Great Performances of 2024 & Adam’s 10 Favorite Movies of 2024

 by Adam Riske & Patrick Bromley

Who gave our favorite performances of 2024? What are Adam’s top 10 movies of the year ? Read on to find out!

Adam: I’ll start by saying (as I do every year) that I’m not including performances here from movies that will be on my top 10 list. For this year, I’ll save those for my honorable mentions so I can have the opportunity to highlight some of my favorite performances of 2024 from movies I liked, and in some cases, was mixed on.

My first pick is Adria Arjona in Hit Man. Glen Powell has deservedly gotten credit for his awesome movie star turn in Richard Linklater’s entertaining and charming crime comedy, but his chemistry with Arjona is what makes the movie into something special. She’s really charismatic and sexy and also disarmingly funny and unpredictable. I’ve seen Arjona in Triple Frontier and The Belko Experiment, but this was the first time I think she had a part written to showcase her considerable talent. I hope this is a launching pad for her to punch up mainstream movies for years to come. She reminds me of Madeline Stowe a little. They both have the same loose performance style and playfulness. What’s your first pick, Patrick?

Patrick: I love that first pick! She’s great in Hit Man and her chemistry with Glen Powell is incredible. I love that scene where they’re talking on three separate levels at the same time (the one with the phones) so much. 

There were a lot of great performances this year, but, like you, I’m going to try to limit my picks to movies that won’t be on my Top 10. I guess I’ll start with Yura Borisov in Anora, a performance that’s rightly getting a lot of attention but is still largely being overshadowed by Mikey Madison’s movie star turn. I get it; she’s a tornado and he is, by design, incredibly reserved and practically mute. But I found myself paying closest attention to him in most of the scenes in which he appears because he’s always doing something interesting and subtle, moving the character – and, as a result, the story – forward in ways we don’t initially expect. I’ve read some people saying that they catch his work on subsequent viewings of the film when they’re no longer as distracted by the style or the energy or the other, louder performances, but I kind of locked in on Borisov upon first watch. I guess I’m just special like that.

Adam: That’s a good choice. I noticed Yura Borisov too on the first viewing, but a lot of that has to do with me listening to podcasts and friends’ opinions about the movie for a while before I got to see it. That’s a blessing (because you miss less and notice more) and a curse (because hype). I think it helps that Borisov is the most likable character in the movie by the end, I guess except for Anora (played, as you said, very well by Mikey Madison). I wish I liked Anora more. It’s good but I thought the first hour was better than the rest of it.

My next pick is Maisy Stella in My Old Ass. I’m a huge fan of Aubrey Plaza (especially her taste in picking projects) so that got me to see the movie, but the film really works on Stella’s shoulders. She does a great job of capturing that pre-college personality where you think the world revolves around you and you’re at your most selfish but also where you have a lot of “spark” and adults sort of get out of your way because they know you’ll only be this age once and want you to enjoy it. I really cared about the character as the movie progressed and I think Stella played a lot of aspects just right such as her relationship with her siblings, where she’s almost caught off guard by how much she realizes they mean to her. Like a lot of Kristin Stewart performances, I like how this character almost feels like it’s racing out of Maisy Stella; like she gets this person on an unconscious level. 

Patrick: I’m 100% with you on Maisy Stella, who I thought had one of the true star-making performances of the year. What she does in My Old Ass is incredible and makes the movie necessary viewing way beyond the “future self” gimmick, on which my jury is still out. I would have been just as happy – if not happier – with a standard coming-of-age dramedy about Stella’s character even without the hook.

My next choice for favorite performance goes to Krsy Fox in Little Bites. I’ve only been following her career for a year or two (since seeing Bury the Bride on Tubi), but she’s a really interesting rising voice in the indie horror scene. Her sequence at the start of Terrifier 3 is, for me, the best stuff in the movie, and her performance in Little Bites (written and directed by her partner, musician and filmmaker Spider One) elevates a slightly messy narrative to something special. She plays a beleaguered single mom who’s hosting some kind of ancient vampire in her home and allowing it to feed off of her in order to protect her daughter. It’s the kind of horror movie that lives and dies by its central metaphor – it’s about abuse, see – and kind of only works on that level, but Fox is so good and sells her character’s trauma (I’m so sick of that word as it relates to horror) so well that the movie becomes a sad and haunting character study of a woman who is getting the worst of what life (and death) has to offer but will still go to any lengths – literally any lengths – for her kid. I think Krsy Fox is going to be huge in horror and this is the performance that people are going to be looking back on as her true breakout.

Adam: Great pick! I should check out Little Bites. I remember watching the trailer for it a few months ago. Thanks for putting Krsy Fox on my radar during the Terrifier 3 podcast.

My last pick stays in the horror genre with Hugh Grant in Heretic. The great thing about this performance is that it upends Grant’s entire persona with dialogue. He doesn’t go for big histrionics in his villain role as much as weaponize his charisma. Grant is a very likable screen persona, which makes what he’s doing in Heretic that much more upsetting because the audience wants to be persuaded by the person speaking even if we’re repelled by what the person is saying. I think the movie loses its way in the second half/last third, but when Grant is given free rein to monologue early on, Heretic really works. What’s your final pick and honorable mentions for performances that made you feel awesomeness?

Patrick: This was totally one of my picks, too! I love the way Heretic it uses Hugh Grant’s charm and screen persona against us as it lures both the audience and the two Mormon girl protagonists into the story. Because of this, I think the story loses some of its mojo in the back half when certain things are revealed and Grant doesn’t get to play the same game – I’m absolutely with you on the movie losing its way as it goes on. But I’m loving Hugh Grant’s Stinker Era, where he’s leaning into playing bastards and villains and seemingly having a blast doing it.

There are a handful of performances I’d like to single out but I’m pretty sure they’re on your Top 10 list below and I don’t want to steal your thunder, so I’ll just name another Hugh: Hugh Jackman in Deadpool and Wolverine. I can’t say I liked the movie all that much (calling it a movie might be generous, actually), but Hugh Jackman is so committed to doing right by this character he’s been playing for over 20 years and is responsible for what little emotional heft there is to the screenplay (if any) that he comes away Innocent of All Charges. It’s one thing to just have him be annoyed by Ryan Reynolds – we all are – but all the regret/tortured past stuff is much more compelling and in Jackman’s wheelhouse as Wolverine. He gives a soul to an otherwise soulless enterprise.

Honorable mentions! I’m sure I have too many to name, so I’ll just list a few: Amy Adams in Nightbitch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson in The Fall Guy, Margaret Qualley in Drive-Away Dolls, Josh Hartnett in Trap, Nell Tiger-Free in The First Omen, Lupita Nyong’o in A Quiet Place: Day One, Kevin Bacon in MaXXXine, Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge, Dylan O’Brien in Saturday Night, Samara Weaving in Azrael, and, of course, Scott Stapp in Reagan.

Adam: I like your Hugh Jackman pick. He’s the best part of that movie for sure and I desperately wanted it to be Blade and Wolverine instead. 

My honorable mentions include a couple you mentioned already (Qualley and Hartnett) and also Wagner Moura in Civil War, Owen Teague in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Glen Powell in Hit Man, Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness, Ariel Donoghue in Trap, David Jonsson in Alien: Romulus, Demi Moore in The Substance, Naomi Scott in Smile 2, Nicholas Hoult in Juror #2, and, of course, Marc Summers in Hanukkah on the Rocks. I’m being serious on the last one.

And here’s my top 10 favorite movies of the year:

1. The Substance

2. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1

3. Juror #2

4. Trap

5. The Last Stop in Yuma County

6. Drive Away Dolls

7. Civil War

8. Kinds of Kindness

9. Smile 2

10. Love Lies Bleeding

Now it’s our readers turn! Leave a comment below with who you thought gave great performances this year.