End of the year, time for a list! Due to film distributors’ opinion of Denver as some kind of cultural wasteland, there are some films excluded here that I’m fairly certain would have made the cut, had I been given the chance to see them, i.e. Nickel Boys, Queer, September 5, The Room Next Door, Didi, Sing Sing, Babygirl, and The Brutalist. Don’t blame me! Blame Neon and A24!
HONORABLE MENTION: Cuckoo; Alien: Romulus; The First Omen; Deadpool & Wolverine; The Bikeriders; Longlegs; Immaculate; Monkey Man; Out of Darkness; Hit Man; A Complete Unknown; The Beekeeper
24. Milk & Serial
One of the year’s best found-footage horror movies is an hour long and available for free on YouTube. Milk & Serial comes from the comedy duo That’s a Bad Idea, who were also behind the award-winning horror short The Chair. Go in blind for this one. It grabs you from the start and the tension doesn’t let up.
23. In a Violent Nature
Director Chris Nash reimagines the slasher genre with this underseen gem, told from the killer’s point of view. It’s a slow burn until it very much isn’t, and features one of the most creative kills ever seen in one of these movies. Well, that’s not the right phrase: there’s only one of these movies.
22. Will & Harper
A tender and often hilarious portrait of friendship and allyship, Will & Harper is a simply stunning portrait of identity in America. It’s a porous, ever-changing thing, and watching Will Ferrell and Harper Steele road trip across the country as they both come to understand Harper’s new identity as a trans woman, it’s clear that it’s never too late in life to be exactly who you were born to be.
21. Kinds of Kindness
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos continue to defy (and redefine) the creator/muse relationship. After the rapturously received Poor Things the duo released Kinds of Kindness less than three months later, and it’s an entirely different beast. Confrontational, bleak, cruel, and blackly hilarious, this challenging triptych dares you to tune to its frequency. Not everyone will, and I think that’s the target audience.
20. Gladiator II
Imperfect? Sure. Wildly entertaining? Hell yes. I don’t know if I had a better time in the theater all year than I did watching Gladiator II. Denzel Washington is remarkable in one of his rare villainous performances, but what struck me the most is how the film focuses on the cynical nihilism of ancient Rome, which hits home much harder while staring down the barrel of a second Trump presidency.
19. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
It’s honestly insane that movies like this and Mad Max: Fury Road get made at all; the tragedy of Furiosa is how it poorly it performed at the box office. No one is telling stories with the same vision as George Miller; he’s not out of other directors’ leagues, he’s playing an entirely different game. Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Burke are both terrific, but the standout is a devilish Chris Hemsworth, who will hopefully be the next major star to emerge from the Marvel factory as an actual actor.
18. Civil War
“What kind of Americans are you?”
17. Smile 2
Grislier, grander, and more imaginative than its predecessor. Writer-director Parker Finn once again takes what could be a hokey premise – creepy smiles! – and digs deeper. Where the first Smile was about trauma and misogyny, Smile 2 is about sobriety and the fallout of addiction. The scares are plentiful, the imagery horrific, but the movie lives or dies on the performance of Naomi Scott. Luckily, she’s in almost every scene and is absolutely revelatory: one of the best performances of the year.
16. A Serious Pain
Jesse Eisenberg’s talky dramedy interrogates its title in two different ways, as a way of describing Kieran Culkin’s motor-mouthed, hyper-sensitive Benji, and the generational trauma of the Holocaust. Culkin gives one of the year’s finest performances, one that will hopefully be recognized by the Academy; even if it isn’t, Culkin proves that he’s here to stay, and Eisenberg makes a case for himself as a majorly talented writer.
15. Strange Darling
I know I said this about Milk & Serial, but please, by all means, go into Strange Darling as blind as possible. It upends expectations in every chapter of its nonlinear narrative, and the 35mm cinematography – by Giovanni Ribisi, in his first official credit as director of photography – is flat-out stunning.
14. Late Night with the Devil
Both a startlingly good possession film in a time when those are sorely needed, as well as a depiction of the depths Americans will reach for fame, Late Night with the Devil is one of Shudder’s absolute best offerings. Genre mainstay David Dastmalchian finally gets the starring role he’s deserved for a long time, and boy does he deliver. Late Night is better and stranger than you’d imagine.
13. Oddity
I watched Oddity twice in one weekend and it scared the shit out of me both times. Director Damien McCarthy (Caveat) has created an environment of such oppressive dread that it’s impossible to turn from the screen. Carolyn Bracken stuns in a dual performance, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
12. Emilia Perez
Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez feels like a small, lovely revolution. Genre-spanning and -defying, there was no film this year as off-kilter and unabashedly itself. The performances – from Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana, and Selena Gomez – are luminous, and the songs are beautiful. I never saw this film coming, but can anyone say that they did?
11. Rebel Ridge
Jeremy Saulnier – as the kids say – doesn’t miss. The director of Blue Ruin, Green Room, and Hold the Dark comes back swinging with Rebel Ridge, one of the most cathartic and kick-ass actions films in a very long time. Aaron Pierre squares his shoulders and announces himself as a damn movie star. We could get a film like this from Saulnier every year and it wouldn’t be often enough.
10. Wicked
I’d say “they don’t make them like this any more” but here’s proof positive that they do. I was simply blown away by Wicked; every minute of its 160-minute runtime feels vibrant, alive, and lived-in. The performances are terrific across the board, but Ariana Grande steals every scene she’s in. Expect to see her on that stage in March.
9. Heretic
Now that Hugh Grant has left rom-coms behind, we’re in his fuck-around era, and it is glorious to behold. He brings all of his charm and irascibility to the role of Mr. Reed in Heretic, and in doing so gives the finest performance of his long career. The directors of Haunt, the best horror film no one has seen, prove they can deliver cerebral thrills as well as visceral ones. So much of Heretic is talking: discussion, interrogation, hypotheticals. And every second of it is enthralling.
8. Love Lies Bleeding
Rose Glass followed up Saint Maud with a gonzo queer noir, awash in ’80s neon, dripping with horniness. Lurid visuals sparkle across the desert landscapes, and the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Katy M. O’Brian is nothing short of electric. Add in killer supporting performances from James Franco and Ed Harris, and you’ve got a new landmark in queer cinema.
7. Challengers
Zendaya shows up in full movie-star mode and kicks down the door in Challengers, Luca Guadagnino’s delirious depiction of tennis and temptation. Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor are terrific, but this is Zendaya’s show, and she steals it to the thumping soundtrack of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s predictably amazing score.
6. Conclave
Forget what I said about Wicked: they don’t make ’em like Conclave anymore. A papal election is presented as a thriller in Edward Berger’s follow-up to his brilliant All Quiet on the Western Front. As tense as a heist film, Conclave boasts a career-best performance from Ralph Fiennes, who quietly and unassumingly shows why he’s one of the best actors alive and working right now.
5. The Substance
The wildest, grossest film of the year is also one of the smartest. The Substance takes aim at the impossible beauty standards we hold women to in America, and the lengths we demand they go to in order to achieve them. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are perfect together (and as each other), and their performances match the film’s heightening sense of grotesquerie. The body horror on display is jaw-dropping, but director Coralie Fageat (Revenge) isn’t trying to be the next David Cronenberg. She’s trying to be the first Coralie Fageat.
4. Anora
A lot has been written about Anora, Sean Baker’s latest, and best, film about the essential humanity of sex workers. A lot of ink has been spilled about the dexterity of Baker’s script, the gentle handling of tonal shifts, the brilliance of Mikey Madison as a kind of Staten Island Cinderella. And it’s all true.
3. Juror #2
Clint Eastwood’s best film in years is also one of the best American films of the century. (What a shame, then, that Eastwood’s longtime studio, WB, did him dirty and released this in only 50 theaters nationwide.) Eastwood is the only conservative artist with any curiosity or empathy, which translates well to this searing indictment of the American justice system. The man who played Dirty Harry takes a stern look at what we consider justice versus what makes us feel better. This will age into a classic.
2. Dune: Part Two
There’s no way the Dune movies should be as good as they are; luckily they wound up in the capable hands of Denis Villenueve. Dune: Part Two is a sequel par excellence, instantly joining the pantheon of near-perfect second-parters, alongside The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The film rises to the heights of its story, and does so beautifully.
1. Nosferatu
The film Robert Eggers was born to make, the one his whole career has been pushing him towards. Beautiful and terrifying, this is romantic Gothic horror at its apex. Eggers is one of our finest modern American directors, and Nosferatu is his masterpiece.
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