MJ's Top Five Movies of 2024 and More.

NOTE: As of this writing - and not coming to a Chicago theater until after the new year - I had not yet seen Nickel Boys and The Brutalist, so neither is eligible to be included on my very short "best of 2024" movie list.

I figured I might as well wrap up 2024 with another ubiquitous list. Every newspaper (yes, they still exist) and social media post has some type of "list": good films, bad ones, funniest and most violent, best performances, worst performances, and on and on. If you can imagine it, someone will come up with a list of one sort of another. Everything from the three films Quentin Tarantino wished he'd made to the seven or so Diane Warren songs that should have been sung by Barbra Streisand. I can't make this stuff up.

But developing a unique list, one that wasn't too esoteric or kitschy, wasn't speaking to me, and I didn't want to get academically medieval on you with some obscure insider catalogue that only made sense to two or three other movie geeks like me.

Instead, I'm going to rely on a "best of" movie list (yawn, I know), but one with a few twists that will keep your interest for four or five minutes: 1) I had to have seen the movie in 2024, and 2) the list must be short, very short, like two or three (okay, well, maybe four or five) movies short. The very best of the best. Movies that included great performances, outstanding writing, excellent direction and innovative storytelling. And finally, these are movies I would (or have already) seen again.

That said, here are the five best movies I saw in 2024, a brief rationale for their inclusion here, plus two other movies that almost made the list and, finally, one that I just found highly entertaining. How's that for a hodgepodge summary of the year's best in cinema? So grab your popcorn and a pop (I am from Cleveland, remember, so no "soda"), or maybe a glass of wine, and take a peek at the movies you ought to see, preferably in a theater (but at home streaming, if you must).

Small Things Like These

Don't look for this film at the Oscars. It's too small and the subject matter (alleged abuses by the Magdalene Laundries) painfully horrific to be a commercial success. Based on Claire Keegan's novel of the same name, which won the 2022 Orwell Prize in political fiction, the movie follows a coal man (last year's Best Actor Oscar recipient Cillian Murphy) whose accidental discovery of what might be happening behind convent walls stirs childhood memories that force him to reconsider his role in what he has seen. Should he, as his wife suggests, "ignore" this realization in order to get on with life? Or does his own moral compass demand action?

Murphy is quietly conflicted in this role, powerful in exposing the internal turmoil he faces in deciding how to do the right thing. Director Tim Mielants frames every scene against the harsh, bleak Irish countryside, effectively using shadows and light to reveal the smallest, arguably, insignificant details that drive this harrowing narrative. I was physically trembling at movie's end, a resolution so tiny, and with a gesture that might seem inconsequential, except it says everything about Murphy's coal man and the choice he has made. Small Things Like These is a beautiful, difficult, haunting film.

Small Things Like These had a limited theatrical run and is not yet available to stream.

A Real Pain

Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed this very personal, sometimes poignant, and thoroughly engaging tale of two mismatched cousins who travel to Poland on a Holocaust tour to honor their grandmother in the hope of visiting the home she grew up in. Co-starring a brilliant Kieran Culkin as Eisenberg's free-spirited, if socially awkward, cousin Benji, A Real Pain muses on family dysfunctions, unresolved issues and unhealed emotional wounds in ways that are often funny, but always probing and revealing. Eisenberg continues to demonstrate his talent as a writer and director, with A Real Pain a real contender at this year's Oscars for Best Original Screenplay. Culkin is currently the favorite to take Best Supporting Actor in this truly independent (re: low budget and edgy) little gem of a movie. A friend commented recently that she couldn't take Culkin's behavior after a while and got irritated by him, but I see Benji's character as an updated renegade from a Woody Allen movie: alternately impish and charming, but also masking a darker, sadder soul that is searching to find himself.

A Real Pain is scheduled to be available via various streaming networks December 31.

Conclave

Except for Wicked, Conclave is one of the biggest, most "Hollywood" movies among this year's best. Its subject - the election of a new pope - has all the haute drama found in blockbuster films, with less of the violence and more attention to smaller, individual conflicts within the Catholic church's hierarchy. The Church's majesty and mystery are both on display here, along with something new: a sense of uncertainty. Director Edward Berger captures the grandeur of the moment alongside the intricate political machinations that form a kind of ecclesial backstory to the new pope's election.

Memorable, Oscar-worthy performances from Ralph Fiennes (I expect to see him in the top five when Oscar nominations are announced next month) and Isabella Rossellini (in a supporting role) are standouts among a strong case that also includes Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow. What is particularly effective in this film is the way Berger builds the political suspense through clever camera angles, light and darkness, as both techniques highlight the numerous stories and perspectives shared about the papal candidates as well as the underlying issues of good and evil, sin and redemption, ambition and inertia.

Conclave's success at the box office should serve it well at Oscar time. Whether the Catholic church is seen as more provincial than, say, witches or sci-fi heroes remains to be seen, but Conclave has the substance and style to hold its own with other showier (re: more special effects) movies this year.

Conclave is streaming on Peacock.

Emilia Pérez

Emilia Pérez was the most surprising movie I saw this year, surprising in that I am usually not a big fan of gangster violence. But there's more here than a mobster's story: Emilia Pérez follows the heartbreaking tale of a former mobster whose transition to a woman results in profound transformation for Emilia and all those impacted by her journey. Emilia Pérez is an almost perfect example of how a director's vision can shape and drive a story. Here, French auteur/director Jacques Audiard crafts a singular masterpiece, integrating music with dialogue so seamlessly that sometimes you can't distinguish the notes from the prose, and choreographing every shot with nuanced lighting and symbolic movement.

Yes, this is a musical with original songs composed by Clément Ducol and Camille, a transgender mobster musical sung/spoken in English and Spanish, directed by a Frenchman and with an international cast. More importantly, Emilia Pérez is a provocative invitation into a new world of cinema, a 21st century cinema where gender boundaries, social conventions, and cinematic genres are redefined and reborn. Watching Emilia was an exhilarating experience, one where you can't take your eyes off the screen for a second. There is so much to take in, absorb and process. And the ensemble of female actors - all of whom were honored at this year's Cannes' Film Festival - led by transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez, is first-rate. I expect multiple nominations for Emilia Pérez at the SAG, BAFTA and Oscars. Meantime, I must watch it again.

Emilia Pérez currently streaming on Netflix.

A Complete Unknown

It's a tough call for me between Emilia Pérez and A Complete Unknown for Best Picture, as both films capture beautifully, though differently, time, space, social/historical issues, and the changing world around us (now and in the 1960s). Perhaps, because the music of Bob Dylan holds special personal significance for me, A Complete Unknown rekindled thoughts and feelings from another time in my life that was personally transformative and so watching the movie was deeply emotional.

The enormously talented Timothée Chalamet, who may well turn out to be the actor of his generation, gives an astonishing authentic performance as a young Bob Dylan. He is strongly supported by a superb cast, including Edward Norton (Pete Seeger), Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez), Boyd Holbrook (Johnny Cash) and Elle Fanning (Sylvie Russo), all of whom shape Dylan's metamorphosis from folk singer to rock star. Or was it from midwestern outsider to east coast insider? Or maybe member of the old order to messiah of the new? Director James Mangold doesn't say, leaving open many interpretations for Dylan, his work, and the times in which he lived - and the the ways he inspired change. But the integration of Dylan's music with his own life and the broader story of post-war America is an evocative and compelling history for the ages.

I've already bought tickets for an encore performance. I'll keep you posted on my experience the second time around.

A Complete Unknown is currently in theaters.

Now that you've seen my short list, here are a few other movies that were quite good, if not quite up to the top five I've included here.

Hit Man

Writer-director Richard Linklater's latest project is another kind of reinvention: this one, of the traditional rom-com. Glen Powell stars as a mild-mannered college professor who moonlights as a tech support man for the local police and finds himself filling in for the undercover detective who is a no-show to a planned stakeout. Realizing he really enjoys playing the role of "entrapment officer," Gary (Powell) starts leading a double life, until he falls in love with a women who calls on him to arrange a hit on her husband.

Like many Linklater films, Hit Man is filled with wit, humor that is slightly askew, and characters whose moral compass is, well, spontaneous and situational at best (but in a good way). Like Woody Allen's Annie Hall, which changed forever the notion of a happy ending, Hit Man proposes new definitions for standard rom-com components, like "meeting cute," and offers alternate resolutions for what constitutes "happy" and "ending." It's both a send-up and an homage that simultaneously combines what I'm calling "noir com" with satire and black comedy.

Catch it on Netflix, if you can.

Between the Temples

Another unconventional rom-com of sorts (you know my weakness), Between the Temples follows the journey of a recently widowed cantor (Jason Schwartzman) who winds up preparing his eighth grade music teacher (Carol Kane) for her bat mitzvah. Charming and sweet, with unexpected depth - Kane's performance, in particular, is Oscar-worthy, so I'm secretly hoping she'll get a nod - Between the Temples examines cultural (re: Jewish) stereotypes and tradition and posits unorthodox options for both being happy and finding one's voice.

It's not a great film, but Between the Temples is definitely worth the time investment as it has more to say than many bigger theatrical releases. Carol Kane gives a quietly luminous performance that, in any other year, would make her an Oscar frontrunner.

Another must-see option on Netflix.

And then, just for fun....

There is one movie this year that was just fun. No deeper meaning. No socially significant message. It was The Fall Guy. Yes, I know. I'd probably watch Ryan Gosling eat popcorn, but here he is at his most charming: a former stuntman dragged back for one more blockbuster performance. His romantic interest, a predictably distant (but only because the two have a history) Emily Blunt provides the tension necessary to sustain interest as the movie weaves through various twists and turns and behind-the-scenes intrigue.

The action sequences alone, a heartfelt homage to stunt people everywhere, are really fun and exciting to watch. Director David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train) knows how to pace the adventure, the subplots and backstories, with precise rhythm, building to a thrilling conclusion. No major awards here, other than maybe for the stunt crew (and deservedly so). The Fall Guy doesn't try to be anything other than a well-made, entertaining diversion. It fires on all cylinders... and stars Ryan Gosling. What more could you ask for?

That's a rhetorical question.