What marks this year’s greatest films? Explorations of humanity and creativity within a confined structure, be it a maximum-security prison or a teenager’s mind. Thoughtful examinations of how we treat people who are different than us, and also how we look at ourselves. And the awesome power of music, from young stars bucking the system to a spiritually charged instrument handed down through generations.
Oh, and a bunch of backstabbing wannabe popes. Don’t forget about those guys.
Last year may have had Barbie and J. Robert Oppenheimer – congrats again on that Oscar win, Oppie! – but 2024 has Bob Dylan and Paul Atreides, onscreen alter egos of MVP Timothée Chalamet. Also, considering the past 12 months, Anxiety being a main cinematic character couldn’t be more perfect.
Whatever Denzel Washington’s family is getting each other for Christmas, it can’t be better than what they gifted us. Son Malcolm directs this nuanced adaptation of the August Wilson play, and other son John David stars alongside a phenomenal Danielle Deadwyler as siblings butting heads over what to do with an heirloom piano. The drama is a spiritual journey of a family coming back together under ghostly circumstances.
Demi Moore being back in the spotlight is pretty great in itself – the fact that she’s in something so absolutely crazypants is the cherry on the top of a bloody body-horror spectacle not to be missed. An aging celebrity (Moore) takes a treatment that unlocks her younger self (Margaret Qualley), some key rules are broken and the results are messy, monstrous and metaphorical in a hilariously jaw-dropping hoot about beauty and self-worth.
Yeah, Sebastian Stan also played Donald Trump this year. But his best role came in this dark comedy about identity, playing an actor with disfiguring neurofibromatosis. An experimental drug turns him into a new man – well, at least facially, because superficial confidence can’t change the fact that he’s still an insecure mess internally. Come for the meta eccentricity, stay for a revelatory, movie-stealing performance from Adam Pearson.
Sometimes you’re just trying to have fun with friends and go to hockey camp when puberty hits you square in the face – or, in the case of this enchanting Pixar sequel, fills your noggin with a whole bunch of new emotions. The jittery Anxiety (fabulously voiced by Maya Hawke) leads a mutiny and kicks out Joy (Amy Poehler) and Co. in a matured narrative that ambitiously captures what it’s like for a kid (and adults) to feel overwhelmed and out of control.