Even with the effects of last year's writer and actor strikes lingering, 2024 managed to churn out some grand blockbusters and thought-provoking indies in Canada, Hollywood and around the world.
Rather appropriately for Exclaim! a music theme weaves itself among our picks this year. Documentaries exploring the life and careers of both the famous and unknown, the dramatization of the power of musical performance as therapy and a life's work, and, perhaps above all, some instant-classic scores and needle drops.
As much as people (and Paramount and Universal) wanted to make Glicked happen, 2024 didn't bring a Barbenheimer-like cinematic event, but we've got some stellar films nonetheless to make us laugh, cry and scream.
Below are Exclaim!'s 20 best films of 2024. Read all of our year-end lists here.
20. Challengers
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Luca Guadagnino puts relationships to the test in Challengers, a well-matched, ambitious tennis drama that's as fun as it is thrilling. The ever-shifting dynamic of former tennis prodigy turned-coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) and her ball boys, husband (Mike Faist) and ex (Josh O'Connor), is electric. Coupled with a pulsating electronic score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers is a hair-raising, sexy, sweat-inducing exploration of tennis and the passion behind it.
Karlie Rogers
19. Seeds
Directed by Kaniehtiio Horn
(levelFILM)
In Kaniehtiio Horn's directorial debut, Seeds demonstrates exactly how and why she deserves our attention. It's an ambitious film that Horn mounts with the help of an impressive ensemble and a bloody rousing conclusion. From her sharp and compelling performance as aspiring influencer Ziggy to an allegorical script that explores colonization, relationships and family, the boldly directed Seeds balances itself as a humorous, violent and timely film that celebrates the community and characters the make up rez life.
Rachel Ho
18. Piece by Piece
Directed by Morgan Neville
(Focus Features)
We're nearing the saturation point for flattering puff-piece music documentaries — but director Morgan Neville sets his Pharrell Williams doc apart by animating the whole thing in LEGO, with vibrantly psychedelic visuals that blur past and present, and allow audiences to immerse themselves inside Pharrell's stories of growing up in Virginia Beach. Plus, the beats sound amazing on the big cinema sound system.
Alex Hudson
17. My Old Ass
Directed by Megan Park
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
The heartbreaking part about major life changes is that we often don't recognize them until after they've already happened. The coming-of-age comedy My Old Ass imagines what might happen if we had some advance warning about what lies ahead. A Muskoka teenager tripping on mushrooms is visited by her 39-year-old self (played by Aubrey Plaza), putting a fantastical sci-fi spin on an otherwise tender, emotional tribute to the hazy nostalgia for the summer after high school, when the future still feels wide open and anything is possible.
Alex Hudson
16. Conclave
Directed by Edward Berger
(Elevation Pictures)
The Pope has died and the palace intrigue is as thick as white smoke. Anyone from this exemplary cast could be up for an Oscar, as the plot unfolds through dramatic shots and skilled editing. The portrayal of Vatican affairs feels so authentic that we could be watching papal reality TV. Conclave is dialogue-heavy and moves at a deliberate pace, but delivers a religious experience and a big payoff at the end. It's one of the year's most powerful films.
Tobias Jeg
15. September 5
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum
(Paramount Pictures)
Carrying on the grand tradition of films about journalism (à la All the President's Men and, more recently, Spotlight), September 5 takes us inside the broadcast booth of ABC Sports during the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Never has the importance of accurate journalism, and the manner in which information is communicated, been more topical and urgent, and September 5 highlights the standard by which we should hold all broadcasters and news outlets today.
Rachel Ho
14. Maria
Directed by Pablo Larraín
(MUBI)
After Jackie and Spencer, Pablo Larraín's latest paints the canvas of another female icon: opera singer Maria Callas, in a commanding performance from Angelina Jolie. While she captures to the whims of a diva, it's the aching vulnerability that Jolie quietly displays as Maria that compels, haunted by her fading past as the once-perfect "La Callas." There's a piercing sadness that inhabits Jolie's portrayal of Callas — perhaps the trappings and loneliness of fame that both the character and actor know all too well. For Larraín, unravelling portraits of female icons in gilded cages is familiar territory and one that he has come to relish, along with his audience.
Marriska Fernandes
13. Sing Sing
Directed by Greg Kwedar
(Elevation Pictures)
Inspired by Sing Sing Correctional Facility's arts rehabilitation program, Greg Kwedar's riveting Sing Sing captures art's ability to remind us of our own humanity and the humanity of others. Following a troupe of incarcerated actors, the film illustrates how prison can keep individuals caged in more ways than one. Anchored by sensational performances from Colman Domingo and scene-stealer Clarence Maclin, Kwedar weaves a compelling exploration of the power of creativity, healing and, most importantly, hope.
Courtney Small
12. La Chimera
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
(Elevation Pictures)
Profoundly mystical yet firmly rooted in gritty realism, Alice Rohrwacher's lyrical fable of a heartbroken tomb raider (Josh O'Connor) with an extraordinary gift for uncovering buried treasure is a complex cinematic marvel. Teasing visions of Fellini (especially with its ragtag cast of characters) in a 1980s Tuscan landscape, Rohrwacher invokes a timeless quality with her textured visuals. La Chimera's effortless collapse of the past and present ingeniously summons a wholly unpredictable but absolutely logical conclusion: undying love can make the impossible materialize.
Barbara Goslawski
11. Hit Man
Directed by Richard Linklater
(VVS Films)
Richard Linklater films exist within two extremes. On the right, the challenging and philosophical (Slacker, Waking Life, Boyhood) and on the left, the joyfully light and slightly more forgettable (Bernie). Hit Man sits safely left of centre. It's zany, unusually sexy and fun. It doesn't progress the art of cinema the way the Before Trilogy does, but for any other director it would sit at the top of the pile.
Tanner James
10. Late Night with the Devil
Directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes
(IFC Films)
The horror found footage trope has been done to death (pardon the pun). But with Late Night with the Devil, writer-directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes have taken a tired approach and mixed it with a truly horrifying genre: late-night television, producing a surprisingly unique and multi-layered film. Structured as a faux-documentary, Late Night with the Devil focuses on a violent, supernatural occurrence that took place on Halloween night, 1977, on the fictional Night Owls with Jack Delroy, a successful variety late-night talk show. Delroy (played with slimy aplomb by David Dastmalchian) chases fame and fortune, no matter the cost. The film's true horror comes from showing how the consequences of our choices, which will always come back to haunt us, are often scarier than any ghost, goblin or ghoul.
Marko Djurdjic
9. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
(National Film Board of Canada)
My love for Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story has only grown in the months since I watched the film at Hot Docs earlier this year. Initially, my appreciation for the film lay in giving a Canadian should-be-icon her long overdue flowers, and providing the uninitiated, such as myself, with an introduction to an unparalleled artist. Appreciation has turned into admiration the more I think about the documentary (and I've thought about it a lot). A co-production between Banger Films and the National Film Board, Any Other Way posed a near-impossible task given the lack of footage of Shane during her active years, and the fact that she stepped away from the spotlight for so many decades. The direction of Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee not only brings Shane back to life, it does so with respect, artistry and sophistication.
Rachel Ho
8. His Three Daughters
Directed by Azazel Jacobs
(Netflix)
His Three Daughters follows estranged sisters (played by doyennes Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen) as they converge around their dying father. The film begins with each of the sisters having rationally processed his death; emotionally, however, they're all a stripped wire. Much takes place within the tension of the unsaid — huffs of breath, eye rolls, door slams — which builds toward an inevitable emotional reckoning. To deal with death is to give voice to the pain of absence, the three daughters learn. It's a prickly lesson, but Jacobs tempers it with the scintillation of movie magic, ultimately leaving us with a film like a precious stone, at once magical and time-worn. In illuminating the words we're incapable of uttering, the love that lies in the shadow of fear, this film establishes a vocabulary for loss, and thereby becoming a tour de force.
Alisha Mughal
7. Dune: Part Two
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
It's spicy time! Denis Villeneuve ratchets up the core tenets of the sci-fi oeuvre with mind-blowing cinematography, another powerful score by Hans Zimmer, and an impressive ensemble cast, densely packing the near-three-hour epic with so much action and lore that it somehow feels breakneck. Building off the success of the first instalment, the empire's complex political web continues to develop beyond the imperialistic into more mythical territory, with Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides ascending to messianic Muad'dib status, receiving violent visions surrounding the fate of Arrakis that will surely unfold in Dune: Messiah, and complicating his romantic relationship with Chani (Zendaya).
Allie Gregory
6. I Saw the TV Glow
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
(VVS Films)
Initially misdiagnosed as horror — similar to its reference material in Buffy the Vampire Slayer — I Saw the TV Glow began is theatrical circuit divisively. A slow-paced artistic expression with campy horror elements meant to enhance metaphor rather than scare, the movie's true fright comes in its moments of unsettling submission to cis-hetero society, whose oppressive nature is on full display throughout, especially in the vessel of Fred Durst. Packaged neatly inside a suburban millennial coming-of-age story, director Jane Schoenbrun delivers an opus for the queer experience. While its target audience may be niche, those whom it reaches will find a cornucopia of unnervingly nostalgic aesthetics and metaphysical affirmation.
Allie Gregory
5. Perfect Days
Directed by Wim Wenders
(Elevation Pictures)
In his Oscar-nominated film, Wim Wender asks, are we losing the ability to value life's simplicities? A quiet character study that allows us to breathe, Perfect Days contemplates and enjoys a gentle rhythm rather than the usual conflict-ridden drama that cinema very much prospers from. More a meditation than a movie, Perfect Days follows the day-to-day routine and ritualistic existence of 60-something Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo, revealing his appreciation for beauty, simplicity and the small joys in life, such as listening to one of his many rock cassettes as he drives to work and soaking up the sunlight shining through the trees. Peacefully shot and led by an absorbing performance by Yakusho, who communicates an array of emotion through physicality and facial expressions alone, Wender's slow-style film is a welcome breath of fresh air, each subtle moment a delight, respectively offering us a chance to take a step back and reflect upon our own way of living.
Sarah Regan
4. Love Lies Bleeding
Directed by Rose Glass
(VVS Films)
Sex, drugs and family drama run rampant and fluorescent in Rose Glass's romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding. Contrasting gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) and bodybuilder Jackie's (Kay O'Brian) passionate romance, Lou's family issues with her criminal father and abused sister, and Jackie's steroid use, Love Lies Bleeding is the perfect mix of its genres. A queer love story with the perfect balance of tender and sexy means it never feels contrived, and the trippy visuals mix perfectly with the nostalgic yet unsettling synth-y soundtrack. Add in some spectacular acting, not just from starts Stewart and O'Brian, but also Jena Malone, Ed Harris and Dave Franco, and toss in not one but two mullets, it's easy to say that Love Lies Bleeding will haunt both audiences' nightmares and their wet dreams. It's just about as "A24" as a movie can get.
Lindsay Clarke
3. Civil War
Directed by Alex Garland
(Elevation Pictures)
Civil War brings together a jaded veteran photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst in a career-best performance), a reporter (Wagner Moura), their mentor (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and a wide-eyed newcomer (Cailee Spaeny) travelling through a war-torn America in pursuit of an interview with a fascist third-term president. Upon this movie's release in the springtime, it felt like a warning; now, it feels like condemnation. Its plot feels scarily and potentially prescient, and its main themes — the role of a free press in a functioning society and what a civil war would actually look like in today's America — have never been more important. This is even before we talk about the four incredible performances, the razor-sharp script, and the engaging, dynamic direction by Alex Garland, both in the quietest moments and the loudest. Civil War is an unforgettable film that we'll be talking about for years to come.
Matthew Simpson
2. The Substance
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
(MUBI)
Like the sting of venom-infused lip gloss, Coralie Fargeat's The Substance is a brutal, high-femme body horror nightmare, with set pieces nasty enough to make even Art the Clown uncomfortable. It feels like a modern reimagining of Death Becomes Her filtered through the lens of the New French Extremity movement.
Fargeat's freak show might be most impressive by way of its dual lead performances, played by a devastating Demi Moore and a magnetic Margaret Qualley. The dynamic between their crone vs. ingenue archetypes produces a compelling narrative that makes way for never-before-seen horrors guaranteed to leave audiences laughing. But not happy laughing. No, more like the broken laughter of an unfortunate witness to some unknowable, Lovecraftian monstrosity.
While The Substance delivers a visceral and successful critique of Hollywood's unattainable beauty standards, it's Fargeat's shockingly inventive sandbox of horrors that make this powder-keg an instant classic.
Josh Korngut
1. Anora
Directed by Sean Baker
(Elevation Pictures)
This year we collectively fell in love with Mikey Madison through her dynamic portrayal of Ani, a Brooklyn sex worker who gets caught in a whirlwind romance-turned-nightmare after marrying the son of a Russian oligarch. While Anora's director, Sean Baker, provides little context on who she is, Ani's character slowly, but never completely, reveals herself through our brief encounter with her world. On top of his unbeatable casting, Baker is never too prescriptive of our reaction to what Ani endures; though the film remains consistently hilarious, some scenes leave half the audience silently uncomfortable and the other half doubled over with laughter.
Through all the chaos, Baker develops a loving portrait of both Brooklyn's sex workers and its Russian community as a luminous backdrop for Ani's adventure, then breaks our hearts. Anora's more than just a fun theatre experience; it's a reminder of why we love cinema.
Marie Saadeh