Yahoo Lifestyle The 25 Best Movies of 2024
A wise man once said, "You don't face your fears. You ride them," and I'd propose the same could be said for films. There's no ride quite as fulfilling as a raucous trip to the cineplex, and now that 4DX theaters are shaking your seats and screenings of Heretic are pumping in blueberry pie aromas, movies are becoming quite the adventure.
Coming off 2023's banner "Barbenheimer" year and with the Hollywood strikes shrinking inventory, expectations were low for the 2024 crop of new movies, but against all odds, this year was a delightful one for film. From pop star horror flicks to tear-jerking animated films and a very tall, very murderous alien baby, the top movies of 2024 really did give the audience exactly what they needed.
This year at the movies, we learned that sharks could survive in the Colosseum, that moms can pick up pop stars at Coachella and that sometimes it's okay to sit in your car and cry to "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)." We learned Feyd-Rautha is psychotic, how to annul a "frawwd maariage" and that a certain someone "was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died."
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2024 not only brought us smashing box-office successes but delightful comedies, great Oscar-worthy dramas and a sublime documentary ruminating on typing software. I've spent the last year watching hundreds of films (good and bad) for Parade, and here are 25 that will blow you away (in a metaphorical way and not in a fire tornado way). Without further ado, the best movies of 2024:
The 25 best movies of 2024
25. Twisters
Let's begin with this summer's lethal (sorry, Kiernan Shipka) box-office smash. A perfectly calibrated film on every level, Twisters is the action adventure/disaster romance/country music showcase you didn't know you need. Complete with campy action sequences ("We've got twins!") and just the right amount of heart, Twisters follows Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell across Oklahoma as they try to stop tornadoes using the most inefficient piece of equipment ever invented. Much of the movie's success can be attributed to director Lee Isaac Chung for perfectly calibrating the speed and tone. Fingers crossed for a sequel.
24. Sasquatch Sunset
Dare I include a movie that features Jesse Eisenberg in a Big Foot suit defecating in the middle of a road? Yes. Yes, I dare. David and Nathan Zellner's absurdist nature doc about a family of Sasquatches living, dying and expending bodily fluids in rural California is not for everyone, but if you can get past the scatological humor, it's got a lot of intelligence and heart under all that fur. Bold, quick-witted and sneakingly timely, Sasquatch Sunset is a rager for those who get it.
23. Abigail
No 2024 movie was as delightfully stupid as this spring's vampire ballerina movie. The premise is simple enough: mercenaries kidnap a little girl thinking they'll get rich off her ransom money only to realize she's a centuries-old vampire intent on murdering them all. Abigail and its cast, including Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton, the late Angus Cloud and Alisha Weir, know EXACTLY what kind of movie they're making. The MVP is Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens, however, who plays a corrupt, thickly-accented NYPD cop-turned-vampire with ferocious pleasure.
22. Kinds of Kindness
Kinds of Kindness is not for everyone. A three-hour-long anthology film comprised of a triptych of shorts, it's an examination of desperation and the insatiable need to belong. The same company of actors, including Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau, appear in all three shorts, but it's Plemons who takes the lead as a man driven to impress his domineering boss, a man in search of his missing wife and a cult member scouting for a miracle. If you're a casual movie-goer, I'd skip this one, but if you're a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos and critical thinking, then don't let the runtime scare you away.
21. Maria
The spiritual successor to Jackie and Spencer, Maria is the third recent film from Pablo Larraín focused on a misunderstood iconic woman. Angelina Jolie takes on her first meaty role since 2008's Changeling, playing opera singer Maria Callas in the final days of her life. Both Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart earned Best Actress nominations for their portrayals of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Diana, respectively, and it seems likely Jolie could land another Oscar nom this year as well. Her fragile performance, the stunning cinematography and the decadent costumes are all worth the price of admission. This is certainly a movie you see for the vibes more than for the plot, but wow are the vibes exquisite.
20. Bird
After breaking out with American Honey in 2016, Andrea Arnold has spent most of the last decade working in TV on shows like Transparent, I Love Dick and Big Little Lies. Now she's back on the big screen with the coming-of-age journey of a 12-year-old British girl trying to find meaning in a chaotic lower-class life. Nykiya Adams stars as Bailey with Saltburn's Barry Keoghan playing her father and Passages' Franz Rogowski as the titular bird. Heartbreaking and whimsical with a smashing soundtrack, Bird was one of festival season's powerful sleeper hits. Who doesn't want to watch a drunk Keoghan shout/sing Coldplay's "Yellow"?
19. Conclave
On paper, a film about a bunch of old Catholics locked in a dorm squabbling over who should be Pope sounds like a snooze, but shame on you, doubters (unless you're a "Pope who doubts," in which case kudos.) Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow star in Edward Berger's frothy follow up to All Quiet on the Western Front. Based on a Robert Harris novel, Conclave examines the top-secret proceedings that follow the death of one Pope as another is elected. This is one of the year's biggest crowdpleasers, earning rave reviews and causing plenty of whispered discussions about a twist you will never see coming. Plus, Conclave is the one movie of 2024 that you can watch with every member of your extended family.
18. Will & Harper
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harper Steele, a former SNL writer and friend of Will Ferrell, reached out to the actor to inform him that she was transitioning from a man to a woman. In an attempt to understand and reconnect with his friend, Ferrell suggested the two take a road trip across America. The result is this magnificent documentary about growth, acceptance and, dare I say, the spirit of America. Watching Ferrell accept his friend and Steele accept herself is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing indeed. Never has celebrity been weaponized for such a force of positivity, and never has a movie about two people in a car full of Pringles been this emotional. To say this is powerful, important and inspiring would be a disservice to the laugh-out-loud, joyful comedy of this documentary. To say it's funny, entertaining and a romp would undercut just how necessary it feels in 2024. Will & Harper should be required viewing for every American. I'm calling up my senator to let them know.
17. Wicked
Of course I'm holding space for Wicked on this list. I am, after all, in queer media. While Part One of the two-part Wicked film could have easily become a plastic, heartless branding exercise, in the hands of Jon M. Chu, it's simultaneously a critical, commercial and meme-making success. From Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba riff and Ariana Grande's book-filled choreo to Jonathan Bailey flirting with everyone and that girl with the bob in the cafeteria, Wicked is pure magic. It's one of the best movie musicals in years and boasts a soundtrack so powerful it will appear in 2025 Spotify Wrappeds. Wicked "chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer," and we are feeling power in that.
16. The Outrun
After disappointments like Foe and Ammonite the last few years, Saoirse Ronan is finally back in the Oscar race this year. In this Sundance standout from Nora Fingscheidt, Ronan plays Rona, a young woman who returns to the remote Orkney Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland, when she leaves a stint of rehab for alcoholism in London. I May Destroy You's Paapa Essiedu and Game of Thrones' Stephen Dillane turn in strong supporting performances, but this is really another reminder as to just what a talented force Saoirse Ronan is. It also could result in a tourism bump for Orkney, which looks beautiful if not brutal in the winters.
15. Dune: Part Two
The sequel to Dune was supposed to arrive in theaters last fall, but due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the release was pushed back to 2024, and it has quickly become the year's biggest box-office success (not that beating out Bob Marley: One Love presented much of a challenge). Denis Villeneuve's sandy sci-fi epic earned nearly universal praise and garnered Oscar attention for 2025 before the 2024 Oscars even aired. While Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem return with solid performances, it's Zendaya (upgraded from her five minutes of screentime in the original) and Austin Butler (finally not talking like Elvis) who are the real breakouts.
14. My Old Ass
Few movies in 2024 are so delightfully perfect as this comedy about a teenage girl living in rural Canada who takes too many shrooms and is visited by her future self. Aubrey Plaza delivers her signature wit and awkwardness as the older Elliott, but it's Nashville's Maisy Stella and Wednesday's Percy Hynes White as young Elliott and her love interest Chad, respectively who really make this coming-of-age saga such a joy to watch. Megan Park's script is effortlessly funny, the cinematography will make you wish you too grew up in a cranberry bog, and you will be quoting this for years to come.
13. Hard Truths
If there is one movie character this year (aside from Longlegs) you do not want to meet at the supermarket this year, it's Marianne Jean-Baptiste's Pansy. In Mike Leigh's British drama Hard Truths, Jean-Baptiste plays a middle-aged woman so filled with rage, it's nearly debilitating. Leigh's 1996 film Secrets & Lies earned Jean-Baptiste an Oscar nom, and her work in Hard Truths is even better. Watching her menace her family, grocery-store cashiers and drivers on the road will make you laugh in the film's first half before an emotional turn will leave you sobbing as well.
12. Vermiglio
In 1944 in the remote Italian Alps, a school teacher and his family live largely untouched by the events of World War II swirling about them. That is until a deserter arrives in town and falls in love with the teacher's eldest daughter. His arrival cracks open all manner of secrets and prejudices that Vermiglio has held frozen under a thick layer of mountain snow. Subtly gut punching, the ensemble film from Maura Delpero is a quiet revelation with an infectious queer twist.
11. Cuckoo
While Longlegs and Trap sucked up much of the horror film oxygen in the back half of summer, the FAR superior scary movie was this unhinged vision from Tilman Singer. Starring Hunter Schafer as a teenager who moves to the Bavarian Alps with her father and stepmother and Dan Stevens (yet again, superb) as a creepy resort owner, Cuckoo is a movie that defies explanation. Throat warbling, blonde wigs, coughing up bile and a brilliantly shot bicycle sequence contribute to one of the most original horror movies in years. Plus, Schafer is finally given the room to show off her full acting talent as your newest final girl. Magnificent.
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10. Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel could have been adapted in a million different ways. RaMell Ross' first-person perspective, however, is unlike anything you've seen before. Shot from a pair of first-person points-of-view with the camera standing in for the characters' eyes, the film toggles back and forth between standing in for newcomers Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson. The pair play friends attending a cruel reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. The smartly subtle film is one that will haunt you and may require a second viewing to completely untangle, but Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor's supporting performance as one of the boys' grandmother will leave you crying.
9. Seeking Mavis Beacon
Sorry. I don't mean to trigger you with a hasty transport back to your elementary school typing lessons (DON'T LOOK AT THE KEYBOARD), but one of this year's most interesting documentaries focuses on Mavis Beacon. Yes, Mavis Beacon, the titular typing instructor in Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. In this groundbreaking work of investigation, archivism, activism, reparations and (somehow) spirituality, Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross set out to find the Black model behind the software program. Who was she? Where is she now? And why was a Black model used in such a groundbreaking way to teach typing? What begins as a simple search for answers becomes a rich examination of race, friendship, technology and online consent. Seeking Mavis Beacon is a one-of-a-kind revelation.
8. All We Imagine as Light
The first Indian movie to compete in Cannes' main competition since 1994, All We Imagine as Light from Payal Kapadia continues to build its army of fans. The film follows two nurses both trapped in difficult romantic relationships and looking for relief. The first is in an arranged marriage to a man who moved to Europe and hasn't communicated with her in over a year, while the other is a Hindu girl secretly dating a Muslim man. While the intimate film is very much the story of these women and their trip to the seaside, it also speaks to much larger political issues at play in India. India chose not to submit it for the Oscars, but Kapadia is now a strong and worthy contender for the Best Director race.
7. Flow
In a year with Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot already jockeying for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, Flow has arrived as a tremendous underdog (or cat, perhaps). The Latvian entry for Best International Feature is a mesmerizing 85 minutes without dialogue as a cat, living in a magical ancient landscape, finds refuge in a boat during a world-ending flood along with a secretary bird, a capybara, a dog and a lemur. The imaginative film from Gints Zilbalodis will stick with you long after you've left the theater with both its stunning animation and its profound message.
6. Solo
Ever since Solo burst onto the scene at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won Best Canadian Feature Film, fans (myself included) have been stumping for the French Canadian romance. Sophie Dupuis' drag queen drama is a queer masterpiece that belongs in the pantheon along Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo. Théodore Pellerin gives one of the year's best performances as a drag queen who falls into a toxic relationship with a fellow queen. The lip-sync numbers are so well shot it makes you wonder what RuPaul is doing with that budget.
5. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Perhaps the buzziest entry in this year's Best International Feature Oscar race is the German film from Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. If you're wondering why an Iranian film is being submitted by Germany, it's because Rasoulof's criticism of the Iranian government in his filmmaking has repeatedly put him at danger in Iran. After making The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison with flogging and had to flee Iran over the course of a 28-day journey, much of which was on foot. He eventually made it to Germany, where he completed post-production on the movie and currently resides. Sacred Fig is impeccable separate from its director's story, however. The nearly three-hour-long movie zooms by as the tension ratchets up when a pair of sisters attempt to house an injured rioter in their apartment while their father works for the Iranian government.
4. How to Have Sex
Like Solo, How to Have Sex has been on the festival circuit for over a year, but finally arrived to U.S. theaters in February. The movie follows three British girls taking a spring-break-gone-wild-type debaucherous vacation to Crete. A weekend of clubbing, however, quickly goes wrong for Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce in one of the best performances of 2023 or 2024) when a flirty encounter with a boy on the beach becomes something she doesn't want. Never has a movie shown the moment where being drunk at the club goes from wonderful to awful so acutely. A revelation.
3. Thelma
Words cannot express how much I adore this film. While the premise of Thelma, which stars 94-year-old June Squibb as a 93-year-old woman attempting to get revenge on phone scammers who robbed her of $10,000 is a bit goofy, the movie itself is SO MUCH MORE than a joke. Squibb gives one of the best performances of the year in a heartfelt dramedy that somehow grapples with aging, intergenerational relationships and what it means to feel obsolete, all while spoofing Tom Cruise movies. Parker Posey, Richard Roundtree and Fred Hechinger are phenomenal, and the Josh Margolin script is supurb. I'm not joking when I say that this movie deserves a Best Picture nomination, and Squibb deserves every Best Actress trophy available to her.
2. Anora
While winning the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, hasn't always meant commercial success in the U.S., with Anatomy of a Fall, Triangle of Sadness and Parasite in recent years, we're on a bit of a hot streak. Sean Baker (who previously crafted masterpieces like The Florida Project and Tangerine) won the Palme this year for Anora, a dramedy about a Russian-American stripper (Mikey Madison) who falls in love with a young Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Anora is the THE cool-girl movie of 2024 (as hundreds of people in line for an NYC pop up can attest.) Baker is at long last receiving the praise he deserves, and I've never wanted to visit a Times Square strip club more.
1. Challengers
THE best movie of 2024 is Luca Guadagnino's horny tennis three-hander. West Side Story's Mike Faist, The Crown's Josh O'Connor and Dancing with the Stars runner-up Zendaya star as a trio of tennis players embroiled in a decade's worth of juicy drama (on the court, in the bedroom and in an inexplicable New Rochelle hurricane). The screenplay from Justin Kuritzkes (who just happens to be married to Past Lives director Celine Song) is Shakespearean in its clever mechanics and allows Guadagnino to pop off with zany cinematography while keeping the story locked in. Combining lustful churro eating, an 80s video game score and Zendaya's power bob, Challengers is riveting from the first serve to match point. Makes me want to stand up and shout, "COME ON!"
