Yes, Fade to Zach is back! And what better way to return than revealing my Top 10 Films of 2024!
Let’s get right to it…
10. Love Lies Bleeding (dir. Rose Glass)
Shootouts. Steroids. Bodies. Hallucinations. Flames. The 80s. Ed Harris balding in the front with long, stringy hair in the back. What more do you need?
9. Trap (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Logic and believability be damned. This is some of the most fun I’ve had watching a movie all year. Let Trap grab ahold of you. Let Trap into your soul.
8. Evil Does Not Exist (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
A poetic meditation on the intersection of humanity, modern civilization, and the natural world, and what can happen when the balance is shattered. There are certain shots from this film that still linger in my mind, and I’m not just talking about the superb cinematography.
7. Juror #2 (dir. Clint Eastwood)
It’s just great to see a moral conundrum of a premise explored with such skill and contemplation. Eastwood's penchant for symbolic storytelling is on full display here.
6. Longlegs (dir. Osgood Perkins)
Dank, dour, dingy, and dreadful in the best way. Perkins summons an uneasy atmosphere and escalates the procedural with some exquisitely framed imagery that screams artfully creepy. Nic Cage comes through with a reliably batshit turn as the story’s unhinged, washed-out, satan-worshipping antagonist.
5. A Real Pain (dir. Jesse Eisenberg)
What begins as an awkward tourist comedy unfolds with an itinerary of familial tensions and deep-rooted trauma. Kieran Culkin’s performance is first-class in the art of not being okay.
4. Challengers (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
A kinetic love triangle that volleys back and forth with a messy and sweaty intensity, surveying all angles while cracking and snapping like a broken racket.
3. The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
A film that mashes Hollywood’s fear of aging and irrelevance with toxic societal pressures and injects the dark fairytale with a caustic concoction of striking visual metaphors, grotesque body horror, and demented desperation. It’s truly a gonzo experience.
2. I Saw the TV Glow (dir. Jane Schoenbrun)
I was sucked into this one from the opening image, and it wasn’t long before I said “I love this.” Such a luminous vision that oozes with creativity and buzzes with originality. Is it surreal or is it all-too-real?
1. The Brutalist (dir. Brady Corbet)
Imposing, ambitious, and powerful. This one floored me. Corbet meticulously crafts a sprawling immigrant tale that thrusts us into the dark side of the American Dream. Between the stirring score, the top-tier performances, and the highly resonant themes, The Brutalist stands tall as a cinematic marvel that is built to stand the rest of time. What a film!
