Looking at my top 10, the surprisingly (but maybe it shouldn’t be) prevailing theme is metaphysics. We live in a decade when time seems to be moving faster – and more strangely. And while the flow of time has not replaced the weather as a casual topic of choice, filmmakers have not shied away. There’s something in the water, perhaps – and indeed, two films on my list take place at lakes. Here are my picks for the top 10 movies of 2024 (but you can enjoy them in any year):
10. “I Saw the TV Glow”
Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun alternately basks in the outcast teens’ warm feeling of loving a TV show (the superficially “Buffy”-esque “The Pink Opaque”) and forming rather cold friendships via that shared love. Such is the case with Owen (Justice Smith), who is perhaps autistic, and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who is gay; both have parental issues, too. Rather than a coming-of-age story, it’s a failure-to-come-of-age story. Though not a purely dire tale, Schoenbrun’s stark emotional honesty about the depression that comes with outsider status shines forth. (Full review.)
9. “Caddo Lake”
M. Night Shyamalan didn’t direct a good movie this year, but he produced one. The writer-director duo of Logan George and Celine Held start us off with parallel narratives in the evocative swampland along the Texas-Louisiana border. One involves a young girl who goes missing, the other follows a young man dredging crap out of the swamp-lake and his own psyche. A viewer senses the mysteries will intersect, and “Caddo Lake” rewards our curiosity. It’s also a subtly provocative piece of cli-fi, based on a real place with a disturbing history, without devolving into a lecture. (Full review.)
8. “MaXXXine”
In Ti West’s “X” trilogy capper, Maxine (the versatile Mia Goth) knows that to defeat a monster she must become a monster. With disturbing ease, we sympathize with a killer as Maxine stalks the violent neon streets of 1980s Hollywood. More of a gore and crime flick than a horror film, “MaXXXine” lovingly re-creates the worst parts of Eighties L.A. the same way “Pearl” brings us to Old Hollywood then pulls back the curtain. One way to make a villain a hero is to make the other villains even worse, and Kevin Bacon is on hand to provide this, stealing every scene by dripping arrogant smarm. (Full review.)
7. “Snack Shack”
Writer-director Adam Rehmeier lovingly re-creates 1991 Nebraska City in a way only possible for someone who lived through Midwestern minutiae such as sneezing fits while mowing the lawn. The story is universal, though, as Gabriel LaBelle gives a winning turn as the leader of two teen boys always looking for an entrepreneurial breakthrough. Their latest make-a-buck scheme is the pool’s snack shack. A hot girl-next-door gets between them, but that’s merely one slice-of-life element as Rehmeier explores friendship, growing up, and the bittersweet way the present disappears into the past. (Full review.)
6. “Twisters”
Director Lee Isaac Chung reminds us why old-school disaster flicks are so much fun, in particular 1996’s “Twister,” of course. Perhaps this sequel can’t equal Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, but Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell are not bad swap-outs. The writers repurpose the original’s format: Storm-chasers seek to measure and document Oklahoma tornadoes while also doing boots-on-the-ground rescues. But “Twisters” plays the chess pieces differently and takes advantage of modern special effects for visceral terror and narrow rescues. Here’s the big twist: This sequel was worth doing. (Full review.)
5. “Heretic”
The writer-director duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods bounce back from the bland “Boogeyman” by reminding us not only that they can create scares (as with their breakthrough “A Quiet Place”) but also that they can shape a razor-sharp screenplay. The film is helped tremendously by three actors: Hugh Grant as an armchair theologian, and Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher as the Mormon missionaries who might be in over their heads in this debate. But then again, they might not be. The house on a hill becomes a fourth compelling character as “Heretic” hits us with scares, creepy mysteries and even some food for thought about what we’re truly seeing. (Full review.)
4. “Alien: Romulus”
This 14th movie in the “Aliens”/“Predator” saga is tasty nostalgic futurism: The depressing Company-controlled home planet is such that we can imagine the film coming out soon after Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic. It’s also a love letter to the saga. Without overdoing the ’memberberries, director/co-writer Fede Alvarez references every “Alien” film, including Scott’s “Prometheus” duology. Calling to mind Ellen Page, Cailee Spaeny emerges as worthy Final Girl Rain, and David Jonsson slyly plays an autistic character via Rain’s android “brother” Andy. (Full review.)
3. “The Substance”
The most shocking thing about this body horror from writer-director Coralie Fargeat might be that Demi Moore gets the juiciest role of her career at 61. Which isn’t to say the horror elements are bland, as we follow Moore’s retired fitness-show star Elisabeth, who has a juicy opportunity to live vicariously through “younger self” Sue (Margaret Qualley). They trade off existences every seven days, liking each other less, but depending on each other more. Even as she doses us with final-act insanity in the vein of “Carrie” and “The Thing,” Fargeat encourages us to think about whether a person can truly have an identity if they’ve allowed themselves to be defined by lascivious observers. (Full review.)
2. “My Old Ass”
Writer-director Megan Park gets wistful in what might become a “Garden State” for Gen-Z’ers. Also breaking through is Maisy Stella in an effortless turn as teen Elliott, who mulls post-high-school options but is more attached to her family and their cranberry farm than she’d openly admit. Her 39-year-old self – the titular MOA in her phone contacts, summoned by magic ’shrooms and played by Aubrey Plaza – amusingly but genuinely gives guidance. As Elliott falls for the farm’s “summer boy” Chad (Percy Hynes White in another delicate turn), Park shows that life lessons must be learned actively rather than passively. (Full review.)
1. “Oddity”
The story of an Irish husband and wife fixing up an architecturally odd country manor provides the foundation, and creative scares proceed from that solid base. Writer-director Damian Mc Carthy’s horror film is easy to follow but keeps us enjoyably off-balance because we don’t know who we can trust. Carolyn Bracken gives a particularly strong dual turn as a targeted woman and her witchy blind sister. The scare innovations are clever, as Mc Carthy draws creepiness from a scroll of digital images on a phone and a wooden golem creaking about the house. Bonus points go to a volume-based sound design that plays a viewer’s emotions like a symphony. Though less nutso than 2024’s other elite horror entries, “Oddity” is the scariest. (Full review.)