Top Ten Films of 2024
Are these the best films released in 2024? Maybe not to you and maybe not to many others. That’s the beauty and challenge of making your own arbitrary list. We do it out of tradition, for reference, and as a way to close out the year in film. However, it’s never a hard “close out,” and no doubt there are some films from last year that we’ll be catching up with at some point. But we must call it at some point, and now here we are… Read more…
WOLF MAN (2025) review
written by: Leigh Whannell and Corbett Tuck
produced by: Jason Blum
directed by: Leigh Whannell
rated: R (for bloody violent content, grisly images and some language)
runtime: 103 min.
U.S. release date: January 17, 2025
I used to not care so much about the runtime of a movie, but towards the end of last year, it seemed like all the movies I was trying to catch up with were over two hours, and, well, there’s only so much time in the day. The opposite came to mind after watching “Wolf Man,” the latest update to the classic Universal Studios Monsters creature, from co-writer/director Leigh Wannell, after the Australian filmmaker delivered a unique spin on “The Invisible Man” five years ago. When the movie ended in under two hours, I wondered, “Is that it?” Read more…
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA (2025) review
written by: Christian Gudegast
produced by: Tucker Tooley, Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel, Mark Canton & O’Shea Jackson Jr.
directed by: Christian Gudegast
rated: R (for pervasive language, some violence, drug use, and sexual references}
runtime: 144 min.
U.S. release date: January 10, 2025
In 2018, “Den of Thieves” was a surprise sleeper hit. It was a surprise primarily because a fair amount of critics thought the heist thriller from writer/director Christian Gudegast was good. It stood out in a sea of second-tier similar crime thrillers, resembling something more along the lines of Michael Mann’s “Heat” than anything too “Fast & Furious.” While that movie wasn’t necessarily a smash hit, it still had enough interest to greenlight a sequel, and here we are with “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.” Read more…
THE DAMNED (2025) review
written by: Jamie Hannigan
produced by: Emilie Jouffroy, Kamilla Hodol, John Keville, Conor Barry, Tim Headington & Theresa Steele Page
Nate Kamiya
directed by: Thordur Palsson
rated: R (for bloody violent content, suicide, and some language)
runtime: 89 min.
U.S. release date: January 3, 2025
The first month of the year here in the States usually sees a handful of horror movies dropping from American studios and a smattering of comedies and action flicks, most of them being quite subpar at best. 2025 is starting out differently; however, with the release of “The Damned,” a tense and haunting international horror thriller set in the 19th Century, that’s quite riveting. This is the feature-length directorial debut from Icelandic filmmaker Thordur Palsson (who established himself by helming Netflix’s “The Valhalla Murders”), who’s working with screenwriter Jamie Hannigan on a story that focuses on a small group of fishermen in a remote arctic fishing outpost during a harsh winter. There’s a palpable bone-chilling feeling throughout that’ll make you check to see if you can see your breath while watching this unsettling tale of guilt and regret that challenges sanity as madness gradually spreads. Read more…
NOSFERATU (2024) review
written by Robert Eggers (inspired by the screenplay “Nosferatu” by Henrik Galeen, inspired by the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker)
produced by Chris Colombus, Eleanor Colombus, Robert Eggers, John Graham, Jeff Robinov
directed by: Robert Eggers
rated: R (for bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content)
runtime: 132 min.
U.S. release date: December 25, 2024
“My good fellow, why would you do that?”
With his first three films, “The VVitch,” “The Lighthouse,” and “The Northman,” filmmaker Robert Eggers proved himself obsessed with the tiniest details. What all three lacked in the story, they more than made up for with the mood and the efforts to make things as accurate to the period as humanly possible. I haven’t felt any of them to be wholly successful, but there was enough talent on display behind the camera to keep me tuning in. Read more…
LOS FRIKIS (2024) review
written by: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
produced by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Michael Schwartz & Tyler Nilson
directed by: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
rated: R (for language, sexual content, some graphic nudity and drug use)
runtime: 105 min.
U.S. release date: December 25, 2024
In 2019, American filmmakers Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz gave us “The Peanut Butter Falcon”, a sincere and humorous dramedy revolving around an unexpected friendship between two men in the southeast. It was an impressive directorial debut for the writer/director duo and something of a sleeper hit. For their second feature, “Los Frikis”, they are focusing on two Cuban brothers living in Havana during the early 1990s, a time called the “Special Period” when the country underwent severe economic depression after the Soviet Union collapsed. These two brothers were members of the Cuban punk scene who purposefully injected themselves with HIV to escape poverty by entering a government-run treatment home. You read that right. Read more…
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN (2024) review
written by: James Mangold and Jay Cocks
produced by: Fred Berger, James Mangold, Alex Heineman, Bob Bookman, Peter Jaysen, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen & Timothée Chalamet
directed by: James Mangold
rated: R (for language)
runtime: 141 min.
U.S. release date: December 25, 2024
There will never be a straightforward biopic about Bob Dylan. That’s because there’s never been anything straightforward about the enigmatic Nobel Prize-winning singer/songwriter. His persona has constantly been evolving and changing as either a reflection of the times or a contradiction. Todd Haynes knew this when he made “I’m Not There,” which is why the 2007 film looked at the many stages of Dylan’s life through a prism in which six actors embodied different versions of the poet troubadour. For “A Complete Unknown,” director James Mangold also knows this as he presents a protagonist who lives up to the film’s title. Read more…
BABYGIRL (2024) review
written by: Halina Reijn
produced by: David Hinojosa, Halina Reijn, and Julia Oh
directed by: Halin a Reijn
rated: R (R for strong sexual content, nudity and language)
runtime: 114 min.
U.S. release date: December 25, 2024
The tagline to the latest film from Dutch writer/director Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl” promises, “This Christmas get exactly what you want,” which could mean various things. If you’re a fiftysomething female with unfulfilled sexual desires who secretly yearns to be dominated by a bold twentysomething male, this one’s for you. Or maybe you’re a twentysomething corporate bro who knows precisely what kind of carnal antics your company’s attractive fiftysomething CEO is lacking. If so, this psychological erotic thriller is calling you. Perhaps you lament the absence of the erotic thrillers of the 80s and 90s from the likes of Paul Verhoeven and Adrian Lyne that used to be released in theaters. Well, “Babygirl” will likely satiate that void. Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) has all of this in mind while taking a surprisingly smart and unexpected approach to this provocative dramedy that’s a horror flick for prudes. Read more…
KRAVEN THE HUNTER (2024) review
written by: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
produced by: Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and David Householter
directed by: J.C. Chandor
rated: R for strong bloody violence and language.
runtime: 127 min.
U.S. release date: December 13, 2024
Is it possible that 2024 is the year that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe will end? Let’s hope so. From a critical perspective, their “Madam Web” movie released in February was laughably bad, and its second sequel, “Venom: The Last Dance,” was a murky CGI mess that dropped in October. Financially, the two movies bombed and underperformed, respectively, and it looks like the much-delayed “Kraven the Hunter” will receive a similar fate. That’s what happens when you build a Spider-Man Universe without a Spider-Man. Read more…
WICKED (2024) review
written by: Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox
produced by: Marc Platt and David Stone
directed by: John M. Chu
rated: PG (for some scary action, thematic material and brief suggestive material)
runtime: 160 min.
U.S. release date: November 22, 2024
Universal Pictures doesn’t want you to know that “Wicked” is actually “Wicked: Part 1” until you’re seated in the theater. Such labeling was nowhere to be found in the extensive marketing, and it didn’t become known until screenings of the movie occurred leading up to its release. Typically, breaking up a storyline into two parts usually happens when a franchise hopes to extend its closure, like the “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games” series. Still, Warner Bros. Pictures recently did the same thing when the first “Dune” movie came out in 2021. There was a blink-and-you-missed-it “Part One” text in that movie, and now in “Wicked,” it appears in small letters in the lower right of the screen. It’s as if the studios are afraid the audience knows beforehand that what they’re starting will be split in two. But, if the stories already have a massive fanbase and the movies are good, as is the case with “Dune” and “Wicked,” what are they afraid of? Read more…
