting and rattling note.
18. The Fall Guy
I don’t like to judge the public’s taste too much, but ya’ll screwed up ignoring this one. Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling should be our new Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Right now, David Leitch should be planning a series of insane stunts for two or three sequels. The Fall Guy is the rare movie I can’t imagine anyone disliking; it’s funny, it’s thrilling, it’s romantic. It’s a celebration of stunt work and – after The Nice Guys and Barbie – more confirmation that few can make vulnerable masculinity as funny as Ryan Gosling. It’s the rare romantic comedy that works for men and women, and not other studio movie this year delivered a climax as thrilling as this film’s mad dash through the third act. I can’t think of a single movie that was more purely fun this year.
19. Saturday Night
Sure, we could quibble about how much of Saturday Night “actually happened” the way it’s presented – my guess is less than 5% of it. But who cares? Jason Reitman’s film – which takes place in the 90 minutes before Saturday Night Live’s 1975 premiere – is a fast-paced, nerve-wracking and often very funny “print the legend” movie. Led by Gabriel LaBelle – fantastic as Lorne Michaels, the Kermit the Frog trying to hold this circus together – the film is a celebration of creative chaos, a grappling of all the ingredients that came together and an acknowledgement of the sheer insanity of trying to put on a live comedy show every single week. The ensemble captures the spirit and soul of the show’s very famous cast without resorting to mere mimicry, and the time constraints give the film a suspense that propels it forward. As we barrel toward SNL’s 50th anniversary in 2025, many documentaries and specials will likely explain the more accurate nuts and bolts of pulling this show off; I doubt few will be as sheerly entertaining as this. It might not be real, but it feels completely true.
20. Wicked
I saw the play Wicked for my first time earlier this year, and I enjoyed it. But maybe the best compliment I can pay Jon M. Chu’s adaptation is that I think he improves upon the stage show. By focusing only on its first half – part two arrives next Thanksgiving – he gives the story’s subplots time to breathe and allows the film to settle into its world. Your enjoyment will likely depend on how you feel about the songs and the use of CGI to bring Oz to life; I liked the songs, and the CGI didn’t bother me. For three hours, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande command the screen, with the latter giving one of the year’s best comedic performances and the former delivering the emotional power. A scene where the two of them bond at a dance has an intimacy and power it can’t on the stage, and if you don’t leave on a high after “Defying Gravity,” I’m afraid I can’t help you.
Other movies I really, really liked: Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory, Rebel Ridge, Love Lies Bleeding, Juror #2, Inside Out 2, Hit Man, We Live in Time, Dune Part 2, Strange Darling, Nosferatu, A Quiet Place: Day One, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Last Stop in Yuma County, Between the Temples, Will & Harper, Late Night With the Devil.