My top 25 (pre-fall) movies of 2024
Hit Man has been my top 2024 movie since I first saw in October of 2023.
Labor Day is over, and the fall has arrived. That means cooler weather, the kids back in school, football season, and, notable to me, better movies. The film festival season starts in September — although I’m skipping most of them this year — and when the movies pivot to pushing for awards seasons. (We’re also nearing the first anniversary of this newsletter next week, which is hard to believe.)
However, there’s also the first two-thirds of the year. Most years, my top ten list is dominated by movies I saw in the fall, with a few odd titles from the spring and summer, and I expect this year to be the same.
Before all that starts, I wanted to share my favorite movies of 2024 so far, before the fall deluge begins. Let’s count down from 25; this will be the last update before I put out my top ten and “808 lines about 404 films” (or whatever the number ends up being) in December.
25. The Instigators
24. This Closeness
23. Strange Darling
22. Between the Temples
21. Two American Families: 1991-2024
20. God Save Texas: Hometown Prison
19. National Anthem
18. Challengers
17. The Fall Guy
16. Inside Out 2
15. Dandelion
14. Snack Shack
13. The People’s Joker
12. Problemista
11. A Storm Foretold
10. Sugarcane
9. The Beast
8. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
7. Good One
6. Kinds of Kindness
5. Sing Sing
4. I Saw the TV Glow
3. Dune Part Two
2. Drive Away Dolls
Hit Man
Honorable mention: Lisa Frankenstein, The Beekeeper, Last Stop in Yuma County, The Greatest Night in Pop, Jim Henson: Idea Man, Racist Trees, I Am Celine Dion, Daughters, The Truth vs. Alex Jones, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, Rolling Along: Bill Bradley, Flipside, American Son and It’s Only Life After All.
And yes, Madame Web is the worst movie of the year.
Happy Labor Day, and on to autumn…