The Top 10 Best Films Of 2024

Starting off this year’s list with our #10 film, Boy Kills World is set in a post-apocalyptic future about a boy (Bill Skarsgård) who is the victim of a fascist regime led by the evil Hilda van der Koy (Famke Janssen). 

One of the common flaws in modern action movies is the “John Wick model” – over-the-top super gory violence in which audiences are not only desensitized to it, but it’s not even impressive anymore to watch. Boy Kills World finds a creative way to work around this by placing the film from the perspective of our silent protagonist, who communicates via his inner voice.

The film is a Hunger Games for adults film in a video game setting. Audiences will notice a variation of styles and influences from other films that are blended into this movie, providing a fun experience.

Boy Kills World is a movie that refuses to take itself too seriously and creates a world that audiences can get lost in.

Actress Melissa Barrera is the Hollywood puzzle piece that no one has been able to solve. Remove Barrera from a major studio-backed film and you find that she has put out a very solid filmography over the last couple of years.

Your Monster is a story about a young stage actress named Laura Franco. After receiving an emotionally crippling cancer diagnosis,  Laura is dumped by her boyfriend/Playwright Jacob.  Laura is emotionally devastated and proceeds to spend the next few weeks crying in her apartment while distancing herself from the world. 

There’s a bible verse that says, “It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman.” Your Monster is the perfect representation of that very problem, as the film is an emotional roller coaster in the life of a woman who can’t seem to pull it together. 

The audience is taken on the ride with Laura’s character, which progresses and deteriorates throughout the film, and is arguably the best character study of the entire year.

Millennials get a bad rap for a good reason, because despite growing up, many still refuse to grow up.  Karen Gillian, known for her roles in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Jumanji franchises, is one of the few actresses in Hollywood who still reaches out to do smaller films.

Late Bloomers is the story of a 30-year-old woman named Louise who has nothing going for her. After a pathetic display of trying to get back with her boyfriend she ends up breaking her hip, causing her to go to rehabilitation.  Because most people who are rehabbing their hips are twice her age, she is forced to get to know a stubborn mean old Polish woman named Antonina. 

On paper, this is a movie that shouldn’t work but the chemistry that Gillian has with her co-star makes it work.  The character of Louise is a down-on-her-luck woman whose life has spiraled out of control ever since her mother was diagnosed with dementia, which has left her nonverbal. 

The film will hit audiences in the feels as it deals with difficult life situations such as loss,  loneliness, and compassion. Karen Gillian gives one of the best performances of her career, playing a character that most people would find annoying but who has a well-written backstory that makes you sympathize with her struggles and roots for her redemption.

The average moviegoer is so used to feeling either dread or indifference with Hollywood productions that when you get a film like this that manages to have an emotional impact, it does not go unnoticed.

Ordinary Angels is the story of a father who is dealing with the recent loss of his wife. Alan Ritchson, who plays Ed, is struggling to raise two daughters all on his own – one of whom is in desperate need of a liver transplant. As doctors project that she may only live another year, Ed runs into a woman named Sharon, played by Hilary Swank. Sharon takes a great interest in helping his family and going the extra mile beyond the means that any stranger would go.

The film deals with the topic of loss and how believers can feel loss or distance from God in times of great struggle and suffering, almost as an allegory to the Book of Job. Outside of that, the faith aspect of this movie is toned down. The movie is based on a true story that happened back in 1994 when the people of Louisville, Kentucky rallied around a father in desperate need of help saving his child’s life. The film gives a great window into the positivity of humanity and how people will come together to help those in need at their worst moments. 

The 1972 Summer Olympics was one of the biggest displays of political incompetence the world has ever seen.  For those who are old enough to remember the real-life story as it happened: During the summer games, a group of Palestinian terrorists kidnapped the Israel Olympic team and then demanded a path of escape while threatening to kill the hostages.

After several failed attempts to rescue the Israeli team, the incident ended on the tarmac of an airport with disastrous results. On top of that, you also had the incompetence of the news media, who incorrectly reported that all of the hostages had survived, only to have to correct that story with the worst possible news hours later.

September 5 is a film that is not about good guys or bad guys, but rather retelling the events that unfolded in a manner that is as objective as it can be. Because it’s been over 50 years since this event took place, the film does a brilliant job of sourcing the eyewitness accounts and videos from that time to trace an accurate story about what happened in that horrific period.

Sons of Anarchy has been off the air for several years at this point, but the infatuation with Outlaw motorcycle gangs has not subsided. The Bikeriders is the story of the rise of the Outlaw motorcycle club the Vandals. A club that started as a group of racers looking to kill time on the weekends turned into one of the most notorious 1% clubs in the entire country.

The film is a time warp back to American culture in the Midwest during the ’60s and 70s, and the cinematography of the movie does a great job of making the setting look like another world when compared to today. Tom Hardy plays Johnny, the president and founder of the club, who got the idea from watching the legendary Marlon Brando film The Wild One.

The early portion of the movie shows the group being very tight-knit, like a family, as opposed to a criminal gang. When the group wasn’t able to police its own from an inner circle, the ideology of the club began to spread uncontrollably, and more violent members began to take prominent positions – leading to the club becoming what we know it today.

Set in 1971, Tae-in Is the first officer of a civilian airliner who has worked this way up to co-pilot just a couple of years after being on the opposite end of a North Korean hijack. The central theme of this movie revolves around the consequences of actions and being haunted by making both the right and wrong decisions.

For Western audiences, it’s always intriguing to see an international conflict involving foreign nations. As the film considers itself to be a disaster movie,  the way it hooks audiences into the story is by giving a brief introduction to several characters who are on the plane to relay the severity of the situation at hand. The film is a shining window into the actions of heroism and villainy, and even nationalism.

Hijack 1971 is a bold and brilliant film that showcases the tension of a dire situation that is done in a far better fashion than movies in the horror genre that look to achieve the same effect.

India has given us a few films over the last few year that have Americans questioning the filmmaking coming from our own domestic industry. Kill is just one such film.

In this movie, you feel the emotional gravity of every single person who was killed, which makes every act of violence heart-wrenching for the viewers. While the roles of Good and Evil are clearly defined, that doesn’t mean that the human emotions coming from our bad guys aren’t felt just hard as they are from our heroes.

The brutality of modern action movies is alive and well. The kills this film gives are so much more meaningful than in previous attempts.

Everybody hates jury duty – but just imagine being part of a trial for a crime that you committed. Nicholas Hoult plays Justin Kemp, a recovering alcoholic who just got called in to do jury duty. The case is about a woman who got into a public altercation with her boyfriend at a bar and afterward was found murdered and left in a ditch near a bridge where the altercation took place. 

Most of the jury views it as an open and shut case against the ex-boyfriend, until Justin realizes that he was responsible for the woman’s death, and tries to convince the jury that the ex-boyfriend is innocent without revealing that he was the one responsible for her death.

The film creates an incredible moral dilemma and Justin tries to work around being the one voice of innocence for a man on trial for murder. The problem is Justin cannot prove why he is innocent without revealing his own culpability. Juror #2 is one of the most intense films of the year from a storytelling aspect, and Nicholas Hoult excels in one of the best performances of his career in a year that will define and elevate his status as an actor.

The #1 movie of 2024 is a film that Hollywood would NEVER make in 2024. A karate champion decides to make a difference in his community by joining the police force and becoming a probation officer who hunts down and kicks the everloving crap out of child predators in his area.

When it comes to the genre of black comedy, the way that Hollywood presents the genre is by making light of horrific situations such as death and sexual assault. In Hollywood’s eyes, comedy comes from making light of serious situations to the point where it feels like they are going out of their way to either belittle them or reveal their evil nature.  

‘Officer Black Belt’ is the story of a young man named Lee Jung-do who helps a probation officer named Kim Sun-min capture a violent sex offender in the neighborhood and Kim decides to recommend Lee for a job within the force. Officer Black Belt is a brilliant film that is part buddy cop comedy movie with the laughs being at the expense of the perverted members of the city. On the flip side, the film excels at being a gripping drama without stepping on the toes of either genre. 

The film has a strong sense of humanity that many dark comedies removes from their films. The film also doesn’t belittle our protagonist for being a gamer nor does it mock his friends who show off their usefulness in tough scenarios later in the movie.  When it’s time to get serious, Lee shifts gears and relies on his established skills proving he is a great hand-to-hand threat versus his adversaries. The tonal shift change in the film also allows our character to realize the magnitude of the job that he has.  

Officer Black Belt is a highly entertaining film that doesn’t lose pace while addressing serious matters such as sexual crimes against children and the abuse of women. It is a film that gives hope for justice, law, and order which makes it the perfect film to top our best of 2024 list.