Last year I mentioned having watched 66 new films for consideration for 2024’s best list. I made a point of starting way earlier this year and was able to get to 84. There are so many movies that I really, really liked, so each of my top ten had to have something that set them apart for me.
I want to highlight some of the lesser-known honorable mentions (so best picture nominees that aren’t on my list can fend for themselves).
Vermiglio is an Italian film set during the final months of WWII in a rural village. A couple of deserters from Sicily arrive to hide out in the town and everyone is mostly sympathetic toward them as it has become a lost cause for the Axis. But all that is just background as this is just a family drama — one of those slow-burn, foreign films I tend to love.
Holy Cow doesn’t have the slow pace of Vermiglio, but is a lighter, French drama set in modern day rural France focusing on cheese making. A guy in late teens or early 20s has to earn money to take care of his little sister and wants to enter a cheese making competition. Just a great, slice-of-life character drama.
If you love David Strathairn like I do, check out A Little Prayer. Another family drama focusing on the friendship between him and his daughter-in-law when his son (her husband) kinda sucks and they’re both navigating that in their own way.
September 5 was nominated for best original screenplay at last year’s Oscars, but wasn’t available for me to watch until 2025, so I’m including it here. It covers the events of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics from the POV of an American TV network covering the games as the story breaks. A fantastic way to tell a harrowing story.
It’s a little uncomfortable, but Twinless has a fascinating premise – our main characters meet at a support group for twins who have lost their other twin. Full of lies and twists that keep it compelling without feeling unrealistic.
Two that pair very well together are To a Land Unknown and Souleymane’s Story. Both are about refugees in Europe grinding and hustling to get a better life while everything seems stacked against them. Souleymane is an immigrant in Paris from west Africa working as a delivery boy through a friend’s app since he isn’t documented and can’t use his own account. The film focuses on how predatory people take advantage of people in desperate situations like Souleymane. The guys in To a Land Unknown are less virtuous and resort to theft and kidnapping to get out of Athens where they’re stuck as undocumented Palestinians refugees. But they’re desperate enough that you find yourself not completely blaming them for their criminal behavior.
Finally, Baltimorons got bumped out of my top ten at the last second. It’s a sort of rom-com about a funny, but socially awkward guy and the dentist he meets to fix his tooth after he walks into a door jam on Christmas Eve. I appreciated how the lead actors are just very ordinary looking people who wouldn’t normally be cast into roles like this.
And the top 10 of the year are…
10. It was Just an Accident – Spectacular dark (very dark) comedy in Iran. A blue collar worker kidnaps a man he believes was the government agent who tortured him in the past. Before he gets revenge by burying him alive, he seeks out other victims to verify the man’s identity. Great script, great performances, and arguably the best ending of any film this year.
9. Sew Torn – Fun and intense. A seamstress stumbles across a drug deal gone bad and sees a briefcase full of cash free for the taking. The film shows how the same scenario could play out three different ways depending on her initial choices in that moment. Each one involves some ridiculously elaborate use of her skills with thread to create some sort of machine to help her out.
8. The Ballad of Wallis Island – A little too awkward at first, but wins you over by the end. A reclusive guy on Wallis Island invites his favorite has-been band to play a gig on the island. Then it’s the slow reveal of the band’s past drama and the intentions of the guy who hired them. That makes it sound like a thriller, but it’s just a sad and sweet comedy.
7. Bugonia – Another bonkers film from Yorgos Lanthimos. Two conspiracy theorists kidnap a pharmaceutical CEO played by Emma Stone convinced that she is an alien performing experiments on humans. It’s a comedy, but played with violent earnestness as she uses all of her wits to convince them to let her go.
6. The Secret Agent – This was the last-minute watch that bumped Baltimorons from my list. I already can’t wait to see more from this director. The world he creates within 1977 Brazil is captivating. It’s hard to exactly detail the plot and I got confused throughout, but it’s more about the vibe. The film invokes things like Goodfellas, No Country for Old Men, or even this year’s One Battle After Another, but at a lower intensity. Ultimately, it’s about a father trying to get out of the country with his son and the obstacles getting in his way.
5. Hamnet – The most emotionally powerful movie this year. No real surprises along the way, but it still hits like a ton of bricks. Jessie Buckley is likely bringing home the Oscar for starring as Agnes (aka Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare). It’s easy to forget that before Shakespeare was a legend as the greatest playwright of all time, he was just a poor actor trying to make a living. But, again, his wife is the lead here, dealing with the stress of an absent husband and navigating the tragedy that befalls them. The final scene is unforgettable.
4. The Colors Within – I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a movie work this well without any real antagonist. The conflict comes entirely from the main girl’s insecurities. This is an animated film from Japan set in a Catholic boarding school. Let me quote the synopsis from IMDb which dramatically undersells it. “A girl who can see colors in people’s hearts joins a band with two other people.” I mean, yeah. But the girl is very shy and possibly on the spectrum. The cool girl she likes (despite not really knowing her that well) drops out of school and our main character tracks her down in a bookstore. The idea of starting a band is nothing more than an excuse to hangout and a boy in the store at the same time gets roped in with them. It’s just an adorably sweet story with almost no outside friction. You’re just rooting for this girl to believe in herself and find happiness. Like I almost teared up writing this just now, and it’s been three months since I watched it.
3. Blue Moon – This is the Ethan Hawke show. He plays Lorenz Hart, the somewhat unlikeable former partner of Richard Rodgers. The entire film (99% of it) takes place on the night that Oklahoma! opened in 1943. Hart talks incessantly to anyone who will listen. He’s a genius and he knows it. He’s equal parts charming and annoying. He acknowledges that his alcoholism forced Rodgers to seek a new creative partner in Oscar Hammerstein, but hopes they can work together again soon. I was grinning ear-to-ear the entire time. There’s more than a little Jiminy Glick energy to Hawke’s performance, so it’s not for everyone, but I loved it.
2. Left-Handed Girl – A struggling family in Taiwan – a mother and her two daughters, ages about 20 and 5. The 5-year-old is the titular left-handed girl whose grandfather tells her that it’s wrong to use her left hand as that’s the “devil’s hand.” The film addresses this as an out-of-date Asian custom, but the little girl is very concerned. She uses it as an excuse to start shoplifting, convinced the impulse to do so is not coming from her, but from her possessed left hand which does all the stealing. Meanwhile the mom opens a noodle shop, but can’t get enough business to pay the rent. And the older daughter is always off doing her own thing while being constantly antagonistic toward their mom, but protective of her sister. It’s all just a beautifully done, light family drama. A very similar style to Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, which makes sense as the director Shih-Ching Tsou worked with Baker on that film (and others) and the two wrote this one together. So good.
1. KPop Demon Hunters – So I don’t really listen to music. If you see me with headphones in it’s safe to assume I’m listening to a podcast or maybe an audiobook. But I’ve noticed several of my favorite movies are heavily focused on music, including three of my last four #1 films of the year. RRR in 2022 won best original song (like KPop is anticipated to do) and plays almost like one long music video. Kneecap last year was about an Irish hip-hop group. And now KPop Demon Hunters of all things was my favorite movie this year. I also wouldn’t say I was a fan of hip-hop, KPop, or Indian music, but in all of these films it had me bouncing out of my seat. When I first heard the title KPop Demon Hunters, I rolled my eyes and scoffed at such a thing even existing. The reviews were so overwhelmingly positive that I had to take a look, but I still had zero expectations. I figured it would be fine, but easily forgettable. It starts with a fun action scene, then a killer concert, then finally getting to know the girls in the band. My thought quickly became, “this movie has no right being as good as it is.” Everything is just top notch. The characters are perfectly crafted and fleshed out. It’s impossible not to smile the entire time. Not just with the catchy music, but the witty banter between the girls is hilarious. It’s very much in line with the premise of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is always a trio of female singers tasked with secretly keeping the world safe from demons. Few know their secret. Then the twist is that one of the girls is keeping an additional secret from her bandmates. The whole thing is a nuanced tale of not being ashamed to be yourself. The story may be relatively ordinary, but the execution is nothing short of extraordinary. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve likely heard a song or two and thought, “okay, yeah, that’s catchy.” Now imagine 95 minutes straight of that vibe. Don’t miss out on the most fun you can possibly have with a movie. Can’t wait to watch it again.