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The big cinematic stories this year included the financially dismal launch of the summer season, the dramatic comeback of Pixar and the MCU's return to the billion-dollar box-office club (right alongside Pixar). Dystopian action prequels flopped just as hard as Nepo baby horror debuts and adaptations of 80s TV shows The best experiences that I had at the theater in 2024 were at rereleases (G*zilla Minus One and the 10th anniversary release of Interstellar). But a collection of indie gems, space operas and sports comedies made up for all of the panic at the cineplex.
24. The Book of Clarence
Writer/director Jeymes Samuel reteams with LaKeith Stanfield and RJ Cyler following their collaboration on the western The Harder They Fall. This time they give the predominantly-Black treatment to the biblical genre. Removing the white-washing usually given to bible-based films greatly enhances the verisimilitude; if only the bestiality joke (involving a donkey) had been left on the cutting room floor.
23. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Picking up where 2020's Bad Boys for Life (the biggest American money-maker of the year) left off, Marcus Burnett is forced to cut his retirement short in order to reteam with longtime partner Detective Mike Lowery to both clear their deceased captain's name and to help Mike protect his son survive being placed on a hit list.
The whole gang's back -- except for the glaring omission of Theresa Randle, who's been inexplicably recast -- for near non-stop thrill ride with more action than its predecessor. And, perhaps, enough to rival 2003's Bad Boys II.
The title gives away some of this doc's surprise. But it's so much worse than simple online deception.
Renowned painter Tarrell Rodin is a husband and father and still has nightmares stemming from his abusive childhood. When his estranged father, La'Ron, a homeless drug-addict, shows up at his mother's house, Tarrell decides to face his demons head-on. Exhibiting Forgiveness interrogates the long-lasting trauma inflicted on children by their parents, as well as the passivity of the parent who enables the abuser.
The most uninhibited member of the venerable Wu-Tang Clan is profiled in this film that explores the life and career of ODB. Family, music industry colleagues and group members Raekwon and Ghostface provide first-hand accounts of their respective relationships with the fallen legend.
It took 28 years for this sequel to arrive but it improves on its predecessor in every way: action; story; and, especially, casting. Twisters is 2024's version of Blade Runner 2049.
Die Hard is so good that it's still being copied 26 years later. In this case, the dynamic of a cop confined to a single location with a group of killers is transferred to a Boston apartment building (as opposed to an L.A. skyscraper) and the damsel-in-distress is a deaf witness (instead of his estranged wife). And while The Silent Hour doesn't live up to its inspiration, it still works. It also marks headliner Joel Kinnaman's second differently-abled lead character in a row -- after portraying a mute guy in 2023's Silent Night.
One of two enthralling 2024 movies about the effect of WWII on children, Blitz follows George, the son of a Black Guyanese father and a white British mother, who's sent to the countryside during Germany's infamous bombing of London.
Far from a villain origin story, in which we witness a formerly more innocent antagonist succumb to corruption, this sequel provides Wonder's school bully, Julian, with a measure of redemption after the fact.
In this true story, based on writer/director Laura Chinn's real experiences, teenaged Doris begins to emerge from her shell and begin her life just as her brain cancer-stricken older brother's is slowly ending -- in the same hospice facility that houses Terry Schiavo. While coping with Max's impending death, Doris struggles to endure her relationship with her widowed, neglectful "Karen" of a mother; befriends a group of wealthy classmates (one of whom is a self-described feminist who overlooks her boyfriend's cheating); and even makes the acquaintance of a quasi-father figure -- whose advice she doesn't appreciate nearly enough.
22. Sweet Bobby: My 10 Year Catfish Nightmare
21. Nickel Boys
The greatest of the year's Best Picture nominees, it's hard to believe that this true-life story is director RaMell Ross' narrative feature debut. Based on the horrors suffered by students/inmates at Marianna, Florida's infamous Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, Nickel Boys provides an insider's view of the abuses experienced by two African-American teens incarcerated there in the late 1960s.
20. Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary
19. Exhibiting Forgiveness
18. Ol' Dirty Bastard: A Tale of Two Dirtys
17. Twisters
16. The Silent Hour
After he's injured in the line-of-duty, Detective Frank Shaw is left struggling to accept his hearing impairment and depressed. But when his former partner enlists him to translate for a deaf woman, he's swept up in a murder plot.
15. Blitz
14. White Bird
13. Untold: The Murder of Air McNair
NFL great Steve "Air" McNair's 2009 murder was and remains a tragedy. And the mainstream news media has had a not-insignificant hand in shaping the perception that professional athletes and, especially, Black men as the usual culprits in domestic violence tragedies such as this. But the reality is that McNair (not to mention Carolina Panthers standout Fred Lane) was senselessly murdered by an intimate partner -- through no fault of his own. This installment of Untold masterfully explores McNair's football career and the circumstances of his death without adding to a certain racist, sexist narrative.
12. Bad Genius
Bad Genius is SAT-heist film The Perfect Score done right. While it may be fun to watch a young Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson embark on a covert op together and imagine that you're witnessing teen Avengers undertaking a mission, the duo's 2004 collaboration leaves a lot to be desired. Genius, however, deftly presents a story about a couple of minority whiz kid children of immigrants and the privileged private school classmates who pressure them for test answers.
11. Land of Bad
Russel Crowe headlines one of its best movies in this story about a military extraction gone wrong and the drone pilot who assists the men on the ground.
10. Suncoast
The stroll down memory lane, courtesy of early 2000s songs and reality shows, is the cherry on top of an already-engaging story
6. Romance with a Twist
After letting go of her dream to be a professional dancer, Luna joined the family construction business and settled into small-town life. But when the local art festival has an opening for an aerialist, she jumps at the chance to learn a new skill that would allow her to express herself through movement. And her partner just happens to be single.
4. The Underdoggs
Combining Friday with The Bad News Bears, The Underdoggs is the second-funniest movie of the year and deserved to be seen in theaters as opposed to being a streaming exclusive. This story of an abrasive, retired NFL star who agrees to coach a Pee-Wee football team in his hometown as a publicity stunt (that will hopefully land him a broadcasting job), takes a standard band-of-losers led by a cynic with a heart-of-gold story and fills it to the brim with uncensored comedy.
Police corruption, racism and greed collide with a former U.S. Marine when he arrives in a small town seeking to bail his cousin out of jail before he's transferred to prison. Wearing obvious similarities to First Blood on its sleeve, Rebel Ridge surpasses every movie in the franchise that arose from John Rambo's screen debur.
Good things tend to happen when Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck collaborate cinematically for a story set in or near Boston. This Masshole-centric heist is no exception as Damon reinhabits a military veteran role and the younger Affleck portrays another f*ck-up with a drinking problem. Funniest movie of the year.
Writer/director Zack Snyder's follow-up to last year's A Child of Fire is a vast improvement as the recruited warriors join the Veldt villagers in engaging the full military might of Admiral Noble's forces. While this sequel's predecessor showed promise, Curse of Forgiveness genuinely makes good on Snyder's Star Wars ambitions, providing backstories as well as juxtaposing ground skirmishes with a fight aboard a crashing starship. Like The Empire Strikes Back, the story picks up with the revolutionaries being hunted by the reigning regime and ends with them set to embark on a quest to locate a loved one (in this case a princess instead of a smuggler), teasing much more to come.
9. You, Me and Christmas Three
Calvin destroyed his broadcasting career with an on-air meltdown and Willa torched the company she worked for with a snarky post -- on the same day. One year later, after the former social media manager moves back in with her mother, she meets the former journalist at his new job as a baggage claim supervisor after she grabs the wrong luggage at the airport. It doesn't go well but these two rude cynics do exchange numbers so that Calvin can let Willa know if and when her suitcase turns up.
8. Caddo Lake
Caddo Lake is best enjoyed without any prior knowledge of the story. But I'll say this: bear with the slow start and pay attention to everything.
7. Code 8: Part II
Deadpool and Logan may have ruled the box office but the best mutant movie belonged to streaming this year. This modestly-budgeted sequel surpasses its predecessor in every way in its grounded world-building and depiction of how society treats people born with special abilities.
5. Trading Up Christmas
3. Rebel Ridge
2. The Instigators
1. Rebel Moon Part Two: The Curse of Forgiveness
Derivative or not, the Imperium's walking tanks are vast improvements on the ones seen in the Prequel Trilogy, outclassing them in every way. And underscoring the abundance of gray morality on display, two of our heroes kill enemy combatants attempting to provide medical assistance after posing as their injured comrades-in-arms.
There are surprises too. it's refreshing and, frankly, astonishing in this day and age that, given his introduction as "the village's greatest hunter" and Gunnar's rival for Kora's affections, that Den is never depicted as an avatar of "toxic masculinity" and instead was always counted among the heroes. This second half of Rebel Moon's Snyder Cut is the best sci-fi movie of the year and the best "Star Wars" film anything since Rogue One.
