The Best Movies of 2024 So Far: Must-Watch Films of the Year
Photo: A24 / WB / MGM / Netflix
As 2024 continues to unfold with each passing month, it’s abundantly clear that this year has already brought forth an impressive and delightful wealth of cinematic gems to eager audiences around the globe. From heart-pounding thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting each unexpected twist and turn to deeply moving dramas that tug at your heartstrings and provoke profound reflection, the best movies of 2024 present a truly diverse array of experiences that beautifully reflect the unparalleled creativity and passionate dedication of incredibly talented filmmakers. Whether you’re streaming them from the cozy comfort of your beloved sofa or enjoying them amidst the vibrant atmosphere of bustling theaters filled with fellow fans and fellow movie enthusiasts, these remarkable films are making significant waves in the ever-evolving film industry and are absolutely not to be missed by any true, dedicated cinephile who cherishes the art of storytelling through the lens of cinema.
We’ll keep updating this list all year, so be sure to check back in the coming months for more recommendations of movies to watch.
dFlights.
Green Border
Venerable Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s furious, heartsick look at the refugee crisis at the Poland/Belarus border is grim but galvanizing. We watch in horror and alarm as people fleeing war and poverty are used as pawns in a brutal political fight, left to wander swampy forests in search of care and compassion. They find it on occasion, as Holland turns her focus to the principled activists who risk their own freedom and safety to help their fellow humans. Green Border won a prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival and was then roundly decried by members of Poland’s conservative government. The film is its own acting of daring in that way, a polemic and a cri de coeur that damns its targets and rattles viewers out of complicit inaction.
Where to Watch:
A24.
Sing Sing
A gentle, intimate film about prison and rehabilitation, Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing focuses on the titular prison’s arts program, in which incarcerated men learn and perform theater, gaining new perspective on themselves and the world in the process. Colman Domingo is the lone professional actor in the film, gracefully embodying a wrongly convicted man tending to the flickering flame of belief that he will one day be exonerated. His castmates are all formerly incarcerated men, playing versions of themselves with the specificity and clarity of lived experience. Sing Sing is uplifting but not in the manner of typical Hollywood cliché. It’s instead sober and soft-spoken, and all the more compelling for it.
Where to Watch:
Netflix
Skywalkers: A Love Story
Jeff Zimbalist’s documentary is part dizzying account of a daredevil feat (or, really, lots of daredevil feats) and part study of the influencer economy. The film follows so-called “rooftoppers” Angela Nikolau and Vanya Beerkus as they prepare to illegally summit a mega skyscraper in Malaysia, risking life, limb, and love. The footage of their mission is tense and exhilarating, and the domestic scenes—two young people of fierce pride and conviction trying to make a relationship work—are no less engaging. But what really hooked me was the film’s mapping of influencer pathology, its insights into the risks and rewards of monetizing oneself. Skywalkers is a strikingly modern movie in that sense, enlightening and a little chilling.
Where to Watch:
Smudge Films.
Good One
If one of the hikers in Old Joy brought his teenage daughter along on the trip, it might look something like India Donaldson’s biting little character study. Lily Collias plays a college-bound girl enjoying a camping trip in the Catskills with her dad (James LeGros) and his ne’er-do-well friend (Danny McCarthy). She watches with passive interest as the two old buddies tease and bicker and let the various messes of their lives spill out into what is meant to be an amiable weekend. A frisson of danger gradually enters the picture, but it’s a slight one. Donaldson is not trying to make a heavy drama, nor a thriller. Good One is a pensive and effective mood piece about a liminal time in adolescence, when the adult world begins to reveal itself in all its tricky, complicated dimensions.
Where to Watch:
SONY PICTURES RELEASING/EVERETT COLLECTION.
It Ends With Us
An improvement on source material the likes of which we rarely see, this big, sentimental romantic drama handles its difficult subject matter—namely, domestic abuse—with surprising sensitivity and nuance. However embattled they were then or are now, director Justin Baldoni (who also acts in the film) and star Blake Lively have made a commercial, broadly appealing movie with pure Hollywood finesse. Lively has never been better than she is as the unfortunately named Lily Bloom, a florist still processing past trauma as she realizes that the man of her dreams may actually be leading her back into a terrible cycle. Jenny Slate offers fine support in the funny best friend role, while Brandon Sklenar is appropriately hunky as a rugged, decent man from Lily’s past. It Ends With Us is premium-grade, refreshingly mature melodrama, with or without the tabloid rumors.
Where to Watch:
Netflix
Daughters
A moving documentary about a program that unites incarcerated men with their daughters for a dance, Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s Daughters also concerns the harrowing failings of the justice system. The film is hopeful and shattering at once, and mightily benefits from the virtue of patience. Rae and Patton followed their subjects for years, allowing the film to encapsulate an epic sprawl. What results is a poignant portrait of lives interrupted, hanging in stasis even as time swiftly passes.
Where to Watch:
Music Box Films.
Mountains
A promising debut from director Monica Sorelle, Mountains is a spare film about family and community. Atibon Nazaire plays Xavier, a Haitian immigrant living in Little Haiti in Miami, working a construction job and trying to ensure that his teenage son stays on the right path. Surrounding this family is the lurch of supposed progress, as their neighborhood is gentrified and becomes increasingly alienating. Sorelle paces her film calmly and deliberately, relying on quiet moments of exchange and connection to suss out her themes. The scene in which the title of the film is explained is a lo-fi triumph, as a father imparts to a son what it is to work for one’s place in the world.
Where to Watch:
RED ISLAND, (aka L'ILE ROUGE), from left: Charlie Vauselle, Cathy Pham, 2023. © Film Movement / Courtesy Everett Collection Film Movement/Courtesy Everett Collection
Red Island
The great French director Robin Campillo yet again mines some of his own experience for this evocative picture of French colonialism in 1970s Madagascar. Largely through the eyes of a young boy, we see the fraught social dynamics of a French military base and the locals in its orbit, divides between race and class revealing themselves in troubling ways. But Campillo uses a light touch; his film floats along as if borne on the breeze of memory, lilting between vignettes that murmur with hidden meaning. A marriage falters, a forbidden romance feels the terrible strain of social pressure, a revolution foments among the occupied. And, in the film’s beguiling closing moments, Campillo gracefully reveals whose story this has been all along.
Where to Watch:
By MGM/Everett Collection.
Challengers
An Anne Hathaway movie about a middle-aged woman falling in love with a 20-something boy bander was probably always going to be a good time. But The Idea of You (based on a popular novel) turns a fun premise into something much more. Disarmingly poignant and lushly filmed, Michael Showalter’s film was a lovely springtime surprise. Hathaway is poised, confident, and decidedly grown up as a Los Angeles gallerist who falls hard, if a little reluctantly, for Nicholas Galitzine’s pop idol with a heart of gold. They’re a winning pair, selling a silly fantasy so successfully that it stops seeming silly at all.
Where to Watch:
By Amazon/ Everett Collection
The Idea of You
Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s sad, searing memory piece is in some manner a horror film, in others a somber and devastating drama of identity. Full of metaphor and allusion, I Saw the TV Glow is on its face a reconsideration of Schoenbrun’s television-obsessed teenage years—those Buffy and Charmed and Are You Afraid of the Dark? days enjoyed by so many millennials. But in all that decidedly abstract pop-culture referencing, Schoenbrun unearths something else: a picture of the trans experience that is as urgent and empathetic as it is sorrowful. Though I Saw the TV Glow moves at a deliberate, occasionally glacial pace, one leaves the film rattled and electrified—so exciting is the assuredness of its artistry, so evocative are its suggestions. Schoenbrun is a major filmmaker to watch, and I Saw the TV Glow is a must-see.
Where to Watch:
a24
I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow is a deeply personal film that blends elements of horror and drama to explore identity and the impact of pop culture. The film’s slow, deliberate pace builds to a powerful emotional climax, leaving a lasting impression on viewers.
Where to Watch:
By Walt Disney Co./Everett Collection.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The latest installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise, Kingdom continues the series’ tradition of thought-provoking and visually stunning storytelling. With its exploration of civilization, power, and survival, this film is a must-see for fans of the franchise.
Where to Watch:
Warner bros. everet collection
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
George Miller returns with Furiosa, a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road that delves into the backstory of its titular character. With intense action sequences and a captivating performance by Chris Hemsworth as the villain Dementus, Furiosa is a thrilling addition to the Mad Max universe.
Where to Watch:
Josh O’Connor, center, in the movie “La Chimera.” (Neon)
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera is a poetic exploration of love, loss, and the passage of time. Set in Italy, the film follows a group of treasure hunters as they dig through the past, uncovering not just artifacts, but the ghosts of their own memories.
Where to Watch:
Housekeeping for Beginners© Focus Features/Everett Collection.
Housekeeping for Beginners
Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping for Beginners is a raw and emotional film about a found family in North Macedonia. The film’s exploration of Roma life and the challenges faced by marginalized communities is both powerful and necessary, making it a standout in the international film scene.
Where to Watch:
The End We Start From© REPUBLIC PICTURES
The End We Start From
Starring Jodie Comer, The End We Start From is a survival drama set in a dystopian future where a mother and her newborn struggle to survive in a flooded world. The film’s grounded, realistic approach to its apocalyptic setting makes it a gripping and thought-provoking watch.
Where to Watch:
The Promised Land: COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA.
The Promised Land
Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land is an epic historical drama that tells the story of a soldier’s quest to cultivate a barren land in Denmark. With stunning cinematography and powerful performances, this film is a testament to human resilience and the spirit of exploration.
Where to Watch:
How to Have Sex FROM THE EVERETT COLLECTION.
How to Have Sex
Molly Manning Walker’s debut film How to Have Sex tackles the sensitive issue of consent with grace and sensitivity. The film’s raw, realistic portrayal of a young woman’s traumatic experience is both heartbreaking and essential, making it a vital piece of cinema.
Where to Watch:
Dune: Part Two© WARNER BROS/EVERETT COLLECTION.
Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two continues the epic saga with even more depth and intensity than its predecessor. The film’s stunning visuals, complex characters, and intricate world-building make it a standout in the science fiction genre.
Where to Watch:
One Life: FROM THE EVERETT COLLECTION.
One Life
Anthony Hopkins stars in One Life, a moving true story about the efforts to save Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II. The film’s portrayal of heroism, humanity, and the impact of one person’s actions is both inspiring and deeply affecting.
Where to Watch: Streaming on various platforms.
The Shadowless Tower© STRAND RELEASING/EVERETT COLLECTION.
The Shadowless Tower
Zhang Lü’s The Shadowless Tower is a delicate and sweeping drama that explores the complexities of family, friendship, and love in modern-day Beijing. The film’s quiet, introspective moments and rich character development make it a beautifully crafted piece of cinema.
Where to Watch:
Neon
Longlegs
An unconventional thriller that creeps under your skin, Longlegs follows an unsettling series of events set in motion by an eerie, mysterious figure. Maika Monroe delivers a chilling performance as the protagonist, a woman caught in a web of intrigue and fear. Directed with precision, Longlegs stands out as a psychological masterpiece that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, blending horror with dark, psychological tension.
Where to Watch:
Universal Pictures
The Fall Guy
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt team up in this exhilarating, high-octane action-comedy that effectively blends thrilling moments with clever humor. Directed by the immensely talented David Leitch, The Fall Guy delivers on all fronts with its explosive stunts and sharp, witty dialogue that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats. The undeniable chemistry between Gosling and Blunt elevates the film, making it a truly delightful and entertaining watch, transforming what could have easily become a standard action flick into something incredibly memorable and engaging for moviegoers of all kinds.
Where to Watch:
netflix
Hitman
Richard Linklater’s Hitman is a surprisingly delightful blend of comedy, drama, and thrilling suspense that keeps audiences engaged from start to finish. Glen Powell shines brilliantly in his multifaceted role as a man skillfully navigating the complexities of a double life—by day, he is a dedicated teacher striving to inspire his students and ignite their passion for learning, while by night, he transforms into a stealthy undercover hitman, executing his tasks with precision. The film’s unique tone and innovative narrative structure make it truly stand out in the cinematic landscape, expertly intertwining elements of classic noir with sharp, witty dialogue and a captivating storyline that continually keeps you on your toes, guessing at every unexpected turn.
Where to Watch:
Drive-Away Dolls
A quirky road movie brimming with unexpected surprises, Drive-Away Dolls follows two mismatched women as they set off on an unpredictable adventure filled with twists and turns. The renowned Coen Brothers deliver their signature blend of offbeat humor, gripping suspense, and rich character-driven storytelling that keeps audiences engaged from start to finish. Drive-Away Dolls promises to be a rollercoaster of emotions, oscillating between laugh-out-loud moments and tense standoffs, all beautifully wrapped in the Coens’ unmistakable and distinctive cinematic style.
Where to Watch:
20th Century Studios
The Bikeriders
Maybe it’s the defiant glint in their eyes or their readiness to fight at the drop of a hat. With half the members of the (fictional but inspired by real events) Vandals Motorcycle Club, you get the sense they’re destined to meet a tragic end behind the handlebars — a grim fate that looms over Jeff Nichols’ vivid portrayal of the mid-’60s transition in American biker culture from the The Wild One’s cool detachment to the chaotic, drug-fueled world of Roger Corman’s The Wild Angels. Austin Butler’s character, Benny, is a rebellious spirit with a clear death wish, making it even more heartbreaking to watch Jodie Comer’s Kathy attempt to reign him in. But who can blame her? This exceptionally well-acted drama presents a unique love triangle, with Tom Hardy’s magnetic gang leader completing the trio. The story seems to be leading to an inevitable conclusion, yet Nichols delivers a surprising and powerful ending that stands as one of the best in recent memory.
Where to Watch:
Searchlight Pictures
Kinds of Kindness
With the exception of The Favourite, I’ve never been particularly drawn to Yorgos Lanthimos’ films. Dogtooth felt dreary to me, and I found Poor Things overly long and preachy. So, it might come as a surprise when I say that Kinds of Kindness, a theater-of-the-absurd, allegorical Twilight Zone experience about power and deception in our modern world, is Lanthimos’ best work yet. But for two hours and 46 minutes, I watched in absolute awe. The film is divided into three episodes, each featuring the same cast members who drift through them like figures in a surreal dream. Whether it’s Jesse Plemons playing a hapless employee dealing with the absurd demands of his boss (Willem Dafoe), a cop whose wife, portrayed by Emma Stone, reappears as a slightly altered version of herself, or Stone as a troubled woman who leaves her family to follow a twisted cult leader (also played by Dafoe), each segment is a puzzle that slowly comes together. I’m baffled by the critics who often champion bold, innovative cinema yet have met this visionary work with a collective shrug. But don’t just take my word for it—buy a ticket, step into Lanthimos’ world, and see if you can find your way out.
Where to Watch:
Kinds of Kindness is set to release on Blu-ray and digital Oct. 8 and video on demand on Prime Video and Apple TV on Aug. 27.
a24
Civil War
Alex Garland’s Civil War is a captivating dystopian epic that feels eerily timely and relevant in our current social climate. Set in a near-future America, a harsh landscape fractured by a devastating second civil war, the film expertly tackles profound themes of division, unwavering loyalty, and the desperate struggle for survival in a society pushed to its limits. Garland’s meticulous direction brings a chilling realism and haunting atmosphere to the narrative, making Civil War a deeply thought-provoking and unsettling reflection on the potential future of our world, encouraging viewers to examine the choices that shape our collective fate.
Where to Watch:
Shudder
Late Night with the Devil
A throwback to the golden age of late-night television, Late Night with the Devil is a horror-comedy that blends scares with satire. The film, set in the 1970s, follows a talk show host whose career takes a dark turn when he invites a mysterious guest onto his show. It’s a clever, self-aware horror film that plays with the conventions of both the genre and the era.
Where to Watch:
a24
Love Lies Bleeding
A romantic drama with a dark twist, Love Lies Bleeding delves into the complexities of relationships and the darker side of love. The film’s intense performances and haunting narrative make it a powerful exploration of the lengths people will go to for love.
Where to Watch:
Universal Pictures
Monkey Man
Dev Patel’s Monkey Man is a film that thrives on its ferocious style, making it a standout directorial debut despite numerous setbacks. The film faced constant delays due to COVID, financing issues, and even Patel’s own injuries—breaking his foot and hand on separate occasions. Yet, Monkey Man emerges as a relentless action movie, fueled by genuine frustration with India’s political climate and Patel’s determination to establish himself as a serious contender in the action genre.
Unlike the clean, wide compositions typical of many studio action films, especially post-John Wick, Monkey Man embraces a chaotic, kinetic handheld approach. This style doesn’t obscure Patel’s physical presence; instead, it evokes a sense of a camera struggling to keep pace with a protagonist so consumed by rage that he nearly bursts out of the frame. The film is a masterclass in sustained tension, holding back its first major set piece for about 45 minutes before unleashing an extended release of pent-up energy. While the narrative may be rough around the edges, Monkey Man captivates as a visual spectacle, holding the viewer’s attention from start to finish.
Where to Watch:
sony pictures classics
Daddio
A decade ago, Tom Hardy’s Locke achieved a remarkable feat, crafting a gripping relationship drama centered around a man taking phone calls in his car. In her debut feature Daddio, writer-director Christy Hall takes on a similarly challenging concept, but elevates it further by focusing on two strangers (portrayed by Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson) sharing a cab ride from JFK airport to Manhattan. Penn plays the talkative cab driver who sees himself as a keen observer of human behavior, attempting to analyze the cautious young woman in the back seat. With a subtle and slightly unsettling approach, he gradually uncovers details about her life. Johnson’s expressive body language is key to her outstanding performance, which more than redeems her for past roles like Madame Web. Hall has skillfully crafted a complex, layered film, slowly revealing the passenger’s deep-seated issues around trust, making it a captivating exploration of character dynamics.
Where to Watch:
As we look ahead to the 2025 Oscars, it’s clear that this awards season is shaping up to be one of the most competitive and unpredictable in recent years. With a diverse slate of films ranging from epic blockbusters to intimate character studies, the race for the top honors will be fiercely contested. Whether it’s the musical genius of Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, the sweeping grandeur of Dune: Part Two, or the emotional depth of A Complete Unknown, each contender brings something unique to the table. As the film festivals continue and more screenings unfold, these early predictions will undoubtedly evolve, but one thing is certain: the journey to Oscar night will be one to watch closely.
Stay tuned as The Cinema Group keeps you updated with the latest news, analysis, and predictions throughout this thrilling awards season.
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