Rosalie's Favorites of 2024

by Rosalie Lewis

A retrospective of the year with a little help from my favorite album of 2024, Charli XCX’s BRAT.

My favorite album of 2024 and my favorite movie of 2024 have a few things in common. Both tap into the contradictions of feminine identity in all its messiness and societal scrutiny and obsession with self-improvement and twin desires to live like there’s no tomorrow and leave a meaningful legacy. Both are undeniably fun even while digging into some uncomfortable truths. And with both the album and the movie, it was love at first encounter. I kept an open mind for the rest of the year, but I not-so-secretly knew that there was no moving these out of the top spot. I’m aware that Charli XCX and her Brat album have been think-pieced and memed into oblivion; hopefully you’ll indulge me anyway as I filter my top ten movies of the year through the lens of this album that has soaked into my bones and soundtracked my year. Now, on to the movies!

10. Queendom (dir. Agniia Galdanova, rentable on Prime)
Companion song: 360
Relevant lyric: “Shock you like defibrillators/No style? I can’t relate.”

This compelling documentary follows Gena Marvin, a queer performance artist living in rural Magadan, Russia when we first meet her. She’s 21, lives with her grandparents, and gets kicked out of the grocery store for wearing elaborate drag costumes. Her grandpa lectures her about getting an education and a regular job and occasionally uses homophobic slurs to chide her for how she presents in public. Discouraged but undeterred, she buys Grandma a kitten, goes to Moscow and continues to make videos and confrontational public appearances to protest the increasingly restrictive Russian government. Gena risks personal safety and imprisonment to embrace her identity fully. Her creativity and vision result in stunning imagery and indelible beauty, and you can’t help but be moved by her story.

9. Nosferatu (dir. Robert Eggers, in theaters)
Companion song: Von Dutch
Relevant lyric: “You're obsessing//Just confess it put your hands up. It's obvious I'm your number one."

Up until now, I’ve been a bit of an Eggers skeptic. I can appreciate that he’s making gorgeous looking movies that clearly appeal to a lot of cinephiles, but I felt at a distance from the previous films he’s made. Nonetheless, I wanted to see his take on this gothic tale of an ancient evil stalking a beautiful maiden. I don’t love every incarnation of Dracula (looking at you, Dracula 2000), but I’ve been known to enjoy even the less critically acclaimed vampire movies (case in point: Queen of the Damned). I’m glad I gave it a chance, because guess what? I loved this movie!

Every few seconds, I kept looking at the screen thinking, “If that were a painting, I’d hang it in my house.” I loved the many cats, all of whom live til the end credits, I’m happy to say. I loved the twisted phenomenal embodiment Bill Skarsgard brings to Count Orlok, mustache and all. I love Ellen’s take on the hysterical woman and the idea that her desires hold a power no one should underestimate. I love every second Willem Dafoe is on screen, and the empathy Nicholas Hoult brings to a character who is basically getting cucked by a demonic spirit. I love that even though I’ve seen this story on screen many times, Eggers gave me something that felt fresh and exciting and memorable.

8. Trap (dir. M. Night Shyamalan, streaming on Max)
Companion song: I Think About It All the Time
Relevant lyric: "And they're exactly the same but they're different now//and I'm so scared I'm missin' out on something."

Unless this is your first day amongst F This Movie folk, you’re probably familiar with the Josh Hartnett thriller featuring a full concert by M. Night’s daughter Saleka as Lady Raven. I’m already on record as being a pretty big fan of Shyamalan, and this is 1000% my jam. I saw it in theaters several times, I watched it at home as soon as that became an option, and I smiled every time I heard it positively mentioned on a podcast or saw a screengrab of Hartnett as Cooper.

It's fine if you think this movie is silly because yes, it is. As Patrick said on the recent Underrated podcast with JB, it does not hold up to an ounce of scrutiny or logic. I love it anyway. It’s fun to see Hartnett in Dad mode, rocking out and trying to impress his 12-year-old daughter. That part reminded me of conversations about music and slang and internet trends with my early teen nieces as I attempt to appear cool to them as a 43-year-old with a corporate job and a suburban existence. The serial killer plot feels retro and 90s, implausible but exciting. The psycho babble from cops and unwitting participants feels straight out of Hitchcock. The whole thing just makes me grin.

7. Blink Twice (dir. Zoe Kravitz, streaming on Prime)
Companion song: Club Classics
Relevant lyric: "Sweat marks all on my clothes//I wanna be blinded by the lights."

I vaguely suspected that the party had to end sometime in this debut from Zoe Kravitz, but I was unprepared for the reveal that happens midway through. Most of what I want to say will give away key plot points, so I strongly encourage you to see the movie before reading further. The most disturbing part of this story involves a betrayal of trust and the casual and cavalier attitude on the part of the perpetrator. While I hope the majority of humanity never experiences such cruelty or deception or denial of agency, we had a news story in 2024 that all too closely mirrored details of the movie’s plot.

6. The Last Stop in Yuma County (dir. Francis Galluppi, digital rental)
Companion song: Hello Goodbye
Relevant lyric: "Felt a little fear and some anxiety the second you arrived and kind of smiled at me."

Big ups to Patrick for recommending this one to me back in the spring—I absolutely loved it from the first frame. Basically take a bunch of excellent character actors (including Jim Cummings, Barbara Crampton, and Richard Brake) and trap them in a diner where two violent bank robbers are hiding out and see who cracks first. It’s a little bit noir, a little bit Western, a lot my shit.

5. Thelma (dir. Josh Margolin, streaming on Hulu)
Companion song: Spring Breakers
Relevant lyric: "Hi it's me you're all in danger//Crazy girl shit gonna go Spring Breakers"

You had me at June Squibb and Richard Roundtree on a scooter. Throw in the fact that she plays a 93-year-old grandma trying to get her money back from a phone scammer and I’m even more sold. Thankfully this movie lived up to the amazing premise, delivering laughter and suspense and some moving moments as well. It turns out the director and writer of the film named it after his own grandmother, who had in fact almost fallen for a phone scam where someone impersonated him and said he needed bail money because he’d gotten in trouble. The incident and his grandma’s fighting spirit inspired the film, and that warmth makes this a memorable experience and not just a novelty where old people get into capers.

4. Anora (dir. Sean Baker, available for digital purchase)
Companion song: Mean Girls
Relevant lyric: "Yeah it's 4am and she's out there//With her razor-sharp tongue stuck to skinny cigarettes.”

I was not expecting so much comedy from Sean Baker’s latest movie. Sure, its dialogue and sexual content would give Hays code enforcers an aneurysm, but the template of 1940s screwball is an undeniable influence on this story. Mikey Madison owns the screen and takes no shit from anyone as the title character. She meets a young Russian dude at the club and forms a bond with him that starts out transactional but begins to transcend into something else altogether. Is her XBOX-playing paramour a Richard Gere in Pretty Woman type, or just a fuckboy with a fuck-ton of money? She gets her answer—and a lot more—as she gets to know other people in Vanya’s life.

3. Woman of the Hour (dir. Anna Kendrick, streaming on Netflix)
Companion song: Sympathy is a Knife
Relevant lyric: "I don't wanna force a smile//Don't know if it's real or if I'm spiraling."

Anna Kendrick directs and stars in this based-on-a-true-story film about a serial killer who appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game in the 1970s. She doesn’t shy away from his violent acts against women, which are appalling; but she also gives voice and back story to the women he preyed upon. She depicts the everyday interactions and calculations as well as the casual misogyny women experience with the authenticity of a person that has lived it. The most disturbing part of this movie is not necessarily how evil the killer is, but how ordinary he is. She gets every detail right, and I wish it didn’t feel so relevant for a story that took place before I was born.

2. Love Lies Bleeding (dir. Rose Glass, streaming on Max)
Companion song: Everything Is Romantic
Relevant lyric: "In a place that can make you change//Fall in love again and again."

I sigh, I swoon, I stare respectfully at Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart being like so romantic and hot and badass and tender in this movie (and also in life, let’s be real). Their characters Lou and Jackie meet in a small town gym, sense a mutual attraction, and are soon inseparable. Unfortunately, small towns are often home to some pretty messed up people and situations and populated by folks who either turn a blind eye or actively enable said messed-upness. An act with heroic intentions aims to stop the violence of one person, but the unintended ripples of this gesture threaten to demolish the newly established romance.

I love the risks that this movie takes, and the way it defies audience expectations while giving us what we didn’t know we could want but suddenly need fervently. The performances are wonderful, and I can’t wait to see what Rose Glass makes next.

1. The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat, streaming on Prime)
Companion song: Girl, So Confusing featuring Lorde
Relevant lyric: "And it's just self-defense until you're building a weapon."

Ever since Revenge, I’ve been excited for Coralie Fargeat’s next project. I never could’ve predicted it would be this phenomenon, but what a delightful turn of events! She teamed up with two powerful and iconic women, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and created a body horror for the ages. It’s quotable, it’s hilarious, it’s disgusting, it made me cry, it blew my mind.

This movie is an instant classic and an instant favorite. For anyone who binged the Missing Richard Simmons podcast; for anyone who considers reality plastic surgery show Botched a guilty pleasure; for anyone who could relate to Tai in Clueless when she told Cher, “My buns don’t feel nothin’ like steel.” For the people who avoid reflective surfaces and the people who seek out those reflective surfaces, because one day their roles will be reversed. For people who take selfies and people who untag themselves in other people’s social media posts. For fans of Death Becomes Her but think it should be a little more like Possession. For fans of the Jerry Seinfeld bit about night guy versus morning guy in the "Glasses" episode.

“The balance must be respected,” insists Elisabeth Sparkle. But she could learn a thing or two from Seinfeld. “The only thing Morning Guy can do is try and oversleep often enough that Day Guy loses his job and Night Guy has no money to go out anymore,” concludes Jerry.

As the mysterious voice on the phone says, “Remember, you are one.”

BONUS LIST: My top 10 discoveries of the year
1. Paris is Burning
2. Le Trou
3. Tampopo
4. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains

5. No Way Out (1950)
6. The Deep End
7. Cure
8. Holy Spider
9. Ladybug Ladybug
10. Under the Shadow