Our demanding critics choose the best films (along with some disappointments) of the year. And there is plenty of disagreement.

Gerald Peary

Best Narrative Film of the Year: A Complete Unknown

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Romania)

The rest of the Ten Best: Anora, Nightbitch, How to Have Sex (England), Chaperone, All We Imagine as Light (India), Hard Truths (England), Coup de Chance, Tiger Stripes (Malaysia)

And these honorable runners-up: A Real Pain, Io Capitano (Italy), La Palisiada (Ukraine), His Three Daughters, The Outrun, The Bikeriders, Wildcat, Small Things Like These (Ireland), You Are Not Me (Spain), The Devil’s Bath (Austria)

Most overrated: Nickel Boys, Blitz, Conclave, The Brutalist, A Different Man, Hit Man

Best Documentary: No Other Land (Palestine)

The rest of the Ten Best: Sugar Cane (Canada), Nocturnes (India), Frida (Mexico), Queendom (Russia), Mad About the Boy: the Noel Coward Story (England), How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer, Borderland, Made in England (England), Every Little Thing

Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

Runners-Up: Gillian Murphy, Small Things Like These; Hugh Grant, Heretic; Liv Schreiber, Across the River and Into the Trees; Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Best Actress: Illinca Manaloche, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

Runners-up: Amy Adams, Nightbitch; Saoirse Ronin, The Outrun; Karla Sofia Gascon, Emilia Perez; Maya Hawke, Wildcat

Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy, The Bikeriders

Runners-Up: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain; Bryan Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside; Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing; Daniel Zovatto, Woman of the Year

Best Supporting Actress: Emily Watson, Small Things Like These

Runners-Up: Michele Austin, Hard Truths; Monica Barnaro, A Complete Unknown; Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters: Carol Kane, Between the Temples

Best Director: James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

Best Screenplay: James Mangold and Jay Cocks, A Complete Unknown

Best New Filmmaker: Francis Galluppi, The Last Stop in Yuma County

Best Animated Film: Flow (Latvia)

Best New England Film: Crookedfinger, Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin

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Peter Keough

Top Ten (in alphabetical order)

The Brutalist

Every time you look at the much maligned brutalist heap that is Boston City Hall may you be reminded of this boldly visionary, superbly executed 3-1/2 hour (with intermission) masterpiece. A post-WWII immigrant architect played achingly by Adrien Brody in his finest work since The Pianist (2002) perseveres as he gets fucked over for trying to reshape an evil world, one subversive structure at a time.

Do Not Expect Much from the End of the World

But do expect some raunchy black humor, Dušan Makavejev-style, and even a cameo from Uwe Boll in this collagist chronicle of a day in the life of an indefatigably defiant Bucharest PA played by Ilinca Manolache in one of the best performances of the year. Another triumphant provocation from subversive Romanian genius Radu Jude.

Evil Does Not Exist

Is the title ironic? I’d like to think not. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s incantatory, enigmatic tale of a Japanese village taking on the development company despoiling their environment and of a father confronting a child’s vulnerability to fate is both minatory and uplifting.

Flow

Speaking of the end of the world, what better way to spend it than with a golden retriever, a lemur, a capybara, a secretary bird, and perhaps the most appealing feline in the history of movies? Not just an astonishing visual and aural experience but a wrenching, unflinching, and consoling spiritual exercise.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Vietnamese director Pham Thiên’s debut feature is that rarity in cinema – a genuinely religious movie. As it follows a young man’s pilgrimage to find his brother and at the same restore his faith, it touches on transcendence.

Nickel Boys

RaMell Ross confidently applies the impressionistic style of Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) to this profoundly moving and structurally complex adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel about an abusive reform school in the Jim Crow South.

Porcelain War

When he’s not leading a team of special forces against the Russian troops who have invaded his country, Slava Leontyev, along with his partner Anya Stasenko creates exquisite porcelain objets d’art. Leontyev and co-director Brendan Bellomo’s documentary about this tragically paradoxical situation is also artful and formidable. It demonstrates that though these magical objects may seem fragile, the spirit they embody is indomitable.

Queendom

As with Porcelain War, watching gender-defying artist Gena Marvin stride past drunken Russian paratroopers in one of her ass-baring, mind-blowing, surreal outfits might restore your faith in the power of art. Agniia Galdanova’s documentary is not just a testimonial to courage and defiance but a phantasmagorical celebration.

Sing Sing

Like the subjects in Porcelain War and Queendom, the incarcerated men in Greg Kwedar’s deceptively subtle and deeply affecting drama have turned to art – a theatrical performance – to resist oppression. Colman Domingo’s layered, slow-burning portrayal of Divine G, leader of the prison drama company, is rivalled by those from current and former members of the troupe portraying themselves.

Every Little Thing

“Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it,” or so it is claimed in Matthew 10:29-31. Terry Masear’s bird of choice is the hummingbird, and she might not rescue all of them in LA but her dedication, as shown in Sally Aitken’s restrained and incisively detailed documentary, is inspiring. A scene in which a tiny, damaged creature struggles to fly just an inch might be the most moving cinema moment of the year.

Top four “I don’t get it” finalists.

Pretty much everyone but me else loves these movies. Am I taking crazy pills? Or do I need them?

Anora

I have not liked a single film by Sean Baker and this might be his most fraudulent, hypocritical, exploitative, and derivative one yet. A fusion of Pretty Woman and Showgirls would have been an improvement.

The Substance

I was kind of taken by the inventiveness and audacity of the images for the first half hour or so of this farrago until it devolved into a self-indulgent and unending upchuck of pretentious cliches and failed shock effects.

Civil War

Thank goodness for the breakdown of democracy and the internecine horrors that follow so that voyeurs with cameras can get their rocks off. Tellingly, the trite caricatures representing the profession here don’t even publish these pictures in order to get the truth out to the public like real photojournalists. Instead the images only serve for Alex Garland to hypocritically exploit while pandering to all sides in this toothless cautionary tale.

Hundreds of Beavers

Only made it through 30 beavers or so in this inept, tedious, and witless embarrassment.

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Nicole Veneto

I Saw the TV Glow

Jane Schoenbrun’s second feature is nothing short of life saving to those who need it. In the months since its release, I’ve heard from numerous people for whom this film gave them the courage to start transitioning. But even in TV Glow’s specificity to gender dysphoria, its themes of nostalgia and being trapped in a life that doesn’t feel like your own are potent enough to resonate with everyone. There is still time for whatever is buried deep inside of you to come out.

The Beast

 In a just world, Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi reimagining of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle would be a major awards contender. A devastating film hurtling towards a shattering conclusion headed by a career best performance from Léa Seydoux, whose climactic wail to Roy Orbison’s “Evergreen” has haunted me since April. The tragedy of inaction and the loss of what makes us human will be our ultimate doom. A true 21st century masterpiece.

Love Lies Bleeding

The halfway point between Bound and Titane, Rose Glass’ sophomore outing is another standout queer film mixing erotic crime thriller, body horror, revenge flick, and a (literal) transformative love story into one fantastic sicko ride. Kristen Stewart shines in the role she was always meant to play (a butch lesbian), but it’s Katy O’Brien as her bodybuilding love interest who’s my pick for Best Supporting Actress. Not since The Adolescence of Utena has a movie proved that sapphic love is the ultimate liberatory force.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

I know it’s not entirely their fault but I will never forgive general audiences for turning their noses up at the best blockbuster since Nope. Eighty year old George Miller gave us a Looney Tunes-esque motorbike chase, The Octoboss, a fifteen minute assault on a War Rig, and this shot, and the masses chose Deadpool mugging to “Bye, Bye, Bye” instead? Congratulations everyone, we’re getting ten more years of the Kevin Feige Slop Factory. Hope you’re happy!

The Substance

Ridiculously unsubtle times call for ridiculously unsubtle movies. I probably should have predicted Coralie Fargeats’ hagsploitation hit would be polarizing off the festival circuit, but I’m standing firm in my love for what’s basically a gooey, hyper-stylized Tales from the Crypt episode. The Substance met me at a moment where I really needed it. All female self-loathing is mediated by patriarchy, but nobody knows how to beat yourself up better than you do.

 She is Conann

Nobody is making fantastical queer art-house cinema like Bertrand Mandico. His gender-swapped take on Conan the Barbarian is a feast for the eyes, pure visual stimuli rooted in the films of Kenneth Anger and James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus. Plus, it’s about lesbians with swords. Who doesn’t love lesbians with swords?

Queer (and Challengers)

2024 belongs to Luca Guadagnino. Challengers is the popular, mainstream favorite, a tennis menage a trois soundtracked by some of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ best work. But Queer, his adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel with Challengers screenwriter/Potion Seller Justin Kuritzkes, is Guadagnino firmly in his element. Desire that burns and disembodies us, the pain of reaching towards someone who doesn’t reciprocate it. An incredibly sweaty movie. Each man kills the thing he loves.

Femme

In my opinion the best film screened at the Boston Underground Film Festival. Another queer take on the revenge movie, Femme offers a tragic counterpoint to Love Lies Bleeding. A love never truly realized because of the societal prejudices that make true human connection impossible. Between this and his performance in The Beast, George MacKay deserves joint Best Supporting Actor recognition for delivering two of the year’s biggest ending gut punches.

The Brutalist

Really is as good as everyone says it is. Brady Corbet’s three hour epic is a piece of cinematic architecture where the American Dream is a Faustian bargain. To become an American is to lose your soul, your artistic integrity, your autonomy, and your identity to the capitalist machinery that grinds all of us into becoming complicit with its evil. Catch it on 70mm if you can.

Red Rooms

There’s a deep sickness infecting white women the world over known as “true crime.” Red Rooms takes this parasocial obsession with victims and our morbid fascination with seeing what no eyes should see and presents us with a woman for whom the pursuit of these things has rendered her a vaguely-motivated automaton. Includes the most nauseating sound design of the year and gives Challengers a run for its money with Dominique Plante’s lavish score.

Honorable Mentions

Cuckoo, Lisa Frankenstein, Off Ramp, Riddle of Fire, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, Frankie Freako, A Different Man, Last Summer, Anora, The People’s Joker, Longlegs, Tiger Stripes, Didi, Good One, Janet Planet, How to Have Sex, Dune Part 2, In a Violent Nature, Drive Away Dolls, Omen, Coma, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Aggro Dr1ft, The First Omen.

Most Disappointing

Uzumaki

Announced in 2019 and finally released in September after COVID derailed production for several years, the highly anticipated Adult Swim adaptation of Junji Ito’s legendary horror manga started off promising with a stunningly animated first episode. And then there’s the rest of the miniseries, where the animation quality took a shocking nosedive towards GoAnimate territory. Didn’t even have the heart to finish.

Worst Film

Emilia Pérez

In my closing capsule review for the Boston Underground Film Festival, I wrote, “Unless I see something truly morally and ethically offensive in the next nine months, Boy Kills World will be hard to beat as the worst thing I’ve seen all year.” Ladies, gentlemen, mans-to-womans, and womans-to-mans, that moral and ethical affront turned out to be current Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez. In a landmark year for trans cinema by trans filmmakers, the fact that the critical establishment has rallied around a movie that turns its titular protagonist into a corpse, a fool, and a monster in one fell swoop on the eve of a new Trump administration is shameful. Despicable on all fronts. We cannot accept this in any form.

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Neil Giordano

Best Features of 2024

I Saw the TV Glow: Willfully abstract and abstruse, Jane Schoenbrun’s psychological chiller superimposes a coming-of-age story onto a gloomy Matrix-style existential mindfuck. Alienated youngsters Owen and Maddy bond over a television show that may hold the keys to the authentic life they crave, one that Maddy eventually achieves but Owen resists. The tragic final sequence packs a gut punch like nothing I’ve felt at the movies in years.

Nickel Boys: Documentary filmmaker RaMell Ross crosses over into narrative territory with a unique adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. This tragic story of two young men in a racist, violent-ridden Florida reform school at times takes a backseat to Ross’s forays into his characters’ cerebral meditations. Atmospheric and cleverly nonlinear until the twist ending jumps off the screen and brings us back to the realities of race in contemporary America.

The Substance: A wild blend of sci-fi and body horror, this satire rips a new asshole (almost literally) into Hollywood’s treatment of aging actresses, imagining a method by which a woman can spawn a younger self in order to assume professional dominance once again. The casting of Demi Moore works on multiple levels since, at 62, she still looks immaculate. The movie goes deliciously off the rails and just barely stays intact, but I’m there for it.

Good One: It wouldn’t be a year at the movies without a quiet, subtle indie dramedy. Filmmaker India Donaldson’s debut places teenager Sam on an annual camping trip with her dad and another adult family friend. Nothing much happens, as in so many effective films, but Donaldson’s writing and the acting performance by newcomer Lily Collias as Sam creates an impeccable emotional landscape about young people coping with the imperfect world around them, while learning to understand their parents’ flaws.

Anora: A kinetic blend of genres, Anora is one of those films that you walk out of feeling exhilarated. The title character, a stripper and escort (a star turn by Mikey Madison) attracts the affections of Vanya, the naive son of a Russian mobster. Romance dissolves into screwball antics which dissolves into something quite extraordinary. Writer-director Sean Baker continues his penchant for stories (The Florida Project, Red Rocket, Tangerine) that humanize sex workers, with exquisite attention to a tricky emotional landscape.

Honorable Mentions: A Different Man, A Real Pain, The Brutalist, Evil Does Not Exist, Flow, Janet Planet, Late Night With the Devil

Best Documentaries

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat: A masterfully crafted fusion of archival footage that recounts the Cold War-era conspiracy to overthrow Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, and the associated complicit parties (the UN, the United States, Belgian-paid mercenaries, African rivals). The music and footage of American “jazz ambassadors” of the era acts as a textural countercurrent: these Black artists bear witness to the continent-wide African independence movement as they reflect on their own struggles at home in America. The final sequence is incendiary.

No Other Land: Raw and difficult to watch, a film by four activist-journalists — Israeli and Palestinian — that chronicles the IDF’s violent decimation of Arab settlements in the West Bank. Their footage will be used as evidence of war crimes and genocide, as well as the IDF’s complicity in deadly vigilante attacks by Israeli settlers. One of the most chilling sequences is filmed through the doorway of a schoolhouse: Israeli soldiers arrive to demolish the building and Palestinian children find themselves forced to help save the school’s few sticks of furniture from the bulldozer. Along with images of destruction, the filmmakers punctuate their message with quiet moments of reflection that fluctuate between hope and sorrow.

A Photographic Memory: Filmmaker Rachel Seed creates an elegiac remembrance of the mother she never knew — Sheila Turner Seed — a photojournalist and creator of “Images of Man”, a compendium of interviews and images of the 20th century’s greatest photographers. The film acts as a self-reflexive form of collaboration between the two women, the mother’s work and words overlaid with the daughter’s life as it unfolds in real time: the film stands as an essential meditation on grief.

Will & Harper: Both a road movie and a meditation on a timely issue, Will Ferrell and his long-time friend Harper Steele explore the country as they meditate on Harper’s gender transition, with Will (and America by proxy) figuring out how trans people can live authentic lives. An artful balance of levity and pathos.

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin: With so many kids living their lives online (my own included), it’s high time the film world catches up with the idea that it is possible for friendships and communities online to supply the same social nourishment as those IRL, so to speak. Here, the story of a disabled young Norwegian man, who died at 25, dramatizes the richness of these virtual connections. His parents knew him as an isolated kid who was always glued to his screen. They are surprised after his death to find legions of people worldwide got to know their son through the World of Warcraft gaming platform. Through animated reenactments, we are invited to get a sense of the guy’s emotional and social life, an investigation that becomes profound: his online world allowed him a life that his physical disability prevented him from having.

Honorable Mentions (Documentaries): Blink; Confessions of a Good Samaritan; Dahomey; Eno; Hollywoodgate; Look Into My Eyes; Queendom; Seeking Mavis Beacon; Separated, Sugarcane; Union; Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World

WTF?

Megalopolis: I wanted to enjoy Francis Ford Coppola’s years-in-the-making-he-sold-his-vineyard-for-this magnum opus. Alas, I liked only about fifteen minutes of it. The film ranges across at least ten entirely dissonant registers — satire, melodrama, social drama, and black comedy among them — via a plot that includes a time-stopping telekinetic protagonist, love triangles and quadrangles, a recitation of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be,” a ukulele-playing teenager from America’s Got Talent, string theory, chariot racing. I give the director points for ambition, but he couldn’t coherently stitch together a lifetime of grand ideas and cinematic fever dreams.

Further signs of the apocalypse: Madame Web Will we ever see an end to Marvel movies? If this didn’t do it, nothing will.

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Sarah Osman

Anora: Sean Baker’s latest flick has a bit more of a Coen brothers flair, but that’s not a bad thing. You can’t go wrong with idiot criminals. Anora follows the titular Anora (Mikey Madison), an exotic dancer in Brighton Beach, who impulsively marries the son of a Russian billionaire. When his family finds out, all hell breaks loose. Like all of Baker’s films, the setting itself is a major player.. The culture of Brighton Beach is effortlessly intertwined with the characters, and Madison is bound to get some sort of nomination for Best Actress (ideally, an Oscar possibility).

Wicked: Director John M. Chu’s take on the beloved musical is just as magical as Oz itself. Ariana Grande proved naysayers wrong by flexing her comedic chops as the ditzy Glinda, and Cynthia Erivo took the song “Defying Gravity” to soaring new heights. And, of course, there are stunning costumes and impressive sets, few of which are CGI. Wicked is sure to be a strong Oscar contender in multiple categories.

Inside Out 2: Most of Pixar’s sequels fail to capture the magic of their predecessor, but Inside Out 2 is the rare exception. Following Riley’s foray into puberty was a brilliant decision, and all of her new emotions are eerily accurate when it comes to the awkwardness of adolescence. As someone battling anxiety, the metamorphosed figure here is the best visual representation I’ve ever seen. Filled with heart, humor, and vibrant animation, it’s no wonder Inside Out 2 is currently the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

The Substance: If body horror makes you squeamish, then The Substance is definitely not for you. But this delightfully disgusting parable about aging and beauty standards is one of the most twisted horror films to come out in years. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley give Oscar-worthy performances. Moore is more likely to get the nomination but, hopefully, Qualley will get some of the attention this woefully underrated actress deserves.

Challengers: Best described as a complicated bisexual soap opera, Challengers made tennis the most erotic sport of 2024. In what may be one of her best roles, Zendaya stars as Tashi, a former tennis champion now married to (and the coach of) tennis champion Art (Mike Faist). When Patrick (Josh O’Connor), her ex and Art’s former bestie, shows up to play in the same match as Art, things get a bit … complicated. Filled with beautiful cinematography, Challengers was an unexpected delight that will change the way you look at churros.

Hundreds of Beavers: Directors have taken some big swings in 2024 (finally!) but none were as big as Mike Cheslick and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews’ Hundreds of Beavers. Inspired by the slapstick comedy of the ’20s and ’30s, the absurdist farce follows a hapless fur trapper (Tews) who — in order to marry a local merchant’s daughter — must catch hundreds of beavers. The beavers are played by humans wearing absurd ‘beaver’ costumes — the effect is of a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon. Hundreds of Beavers may be too weird for some, but it’s one of the most light-hearted and imaginative comedies to hit the silver screen in years.

The People’s Joker: Did we really need another Joker movie? No. But then The People’s Joker came along. Vera Drew wrote, directed, and stars in this film, which chronicles Drew’s gender transition and psychological struggles through comedy — via a parody of Batman characters. The People’s Joker is both satiric and poignant, an innovative commentary on our society’s benighted view of gender and mental health.

Thelma: One reason Thelma is so impressive is that star June Squibb, who is 93, did all of her own stunts. But beyond Squibb’s bravado lies a sweet action-comedy reflecting the difficulties of aging and the struggle of parents learning to let go. Squibb plays the titular Thelma who, after being scammed out of money, decides to go after the crooks herself. Her family panics (Parker Posey is the particular standout) as she tracks down her buddy, Ben (Richard Roundtree in his last starring role), to assist her (and to use his scooter). The film is full of silly moments, such as a guy who insists that people are trying to steal his scooter, not Ben’s. But the narrative also provides a realistic look at how America treats its elderly. Director Josh Margolin was inspired by his relationship with his grandma, Thelma.

Honorable mentions: The Wild Robot, Love Lies Bleeding, Sing Sing

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Tim Jackson

It was a good year for narrative and documentary films with global and social issues, as well as adventurous ways of editing, casting, and using music with several films in bold black and white. I don’t think a 10 best films do justice, so here are my dozen picks.

Anora – Sean Baker’s Cinderella-meets-Russian-mobsters odyssey veers from threatening and slapsticky to heartbreaking. The audacity of Mikey Madison’s title sex worker is comical but, as with all Baker’s outsider characters, danger hovers at the edges of farce.

Amelia Perez – French director Jacques Audiard’s 132 minute Spanish language film is based on his own opera libretto adapted from the 2018 novel Écoute. It stars trans woman actress Karla Sofía Gascón with Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez also in the cast. The result is an audacious blend of cartel politics, gender reassignment, and family issues — complete with musical numbers.

The Brutalist – Brady Corbet’s post-World War II epic stars Adrien Brody as Lázsló Tóth, a Brutalist architect and immigrant, who is separated from his wife when conscripted to work for industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). The sprawling 195-minute film (which comes with an intermission) is a complex narrative that uses architecture as a metaphor for an existential investigation of art, creativity, exploitation, isolation, immigration, and America.

Nickel Boys – The lyrical style that RaMell Ross brought to the 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning is perfectly suited to this adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel. Reading the book first is helpful but not necessary. Both narratives blend past and present to evoke a state of consciousness as well as probe historical trauma.

Janet Planet – As with her theatrical work, playwright and director Annie Baker draws on a minimalist aesthetic to bring us into the inner lives of her characters. This time around it is the story of a mother and daughter navigating the world of men and friendships during a summer in Amherst, Massachusetts.

A Complete Unknown – This depiction of Bob Dylan’s early days, leading up to his controversial appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, serves up one of the best evocations of the era I can remember. James Mangold and Jay Cocks script consolidates facts for the sake of structuring a commercial biopic, but the film’s profile of Dylan as a gifted if irascible genius is well crafted. Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton are remarkable as Dylan and Pete Seeger.

Nosferatu – Robert Eggers (The Witch, MidSummer) hits a stylistic homerun with his reworking of the legendary vampire. The weird altered voice of an unrecognizable Bill Saasgard (Pennywise) as Count Orlock is disconcerting, but the gorgeous chiaroscuro compositions carry the day. The film is horrific and sexy as it cocks a knowing wink at FW Murnau’s 1922 silent classic.

Sing Sing – The actors, most formerly incarcerated, play fictionalized versions of themselves as members of a prison theater group who grumble their collective way through rehearsals for an original play that will be performed for fellow prisoners. Conceived by Colman Domingo and directed by Greg Kwedar, the film is a great example of how to effectively blend documentary and narrative approaches.

Seed of the Sacred Fig – An increasingly tense 168-minute thriller that corporates documentary footage. It is 2022, and a family is divided by loyalties during the the outbreak of unrest and protests against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The director, who lives in exile in Germany, has been arrested in the past, banned by the Iranian government from filmmaking. Seed of the Sacred Fig was shot in secret.

Green Border – 76-year-old Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa)’s latest political film, shot in beautiful black and white, immerses us in the refugee crisis on the titular border between Poland and Belarus. The inequities, compromises, and resistance on both sides are dramatized. The effort left an indelible impression, as it should. The Polish government called it “disgusting”. Unfortunately, the film received too little distribution in this country.

Girl With a Needle – There is considerable contemporary relevance in this Gothic tale of Dagmar Overby, who claimed to be finding homes for children of unwed mothers in the early twentieth century. Shot in indelible black and white, the chiaroscuro creepiness of this Danish offering proffers a timeless fairy tale feel.

Flow – Gints Zilbalodis’ Latvian film is no ordinary animated fare. Yes, it features the adventures of a cat, dog, lemur, and other creatures caught in an epic flood, but these animals don’t talk — though they grow increasingly (and powerfully) anthropomorphic by way of the director’s sweeping cinematic visuals.

Films that could easily be on this list: Memoirs of a Snail, The Outrun, Last Stop in Yuma County, Evil Does Not Exist, Nightbitch, Bikeriders, Nowhere Special, Queer, Good One, The Apprentice, Monkey Man.

12 BEST DOCUMENTARY FILMS

While there are many terrific documentaries that run the gamut of subjects. These are 12 that stuck in my mind.

No Other Land
Queendom
Daughters
Porcelain Wars
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger
Gaucho Gaucho
Eno
Black Box Diaries
Flipside
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
The Greatest Night in Pop

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Steve Erickson

Top 10 Films:

I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)

A bleak but not entirely hopeless study of a deeply repressed trans person, I Saw the TV Glow views personal fantasy, the media, and reality as being so closely intertwined they become impossible to pry apart.

Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Leaving out most of the meat that fills up narrative features, Kiyoshi (Cure, Pulse, Retribution) Kurosawa’s 45-minute short (released as an NFT), is horror pared down to a chilling core, probing how both a cooking class and middle-class family life (barely) conceal inexplicable murderous impulses.

The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)

Evokes the feeling when depression becomes a fetish.

Coma (Bertrand Bonello)

Shot during the pandemic and dedicated to Bonello’s teenage daughter, Coma envisions an alienated-to-the max dystopia: serial killers stalk Zoom sessions devoted to discussing them and a malicious influencer haunts a girl’s dreams. Bonello addressed our chronically online world with more acidic substance here than in his more widely seen 2024 release, The Beast.

Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)

Moving up from documentaries to an Amazon MGM Studios production, RaMell Ross has come up with a version of Colson Whitehead’s novel that finds imaginative ways to dramatize the experience of racism without descending into trauma porn.

Hit Man (Richard Linklater)

This is a cheerful rom-com about building a happy family on a foundation of deception and murder.

The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)

If film has a future as a vanguard art form this is it: Eduardo Williams’ non-narrative extravaganza, shot with a 360-degree VR camera, the Insta360 Titan, a spherical device which captures video using eight lenses radiating outward from its center.

No Other Land (Rachel Szor, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Basel Adra)

In addition to its righteous anger at the IDF’s destruction of the West Bank Village, No Other Land (directed by a team of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers) also reflects something crucial in the relationship to activism and labor: it examines how hard it is for people who aren’t equal in the eyes of the law to work together.

Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)

Probing the minds of the most alienated and obsessive true crime fans, Red Rooms tracks two women who follow a serial killer’s trial; the film questions its own nihilistic tendencies with a surprising touch of optimism.

Honorable mentions: Aggro Dr1ft (Harmony Korine), Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude), Flipside (Christopher Wilcha), Good One (India Donaldson), Pictures of Ghosts (Kleber Mendonça Filho), Queendom (Agniia Goldonova), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof), Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat (Johan Grimonprez), The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson), and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang).

Disappointments:

Civil War (Alex Garland)

Garland has nothing to say regarding American politics beyond “you Yanks are polarized and violent,” but he’ll spend 109 minutes jarring your nerves anyway.

Longlegs (Osgood Perkins)

Speaking of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Longlegs knocks off his style, while also stealing from The Silence of the Lambs. But there is no depth here, nothing but a reactionary undertone that turns its final half hour utterly ludicrous.

Anora (Sean Baker)

This effort is overrated in comparison to Baker’s best work. While far from one of the year’s worst, next to the rich characterizations and inventive direction of Tangerine and The Florida Project, Anora is lazy, drab, and bloated. Put it this way: this is the equivalent of an indie band making their major label debut with a middling album that sands off their best qualities. Thus a Best Picture Oscar probably awaits!

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Ed Symkus

I’ve been watching and writing about movies for a long time. But, hell, I don’t know what the “best” or “most overrated” ones are. So, I’m going to substitute those terms with “favorite” and “most disappointing,” and toss in some favorite runners-up. Also, I’m not a fan of ranking systems, so these are in alphabetical order.

Favorites

Anora – A free-spirited escort (Mikey Madison) in Brooklyn falls for the charms of, then marries, a wealthy young Russian fellow who is also an irresponsible loose cannon. Steamy sex scenes mix nicely with unexpectedly outrageous humor.

Do No Expect Too Much From the End of the World – The Romanian film is almost three hours long, without a straightforward plot, has footage in color and B&W, some of it in 16mm, and the protagonist – a lowly production assistant climbing the ladder at a video company – is hard to root for (and her male alter-ego is one crude character). But it’s all as fascinating as it is funny.

Flow – A great flood has devastated the world and wiped out the humans. But there are plenty of animals left, and a group of them – headed by a cat and a dog – board an abandoned boat and search for dry land. This is an animated feature, but no subtitles are needed because no words are spoken. Dramatic, funny, emotional … a beautiful film.

Juror #2 – Ah, yes, the Clint Eastwood-directed film that Warner Bros. unceremoniously tossed in the dumper, giving it no promotion and hardly any presence in cinemas. But it’s one of Eastwood’s best – a murder mystery and courtroom drama that features a strong script, spot-on acting, and a nicely conveyed sense of uncertainty over who actually did the nasty deed.

The Last Stop in Yuma County – Fate has decreed that a wildly varied small group of people meet up at a lonely desert diner, where awful things happen. No, it’s not a horror movie; it’s more an examination of bad timing and bad behavior. It feels like a Western, plays out like a noir, has a few extremely violent moments, and is quite funny.

Late Night With the Devil – A 1970s talk show host who has OK ratings but desperately wants to be at the Johnny Carson level hits a rough patch. So he goes for the gold by booking a Halloween show with a mix of guests that could only spell disaster … and does. Grisly (cartoonish) horror blends with comic shtick. A film that captures the atmosphere of what was ’70s TV.

Love Lies Bleeding – So many ingredients! A corrupt, abusive, and murderous villain; a directionless young woman trying to start a new life; hold on … another directionless young woman trying to start a new life; a peek into the world of female bodybuilding; lesbian relationships; jealousy; retribution; comeuppance; and just a bit of psychedelia.

Memoir of a Snail – Here’s a stop-motion animated film that’s aimed at adults (who should NOT take their young kids), narrated by a woman who has led a difficult life – losing her mom early, dealing with a dad in failing health, separated from her twin brother, and afflicted by a rampant desire to hoard possessions. The animation is detailed and clever, the voice acting gets the emotions churning, and amidst the turmoil, there is much charm.

Music By John Williams – The prolific composer-arranger-conductor of movie and TV soundtracks is a cinematic treasure. You all know his music – in fact, at this moment, you’re humming the two notes from Jaws and the five notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This up close and personal look at him and his career features Williams’ own words, along with those of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and many others.

Queer – Daniel Craig stretches his (acting) wings in this dreamy, moody, haunting adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel (written in 1952 but not published until 1985) about a homosexual American expat writer living in Mexico in the ’50s. He’s longing for love as he hops from bar to bar. Craig is remarkable but, because the film pulls very few punches, some viewers are going to find it hot, while others will deem it repulsive.

Runners-up

Civil War
Conclave
Emilia Perez
Gladiator II
Hundreds of Beavers
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock
Nightbitch
Nosferatu
The Instigators
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Most Disappointing

The Beast
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Challengers
Fly Me to the Moon
Kinds of Kindness
Longlegs
Nickel Boys
Trap
Twisters
The Wild Robot

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Peg Aloi

Best Films List

A Complete Unknown Not a perfect film by any means. In James Mangold’s biopic, Dylan’s songs arise fully-formed from his own scraggly, humble genius. No acknowledgement of centuries of traditional music we know influenced and inspired him. But the period details are richly authentic, and the performances of the cast letter-perfect, particularly Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez.

Conclave From the director of All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger) comes this suspenseful, smartly-wrought contemporary drama, nay, thriller, about the replacement of a Pope who has died. Terrific cast (Ralph Fiennes shines), stunning direction, and brilliant score by Volker Bertelmann.

The End Documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer’s narrative feature debut is an odd and uniquely moving musical set in a luxurious bunker in an underground salt mine, inhabited by a family — enriched by oil drilling — and their servants. When a stranger arrives, things are turned upside down. It’s hard to describe how utterly and unexpectedly absorbing this film is. The cast, led by Michael Shannon, Tilda Swinton, and George Mackay, is superlative in what could be described as a post-apocalyptic chamber piece.

I Saw the TV Glow Jane Schoenbrun’s debut We’re All Going to the World’s Fair took the festival circuit and indie world by storm. This time around the young filmmaker has made even bigger waves. This tender and somewhat surreal coming-of-age film features terrific performances by young actors Justice Smith and Phoebe Bridgers, who I think are bound for greatness.

The Substance I was lucky to see this with a friend in an otherwise empty theatre and we screamed, laughed, and covered our eyes with abandon. Coralie Fargeat’s brilliant and brutal excursion into dystopian body horror marries outstanding visuals and sound design to searing social commentary. The target: Hollywood’s penchant for discarding women who reach a certain age, unemployable because they are considered unfuckable and uninteresting. Demi Moore is next-level perfection.

Queer Luca Guadagnino’s collaboration with screenwriter Justin Kuritzes and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom also yeielded Challengers this year, but I prefer Queer, a lush, dreamy, emotional adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel. Daniel Craig gives the performance of his career as a lonely expat living in Mexico who yearns to find love and meaning in his autumn years. Watch for Lesley Manville in a delicious cameo.

A Real Pain A near perfect film shot through with humor and unexpected emotion. Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed, and stars in this story of two cousins who travel to Poland in search of ancestral connections. Kieran Culkin shines as a depressed, rude, but often charming young man with a knack for seizing the day. Will Sharpe is so good in a memorable cameo that I didn’t know it was him for at least twenty minutes.

Nosferatu A beautiful and often terrifying adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula by fledgling horror master Robert Eggers. The cast is uniformly excellent, but Bill Skarsgard as the titular monster is sublimely impressive, utterly transformed by makeup, but also exuding something like demonic possession.

The Outrun Saoirse Ronan is fantastic as a young researcher who can’t quite get her life together until she hits rock bottom. Leaving London after a bad break up to live in the remote Orkney Islands, Rona finds healing through nature, solitude, and local friends. An impressive debut feature from Nora Fingscheidt.

Nightbitch I wanted more from this film, but enjoyed Any Adams’ brave performance as an artist who leaves her creative life behind to be a stay at home mom, and finds herself overwhelmed with dissatisfaction. Marielle Heller’s funny, sharply adapted script and direction needed to just go a bit further into the hellscape that is modern mommy culture.

Honorable Mentions: The Order, Sing Sing, Janet Planet, Tuesday, Armand, Handling the Undead, Wicked, Nickel Boys, Flow, Porcelain War, Queendom, Babygirl, Hard Truths, Ghostlight, Anora, The Brutalist, Late Night with the Devil, Apartment 7A, Good One, Evil Does Not Exist, The Devil’s Bath, and Sugarcane