We critics love our lists. It's our way of bidding farewell to another year of non-stop movie-watching, comparing notes with colleagues, debating our findings and proudly declaring our favorites, the ones that speak to us the most. Inevitably, years later, I take a look at the list on my Letterbox’d page and wonder, “why did I rate that so highly? Why isn’t that movie higher, since I clearly love it and have watched it many times?” This year will likely be no exception, though this feels more bullet-proof than in year’s past. This looks like a list I would make a year later, rather than the list I often make at the end of December, with awards-season juggernauts still fresh in my brain. Some movies live with you in a moment. Some live with you for much longer. Time will tell if this is the right list for me, but in this moment, it sure as hell feels right. I would gladly own and revisit these movies often (well, maybe not #8, but it’s not going anywhere).
1. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” - George Miller accomplished something I never thought would be possible: he made “Mad Max: Fury Road” an even better movie than it was before (and I say that as someone who has it at #1 not just for 2015, but the whole decade and I know I’m not alone). “Furiosa” took the subject of revenge and boiled it down to its rawest essence. It simultaneously gave the audience what it wanted in terms of mayhem and spectacle, while also showing great restraint in order to tell the saga’s most human story yet. Now in his eighties, Miller’s mastery of the craft and storytelling hasn’t dwindled and still manages to create some of the most breathtaking action sequences ever committed to film. The centerpiece “Chapter 3” stands with the best of them, but that’s not why the film exists. It’s that final confrontation, one I find myself mouthing the words to as they’re spoken, where Miller’s prose takes center stage. I’ve always said he deserves more credit for his dialogue, which is always rich with poetic turns of phrase. “Fury Road” ended with a quote from the “First History Man.” “Furiosa” opens with a quote that is a continuation. Both films are part of the same poem, one that doesn’t strive merely to rhyme, but to leap off the pages and into our bloodstreams. In this sense, with all five films, Miller has become a modern-day Homer, still having it in him to make it Epic.
2. “Flow” - I’ve heard some people say that the animation in “Flow” looks a little too much like a video game and not Pixar-level quality and that’s a sizable flaw. For me, animated films aren’t just made to be gawked at for their quality of presentation, but (like anything else) the quality of the storytelling. I felt swept up in the dreamlike wonder of this film from its first few moments and never once did I feel like I was just watching a movie. Perhaps because I have recurring dreams of floods and I’m a cat owner that I can be easily taken a movie like this, but I also feel like its creator, Gints Zilbalodis, has a deep understanding of these animals, the likes of which I haven’t seen in a work of fiction, maybe since Miller and Chris Noonan’s “Babe” movies. He’s able to parlay that connection in every frame of this film, particularly with a breathtaking sequence of one animal crossing over into another plane of existence. Sure, us critics love our dialogue-free films (and for many of us critics, we were duped by NEON to consider “Robot Dreams” a 2023 film), but during the unbearably cluttered awards-season, this was the one I couldn’t wait to see a second time.
3. “Memoir of A Snail” - It has been fifteen years since Adam Elliot made the equally enchanting and moving “Mary and Max,” which I happened to revisit recently before I even knew this was coming out. Both of these animated films depict complex characters who have more depth than most human characters we’re asked to care about these days, with an abundance of details surrounding them in the art direction and set design (So. Many. Snails). For anyone who has recently lost a sibling (and I know of a few who have), this acts as a source of comfort, prayer and a kind of photo album you just want to dive into and get lost in for longer than 95 minutes. It has all the charm, grace and wonder of “Mary and Max.” Here’s hoping we won’t have to wait another fifteen years for Elliot’s next feature film, but if that’s what it takes to make these films stand out from the pack, the wait will undoubtedly be worth it.
4. “Megalopolis” - Francis Ford Coppola’s dreamlike vision for the world was too much to bear for some people who went in with knives out after hearing the negative festival buzz and the fact that no studio wanted it. What a shame. While it’s certainly not without faults, it remained one of the most breathtaking and original visions to be seen on screens all year, complete with a small moment of live-action participation at a few screenings. It’s a movie that works like a longform symphony, made up of movements, suites and crescendos that sometimes feel loosely connected, but definitely of the same mind and spirit. Coppola’s film–a sincere wish for a better world at a time when such a thing feels unattainable on a daily basis–came out before the election. The final sentiments felt naive at the time back in September, and probably feel even more so now, but it’s the wish of an artist in his twilight, one who has yet to settle down, compromise and do any studio’s bidding. It’s his world, flaws and all, and I’m grateful to have lived in it for that one week during its release.
5. “Eno” - I have seen three versions of Gary Hustwit’s generative documentary, all of which had differences in them, mainly in the second half. What remains consistent in every version, though, is Brian Eno’s philosophy of art as a “feeling” rather than a big concept with multiple meanings. And why shouldn’t we aspire to that feeling? How lucky we are to have this kind of groundbreaking art project used as the basis for exploring one of music’s most enigmatic and important figures, and at this particular age when he has come around to that philosophy. The idea that we can still have multiple versions of this film to discover makes it all the more exciting, just knowing that we can possibly (if there is some kind of generative blu-ray release that allows this) hang out with Eno multiple times and it might be just a little different every time. I’ll gladly buy a copy. Every version I have seen emphasizes Eno’s joy in what he does, and that joy is infectious. Granted, I walked in as a fan, but I always left the film glad for the experience of peeling back another layer or two from someone who always seemed impenetrable. I doubt there could’ve been a single one-shot doc that could accomplish that.
6. “Better Man” - I knew nothing about Robbie Williams prior to going into this biopic, aside from a song or two. I also knew nothing about the film’s concept. The more I talked about it with the few colleagues who took a chance and watched it during awards voting, the more excited I got just thinking about the audacity of it. I put the film at the top of my voting ballot for Best Use of Visual Effects. This movie, more than any other this year, used the technology to take a huge narrative risk, substituting its human subject–an often unlikeable person on a continuous downward spiral the more famous he gets–into a monkey. It’s a lot to ask of an audience to go along with, especially since we spend the first half-hour or so waiting for someone to acknowledge his freakish appearance. The movie bravely commits to its conceit as an effective way of digging deep into Williams’ psyche, self-worth and depression, something that might otherwise would’ve been lost or treated more superficially in a normal biopic. By the end, I was an interested fan who wanted to learn more. Isn’t that what the best biopics should do?
7. “Nickel Boys” - RaMell Ross’ movie moved, challenged and surprised me, often all at once. A story that could have easily been told from one point of view, through linear means and with a satisfying coda, is instead a haunting and poetic piece that shifts perspectives in a way that is not merely “Rashomon-ic,” but gives the viewer a sense of place and grounding in every scene, every moment. While the two main characters, Elwood and Turner (played by, respectively, Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, both sensational), are rarely in the same shot together, one can feel the weight of their presence in every scene, allowing both stories to unfold as they layer one another. It is, perhaps, the most beautifully shot narrative film of the year, with not just gorgeous sunsets and haunting darknesses, but with a purposeful eye toward giving the audience a truly unique experience. Films with non-linear narratives are a dime a dozen these days, but “Nickel Boys” shows there are still new ways to open worlds up to viewers, exploring a multitude of physical and psychological landscapes.
8. “No Other land” - One can look at a lot of movies from this year and think of them as perfect summations of where we are now at the end of 2024, with a chaotic, seemingly powerless, hurting and fearful America upon us in 2025 and beyond. It would be hard to argue against this documentary being that kind of summation, as we witness first-hand accounts of the destruction of West Bank’s Masafur Yatta by Israeli forces, who mercilessly destroy people’s homes before their eyes and ours as well. At night, the video journalists who film these atrocities collect their thoughts and turn inward, wondering if what they’re doing has any worth. Where will the fight lead them? Why fight at all? These aren’t conversations of surrender, but of a questioning of one’s hope and faith that anything good can come of any of this. These are questions we’ll have to grapple with as a nation in the coming months and years. I have a feeling this film, more than any other this year, will pop up in my head as we see where the news of the day takes us, hopefully more so for its quiet, contemplative moments than anything else.
9. “Anora” - It takes a while for Sean Baker’s comedy to become what we expect from him, but once the characters are forced to deal with the consequences of their actions–being young and dumb enough to get married against a crime family’s wishes–the film becomes a gloriously funny ride and extended chase, as everyone, even the lowest thugs on the food chain, struggle to make everything right. I forget about so many comedies these days, because they often rely too heavily on irony, improv and self-awareness. “Anora”’s funniest moments come out of the situations themselves instead of knowing glances at the audience. It’s a lost artform, I think, but “Anora” succeeds not just on that level, but also as a love story, an unexpected one that charmingly builds beneath the surface, never once giving the audience what they expect.
10. “Evil Does Not Exist” - Someone asked me why this film landed on my top 10 list, as if to suggest it wasn’t quite worthy. As Eno maintains at the end of his documentary, as one gets older, art starts to become more about feeling more than big, intellectual ideas, and that is just as noble an aspiration as anything else. “Evil Does Not Exist” might not have been on here if it weren’t for my travels to New Zealand with my wife this year and my appreciation of that country’s devotion to preserving its physical landscape (for that same reason, among many others, “The Outrun” is in my runners-up). Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s movie is about that very thing, and is about it in a realistic, frustrating and captivating way. Like “Megalopolis,” there exists a naivete in its storytelling, that minds can be changed to the degree that people become active about it (as depicted in this film, when the timid spokespeople hear the townsfolk stick up for their town that is in danger of being industrialized). As the title suggests, that naivete is at the heart of situations like these. Everyone believes they are doing the right thing and no one will take responsibility when it all goes wrong. Maybe here, evil doesn’t exist. Maybe something worse, something harder to define, does.
Runners-up (in no particular order): “Hard Truths,” “The Outrun,” “Hundreds of Beavers,” “Touch,” “The Brutalist,” “Sing Sing,” “Inside Out 2,” “Ghostlight,” “The Beast,” “The Green Border,” “Heretic,” “All We Imagine As Light,” “Thelma,” “His Three Daughters,” "The Wild Robot," “Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat,” "Heretic," "Good One"