My relationship with film was at a bit of a low point this year. I was looking at my Letterboxd stats before writing this and I only logged 134 movies in 2024, which is much less than my days of logging around 300 a couple of years ago, but even less than the 186 I did last year. It's not just a raw numbers thing, though -- I was recently telling a friend that I got too trapped in the new release rat race this year, and as a result my film watching felt less fulfilling. My usual rationalization is that staying current is helpful both for the purposes of making these lists and also for strengthening my critical faculties, but at a certain point I have to ask myself what is the value of seeing a film I know I'm going to hate like Deadpool & Wolverine over one of the many Jia Zhangke movies I have in my backlog, for instance.
So next year I'm going to try to shake myself out of that, which is something I've said a variation of before, but I really mean it this time. Maybe. I think. In the meantime, please dig in to some of my favorite 2024 releases! No Madame Webs were harmed in the making of this list.
So next year I'm going to try to shake myself out of that, which is something I've said a variation of before, but I really mean it this time. Maybe. I think. In the meantime, please dig in to some of my favorite 2024 releases! No Madame Webs were harmed in the making of this list.
The rules: Any film that got their first non-festival release in 2024 -- whether that's theatrically, on VOD, or exclusively on a streaming service -- qualifies for this list.
