When Hollywood writers and actors went on strike in the summer of 2023, few could have imagined the negotiations lasting over six months. But they did.
The lengthy back-and-forth between workers and studio execs finally ended when deals were struck that ensure better pay in the streaming era and safeguards against AI. These were long-term victories to be felt for years, if not decades, to come.
But in the short term, dozens of film and TV productions were stalled, radically reshaping the 2024 release calendar. With several big-budget blockbusters and would-be award contenders delayed, many smaller and more unusual films grabbed the spotlight in 2024.
Consequently, the Oscar race is more open-ended than it has been in years. With the absence of a clear frontrunner like Oppenheimer, less orthodox films like The Substance and Anora have gained traction as major contenders — films that surely would have been left out of the conversation in a more “competitive year.”
Some might describe 2024 as a “weak year” because of that lack of competition. But a strong case could be made that the year was less predictable and more exciting as a result. That unpredictability is reflected in my top 10 films of 2024 — a list that includes major Hollywood tentpoles, arthouse cinema and everything in between.
10. Kinds of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos — the provocative director behind The Lobster and The Favourite — is known for making some strange movies. But Kinds of Kindness, for all its squirm-in-your-seat appeal, may be his strangest yet.
Described as a “triptych fable,” the film is divided into three short stories that teeter between absurdist comedy and surreal horror. A domineering boss with deadly desires, a troubled marriage consumed by doubt, a secret cult that contaminates its members’ minds — these twisted tales stand on their own. But they also turn out to be thematically connected in intriguing (and often shocking) ways.
Emma Stone, back with Lanthimos after her Oscar-winning performance in Poor Things, plays not just one but three characters, appearing as different roles in each of the film’s plot lines. Along for the bizarre ride are Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau. All of them portray (at different times) characters with the same fatal flaw that permeates every inch of the film: the desire to be loved — to be shown a little kindness — no matter the cost.
9. Saturday Night
With Saturday Night Live celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, you’d never guess the now-iconic sketch show was once struggling to survive. But that was the case on Oct. 11, 1975 — the night the show aired its first episode and producer Lorne Michaels made television history.
Sweaty, obscene and anxiety-inducing, Saturday Night plays out in real time, hurling us into the final 90 minutes before that debut broadcast. Jason Reitman, previously known for low-key comedies like Juno, directs with live-wire energy, his camera careening around corridors to capture the backstage antics Michaels faced from cast, crew and studio executives.
Gabrielle LaBelle, playing Michaels with a combination of wide-eyed worry and uncorked confidence, is joined by a pitch-perfect ensemble that includes the bitingly funny Rachel Sennott. As the film unfolds — and the minutes tick closer to showtime — we can’t help but feel the same storm of emotions Michaels probably felt that fateful night: the joy of creation, the fear of failure and the desire to do it all over again.
8. Gladiator II
“Are you not entertained?” That now-iconic line, first uttered by Russell Crowe in the original Gladiator, seems to reverberate throughout Ridley Scott’s bigger and bolder sequel. The new film, set 16 years after the first, once again finds ancient Rome in turmoil, ruled with an iron first by a corrupt pair of twin emperors. Taken prisoner, Lucius — the true successor to the throne — is forced to fight in the Colosseum, just like his fabled father Maximus.
Paul Mescal brings a commanding mixture of stoicism and rage to his portrayal of Lucius. But it’s Denzel Washington who steals the show as the devious puppet master Macrinus, injecting every gesture, expression and line of dialogue with a venom that drips off the screen.
Although the film’s plot may not quite match the first Gladiator in terms of emotional impact, Scott more than makes up for it by upping the action. Featuring a stampeding rhino, ferocious baboons and killer sharks (and that’s just the animals!), Gladiator II is nothing if not entertaining.
7. Hard Truths
Even now in his 80s, Mike Leigh’s eye for small-scale, big-hearted drama is as sharp as ever. His latest film, like many of them, centers on London’s working class. It follows a few days in the life of Pansy, a paranoid and resentful woman who erupts with fury at members of her family and strangers alike.
At first, Pansy’s emotional outbursts border on hilarity (she even criticizes a baby’s wardrobe for having pockets). But as the anniversary of her mother’s death nears, it becomes clear that she is nursing some deep-seated emotional wounds. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who previously worked with Leigh on the Oscar-nominated film Secrets & Lies, delivers one of the year’s best performances as Pansy, subtly revealing the turbulent emotions bubbling underneath her hard-edged exterior.
The rest of the cast is equally superb, especially Michele Austin as Pansy’s sister Chantelle. Leigh allows these performances to fully breathe on screen, his camera remaining largely observant as he constructs a powerfully empathetic portrait of a woman struggling to hide and longing to be seen.
6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Post-apocalyptic mastermind George Miller had been wandering in the wasteland of development hell for nine long years by the time his latest Mad Max movie saw the light of day. But this time, instead of focusing on action icon Max Rockatansky, Miller delivers a high-octane origin story about Imperator Furiosa, the buzz-cut badass who stole the show in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Anya Taylor-Joy, who takes over the role from Charlize Theron, proves to be a worthy successor. She embodies Theron’s icy-cold demeanor, while also exhibiting vulnerability and rage as she seeks vengeance against the psychotic warlord Dementus, played by Chris Hemsworth.
Miller, meanwhile, brings all the heart-stopping action we’ve come to expect from the long-running franchise. Successfully expanding the Mad Max mythos while also standing tall on its own, Furiosa tells a time-honored, gas-guzzling tale of revenge — perhaps the sweetest substance in all the Wasteland.
5. Conclave
Conclave has all the hallmarks of a political thriller: mystery, intrigue, double-crossing and corruption. But it doesn’t have any of the genre’s usual suspects. Instead, in place of shadowy senators and intrepid journalists, we’re treated to a gossipy gaggle of cardinals.
Ralph Fiennes, in one of his best late-career roles, plays a humble, power-averse cardinal named Thomas Lawrence. He’s tasked with leading a papal conclave in the wake of the pope’s death, inviting dozens of cardinals from around the world to take part in a secret election. The film features a terrific ensemble cast, but Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow are standouts, playing two of the many ideologically opposed men who converge on Rome.
As the group’s theological (and political) differences threaten the conclave’s unity, director Edward Berger ratchets up the tension with increasingly claustrophobic compositions and a tension-ridden, string-heavy score. Like all great political thrillers, a shocking series of twists soon follows, leaving Lawrence to fend for his faith in a world full of doubt.
4. Evil Does Not Exist
A tug-of-war between the corporate world and the natural world pumps through the heart of Evil Does Not Exist, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s highly anticipated follow-up to his Oscar-winning drama Drive My Car. Unlike the mammoth scope of that three-hour, multilingual epic, Evil Does Not Exist is decidedly smaller in scale but no less thought-provoking.
The film tells the deceptively simple story of a small Japanese village, which becomes the target of a proposed real estate project that threatens the local environment. Takumi, a single father who lives a quiet life in the village with his young daughter, finds himself in the middle of the conflict, his tranquil existence seemingly on the verge of extinction.
Elevated by a haunting musical score and populated with raw performances from a cast of non-professional actors, Evil Does Not Exist is a hypnotic, suspense-filled drama — and a brooding meditation on the nature of human nature itself.
3. Nosferatu
Dracula is one of the 19th century’s greatest works of literature — and also one of the ripest for adaptation. Many of cinema’s biggest names have taken a stab at the timeless novel, from F. W. Murnau and Tod Browning to Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola. Now, Robert Eggers can add his name to that illustrious list with what may be the best adaptation of them all.
Eggers, known for folk horror films like The Witch, breathes new life into the age-old story with period-accurate detail and darkly erotic undercurrents. The film, largely a remake of Murnau’s original Nosferatu, centers on the mysterious Count Orlok, this time portrayed by Bill Skarsgård in a more physically imposing (and mustachioed) form.
Orlock, who is secretly a vampire, holds a psychosexual hex over a married woman named Ellen. Her emotional and physical suffering is brought to life by Lily-Rose Depp, who contorts her face and body in a jaw-dropping, shape-shifting performance. By anchoring the film from Ellen’s perspective, Eggers pinpoints the heartbeat inside the horror, spinning a vampire yarn into an all-too human fable about repression, reawakening and rebirth.
2. Dune: Part Two
Shortly before the release of Dune: Part Two, Christopher Nolan paid the film's director, Denis Villeneuve, a major compliment, saying, “If, to me, Dune was like Star Wars, then Dune 2 is The Empire Strikes Back.” It’s a good comparison. Villeneuve’s return to Arrakis is darker, grander and more emotionally complex than its predecessor. It’s also more deeply rooted in the myth (and myth-making) that is so key to Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi novel.
The new film picks up with messiah-to-be Paul Atreides, now fully assimilated into Fremen society and seeking vengeance for his slain father. Timothée Chalamet reprises the role of Paul but brings a newfound intensity to the character, a smouldering rage just waiting to erupt. Zendaya is quietly magnetic as Chani, a headstrong warrior whose blossoming romance with Paul serves as the film’s emotional backbone.
Villeneuve balances these intimate emotions with big-screen spectacle, delivering epic action without losing sight of the story’s thematic weight. From riding a giant sandworm to unpacking the power of prophecy, Dune: Part Two is equal parts thrilling and thought-provoking — and easily one of the best blockbusters in years.
1. The Brutalist
One of the first images we see in The Brutalist is an awe-inspiring angle of the Statue of Liberty, turned upside-down and sideways as it tumbles into view from above. The disorienting shot, seen from the perspective of Hungarian-Jewish architect Lászlo Tóth, foreshadows the newly arrived immigrant’s pursuit of the American Dream — a dream that is inverted into the stuff of nightmares.
Forcibly separated from his wife and niece during the Holocaust, Tóth eventually falls into the orbit of a mysterious industrialist, whose power and wealth propel his new life — and threaten to erode his identity. At the center of it all is Adrien Brody, who portrays Tóth in an emotionally haunted performance that makes the fictional architect feel entirely alive.
The movie, too, feels not just alive but lived in. Using VistaVision cameras (a long-abandoned format from the 1950s), director Brady Corbet recreates the look and feel of mid-century life, capturing richly textured images that burn themselves into your memory.
It’s a monumental achievement by every measure, but the film also serves as a monument to the immigrant experience. The story of a life rebuilt and a dream deferred, The Brutalist isn’t just about America. It is America.