Check out the first part of our best-of list right here (and our worst-of, too)!
5. Late Night with The Devil
The devil may well be the most overused villain in western pop culture – to the point where I found myself thinking during Longlegs, “well yeah, and?” But I did not feel that way about Late Night with the Devil, thanks to the smart talk show concept, the role of an audience that wants more and more, and the fantastic David Dastmalchian anchoring everything together with one of the year’s best performances. It’s an original concept, wrung out to intense perfection by the directors, Colin and Cameron Cairnes, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Smile 2
This should not have been possible. Smile should have been the typical great first movie diluted by its sequels, like Insidious, or Sinister. Instead, Smile 2 has director Parker Finn strutting his directorial stuff like the pop diva he’s putting through absolute hell. Said pop diva, Skye Riley, is played to perfection by Naomi Scott who honestly didn’t need to be this good – but that’s Smile 2 all over, bigger, better, and much, much nastier that it needed to be in all the right ways. Bring on the trilogy.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Let’s face it: we let George Miller down in 2024. No, Furiosa isn’t as good as Fury Road, but it has a good enough claim to challenge the Mel Gibson trilogy. Look around at the latest Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, and the limping MCU and wonder why these forgettable duds soared while Furiosa flopped. Okay, rant over, George Miller made the best action movie of the year, and maybe the decade, which is what usually happens when he gets behind the camera.
Dune Part Twp
I remember thinking to myself, as I was drying my tears of joy as the credits rolled on Dune Part One: “that was incredible, but Denis still has a lot to do.” I shouldn’t have worried, because even when Denis Villenueve makes a flop it’s still Blade Runner 2049. Dune Part Two is on the same level as the first part, so an instant classic. Everyone is settled in their roles, new additions like Florence Pugh and Austin Butler are excellent, and the action is so spectacular that one sequence somehow cancelled three upcoming Star Wars movies.
The Substance
There are some movies that you just know will be remembered, movies that grab you by the throat and smash your face in the mirror (um, in a good way). The Substance was that movie for 2024. A scathing, terrifying, sort of funny, and viscerally disgusting take down of Hollywood glamour, industry ageism, and how clinging to the past can destroy you. I expected Coralie Fargeat’s to be crazy after her deft thriller, Revenge, but The Substance continues her spotlight of humanities worst instincts and trends and goes so much further than could have hoped. I would insert the typical Cronenberg comparison but, instead, I would like to award Fargeat and stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley the official and first Julia Ducournau Award for being as Fucked Up as Titane.
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By Kevin Boyle
(header image via Digital Spy)
No But Listen 