If you’ve been reading But Why Tho? for some time, then you know that our list of top movies of 2024 is rarely a standard affair. Our group looks at every genre, age, range, and international film across the calendar. With so many amazing films this year, narrowing it down has been hard. Still, our staff chose the top 25 movies of 2024 that pull together animation, two Luca Guadagnino entries, action innovators, a pope, somber dramas, deep looks at faith, and much more.
In order for a film to make our top movies of 2024 list, it had to have a release either on streaming or in theaters during the calendar year of 2024 (January to December). This means films that were only screened at festivals could not be added, but a theatrical run is not necessary to be included. This, unfortunately, means that one film that ranked high across our staff’s lists, No Other Land, is ineligible. That said, it deserves a loud, honorable mention.
Without further ado, here are the top movies of 2024.
25. Queer
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
“Craig’s brilliant, lived-in performance exudes inner tumult and torment, breathing delirious life into a man who can’t help but eat himself alive. Equal parts funny and tragic, Craig’s Lee is a victim of need, love, and intimacy, condemned to seek but never find. In a wild departure from his tenure as James Bond, Queer offers Craig his finest and meatiest performance.
The impossibly handsome Starkey excels as an enigma, so easy to look at but impossible to define. In a star-making turn, Starkey comes to embody the type of rare dream figure we can vividly remember but whose intangibility haunts us. The two leads keep us grounded and committed in surreal moments threatening to jar in the film’s third-act jungle trek. Unrecognizable turns from Jason Schwartzman and Lesley Manville round out the cast with hilarity and oddity.
Queer is part surreal character study, part intoxicating romance, but all Guadagnino. He puts his unique stamp on Burroughs’s deeply personal work, finding that love, not dope, is the most difficult addiction to curb.” —Prabhjot Bains
Queer is in theaters now.
24. The Wild Robot
Director: Chris Sanders
Writer: Chris Sanders and Peter Brown
Studio: Dreamworks
“A true all-ages film, The Wild Robot sees even its youngest audiences as worthy of dramatic storytelling and dynamic emotions. It trusts them to understand the narrative without musical numbers or exposition. Instead, it immerses its audience, young and old, and makes you feel deeply for its characters. You can identify with Roz, Brightbill, and Fink. Or, you can even find yourself in the spaces in between. With a stunning cast of characters and performances that never felt phoned in or stunted for the star power, it reflected that my heart was bigger on the inside.
Family is what you make it, what it chooses it to be. The Wild Robot understands that nurture is stronger than nature and that our parents imprint on us as much as we do them. But more importantly, it doesn’t matter if we share our DNA. The Wild Robot solidifies the beauty and impact that Dreamworks has been delivering in animation. It’s the animation we need right now, and it feels like they know that.” —Kate Sánchez
The Wild Robot is available to rent on Prime Video and will be available on Peacock in 2025.
23. Civil War
Director: Alex Garland
Writer: Alex Garland
“In that way, Garland’s primary focus is on protecting journalists. The war itself is not as interesting as the towns the group visits or the animosity that the journalists face. There is no difference on either side. Everyone is trying to kill each other, and those attempting to just show the atrocities fall at the bottom…
Ultimately, Civil War (2024) is an overwhelming experience. It captures the importance of journalism but also the fragility of life on the frontline and how easy it is for someone to jump into the fray in your place—all to capture the shot. By choosing to come into the Civil War at the end of it, Alex Garland boldly chooses to simply use the War as a backdrop and let his characters carry his pro-journalist message loud and clear.” —Kate Sánchez
Civil War is streaming now on MAX and Hulu.
22. Conclave
Director: Edward Berger
Writer: Peter Straughan
“Conclave finds Fiennes in top form as a high-ranking member of the Vatican, disillusioned by the stringent structure of the faith he holds dear. Both combustive and kind, Fiennes lends depth and colour to a character attempting to spur change while being beholden to its traditions. Tucci, Lucian Msamati, and John Lithgow all turn in taut, riveting work, but it’s Castellitto’s theatrical Tedesco who steals our attention. It’s a performance that’s both loud and subtle, commanding rooms with the smallest of mannerisms.
Isabella Rossellini’s Sister Agnes speaks volumes with a muted presence. Her limited screentime comments on the limitations imposed on the role of women in the Catholic Church and other various institutions. When she does speak, it’s direct, taking the form of bombshells. Rossellini doesn’t allow her character to be sidelined, often controlling the frame with her stoic, unreadable face.
Each intense exchange doubles as dynamite in Conclave, rigged to ignite a conversation that desperately needs to be held in an increasingly hostile and resistant world. It’s the rare thriller that champions mystery and debate— and, like its hero, hopes we understand that ‘certainty is the deadly enemy of unity and tolerance.’” —Prabhjot Bains
Conclave is available now to rent on Prime Video.
21. Flow
Director: Gints Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaza
Writer: Gints Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaza
Studio: Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five
“The most incredible visual moments come every time you least expect a major turning point in the movie. Flow has a keen sense of when to give just a little bit of human characteristic to the animals’ movements and personalities. For the most part, a cat is a cat, but every now and then, a cat will do something a little extraordinary to make them feel more relatable. While this sometimes contributes to the movie’s uncanniness on a textual level, it always delivers seamlessly in the visuals.
Flow is a simple, thrilling, and thought-inducing movie. Its strange cast of nearly silent characters may all be animals, but their traits will teach you how to be human. Every step in their journey begs you to ask how you would act in similar circumstances. And because the movie never over-explains those circumstances, you’re left with an eerie feeling that it may not be long before humanity has to confront these same questions of belonging, community, and survival ourselves.” —Jason Flatt
20. Hard Truths
Director: Mike Leigh
Writer: Mike Leigh
“Director Mike Leigh has the innate ability to cut us to the core with micro observations and honest depictions of romantic or platonic relationships. In Hard Lives, Leigh continues to find humanity and empathy in even the most unlikable characters.
Reuniting with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the two create a character bothered by everything. From grocery clerks to her dentist to her son and husband, she lets no slight grievance go in favor of loudly berating any she sees fit. The world is out to get her, and her only means of dealing with it is to be in constant fight or flight mode, with emphasis on the fight.
Jean-Baptiste is extraordinary in the role, and her prickly chemistry with her onscreen sister, played by Michele Austin, is tremendously lived in and familiar. While the screenplay is tight and fast-paced, finding unexpected humor throughout, it’s Jean-Baptiste’s show. How she maintains sympathy through suggested hurt and poorly concealed vulnerability is heart-aching, even if we’re just as sympathetic towards whoever she’s currently complaining about.”
19. Heretic
Director: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
Writer: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
“East’s Sister Paxton is a necessary dose of comedic relief and joy when paired with Reed and Thatcher’s Sister Barnes. She remains the beacon of hope amidst the darkness in these trials, with Thatcher’s more nuanced, serious Barnes serving as a force meant to challenge. While Grant is very much in his element in Heretic, East and Barnes ensure they are not steamrolled. Instead, they both shine equally, opposite to Grant’s overt trickster energy.
For some, Heretic may prove an exercise in patience. This is an incredibly wordy script framed mostly as a theological debate, something that easily sparks tension just from the subject matter. With Hugh Grant’s sadistic, theologically obsessed villain, that’s enough to silence haters. Or at least, it may be enough to convince anyone to endure conversations that remind them of awkward holiday family dinners.” —Sarah Musnicky
Heretic is available to rent on Prime Video and VOD.
18. Look Back
Director: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
Writer: Kiyotaka Oshiyama, based on the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto
Studio: Studio Durian
“At only 58 minutes, Look Back is an anime film that offers emotion over everything. In that small runtime, Studio Durian pulls in its audience, makes us care deeply for the lead girls turned women, and asks us to think like Fujino does. We are asked to think about the way one choice can shape a life.
How can it give meaning, or how can we force ourselves to believe it has taken it away? In under an hour, Studio Durian has given audiences a quintessential look at regret and what it looks like to move forward while still looking back.
Look Back tackles sentiments of inferiority, depression, and friendship. It also looks at grief and surviving after it in a nuanced way that punches beyond its 58-minute run time. We are looking into a small window of Fujino and Kyomoto’s lives, but through it, we’re experiencing the depth that one relationship can hold and the transformative power it can have on our lives.” —Kate Sánchez
Look Back is available on Prime Video.
17. The Substance
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Writer: Coralie Fargeat
“…The Substance is perhaps the grossest, nastiest thing to come out this year. With pedal-to-the-metal performances from all, horrifyingly creative gore, goo, and everything in between, and a narrative and thematically unique and fresh fable, The Substance is a knockout.
On the surface, it’s an untamed, gruesome body horror containing nonstop entertainment to no end. But its mastermind Fargeat, nearing her 50s herself, ensures this tale contains much deeper connotations and a serious social commentary. And when looking past the blood, bodily fluids, and carnage, it’s a bleak and woeful reality that could use more films like this to spur more constant conversation, lest things are fated never to evolve or change.” —Anna Miller
The Substance is available to rent on Prime Video.
16. Hit Man
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer:Richard Linklater, Glen Powell
“At its core, Hit Man is about the nature of self and identity, and whether it is constructed by society or oneself. Gary’s conundrum lies in reconciling these two opposing forces, with Ron’s confidence and suave style seeping into his daily life and changing the makeup of who he truly is— in a funny moment, his students remark “When did our teacher get hot?”
In this way, Hit Man posits that transformation is not so much a process of complete change but balance, as who we were five, even ten years ago is still an integral part of the changed person we are now. Linklater filters this through a noirish, Coen-esque lens that renders the film darkly uplifting in the best way.
Moreover, Linklater’s direction never allows the tone to falter or the gags to become slapstick. His laid-back, hidden style—perhaps too hidden— allows the story to take precedence and be that much more effective. He lets us see how love and hate are two sides of the same coin, and passion is what dictates what side lands face up. Though Hit Man isn’t the most visually stirring film, it’s a story that will stay with you, just as much as its kinetic lead performance.” —Prabhjot Bains
Hit Man is streaming now on Netflix.
15. All We Imagine as Light
Director: Payal Kapadia
Writer: Payal Kapadia
“With a jazzy sound most of the time, the music builds a triumphant energy, breaking what could otherwise become monotonous about the women’s daily lives. Its apparent otherness in the crowded city makes it feel like another world is possible. And All We Imagine as Light eventually makes it so, even if it requires some surrealism.
All We Imagine as Light is a deceptively quiet drama with a loud point of view. It transcends its small place in time to help demonstrate a world as it could be through unwavering sisterhood, a willingness to see outside of one’s own perspective, and the rare opportunity to go physically beyond your regular confines. When these elements combine, the characters’ soft support for one another lights up an otherwise dark world.” —Jason Flatt
14. Dune: Part Two
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writer: Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
“Dune: Part Two is not an easy pill to swallow. That’s what makes it such an essential film. Denis Villeneuve delivers a harrowing warning to audiences about the true cost of the narrative we’re fed. Dune: Part Two refuses to be misinterpreted; its bravura spectacle is simply the delivery system for a story.
In other words, Dune: Part Two matches the second part of the book on which it’s based. Both “parts” of Villeneuve’s grand vision form a watershed moment in sci-fi. More specifically, it takes the bones of extraterrestrial melodrama and simplicity that define a space opera and builds onto it to the point of becoming something new entirely.
By refusing to shy away from the novel’s prescient themes, Dune: Part Two redefines the very notion of a space opera. Consequently, in an era where heroism and saviors are taken at face value, Dune: Part Two redefines what kind of stories blockbusters can tell.” —James Preston Pool
Dune: Part Two is streaming now on MAX.
13. Evil Does Not Exist
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Writer: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Eiko Ishibashi
“The natural world reacts to trauma in Evil Does Not Exist. It’s fitting, considering the ecological thriller backing the story. But part of what makes the film so hypnotic is how Hamaguchi captures the bruised underbelly of this world with delicacy and almost too much of a sleight hand. We know all too well that evil does exist in this world, man-made and vitally resistant to listening to the notes of the world that we’re burning. Hamaguchi captures that withering despair through tired performances and frames with empty space, decaying in plain view.
Evil Does Not Exist might not be Hamaguchi’s best film, but it’s a startling entry into his already prominent filmography. With greater anger than we’ve seen in his scripts, the filmmaker weaves a mournful plea by giving nature a voice and rendering his human characters helpless against change. Aided tremendously by Ishibashi’s herculean work, the notes of this story will linger with you.” —Allyson Johnson
Evil Does Not Exist is available to rent now on Prime Video.
12. Hundreds of Beavers
Director: Mike Cheslik
Writer: Mike Cheslik, Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
“There is no movie like Hundreds of Beavers. It’s great because it’s hilarious, but more so, it’s great because it’s completely novel. It builds on 100+ years of film humor, merging the stylings of Buster Keaton and Looney Toons with a modern sensibility, but it’s not pastiche or parody. It’s simply Hundreds of Beavers.
Every time you think a joke has run its course, the movie finds a new way to circle back with an exclamation mark. Its level of creativity is unmatched. Grab a group of friends and laugh your way through this experience as quickly as you can.”
Hundreds of Beavers is available to rent on Prime Video.
11. The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Writer: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
“Daniel Blumberg’s score defies categorization. Haunting at one moment and stirring the next, it’s full of kinetic, warped notes that glide through the frame and unearth the decay beneath it. It’s an auditory feat as epic, layered, and enveloping as the film it underpins.
Though the first half of Corbet’s film is better than the second, the two are crucial parts of a breathtaking whole. From the film it’s captured on to the depth of each frame, The Brutalist is perfection that breathes. Corbet cements what is already a seminal entry into the canon of great American epics.” —Prabhjot Bains
10. Twisters
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Writer: Mark L. Smith, Joseph Kosinski
“As a film, Twisters is simple, and despite Powell’s strength as a secondary character, Edgar-Jones’ Kate is equally as strong. While we see her life implode in the first minutes of the film, we see the intricate ways in which those events shape her, stunt her, and create her moral core. Kate may not be as charismatic as Powell’s Tyler but her intelligence and vulnerability make her an easy reflection for the audience.
Twisters is the first good disaster movie in a long while. It’s got acres of twisting damage but also acres of heart. The ensemble cast of characters pushes the story, the costuming and set design craft an immersive slice of America, and the soundtrack that you chase the tornado to sets an unforgettable stage. This is an Amblin blockbuster with all the positives attached to it from that banner. Twisters is exactly why you go to the movies.” —Kate Sánchez
Twisters is streaming now on Paramount+.
9. A Different Man
Director: Aaron Schimberg
Writer: Aaron Schimberg
“It’s an ugly dynamic not often seen in film, and the very nature of the concepts A Different Man wishes to explore gets the blood pumping to a notable degree. Another wrinkle A Different Man adds is exploitation. Despite her seeming benevolence, Renate Reinsve’s Ingrid is an unsavory figure.
She steals Edward’s life story for a play, almost allows it to go through with a man without deformities (the transformed Guy), and almost fetishizes Oswald. These are the people who are different in any way and have to perform for you. Will you be an Oswald and make the most of it, or will it drive you further into the abyss, like Edward?
A Different Man will linger with you far after the credits roll. Its hard-to-swallow, blackly comedic take on exploitation, self-hatred, and jealousy is unlike anything else in the movies. Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson are a duo for the ages. More importantly, they’re a vessel for questions Aaron Schimberg wants the audience to have at the forefront of their minds. The question is: will you dare to try and find an answer?” —James Preston Pool
A Different Man is available to rent on Prime Video.
8. Anora
Director: Sean Baker
Writer: Sean Baker
“As funny as Anora is, it’s equally devastating, manifesting as a scathing inversion of the Pretty Woman fantasy. It continues Baker’s class-conscious exploration of the lives of sex workers with great pathos, often inventively pulling the rug from under its characters just when we think they’ve figured it out.
Anora understands the game is rigged, and the American Dream is a hokey script written by someone else. It’s perhaps why Baker leans toward such authenticity and honesty, crafting something so immersive that it might as well be a mirror.
Ani tells Igor, “In America, we don’t give meaning to names,” and that attitude defines the unfair, exploitative system we live in. With its screwball tale, Anora contends that maybe we should start looking deeper at the cracks before our own dreams are put to bed.” —Prabhjot Bains
Anora is available to rent on Prime Video.
7. Memoir of a Snail
Director: Adam Elliot
Writer: Adam Elliot
Studio: Arenamedia, Snails Pace Films
“Memoir of a Snail is a dark film, and there is no way around that. It makes you laugh with a morbid sense of humor that understands the need for levity throughout its runtime as it also lands gut punches. The pacing of the film feels like breathing. We experience Gracie’s trauma, and then we see her gain safety and love, then we see trauma, and then we see her try to recover again, and it cycles that way with each recovery harder and harder to pull off. This loop pays off with a finale that feels so extremely earned by an audience who has just been put through an emotional wringer. It’s a relief for Gracie and for us.
While the festival synopsis calls Memoir of a Snail heartwarming, I don’t know if that phrase adequately captures Gracie’s journey. Sure, she winds up on the other side of trauma, but the pathway there is difficult and long, a hot desert to walk through before ultimately finding a semblance of peace. Heartwarming isn’t what I would call it, but I would call Memoir of a Snail cathartic. Gracie’s traumatic experiences are hyperbolic and mostly humorous when looked at from our perspective.
Memoir of a Snail is the perfect balance between depressing and funny, highlighting the depth that animation can provide as a medium. There is more to animation than joyful, vibrant children’s films, and when we embrace it to tall, intimate stories, we let the medium expand. One of the best of the year, this stop-motion film is show-stoppingly weird and a must-watch.” —Kate Sánchez
Memoir of a Snail is available to rent on Prime Video.
6. Nickel Boys
Director: RaMell Ross
Writer: RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Colson Whitehead
“There’s a scene so rapt with tension, so fast pace as perspectives slingshot this way and that, that you immediately wonder how Ross and editor Nicholas Monsour managed such a feat. And isn’t that the mark of good cinema? To question just how the creators managed to fool us or perform some visual trickery that seems technically impossible.
By challenging the form and embracing the medium for all its dynamic flexibility, Nickel Boys, through Ross’s thoughtful handling, helps redefine filmmaking. Nickel Boys pushes viewers into a new type of immersive storytelling as we sit and reflect on the horrors of history that have led to the horrors of now; we watch and mourn these characters and their tragic fates at the hands of a profoundly broken and racist system.
Nickel Boys is breathtaking in its suffocating beauty. Transcendent and painful, Ross performs magic and delivers a story that’s as hauntingly heartbreaking as it is visually arresting. There’s nothing else quite like it.” —Allyson Johnson
5. A Real Pain
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Writer: Jesse Eisenberg
“A Real Pain isn’t about whose pain is working but about bridging the gap between David and Benji. Resiliency doesn’t manifest in one way. Both cousins are making it through life the only way they know how, and the empathy between them is how they get through it together. The film isn’t about anything spectacular in what it shows. It’s a stripped-down slice-of-life film that is about people. It’s deeply about people and the layers of pain that cake onto their lives over time. It’s a generational story without harping on the past, but instead, looking to the present, see how the ripples have carried through the lives of the newer generations.
An unassuming film, A Real Pain will stay with those who carry their family’s trauma buried underneath their own weeping. Not because you’re sad but because it’s a mirror at times. Jesse Eisenberg has created a personal story that resonates. Not all pain is equal, but it doesn’t stop any of it from being there.” —Kate Sánchez
A Real Pain is available on DVD.
4. Kill
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Writer: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, Ayesha Syed
“Yet, it’s not all mindless bloodletting. There’s an emotional core that grounds the film and gives weight to the film’s wanton carnage. Amrit isn’t a stoic, glazed-over combatant but is emotionally vulnerable, as he’s made to have real skin in the game, making the barbaric lengths he goes to destroy his enemy even more satisfying. Bhat imbues the story with heart and is a true achievement given how much chaos the film is enveloped in— with its opening, Bollywood melodrama adding the right amount of fuel to its blazing fire…
Kill (2023) mines a whole lot from its single location, injecting a new form of action into India’s storied film industry. It’s a rare film that commands viewers to get as vocal as possible and relish each second of its riotous and brilliant bloodbath. Bhat has created the type of movie that theatres were first made for, one that will be revisited for years to come.” —Prabhjot Bains
Kill is available to stream on Prime Video.
3. Sing Sing
Director:Jane Schoenbrun
Writer: Jane Schoenbrun
“Men, especially Black and Latin men, aren’t encouraged to cry or be vulnerable. They bury their hurt and their grief to be “men” as defined by their culture. But that doesn’t have to be the reality. In Sing Sing, vulnerability is not only the goal but also a deeply held value embraced by all involved.
There are not enough words to describe Sing Sing’s importance as a film. It’s a testament to the men who put on a comedy with Egyptian princes, pirates, time travel, Freddy Krueger, and Hamlet. It honors their talent and life, but more importantly, it honors all of those who still have yet to make it home.
The film humanizes without infantilizing and always puts its subjects first. Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley‘s approach to telling this story is stunning. In a landscape that refuses to see these men and their stories as anything but their trauma, Sing Sing tells us of their joy. The film breaks your heart and rebuilds it stronger than before.” —Kate Sánchez
2. Challengers
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
“Outside of the title cards denoting the changes in the set, they are used throughout the film to denote flashbacks, which happen way too often. Because of the strength of costuming and styling the characters, the shifts in time are noticeable without telling us exactly when things happened.
…The cinematography matches the look and feel of the tennis match as the love triangle grows. At the same time, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score is stellar. The synth beats like a live heart through Challengers. It sets the period, the atmosphere, and, ultimately, the pacing.
Skillfully directed, fantastically paced, and expertly acted, Challengers only stumbles when you remember what you were sold a ticket for. However, once you’re over that hurdle, it’s a sumptuous take on romance and sport that leaves you wanting more when the credits roll.” —Kate Sánchez
Challengers is available on MAX and Hulu.
1. I Saw The TV Glow
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Writer: Jane Schoenbrun
“For his part, Justice Smith is astounding. His performance is vulnerable and delicate, the voice he uses throughout the film always slightly wavering. I Saw The TV Glow is a clear example of the immense acting talent Smith has become.
The importance of centering him as a Black queer man in this queer story can’t be understated, especially as we look at the real statistics that show that Black trans people are killed and victims of violent crime at a disproportionate and alarming rate. The truth is that 90% of those killed in anti-trans hate crimes are people of color, and 61% are Black trans women. Smith’s performance is monumental because of the story being told and because of the strength of his talent as well…
I Saw The TV Glow has the legs to be a cult classic in the vein of the television series it immortalizes through The Pink Opaque. More importantly, it’s a queer story that is unlike any I’ve seen before. It invites every viewer to look inward, to stand in front of a mirror, and accept who they are.” —Kate Sánchez
I Saw The TV Glow is available on MAX and Hulu.
With so many movies, a few honorable mentions like His Three Daughters, Mars Express, and Love Lies Bleeding are narrowly missing spots on the top movies of the 2024 list. Did your favorite of the year make the list? Which would you add to the top movies of 2023? Let us know on social media: @butwhytho.net on Bluesky.
When available, the blurbs for The Top Movies of 2024 list were taken from previously posted reviews of the films. Otherwise, they were written for the film by the critic who voted it highest.