The Austin Chronicle’s top films of the year, listed alphabetically, are the combined effort of Kimberley Jones, Richard Whittaker, and film critic emeritus Marjorie Baumgarten, who ran the Chronicle’s film coverage for several decades. Keep scrolling for critics’ individual lists and more thoughts on the year in film.
The Austin Chronicle’s Top 10 Films
Nickel Boys
September 5
Kimberley Jones’ Top 10 Films
1) The Brutalist
In a year of big swings, this has to be the biggest: A three-and-a-half-hour evocation of the American Dream, curdled. Not a perfect film – that second act grows ponderous – but it’s the one that got most under my skin.
2) La Chimera
Apologies to Challengers, but this was my preferred Josh O’Connor throuple movie of 2024 (also featuring a woman named Italia, and some dusty Etruscan relics). I was so thoroughly seduced I put it on my list last year, too.
3) Nickel Boys
Inventive in form, devastating in its impact, RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel stares America’s racist past dead in the eye, with unshakeable present-day resonance.
4) Anora
At once antic and desperately sad, this was a real “eye of the beholder” kind of picture. I suspect how you read that last scene says everything about how you approach the day – with an open heart or defenses up.
5) Between the Temples
Bless the weird-ass energy of this poignant comedy about a widower and his grade school music teacher reconnecting. Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane are electric in it.
6) Hard Truths
Late-career Mike Leigh delivers another sharp-eyed look at complicated family dynamics, this time centering around a sour, snarling, towering Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
7) Good One
More fraught family dynamics, this time on a camping trip gone awry. Writer/director India Donaldson and breakout Lily Collias capture the moment a child loses faith in a parent with an understatedness that doesn’t soften its sting.
8) Ghostlight
Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s underseen drama about grief and the restorative power of the arts had me snotting into my sleeves from so many tears – the cathartic, cleansing kind.
9) The Fall Guy
The most uncomplicated fun I had at the movies this year.
10) Hundreds of Beavers
Lifting influences from Looney Tunes, Buster Keaton, The Oregon Trail, and Super Mario Bros., this frontiersman silent comedy is straight bonkers – a thrilling collision of artistry and silliness. I loved it to bits.
And Some Performances I’m Still Thinking About …
Saoirse Ronan, The Outrun. In my review, I foolishly said I’d “eat my hat” if Ronan wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for her astonishing, all-in depiction of an addict wobbling toward recovery. I’m bad at predictions, and also look terrible in hats, but neither of these things diminish her wonderful, underappreciated performance.
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing. The real-life backstory to this crowd-pleasing drama is so inspiring, I worry it’s pulled focus from just how darn good – how effortlessly charismatic – Domingo is.
Lily Collias, Good One & Nykiya Adams, Bird. In very different coming-of-age stories, two young actors figure out how to animate the state of being watchful. That’s advanced work for relative newcomers.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths. To find the humanity in someone so profoundly dislikable – that is some kind of sorcery.
Jason Schwartzman, Queer and Between the Temples. Playing a slovenly, avuncular Allen Ginsberg stand-in, he was a bright spot in Queer; calibrated to a different comedy key in the melancholy, searching Between the Temples, he moved me terribly.
Ariana Grande, Wicked. This smash musical is just not my thing, but I was tickled pink by her peppy Galinda.
Jodie Comer, The Bikeriders. That accent is a choice, and it is the correct one.
Richard Whittaker’s Top 10 Films
1) Sing Sing
Greg Kwedar and Colman Domingo are not director and actor, but merely there to open the door to the incredible work of the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program.
2) Anora
The Pretty Woman myth debunked in Sean Baker’s unexpectedly hilarious tale of the stripper who thinks she’s found her prince. Mikey Madison’s earthy, brittle performance is one of the year’s best.
3) Civil War
Alex Garland is probably sitting at home right now thinking, “I warned you.” His distressingly plausible masterwork of speculative fiction is also a timely reminder of the necessity of journalism.
4) The Substance
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley battle each other in Coralie Fargeat’s scalding, sexual, darkly comedic body horror in which the real enemy is the unbreakable contract with diabolical beauty standards.
5) Nosferatu
It seems a fool’s errand to step on the sacred ground of F. W. Murnau’s seminal horror. Robert Eggers simply takes its sepulchral schematics and houses his own dark wonders there.
6) Memoir of a Snail
A stop-motion movie about a woman obsessed with snails is a perfect mix of medium and message for animator Adam Elliot, with a delicate story of how to come out of your shell.
7) The Last Showgirl
Kate Gersten’s script puts a bullet in the American myth of second chances for a spiraling Pamela Anderson, backed by an unrecognizable Jamie Lee Curtis and a never-better Dave Bautista.
8) Hundreds of Beavers
You don’t need Hollywood to make the year’s best comedy. Well, you need a bunch of animal mascot costumes and enough friends to fill them. A cartoon pratfall delight.
9) The Fall Guy
If there’s one reason for Hollywood to exist, it’s so stars like Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt can be charming in front of massive explosions, all while lampooning the film biz.
10) Red Rooms
It’s easier than ever to stare into the abyss. All you need is a subscription to the feed. Pascal Plante’s disturbing glimpse into how the dark web rots the soul.
Marjorie Baumgarten’s Top 10 Films
1) Emilia Pérez
2) Anora
3) September 5
4) Dune: Part 2
5) Civil War
6) A Complete Unknown
7) The Room Next Door
8) The Apprentice
9) Babygirl
10) Wicked
Runners Up: Sasquatch Sunset, Juror #2, Hard Truths, Bird, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Good One, Blitz, The Outrun
Electrifying Performances: Daniel Craig (Queer), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Amy Adams (Nightbitch), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice and A Different Man), Zoe Saldana (Emilia Pérez), Denzel Washington (Gladiator II)
Breakthrough Performances: Lily Collias (Good One), Mikey Madison (Anora)
Great Onscreen Duos: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore (The Room Next Door), Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice), Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown)
2024 MVP: Jesse Eisenberg: Not only did he go fully feral as one of the last of his breed in the wordlessly intoxicating Sasquatch Sunset, Eisenberg also proved himself a triple threat as the writer, director, and co-star of one of the year’s most loquaciously invigorating two-handers, A Real Pain.
Favorite Double Bill: A Different Man and The Substance: Two graphic lessons in being careful of what you wish for.
This article appears in December 13 • 2024.