Best of 2024

Top Ten Movies of 2024

/ / Top Tens & Lists

2024 wasn’t as top-heavy as some years, but there was a wide variety of good movies. Here’s a look back at my favorites from those movies I was lucky enough to view this year. Despite my best efforts there will always be some not included here if access was limited, the film wasn’t released in time for review before the end of 2024, the film wasn’t made available for awards consideration, or I simply ran out of time. Likely some of those other films you’ll see reviews for later in 2025 but they are not in consideration here. Here then, is my list of the best movies of 2024.

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A Complete Unknown

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: A Complete Unknown
  • IMDb: link

“You’re kind of an asshole, Bob.”

There’s a scene between Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) after their first night together that sums up the themes of the movie succinctly. Returning to music over her, while also offering an offhand dismissal of her work, Bob still brings her back to his bed through his songwriting. In a nutshell, just as Ms. Baez so eloquently puts it, Bob is indeed an asshole. However, he’s one hell of a talented asshole.

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Conclave

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Conclave
  • IMDb: link

Far less silly than Angels & Demons (at least until its final ten minutes), and with less conspiracy and murder, Conclave tackles the election of a new pope by the sequestered College of Cardinals. Our main protagonist throughout events is Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) who despite his recent religious struggles finds himself in charge of the proceedings where he sides with the more modern liberal candidates (Stanley Tucci and Lucian Msamati) for the open position over other candidates (John Lithgow and Sergio Castellitto).

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Hundreds of Beavers

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Hundreds of Beavers
  • IMDb: link

Basically a live-action WB cartoon whose plot could easily star Porky Pig or Daffy Duck mixed with a bit of low-budget gameplay, the slapstick Hundreds of Beavers introduces us to an applejack salesman turned fur trapper after the factory is destroyed by beavers. Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) is forced to reinvent himself as he learns, with much trial and error, to survive the wilderness, hunt rabbits and beavers, outsmart racoons, and avoid wolves (all of which are played by humans dressed in mascot costumes walking around on their hindlegs which help give the film its unique charm).

The film is wacky nonsense from beginning to end, but director Mike Cheslik‘s bizarre little film (shot in black-and-white on a shoestring budget) is an incredibly creative and enjoyable bit of wacky nonsense.

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Flow

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Flow
  • IMDb: link

Sometimes you search an entire year in vain for the film which will allow you to fall in love with cinema, and what it can be, all over again. Flow is that perfect film. Springing from the mind of writer/director Gints Zilbalodis and co-writer Matiss Kaza, Flow follows a nameless black cat, and the various other animals he will meet along the way, in the mostly abandoned woodland setting where a flood will displace everything. Featuring no humans, nor narration or dialogue of any language, Flow is a survival story told through its use of real animal sounds, and the sounds of the surroundings, helping to bring the characters and their world to life.

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