2024 – Year In Review – Film

~ philthebearblog

Welcome to my review of film in 2024.

This is the eighth year that I have spent writing my film reviews online and is by far and away the biggest year as far as viewing numbers have been, which is fantastic.

As ever I am going to run through some of my thoughts on my year in film but if you are just here for the best of list keep scrolling down to find it. Otherwise hang around for some of my other musings.

The Stats

My overall number of films viewed this year is incredibly healthy but the amount of visits to the cinema is actually my lowest non-covid impacted year since I started writing the blog.

Only five of my top thirty films below were first watched at home! Which either highlights my preference for being in the cinema or simply that the best films find their way to cinema distribution first.

The number of repeat viewings of films is in part due to the sheer amount of fun I have had writing feature articles this year and introducing my children to some fantastic movies.

Feature Articles This Year

I want to start by telling you about all of the feature articles that I wrote this year. Hopefully there will be some gems in here that will take your fancy and I am always interested in hearing thoughts on what people think would be interesting for me to write about as well.

At the beginning of the year I went a little Apes crazy watching all nine of the Planet of the Apes films and then I wrote the following articles:

This of course was all in aid of the upcoming film in the apes saga whose review is here:

Heading into higher brow territory I then decided to review revered cinephile magazine Sight & Sound’s Top Ten Greatest Films of all time. I am 100% confident that you have not seen the film voted the greatest of all time! Most importantly I tell you which ones are worth your time.

My next journey was to take my children through the wonders of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World series which was prompted by the announcement of Jurassic World: Rebirth pencilled in for 2025. I had already reviewed the 5th and 6th entries in the series for this site so I set about writing reviews for the remaining films and then ranking them. My son wanted to get involved for the final part of this series, so his ranking is included there as well. Here are the articles for you to peruse:

I then set about traversing the wasteland of the Mad Max series in anticipation of Furiosa. This one I did not bring my children along for but I did then decide to rank the series including the latest film. These articles are here:

Next up were a few visits to Detroit and Beverly Hills. Axel Foley was returning to the big screen thanks to a Netflix feature so I chose to refresh my memory immediately prior to his return. Those articles are here:

Not a feature article per-say but worth a mention. With Tim Burton returning to the world of Beetlejuice I also made the kids watch the original film at home before taking them to the cinema for the sequel. I was glad the kids enjoyed them so much but was personally disappointed with the sequel. Those reviews are here:

Next up was my first ever experience of watching a film with a live orchestra. The choice of film was of course one of my favourites of all time. You can read about my experience here:

I spent most of the rest of the year preparing for something I am planning to drop across the first month of next year. Keep your eyes open then for a series of reviews and an article on one of my favourite actors.

Otherwise you can check out my most anticipated titles of 2025 here:

And my review of the best television I watched this year here:

Most Popular Articles

I always find it particularly interesting to see which articles prompt the most clicks on my site. I have cheated a little here and omitted articles written before 2024 (yes some of my older articles still get lots of clicks!). So these are the top five most clicked on articles I wrote this year.

  1. Land of Bad
  2. The Planet of the Apes Original Films Review (1968-1973)
  3. Beverly Hills Cop – Ranked
  4. Mr. Right
  5. The Fall Guy

The first thing that I want to say here is a big thank you to the influx of new readers that I received this year. Sometimes mixing work with pleasure can clearly lead to good things. This year my site received the most clicks that it has ever received and it was quite a boost to see articles being looked at in greater numbers. Whilst the site is not monetized and this was always meant to be just something I do for fun, it would be disingenuous to suggest I did not want people to read my views. So it is a real positive for me.

The second thing I wanted to say is that Land of Bad is now my third review to go “viral”. It is nice to be on page one when you do a Google search for a film review! But who knew this uneven Amazon Prime action movie would get so many clicks?

Finally, it is really great to see feature articles being read in large numbers. I spend quite a lot of time on these and again I am really grateful people want to read them.

My Films Of The Year

Here we go then… If you want to read my original reviews just click the film title to be taken directly to it.

  1. All Of Us Strangers – I do not recall crying so much whilst watching a film for a long time. All Of Us Strangers is about profound loneliness and the power of love and companionship. I described the film as “Devastating. Heart Breaking. Wonderful.” in my review back in January and it still stands out as the best film this year.
  2. Challengers – You can catch me discussing why I loved Challengers so much on the At The Flicks Podcast at this LINK – Otherwise it is easy to just say this is a fantastic story, with three superb leading performances and features probably the best score of the year.
  3. Civil War – I am a huge fan of Alex Garland and I discussed this film with a lot of people this year. I think that Garland’s film chooses to pose numerous questions and present them in a framework that may feel overly clinical to some but that I found fascinating. It also features what is probably the scene of the year with Jesse Plemons.
  4. The Iron Claw – Zac Efron turns in his career best performance in an incredibly powerful film with a heart breaking true story. Writer/Director Sean Durkin has now created three superb films with Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest (2020) being the others.
  5. Dune: Part Two – Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films are spectacular. Part Two adds more characters, remains visually grandiose and completes the story spectacularly.
  6. Longlegs – Another film that I discussed on the At The Flicks Podcast – LINK – featuring an insane performance form Nic Cage this is a serial killer crime procedural with a horror twist. It feels like Silence of the Lambs but just a little more unhinged. And the cinema experience for this film was great after a viral marketing campaign filled cinemas.
  7. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – My second favourite Mad Max film ever features probably the best stunt work you will see in a film this year and possibly ever. Whilst Anya Taylor-Joy proves she is an exciting leading lady and Chris Hemsworth proves he can be unhinged.
  8. Late Night With The Devil – Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year is this found footage horror movie which plays out as a single episode of a 1970’s late night talk show. The sense of time and place both in setting and reference to the horror movies of the time is top notch.
  9. The Substance – A horror movie with a clear message that delivers a gonzo ending to please gore fans. Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore should break down the Academy Awards dislike for horror movies in the acting categories if there is any justice in this world.
  10. Poor Things – A 2023 film for the US, Poor Things saw Emma Stone win another Academy Award for Best Actress. It felt like a Tim Burton film with a sharper edge. Funny and thought provoking.
  11. The Fall Guy – My most anticipated film of the year falls just outside of my top ten but that does not mean I still did not have a lot of fun with it. Any film where Ryan Gosling cries whilst listening to Taylor Swift must be close to being a masterpiece for me.
  12. Alien: Romulus – I love the Alien franchise because of my affinity for Ridley Scott movies. Fede Alvarez does a superb job here making the film really feel like an Alien movie and slotting his film into the continuity of the others without making us question the timeline. This is also the second film on my list featuring Cailee Spaeny after Civil War capping a superb year that also featured Priscilla.
  13. The Holdovers – A brilliant Christmas movie released in January in the UK. Paul Giamatti is superb in Alexander Payne’s funny and poignant story about a boarding school Professor bonding with the students whose parents are not around to look after their children at Christmas.
  14. The Count Of Monte-Cristo (2024) – An epic retelling of one of my favourite novels that tells the revenge of Edmund Dantes after his life is ripped apart.
  15. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 – No one does a Western quite like Kevin Costner and this film was a joy to watch. Unfortunately not enough people went to the cinema to watch Chapter 1 which means that the already completed Chapter 2 is currently in limbo. I really hope it arrives at Cinemas but will happily watch it at home just as long as it gets a release.
  16. Wicked – Part One of this musical theatre adaptation is superb and I can not wait to see the finale next year. Ariana Grande was my star in this half.
  17. Heretic – A religious horror movie starring Hugh Grant sounds like something that you might dream happened but this was a clever film that makes you think, keeps you on the edge of your seat and occasionally makes you laugh.
  18. Love Lies Bleeding – Rose Glass has shown herself to be a fantastic new writer/director to watch and this grungy thriller features a brilliant lead performance from Kristen Stewart. It is also great to see Ed Harris back on screen as a creepy career criminal.
  19. Hundreds Of Beavers – Essentially a live action Looney Tunes movie on an ultra low budget. Possibly the most I laughed at a film this year.
  20. Blink Twice – The directorial debut of Zoe Kravitz took me by surprise as one of the best thrillers of the year. Channing Tatum is also great as a tech billionaire who might remind you of some famous real life billionaires.
  21. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – I watched every single Planet of the Apes movie this year in the build up to this and whilst this particular film’s longevity will rely somewhat on sequels this was a different type of blockbuster well worth seeing. Plus, the special effects are immense.
  22. The Bikeriders – Writer/Director Jeff Nichols delivers another gem of a movie. Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler are all brilliant.
  23. The Zone Of Interest – A challenging and stunning feature on the Holocaust. The film chooses to show only the home life of Auschwitz Commandant Rudolph Hoss and in doing so underline the evils of the Holocaust.
  24. Transformers One – Initially sceptical, I grew to love this origin story for Optimus Prime and Megatron.
  25. The Wild Robot – Arguably the best animated family movie of the year, but it loses out to my nostalgia for transforming robots.
  26. A Quiet Place: Day One – A Quiet Place is now officially a franchise and this film’s strength lies in the brilliant performances from Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn.
  27. Immaculate – A brilliant horror movie with a brilliant ending. Sydney Sweeney is the queen of genre movies at the moment appearing in a romantic comedy (Anyone But You), superhero (Madame Web) and horror movie this year.
  28. Abigail – A funny horror movie with Dan Stevens in one of his many crazy supporting roles this year.
  29. Conclave – A grown up drama put together like a precision clock. Fiennes, Tucci, Lithgow and Rossellini are all brilliant.
  30. Priscilla – Released on New Year’s day in the UK this is Cailee Spaeny’s third film in my favourite films this year. Quite the feat. Written and Directed by Sofia Coppola this tells the story of Elvis and Priscilla from Priscilla’s perspective.

This year only five of my Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2024 made their way into my favourites of the year. But there were plenty of fantastic films to savour.

I hope you see some of your favourites of the year in this list and that you are inspired to watch some that you have not yet seen. Let me know if your particular favourite does not feature at all.

Here is to 2025 and remember you can see what I am looking forward to this year here –

Leave a comment