Top Ten Films Of 2024
A look at the past year in movies and several of the best films that were released
Originally published as part of Kevin Gosztola’s movie publication on Medium
As the movie industry sought to return to normal after last year’s writers and actors strike, film production reached historic lows. Media consolidation, corporate greed, and the rise of artificial intelligence spurred job cuts along with a tightening of spending by streaming services and studio companies.
The ten highest grossing films in the United States were all franchise or franchise-friendly movies. Fewer big screens were available for non-derivative independent films, especially because industry executives no longer believe that “specialty” cinema is as worthy of theatrical distribution.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and imminent return to the White House added to these pressures. His practice of threatening to sue companies or individuals for defamation stalled the release of “The Apprentice,” a critically acclaimed film about his rise to prominence. Disney settled with Trump for $16 million after he sued ABC News because they did not want to litigate “against a vindictive sitting president” and risk harm to the Disney-brand that could result in right-wing boycotts of their “family-friendly movies.”
The appetite for political films had already dwindled. Participant Media, which was known for such Oscar-winning films as “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006), “Citizenfour” (2014), “Spotlight” (2015), “A Fantastic Woman” (2017), and “Roma” (2018), shut down. Three documentary features that were shortlisted for an Oscar — “No Other Land, “The Bibi Files,” and “Union” — could not secure distribution. That suggests that the climate of censorship during Trump’s second term will intensify.
Here is what I considered the top ten films of 2024.
10. “Kneecap”
Released in the United States on August 2, 2024
Kneecap is an Irish trio that performs hip hop with a mix of Irish and English lyrics. They are fiercely committed to resisting British colonialism and a unified Ireland. The film depicts how they became popular in Belfast, with the group’s members — Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and J.J. Ó Dochartaigh — playing themselves. Bap and Chara also co-wrote the film with English filmmaker Rich Peppiatt.
While the Irish people make a push in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to establish their language as a national language, Kneecap is put under a microscope. The idea that their antics may jeopardize passage of this historic bill fuels censorship of their music. Rather than take a standard music biopic approach, the film infuses this story with a slapstick element that makes it wildly entertaining.
9. “Rebel Ridge”
Released on Netflix on September 6, 2024
Screenwriter and director Jeremy Saulnier revamped the vigilante hero film, constructing a narrative around the injustice of civil asset forfeiture by police. Black former marine Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) goes to war against police for targeting him. Later, it takes on the hallmarks of a political thriller as Terry and a white court clerk named Summer (AnnaSophia Robb) find themselves up against the cutthroat police chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) and the cops who have made the fictional town of Shelby Springs, Alabama, their fiefdom.
Elevating “Rebel Ridge” above standard action movies is Saulnier’s meticulous research. He gives attention to the manner in which police forces have responded to lawsuits and wielded supposed reforms to their benefit. This may seem like a small town police department gone rogue, however, there are numerous squads led by sheriffs like Sandy Burnne. That reality is what makes it such a thrill to watch Terry fight back.
8. “The Substance”
Released in the United States on September 20, 2024
French director Coralie Fargeat created one of the most talked about films in 2024, and the film deserved all the buzz that it received. “The Substance” is an incredibly visceral science fiction tale, which reflects the anxiety and hatred that so many experience as they age and their body no longer fits what society says is beautiful. Nearly anyone can identify with the tragedy of Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) as she deals with her new body, Sue (Margaret Qually), who is effectively killing her off.
The progression of the film leaves audiences feeling dread at where Fargeat will push the story next and how she will bludgeon the audience — not through dialogue, but through images. Fargeat has a clear command of the visuals that convey the horror of this vortex of destructive behavior that Elisabeth has entered. The end sequence is a twisted but poetic exclamation point for a movie that possesses fierce confidence in what it aims to deliver from beginning to end.
7. “Hollywoodgate”
Limited release on July 19, 2024
Moved by the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan, particularly the incident where Afghans were hanging off an aircraft as it took off, director Ibrahim Nash’at risked his life and set out to document the Taliban’s newly established regime. Nash’at convinced the Taliban leadership to grant him access as they occupied what they claimed was a former CIA base in Kabul. While the Taliban sifts through all the military equipment and supplies left behind, the banter can feel like deadpan comedy. That adds to the eeriness as viewers contemplate the theocratic totalitarian violence being inflicted on Afghans offscreen.
Women’s rights were invoked to justify war, and then Afghan women were entirely abandoned. Throughout the film, there is palpable dread given what their lives have become. But most jaw-dropping is the finale, which features the Taliban parading a fleet of U.S. military aircraft that once belonged to the very forces that long occupied Afghanistan. It’s quite humiliating, and “Hollywoodgate” should haunt the Western world for decades to come.
6. “Juror No. 2”
Limited release in the United States on November 1, 2024
Warner Bros. Discovery bafflingly denied Clint Eastwood’s final film a wide release. Clearly, CEO David Zaslav and the corporation did not know what they had. “Juror №2” is a clever and stirring courtroom drama. Written by Jonathan A. Abrams, it acknowledges the contributions that working class people make to the justice system when they are drafted for jury duty. Yet it also shows — in a mostly colorblind manner — how the system may steer well-meaning people toward convicting a defendant of a serious crime in spite of reasonable doubt.
Unlike the classic courtroom drama “12 Angry Men,” where Juror No. 8 (Henry Fonda) is motivated by a commitment to justice, Juror No. 2 (Nicholas Hoult) is driven by his own self-interest to be the lone dissenter. That self-interest comes into conflict with the majority of jurors, who through their shared perspectives demonstrate how difficult it is to a move a jury in the opposite direction once the majority has made up its mind.
5. “Wild Robot”
Released in the United States on September 27, 2024
This fairy tale involving a “Wild Robot” named Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), who comes to co-exist and survive on an island with various animals, is spellbinding, especially because of the hand-painted aesthetic that the filmmakers employ for the film. It is a children’s story, but much of it feels geared toward adults, like a Hayao Miyazaki film (Miyazaki apparently inspired the filmmakers).
The corporation Universal Dynamics, which tries to retrieve their robot, seems similar to the Tyrell Corporation in “Blade Runner” (1982). Roz’s mothering of a gosling and the animals’ battle against a powerful profit-driven corporation struck me as a representation of the resilience of animals versus technology. And above all, this movie left me feeling warm inside; such a welcome respite from an ever-darkening world.
4. “The Apprentice”
Released in the United States on October 11, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers and threatened to sue them after it premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival. As a result, Ali Abbasi’s film garnered notoriety for its struggle to secure distribution prior to Election Day in the United States. That overshadowed the strength of Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman’s anthropological examination of the myth of Trump as a dealmaker, which he himself fabricated.
Through stellar performances from Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump, Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, and Maria Bakalova as Ivana, the production has a “punk rock” sensibility that gives it an edginess that is both revolting and mind-blowing. The cast and crew search for moments in Trump’s life that may humanize him. Ultimately, the sum of its parts illustrate how Trump created his own reality and harnessed nepotistic access to the billionaire class in a manner that has allowed Trump to largely live a consequence-free life and even return to the White House.
3. “Daughters”
Released on Netflix on August 14, 2024
Prisons and jails in the United States continue to phase out in-person visits for incarcerated individuals. Amidst this development, “Daughters” presents a program that offers prisoners a rare opportunity to spend an evening with their daughters by attending a daddy-daughter dance. To attend the fathers must complete a 10-week course with a life coach. What unfolds cuts deep into your soul, especially if you are a dad. It is touching to see the children, who range from kindergarten to high school age, speak about their fathers and how they miss their daddies.
On the other hand, hanging over the joyous moments captured is the fact that their fathers cannot go home with their girls. In fact, some of the men do not even know how long they will be in prison. What the dance teaches them is that they do not cease to be a dad while they are incarcerated. Their children will remember how they try to be a part of their lives, and while institutional barriers in jails and prisons may make it difficult, it is important to still be there for them.
2. “Green Border”
Limited release in the United States on June 21, 2024
The plight of Middle Eastern and African refugees journeying to Europe is vividly and harrowingly depicted in Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s film. Each chapter shows another level of cruelty inflicted upon a Syrian family that is trying to make it to Sweden. One of the most enraging sequences involves the Belarusians lifting the border fence to let refugees into Poland, where the Polish border guard load them in a military truck and dump them back into Belarus.
Black-and-white cinematography by Tomasz Naumiuk sharpens the nightmare. Holland, Maciej Pisuk, and Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko make space in the script for the activists who engage in daily attempts to save those seeking asylum. There is also a border officer, who deals with the moral injury that stems from his involvement. Altogether, it is fearless filmmaking that stands up to the savagery inflicted by Western countries — the so-called protectors of human rights.
1. “The Old Oak”
Limited release in the United States on April 5, 2024
Radical hope and the sense of solidarity between the film’s characters make acclaimed director Ken Loach’s final film such a touching experience. In an impoverished town in Durham, England, white residents sour when Syrian refugees move into the community. Those angry residents cling to The Old Oak, a pub that in 1984 was a vibrant organizing space for striking mine workers. They immediately are at odds with the pub’s owner T.J. Ballantyne (Dave Turner), who shows compassion toward the Syrians and forms a friendship with a young Syrian named Yara (Ebla Mari).
Mari is wonderful in this post-Brexit story. One particularly moving scene involves Yara opening up about how her camera gives her strength. T.J. and Yara both carry things that weigh on them emotionally, and they recognize that The Old Oak is one of the last remaining community space. It can bring people together in the face of attempts to divide, and that is what will save them.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: “Anora” | “Black Box Diaries” | “Flow”
| “I Saw The TV Glow” | “Monkey Man” | “Sugarcane” | “Will & Harper”
Thank you, Kevin for this brief, but comprehensive coverage of these very interesting films - exactly what I have been in need of!
This is great, Kevin. I've been following your work for years (especially the Assange-related material), and wasn't expecting a post like this, but I appreciate it.