What movies have you enjoyed in 2024? TheReviewGeek team have seen quite a few, and while we haven’t enjoyed every outing we have taken to the cinema – check out our Worst Movies of 2024 – there are a fair few movies that we think are worth your time if you haven’t yet seen them.
Here’s our list for the Best Movies of 2024. Do you agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments below.
The Wild Robot
2024 has been a great year for animated movies, with the likes of Inside Out 2, Orion and the Dark, and Kung Fu Panda 4 doing much to please cinema and streaming audiences. Rising above them all, however, is The Wild Robot which we considered the best animated movie of the year in our review.
The story might be simple – after getting stranded on an island, a robot takes on the role of mother to an abandoned goose – but the narrative is deeper than you might imagine, with animation that is as beautiful as the emotional storytelling.
Society Of The Snow
Never underestimate the human will to survive! This true story drama from The Impossible director J.A. Bayona is a testament to that with its retelling (after 1993’s Alive) of the doomed Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crash landed into the Andes in 1972.
The passengers of the flight, the members of a Uruguayan rugby team, were forced into doing the unthinkable in their efforts to stay alive. Bayona tells his story well, expertly capturing the plane crash in horrific detail and then capturing every frightening detail of the chilling events that followed. The movie isn’t an easy watch but as we said in our review, this is a “harrowing survival tale that should inspire rather than revolt you.”
How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
This emotionally charged Taiwanese film tells the story of a high school dropout who moves in with his cancer-ridden grandma with a less than charitable motive – he hopes to inherit her home after she dies. Mercifully, his morality changes as the movie goes on, as he starts to bond and care deeply for his ailing relative.
We called How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies “an emotionally charged movie that blends humour and heartache” in our review, and we praised the excellent acting, thought-provoking storytelling, and impeccable production design. This is the kind of movie that will cause you to draw closer to the elderly members of your own family!
Evil Does Not Exist
This latest film from Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) is a touching slice-of-life drama about the inhabitants of a small village and the difficult quandary they find themselves in when a corporation arrives on their land with plans to build a camping site.
This ecological tale might seem unoriginal – variations of the movie’s story have been portrayed on film before – but Hamaguchi subverts expectations by painting a picture that is less a good vs evil story and more a reflective meditation on both human nature and our relationship with the natural world.
For more on Evil Does Not Exist, check out our movie review.
Challengers
Sports movies have never been sexier! That was the headline for our review of Challengers, an erotically charged drama from director Luca Guadagnino who carries over the sweaty physicality of tennis into the bedroom for scenes where a romantic menage a trois turns steamy.
Expert direction and accomplished performances from the leads – Mike Faist, Zendaya, and Josh O’Connor – ensure this love triangle drama is never less than gripping. We called Challengers a “thorny, passionate experience from start to finish,” which isn’t something we ever thought we’d say about a tennis movie!
Love Lies Bleeding
Director Rose Glass’s seductive new movie tells the story of a reclusive gym manager (Kristen Stewart) and her relationship with a bodybuilder (Weronika Tofilska) and how their love for one another is threatened when one of them commits a horrific act of violence on an abusive husband.
Performances, direction, and cinematography are all top-notch but Love Lies Bleeding will probably be best remembered for its surreal final scene in which the movie foregoes realism for something…erm…well, you’ll just have to see it for yourself. This is a hot-blooded, funny, and stylish crime movie that pulls no punches.
Kinds of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of The Favourite and Poor Things, delivers another modern classic, with three stories that explore the darker side of love and the shades of grey that exist within the human condition.
In regards to the director, we called the movie the “most out-there of his eccentric filmography” in our review and praised his surreal style. In our closing comments, we said, that he reminds us “that even evil can look like a kind of kindness in a fucked-up world.” Intrigued? Don’t be put off by the nearly 3-hour running time. Sure, the movie is long and occasionally quite heavy, but this is a unique piece of work that is anything but predictable.
Anora
Sean Baker (Red Rocket, Tangerine) delivers his best movie yet with Anora, a funny and provocative tale about a young sex worker from Brooklyn who impulsively marries a Russian oligarch, much to the chagrin of her parents who disapprove of her relationship.
Anora is funny, sexy, and emotionally shattering, with a standout performance from Mikey Madison who deserves more starring roles like the one she has been gifted here.
I Saw The TV Glow
This second movie from Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going To The World’s Fair) is a surreal horror drama about two lonely teens whose lives are inexplicably changed when they become obsessed with a late-night TV show. To say any more would spoil the surprises that are in store for you when/if you tune into this bold and brilliant picture.
If you do want to know more about our reviewer’s “favourite of the year so far,” check out our review and Ending Explained article.
Deadpool & Wolverine
There was a time, not so very long ago, when comic book movies were all the rage. But thanks to such recent misfires as The Marvels, Madame Web, and The Crow, audience interest in such flicks have waned. Thank goodness for Deadpool & Wolverine then, which is the best movie the MCU has produced in years.
This loud and not very proud team-up spectacular is a fanboy’s dream, with some surprise cameos and lots of big laughs to break up the complexity of the multiversal shenanigans. In his review, TheReviewGeek’s editor called the movie “a real treat for Marvel fans” so if you’re among that number, you should definitely give this fun and foul-mouthed adventure a go.
What is your favourite movie of 2024? Let us know in the comments below.