The 40 worst films of 2024
The countdown of every movie I saw this year. But first- the worst movies of the year.
Welcome to my annual countdown of all of the movies I saw in 2024, from worst to best.
As I laid out in the preview on Monday, today will include my list of the 40 worst movies of the year. Between Wednesday and Friday, I will count down the remaining films, including the top 100 on Friday.
Once again: If a film has a plausible claim as a 2024 release, it’s included. It’s movies that got 2024 releases and were part of 2024 awards campaigns, and also movies I saw at film festivals and through other early-access channels, which may not have releases set in 2024. There are also some movies I saw at festivals in 2023 and earlier, that finally came out this year. If something was part of an awards campaign in 2023 or earlier, that’s out, but otherwise… there will be some films that make both the 2023 and 2024 lists.
Also, movies (usually documentaries) that are two parts, get included as “movies,” for this list’s purposes, but if they’re three or more parts, they don’t.
Without further ado… (a deux?), my picks for the worst of 2024 (#1, on this list, is the worst.)
1. Joker: Folie a deux
Dir. Todd Phillips, streaming on Max, review here.
Sequel to the overpraised superhero hit that aped Taxi Driver while adding musical numbers and Lady Gaga. Failed to the degree that it left everyone baffled, whether they loved or hated the first movie.
2. Madame Web
Dir. S.J. Clarkson, streaming on Netflix, review here.
Another Spider-man-adjacent superhero film, featuring the year’s most indifferent performance from Dakota Johnson. Also terrible, but at least this one was sort of unintentionally hilarious.
3. Mandela Effect Phenomenon
Dir. Robert Kiviat, streaming on VOD, review here.
Documentary about that weird phenomenon that has people convinced that they imagined events that didn’t really happen. But it does this by using some insane talking heads, who propose nonsense explanations involving multiverses and simulations.
4. Am I Racist?
Dir. Justin Folk, streaming on Daily Wire+, review here.
Borat-style documentary featuring conservative provocateur Matt Walsh wearing a disguise and trying to trick liberal and DEI types. He’s picked some rich targets, but Walsh’s problem is that he’s annoying and not very funny.
5. Aggro Drift
Dir. Harmony Korine, not streaming
An experimental action film, shot entirely in infared photography. I’ve loved a lot of Korine’s films, especially Spring Breakers and The Beach Bum, but this one just plain did not work at all.
6. God Bless Bitcoin
Dir. Brian Estes and Kelly Estes, streaming on YouTube, review here.
Documentary about Bitcoin that elevates the cryptocurrency to diety-level status, without mentioning the 2021 crash, FTX, or any other possible reasons for skepticism. Just generally embarrassing.
7. Watergate’s Secrets and Betrayals
Dir. George Bugatti, not streaming, review here.
Documentary arguing for Richard Nixon’s innocence that’s unconvincing, even though J. Peterman from Seinfeld is the narrator. Didn’t get much push, from a conservative media invested in excusing Trump’s crimes, as opposed to Nixon’s.
8. America’s Burning
Dir. David Smick, streaming on VOD, review here.
A documentary, following the director’s Stars and Strife a couple of years ago, that lays out everything wrong with politics today, without mentioning the names “Trump” or “Biden.” Another project which defines “bipartisanship” as “everyone of both parties should come together and do everything I want.”
9. Unfrosted
Dir. Jerry Seinfeld, streaming on Netflix, review here.
Seinfeld’s directorial debut tells a fictionalized version of a corporate battle involving cereal. Jerry proves adept at getting his famous friends to appear in the film, but not at directing anything funny.
10. Boy Kills World
Dir. Moritz Mohr, streaming on Hulu
Action movie with a promising premise, and a decent voiceover performance by Jon Benjamin. But it utterly fails at pulling everything together.
11. Jackpot!
Dir. Paul Feig, streaming on Prime Video
High-concept action movie, with John Cena and Awkwafina, where someone wins the lottery and everyone else in California wants to kill her. Feig has directed some outstanding comedies like Bridesmaids and One Small Favor, but this was simultaneously ghastly and forgettable.
12. Irish Wish
Dir. Janeen Damian, streaming on Netflix
Silly love triangle comedy starring Lindsay Lohan. I know there’s a temptation to build a triumphant comeback narrative around Lohan, but she’s just not the screen presence she was 20 years ago.
13. The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution
Dir. Ondi Timoner, streaming on Netflix
Documentary about a young group of investors, who treat the act like videogaming. Adjacent to the whole meme stock phenomenon, this continues the unblemished record of movies about that never being very good.
14. 2073
Dir. Asif Kapadia, in theaters soon, review here.
A sort of documentary that explores all the calamities of today, while building it around a future-set homage to La Jetee and Twelve Monkeys. Kapadia is a great documentarian, but this movie is misbegotten, with two mediocre halves that don’t fit together.
15. Molli and Max in the Future
Dir. Michael Lukk Litwak, streaming on Prime Video
Sci-fi romantic comedy, set far in the future, and starring Aristotle Athari and Zosia Mamet. I have friends who are really into this but I found it tedious.
16. Air Force One Down
Dir. James Banford, streaming on VOD.
Just what it sounds like- a long-budget knockoff of the ‘90s version of Air Force One, except much cheaper and without anyone as talented as Harrison Ford or Gary Oldman. Not part of the “White House Down” franchise, either.
17. Downtown Owl
Dir. Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe, streaming on VOD, review here.
An adaption of Chuck Klosterman’s first novel and worst book, set in a small town in North Dakota in the 1980s. Kind of pointless, and not only because it makes no effort to get the location or period right.
18. This is Me… Now: A Love Story
Dir. Dave Meyers, streaming on Prime Video.
A completely deranged vanity project, created as a tie-in for Jennifer Lopez’s album, and to celebrate her re-marriage to Ben Affleck. Instantly dated following their breakup, and full of weird stylistic touches, but to its credit, it’s not the worst movie the two of them have both been involved with.
19. Space Cadet
Dir. Liz W. Garcia, streaming on Prime Video
Silly high-concept comedy, starring Emma Roberts as a party girl who sneaks her way into NASA. Every last idea here is lifted directly from Legally Blonde, except the charm is missing.
20. Atlas
Dir. Brad Peyton, streaming on Netflix, review here.
Another misbegotten J.Lo project, this time an action movie whose plot centers on artificial intelligence. A cruddy visual style combines with the odd message that A.I. is misunderstood and awesome.
21. Let’s Start a Cult
Dir. Ben Kitnik, streaming on VOD.
A dark comedy about a guy who leaves one cult and tries to start another one. I’m a huge fan of the comedy of star Stavros Halkias, but this isn’t a promising first starring vehicle for him.
22. They Called Him Mostly Harmless
Dir. Patricia E. Gillespite, streaming on Max
A true crime doc about an unidentified man found dead in a tent, and true crime sleuths’ efforts to solve the mystery of who he was. As is usually the case, such sleuths are more trouble — and much more annoying — than they’re worth.
23. Little Wing
Dir. Dean Israelite, streaming on Paramount+
Streaming comedy-of-age drama about a girl who steals pigeons and tries to sell them to the mob. Extremely forgettable, and when it comes to movies inspired by the reporting of Susan Orlean, it won’t make anyone forget Adaptation.
24. Nightswim
Dir. Bryce McGuire, streaming on Prime Video, review here.
A family, led by ex-baseball player Wyatt Russell and his wife Kerry Condon, buy a dream house with a pool that has magical but horrifying properties. Should have been called Death Pool: The Pool That Eats.
25. Argylle
Dir. Matthew Vaughn, streaming on Apple TV+, review here.
Action film, uncharacteristically poorly directed by Vaughn, featuring way too many characters, and way too many framing devices. I’d much rather watch the movie-within-the-movie with Henry Cavill than the actual movie.
26. My Name is Alfred Hitchcock
Dir. Mark Cousins, now in theaters, review here.
Documentary about Hitchock’’s life and career which, inexplicably, features a terrible impressionist doing a terrible voiceover. I would much rather hear the story of how they got Hitch’s estate to agree to this.
27. Bad Behaviour
Dir. Alice Englert, streaming on Fubo TV and VOD.
In this festival movie that took forever to reach the U.S., an overqualified cast (Jennifer Connolly, Ben Whishaw) and also Dasha Nekrasova, navigates a mother-daughter drama. Just more peculiar than anything else.
28. The Underdoggs
Dir. Charles Stone III, streaming on Prime Video, review here.
Semi-remake of The Bad News Bears, starring Snoop Dogg as a disgraced former NFL wide receiver, redeemed by coaching a youth football team. If you really can’t get enough of kids cursing, you’re going to love this.
29. The American Society of Magical Negroes
Dir. Kobi Libii, streaming on Prime Video.
A satirical exploration of the notorious “Magical Negro” trope, which took a huge swing and missed completely. More than any other movie this year, probably arrived 2 or 3 years too late.
30. #Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism
Dir. Dan Partland, streaming on VOD, review here.
Another hectoring anti-Trump documentary, one which will not convince a single person who wasn’t going to vote against Trump anyway. And as you can tell, a lot of good it did.
31. Kim’s Video
Dir. David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, streaming on VOD.
Documentary about the famed New York City video store, and the quest to save its collection, including a clandestine trip to Sicily. Goes in some very odd and unsuccessful directions.
32. Love 2020
Dir. Jacqueline Joseph, streaming on Prime Video.
Documentary about the quest to save the 2020 U.S. Open tennis tournament, at the height of COVID. I’ll never be excited to watch a pandemic documentary, and this didn’t change that.
33. Look Into My Eyes
Dir. Lana Wilson, streaming on VOD, review here.
A documentary about psychics in New York City, administering to people who should absolutely be seeing a therapist instead of a psychic. My biggest complaint is that these people are obviously frauds, but the film doesn’t call them out for it.
34. Incoming
Dir. Dave Chernin and John Chernin, streaming on Netflix.
Teen coming-of-age comedy, not able to distinguish itself from so many other films like it on Netflix and elsewhere. It was one of the few films on this list that I watched, but had to Google it because I barely remembered what it was.
35. Trigger Warning
Dir. Mouly Surya, streaming on Netflix
Pretty forgettable Netflix action movie starring Jessica Alba. I will give it credit, though- something called Trigger Warning could conceivably be way worse.
36. Battleground: Georgia
Dir. Daresha Kyi, not streaming, review here.
MSNBC documentary which, in that network’s fashion, tells the story of Georgia becoming a blue state in 2020, mostly through talking heads talking about how damned awesome the Democrats are. Another one that hasn’t aged well.
37. Monkey Man
Dir. Dev Patel, streaming on Prime Video, review here.
Dev Patel’s directorial debut got lots of positive notices, but I found it kind of shabby and incoherent. It was clearly inspired by the John Wick aesthetic, except for the part where the action’s poor staging.
38. Buy Now!: The Shopping Conspiracy
Dir. Nic Stacey, streaming on Netflix, review here.
Another of my least-favorite types of documentary, finding malicious conspiracies in what most people determine is “marketing,” or more likely, “capitalism.” The spooky music isn’t so great either.
39. Babes
Dir. Pamela Adlon, streaming on Hulu, review here.
This comedy about motherhood has got some talented people involved — director Adlon, stars Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau, and a long list of cameoing comedy stars. But there’s way too much riffing, most of which isn’t very funny.
40. The Garfield Movie
Dir. Mark Dindal, streaming on Netflix.
There was a Garfield movie this year. I watched it, and while I have great affection for Garfield cartoons, I barely remember it.
Coming tomorrow: #500-#301.