Lights, Camera, Favorites: My Year in Film 2024

As 2024 gives way to 2025, it’s only natural that we look back at the year’s biggest highlights. Everybody from political commentators to sports pundits to music aficionados has some sort of “best of” list, and as a movie buff, I’d like to spotlight my favorite films of 2024. These were the movies that thrilled me, entertained me, and moved me the most, so without further ado, let’s dive right in.

10) The Substance
In the number ten spot, we have The Substance, a film about an aging celebrity who takes a black market drug, the titular substance, to create a younger, sexier version of herself. At first, this seems like the perfect way to relive her glory days, but when the balance between her two lives gets thrown out of whack, it leads to some of the most gruesome body horror in recent memory.

The Substance isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you can handle the gross-out special effects, you’ll be treated to one of the best movies of the year. It’s all about the pressures women face from our culture’s impossible beauty standards, and the disgusting horror serves as a stark visual representation of the physical, mental, and emotional harm those intense pressures can inflict on women.

It’s a poignant allegory that makes the film just as heartbreaking as it is revolting, so this is more than just an indulgent exercise in gratuitous gore. The Substance is incredibly meaningful as well, and stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley bring it to life with a believability and a pathos you won't soon forget. 

*Caveat emptor: The Substance features a few scenes with provocative sexual content and multiple shots of nonsexual but graphic nudity.

9) Transformers One
I know some people who write off Transformers One because it’s animated, and if you fall into that same camp, I strongly urge you to give the movie a chance. It may be hard to believe, but this is the best Transformers film ever made, animated or live-action. It tells the story of how Optimus Prime and Megatron started out as friends but eventually became mortal enemies, and let me tell you, it packs quite the emotional punch.

When the movie begins, our main characters are lowly miners named Orion Pax and D-16, and they’ll charm your socks off in about two seconds. This duo is lovable and hilarious in all the best ways, and their chemistry together is second to none. You’ll desperately want their friendship to last forever, so their inevitable falling out will tear your heart to pieces.

It’s the kind of bittersweet breakup story that sticks with you long after the credits begin to roll, and it’s brought to life with a copious helping of knee-slapping comedy and spellbinding action. It’s everything a Transformers film should be, so if you haven’t seen Transformers One yet, I highly recommend that you remedy that as soon as possible.

8) A Quiet Place: Day One
Horror franchises are infamous for churning out tired sequels well past their expiration date, but so far, the A Quiet Place franchise has managed to avoid that nearly universal curse. The second movie, A Quiet Place Part II, was fantastic, and this latest entry continues that surprising trend.

As the title suggests, A Quiet Place: Day One takes us all the way back to the start of this alien invasion, and it follows Sam, a terminally ill cancer patient stuck in Manhattan on that fateful day. At first, she tries to go it alone, but when she meets a man named Eric, the duo form a touching bond that just might leave you an emotional wreck.

In typical A Quiet Place fashion, Day One has the fun tension and action we’ve come to expect from the franchise, but the real heart and soul of this film is the characters. Their unlikely friendship explores themes of love (refreshingly, not just the romantic kind!), life, and beauty in a world gone to hell, and if you have any heart at all, those ideas are sure to resonate with you on a deep level.

7) The Devil’s Bath
With a name like The Devil’s Bath, you might expect this next movie to be a cheap horror flick about a possessed bathtub, but you’d only be partially right. This is a horror film, but there’s nothing cheap or supernatural about it. Rather, the phrase “devil’s bath” was an 18th-century Austrian idiom that referred to depression, and the movie is a harrowing look at this all-too-common affliction.

It follows a newly married woman who descends into a deep depression when her husband starts to ignore her, and the majority of the horror revolves around her deteriorating mental and emotional state. In fact, for most of the film’s runtime, it plays more like a gloomy drama than a traditional horror flick. It’s just so bleak and depressing that it feels like a horror movie, so it’ll seep into your bones and get under your skin in a way more overtly spooky films can only dream of.

It’s a tough watch that’s admittedly not for everybody, but much like The Substance, if you can handle the dreary darkness of this poor woman’s story, you’ll be richly rewarded with an uncompromising look at the human condition.

6) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
If you ask me, the three most recent Planet of the Apes flicks (the “Caesar Saga,” if you will) rank as one of the best movie trilogies of all time. Everything about those films–from the characters to the special effects to the simian action–is top-notch, so I had high hopes for the fourth entry, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It was one of my absolute most anticipated movies of the year, and to the surprise of nobody (okay, maybe a few people), it totally delivered.

For starters, the visual effects are just as astounding as we’ve come to expect from this franchise. These animals look completely photorealistic, even down to the individual hairs and the folds of their skin, so if you let your guard down, you might even forget that they’re CGI. But as great as those visuals are, the beating heart of this film is the characters.

It’s a bummer that Caesar is no longer with us, but his replacement, a young ape named Noa, is a worthy successor. I grew to love him almost as much as I loved his legendary predecessor, and his supporting cast is incredibly charming as well. In particular, the villain, Proximus Caesar, just might be the best antagonist the franchise has ever had, and when you put him up against such amazing heroes, you get a riveting good vs. evil tale that further cements these new Planet of the Apes movies as one of the best series in cinematic history.

5) Civil War
As we enter the top half of this list, we start with Alex Garland’s Civil War. As the name suggests, this film takes place during a second American Civil War, but it’s not about the conflict per se. Instead, the story follows four journalists who travel the country documenting the war and the devastation it leaves in its wake.

It’s a somewhat unexpected approach, but it’s also refreshing because it allows Civil War to leave partisan politics behind. We have no idea what particular issues are dividing the nation in this world, nor do we know the political leanings of the various factions. The movie just shows us how horrible this conflict is, and it lets the landscape’s oppressive atmosphere of despair and desolation speak for itself.

It’s essentially a commentary on the extreme division that permeates our society today, and it pleads with us to get our act together before it’s too late. If we don’t, we just might end up in a civil war not too different from the one this film envisions, and for my money, that kind of timely and hard-hitting social commentary is hard to beat.

4) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
In the number four spot, we have Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth movie in the long-running Mad Max franchise. This latest entry is a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, and it shows us how Furiosa went from a happy young girl to the deadly action hero we know and love from Fury Road. In a nutshell, she’s kidnapped one day by a maniacal warlord (aptly) named Dementus, and when the guy sells her to fellow strongman Immortan Joe, Furiosa rises through Joe’s ranks and seeks revenge against the man who abducted her all those years ago.

If you enjoy the Mad Max films, you’re almost guaranteed to love Furiosa. It has everything fans of the franchise want, like flamboyantly over-the-top villains, a barren post-apocalyptic setting, and white-knuckle action that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. But in my opinion, what really takes this movie to the next level is Furiosa’s heartbreaking story.

The poor girl is essentially a human trafficking victim, and the two actresses who portray the character (one as a kid, the other as an adult) completely nail the trauma that often accompanies this horrible crime. They turn what could’ve been a mindless action flick into a thematically rich narrative about a real-world problem that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves, so Furiosa more than earns its status as the fourth-best film of 2024.

If you suspect a case of human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline 24/7 at 888-3737-888, or text the hotline at 233-733.

3) Deadpool & Wolverine
When Disney finalized their purchase of Fox, a lot of movie fans were concerned that the company might tone down Deadpool’s R-rated stylings, and I’m not going to lie, I was one of them. But thankfully, Disney let the Deadpool team make the film they wanted to make, and it turned out to be the capstone on arguably the greatest superhero trilogy in cinematic history.

As the title suggests, Deadpool & Wolverine pairs the Merc with a Mouth with everybody’s favorite adamantium-infused mutant, and after initially clashing, the duo finally agree to team up and save Deadpool’s universe from total annihilation.  It’s not exactly Shakespeare, but it doesn’t have to be. The story isn’t the draw here. Rather, it’s the way that story is told, and on that front, this movie knocks it out of the park.

For starters, it’s chock-full of the irreverent humor and blood-soaked action Deadpool fans crave, and the chemistry between the two titular heroes is off the charts. On top of all that, Deadpool & Wolverine also has a touching emotional core that just might bring a tear or two to your eye, and it features a number of fun cameos that are sure to excite long-time genre veterans. Simply put, it’s everything I wanted it to be and so much more, so it’s no surprise that this film almost made it to the top of my list.

2) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is probably the most unexpected movie on this list, but for people who know me, the surprise is that it’s not number one. See, I’m a massive kaiju fan, and my two favorites are Godzilla and King Kong. In fact, Godzilla is my favorite fictional character of all time, so of course his latest adventure with Kong is my second favorite film of the year.

Plotwise, there’s not much to say here. Stuff happens, we see a bunch of awesome monster fights, and then Godzilla and Kong team up to face a new threat known as the Skar King. This creature rules a hidden clan of giant apes that reside deep below the surface of the earth, and he also controls an even more formidable monster named Shimo. Together, the Skar King and Shimo try to reach the surface and take over the world, and only the two titular kaiju can stop them.

On paper, that might sound like little more than generic giant monster fun, but I think there’s a lot more to this movie than meets the eye. Unlike most kaiju antagonists, the Skar King isn’t just an animal doing what comes naturally to him. He’s genuinely evil, so he imbues his villainous role with a malevolence we don’t typically see in this genre. On the flipside, Kong shows surprisingly human-like compassion towards his fellow giant apes, even the ones trying to kill him, so this is essentially a traditional good vs. evil story with giant monsters instead of humans. It’s a great new twist on that tried-and-true formula, so if you ask me, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire isn’t just the second best film of the year. It’s one of the best kaiju movies of all time.

1) Cabrini

I have to be honest, I had no intention of seeing Cabrini at first. As you can probably tell from the rest of this list, dramas about nuns helping the poor don’t typically grab me the way, say, horror and action films do. What’s more, I generally find Christian movies to be little more than pale imitations of their secular counterparts, so even though I knew about this film, it wasn’t really on my radar. I only saw it because my mom and some of my aunts wanted to check it out, and when I did, I was absolutely floored.

As I’m sure you know, Cabrini tells the story of St. Frances Cabrini (often called Mother Cabrini), an Italian nun who traveled to New York to help the city’s poor Italian immigrants, and it’s one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. The cinematography and acting are top-notch, but above all else, Mother Cabrini’s story is just jaw-dropping. The lives of the saints are supposed to inspire us to a greater love of God and neighbor, and this movie does exactly that.

This woman gave her life completely to her vocation despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, including some that came from within the Church, and whether you’re religious or not, you can’t help but be moved by her unwavering dedication to the poor. Cabrini is a shining example of what cinema can be when made with an eye towards truth, goodness, and beauty, so even though it’s pretty far outside my typical wheelhouse, this is the best movie I saw in 2024.