The 50 best movies of 2024

To theater owners’ chagrin, though, 2024 was also another good year for streaming movies at home — a year where some blockbuster movies’ multiplex runs had to compete with their own home-viewing releases, and the “just wait and stream it” impulse made more sense than ever. The sheer number of new movies debuting directly on streaming services was also a factor — the action field in particular saw plenty of excellent new movies going straight to digital release, dwarfing the number of films Hollywood could put on the big screen.

At Polygon, we vary from 4K format enthusiasts to whatever’s-in-theaters fans to casual home viewers, from cinematic omnivores to deep-dive single-genre cultists. That diversity tends to lead to a diverse best-of-the-year list. But that’s both a logical result of a splintered cinematic field, and a useful one for an audience that’s equally divided on the “debut weekend or bust” vs. “whenever it hits a service I’m already paying for” question. Here are the movies we loved in 2024, and that we recommend tracking down wherever you can find them, from movies still waiting on wide theatrical release to the ones you can watch at home right now.

Everyone who works at Polygon had the opportunity to submit a ballot of up to 25 movies they liked this year. Those ballots could be ranked or tiered (and you can see everyone’s top 10s or top tier in the comments below). We then took the results of those ballots to make the list you see below.

Any movie released in the U.S. this calendar year is eligible, but since we are publishing this in early December, some December releases are underrepresented. We hope you’ll find a new favorite here on our list of the best movies of 2024.

Where to watch: Hulu, AMC Plus, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple, Vudu

The hardest-hitting action movie of the year saw Gangs of London veterans Xavier Gens and Jude Poyer combine forces for the explosive revenge thriller Mayhem! (also known by its original title, Farang).

Some people were mixed on this version of the revenge story (I loved it quite a bit), but everyone I’ve talked to agrees the brutal and gory action is among the best of any movie this year, with motivated camera movements to punctuate the blows and fluid choreography executed terrifically by former national champion kickboxer Nassim Lyes. And it all culminates in one of the best elevator fight scenes in action movie history. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Prime Video

This quirky time-travel comedy follows a teenage girl who, after doing a lot of shrooms, comes face-to-face with her adult self, who has a few choice bits of advice for her. Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella have a wonderful back-and-forth banter as two versions of the same person. But My Old Ass isn’t just a funny movie; it’s also a very poignant coming-of-age story, one that’s a perfect snapshot of being on the cusp of adulthood right when everything changes. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Pascal Plante’s psychological thriller is one of the most terrifying movies I’ve seen all year. This fact has less to do with what is seen throughout the film and more to do with what is implied. Red Rooms hovers at the periphery of depravity, perched precariously on the bleeding cusp of bad taste without ever tipping over. Juliette Gariépy’s performance as Kelly-Anne, an aloof fashion model seemingly obsessed with the trial of a notorious child murderer, is as exquisite as it is inscrutable, rendering the emotional and psychological depths of a woman whose very demeanor and poise rebuffs all attempts to understand her in totality. Red Rooms is an unsparing character study of the darkest permutations of the attention economy, a masterpiece of form and content, and a disquietingly prolonged glimpse into the depths of the digital abyss. —Toussaint Egan

Where to watch: In theaters

Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is sort of a comedy about going on a vacation with the wrong person, until it isn’t. It’s sort of a two-hander about how much family can suck, until it isn’t that either. Cousins Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed) travel together to Poland to see where their grandmother once lived, but their traveling, communication, and grieving styles don’t mix, which makes for a choppy trip — but Eisenberg keeps finding new ways to pin down the dark hilarity in the most serious subjects, and put a grim spin on the lightest gags. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: Disney Plus, or for digital rental/purchase on Apple TV, Amazon

Pixar’s all-time biggest hit isn’t its best movie, but it is the best thing the studio has put out in 15 years. This wry, fast-paced pubescent iteration on the first Inside Out takes protagonist Riley a few years forward to address how becoming a teenager changes her internal balance, adding Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and other troublesome emotions to Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and the rest of the crew already crowded inside her head. The comedy, brain puns and all, remains goofy, but there’s a real empathy to the more serious plot about what drives and exacerbates anxiety, and what it feels like when it takes over. It’s rare to see a sequel this well tuned to follow a strikingly original film. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: Mubi, or for digital purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Radu Jude’s first full feature since 2021’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn will certainly try some viewers’ patience: It’s 163 minutes of watching a harried, foul-mouthed production assistant, Angela (Ilinca Manolache) drive around Bucharest, alternating interviews for a factory’s safety PSA with making sexist, sneering Andrew Tate-inspired TikToks. But it all comes together in a long-take finale that plays out as what seems likely to be the year’s funniest, most brutal takedown of corporate malfeasance, the gig economy, and capitalism as a whole. The contrast between a film made at a corporation’s behest, to serve its criminal agenda, and Angela’s freeform parodies of an influencer she hates is vivid and sly. And there’s a rebellious, subversive joy in the way she and the PSA’s subjects both try to tell their own truths in an oppressive environment where moneyed interests hold most of the cards. It’s a difficult film compared to the slick corporate IP that dominates multiplexes, but that just makes it endlessly unpackable and discussable — and more memorable than you’d expect for such a slow-burn story. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Cuckoo is a beguiling movie from German filmmaker Tilman Singer (Luz) about a teenager (Hunter Schafer) who recently lost her mother and has to move with her father, stepmother, and half-sister to the German Alps. Once there, Gretchen keeps observing weird things, both from the bizarre hotel owner (Dan Stevens, in another delightfully strange performance) and the various guests, some of whom seem to be suffering from a mysterious affliction. The movie gets bogged down a bit once it becomes concerned with explaining its own logic, but the tension Singer builds, the images he creates, and the performances from the lead actors will stick with you. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase on Apple TV, Amazon

It’d be really easy for Thelma — what if The Beekeeper, but with a 93-year-old lead — to just be a silly, slightly mean joke about older people. Instead, it’s a very funny but no less touching story about the autonomy and respect you lose as you grow old, and one woman determined to hold onto it. Anchored by incredible performances from June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, and the late Richard Roundtree, Thelma is equal parts funny, tense, and inspiring. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Janet Planet captures the specific aching feeling of being a lonely little girl during one melancholy summer in the ’90s. 11 year-old Lacy (Zoey Ziegler) and her mother (the titular Janet, played by Julianne Nicholson) share a close but almost codependent relationship. The two of them spend a long summer together as three different people drift in and out of their lives, anchored by each other for better and for worse. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

J.T. Mollner’s twisty thriller went under the radar, in part because it’s so hard to market a movie this gleefully devoted to subverting expectations without giving the game away. In spite of the “serial killer spree” promised by the film’s tagline, though, this isn’t a horror movie — it’s a showcase for Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner’s fantastic performances, and for a script designed to keep viewers guessing up to the final riveting scene. Watching it feels like seeing Reservoir Dogs or Blood Simple for the first time: It’s all style, dialogue, and “want to discuss this without spoiling anyone” energy. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: Netflix, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Kneecap has a very simple premise that, after watching, you’re almost certain to agree with: The world doesn’t spend nearly enough time talking about Irish rap music. The film follows the moments that led to the forming of the very real Irish-language hip-hop group Kneecap, starring the real-life band members, with a special focus on how rarely Irish is spoken in Ireland anymore, and ways that the group’s music tries to correct that fact. The film nails the group’s frustration over Ireland’s lack of native identity and perfectly shows the ways that it bursts out into their angry brand of infectiously catchy, pro-Ireland hip-hop.

The trio are all surprisingly great actors, given their underground musician origins, but what they really lend to the movie is a true sense of heart and energy, infusing the many musical performances with authenticity that traditional actors could never have managed. When the band hits a stage, no matter how tiny or gross the venue, the movie turns into pure electricity with the passion and rage of their performance showing through in every frame. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Jérémie Périn’s directorial feature debut is one of this year’s best animated movies: a neo-noir sci-fi mystery set in an extraplanetary society where humanity lives side by side with robots who serve at their every beck and call. Besides the film’s beautiful anime-inspired animation, Mars Express offers a tantalizing glimpse of a fully realized universe populated with complicated, tragic, and endlessly fascinating characters whose personal dramas are organically interwoven into the fabric of its futuristic storytelling and presentation. It’s an animated film for and by adults; it’s mature in every sense of the word, and a visionary work from an eminently talented director. —Toussaint Egan

Where to watch: Shudder, AMC Plus, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

A nearly wordless horror movie set long after the biblical rapture, Azrael is a wild, horrifying, and very gory thrill. While the production design is particularly impressive, Arzael’s real secret weapon is the tremendous lead performance from Samara Weaving, who excels at communicating the horrors of this world without ever saying a word. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

DreamWorks Animation has quietly been in a glow-up era since The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in 2022. The Wild Robot absolutely proves that this isn’t just a fluke, and that DreamWorks is joining Sony in pushing the boundaries of what American animation looks like and where it can go.

Not only is The Wild Robot absolutely gorgeous, stylized with painterly brushstrokes in the distinct character designs and lush backgrounds, but it’s also deeply emotional. The titular robot (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) becomes stranded on a remote island. While the wild animals reject her, she eventually bonds with a quick-talking fox (Pedro Pascal) and an orphaned goose (Kit Connor), and slowly, the nature of her programming begins to rewire — and the animal community of the island begins to view her in a new light. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Prime Video, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Master director Soi Cheang (SPL 2: A Time for Consequences) returns to the martial arts genre with this outstanding drama set within the confines of Kowloon Walled City in the final stretch of the city’s existence. Twilight of the Warriors follows a refugee (Raymond Lam) on the run from a local crime boss (the legendary Sammo Hung) who flees to the Walled City and ends up embedded with another crime boss (the also legendary Louis Koo).

As you would hope from a martial arts movie set within a cramped space like Kowloon Walled City, the action design is terrific. Cheang makes the most of the space, having characters move vertically and even diagonally through the city’s tight alleyways, winding staircases, and rooftop eaves. But Twilight of the Warriors also delivers captivating, complicated character relationships and a compelling narrative that also serves as an allegory for the end of an era of Hong Kong action filmmaking. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Mubi, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

The title sounds raucous, but How to Have Sex is in fact a tender, heartfelt, and searchingly honest coming-of-age tale about Tara, a brassy, secretly self-conscious 16-year-old virgin on a wild party holiday with her friends. It’s a quietly devastating movie about bad formative experiences, but also beautiful in its empathy and kindness, and funny, too.

If you liked Aftersun, this is a must-see — director Molly Manning Walker is part of an emerging, hugely talented generation of female British filmmakers that also includes Aftersun’s Charlotte Wells. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Director Steven Kostanski (Manborg, PG: Psycho Goreman) has mastered the art of turning trash into treasure. In the case of his latest, Frankie Freako, a pastiche of Ghoulies, Garbage Pail Kids, and dumb ’80s party movies is just the start of madcap comedy when a burned-out yuppie dials up the Hitch-like nasty imp Frankie Freako to recharge his mojo. Frankie Freako’s swirl of lo-fi effects and grotesque latex creations is like a Mandela-effect hallucination made real — and goes so much harder than one might expect from an indie experiment. While Frankie’s antics in the real world lampoon cheap horror movies, the movie’s turn into Freakworld, a grungy nightmarescape reminiscent of Ralph Bakshi’s animated fever dreams, brings Kostanski to a whole other level as a filmmaker. It’s easy to direct all praise to more “serious” films at the end of the year, but the level of craft on display in Frankie Freako puts it among the great cinematic accomplishments of 2024. —Matt Patches

Where to watch: Prime Video

Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s coming-of-age drama is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot manga of the same name, Look Back is a spirited and devastating story about the power of a friendship founded on art and the limits of how far art itself can bridge the divide between individuals. The film centers on Fujino (Yuumi Kawai), an outgoing grade schooler known for her passion for drawing comics, who competes against and later befriends Kyomoto (Mizuki Yoshida), an introverted recluse with a talent for drawing backgrounds. As their artistic talents grow, their respective paths in life diverge, forcing them to weigh the importance of one another in each other’s lives when a terrible tragedy strikes. Clocking in at just under an hour, Look Back is an enduring testament to the power of art to deepen our understanding not only of others, but of ourselves. —Toussaint Egan

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

It’s time to choose a new pope, and you know what that means — or, rather, you probably don’t. There’s the pomp and circumstance from the outside that many of us are familiar with. But Conclave is all about getting behind the sequestered wall and under the skin of the cardinals, seeing what it’s really like to be one of a few dozen people picking the next leader of the Catholic Church.

The answer: It’s petty; it’s politics; it’s people. Conclave’s genius is about recognizing that we may never be closer to or further away from our ideals than the brief moments we are called to nominate them. And that means when it comes time to nominate a pope, no one’s really sure what that means. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Paramount Plus, MGM Plus, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Smile 2 is what every movie sequel should hope to be: bigger, better, and more entertaining than the original. While the first movie took its excellent premise of a killer curse that manifests itself as a smile and kept the whole thing small-scale and localized among a community, the sequel goes big as an international pop star, played fantastically by Naomi Scott, gets inflicted with the curse. It’s the perfect logical conclusion to the original movie’s concept, right down to the fact that viewers know the curse passes itself on by having people witness gruesome deaths, a fact that hangs brilliantly over the movie until its very final moments. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Available for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

One of the most beautifully shot movies of the year also happens to be a riveting martial arts period piece with stunning, crisp choreography and a colorful cast of characters. 100 Yards follows two young men (Jacky Heung and Andy On) vying for control of a powerful wushu academy whose leader (one’s father, the other’s mentor) has died. My personal No. 1 movie of the year, it is a must-watch for fans of martial arts films and historical dramas alike. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: In theaters

“Music bio but the lead actor has been replaced with a CG ape” sounds like a weird indulgence, especially for those who aren’t familiar with Robbie Williams’ music. He’s sold 75 million albums worldwide, putting him on par with Nirvana or Green Day, but he’s never really broken out in America — making this project seem even odder to Americans.

But Better Man is a riveting, thrilling, deeply oddball experiment, made with the cheeky verve of Williams’ weirder music videos and packed with video-length musical sequences, most of them stylistic diversions that celebrate Williams’ music and let director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) swing for the fences. The arc is a music-industry standard: success, drugs, alienation, depression, hitting bottom, career resurrection. But presenting Williams as an ape among men gives it all a new level of visual interest, a lot of sly visual humor, plus a flexible, engaging metaphor to anchor what winds up being a savage, joyous revel. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: Peacock, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Writer-director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Midnight Special) adapted a classic book of photojournalism about 1960s biker clubs to make this wonderfully sturdy and old-fashioned (in a good way) gang melodrama. It’s built around three proper movie-star performances from some of the hottest actors around: a stupendously handsome Austin Butler going full James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, Jodie Comer going full Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas (with a simply extraordinary Chicago accent), and Tom Hardy going full Tom Hardy. It’s a movie of simple pleasures — thunderous Harley-Davidsons, banging Shangri-Las needle drops, gorgeous actors looking cool — that transcend cliché to enter the realm of American myth. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

As a mutation that turns people into human-animal hybrids starts to spread, a father and son search for the missing mother of the family, who has begun to transform herself.

Featuring realistic creature designs that blend practical and digital effects, a rich father-son relationship anchored by strong leading performances, and a compelling overarching narrative metaphor welcoming all sorts of interpretations, The Animal Kingdom stands out in modern sci-fi. It fires on all cylinders to create one of the more powerful movies of the year, evoking a rich world populated by fascinating people.

Part of the brilliance of The Animal Kingdom is the continued mundanity of human existence. Yes, everything we thought we knew about our species is being thrown into chaos, but there’s still work to do and school to attend and new love and enduring love and all the other shades of the human (or human-animal hybrid) experience. It’s in those moments that the true heart of the movie lies. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Mubi, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

The Substance is a horror movie about external misogyny burrowing into a woman, feeding and growing on her self-hatred, and then bursting back into the world more powerful and monstrous than before. Or! It’s about age and how our older selves will inevitably foot the bill for our selfish, entitled, shortsighted younger selves. Unless! It’s about how Hollywood is a joyless and self-righteous machine fixated on stories that “say something,” but what cinema needs most is an artistic return to the styles of Frank Henenlotter and early Peter Jackson. The best (and most divisive) thing about The Substance is it’s the year’s finest Rorschach test. —Chris Plante

Where to watch: In theaters

Heretic is about the horror of being lectured by a man who thinks he is totally right, and will go to great lengths to get you to say so. But the marvel of the movie is how much it manages to draw out a conversation that could, in other circumstances, be cut through with a clear blow of logic. Heretic builds a little house of horrors, descending deeper and deeper into its own thoughts and creating a movie that holds all parts of its process together to make a complete picture, and a wonderful little bottle episode. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Director Pablo Berger was so dang moved by Sara Varon’s graphic novel Robot Dreams that he started an animation studio to make it into a movie. Told entirely without dialogue, Robot Dreams is about a lonely dog who befriends a robot and the whirlwind summer they spend together before life forces them apart. The characters are evocative and the anthropomorphic world is very charming. But despite the humanized animals, this isn’t a goofy, gag-filled movie; Robot Dreams is actually an incredibly poignant and bittersweet film all about the meaningful friendships that we can’t always take with us as life goes on. The last scenes hit like a gut punch, aching in the best sort of way. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Trap is just about the most fun you can have with a new movie in 2024. It follows Josh Hartnett as a seemingly regular dad, valiantly taking his daughter to a mega pop star’s sold-out concert. But it turns out the whole concert has been set up as a trap to capture a serial killer the cops think will be in attendance. The twist, which we cleverly learned about in the very first trailer for the movie, is that Hartnett’s good-natured dad is that serial killer.

As with most of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, his brand of earnestness and utter lack of cynicism and vanity won’t be for everyone. Trap is, in fact, a decidedly goofy movie at many points, and while that may sound like an insult, it’s an unambiguous compliment. Hartnett’s performance as the Butcher is wonderful, full of gleeful menace as he puts on his “regular guy” persona and plays on people’s better nature to get away with lying to their faces.

The movie’s best feature is how credibly it lets us feel in on the joke, like an inverse of Shyamalan’s signature twists. Trap takes the appeal of watching a movie with an eleventh-hour reveal, watching it over and over to see just how duplicitous the villain truly was, and stretches it out to feature length, all without losing the spark that makes that experience special. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Peacock, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Somewhere between a rom-com and an action movie, The Fall Guy is about a stuntman (Ryan Gosling) coming back from an injury, and his ex-girlfriend (Emily Blunt) who’s finally getting the chance to direct her first big feature film. But when production of the movie is threatened by the erratic movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) going missing, the stunt guy has to become a real hero to save the day.

The movie is big, silly, ridiculous, and very funny, but its best attribute is the gravity shifting charisma of its two stars. Gosling and Blunt are both tremendously charming in the movie, a winning couple that the movie makes it impossible not to root for, and who you can’t help but want to be friends with.

On top of that, the entire production is a love-letter to movies, and the stunt teams who make them possible. The movie is full of excellent car chases, ridiculous falls, and hilarious fights that all bring the kind of levity we don’t get enough from blockbusters anymore. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: In theaters

In a time with so much discourse around desire on film, Queer has stepped into the arena and packed a wallop. Following Lee (Daniel Craig), a gabby gay man in 1950s Mexico City, we are introduced to a world of wanting and wiles. But Luca Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes — on a victory lap from another desire-fueled champion of 2024, Challengers — nestle a thornier, moodier meditation beneath all the social gamesmanship. Queer is messy and melancholy, constantly clenching its fists with yearning. Queer has heard the talk and said “Enough surface shit, let’s get real” — Queer fucks! —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

As flagrant and bizarre as it was, last year’s Poor Things was Yorgos Lanthimos in prestige mode, turning in something artful, marketable, and sort of upbeat for awards season. In his swift “one for me” follow-up Kinds of Kindness, the Greek surrealist goes full sicko. He reins in the rococo style but amps up weird dramatic illogic and the chilly dissection of the human condition, like he did in The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It’s a loosely connected trio of New Orleans-set stories with an amazing, shape-shifting triple performance from Jesse Plemons. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: In theaters

Documentary director RaMell Ross explodes the conventions of fiction features in Nickel Boys, adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel about two young men in a brutal, segregationist Florida reform school in the 1960s entirely using first-person cameras. It’s a bracing exercise in radical empathy, and it really, really works. In its formal daring and moral rigor, Nickel Boys is this year’s Zone of Interest. (And it would surely be higher on this list if more of us had been able to see it; it opens on Dec. 13.) —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: In theaters Dec. 25

In Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, the night is not something to be afraid of. But what comes during it — the bold moonlight, the shadows silhouetted against billowing curtains, the madness — that’s absolutely something that should make you pull the covers a little tighter.

There are a lot of vampire movies that are ultimately about lust, but with Nosferatu, Eggers captures the visceral physicality of the drive to longing, all set amid a haunting 1830s Germany. It’s a tale of things that go bump in the night, the lurid monster shit that will linger on your neck like a chill. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: In theaters

In an era where so many movie musicals try to shy away from their musical theater roots, Wicked embraces that lineage. Director Jon M. Chu rarely compromises on the musical theater-ness of the show, and Wicked is a delightful spectacle of song and dance that honors one of the most beloved musicals of the 2000s — and a gateway to the world of musical theater for many. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

As Japan came out of COVID-19 lockdown, the billionaire founder of the parent company of Uniqlo invited New German Cinema icon Wim Wenders to Tokyo to look at the city’s public toilets that blend public service with public art. Inspired, Wenders made Perfect Days, a gentle poem of a film about one of the city’s janitors. Come for the killer soundtrack; stay for the year’s best final shot. —Chris Plante

Where to watch: Criterion Channel, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Nocturama director Bertrand Bonello essentially makes three short films in three styles with The Beast, a heady, thrilling science fiction movie that follows two people (played by Léa Seydoux and George MacKay) through three incarnations, where they grapple with their emotions and their tentative connection in radically different ways. Loosely inspired by Henry James’ 1903 short story “The Beast in the Jungle,” Bonello turns the idea of a character living in dread, anticipating some great disaster, into his own Cloud Atlas. Pulling a gorgeous period drama, a tense Brian De Palma-style stalker-thriller, and a post-apocalyptic-future story into conversation with each other, Bonello offers up a pure science fiction experience that’s both technically impressive and emotionally absorbing. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: For digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

This understated gem is the flip side of wildly overstated body horror The Substance; released on the same day, it’s another movie about transformation, identity, and doppelgangers. Sebastian Stan is a tortured man with a disfiguring disorder who takes on a new identity after a miracle cure; Adam Pearson is a sunny, confident chap with the same condition who mysteriously starts to shadow him. Tragic, quizzical, and — surprisingly — laugh-out-loud funny. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

An adrenaline rush from start to finish, Love Lies Bleeding grabs you by the throat and never quite lets go. It follows Lou (Kristen Stewart), a reclusive gym manager with ties to the criminal underworld, who falls for aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). It’s all set within 1980s gym culture, with a whole lotta leotards and casual drug usage.

While they share a few blissful weeks of peace and happiness, eventually Lou’s dark family past catches up to them and Jackie’s growing reliance on steroids turns an already fraught situation into a nightmare. They both end up pulled into a dark web, which spirals into deeply disastrous consequences.

Stewart and O’Brian have an electric chemistry (not to mention some super steamy scenes), which makes their intense relationship simmer. It’s a wild ride, but Lou and Jackie hold fast and strong together, even when pushed to their limits. The movie’s ending is absolutely batshit (in a good way), and a testament to just how wild Love Lies Bleeding can get without totally losing sight of its core relationship. —Petrana Radulovic

Where to watch: Hulu, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

It’s rare that any calendar year has a movie that’s as scary, viscerally upsetting, and exceptionally well made as The First Omen. It’s even more rare when that movie is technically a prequel to a five-decades old franchise, but here we are.

This prequel to The Omen follows a young nun, Margaret, who gets transferred to a beautiful and seemingly peaceful convent, until she notices some strange behavior and an orphaned girl who everyone thinks is disturbed. But as she looks into what’s wrong with the girl, Margaret finds a dark and sinister plot lurking just out of sight.

While the movie is technically a prequel to The Omen, what’s most interesting about director and co-writer Arkasha Steveson’s approach is that she seems more inspired by the tone and moody style of 70s horror movies and thrillers than she does to The Omen’s universe itself. Stevenson takes this suitably creepy set-up and folds in both supernatural horror and mystery in equal measure, twisting the whole plot into one big conspiracy where each reveal is more horrifying than the last.

The First Omen seems like a classic Hollywood misfire on paper. After all, why would we possibly need a prequel to The Omen? Who cares what Damien’s mom was up to? But if it means a movie this good and this scary, I’ll happily take a dozen more Omen prequels. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: Netflix

Subtlety is often profoundly overrated. Take for instance Hit Man, Richard Linklater’s romantic comedy that’s mostly about whether or not people have the capacity to change. Another movie might make that a quiet, unspoken metaphor or a question that lingers around the edges of its characters’ psyches, but Hit Man makes the theme an essential part of every story beat, joke, and line of dialogue, making it not just one of the funniest movies of the year, but one of the most interesting and clever, too.

Hit Man follows the mild-mannered and generally boring Gary (Glen Powell), a philosophy professor who moonlights by helping the cops catch people trying to hire hitmen. What starts as a purely technical gig, rigging cameras and setting up wires, quickly transforms into an obsession for Gary when he’s asked to stand in for the fake hitman and realizes he’s got a knack for it. Of course, he also enjoys the fact that it gives him a chance to don an entirely new face and personality. Posing as a hitman lets Gary escape Gary, even for just a few minutes, and it’s outstanding. Until, of course, he falls for a girl who only knows him as the dangerous assassin “Ron.”

Gary’s philosophy teacher day job gives the movie a rare chance to address its questions of identity head-on. The script, co-written by Powell and Linklater, cleverly has Gary work through his own issues of self through his lectures, doing things like having his class discuss whether some people deserve to die — thereby letting his would-be girlfriend off the hook for trying to have her husband killed. It’s a gimmick that would lead another movie to utter disaster, but thanks to the charm of Powell, and the presentation of Linklater, Hit Man pulls it off beautifully, making the movie equal parts silly rom-com and insightful look at how people shape their personas as they move through the world. —Austen Goslin

Chime is a horror movie about a sound that infects people like a virus. It worms its way into their brains until they hear it constantly, louder and louder, driving them toward random acts of horrific violence. And there’s no way to know who has it. It’s creepy enough as a premise to be intriguing, but throw in the fact that it was written and directed by Japanese horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and you have the recipe for one of the eeriest movies of the year.

Kurosawa’s masterstroke in Chime is, in part, to never overtly play the infecting tone for the audience. There are a few creepy, unidentifiable sounds, alien and distinct and always effective. But every sound in the movie is heightened, blaring while the characters stand (often completely still), constantly threatening some tragedy or new horror. It’s all horrifying in a way that feels completely unique to Chime, like Kurosawa invented a new kind of horror no one had heard before. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: In theaters

Flow, the debut feature from animator Gints Zilbalodis, finds a world swallowed up by massive floods, and a lanky black cat floating through the ruins. On paper, the pitch of a kitten, a dog, a capayara, and a bird surviving together in a makeshift boat sounds like the setup for a wacky Illumination talking-animals movie. But Zilbalodis’ bold choice to remove dialogue from the equation, and rely solely (and silently) on heightened animal behavior, gives way to a meditative work of post-human drama that’s both eerie and stunning. What Flow lacks in the bazillion-dollar budgets of modern 3D-animated films it makes up for with painterly graphics and fluid camerawork, all centered on this dimensional li’l cat who maintains Earth’s innocence through the most frightening catastrophe. Pet owners: Prepare to have your heart melted. —Matt Patches

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Alex Garland polarized audiences in early 2024 with this portrait of two war photographers in crisis, framed with a story about a country in crisis. The movie’s vision of a modern-day America torn by civil war was expressly intended to get people talking about American politics and especially the importance of journalism. But on top of its sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant messages, it’s a mesmerizing character piece, anchored by the tension between burned-out veteran photojournalist Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and naïve, eager up-and-comer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), who Lee reluctantly takes under her wing.

All the angry debate over whether the film says enough about the politics that would tear a country apart often didn’t give Garland enough credit for the way he alternately built a story around subtle character moments and intense combat sequences, too. Now that the debates about what the film should have done more or less of have largely died down, what’s left is a visually memorable, beautiful movie that defies all current conventional wisdom about dark cinematography. —Tasha Robinson

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Look, it’s not Fury Road. Nothing could be. But to expect it to even try is to willfully ignore the history of the Mad Max series, because George Miller has never made the same Mad Max film twice. Every entry is to some extent a rejection of what came before — even Furiosa, the follow-up to what might be the greatest action movie of all time. That’s the first thing to love about it.

Where Fury Road is a linear and propulsive storyline told over a few days, Furiosa is an epic, episodic character study that spans decades. Where Fury Road deals in desperate stakes in the present tense, Furiosa is immersed in mythmaking about the past. For all its thrilling, outlandish spectacle, it is a dreamlike, almost melancholic movie about the soul-sapping cost of survival.

It’s fair to say Miller’s casting gambits don’t all hit the mark like the inspired choices of Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in the 2015 movie; as Furiosa, Anya Taylor-Joy is impressively lithe and steely, but following Theron is too tall an order. Furiosa’s imagery and world-building are staggeringly rich by any standard, though, and it has at least three all-timer action sequences — including the hushed, twilit motorbike chase that opens the film, which is unlike anything else in Mad Max. Furiosa doesn’t seek to repeat Fury Road. Instead, it enriches it. —Oli Welsh

Where to watch: Prime Video, Fandor, free with ads on Tubi and Pluto TV, free with a library card on Hoopla, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon and Apple TV

I can sell a film nerd on Hundreds of Beavers with a seven-word elevator pitch: Looney Tunes by way of Guy Maddin.

However, if you’re a film viewer who doesn’t traffic in Canadian arthouse obscurities, the pitch will take a bit more effort. Hundreds of Beavers garnered attention for reviving the slapstick silent film, if only for its 108 minute run time. But the black-and-white action comedy has gradually earned its reputation as a budding midnight movie thanks to its more modern flourishes.

The story — a trapper must collect enough pelts to survive, build, and eventually win love — parodies video game quests. Its small cast would float comfortably in Adult Swim’s pool of lovable oddballs. And what writer/director Mike Cheslik does with a comparably cheap camera, some trashy beaver costumes, and a true talent with homespun special effects would make even the most ambitious YouTube editor’s jaw hit the floor.

Unlike its modern cult contemporaries, like The Room and the films of Neil Breen, there’s no irony here. Cheslik has made something genuinely special, an excellent film that reminds us just how funny early cinema could be — and proves slapstick can still feel fresh a century later with a few timely tweaks. —Chris Plante

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

In 2021, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune felt like a promise. Whether you liked the movie or not, it came with an assurance that it was all in service of something better, more profound, and more epic to come. That kind of hype is hard to live up to, but with Dune: Part Two, Villeneuve exceeded even the wildest expectations.

While the movie is an astoundingly beautiful action blockbuster in the vein of epics like The Lord of the Rings, its most important feature might be how adeptly it handles its source material’s most complicated themes. Far from just being the standard chosen-one hero, the Paul Atreides of Dune: Part Two is tortured by the burden of prophecy and both dead-set on revenge and terrified of what it might cost to achieve it.

It’s a difficult line for a blockbuster to walk, but one Dune: Part Two pulls off with the perfect alchemy of terrific performances from movie stars and delicate direction by one of the best filmmakers working right now. —Austen Goslin

Where to watch: In theaters

Anora is a tale that has been a punchline in other stories; a tossed-off one-liner about a guy who someone’s someone knew, who married a stripper and got a quickie divorce. But Anora is no simple story.

Ani (Mikey Madison) is the one at the center of this movie; she’s always there, and always on, the consummate performer, whether it’s a lap dance or a fighting face. Anora’s hat trick is balancing her professionalism with the story she’s in, the one where no one is looking out for her (or so she thinks).

See, Anora is ultimately a tale told in glances and glimpses — of how the other half lives, of real connections complicated by circumstance, of the life you want, and of the life you’re left with. Like Ani, Sean Baker’s camera wants you to be so in on the fun you forget you’re getting worked, or at least that someone here is working. And so it tap dances from one tone to the next, carefully balancing humor and drama, comedy and tragedy, all while clacking its heels and keeping you mesmerized. It’s a whirlwind, and it might even be a romance — at the very least, it’s a story about the power of being seen and held, with a final moment that holds you tight enough to leave a mark. —Zosha Millman

Where to watch: Netflix

Who would have thought an action thriller about civil asset forfeiture would be so damn compelling?

Blue Ruin and Green Room writer-director Jeremy Saulnier delivered yet another banger of a thriller this year with Rebel Ridge. The movie follows Terry, a quiet ex-Marine (Aaron Pierre, in an outstandingly subdued lead performance) who’s just trying to bail his cousin out of jail. When a group of corrupt local policemen (led by a particularly nasty Don Johnson) assault him and take his money, claiming they suspect it comes from a drug deal, Terry is forced to use tools he’d rather not resort to in order to get his money back and reach some semblance of justice.

There’s a lot to like about Rebel Ridge: the terrific lead performances, the building of tension, the way it shines a light on the rank injustice of civil asset forfeiture policies, the ways it takes influences from the masterful First Blood, or how it depicts the sometimes insidious, sometimes blunt nature of white supremacy in policing. But above all, it’s another master class in restrained, economical filmmaking from a filmmaker who has quickly cemented a reputation as one of the best thriller directors working today. Saulnier — who wrote, directed, and edited Rebel Ridge — makes tightly controlled movies that never seem to drag or use a single word more than they absolutely need to, and Rebel Ridge may just be his finest example yet. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Max, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Jane Schoenbrun’s sophomore narrative feature is an outstanding follow-up to the beguiling We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, building on the ways young people interact with culture to form their identity. While there are trans themes in both movies, I Saw the TV Glow dives into that topic more head-on, following Owen (Justice Smith), a teenager who becomes obsessed with a Buffy-like TV show about teenage girls fighting a supervillain with psychic powers.

Owen’s relationship with the show is contrasted with that of his friend Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who he watches it with. Maddy has a more active relationship with the show, taking its mythology as reality and evolving who she is to match her idealized version of herself in the show, while Owen is much more passive, and unwilling to accept that he is not living the life he wants. Like A Different Man, I Saw the TV Glow is very concerned with the ways passivity can eat you from the inside out, which allows it to directly address gender dysphoria in addition to the role media plays in our lives and in our self-mythologizing.

But its appeal isn’t restricted to people examining their relationship to gender. While, for many decades, trans audiences have often found their stories in the subtext of (presumably) cis narratives, TV Glow deftly flips that on its head. Anybody can relate to the idea of not living true to yourself, not examining the parts of your soul that are most important to you. Add in a banger soundtrack, an incredible leading performance from Justice Smith, and otherworldly direction from Schoenbrun, and you have a standout entry in a new era of trans-authored movies from a director quickly establishing themself as one of the most exciting new names in American cinema.

Schoenbrun says TV Glow is the second part of their Screen Trilogy, after World’s Fair and before an upcoming fantasy novel. If the first two parts are any indication, that will also be a can’t-miss event. —Pete Volk

Where to watch: Prime Video, MGM Plus, or for digital rental/purchase on Amazon, Apple TV

Everybody on the Polygon team who ranked Challengers high on their best-of-the-year list seemed to find a different reason to love it. Is it a movie to watch for the playfully aggressive/aggressively playful romantic drama? The way director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All) and writer Justin Kuritzkes (“Potion Seller”) pack sexual energy into everything from a tennis grudge match to quiet conversations to a man eating a banana? Or maybe just to see Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor ooze, hiss, and crackle their way through every possible character pairing? “Why not all three?” is both the answer to that question and the central idea the movie seems to be proposing.

Guadagnino shoots a tennis match from the ball’s point of view. Kuritzkes pushes the story back and forth in time, answering questions about the history of the three tennis prodigies turned friends turned rivals just as those questions are starting to nag at the audience. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross contribute a driving, teeth-grinding score that ramps up the tension and the energy. But Zendaya, Faist, and O’Connor make the movie, putting the spark in all of Challengers’ different points of connection and contention, right up to the endlessly unpackable final moment. This one kept us guessing, and talking, and joking about that banana all year. —Tasha Robinson