The 10 best movies of 2024: ‘Anora,’ ‘A Real Pain,’ ‘Challengers’

It’s starting to feel downright normal to say it was a strange year at the movies.

But 2024 was, from beginning to end, surreal and weird. Again.

Thanks to the duo of Hollywood strikes — which seem like a lifetime ago, but just ended in late 2023 — productions and releases were canceled or delayed, leading to an emaciated lineup.

Many of the blockbusters that did manage to hit the big screen flopped hard: “Joker: Folie à Deux,” “Madame Web,” “Argylle.” They got what they deserve.

Oscar winners Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner scored pricey blunders with “Megalopolis” and “Horizon: An American Saga.”

After a line of duds, Marvel finally notched a hit with “Deadpool & Wolverine,” but you still can’t help but think that the general public is waving farewell to Superheromania.

But, in the midst of the mess, there were some bright spots.

A trio of fabulous performances from women around the age of 60 were bigger talkers than any of their fresh-off-the-boat young colleagues: Pamela Anderson in “The Last Showgirl,” Demi Moore in “The Substance” and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl.”

Cleverly marketed arthouse fare such as “Civil War” and “Longlegs” were able to able to emerge victorious, given the dearth of options, and sell a lot of tickets.

And the year-end domestic box office has finally picked up some thanks to “Wicked” and “Moana 2.”

But we’re not out of the woods just yet, folks. Twelve months from now, I suspect exhibitors will be singing a different seasonal carol: “All I want for Christmas is an ‘Avatar’!”

Here are the 10 best films of 2024.

‘Anora’

The best of the year was Sean Baker’s stripper Cinderella tale, starring the incandescent Mikey Madison. “Anora” is the most joyous type of movie experience — just when you think you know exactly what you’re watching, the story of a Brooklyn exotic dancer who spends a whirlwind week with a Russian oligarch’s high-roller son transforms into something altogether unrecognizable and even more wondrous. “Pretty Woman” comparisons are unavoidable, but Baker’s movie throbs with modernity and mines new emotional depth from an old yarn. And, with the help of sublime actors Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov and Karren Karagulian, “Anora” is hilarious. And, in the end, shattering.

‘A Real Pain’

Another sneaky film is Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” in which two cousins, played by Eisenberg and the perfect Kieran Culkin, journey to Poland to visit the childhood home of their beloved late grandmother that she fled during World War II. Much of their trip involves a Holocaust tour, parts of which are a gut-punch while others are unexpectedly beautiful and funny. I haven’t been able to shake “A Real Pain” since I first saw it at Sundance nearly a year ago. Culkin’s performance as a stoner life of the party who’s struggling to find himself is unmissable.

‘Dune: Part Two’

After David Lynch’s mangled 1984 effort, which he later disavowed, I figured Frank Herbert’s grand and morally complex “Dune” novels were impossible to adapt to the screen. Wrong! Director Denis Villeneuve has done it twice now, and spectacularly so. The sequel, in which we begin to see the true colors of Paul Atreides, tops the first film in scope and magnitude. And Timothée Chalamet goes into full leading-man mode with rousing speeches and glowering darkness. Plus, who can resist a date with Zendaya on a sandworm?

‘A Complete Unknown’

‘Twas the Year of the Chalamet. After five years of preparation — learning to sing and play guitar — the actor is a smash as musician Bob Dylan during his early years of stardom in Greenwich Village. He finds his way around the singer’s nasally sound without coming across like a Vegas impersonator. Beyond that essential leading performance, director James Mangold stunningly transports us to the world of 1960s folk music on the eve of rock ‘n’ roll’s takeover.

‘Babygirl’

Movies have become skittish about sex in recent years. (Thanks, Gen. Z). But “Babygirl” ain’t shy. Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson are steamy and dangerous in director Halina Reijn’s age-gap drama about a CEO who takes up with the intern. The shocker? It’s the employee who’s in control — not the boss. Kidman and Harrison have smoking chemistry as they spiral out of control into a situation that could destroy the honcho’s life. It’s not smut, by the way. Reijn poses smart questions about what, exactly, it means to be powerful.

‘The Wild Robot’

Here’s some artificial intelligence you’ll want to give a big ‘ol hug. The finest family film of the year was “The Wild Robot,” about a droid stranded on an island who becomes the adoptive parent of a gosling. From DreamWorks, it grabs your heart in the same way that “How To Train Your Dragon” and the first “Kung Fu Panda” did.

‘Conclave’

Like putting a Steinbeck book jacket over a filthy romance novel, director Edward Berger has made a shrewd sell: Come for the sophisticated Vatican drama, stay for the slimy scandals and outrageous twists. After the pope dies, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with organizing the centuries-old election to choose a new pontiff. Power-hungry men of the cloth then connive and plot their way to the top, as damaging secrets are revealed about their pasts. Visually, it’s an impeccably detailed stunner. And prestige and sleaze make for one holy communion.

‘Challengers’

Think tennis is a pinky-out country club sport? Fault! Director Luca Guadagnino, with his most accessible movie so far, depicts the game as sexual, ferocious, and emotionally and physically punishing in the addictive “Challengers.” The movie pulses with nightclub beats as the love triangle between Tashi (Zendaya), Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) messily unfolds. Just as tennis is all about trying to figure out what’s going inside your opponent’s head, viewers have fun putting together the puzzle of this complex trio.

‘Nosferatu’

Nothing is scarier than the word “remake.” But new horror maestro Robert Eggers, whose “The Witch” was memorably petrifying, has successfully crafted an updated version of the 1929 vampire classic “Nosferatu” with gothic flair and an unceasing, eerie chill. The fantastic Bill Skarsg?rd plays creepy Count Orlok and the actor is as committed and unrecognizable as he was as Pennywise the Clown in “It.” The man’s resume is the stuff of nightmares.

‘The Substance’

On the subject of horror, Demi Moore is terrified by what she sees in the mirror: Herself. Rejected by the entertainment industry, her narcissist character Elisabeth Sparkle takes a secret drug called The Substance that gruesomely creates a younger, hotter clone (Margaret Qualley) who walks the earth in her place. But the doppelganger’s priorities get out of whack, leading to the wildest, campiest and, at times, most disgusting movie in a minute. As Margo Channing says in “All About Eve,” another flick about aging women and fame, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”