My Most Memorable Movies of 2024

Conclave, by a wide margin, was my favourite picture of the year. Every frame of it feels like a painting. It all feels surprisingly fresh, considering its setting. I found all the performances - from known veterans like Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, to people I was meeting for the first time like Carlos Diehz and Lucian Msamati - to be rawly emotional. I had been spoilt on some of the twists but they were still incredibly satisfying when they arrived. I enjoyed the fact that I went on a journey with our protagonist of realising the dead Pope had been manipulating him - and by extension, the audience - from beyond the grave the entire time. I found the final scenes of Lawrence carrying the turtle and then hearing the cheers as the public finds out the Conclave is over inexplicably moving. I have very few notes if any - for this movie. Perhaps more women interacting with each other?

Dune 2 was an excellent cinematic experience. I will never forget how watching it in the theatres felt. I saw it several times and each time, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Denis Villeneuve was snubbed this entire awards season. Controlling the spectacle and cynicism of the Dune story is not easy, and he takes on the challenge admirably. The set pieces are beautiful and the locations are great. Rebecca Ferguson, Timothee Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Lea Seydoux, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Walken.... what a cast and in such top form! My only criticisms would be some slight issues with pacing in the third act and a few book changes that water down the depth of interactions between female characters. Other than these though, what a success of a film!

I cried my way through Wicked. In the years leading up to its release (which felt like forever), I developed mixed feelings. Could they pull it off? Did we even still care? Then I saw the first trailer and I started to feel John Chu might have made something beautiful. I was right. I was emotionally engaged from the first few seconds when it flashed forward to Glinda and Elphaba together. Its two lead performances are just so incredibly locked in. The movie knows what you are anticipating and it delivers. A lot of care is put into costuming and hair. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande hit all the right emotional notes. The Ozdust Ballroom dance scene is probably my most heart wrenching of the year. The reason Wicked was not my favourite is because the film unfortunately dulls down its own gems - greying down its vibrant sets, using some unnecessary CGI and muting down some of the vocal performances. Overall, though, it is so much fun and such a delight. Erivo and Grande deserved their Oscar nominations.

This is an entertaining watch from beginning to end. Bill Skarsgard has transformed himself for roles so many times and he still manages to stun me every time. Nosferatu is his most awe-inspiring yet. I knew Lily-Rose Depp would deliver because I have never seen her be bad in anything - including the first thing I ever saw her in, supporting Timothee Chalamet in The King. I am even a rare defender of The Idol and her performance in it. She didn't disappoint in Nosferatu, simultaneouslydelivering despair and liveliness in every scene. I also found Nicholas Hoult adorably charming and hilariously terrified throughout. Willem Dafoe made sure to chew up all the scenery and Aaron Taylor-Johnson shocked me with how layered his performance was. I have so many good things to say about Nosferatu, but my criticisms lie in the thematic writing - I do not think it  adequately addresses its introduced ideas of non-consent. I also think, like far too many movies lately, its contrast levels are too low. Considering how much effort Robert Eggers puts into the physical details of his films, it really is a pity we sometimes cannot see them well here.

Anora's three leading performers' chemistry is what makes it memorable to me and almost nothing else. It is a testament to how strong that chemistry is that I think its worthy of being included among the best of the year. The film does have some individual moments of beautiful cinematography and Mikey Madison's performance is very intentional and commanding. Yuri Borisov has excellent chemistry with her in the film. My main criticism is that despite many hours of pondering, I cannot truly tell what that movie is trying to say. It doesn't have enough thematic discipline for me. It's not the kind of movie I'm rushing to re-watch in its entirety because the pacing is a bit of a mess sometimes. Sometimes I think it's saying something about class, sometimes I think it's saying something about bodily autonomy, sometimes I think it's saying nothing at all and Sean Baker has just successfully fooled a lot of people.

Babygirl is a very strange movie that I can't stop thinking about. I'm not sure if its a cartoonish mess or a poetic masterpiece. I love Harris Dickinson's performance (as an incredibly odd character I have come to believe is supposed to represent artificial intelligence) and I enjoyed how raw Nicole Kidman allows herself be in it. I was never not entertained watching it, and it's a movie that has lingered very long in me. I keep mulling over it in my head. It is sort of preposterous in every way, but might be genius?

Queer has confounded me each time I watch it. It has such a distinctive visual signature! It's the closest since Call Me By Your Name I've felt to being transported into a film's location. As a nostalgia-obsessed person, the whole film feels like a postcard I want to step into. Watching Queer, I could feel the love in its screenplay, and this was before I even understood it was being adapted from a beloved William Burroughs novel. I think Daniel Craig's performance is an ego-free, brave performance. Drew Starkey's performance has moments of genius but it's no Chalamet. My issue with Queer was that it felt too impenetrable. It required too much reading for me to begin to comprehend it. The third act was bewildering to me until I researched the film's source material. Sometimes I think maybe that's the point of Queer, and this was always a film meant to be a niche passion project for Luca Guadagnino. I do think it is an interesting piece of art that has lingered on me and one I will return to.

The Substance is the most unserious movie with an Oscar-deserving performance I've ever watched. I was convinced to watch it singularly because of a viral clip of Demi Moore's character attacking herself in the mirror. Moore delivers from the beginning of the film to the end and I am truly hoping she wins the Oscar. Her performance is easily the best leading performance - regardless of gender - I've seen this year. She injects her own autobiographical imprint and a fantastical derangement that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was emotionally engaged in her character throughout despite my issues with the movie, which include it being too long and so-so special effects. I do think its production design is singularly gorgeous. Demi Moore makes the movie worth talking about.

Nightbitch is a 30 Rock meme of a movie, but its problem is that it doesn't live up to the level of 30 Rock farce that it should. I enjoyed Amy Adams' performance but I actually thought the standouts were Arleigh and Emmett Snowden, the twins who played her character's son. Nightbitch's ending did make me feel warm and fuzzy but ultimately many parts of the movie felt oddly pedestrian. A friend whose opinion I really trust pointed out that the film isn't brave enough to accept that its ending should be much darker. Overall, the movie's temperature is mid as a result of the highs not being high enough to justify its saccharine ending. It's an okay film but not one that demands a rewatch. Maybe this will change if I have my own child!

Inside Out 2 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Immaculate

Hard Truths 

The Crow

Gladiator II

Challengers