There is a distinction I am making with this year’s list; my focus for this annual compilation zeroes in on the films I enjoyed seeing and talking about after screenings — whether at festivals or during theatrical releases. Does that make these films the “top” or “best” of the year, or something else? They most certainly contain all of the elements that a viewer would consider when attempting to determine what is best, except I want to add an extra element into the critical process — my own feelings.
What moved me, what did I want or need to discuss — in some cases endlessly with others — whether they had seen the films or not? I found some piece of myself in these films. For the last couple of years, that search for a reflection has shifted my critical perspective.
Getting back to the list of films themselves, I am excited this collection features films I saw at the very beginning of 2024 alongside those that will reach general audiences mere days before the end of the year. There is at least one near blockbuster in the mix and a host of titles that will factor heavily into awards season. Have no fear though, a couple bear the honor of being harder to find, but well worth the effort.
This is one of my favorite years in some time. Post-COVID. Post-strikes. Post-post. This year, 2024, marks a return. Enjoy the gifts.
When the Light Breaks
Written and directed by Runar Runarsson
Festival screenings offer the occasional treat, a surprise that can only emerge when, as a critic, I have no information prior to the screening about either the film itself or any of the performers involved. This doesn’t happen often; it’s a minor miracle. And yet, I walked into a Chicago theater in October, sat down, and found myself in a world of grief — not right away, but close — rooted in an impossible secret guarded by Una (Elin Hall) an art student and musician whose boyfriend leaves her first thing one morning to travel to meet up with his current girlfriend to let her know he wants to break up. The boyfriend and a host of other people end up dying in a terrorist attack, but Una and his other friends gather to mourn and celebrate, and by the end of the day, Una must confront the girlfriend.
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Nickel Boys
Written by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes; directed by RaMell Ross
As a fan of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead, I was intrigued by the notion of translating the story of Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) and their time at an abusive reform school in Florida in the 1960s. Ross, the Academy Award-nominated director of Hale County This Morning, This Evening, saw a way to crack the code by shifting perspectives, while keeping the audience locked into a single character’s viewpoint at any given time. It can be disconcerting at times, but once audiences settle in, the narrative will break hearts and maybe even souls.
Emilia Perez
Written by Jacques Audiard with Thomas Bidegain along with Lea Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi; directed by Jacques Audiard
In my attempt to be as transparent as possible, I let readers and audiences of my critical work know that I am biased against musicals. As a genre form, breaking out into song never fails to disengage me from the narrative, no matter how special the music or performances might be. And yet, early on in Emilia Perez, when Zoe Saldana’s character, a driven lawyer seeking to craft a powerful opening statement for an upcoming case, suddenly starts rap-singing her ideas, jumps up from her seat at a market coffee/wine bar and is joined by a flash mob of dancers, I couldn’t believe my senses. And by this point, we’re not even at the true driving narrative of the film. Emilia Perez is about a ruthless drug cartel boss who enlists Saldana’s character to help during their transition from male to female, to ensure that their wife (Selena Gomez) and children will be taken care of. Although I love Saldana from start to finish, the film wouldn’t hold together without the mesmerizing lead from Karla Sofia Gascon, as both Manitas and Emilia. It is a wild and dangerous ride that has a heartbeat like no other musical I’ve seen.
A Complete Unknown
Written by James Mangold and Jay Cocks; directed by James Mangold
Awards season screenings in New York and Los Angeles have the feel of festival premieres. Top-line talent along with their longtime friends and collaborators are available for post-screening campaign appearances to chat about the work. I caught A Complete Unknown during a Los Angeles trip, and even though I didn’t hang around for the Q&A, I found myself hooked by a trippy vibe that emanated from Timothee Chalamet and Edward Norton (as Pete Seeger). Chalamet’s Bob Dylan never feels like an obvious impersonation; rather he burrows deep into a young man who understood the power of controlling his own mythology and wasn’t willing to over-explain his story. And, of course, Chalamet, Norton and Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez) display the otherworldly chops of their characters as if such talent is completely commonplace.
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The Piano Lesson
Written by Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington; directed by Malcolm Washington
The Washington family — who are staking a claim to be the current First Family of Cinema — invites us in for an obvious labor of love. Patriarch Denzel executive produces this adaptation of the August Wilson play that explores the dueling positions of two siblings, Boy Willie (John David Washington) and Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) locked in a battle for ownership of a piano that is a hard-won family heirloom from slavery. Besides John David, other members of the Washington family appear in the film (daughter Olivia and mother Pauletta) but the real star here is Malcolm, who serves as co-writer and director of his first feature film that expertly combines the historic trauma of the Charles family and a supernatural ghost story that gains power and traction that speaks to the truly horrific legacy of America’s past.
Anora
Written and directed by Sean Baker
Warning: This trailer contains language some may find offensive.
Much has been made of the recent trend of updating horror narratives (a seemingly generational rebooting at this point) but I hope other filmmakers join Sean Baker who, with Anora, tackles the trope-filled misadventures of prostitutes with hearts of gold en route to finding their charming princes. Mickey Madison plays the titular sex worker searching for a better life who meets and marries the son of a Russian oligarch before realizing that she’s not in a fairy tale. Anora never softens from the brash and brutally honest woman that she is and proves far more capable of taking care of herself than her pampered husband. I love that audiences get to decide her ever-after for ourselves.
Ghostlight
Written by Kelly O’Sullivan; directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson
This was one of my first festival screenings of 2024 (from my first in-person visit to Sundance) and it remains a standout as the year draws to a close. It could be because I spent the first half of the year working on long-form essays about the challenges of fatherhood, but I didn’t achieve the complexity on display here as Dan (Keith Kupferer) struggles to maintain a hold on his life and sanity while dealing with tragically losing his oldest child. Dan’s a construction worker, a largely inarticulate man, who stumbles into a community theater and lands the role of Romeo. Along the way, he bonds with his daughter (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), reconnects with his wife (Tara Mallen) and discovers a way forward.
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Hard Truths
Written and directed by Mike Leigh
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival felt like the glorious return to form after the post-COVID years and the multiple strikes that decimated the previous installment. During the initial public premiere of Leigh’s new film, I sat across the aisle from both Leigh and his longtime collaborator and lead Marianne Jean-Baptiste, each of whom seemed to enjoy the casual glow of the spotlight. Jean-Baptiste is a brilliant and inspired choice to top-line this story about a prickly character who never settles into even a moment’s worth of happiness. In lesser hands, Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy would be insufferable, but the actor and writer-director Leigh deftly create the space for her journey to achieve tragicomic transcendence.
The Return
Written by Edward Bond, John Collee, and Uberto Pasolini; directed by Uberto Pasolini
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche reunite (after The English Patient back in 1996) in Pasolini’s fascinating take on The Odyssey, which foregoes the more fantastic fantasy elements, focusing instead on a much more humanistic examination of Odysseus (Fiennes) washing up on the shores of Ithaca after 20 years away. While the myth of his adventures in war have spread, he knows the truth of the horrors of what he wrought with the Trojan Horse. In the lead-up to his re-emergence, Pasolini presents Odysseus as a warrior suffering from PTSD and wondering if he deserves to take his place again as a husband, father, and king. Fiennes is the perfect personification of this epic character.
Dune: Part Two
Written by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts; directed by Denis Villeneuve
For the past 40 years, I have lived in the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune series (which has been expanded thanks to the work of Herbert’s son Brian and science fiction novelist Brian Anderson). Beyond a never-realized attempt from Alejandro Jodorowski and a misfired David Lynch adaptation, I never assumed I would ever see it realized on the big screen, but Villeneuve spilt the original novel into two parts and grounded the more esoteric elements. Dune: Part Two captures the propulsive nature of young Duke Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) partnering with the ferocious desert people of Arrakis to defeat the Imperium’s corrupt leaders, but the story lives and breathes in the subtly altered perspective of Paul’s Fremen lover Chani (Zendaya) who demands to be seen and heard as an alternative to Paul’s messianic mania.
Honorable mentions
A trio of documentaries from Sundance and True/False that showcased the spectrum of storytelling in the genre and presented new ways to celebrate family dynamics. Any of these three titles could have usurped spots on the main list and would not have altered my impression of this amazing year at all.
