Top Ten Films from 2024
…………………………………………………
Top Ten Films from 2024
As is the case with most other years, 2024 was a pretty good albeit not great one for me when it comes to movies. It’s difficult for me to find truly incredible films that I haven’t already seen, but what I did find was still surprisingly strong. None of these movies reached a five-star rating for me, but a couple of them came awfully close to it. I discounted the new releases as they would be getting their own list. This one is meant to put a light on some older releases, so here we go.
10. Johnny Belinda
Of all the movies that I watched for the first time this year on my quest to cover all Best Picture nominated movies, Johnny Belinda is the best of the bunch. This was a groundbreaking movie for its period as it tackled the difficult subject of rape while also depicting a deaf-mute protagonist. It’s an unusually honest, emotionally driven story that features strong characterization and tremendous performances from its phenomenal ensemble cast. Beautifully scored and strikingly shot. It is truly one of the best movies of 1948, a no small feat for this banner year.
9. Dracula
1958’s Dracula just might be the quintessential adaptation of the eponymous classic. This is a rare film that is actually faithful to the Bram Stoker original while being immensely artistic and cinematic as well. It’s a slower film a first that becomes suspenseful and thrilling later on. Peter Cushing is a phenomenal Van Helsing and Christopher Lee is a very memorable Dracula. The sumptuous production design, gorgeous cinematography and a superb score led to a rich audio-visual experience. It’s a very classy movie that I watched while on the bus ride to my summer vacation and it was a truly lovely experience.
8. Victim
Victim was a groundbreaking British thriller film that directly addressed the subject of homosexuality, all enveloped in a very interesting blackmail storyline and a superbly conveyed noirish atmosphere of pure suspense. The central performance from Dirk Bogarde is terrific. It’s an intricate, complex storyline that also includes numerous unpredictable twists and turns toward the end. It mixes thriller elements with the character drama mostly successfully all the while being impressively nuanced and daring for the time.
7. The Collector
William Wyler directed The Collector so well while the script was excellent. This is a terrific adaptation of a seminal work, one that felt suitably streamlined and thrilling in its approach. Samantha Eggar was excellent as Miranda, but it is Terence Stamp who steals the movie in the main role, being suitably menacing and disturbed. The superb cinematography and a strikingly diverse score that fitted the varied tone were the other highlights in this underrated gem. Both the book and the movie ended on their respective lists, which is a terrific feat for sure.
6. The Age of Innocence
This year I finished watching all Martin Scorsese films, and of the ones that I haven’t seen before, this one takes the cake as the best of the bunch. A story about the artifice and many constraints of the 19th century society, The Age of Innocence is a deeply emotional romance that benefited from such a powerful ending. This is a wonderful literary story that is populated by well developed characters and a strong drama at its core, but it was elevated to the status of great cinema thanks to gorgeous sets and costumes, a great score and highly artistic cinematography with the focus and coloring effects being particularly effective. This is one of the best and most underrated Martin Scorsese movies.
5. Grizzly Man
During the last quarter of 2024 I did a documentary marathon throughout the decades and 2005’s Grizzly Man was the best of those movies that I watched by a mile. It is a fascinating documentary about human nature and our relationship with the natural world and wild animals. Werner Herzog’s directing was phenomenal and the movie’s cinematography and editing are also top-notch. This film was a complex take on a very complicated figure that doesn’t paint him in black-and-white. Documentaries are supposed to make you think, which this one clearly did for me. It’s one of the director’s finest efforts.
4. My Dinner with Andre
My Dinner with Andre is a rare American drama from the eighties that is not only unique and experimental, but it has only become more relevant with age as the two men touch upon finding purpose in life and how we have all become desensitized and robotic in our behavior. Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn are very memorable while Louis Malle directed the movie with a lot of style and warmth. It’s a superbly edited and made film that is only on the surface plotless, but is actually quite deep and sophisticated. This was a recommendation from my partner and what a recommendation it was.
3. Oliver Twist
David Lean’s Oliver Twist is the quintessential take on this famous literary work. This is the film where almost everything clicked into place, leading to one incredible adaptation that should be a textbook example of how to properly handle an iconic novel. Lean’s directing is sublime, the editing is fantastic, the acting is fabulous, and the movie elevated the written story to this highly cinematic experience – the score and sound are superb, the production design is phenomenal and the black-and-white cinematography is not just striking and polished, but also evoking silent cinema in its expressiveness and artistry. This is a very faithful, moving and elegant adaptation and a classic by all means.
2. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is a Bollywood movie that has it all – it’s romantic, moving, inspirational and most importantly very funny. The performances are uniformly terrific. The characters arcs are so well realized. The overall narrative is a familiar one, but it’s elevated by excellent dialogue, some lovely messages and so much warmth in its approach. The lightweight road trip buddy comedy movie is something that Hollywood would do often back in the day, but now we have Bollywood to remind us of the many wonders that this type of film can offer. It’s an endearing crowd-pleaser that is almost impossible not to love. This movie was so incredible that it inspired me to watch more Indian movies in the future.
1. The Class
And the best movie I saw all year has to be this French masterpiece. I watched this one on my quest to watch all Oscar-nominated foreign films going backward in time and it really is an underrated gem. It offers a highly authentic look into your regular school class and everything that can go wrong for the poor teachers in them. The film has a documentarian approach to its storytelling as it clearly avoided moralizing or making any statements, but you can easily read between the lines here and you’ll find surprisingly conservative themes – it depicts the many issues that stem from multiculturalism, especially in the school environment, and it also effectively conveys that these overly pacifist, non-authoritative teaching methods will lead to nothing but a headache. This ranks among the best and most underrated modern French films.
Honorable Mentions:
New Nightmare – I finished all Elm Street movies this year and New Nightmare is my personal favorite of the franchise. It’s fun and funny, atmospheric and eerie, and so clever in its meta storytelling.
Shutter Island – Shutter Island is one of the most underrated Scorsese films, a movie where he fired on all cylinders when it comes to populist filmmaking, delivering such an entertaining, noirish and twisty story.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman – Though its structure did not fully work, but this movie adaptation is still a sumptuous, moody and memorable period piece that is ultimately quite unique.
Annie Get Your Gun – This western musical features a terrific soundtrack with a few genuine bangers, but it’s also truly entertaining and endearing in its silliness.
Battleground – Battleground is a very grounded and artistic take on WWII movies, a rare one from this period that stood the test of time and is still easy to admire.
