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The 66 best films of 2024 – so far
From Oscar-winning dramas to purely pleasurable blockbusters, here are our critics’ picks from the first half of the year
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Priscilla – ★★★★☆
Sofia Coppola shunts Elvis to the shadows, to beautiful effect, in this biopic focussed on his wife Priscilla – thoughtfully and tenderly played by Cailee Spaeny. Read our Priscilla review
One Life – ★★★★☆
Anthony Hopkins stars as the “British Schindler” Nicholas Wilton in this extraordinary true story. Wilton travelled to Czechoslovakia in 1938 to save more than 600 children (most of them Jewish), transporting them to British foster homes away from danger. Read our One Life review
Society of the Snow – ★★★★☆
The infamous 1972 Andes plane crash gets its third adaptation, with Spanish director JA Bayona creating, in his native tongue, a wrenching, harrowing story, with a stunning score, and added gravitas coming from Uruguayan rising star Enzo Vogrincic’s emotive voiceover. Read our Society of the Snow review
The Beekeeper – ★★★★☆
Jason Statham is Adam Clay, a retired black ops agent-turned beekeeper. When phishers deplete the life savings of the sweet, retired old lady renting her barn to Clay and his bees, prompting her to shoot herself, Clay seeks revenge. It’s not clever, but this gory action thriller is proper guilty pleasure viewing. Read our The Beekeeper review
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Mean Girls – ★★★★☆
The Lindsay Lohan comedy classic about high schoolers vying to rule the school perfectly translates to the Gen-Z era in this musical remake by Tina Fey – now rumours don’t just circulate, but go viral on TikTok. And it’s still a complete scream. Read our Mean Girls review
The End We Start From – ★★★★☆
As soon as Jodie Comer’s nameless character gives birth, an apocalyptic flood hits in this dystopian version of England. She, her baby and its father flee. Comer is consistently compelling in this film’s unstable world. Read our The End We Start From review
The Holdovers – ★★★★★
A teacher is forced to look after a pupil at the boarding school he works at over the Christmas break in this 70s-set piece. He takes refuge in the ancient world while the modern one tears itself apart; the troublemaker student is being threatened with military academy by his mother; and they’re joined by the school’s no-nonsense dinner lady. Awards-worthy performances, with a richly deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Read our The Holdovers review
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All of Us Strangers – ★★★★★
A relationship develops between Adam (Andrew Scott) and Harry (Paul Mescal), neighbours in a near-empty new London high rise. Meanwhile, long-orphaned Adam visits his childhood home one day to find nothing has changed – his parents are seemingly living just as they did right before their death. Andrew Haigh’s drama is an unusual romance, and a supremely sad ghost story. Read our All of Us Strangers review
The Color Purple – ★★★★☆
This musical take on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the struggles of black women in the American South in the early 1900s is a surprisingly fun jolt of joy. An irresistible all-singing, all-sobbing weepie – with sequins. Read our The Color Purple review
American Fiction – ★★★★☆
Jeffrey Wright is superb in this satire about the publishing industry’s obsession with stories of black trauma. Frustrated that the only works by black writers that get picked up now are gritty memoirs of gun crime, trauma and terrible fathers, the teacher and author pens an inane pastiche, which, to his horror, becomes an unexpected hit. Read our American Fiction review
Migration – ★★★★☆
A family of mallard ducks risks migrating south for the first time, and leaving the corner of New England they call home, in this gently formulaic, handsome animation, with a fresh, bright score to boot. Read our Migration review
The Zone of Interest – ★★★★★
Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning drama shows evil can flourish in the most mundane circumstances – it depicts the country house life of a family living next door to Auschwitz, where the father, Rudolf Höss, is a commandant. We don’t see any of the camp’s savagery directly until the epilogue – but its horrors gnaw and clamour at the edge of every shot. Read our The Zone of Interest review
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Occupied City – ★★★★☆
Steve McQueen’s sober four-hour documentary contrasts Amsterdam’s hellish past with its cosmopolitan present, to horrific effect. We’re forced to reckon with the fact that in living memory, the appalling crimes of Nazi occupation were carried out in the same streets, parks and plazas the city’s occupants now live their lives in. Read our Occupied City review
The Taste of Things – ★★★★☆
Set at a rural French chateau in 1885, the film follows a legendary gourmet, Dodin Bouffant, who, for twenty years, has employed brilliant cook Eugenie Chatagne. The two have fallen in love, but it’s on Eugenie’s terms – Dodin’s numerous offers of marriage have thus far been rebuffed. Its food shots are many – but always delectable. Read our The Taste of Things review
The Promised Land – ★★★★☆
A delightful Mads Mikkelsen plays a frontiersman in 18th-century Denmark, pursuing his near-unreachable dream of cultivating wild northern Jutland, where cruel winds and barren soil make farming impossible. There’s fights with local landowners, and flutterings of romance ensue in this gritty Scandi remix of American Western tropes. Read our The Promised Land review
This is Me… Now – ★★★★☆
A bonkers, unpredictable film-cum-music video, released alongside Jennifer Lopez’s ninth studio album. She uses a loosely connected series of dramatic scenes and musical numbers to reflect on her life as a serial monogamist. An astonishing pop-art tour de force. Read our This is Me... Now review
Memory – ★★★★☆
Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgard star in this gripping, original take on MeToo, in which a single mother – traumatised by being sexually abused by older boys at school when aged 12 – is stalked by one of that posse. He seems not to remember his actions – unbeknownst to Chastain’s character, he has early-onset dementia. Read our Memory review
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Perfect Days – ★★★★☆
This Oscar-nominated drama from Wim Wenders, which portrays a toilet cleaner’s day-to-day routine from morning until night, is a lovingly detailed character study, and a beautiful portrait of everyday life in Tokyo. Read our Perfect Days review
Dune: Part Two – ★★★★☆
This bold, visually astonishing film picks up exactly where Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 sci-fi epic left off. Timothee Chalamet’s exiled Paul Atreides joins forces with Zendaya’s Chani and the native Fremen tribes of desert planet Arrakis to exact revenge on those who destroyed his family. An extraordinary technological achievement. Read our Dune: Part Two review
High & Low – ★★★★☆
This gripping documentary, which assembles a star-studded cast of interviewees, charts the former Dior superstar John Galliano’s rise to stardom, and subsequent unravelling – in 2011, he was found guilty of racism and anti-Semitic abuse, losing him his Dior job. Read our High & Low review
Poor Things – ★★★★★
Eccentric young Englishwoman Bella’s (Emma Stone) pregnant corpse was dragged from the Thames by Willem Dafoe’s Godwin, after which he implanted the unborn infant’s brain in its dead mother’s skull as an experiment. Revived, she leaves Godwin to cut a highly sexed swathe through western Europe in this raunchy gothic comedy. An Oscar-winner which is totally unique. Read our Poor Things review
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Robot Dreams – ★★★★★
This wordless animated story follows a lonely dog, called Dog, who orders a robotic companion called Robot through the post. The two soon become firm friends. This wonderful tale of friendship will enchant and amuse children, and leave grown-ups in tears. Read our Robot Dreams review
Road House – ★★★★☆
Jake Gyllenaal is Elwood Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter approached by a Florida bar owner desperate for help – the bar is constantly troubled by a local kingpin and his goons, who we soon discover want the bar for a lucrative land deal. But Dalton, now lead bouncer, is no pushover. This remake is pure entertainment. Read our Road House review
Io Capitano – ★★★★☆
Two endearing teenage cousins, who dream of becoming pop stars abroad, endure a gruelling journey from Senegal to Europe in this rich drama. A harrowing yet hopeful migration odyssey, with the title “I, Captain” referring to the treacherous sea crossing that is the final leg of the teens’ journey. Read our Io Capitano review
Evil Does Not Exist – ★★★★☆
Oscar-nominated director Ryusuke Hamaguchi returns with this study of a rural Japanese community fighting the nearby development of a glamping campsite, whose septic tank will send run-off into the river. The film’s great trick is to make us sympathise with both sides, as the film’s title suggests – and a twist in the third act creates a gripping conclusion. Read our Evil Does Not Exist review
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Girls State – ★★★★☆
This thought-provoking documentary, a companion piece to 2020’s Boy State, follows 500 girls taking part in a week-long politics bootcamp in Missouri. Filmed just before the June 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs Wade, we watch friendships form, sometimes regardless of ideological difference, and startlingly nuanced debates unfold. Read our Girls State review
Scoop – ★★★★★
Rufus Sewell and Gillian Anderson excel as Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis in this Netflix drama unpacking the origin story of the infamous Newsnight interview. You’ll clamp hand to mouth, aghast at how this trainwreck actually happened. Read our Scoop review
The Teachers’ Lounge – ★★★★☆
A small sum of money going missing from a jacket in a secondary school staff room leads to a community meltdown. This tense Oscar-nominated German drama is less intrigued by the petty theft itself than with the complete hysteria that ensues. Read our The Teachers’ Lounge review
Civil War – ★★★★★
Ex Machina director Alex Garland imagines the total societal disintegration of a very near-future version of the USA, through the eyes of Kirsten Dunst as a Lee Miller-esque photojournalist. Neither anti-Trump nor anti-woke, Garland is uninterested in taking a side, but rather the business of side-taking itself, and where our growing mania for doing so leads. Read our Civil War review
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Abigail – ★★★★☆
Matilda’s Alisha Weir is an absolute force in this horror-thriller about six criminals who get more than they bargained for when they kidnap a pampered prima ballerina for ransom – she’s actually a bloodthirsty vampire. Read our Abigail review
Sometimes I Think About Dying – ★★★★☆
After a disappointing post-Star Wars run, Daisy Ridley finally finds her groove with this enjoyable romcom. The recent Sundance favourite follows Fran, a cripplingly shy (and, implicitly, depressed) office drone in a soggy Oregon port town, who is wooed into a warmer, shared world by affable new colleague Robert. Read our Sometimes I Think About Dying review
Boy Kills World – ★★★★☆
Bill Skarsgard stars as “Boy”, a John Wick-type figure wreaking vengeance for his family’s murder in this weird dystopia, in which a Hunger Games-esque form of televised bloodsport takes place every year. With Boy deaf-mute and played silently by Skarsgard, actor H Jon Benjamin delivers his internal monologue. Read our Boy Kills World review
Challengers – ★★★★★
Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist play two former doubles partners and best friends who, over years, vye for the affections of Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan, a goddess of the American youth circuit. This is the most purely pleasurable film of the year, with its tennis love triangle serving up racquet-twanging steaminess. Read our Challengers review
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The Fall Guy – ★★★★☆
A stuntman becomes a scapegoat in a shady Hollywood conspiracy and has to leap, scuffle and rev his way to clearing his name. Loosely based on the 80s TV series of the same name, David Leitch’s film is witty, fresh and propelled by charm from leads Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Read our The Fall Guy review
Love Lies Bleeding – ★★★★★
Kristen Stewart shines in this gruesome psychosexual thriller about the relationship between gym manager Lou (Stewart), who is part of a seasoned criminal family, and ambitious bodybuilder Jackie. Jackie gradually gets pulled into Lou’s family’s life of organised crime. Director Rose Glass remains one to watch. Read our Love Lies Bleeding review
Let It Be – ★★★★☆
Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary about the making of the Beatles’ final album Let It Be is re-released, after being out of circulation since the early 80s. With a welcomely economical length compared to Peter Jackson’s mammoth 2021 documentary about the same album, Lindsay-Hogg offers a fresh perspective on the Beatles’ final days. Read our Let It Be review
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – ★★★★☆
The fourth chapter in the reboot series follows Noa, son of the leader of a chimp clan which has been enslaved by Proximus, a megalomaniacal bonobo. He joins forces with a young human, Mae, to try and free them. It’s (surprisingly) handsome and marvellous, for a film with only two characters who aren’t motion-captured apes. Read our Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes review
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La Chimera – ★★★★☆
Josh O’Connor plays Englishman Arthur in 80s rural Tuscany, originally in the area for archaeological study, but soon drawn into a small local troupe of grave robbers – Arthur can sniff out buried Etruscan antiquities they can resell for a fortune. All the while, he mourns for his dead lover. A piece to meditate on – about the loss of the sacred (grave robbing), and the struggle to move on (Arthur’s grief). Read our La Chimera review
IF – ★★★★☆
John Krasinski directs this tale of 12-year-old Bea, who learns she can see people’s imaginary friends (IFs), many of which have been abandoned by their humans. The only person sharing her talent is neighbour Cal (Ryan Reynolds), and they team up to get the IFs back to work. Charming, sweet and moving. Read our IF review
Hoard – ★★★★☆
This Nineties-set British debut marks director Luna Carmoon as one to watch. We follow Maria, from her initial home with her loving but incapable hoarder mother, to her foster home in later life, where she reckons with her mother’s death, and falls for her foster mother’s ex-charge. Beautiful images, but with a taste for the revolting. Read our Hoard review
Hit Man – ★★★★☆
Richard Linklater and Glen Powell co-wrote this comedy thriller about Gary Johnson, an affable psychology lecturer with a second job investigating for the police embittered lovers planning to have their partners killed. While in his undercover persona, he catches the attention of a woman he’s investigating – thus creating a body-swap comedy. Read our Hit Man review
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – ★★★★★
Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth star in this follow-up to 2015’s Fury Road, which uses a pared-down approach to dialogue, a vast, epic structure, and incredible stunt work to tell the story of the character Furiosa. Totally electrifying. Read our Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga review
The Beast – ★★★★☆
Léa Seydoux stars as a young woman living in the 2040s, who is spirited back into two of her previous lives (Paris of the 1910s, and LA of the 2010s) – her current, coolly clinical society suggests this process to purge oneself of feeling, and thus guarantee an elite societal role. But in every life, she’s haunted by a mysterious, dangerous young man. A creepy, hopping structure, as torn as our heroine. Read our The Beast full review
Godzilla Minus One – ★★★★☆
The latest in the Japanese franchise opens at the close of the Second World War (the title’s “Minus One” refers to Japan’s desperate state at that historical moment). An absconded kamikaze pilot’s new job as a minesweeper puts him at the frontline of Tokyo’s efforts to fend off Godzilla. Both frightening, and a moving state-of-the-nation piece. Read our Godzilla Minus One review
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The Dead Don’t Hurt – ★★★★☆
Viggo Mortensen writes, directs and stars in this western about the romance between a sheriff and his wife, but which also hones in on her and, more generally, the hardships visited on women in frontier life. A tight focus on human relationships, and all their flaws. Read our The Dead Don’t Hurt review
Inside Out 2 – ★★★★☆
The sequel to Pixar’s 2015 masterpiece Inside Out follows Riley as a teenager now, with a new squad of emotions – Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui – joining the crew inside her head, just in time for a hockey camp she’s attending before starting high school. Complex ideas are animated beautifully – Pixar is on terrific form. Read our Inside Out 2 review
I Am: Celine Dion – ★★★★☆
Filmed over a year in late 2021 and 2022, this documentary reveals singer Celine Dion’s struggles with stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle spasms and rigidity, breathing problems and chronic pain – but, most importantly, affects her voice. Possibly no major star has been filmed in such exposed, vulnerable situations before. Read our I Am: Celine Dion review
The Bikeriders – ★★★★☆
Using as his inspiration a series of photos taken by American photographer Danny Lyon in the 60s, Jeff Nichols returns after a seven-year silence to chronicle the lives of the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club, and particularly the rise and fall of its leader Johnny (Tom Hardy). A precise portrait of a particular place, time and attitude, with some standout performances. Read our The Bikeriders review
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Kinds of Kindness – ★★★★☆
Emma Stone makes a quick return to her Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos for this triptych of tales about what gives us purpose, why we love, and how we find meaning, which Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and several others role-switch their way through. Though often bizarre and inscrutable, its scenarios are still, somehow, deeply recognisable. Read our Kinds of Kindness review
Horizon: An American Saga – ★★★★☆
Kevin Costner’s first feature in 21 years is earnest, stately, human and hopeful, a classic mid-century, John Ford-type western. Three plots play out in parallel, told in loving detail and against stunning landscapes: a feuding lone rider; a group of tourists; and a stoical pioneer who falls for a Union soldier. Read our Horizon: An American Saga review
A Quiet Place: Day One – ★★★★☆
This series’ premise of Earth’s invasion by aliens who kill any human who makes a sound gets a refresh for its third instalment, with new co-stars Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn replacing John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. Caught up in the chaos of the invasion in New York, they work together to try and survive. Watching with an audience all trying to stay silent is part of the fun. Read our A Quiet Place: Day One review
Fancy Dance – ★★★★☆
Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone excels again, this time as Jax, a small-time drug dealer living on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma, dealing with her sister’s appearance, and the teen niece she’s since been left to look after. A gripping, understated study of the mistreatment of a community on the margins. Read our Fancy Dance review
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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – ★★★★☆
A belated sequel to the 1984-94 trilogy that’s scrupulously faithful to the originals’ technology, spirit and style – wonderfully, nostalgically so. Detroit detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is lured back once again to the glamorous LA suburbs after his estranged daughter, a principled young city lawyer, becomes embroiled in a pro bono case that catches the eye of some murderous goons. Read our Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F review
The Imaginary – ★★★★☆
This charming, artistically impressive film from Studio Ponoc (staffed by ex-Ghibli artists) adapts AF Harrold’s 2014 British children’s novel about a young girl Amanda, who goes on adventures with her imaginary friend Rudge. Rudge has to avoid Mr Bunting, a sinister stranger sustained by the souls of stray imaginary friends. A sharp, moving story of friendship. Read our The Imaginary review
Twisters – ★★★★★
This disaster thriller follows meteorologist Kate (Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones), self-styled “tornado wrangler” YouTuber Tyler, and weather front-tracking tech whizz Javi as they descend on Oklahoma for an especially torrid tornado season – and soon find themselves fighting for their lives. This follow-up to the 1996 original vastly improves on it, with action scenes more inspired than anything we’ve seen in years, and deeply human performances. Read our Twisters review
Longlegs – ★★★★★
We follow Lee (Maika Monroe), a talented rookie FBI agent assigned to a case in Oregon that’s been baffling authorities for decades – a dozen families have been killed, always by the father, while cryptic messages suggest a figure named Longlegs is somehow behind it. Nicolas Cage gives the most terrifying performance of his career in one of the best horror films in years. Read our Longlegs review
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Despicable Me 4 – ★★★★☆
The beloved series’ latest instalment sees the introduction of Gru Jr, thanks to Gru’s new life partner, the special agent Lucy – but the tot is soon kidnapped by Gru’s old rival, Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell). The film mostly proceeds by means of a series of high-energy sketch-type scenes, with crazy animals, disco music and belching Minions. True family fun. Read our Despicable Me 4 review
Janet Planet – ★★★★★
A drama set in verdant Massachusetts in summer 1991, which tenderly sketches the mother-daughter relationship between Janet and 11-year-old Lacy as they spend time, over the summer, together and apart. Playwright Annie Baker’s debut – and it’s delicately and thus distinctively done. Read our Janet Planet review
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa – ★★★★☆
The hardy Nepalese climber, who is the only woman to have summitted Everest 10 times, makes for the dream documentary subject. Open, honest with herself and never exuding false humility, Lhakpa tells her astonishing story: from a birth in a cave, to several incredibly difficult relationships, to that amazing 10th ascent in May 2022. Read our Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa review
A Storm Foretold – ★★★★☆
A jaw-droppingly close insight into the famously private Roger Stone, a lobbyist, and one of Trump’s chief strategists in 2016, who later turned on him, demanding his impeachment. This documentary is a damning indictment of its subject, Trump and fragile American democracy. Read our A Storm Foretold review
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Harold and the Purple Crayon – ★★★★☆
Loosely adapted from a picture book about a young boy whose drawings become real, to create man-child Harold (Zachary Levi) whose drawings cause havoc in the lives of those around him, this is a silly, playful, low-stakes caper. It’s not particularly new or fresh, but it’s funny, and an enticing wish-fulfilment fantasy – with attractive visuals to boot. Read our Harold and the Purple Crayon review
Kensuke’s Kingdom – ★★★★☆
An adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel about 12-year-old Michael and his dog Stella, swept away from his family’s boat, mid-round-the-world-adventure, during a storm, ending up on a desert island. Japanese sailor Kensuke who’s lived on the island alone since the end of the Second World War (40 years before the story begins) takes them under his wing. It boasts a starry voice cast (Cillian Murphy; Sally Hawkins) and a central mentor-mentee relationship that catches the heart. Read our Kensuke’s Kingdom review
Babes – ★★★★☆
Amid the dearth of good comedies, this screamingly funny film proves you don’t need big budgets and A-list stars. Eden decides to keep and single parent the baby from a one-night stand, presuming she can lean on her bestie every step of the way – but said bestie, newly a mother of two, has got more than enough on her plate already. Sparky and snappy, and even more gross-out, it’s Bridesmaids reborn. Read our Babes review
Alien: Romulus – ★★★★☆
A group of six youngsters, led by Cailee Spaeny as Rain, plot their escape from a smog-choked mining colony – they need to get to a derelict space station that’s drifted into orbit, as it contains enough cryo-pods for an interplanetary trip. But the place is not quite as deserted as it looks. Tense, terrifying and revolting. Read our Alien: Romulus review
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Sing Sing – ★★★★★
This drama about a theatre troupe of inmates at one of America’s toughest prisons – whose two leading men tussle over the limelight when rehearsing for their latest production – keeps an astonishing secret until the credits roll: with the exception of Oscar nominee Colman Domingo and Paul Raci, every core cast member is a former prisoner who attended the drama group depicted, or a similar one elsewhere. And they’re wildly talented. Read our Sing Sing review
Kneecap – ★★★★☆
This Belfast-set, Irish-language comedy depicts the rise of the real-life hip-hop trio Kneecap, portrayed in the film by the bandmates themselves. Anarchically fun, with a touch of the Trainspotting about it. A supporting turn from Michael Fassbender as a former terrorist is the final touch to this raucous portrait of the lost generation growing up in post-ceasefire Northern Ireland. Read our Kneecap review