My Top Ten Films of 2024 (and Some More)
Posted on December 14, 2024 at 9:54 pm
In alphabetical order:
“The Brutalist” – Grand in scope but sensitive to the smallest moments, it has thoughtful looks at pride, art, trauma, and the places we create for home, worship, and work.
“Conclave” – An arresting combination of visual splendor, thrilling performances, the beats of a door-slamming farce, and serious, dramatic engagement with issues of honor, faith, and leadership.
“Inside Out 2”– There is so much wisdom about how even our most painful and fearful emotions can help keep us safe, and of course so much charm, with endearing characters and imaginative settings.
“Mountains” – This low-budget indie has sensitive performances, nuanced characters, gorgeous cinematography, and an insightful, layered story about gentrification, assimilation, and family.
“My Old Ass” – I was not expecting the emotional wallop at the end of a story about a teenager who meets her future self, but by the time it ended, it felt exactly right.
“A Real Pain” – Writer/director/star Jesse Eisenberg gave Kieran Culkin the showier role, and he gives one of the best performance of the year. But what stays with me is Eisenberg’s speech about Culkin’s character that is at the heart of a film about individual and generational pain and the connections that help us bear it.
“September 5” – Mr. Rogers told us to look for the helpers when tragedy strikes. This tightly scripted, superbly acted and edited story of sports journalists who never anticipated they would be covering a terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics, is a welcome reminder of how lucky we are to have people of courage and integrity to report the news.
“Thelma” – The most lovable underdog story of the year is this heartwarming film about an elderly woman who takes on a scammer.
“Touch” – This is the tenderest of love stories, stretching over oceans and half a century, beautifully filmed.
“Wicked” – The biggest of Hollywood musical extravaganzas is wildly entertaining but keeps the focus where it belongs, on two characters who remind us that no one is all good or all bad.
Other movies I loved this year: “Deadpool and Wolverine,” “Emilia Perez,” “The Fall Guy,” “Flow,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Hard Truths,” “The Piano Lesson,” “Sing Sing,” “The Wild Robot,” “Wolfs”
Truman Capote’s bittersweet memory of his childhood Christmas making fruitcakes with his elderly cousin, the only relative who cared about him, is beautifully filmed with the magnificent Geraldine Page as the fruitcake-baking cousin and Capote himself reading the narration.
The California Raisins guys put together this Christmas special, with the highlight the funniest-ever performance of “Carol of the Bells.”
Loretta Young and Celeste Holm are French nuns trying to raise money to build a hospital. Their faith and goodness transform those they meet.
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents” is the first line of this classic novel based on the loving if sometimes tumultuous family of author Louisa May Alcott. All of the lovely versions open with an important Christmas lesson about the joy of giving.
Based on the classic book, this stars Judy Greer as a mother trying to cope with six rambunctious kids who insist on playing the lead roles in the church pageant. There’s 
Before Google, companies had human beings to track down information. Katherine Hepburn plays the head of the all-female research department for a television network and Spencer Tracy is the engineer who is installing the company’s first computer, which takes up a whole wall and uses punch cards and vacuum tubes. Sparks fly — and not just in the equipment.
Bruce Willis plays a cop visiting his estranged wife at her office Christmas party when the building is taken over by bad guys led by Alan Rickman in this action-movie classic, and yes, it is a Christmas movie.
Tom Hanks stars in this animated story based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg about a magical train ride to the North Pole.
This comedy smash hit stars Macauley Culkin as a little boy who is accidentally left home when his family goes away for the holidays and has to take care of himself and guard the house from a couple of inept thieves. The slapstick is over the top but the message of Christmas is surprisingly touching.
The story of the plucky orphan from the comic pages became one of the biggest Broadway musicals of all time and one of its highlights is Christmas with Daddy Warbucks. There are at least three versions, all good!
