DrogeMiester's Top 10 Movies of 2024

The year 2024 has finally come to an end and now it’s time for my annual dive into my top 10 favorite movies of the year. Well, actually, that year ended a month ago. Some people like doing this list the second the year ends. Others like doing it in December before everything even comes out. I like to give myself a few extra weeks to catch up on things and then release this list around this time of year. Plus there’s always movies that don’t expand until Oscar nominations come out that I like to see before putting my list out. And this year California was on fire, so they extended the deadline for Oscar voting, thus delaying the announcement. Sometimes real life happens and you adjust.

This was also the second straight year in 2024 where I logged everything I watched on Letterboxd. I haven’t done reviews over there because I only have 19 followers, so I use it as more of a diary. But it’s been an excellent film diary and fun to look back on. You can also create all sorts of lists on Letterboxd, so I’ve done plenty of those. The point of bringing that up is that I also keep an ongoing list of my favorite movies of the year. In years past, I would keep track of what I watched in an Excel file. I’d have a general idea of what my top movies were, but I didn’t actually sit down and create the official list until around this time. Now I update the list every time I watch something new. Thus all I had to do when it came time for this blog post was to fine tune things and trim it down to my top 25. And I actually considered for a bit simply sharing that Letterboxd list instead of doing this post, but I decided that I enjoy doing one final write up. So here we are.

As such, I was a lot less concerned about catching every last movie before making this post because I can just update the Letterboxd list if changes happen. Generally speaking, I do a pretty good job of keeping my finger on the pulse and prioritizing movies that I know I will like most. So I don’t imagine there will be many drastic changes moving forward, but this post here will be etched in stone as a reflection of what I thought of 2024 as of early February 2025. And if changes happen, that will reflect on the list over on Letterboxd. And if there’s drastic enough changes, I’ll re-share that list on social media. And I’ll post a link that that in the comments here. And yes, that is 25 movies deep instead of just 10, so check that out to see the honorable mentions. And you can add yourself to my list of 19 Letterboxd followers if you want. Anyways, as always, 2024 was a fun year for movies. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever come to the end of the year and thought the year was bad. Different years just have different strengths and weaknesses. Different personalities, if you will. If you watch as many movies as I do, you’ll find that there’s always plenty of good, just in different ways. And in 2024, the story was horror. One of the better years for horror that I can remember. That’s mostly reflective in my top 25 as a whole, but you’ll notice several entries in here that really rose to the top. I could’ve made a list of my top 10 horror films of the year and still had good horror movies that I had to leave off. And that’s impressive. But anyways, enough talking, here’s the top 10!

10- Flow

Kitty cat go “Meow!” Dog go “Woof!” Bird go “Chirp!” Not sure what the best written noise for a lemur or capybara is. But waters go “Woosh!” Kitty go “MEOW!!!” Kitty cat in danger. Kitty cat make friends. Kitty cat is safe. Ok, I’ll stop. But this is a foreign animated film without dialogue. Just the animals and the noises they make. It’s simple and cute enough that anyone who likes animals, old or young, can watch this film and enjoy it. But it’s profound enough that an expert film connoisseur can sit down and spend hours analyzing all of its themes and messages. And it’s the perfect movie for a teacher of a film class to use when the lesson is on animation. Make the class watch it and have every student write their five-page paper on it. It’s really quite the work of art. It was playing in exactly ONE theater in Utah last month and for my birthday I hunted it down and took my mom with me to see it and we both loved it. I’m rather proud of myself that I successfully found it, but as such this is a movie you might not have had the opportunity to see. So when it becomes available, find it and watch it. Especially if you’re like me and you love cats.

9- A Real Pain

My first of two really grumpy moments when Oscar nominations were announced and this movie was NOT in the best picture lineup when it was predicted to be in. It got a screenplay nod and a supporting actor nomination for Kieran Culkin, which is great. But it most certainly deserved more. I had heard the buzz about this since it came out at Sundance in January 2024. And sometimes that can be dangerous when it takes you too long to finally get around to a hyped up film. There’s a good chance of it feeling over-hyped. But this one caught me off guard in a good way. It’s written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and stars him and Kieran Culkin as two cousins going on a trip to Europe to pay homage to their Jewish heritage. You wouldn’t think a movie that simple could be that powerful. I certainly didn’t, anyways. I expected it to be good, but perhaps mainly as an acting showcase. And no, this doesn’t have many big, grand, beat-you-over-the-head emotional moments. But for me it was very subtle and very impactful, showcases two cousins who both really cared about their heritage, but lived different lives and had different ways of showing it. And yeah, Kieran Culkin is a superstar. You knew that if you watched “Succession,” but this reaffirms that. I don’t know if he’ll ever be more popular than his older brother Macaulay, but in terms of acting, awards, and prestige, I think Kieran is the new king of the Culkin family.

8- Strange Darling

On the surface this is your typical crime thriller. A well-executed, extremely entertaining crime thriller. But a typical one. And I’m all here for that, familiar or not. However, this movie is narratively split into six chapters. And the chapters are presented to you… out of order. Again, non-linear story telling is nothing new. Just ask Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarantino. One might call it a “gimmick” if used unnecessarily. But this movie told out of order takes you on quite the journey. It’s one of those movies that’s best experienced without knowing much of anything, which is why I’m trying my best to dance around things very carefully. But by starting in the middle of the story and bouncing around, then going back to fill in the gaps, your expectations get completely flipped on their head halfway through. It’s one of those movies where my jaw dropped and hit the floor. Like… WHAT?!?!? Some absolutely brilliant storytelling. And if I had a say in the Oscars, Willa Fitzgerald would be getting a best actress nomination. Because she is absolutely insane in this movie as “The Lady.” And even though Oscar didn’t notice her with this being the wrong genre for them, I hope others in the film industry have taken note because this girl deserves a long and successful career.

7- Sing Sing

The other moment of Oscar nomination morning that made me real mad is when this movie also didn’t get into the best picture race. Both this and “A Real Pain” were projected to get in and both missed. Because of that, we ended up with ZERO movies in the best picture lineup in my personal top 10 this time around. I know it was a weaker year for the awards race, but we were supposed to at least have two. Oh well. I guess that’s a spoiler alert for what’s not coming up in the next six choices. Anyways, even though A24 totally botched this movie’s release schedule and awards campaign, it’s one I’d highly recommend hunting down and watching. It’s about a group of people in prison whose lives get turned around by an in-prison theater program where they get the chance to act, prepare, and put on a show. A powerful message that sometimes giving people a purpose in life can make a huge difference in turning their lives around. And even though this movie is technically a work of fiction, most of the cast are people playing themselves. Or versions of themselves. People who actually went through this program and successfully made it out and turned their lives around, who now get the chance to tell their story in a unique way. And to me that element of it was what really put it over the edge.

6- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

One of the more baffling stories of 2024 was how “Furiosa” simply did not connect with general audiences. Critics loved it. And most people who did go see it generally loved it as well. But that’s the thing. Most people weren’t interested. And now that the year has come and gone, it’s one that’s easy to forget that it came out. It just didn’t have the same cultural impact as its predecessor. And to me that’s really sad because “Mad Max: Fury Road,” when the dust settled several years later, is the movie that’s become my favorite of 2015. Seeing George Miller back with his next entry in the franchise had me stoked. It had Anya Taylor-Joy playing a younger Furiosa, and that was great news because I love Anya. And we also had Chris Hemsworth joining the party, looking like he was having the absolute time of his life. And yeah, it wound up being a very different movie than “Fury Road,” but to me it was the perfect compliment. You didn’t get as many crazy, action-packed sequences. And the second you thought you were about to get one, it kinda drifted. And if you were disappointed because of that, I understand. But to me this wound up as a character piece and it was a rather effective one at that. We got to learn more about Furiosa that makes her role and story in “Fury Road” feel that much more impactful. And when you watch these two movies back to back, the existence of “Furiosa” makes “Fury Road” an even better movie. It’s rare to get a good prequel these days. It’s even more rare to get a prequel that does it’s job so well that it makes the original an even better. I’m sure one exists, but I honestly can’t think of a better example of this than “Furiosa” right now.

5- Late Night with the Devil

As mentioned in my intro, 2024 was an excellent year for horror. And although some of the entries in my top 10 could be categorized more as thriller than horror, there is definitely no debate on this one. It’s 100 percent horror. And one of the most creative and unique horror films to come out as well. In an era where it’s really easy to make a few quick bucks off of a generic jump-scare fest, it was great to see that there’s still plenty of creativity in the horror realm. Funny enough, at its core, “Late Night with the Devil” is a demonic possession movie. And we’ve seen too many of those to count. But like with “Strange Darling,” it’s how they presented it and framed it that made it unique. The setting was that of a fictional late night talk show. And the framing device was pseudo found footage. I say “pseudo” because they don’t fully commit to the gig and it’s not really found footage. But the idea is that they’ve found an old recording of this talk show host in extreme desperation mode doing a crazy Halloween episode. So yeah, the basic idea is something we’ve seen before. But framed in a way that makes it feel unique and fresh. And executed in a very intense and entertaining manner. The suspense builds and builds until all Hell breaks loose in the final act. And I do mean that literally and not as a curse word. We have demonic possessions, evil spirits, the Devil, and all sorts of Hellish things. If horror isn’t your thing, this won’t convert you. But if you do like horror and you somehow missed this one, this should immediately go to the top of your watch list.

4- Monkey Man

They called this movie the “Indian John Wick.” And in an era of action films where everyone is trying to be the next John Wick, that speaks a lot to the massive cultural impact that John Wick made on the action genre. Everyone who is making a new action film is trying to replicate that success. And in terms of a broken protagonist trying to get revenge on a group of evil dudes, then yeah, sure. “Indian John Wick.” But this is Dev Patel doing something special here. And if it was just him in the lead role of the movie, that would be hard enough given the intense training regimen that he most certainly had to go through in order to pull this off. But he also wrote, directed, and produced the movie. So he played just about every role in the production and he did a perfect job at it. And it was his first time directing a movie, too. So that’s even more impressive. However, I do think this movie separates itself from John Wick in many ways. It’s a lot more gritty and raw. Our lead character isn’t just a superhuman easily beating all the bad dudes. He’s a bit messy and chaotic. Very broken and very hurt, causing him to be quite unhinged, which presents an extra level of danger. And he goes through quite the impressive character arc, both mentally and physically. It’s an insanely fun action film, but it’s also very raw and emotional. It’ll give you what you came for if you’re a fan of action, but it also separates itself from the pack to feel unique and special. And for a while this hung out at No. 1 on my Letterboxd list. For a bit there, I wondered if we’d get anything to top it. We finally did in the second half of the year. But this is still the action movie of the year if you’re a fan of that genre.

3- The Wild Robot

Looking at how my top 5 ended up this year, this isn’t exactly a bunch of films that one would call user-friendly. They’re very niche to me. But thrown right in the middle of that mix is this absolutely delightful little DreamWorks film. If there’s one movie I can safely recommend to anyone and everyone, old and young, nephew and mom alike, “The Wild Robot” is the one. And if you have a heart, you’re going to fall in love with this movie, which tells the story of an A.I. robot that gets lost on an island full of wild animals and gets the “assignment” to help a raise a little baby goose so that it can get to the point of flying off with the rest of the flock during winter. You know exactly what’s going to happen with that premise and you brace for emotional impact as it hits, but like a Pixar movie that successfully pulls at the heartstrings every time even though you know what they’re going to try to do, the movie wins and you find yourself bawling in your seat like Wade from “Elemental,” wondering if you’re going to turn into a puddle. But lest you think that’s the only thing that’s going to happen, what you thought was going to be the movie’s climax ends up taking place in the middle of the film. And this film ends up going in lots of directions. Maybe part of that reasoning is that there’s a whole series of books this is based on, but instead of filling cluttered and chaotic with too much plot and too many characters, it all comes together in a very impressive way that makes it feel layered and complex. You’re not just going to cry. You’re going to experience every emotion possible. DreamWorks pulls a rabbit out of their hat with this movie and the result is one of their best yet.

2- Nosferatu

It’s not too often where my most anticipated movie of the year connects in the exact way I was hoping and dreaming it would, but that’s exactly what happened with Robert Eggers’ adaptation of “Nosferatu.” In fact, it came very close to going from most anticipated to No. 1 movie of the year. With both this movie and the movie that ended up at No. 1, they were very strong cases of if you know me well enough, you know they’re going to be my type of movie. And yeah, they’re both horror. With “Nosferatu,” Robert Eggers takes the story of Dracula that we’ve seen done a thousand times and puts his own dark and twisted spin on things. He’s a director who likes to take a subject matter and be as authentic as he can to that time period. No sugarcoating anything, but rather be honest and true to the original source material or era he’s in. And while that ends up as very dark and grim stories, the point is to be thematically rich and deep in a way you can’t as easily accomplish otherwise. So yeah, the director who gave us “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” and “The Northman” now takes on the original story of Nosferatu, bringing it back to its original gothic horror origins. This is not supposed to be a happy story with a fun, central villain. He’s a creepy, scary dude who gains an unhealthy obsession with a dude’s wife. And the only way to stop him is for the pure woman to give herself as a willing sacrifice. But in the process, Nosferatu brings plague, disease, and destruction. And there’s conflicting interests with our lead protagonists who battle with the idea of saving the whole city vs. saving your wife. This is the perfect “Nosferatu” adaptation in my mind with a final shot that is absolutely haunting. It makes me want Eggers to take on all the old monster movies and classic dark fairy tales. And he’s holding true for now. His next movie is a 13th Century Werewolf thriller titled “Werwulf,” coming Christmas 2026.

1- Longlegs

Some years there’s internal competition in my mind as to what deserves the title of my favorite movie of the year. This was not one of those years. This was very easy to decide. I mean, when I heard buzz about this movie, you’re really telling me that there’s a movie coming out that’s described as a serial killer horror movie that’s on par with “Silence of the Lambs” and “Se7en”? Directed by Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins who played Norman Bates in “Psycho”? There might not be a more “Adam movie” in existence. I tried not going in with too high of expectations, but this definitely has Oz harnessing his inner David Fincher (“Se7en,” “Zodiac,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Gone Girl”) as he’s telling the story of a Satanic serial killer played by Nicolas Cage. A fictional story, not a real one. But certainly inspired real lunatics that did exist. Cage is giving one of his most crazy and eccentric roles yet, which is saying something for him, but it absolutely works in the context of what he is supposed to be pull off. Most of the movie is focused on our FBI girl who is hunting him down, but the moments Cage does get leave a haunting and terrifying impression that will stick with me for a long time. You can call this a crime thriller if you want. If you have a stigma against horror and that gets you to watch, then cool, but to me this feels like real life horror. The type of scary, terrifying, Satanic work that could’ve very well existed. If the Devil is real and he has a real influence on people who fully let him in, I’m not sure how much more scary you can get. And if you wonder why and how such a dark and twisted movie can be my favorite, just keep in mind that the point here is to stop the Devil and catch people like this. Portrayals of evil don’t mean the movie itself is promoting evil. But it does leave a much larger impact than anything else I watched. One of the quickest 5-star reviews I’ve given. A movie that I instantly threw on the top of my list before I even left the theater. And there was never a threat of it being dethroned.