Top Seven Movies From 2024

TV & Film

Jan 15

Well, another year has come and gone. The movie industry is cautiously optimistic despite the lower box-office numbers compared to 2023, feeling that there is an upswing after the devastating years of Covid-related low attendance, straight-to-streaming, and the writers’ and actors’ strikes.

2024 was able to produce quality movie making, and by the second half of the year, people began going back to the theaters. Here we will take a look at the top seven movies of 2024.

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7. The Wild Robot

Based on the 2016 bestselling book by Peter Brown, this animated family film was written and directed by three-time Oscar nominee Chris Sanders. The Wild Robot was critically acclaimed and a box-office smash, becoming the number-two non-sequel movies of 2024, behind It Ends with Us.

Featuring the voices of Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames, this tells the story of the robot Roz, who is stranded on an uninhabited island and has to learn how to adapt to the environment. She also becomes the surrogate mother to an orphaned gosling. According to its website, The Wild Robot is a “powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things “.

6. A Complete Unknown

Directed by James Mangold, A Complete Unknown chronicles the rise of music icon Bob Dylan, from his arrival in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961 to his fateful performance at the Newport Music Festival. Starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, this film also features Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie. It also features a lot of Dylan’s music which Chalamet performs himself.

Chalamet was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote A Complete Unknown. He explained that it took over five years of being in production due to Covid and the industry strikes. Chalamet worked on other projects in the meantime, but this was his passion project.

5. A Real Pain

Like A Complete Unknown, A Real Pain is also a Fox Searchlight film, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who is also in the costarring role with Kieran Culkin. Called “a masterpiece” by The Guardian, this film explores the relationship between two cousins as they travel to Poland to retrace their grandmother’s life as she lived through the Holocaust.

Even though it could be mistaken for an odd-couple buddy travel comedy, ultimately, it proves much more than that. Using music played by Polish pianist Chopin, and an incredible Golden Globe performance by Culkin, it is also one of the few movies that was allowed to actually film at Majdanek, the infamous Polish death camp. And while the characters, and, in real life, Eisenberg as well, try to balance their contemporary problems against the backdrop of their ancestors’ battle for survival with third generation survivors’ guilt. And just like in real life, there is no easy ending.

4. Dune: Part II

Another film featuring the extremely talented Timothee Chalamet, this is the second part to the adaptation to Herbert Walker’s 1965 novel and sequel to the 2021 Dune, directed by Denis Villenueve and distributed by Legendary. With an almost 3-hour runtime, this film proved that moviegoers would be willing to sit through a quality show as this was the 5th-highest grossing film of the year.

This installment sees Paul Atreides aligning himself with the Fremen, learning their ways and absorbing their culture, but still moving toward war and becoming a figure that the Fremen were not expecting. Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Zendaya are among those who lend their talent to this epic film.

3. All We Imagine As Light

Set in Mumbai, India, this is the directorial debut of Payal Kapadia, who also was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Director Award. This film centers on the lives of two women who are nurses in the same hospital and the hospital cook: two are roommates, and the other is about to be homeless due to a builder who wants to knock down her home to build a skyscraper.

The nurses go with the cook to help her move back to her village, and while they are there, they come to terms with their lives. This film received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, and it stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon. Payal Kapadia also wrote the script, which is in Malayalam, Hindi, and Marathi, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film Award.

2. Nickel Boys

This harrowing movie, directed by RaMell Ross, who also co-wrote the script, was named one of the Top 10 Films of 2024 by the American Film Institute and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. It is based on the Pulitizer Prize winning 2019 novel, Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead. It tells the story of two Black teenagers who are sent to the notorious Dozier School for Boys in Florida in the blatantly segregated 1960s.

One boy who has been there awhile has a more realistic perspective of how the world works, while the newbie, who is educated and has been raised by a doting grandmother, has a more optimistic view of how things could be. Only one survives the ordeal. What makes this film all the more engaging is that it is shot from a first-person point-of-view: the viewer sees the world and action around them as the character sees his surroundings. This is definitely a gimmick that pulls the audience into the world of Turner and Elwood, and it is hard to leave them behind. This movie stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

1. The Brutalist

Starring Adrien Brody, this film, which runs at 3 1/2 hours (with a 15-minute intermission) examines the life of László Tóth, an architect who comes to the United States after World War II to rebuild his life, dreams, and relationship with his wife after the horrors of the Holocaust in his native Hungary. Settling in Pennsylvania, he soon realizes that America might not be as golden as what he’s heard either. After hearing about The Brutalist, I was reminded of Brody’s role in The Pianist - but this account is completely fictional, while The Pianist was based on true-life events.

Directed and co-written by Brady Corbet, The Brutalist, like A Complete Unknown, was delayed in its production by Covid, but according to Oliver Stone, RogerEbert.com, NPR, and Rotten Tomatoes, it has been worth the wait, as all of these film reviewers have said that this is their favorite, or, at least, one of the best films of 2024. David Fear in Rolling Stone says that it is “a bold, visionary, sweeping work of art.” Oscar Winner Adrien Brody won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, Brady Corbet won for Best Director, and the film won the Golden Globe for Best Move - Drama. Also starring Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce.

Here’s hoping that we get to see more great and artistic films in 2025!

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