The big movie studios mostly played it safe this year, electing to build upon their lucrative franchises with sequels and prequels instead of dreaming up something innovative and new.
Meanwhile, indie studios stepped up to the plate with more interesting, multi-layered fare, movies that entertained us and made us think.
To be fair, when we look at the best films released in 2024, we have to note that major studios did crank out a sequel or two with startling artistic merit (“Dune: Part 2,” “Inside Out 2”) and even launched a few original works (“The Wild Robot,” “Wicked” — although the latter was adapted from a stage musical).
But for the most part, the indie market was the go-to place for new, unique and original movies. Independent filmmakers took us on some incredible, sometimes heartbreaking, journeys — to a Florida reform school where a history of horrifying abuse gets unearthed; to a decaying mansion in Transylvania that’s the rat-infested home to an ardent and legendary bloodsucker; and to the repressive life endured by a family inside patriarchal Iran.
Why we willingly followed is because these filmmakers stuck to their vision, carrying it through from start to finish without compromising what they set out to accomplish.
Here are the top 10 films of 2024, each of which adventurously took us to unexpected places and left us with indelible images and memories. Some well-deserving honorable mentions included here accomplished the same feat.
1. “Nickel Boys”: In one of the boldest artistic strokes of 2024, experimental documentary filmmaker RaMell Ross took Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racial trauma at a Florida reform school and put his impressionistic stamp on it. It was a brilliant move that further enhanced an already amazing work. The result, though, requires viewers to adjust to a different flow since Ross views most of the entirety of this powerful lament on Jim Crow-era racism through the eyes of two characters — Elwood and Turner — Black Florida teens sentenced to a reprehensible juvenile reform school called the Nickel Academy. We initially only get quick glances of their faces in reflections and mirrors, and that approach is part of what allows Ross to shape his film into Terrence Malick-like visual poetry. He’s aided in this by the outstanding work of cinematographer Jomo Fray and editor Nicholas Monsour. So often we hear that we need to see the world through the eyes of others. Ross specializes in that and gives us a hobbling testimonial that serves Whitehead’s prose better than any straightforward literary adaptation ever could. “Nickel Boys” improves with each viewing, and is like few other cinematic experiences this year. It’s a work of inspired and daring artistic genius, and is the best film of 2024. When and where to see it: Opens Jan. 3 in Bay Area theaters.
2.“Anora”: Sean Baker has built an inner-circle rep as one of today’s preeminent maverick indie filmmakers. Even though he’s garnered heaps of praise and accolades, most of his eye-poppers (“Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket,” to name a few) haven’t quite broken through to mainstream audiences. That could change with this unpredictable wild-thing ride, driven by the phenomenal Mikey Madison, whose performance all but delivers a right hook onscreen. Baker, a devoted movie buff, cooks up a street-smart East Coast version of “Pretty Woman” with dustings of classic screwball rom-coms and Fellini’s 1957 classic “Nights of Cabiria.” Hilarious one instant and gut-wrenching the next, “Anora” recalls the radical spirit of the very best of ‘70s filmmaking while creating something new all its own. When and where to see it: In select theaters now; available for digital purchase Dec. 17.
3. “Flow”: Sometimes a filmmaker needs to declutter and just stick to the bare essentials of storytelling. That’s what Latvian animator/filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis accomplishes with his beautifully drawn fable of a film about a resourceful black cat that survives a biblical-like flood and helps an assortment of critters on a boat. Every frame of Zilbalodis’ hypnotic film proves to be transcendent and hopeful — quite a feat given that there’s not one word of dialogue. Doesn’t matter, this awe-inspiring beauty speaks volumes about how we need to come together and connect — no matter our preconceived differences — and help each other during challenging times. No better tale could be told right now. When and where to see it: Now In theaters; due on streaming platforms Jan. 7.
4. “Sing Sing:” A theater troupe rehearsing in a New York prison sets the stage for a series of moving and raw interactions and revelations between the men who are incarcerated in Greg Kwedar’s singular achievement. This intimate, sensitive and often quite funny drama about the power of arts and connection rings true every second. Anchored around masterful performances from Colman Domingo. Clarence Maclin and the Bay Area’s Sean San Jose, “Sing Sing” takes us on the inside to show us these well-defined, complicated men as they bond and set out to achieve two major goals: ace their quirky roles in a kooky new production and to ultimately become free again. The last scene will have you sobbing. When and where to see it: Scheduled to be re-released in theaters Jan. 17.
5. “The Brutalist”: Brady Corbet’s nearly 4-hour American epic, complete with a 15-minute intermission, is a massive, unruly achievement, ambitious in scope and certainly size and remarkable in the mere fact that it exists. The audacious director of “Vox Lux” and “The Childhood of a Leader” mines the Brutalist architecture movement as the metaphorical foundation of an intricately detailed monument to the resiliency of post-World War II immigrants as well as outside-of-the-box innovators who valiantly try to stay true to their artistic vision and principles. Adrien Brody swallows himself whole into the role of a Hungarian architect struggling to pour a new foundation for his life and career after coming to America and moving in with his cousin in Philadelphia. He and his family discover that the rich view them as the “other,” mere accessories designed for their own purposes. Comparisons have been made to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood,” but Corbet’s magnum opus, which even even flips a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, marches to its own drummer and is a triumph. When and where to see it: Scheduled for limited release Dec. 20, wider release in January.
6. “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”: Romanian bad-boy filmmaker Radu Jude’s mad-dog provocation slams an enormous wrecking ball into the world’s out-of-control capitalism and the greedy corporations that control it. His wild rant (it clocks in at 2 hours, 44 minutes) threatens to go off the rails too many times to count, but somehow it never does. Jude unites two stories, one chronicling the exhausting daily routine of an overworked and foul-mouthed production assistant/viral media rebel, and another that cribs scenes from a 1981 Romanian drama about a female taxi cab driver. How does he pull it off? You’ll just have to buckle up and see. When and where to see it: Available to rent and stream now.
7. “Dune: Part 2”: Big-scale entertainment that’s designed to be gobbled up like buttered popcorn, on the biggest movie screen imaginable, doesn’t get much grander, better and smarter than Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to his first film based on author Frank Herbert’s dystopian classic. This second outing is superior, with the drama upping the ante on the action and doubling down on the universal political implications as Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) taps into his angry dark side. Best of all, there’s that sandworm e-ticket ride Villeneuve takes us on, a truly magical moment of cinematic wonderment that makes us all feel like a kid again. Haven’t experienced that sensation at the movies in yonks. Until now. When and where to see it: Available to rent and stream now.
8. “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”: Fearless and brave are words that often get attached to filmmakers’ names, but few are more deserving of those platitudes than Mohammad Rasoulof. His latest brilliant film forced him to flee his native Iran into exile to Germany. It’s an epic teardown of the patriarchy in his homeland and serves as a powerhouse indictment on the silencing and suppression of women’s rights and voices. It also is a blistering criticism of the country’s trap-door justice system, where some newly appointed judges look the other way and rubber stamp death sentences. Rasoulof expresses all of that not in a vitriolic manner but through the prism of a family in crisis. That “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” blossoms with a glimmer of hope makes it all that more special. When and where to see it: In theaters now.
9. “The Substance”: Horror films certainly didn’t take a vacation in 2024. One of the best of the bunch is one of the year’s biggest talkers. Coralie Fargeat’s ultimate body-horror extravaganza delivers a feminist one-two punch on our overtly body/beauty-conscious world and the terrible sacrifices some aging women will go to satisfy the in-control male gaze. Anchored by a searing, take-no-prisoners performance from Demi Moore and a fully committed one from Margaret Qualley, Fargeat’s stomach-churner stuck with me more than almost any other movie this year. It’ll go down as one of the best, most subversive horror films of all time. When and where to see it: Available to rent now.
10. “Nosferatu”: “‘The Witch” director Robert Eggers painstakingly imagines the Gothic look and feel of the Dracula legend better than any other filmmaker who’s come before. His Grand Guignol version doesn’t tap a new vein and it doesn’t need to, giving horror lovers their ultimate nightmare: a shadowy hide-under-the-covers bloodsucking saga that seduces you with its blood-chilling atmospherics and precise period details. Welcome to Eggers’ nightmare. It’s a gorgeous and gruesome place to inhabit for two hours or so, and one you’ll want to re-enter again and again. He was born to make this movie. When and where to see it: Opens Dec. 25 in theaters.
Honorable Mentions: Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked,” Sean Wang’s “Didi,” Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5,” Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s “Femme,” Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” Chris Sanders’ “The Wild Robot,” Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s “Sujo,” Jennifer Esposito’s “Fresh Kills,” J.T. Mollner’s “Strange Darling,” Megan Park’s “My Old Ass,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here,” Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” Kelsey Mann’s “Inside Out 2,” H.P. Mendoza’s “The Secret Art of Human Flight,” George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” Marco Calvani’s “High Tide,” Adam Elliot’s “Memoir of a Snail” and Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well.”