While big IP blockbusters like Wicked, Gladiator II, and Dune: Part Two dominated the box office this year, there was plenty of completely original fare to dig into. From Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, which had us turning court style into street style, to Pamela Anderson’s stunning acting comeback in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, to RaMell Ross’s innovative retelling of Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys, some of the best films were those that dared to take a risk. Below, in no particular order, the W editors’ favorite films of 2024:
I’m Still Here
I was completely blown away by Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here. Our Editor-at-Large, Lynn Hirschberg, introduced me to this incredible film, and I have been thinking about it ever since I saw it months ago. Lead actress Fernanda Torres is brilliant, and I had the thrill of getting to work with her after seeing it and telling her how awestruck I was by her performance. I am so glad she got a very well-deserved Golden Globes nomination, as did the film, and I hope they will get many more accolades this awards season. —Sara Moonves, Editor-in-Chief
La Chimera
I love stories that contain a touch of magical realism. Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera melds the surreal with the mundane beautifully, and Josh O’Connor gives a truly stunning performance at the heart of this dramedy (and takes a legitimate stab at speaking Italian). The movie centers O’Connor as Arthur, a British former archaeologist who joins a group of grave robbers stealing Etruscan artifacts from tombs in Central Italy. Arthur—a prickly cat with just one linen suit to his name—helps his merry band of thieves locate ancient tombs through visions he experiences while standing near gravesites. These flashbacks—chimeras, as they’re called—also reveal that Arthur was madly in love with a woman named Beniamina, who has gone missing and is possibly dead. La Chimera is imbued with a slow, sexy, and mysterious vibe (think L’Avventura, or The Double Life of Véronique) that makes it irresistible and engrossing despite its unhurried pace. —Maxine Wally, Senior Digital Editor
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat’s body horror The Substance follows a Fonda-esque starlet (played by a brilliant Demi Moore) who’s aging out of Hollywood. She soon takes a mysterious substance (well, more so injects) that turns her into a younger version of herself (played by an equally as brilliant Margaret Qualley) and all hell breaks loose. The film is very raw and, despite its wilder moments towards the end, makes salient points on beauty standards and objectification throughout. Even if you consider yourself the squeamish type—really, just close your eyes for the gross bits—The Substance can’t be missed. —Matthew Velasco, Staff Writer, News
Love Lies Bleeding
I loved this twisty romantic neo-noir, which is set in rural 1980s New Mexico and relentlessly delivers shock after shock. It felt both refreshingly new and thoroughly old school, with more than a surrealist twinge—especially in the shadowy form of a blood-chilling Ed Harris. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian make for a funny, sexy, tragic on-screen couple, and as far as story goes, the stakes couldn’t be higher. This is the first film I saw in 2024, and it sure set the tone for the rest of the year. —Claire Valentine, Culture Editor
The Order
Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett, and Tye Sheridan are revelations in The Order, a movie about a neo-Nazi group that starts committing crimes in the Pacific Northwest during the 1980s. Law plays Terry Husk, an FBI agent who identifies a pattern in recent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations, car heists, and bombings at adult movie theaters. He begins a mission alongside Jamie Bowen (Sheridan), a young local police officer, to prove that these crimes are the work of a radical gang led by Bob Mathews (Hoult), a white supremacist. The film has a dark, sinister feeling akin to True Detective season one, with a flawed and complicated anti-hero for a protagonist to boot. With Donald Trump being elected president for a second time and Project 2025 becoming a real threat on the political and societal horizon, the subject matter of The Order feels especially timely. And although the United States Government is certainly no shining beacon for morality, having a very clear good guy/bad guy to root for in this film makes it easy to understand how hatred can (and will) turn deadly. —M.W.
My Old Ass
By far the most charming coming-of-age film of the year, My Old Ass sees 18-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella of viral “Call Your Girlfriend” cups fame) meeting her 39-year-old future self (Aubrey Plaza) during a psychedelic mushroom trip. Heartfelt and humorous without being too sappy, the movie explores that age-old question: If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be? And takes it one step further: What would you do with that advice? —Katie Connor, Executive Digital Director
Conclave
The girls are fighting! Don’t let the serious film stills fool you, Conclave has more backstabbing, bitchy diva moments than an episode of Real Housewives and Gossip Girl combined. This fictional take on what goes on behind closed doors at the Vatican when cardinals gather to select a new supreme pontiff is Pope-core at its finest. —K.C.
Madame Web
Madame Web is set in 2003, but no other film better captures the sense of alienation that permeated 2024. Not since Lars Von Trier lost his mojo have we had a better on-screen skewering of American dissonance. This is less a movie than a celebration of the triumph of studio notes, marketing, and IP extension over any creative passion or concern for audience enjoyment. Every actor delivers their lines like an influencer doing sponcon for a product they’ll never actually use. The most memorable of which, famously, was only in the trailer. The plot feels like the result of a negotiation hashed out by a Roy sibling of Succession (Shiv won out with the support of Kendall in faux-woke mode, but they kept Roman’s suggestion that the spider-lady should be able to drive cars real fast). It has all the soul of a gift guide that only features products from advertisers or an event painfully designed to look fun on Instagram stories at which no one present actually has fun. The Pepsi product placement is not only gratuitous but somehow makes you afraid of Pepsi. Then it concludes with the biggest twist ending of the year: the filmmakers basically admitted that they didn’t want to make this film at all. Instead, what they really wanted to do was an uninspired all-female rip-off of the X-Men with Dakota Johnson playing Professor X to a team of orphaned girls in Spandex. I sat in my airplane seat (where else would I watch it?), entertained the entire damn time. Not from wondering how our heroes would defeat the villain, but rather wondering if the filmmakers would ever manage to transcend the intricate puzzle of demands made on the project as pure product. They didn’t, but it was a hell of a ride. (Editor’s Note: Senior News Editor Kyle Munzenrieder did not actually see many new movies this year, and was too late to claim the write-ups for the ones he did). —K.M.
Wicked: Part One
Even the most hardcore musical theater haters have to admit that Wicked is one hell of a ride. There wasn’t anything like it in the theaters this year. Can’t wait to do it all over again in 2025. —K.C.
The Piano Lesson
August Wilson’s timeless play, The Piano Lesson, is brought to life on the screen by director Malcolm Washington. This deeply personal story resonates with me, exploring the complexities of family and the power of heritage. The film delves into the conflict between Boy Willie (John David Washington), who seeks to sell a family heirloom piano for financial gain, and his sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), who cherishes the instrument as a link to her ancestors. The Piano Lesson offers a poignant exploration of African American history and culture, a theme often overlooked in contemporary cinema. Wilson’s masterful storytelling, combined with stellar performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Erykah Badu, and the rest of the ensemble, elevates this adaptation to a truly unforgettable cinematic experience. —Amir La Sure, Lead Accessories Assistant
Challengers
I’ve played tennis since I was a pre-teen, so when Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers made its way to theaters, I could hardly contain my excitement. Zendaya? Josh O’Connor? Mike Faist? A soundtrack that would sound just as good at a Bushwick club as it did in my AMC theater? Sign me up. Despite some shoddy tennis technique, Challengers certainly lived up to my expectations—it’s steamy, interestingly shot and directed, and funny. And it doesn’t hurt that the movie was given the perfect precursor by its leading lady’s themed press tour. —M.V.
The Bikeriders
I’ll admit, when I first saw the trailer for The Bikeriders, I wondered how close to cheesy this film about the origins of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club would get before becoming unbearable. But the film was totally engrossing and charming from start to finish, thanks to performances by Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, and most of all, Jodie Comer. The Bikeriders leans just enough into the inherent camp of biker culture without going overboard, and the costumes were a hoot. —C.V.
Maria
Yes, Pablo Larraín’s latest biopic—this time on Maria Callas—is a bit slow. And yes, it features a lot more vibes than it does a full-fledged plot, but if you just embrace that fact going into it, you’ll find that it’s a nice slow burn of a film to watch on a cold night at home. Plus, the costuming and set design alone will keep you mesmerized. —K.C.
Nickel Boys
They say you can’t reinvent the wheel, but in some ways, it feels like director RaMell Ross did just that with Nickel Boys. The adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name is a visual whirlwind, taking big risks in format—like the film’s unique use of first-person point-of-view, for a deep emotional payoff. —C.V.
The Last Showgirl
I grew up watching Pamela Anderson on Baywatch and have always considered her an icon. Her quite meta performance in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, a film about the cost of artistic dreams, aging, motherhood, and the cutthroat way women are churned through our culture was very touching—one of my favorites of the year. —C.V.
