Anora topped my list, La Chimera comes in second.
That surprises me, and I’m the guy who made the list.
If I had to guess, it’s because both movies were about weird, flawed and sometimes terrible people. Comedies in some scenes and heartrending dramas in other places.
Movies about people don’t always beat movies about action heroes — Endgame is a top 5 movie from 2019. And The Lord of the Rings Return of the King deserved all those Oscars.
But movies about something like real life can move you in a way that the genre pieces often can’t.
Anora Writer / Director Sean Baker gave us a film about someone who allowed herself to fall in love and believe in a dream. It’s a very modern, ridiculous dream but you can’t say she doesn’t keep the faith.
And with La Chimera writers Alice Rohrwacher (who directed), Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello deliver a waking dream of a movie about grief, and loss and trying to be better in a world that only wants to use you for what you can give them.
And it has an ending I adored.
Ok so, let’s talk about why I’m posting this now.
The answer is some of the movies that I thought would be in my personal top 10 were not yet released in North America on Dec. 31, 2024.
I drove 4 hours to Chicago to see The Brutalist in IMAX – worth it btw. But I couldn’t even do that until 2025 because it is actually being released in theaters this month to catch a bigger audience with Oscar buzz.
I hope it makes a ton of money, it’s a great film, but I honestly wish somebody would move the Oscars to January or force movie studios to release films in most of North America to qualify.
I don’t know if box office should matter when it comes to art but I do think it’s instructive to know what audiences actually think of a project before it starts winning major awards.
I still haven’t been able to watch Nickel Boys. I didn’t even know I’m Still Here existed until it showed up as a nominee.
This is the way things are and I’m better off this year than I have ever been because Nickel Boys and I’m Still Here are the only two I have not seen. Well, I haven’t seen Wicked either but that movie doesn’t count.
Come on, don’t argue with me, you know it doesn’t count.
Regardless, Nickel Boys and I’m Still Here are 2025 releases no matter what Oscar voters decide. The only people who have yet seen them were critics or the people in two or three cities who caught them during film festivals.
The rest of the list probably won’t be surprising if you have been reading along this year. I guess I should note that this list, like every list is subject the whims of the reviewer. It’s not based on some notion of film quality (I’m not sure I know what that would entail. Number of tracking shots? Type of film grain? Whether or not the director used a split diopter?).
This is simply a list of all the movies I watched and then where I put them. The author of this list is a story and dialogue junky. He’s tried to be a little more open and adventerous over the past few years to different kinds of thrills you get from arthouse cinema. But if you are a body horror fan or love movies built on stillness then you should probably find someone else who more closely aligns with your preferences.
As the Man once said, “It ain’t me babe.”
Of the reviews I wrote I think I liked my essay on Trap the best. Make of that what you will.
Below is the full list of the 57 movies I watched that came out in 2024 ranked from the one I liked the most to the one I liked the least. Also, ranking art is ridiculous and you can’t really do it because I could watch any of these tomorrow and change my mind. And so could you. You never step into the same river twice.
Anyway, lists are fun and Anora was a gem of a movie.
Anora
La Chimera
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Challengers
A Complete Unknown
Monkey Man
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Nosferatu
Trap
Rebel Ridge
The Order
The Bikeriders
Hit Man
Juror #2
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All
Drive-Away Dolls
Longlegs
Thelma
Deadpool & Wolverine
Love Lies Bleeding
Land of Bad
Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos
My Old Ass
I Saw the TV Glow
The Beast
The 4:30 Movie
Ali Wong: Single Lady
Gladiator II
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Conclave
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…
Road House
Katt Williams: Woke Foke
A Real Pain
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Carry-On
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Twisters
Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire
The Instigators
The Beekeeper
Hundreds of Beavers
Wolfs
The Killer
The Fall Guy
Salem’s Lot
Adam Sandler: Love You
Evil Does Not Exist
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Megalopolis
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
The Substance
Emilia Pérez
Unfrosted
Dark Highways 