From a furious Furiosa to a tragic Amy Winehouse, the first six months at the movies has been nothing short of spectacular. So here’s NME’s list of the best 15 films so far in 2024…
Words: James Mottram
All Of Us Strangers
Director: Andrew Haigh
Andrew Scott’s lonely London screenwriter Adam finds company in the arms of Paul Mescal’s neighbour in this heartbreaking look at family, surrogate or otherwise. Jamie Bell and Claire Foy are superb as Adam’s late parents, but it’s the atmosphere of memory and mortality that writer-director Haigh conjures that really sells it. The killer ending, cut to Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘The Power of Love’, will absolutely destroy you.
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For fans of: Weekend (2011), Ghost (1990)
Back To Black
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Adeptly capturing her unforgettable sound, Marisa Abela (Industry) simply knocks it out the park as Amy Winehouse in Taylor-Johnson’s biopic of the late Camden singer. With Jack O’Connell oozing co*cksure charm as love-of-her-life Black Fielder-Civil, this truly spirited audiences back to London in the early 2000s when Winehouse’s vocals were ringing out everywhere. Lesley Manville as the singer’s grandmother brought the class.
For fans of: Nowhere Boy (2009), Elvis (2022)
Challengers
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Zendaya excelled in this racy love triangle set in the world of pro tennis, featuring as an ex-player-turned-coach whose husband (Mike Faist) comes up against an old friend (Josh O’Connor) on the challenger circuit. Zipping along like a cross-court backhand, it was the perfect game, set and match for its female lead, effortlessly elevating her from adolescent to adult roles. And, boy, was it sexy. That three-way kissing scene? Never mind 30-love, this was flirty-love.
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For fans of: King Richard (2021), Borg vs McEnroe (2017)
Civil War
Director: Alex Garland
British novelist-turned-filmmaker Alex Garland delivered his most incendiary film yet, a near-future look at a fractured, at war-with-itself USA through the eyes of a photojournalist (Kirsten Dunst) and her colleagues. With Washington under siege, it was hard not to think back on the Trump years and the attack on the Capitol, in a film that lasered in on the divisions in contemporary America. Perfectly timed for an election year too.
For fans of: Salvador (1986), Ex Machina (2014)
Dune: Part Two
Director: Denis Villeneuve
No blockbuster came close this year to Villeneuve’s epic continuation of his telling of Frank Herbert’s gargantuan sci-fi, as Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides seeks revenge on the House Harkonnen. A work of stunning beauty, it also came equipped with one of the best casts of the year so far. Austin Butler showed he’s more than just an Elvis impersonator with his bald-headed psychotic warrior Feyd-Rautha – a glorious performance in a film full of them.
For fans of: Dune (2021), Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Director: George Miller
Anya Taylor-Joy took over from Fury Road’s Charlize Theron for this Max-less prequel, fleshing out the considerable backstory of the female warrior Furiosa in George Miller’s thrilling post-apocalyptic hellscape. The vehicular stunts were suitably bananas, notably the mid-section attack on the War Rig as it thunders down Fury Road. Tom Burke brought gravitas to his role as a Max-esque mentor for the young Furiosa, while Chris Hemsworth, as the demented Dementus, was The Wasteland’s perfect villain.
For fans of: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Fountain (2006)
Hit Man
Director: Richard Linklater
Or the one where Glen Powell finally becomes a leading man. The Top Gun: Maverick sidekick charms like hell as a tutor who goes undercover for the New Orleans police, pretending to be a hitman to smoke out those foolish enough to hire him. What follows is a good old-fashioned sizzler, as Powell and co-star Adria Arjona steam up the screen when this cop ruse brings them together. Director Linklater infused it all with an easy-going vibe, making this a top-notch comic crowd-pleaser.
For fans of: Out of Sight (1998), The Killer (2023)
I Saw The TV Glow
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Bowing at Sundance and Berlin film festivals, this layered indie took us into the world of two teens who become obsessed with a ’90s TV sci-fi show called The Pink Opaque before it gets mysteriously cancelled. Then things get really trippy. Justice Smith, as Owen, and Brigette Lundy-Paine, as Maddy, are utterly committed in a story that deals with sexuality and identity with a genuine elegance. Oh, and there’s Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst as Owen’s Dad!
For fans of: Stranger Things (2016-present), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Late Night With The Devil
Director: Colin Cairns, Cameron Cairns
Styled like a documentary, this chilling tale of possession saw David Dastmalchian play a TV host of a 1970s show Night Owls With Jack Delroy. In an attempt to boost ratings, he leads an occult-themed show on Halloween – which, predictably, goes very, very wrong. Another shot in the arm for the cult of Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad), this had a rough, raw edge to it that truly thrilled.
For fans of: Poltergeist (1982), Ghostwatch (1982)
Let It Be
Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Filmed as The Beatles recorded what became the band’s final album Let It Be, Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary finally got the 4K release everyone was crying out for. Of course, it was all thanks to Peter Jackson’s Emmy-winning 2021 doc The Beatles: Get Back, which restored hours of footage shot by Lindsay-Hogg. But it’s fascinating to see the original – including the famed rooftop gig that became the Fab Four’s final ever concert.
For fans of: The Beatles: Get Back (2021), The Beatles: Eight Days A Week (2016)
Monkey Man
Director: Dev Patel
Almost as compelling as Alan Partridge’s legendary programme idea, Monkey Tennis, Patel wrote, directed and starred in this stylish action flick. True, the plot was paper-thin, but when you’ve got Patel’s masked avenger on the rampage, you probably won’t care. A bruising film that dives into Indian mythology, it was also a brave step by Patel, playing the vengeful antihero after a career of being the sensitive soul.
For fans of: John Wick (2014), Bullet Train (2022)
Poor Things
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone won the second Oscar of her career for her off-kilter, Duracell Bunny turn as Bella, a woman re-animated with a baby’s brain in Lanthimos’ queasy Victorian fable. Beautifully crafted, especially the woozy fish-eye lens shots by Robbie Ryan, this feminist Frankenstein tale was by turns hilarious, shocking and resonant, as it scratched away at social veneers. Willem Dafoe also rocked a Scottish accent.
For fans of: The Favourite (2018), Frankenstein (1931)
Priscilla
Director: Sofia Coppola
The more sensitive B-side to Baz Luhrmann’s banger Elvis, Coppola’s take on Priscilla Presley’s autobiography presented her intimate perspective on her marriage to the King Of Rock And Roll. Cailee Spaeny embodied Priscilla with great sensitivity, while Saltburn’s man-of-the-hour Jacob Elordi brought the Elvis swagger front-and-centre. Full of lush, sensuous details, Coppola also dared show up Elvis’ darker impulses, including his propensity for violence. Love me tender? Not in this case.
For fans of: Elvis (2022), Marie Antoinette (2006)
The Holdovers
Director: Alexander Payne
What a reunion. Two decades after their bittersweet wine country comedy Sideways, director Payne and star Paul Giamatti, who got an Oscar nod for his troubles, came back together for this wonderful 1970s-set story about a curmudgeonly teacher who is left to look after a pupil over the Christmas holidays. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who did win an Oscar for her troubles, also smashed it as the school cook nursing a devastating loss.
For fans of: Harold And Maude (1971), Sideways (2004)
The Zone Of Interest
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Controlled, precise and haunting, Glazer’s Oscar-winning take on Martin Amis’ novella set in the shadow of Auschwitz proved to be peerless filmmaking. Focusing on Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their family, who lived next door to the infamous concentration camp, Glazer unerringly explored the horrors of this industrial killing machine. In particular Mica Levi’s disquieting music burrowed – to use another Glazer title – under the skin.
For fans of: Son Of Saul (2015), Schindler’s List (1993)
