Listener reviewers Sarah Watt and Russell Baillie offer their picks for the top 20 films of 2024.
ALL OF US STRANGERS
Lonely screenwriter Adam struck up a magical relationship with his forward young neighbour Harry in this breathtaking, surprising and terribly moving drama by Weekend director Andrew Haigh. The increasingly ubiquitous Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal were revelations as Adam grappled with his traumatic past in the most unexpected and beautiful way.
Read the Listener’s full review here.
See it: Disney+, Video on Demand (VOD) rental*
AMERICAN FICTION
Outraged when his publishers demanded a “Black book” to entertain the mainly white, virtue-signalling market, African-American author “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) wrote an on-the-nose gangster autobiography, which unexpectedly launched him to superstardom. A timely, provocative and clever literary business comedy.
Read the Listener’s full review of American Fiction here.
See it: Prime Video
ANORA
From our forthcoming review of the movie by Sean Baker, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes: “This Romeo and Juliet-meets-Pretty Woman-meets-Uncut Gems of a film is not only a blast to watch, but an object lesson in writing strong characters who elicit our sympathy despite their dubious life choices and their unlikability.”
See it: Cinemas from Boxing Day
CIVIL WAR
Alex Garland’s intelligent action movie about a near-future America at war with itself felt thrilling, frightening and worryingly prophetic. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and up-and-comer Cailee Spaeny played photo-journalists attempting to cover the country’s unrest and trying to interview its embattled president.
Read the Listener’s review here.
See it: Prime Video
THE COLOR PURPLE
This toe-tapping screen musical of the Broadway show inspired by the Alice Walker novel and the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie, proved a glorious cinema experience and was brimming with stunning performances. Despite the story’s serious themes of abuse, it was effortlessly exuberant.
You’ll find the Listener’s review here.
See it: VOD
DUNE: PART TWO
Compared with a laboured part one, the second half of director Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic was much more fun. Those humongous sandworms and the film’s battle scenes offered plenty of thrills and the pairing of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and Zendaya’s Chani offered a sweet if sandy Romeo and Juliet-esque romantic subplot.
Read the Listener’s full review of Dune: Part Two here.
See it: Neon, VOD
GOODBYE JULIA
Quietly told yet utterly gripping, this Sudanese drama delivered a potent mix of ethical dilemma and human frailty against a backdrop of civil war and injustice. As a supportive friendship grew between wealthy Arab Mona and her impoverished servant Julia, the tension of a narrative ticking time bomb was neatly mirrored in the violence and murder playing out on Khartoum’s fraught streets.
Read the Listener’s full review of Goodbye Julia here.
See it: VOD
HOW TO HAVE SEX
In her impressive feature debut, Brit director Molly Manning Walker created a spot-on and somewhat depressing depiction of English youth travelling to the Continent for a package holiday of booze, sun and sex. Its young cast delivered devastatingly realistic performances, especially Mia McKenna-Bruce in a break-out performance as the pivotal character of Tara.
Read the Listener’s full review of How To Have Sex here.
See it: VOD
KNEECAP
A semi-biography of the groundbreaking Irish language Belfast rap group in which the real-life rappers played heightened versions of themselves on screen. Kneecap resounded as a hilarious, profane and relentlessly ecstatic battle cry for the importance of indigenous language.
Read the Listener’s full review of Kneecap here.
See it: Cinemas
MAURICE AND I
A poignant, posthumous and illuminating look back at the long-lasting and influential Garden City architectural partnership of Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney. It was framed against the story of the post-earthquake restoration of their landmark work, the Christchurch Town Hall.
Read the Listener’s full review of Maurice and I here.
See it: DocPlay
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL
In a year when animated movies seemed to be dominated by kindly robots, the strange, sad Memoir of a Snail reminded us that people make memorable cartoon characters, too, especially when they’re handmade by people like Melburnian stop-motion film-maker Adam Elliot. His bittersweet second feature is about Grace, whose unhappy 1970s childhood leads to an adulthood beset by misfortune but with a fabulous friendship with the elderly Pinky.
Read the Listener’s full review of Memoir of a Snail here.
See it: Cinemas
THE MOON IS UPSIDE DOWN
A rare contemporary drama about grown-ups in a year of local features dominated by kids’ stories. The feature-directing debut by actor Loren Taylor (Eagle Vs Shark) was a deft weaving of three women-led storylines into a darkly funny tragi-comedy. Taylor stars in a cast of notables (Jemaine Clement, Robyn Malcolm, Elizabeth Hawthorne and Robbie Magasiva), all embracing her offbeat characters.
See it: VOD
NEVER LOOK AWAY
Directed by Lucy Lawless, this gripping documentary about New Zealand photojournalist Margaret Moth was an engrossing, poignant tale of adrenalin addiction and personal purpose. With extraordinary insights from lovers and colleagues, eye-popping archive footage and more than enough trauma for anyone, it nominated Moth as a Kiwi legend.
Read the Listener’s full review of Never Look Away here.
See it: Cinemas
ORIGIN
Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary film adapted writer Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 anthropological bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. It dramatised her research journey and life that went into creating the book about the roots of systemic racism around the world.
See it: VOD
PERFECT DAYS
Veteran director Wim Wenders’ captivating bonsai drama of a week in the life of dutiful, taciturn Tokyo toilet janitor Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) took an almost documentary approach, delivering a quietly meditative tale that proved the director’s most enjoyable film in years.
See it: VOD
THE PROMISED LAND
An epic historical drama of agriculture feudal feuding which played like a range-war Western in 18th-century Denmark. Mads Mikkelsen as returning war hero battled Mother Nature and a dastardly aristocracy to turn moors into fertile farmland.
Read the Listener’s full review of The Promised Land here.
See it: VOD, Rialto Channel
ROBOT DREAMS
This gorgeous, unbearably touching, animated movie about friendship told the wordless story of Dog, living in the East Village of a 1980s New York City populated entirely by cartoon animals. To fix his solitary life, he makes a friend – assembling a mail-order robot who becomes his companion.
Read the Listener’s full review of Robot Dreams here.
See it: VOD, Rialto Channel
SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY
An astonishingly sensitive and illuminating account of actor Christopher Reeve’s rise to fame and his life after suffering a catastrophic spinal injury in a riding accident. It painted an unequivocal portrait of the man who remains the best Superman to ever don the cape on screen.
See it: VOD
THE SUBSTANCE
The Substance wowed as a gruesome body-horror fable and a daring feminist commentary on ageing and vanity. As a TV personality fired on her 50th birthday for being past her use-by date, Demi Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle shed mascara-stained tears and all her clothes as she got hooked on a black-market elixir of youth. The results were unforgettable.
Read the Listener’s full review of The Substance here.
See it: VOD
THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Jonathan Glazer’s adaptation of the Martin Amis novel about the commandant of Auschwitz and his wife stripped out most of its plot but delivered a chilling immersion into their family life in the house that backed on to the camp. Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel were mesmerising as the couple, characters that were perfect illustrations of Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil”.
Read the Listener’s full review of The Zone of Interest here.
See it: VOD, Rialto Channel
*VOD is video on demand rental streaming services, including AroVision, Mubi, Academy OnDemand, Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Neon.
