I’ve finalized my grades and rankings for my personal 2024 movie season over at Letterboxd. To commemorate, I’ve compiled a list of my top 20 favorite films from the year, complete with plot descriptions sourced from the social cataloging site.
20. Flow
A solitary cat, displaced by a great flood, finds refuge on a boat with various species and must navigate the challenges of adapting to a transformed world together.
19. Hundreds Of Beavers
In the 19th century, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero-to-hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
18. Monkey Man
Kid is an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
17. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Betelgeuse, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.
16. Alien: Romulus
While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
15. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
As the world falls, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the wasteland, they encounter the citadel presided over by Immortan Joe. The two tyrants wage war for dominance, and Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
14. Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
Several generations following Caesar’s reign, apes (now the dominant species) live harmoniously while humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all he’s known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
13. Gladiator II
Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
12. The Piano Lesson
A brother and sister’s battle over a prized heirloom piano unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived - and who defines a family legacy.
11. The Substance
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
10. Anora
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
09. Nickel Boys
Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
08. Sing Sing
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.
07. Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
Following their explosive showdown, Godzilla and Kong must reunite against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own.
06. The Wild Robot
After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.
05. Dune: Part Two
Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.
04. Nosferatu
A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
03. The Brutalist
Fleeing from post-war Europe in 1947, a visionary architect and his wife settle in Pennsylvania where a wealthy and mysterious client changes their lives forever.
02. Conclave
After the unexpected death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with managing the covert and ancient ritual of electing a new one. Sequestered in the Vatican with the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders until the process is complete, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could lead to its downfall.
01. Wicked
When ostracized and misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba is forced to share a room with the popular aristocrat Glinda, the two’s unlikely friendship is tested as they begin to fulfill their respective destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
