As 2024 comes to a close I get to indulge in one of my favorite activities: ranking movies. Below you will find two separate lists — one for movies that have come out this year and another for movies that I have only gotten around to seeing this year (even though they have been out for quite some time).

I started a spreadsheet tracker to justify the $24.99 monthly subscription to AMC A List. If my math is math-ing I have seen $836.34 worth on movies which completely offsets the $300 subscription cost. See my tracker below…

So let’s get to ranking!

*Disclaimer: I like what I like 🤷🏻‍♀️

PART I

My Top Five Movies of 2024

5. All Of Us Strangers, 2023 (Directed & Written by Andrew Haigh)

Okay okay, technically this movie came out in December of 2023 but I’m still including it on my list because I saw it the following January.

The performances from Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy were incredible and while this movie felt insular, it truly touched on universal feelings of loneliness, yearning, childhood trauma and regret. There was a point where all you could hear in the theater was quiet sobbing.

I purposefully avoided spoilers in order to get the full effect. I felt like this movie was very successful, in large part, due to the anchoring performance from Scott. He was the perfect conduit for the audience — never clawing for our sympathy but often so heartbreakingly earnest and vulnerable I wanted to reach into the screen and hug him.

My only critiques come in the final fifteen minutes of the film. I felt like the story was chastising Scott’s character for not letting a drunk stranger into his apartment. Maybe it was just supposed to be a reflection of his own inner psych, but I couldn’t help but feel some type of way about it. Lastly, because the movie handled the paranormal aspects with so much realism I felt like the ending was a jarring departure. I couldn’t quite understand the meaning in those final moments but the people I saw it with felt it was pretty hopeful.

Overall this was an emotionally resonating movie that is a great showcase for Andrew Scott’s ability to convey an emotional arc flawlessly.

4. Dune: Part Two, 2024 (Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Written by Denis Villeneuve Jon Spaihts)

I am a sucker for a blockbuster that looks like an arthouse film and has a soundtrack that makes my little heart thump away.

Since Denis has proven himself as a trustworthy curator for science fiction IP — just look at what he masterfully did with Blade Runner 2049 — I knew that he was going to land the plane on Dune.

What I loved about this movie was how everyone is watching a villain’s journey into darkness. We see a young man swear that he doesn’t want the chaos that comes with his power grab. Then he gives right into it. Weather you can claim it was forced onto him and that he had no choice is endlessly debatable. The fact that people will argue this is what makes this movie so great.

3. The Substance, 2024 (Directed & Written by Coralie Fargeat)

I couldn’t contain myself as I watched a man unzip Margaret Qualley’s catsuit and spill her innards into the carpeted floor of her apartment. I was giddy. I was feral. I was watching a movie made for beautiful women to complain about and relate to the horrors of aging.

It was so meta and ironic at times I wanted to scream. Every time I thought I knew where the script was going to go story-wise I was proved oh so wrong. Fargeat was able to heighten the stakes at every turn to such an absurd degree that the last act was nothing short of a miracle. It reminded me Dicks The Musical.

Demi Moore should be cast in movies requiring physical comedy all the time and should be nominated for an Oscar solely based on her hauling ass covered in prosthetics that border on the Six Flags mascot.

Aging is a bitch. But the alternative is unlivable.

2. Anora, 2024 (Directed & Written by Sean Baker)

Am I a little biased because this movie centers around Russians from Brighton Beach? Yes. Is it still an incredible movie that deserves to be seen by everyone? Also, yes.

Sean Baker has an incredible ability to approach his characters with zero judgement and extreme empathy which allows them to breathe and exist as if you are watching a documentary. How he was able to capture the subtleties of being a Russian person living in America I will never understand but commend him greatly. His casting was outstanding and the fact that his actors spoke REAL Russian is a joy to someone who spent most of her life cringing at the poorly accented actors cosplaying as slavic people.

Sean advertised this movie as a love story and it truly was. It was also so undeniably funny at times - in a way that a loud mean Russian family truly is.

I would kill to see the list of movies he watched as inspiration for this film and wonder if one of them was Moscow Doesn’t Believe In Tears.

The only reason this movie isn’t sitting in my top spot for this year is because it took a little bit to get to the meat and bones of the whole thing. Once Anora was sitting across from her “captors” the movie became perfect in every way.

I Saw The TV Glow, 2024 (Directed & Written by Jane Schoenbrun)

This movie stayed with me for months after watching it.

It’s a stylized journey of trans-ness told through the lens of a horror film. It’s deeply disturbing and poignant. Even audience members who cannot see themselves relating to the trans aspect of the film can understand the idea of wasted potential and how a person’s inability to make a leap into their own potential could lead to a terrifying future.

The bravery and assuredness with which Schoenbrun executes this movie speaks to the deep understanding of both the subject and it’s characters.

There is a moment towards the end where the camera pans over the hell-like arcade birthday party and you see a little kid grabbing for cash inside of a cash booth in slow motion. I don’t know why but that image has stuck with me and made me feel like the director understands exactly what I feel when trying to make films myself.

~ Honorable Mentions ~

PART II

Movies That Came Out Before 2024 That I Really Enjoyed

5. Rotting In The Sun, 2023 (Directed by Sebastián Silva, Written by Sebastián Silva &Pedro Peirano)

4. Anatomy of a Fall, 2023 (Directed by Justine Triet, Written by Arthur Harari Justine Triet)

3. The Fifth Element, 1997 (Directed by Luc Besson, Written by Robert Mark Kamen & Luc Besson)

2. Millennium Mambo, 2001 (Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Written by Chu Tien-wen)

Stalker, 1979 (Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Written by Arkadiy Strugatskiy, Andrei Tarkovsky & Boris Strugatskiy)