2024 Movies Ranked

10. Rebel Ridge (4 Stars)

A star-making performance from Aaron Pierre. You can catch this on Netflix.

9. The Order (4 Stars)

A throwback to the TNT thrillers I grew up watching. A solid thriller. Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult gave really great performances.

8. Challengers (4 Stars)

Caught this in South Dakota in an empty theater. The propulsion of the score does a lot of the heavy lifting, but I found some of the visuals striking. Overall, the music is strong enough for this to be in the top 10.

7. Conclave (4 Stars)

My favorite kind of movie.

6. Small Things Like These (4 Stars)

I loved this incredibly faithful adaptation of the best book I read in 2024.

5. Evil Does Not Exist (4 Stars)

I have no idea what happened, but I was deeply moved. The "Glamping Town Hall" scene may be my favorite scene of the year.

4. Red Rooms (4 Stars)

The most uncomfortable I have been watching a movie in 2024.

3. Anora (5 Stars)

This may be the most honest movie I've seen this year. Sure, the content portrayed was crude. Yet, without it, this funny, propulsive, and devastatingly sad movie would not be as honest or intellectually rigorous about power, wealth, and class in America. Everyone felt real to me, even in the most absurd of moments. Life is absurd. It's okay to acknowledge that. I wasn't sure how I felt about Anora until the final 15-20 minutes. Everything slowed down. We'd been running for 2 hours. Then, all I wanted to do was cry. Anora did, too. That felt real to me.

Ani (Anora) is a sex worker. She enters a "relationship" with the son of a Russian oligarch, and her "Cinderella story" begins. She rises and inevitably falls. She is constantly calculating but never in control, consumed by the power brokers who will never accept her. While she found her way into the upper echelon of society for a few fleeting weeks, we see the toll survival takes on her. We feel the reality of her future once the credits roll.

I wouldn't have watched this movie a few years ago. I may not have last year. I've changed a lot over the last 5-10 years of my life. In my Christian bubble growing up, I would've thought watching something with this content was wrong, that it would corrupt my soul. Now, I think it may be quite the opposite.

Honesty requires our attention, and that's why Anora deserves our time.

2. The Taste of Things (5 Stars)

This movie came out in 2023, so I'm cheating. However, it didn't come out in Knoxville until 2024, and it would have been my top movie of 2023 if I had watched it in time.

As someone who believes a meal has the power to change the world, I believe this movie is right up my alley. I loved everything about it, and as I write it, I'm second-guessing putting it in the #2 slot. Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel (who were together in real life for many years) delivered the best performances that I saw this year. The depth of their off-screen relationship shines through with an undeniable power.

Food and love are powerful. I found this to be an incredibly moving sensory experience.

1. Dune: Part 2 (5 Stars)

LISAN AL GAIB!

The Taste of Things was the only movie that came close to dethroning Dune: Part 2. However, this was unquestionably the best theater-going experience I had in 2024. Dune is one movie away from being in the question for the best trilogy ever. It is already more consistent than Star Wars. Despite the weirdness of what I have heard is coming, if this sticks the landing, only the LOTR trilogy is really in the conversation.

The iconography this plays with is incredible, and the amount of world-building accomplished over two movies is astounding.

Yes, Timothée Chalamet cements himself as the best young star in Hollywood. Still, the side characters bring so much life to this story. Javier Bardem, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Léa Seydoux, Austin Butler. Everyone is interesting. This is so rare.

I had a blast. I've watched it 3 times already. I may watch it again this week. What a picture!