The Top Five Best Films of 2024
A poignant and pertinent year for filmmaking
Jane Schoenbrun proves to be one of the most fascinating new filmmakers with their neon-soaked surrealist horror film. Ostensibly a story about two young people and their obsession with a late-night TV show, Schoenbrun expertly portrays the comforting prison of nostalgia as well as the sheer terror of gender dysphoria. While mainly set in the latter half of the 1990s, their film feels horrifyingly relevant to the present day where political candidates spend hundreds of millions of dollars turning open transphobia into a winning political strategy. These next few years are going to be dark times for trans rights and that makes Schoenbrun's film all the more significant. They utilize the "empathy machine" to show the pure existential horror of feeling trapped in one's own body and in this era when a peoples' right to exist is becoming a political debate, Schoenbrun gives us a work of art that is, sadly, desperately needed right now. A trans horror masterpiece.
2. The Beast
While Bertrand Bonello's sci-fi/romance is based on a book written in the beginning of the last century, it manages to be the most relevant film of the year in this age where AI is becoming more and more ubiquitous in our lives. Following the love story of three incarnations of the same two people from 1910 to 2044, Bonello explores the depths of love in a world where emotions are slowly becoming drained from our lives. He seems to be saying that as we affix more of ourselves into our technology, we lose more of our genuine selves in the process. As facsimiles of humanity become ever more realistic, where does that leave our true humanity? He expresses this with a disorienting, dreamlike structure and some terrific performances from his two leads. Strange, surreal, romantic and sad, Bonello gives us something that is a rare feat: a science fiction film whose emotions are as powerful as its ideas.
3. Anora
Sean Baker has made a name for himself telling tragi-comic stories about people on the bottom of the social hierarchy, and this twisted take on Cinderella may simultaneously be his most entertaining and tragic yet. Depicting the whirlwind romance between a Brooklyn sex worker and the son of Russian oligarchs, Baker addresses a depressing truth about the late-stage capitalist wasteland that America has become. In a world full of "side hustles" and "gig economies," we have turned everything, even love and romance itself, into another money-making enterprise. Despite the depressing realities of the film, it's also incredibly funny (in its own manic way) and expertly told, thanks to Baker's whip-smart writing and a star-making performance from Mikey Madison. We get whisked along with Ani through her fairy tale all the way to its inevitable but heartbreaking conclusion.
4. Gasoline Rainbow
Every generation gets the road movie it deserves and this film from the Ross brothers feels like it will soon become a classic in the subgenre. The story of five recent high school graduates driving over 500 miles to see the Pacific Ocean before entering the real world is aimless and meandering, and I mean that in the best possible way. With no real plot or conflict, we can just exist with these characters and revel in the freedom of youth.
While clearly depicting the experiences of Gen Z, the film can appeal to anyone who remembers that precious short time between childhood and adulthood. Often feeling like home movie footage thanks to its use of an FS7 handheld camcorder, the film has an authentic, nearly documentary feel that makes the whole thing infectious to watch. We become simple observers of these kids on the road between the end and the beginning.
5. Hit Man
Films like The Fall Guy and Twisters seemed interested mainly in sharing with us the joys of the movies, but naturally, Richard Linklater dives the deepest into his love of cinema with this guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Telling the (sort of) true story of a man who lived a double life as a college professor and phony contract killer, Linklater gets at a fundamental truth about the cinematic experience. Movies don't reflect life, they are an improvement on life. The unreality of the whole situation harkens back to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s, something that has been sorely lacking in this age of hyperrealism. Sometimes we just want a bit of wish fulfillment in our entertainment, logic be damned, and what we really want to see is two impossibly beautiful people literally get away with murder. Easily one of the most entertaining films of the year!
Honorable Mentions
About Dry Grasses
La Chimera
