After last year’s bounty of great cinema, Hollywood observers expected an inevitable letdown for 2024. Now that we are a little more than halfway through the year, those prognostications look accurate. The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year resulted in a significant drop in output. And despite some occasional bright spots (Inside Out 2, Twisters), movie theater box office remains mostly anemic.
Still, moviedom hasn’t been entirely glum. At this halfway mark, here are the best films I have seen so far in 2024…
20 Late Night with the Devil
In a year that has already seen a spate of worthwhile horror pictures, the year’s most unique exemplar is Late Night with the Devil. Filmmaking brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes send up demonic possession — Satan, by the way, is having a big-screen moment in 2024 — ensconced within a pitch-perfect satire of 1970s’ late night TV talk shows. Come to think of it, Dick Cavett sorta did look a bit devilish.
19 An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th
A handful of documentaries have done a credible job chronicling the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, but none have matched the ambition of Marc Levin’s An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th. In detailing the deadliest act of homegrown domestic terrorism in U.S. history, the film packs a wealth of interviews while managing to tell its many stories succinctly and clearly.
18 Drive-Away Dolls
I dearly miss the filmmaking partnership of brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. Oh, sure, I suppose I get their separation. I mean, I love my older brother and all, but I can’t imagine having to collaborate with him. Drive-Away Dolls doesn’t fully satisfy my inner Coen brother fandom, but it’ll have to do for now. Directed by Ethan Coen from a script he co-wrote with wife Tricia Cooke, the comedy stars Geraldine Viswanathan and Margaret Qualley as mismatched lesbian friends – one is uptight, the other freewheeling – who embark on a road trip. Hijinks ensue, there’s a mix-up of suitcases and before long the pair are being chased by murderous bad guys. Looser and more shambling than anything the Coens ever devised, Drive-Away Dolls is distinct for its abundance of dildos (yes, dildos) and winking queer sensibility.
17 Immaculate
Sydney Sweeney plays an American nun newly arrived at an Italian convent who soon finds herself pregnant despite being a virgin. Is it a miracle, as her priest and fellow nuns proclaim, or is something more nefarious afoot? Immaculate doesn’t really keep you guessing, since the convent in question is sketchier than a housewarming party at P Diddy’s. No matter. Director Michael Mohan dishes up sinister atmospherics and requisite jump scares with aplomb. It helps that Sweeney is all in, particularly for a truly batshit crazy finale.
16 MaXXXine
This final installment in writer-director Ti West’s X trilogy is my least favorite of the three, but only because X and Pearl are so damned awesome. MaXXXine is still great fun. A gory sendup of a sleazy, cocaine-addled Hollywood circa 1985, the picture only wobbles, as so many horror flicks invariably do, in the third act. Mia Goth is all sex and danger as a porn star on the cusp of a mainstream breakthrough if she can dodge her shady past. Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Debecki deserve props for standout supporting performances.
15 Secret Mall Apartment
In 2003, a small group of Providence, R.I., artists led by a free spirit named Michael Townsend held a furtive protest to the gentrification of a mega mall: They fashioned a covert apartment deep inside the bowels of the Providence Place Mall. Documentarian Jeremy Workman captures the impish charm of Townsend’s four-year prank, but Secret Mall Apartment leads to more expansive questions of what constitutes art in the first place.
14 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Its box-office failure notwithstanding, this prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road is a banger, as the kids say. Few moviemakers rival Australia’s George Miller for dystopian world-building and beautifully choreographed action sequences. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga‘s most bravura set piece is a high-speed siege on a humongous tanker truck. Anya Taylor-Joy is game as the titular Furiosa, taking over for Charlize Theron from 2015’s Fury Road, but the scene stealer here is Chris Hemsworth in an uncharacteristic performance of comic bluster.
13 Robot Dreams
Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger’s animated tale of a dog and his mail-order robot is likely to fill you with yearning the next time you hear Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic “September.” Robot Dreams is dialogue free, but it speaks volumes about friendship, loneliness and longing. “Lovely” is batted around a lot by critics, but there is no better description for this gem.
12 Hit Man
His name is Glen Powell, and the sooner you accept him into your heart, the better off we’ll all be. The actor of the moment stars in (and co-wrote) Hit Man, and it affords him an opportunity to demonstrate some serious acting chops. Loosely based on the real-life story of Gary Johnson, a Houston undercover cop who posed as a contract killer to would-be criminals, the Richard Linklater-directed picture is equal parts screwball comedy, romcom and neo-noir thriller. Thanks to Powell, co-star Adria Arjona and the ever-versatile Linklater, Hit Man excels in all three.
11 Longlegs
If Longlegs fails to match the expectations of the ingenious marketing campaign by Neon, it is only because … how could it not? Still, the first two-thirds of Oz Perkins’ serial killer-meets-the-occult thriller is thoroughly menacing and often scary, a meticulously composed blend of chilling (and chilly) imagery and densely layered sound. Maika Monroe further solidifies her horror-queen bona fides as a rookie FBI agent assigned to a decades-old serial killer case. Monroe’s taciturn performance is perfect, a yin to the histrionic yang of Nicolas Cage as the WTF title character.
10 Oddity
Writer-director Damian McCarthy takes his time building dread in this paranormal-rich Irish import. Most of Oddity’s lean plot unfolds between a fantastically spooky, old country home and an asylum for the criminally insane. Still, the embrace of such tried-and-true horror tropes rarely feels derivative. It takes real moxie on McCarthy’s part to let the suspense simmer so gradually. And that creepy wooden mannequin …
9 Civil War
Alex Garland’s what-if thriller polarized critics for its rejection of current political realities, particularly its conceit that California and Texas would join forces against a fascist president. OK, I get it; I concede Garland is dabbling in an alternate universe — although there are certainly clues as to where the filmmaker’s sympathies lie. The movie’s central concern is what a modern-day civil war in this country would look like, and on that count, Civil War is legitimately terrifying (and not only because the nation feels too damn close to one). Kirsten Dunst delivers an arguably career-best performance as a seasoned photojournalist, with Cailee Spaeny nearly as good as her protégé, The picture reminds us of the critical role of an often-maligned news media.
8 I Saw the TV Glow
This confounding movie by writer-director Jane Schoenbrun is not for all tastes. I Saw the TV Glow plays out like a Lynchian fever dream bathed in purples and blues. Justice Smith portrays an anxiety-ridden suburban teen who connects with a slightly older lesbian student over a TV program called The Pink Opaque. The picture ostensibly explores the lifeline that pop culture can provide angsty young people, but its larger — and more powerful — preoccupation is the agony of being trapped in an ersatz identity. “Isn’t that a show for girls?” Smith’s onscreen father (played by Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst) says about The Pink Opaque in a moment of casual cruelty. I Saw the TV Glow is sure to resonate most urgently with transgender viewers, but the paradoxes it examines are heartbreakingly universal. Its ending will linger with you.
7 Ghostlight
If viewers can accept the contrivance that the father of a theater kid would not be familiar with Romeo and Juliet, Ghostlight offers rewards aplenty. Keith Kupferer plays an emotionally repressed, blue-collar dad of a family that has endured major trauma. Through a series of circumstances, he becomes involved with a local theater troupe. Ghostlight directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson elicit Oscar-caliber performances from Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer (Keith’s onscreen and offscreen daughter) and Dolly De Leon as the leader of the amateur thespians. In the end, the movie is a heartfelt ode to the therapeutic nature of art and how it can be a bridge to empathy.
6 Kinds of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos returns to his pre-Poor Things brand of cringe in this three-part anthology exploring themes of dominance, rejection and cruelty. To be sure, there isn’t much kindness in the script by Lanthimos and his frequent writing partner, Efthimis Filippou. Perverse, unsettling and hilariously deadpan, Kinds of Kindness makes clear that Emma Stone is obliged to do weird dances in all future collaborations with the director. Stone admirably lets her freak flag fly, but she is upstaged by co-star Jesse Plemons. Perhaps it is inevitable that the guy who played Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son in The Master appears ready to carry on that late actor’s legacy as the chameleon of his generation.
5 Thelma
Writer-director Josh Margolin made Thelma to honor his grandmother, and the love is evident – as is the filmmaker’s keen understanding of aging. There is thankfully precious little caricature about the nonagenarian titular character. As portrayed by 94-year-old June Squibb, Thelma is open-hearted and feisty, but she is also impetuous and occasionally foolish. After being scammed out of $10,000, Thelma sets out to get her money back, fueling the movie’s gentle riff on the Mission: Impossible franchise. Squibb is wonderful, but Thelma is generous to its entire cast, particularly Fred Hechinger as a devoted grandson, Parker Posey as a frazzled daughter and the late Richard Roundtree, Shaft himself, as Thelma’s reluctant co-conspirator.
4 Challengers
My enthusiasm for Challengers might not be as rapturous as that of most movie critics, but there is no denying that this tennis-centric love triangle is deliriously entertaining. As the tennis maven loved by two friends-turned-rivals, Zendaya is the narrative catalyst here, but the meatier roles go to Mike Faist and (especially) Josh O’Connor as her conniving suitors. Challengers is sly, sexy and propelled in no small measure by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ propulsive score (seriously, the music is outstanding and nearly another character). Luca Guadagnino’s direction is kinetic, clearly in command of style and tone.
3 Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
The film with the most daunting title here is also the most surprisingly charming. Quebec director Ariane Louis-Seize, working from a script she co-wrote with Christine Doyon, spins a delightfully droll comedy starring Sara Montpetit as a brooding 68-year-old vampire — which makes her a teenager, by human standards — whose refusal to kill for blood has made her an outlier of her blood-sucking family. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is quirky, certainly, but so much more, from its richly drawn characters to Shawn Pavlin’s luxuriant cinematography.
2 Dune: Part Two
What is there to add about Dune: Part Two that hasn’t already been said? The second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic is an elegantly constructed epic reminiscent of the best of David Lean. The film’s world-building and set pieces are spectacular, and yet the spectacle is always in service of character and story. The scene of Timothée Chalamet riding the sandworm alone is worth the price of admission, and a testament to Villeneuve’s mastery of turning special effects into an immersive cinematic experience. Chalamet, by the way, is excellent as ambiguous messiah (or is he?) Paul Atreides, but the ensemble cast also includes terrific turns by Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Zendaya, Josh Brolin and a very un-Elvis-like Austin Butler.
1 Love Lies Bleeding
This is pure pulp for now people. Echoing the lurid literary worlds of James M. Cain and Elmore Leonard, Love Lies Bleeding is irresistibly nasty neo-noir. The violence is gnarly, the sex is hot, and the atmospherics are unerringly sleazy. Director Rose Glass’ sophomore outing reaffirms the critical accolades she received for the 2019 horror outing, Saint Maud. Here, the script by Glass and co-writer Weronika Tofilska sets in motion a murder that only escalates the dubious decision-making of its characters. The cast is phenomenal. Kristen Stewart’s intelligence is palpable, but the biggest surprise is Katy O’Brian stealing her every scene as a volatile bodybuilder whose arrival in a New Mexico border town ignites chaos. The supporting cast is absurdly strong, with Ed Harris having a blast as Stewart’s crime-boss father and Dave Franco as a no-good, abusive husband.
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 