The Best Films and Performances of the First Half of 2024

You fine folks, welcome to July and the second half of the year! Time just flies, doesn’t it? Somehow, we’re halfway through 2024. The past few years have been tough for me in the first parts of 2022 and 2023, so the fact that I can actually look to some parts of 2024 as personal highlights is a real change of pace. Life is still life, but there’s bright spots, which I’m incredibly grateful to have. Anyway, now that we’ve reached July, it’s time (at least for a certified nut like me), to continue sizing up the year. As such, today you’ll be able to take a look at what the cinematic highlights for the year have been for me. I’m at just about 120 films seen so far (give or take an embargo or two), though even with that number there are a few things I need to catch up on. Such is life, right?

Below, you can see what I feel are the best films and performances of the first half of 2024. My one rule here is yet again that it must have been released in January, February, March, April, May, or June. So, while that can include this past weekend’s releases, since they hit before July 1st, any movies from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival that have not come out yet remain ineligible, sadly. The same goes for the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as things I’ve seen that haven’t been released into theaters yet, like Longlegs, for example. Other than that, all of the flicks are on the table. Now, read on to see who and what made the cut for me this time…

These are the ten best performances of the year so far:

10. June Squibb in Thelma

9. Emma Stone in Kinds of Kindness

8. David Dastmalchian in Late Night with the Devil

7. Kirsten Dunst in Civil War

6. Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy

5. Josh O’Connor in Challengers

4. Adam Sandler in Spaceman

3. Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness

2. Glen Powell in Hit Man

1. Zendaya in Challengers

(Honorable Mentions: Adria Arjona in Hit Man, Jodie Comer in The Bikeriders, Mike Faist in Challengers, Dakota Johnson in Daddio, Michael Keaton in Knox Goes Away, Regina King in Shirley, Kathryn Newton in Lisa Frankenstein, Lupita Nyong’o in A Quiet Place: Day One, Sean Penn in Daddio, Richard Roundtree in Thelma, Kristen Stewart in Love Lies Bleeding, and Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate)

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Here now are the top ten films of the first half of 2024, with a quote from my reviews for each:

(Honorable Mentions: Drive-Away Dolls, Girls State, In a Violent Nature, Knox Goes Away, and Spaceman)

*Special Citation: Longlegs, which I saw in June and would top my list, but is a July release, so I’m holding back from including. Still, it’s a masterpiece*

10. Civil War

Civil War is a threat, a warning, and still somehow also mainstream entertainment. How filmmaker Alex Garland manages to pull that off is some feat. To call it apolitical is a misnomer, since there is clearly politics at play (the President in the film is, in Garland’s own words at our post-screening Q&A, a fascist), but you’ll never hear Democrats, Republicans, or anything like that mentioned. The flick also never states why a civil war has come to America, since every character would already know it as a fact of life. You’re dropped in and just have to deal with it. It’s a credit to Garland’s vision that when the end credits roll, your heart is still racing, your emotions are fraught, and you’re terrified of what you just saw coming to pass in our own lives.

9. Late Night with the Devil

Late Night with the Devil managed to surprise the hell out of me. I went in curious enough, since even though found footage rarely blows me away anymore, I still tend to like it more often than not. So, to see that it’s a more playful and darker take on that, combined with a demonic story that actually invests you in what’s happening, actually leaves you shaken. Considering how much the filmmakers do with modest means, it’s a truly impressive work.

8. Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part Two manages to complete the novel’s story while raising the stakes in all regards. The action is bigger, the scale is incredible, and the actual ideas of the novel, as well as the complicated themes of religious fanaticism, come across with crystal clarity. Even if I won’t go quite as far as to call this The Empire Strikes Back for our time, those who are saying it are not completely speaking in hyperbole.

7. Kinds of Kindness

Kinds of Kindness is pure unfiltered Lanthimos. For a few folks, that might test their patience, but for anyone who has previously gone along for rides with him, this is actually a wild amount of fun. Dark, disturbing, yet also ridiculously enjoyable, he has no fucks to give and is all the better for it. If you go along with it and have a dark sense of humor, his coldness yet silliness becomes a virtue and rewards your time. So much of the picture is left up to you to interpret, which ends up being part of the fun.

6. Lisa Frankenstein

Lisa Frankenstein is Heathers by way of, you know, Frankenstein. It’s almost as if the best elements of Tim Burton have been filtered away from his worst impulses, put into a blender with the Mary Shelley classic, and sprinkled with Cody’s specific sort of dialogue. It may sound like a weird mix, but trust me that it works in a massive way. I had an amazing time with this film.

5. Inside Out 2

Inside Out 2 could easily have been tossed off, or even just fallen into middle tier Pixar, like basically all of their non Toy Story sequels. Somehow, we instead have a film that impeccably builds upon Inside Out to create something more complex and even more satisfying. The movie brought me to tears when the last one did not (I know, I’m one of the few). The simple message that we should all love all of ourselves builds out into a memorable cinematic experience for the whole family.

4. The Fall Guy

The Fall Guy is exactly the kind of big budget film that’s actually made for everyone. It’s addicted to the idea of entertaining its audience and having you leave the theater happy. The performances are great, the action is strong, the comedy is even stronger, and the overall good time is infectious. I would have watched this flick for six hours.

3. Robot Dreams

Robot Dreams takes a very simple premise and executes it magnificently. Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, it’s a tribute to the power of emotions, the need to be close to others, and how a true connection is not impacted by time. The movie is timeless and universal in its themes, while also being hyper specific in its style, as well as choice of characters. For me, it basically all worked.

2. Challengers

Challengers might be one of the sexiest movies ever made. That’s saying something too, considering this isn’t a work filled with sex scenes. There’s just sex dripping from every frame of celluloid, and it’s often on the minds of one or all of the characters on screen. A love triangle unlike one we’ve seen to date, this is creative, entertaining, and just might get you pregnant. When it ends, your heart will be racing, your eyes will be wide, and you’ll kind of be in awe of what you just saw.

1. Hit Man

Hit Man is smarter than it seems on paper, while still being very much a crowd-pleasing endeavor. Not only is it playing around with genre, philosophy gets its time as well. Everything works, which you don’t say very often. For nearly two hours, you just have a warm fuzzy feeling of watching a great new film.

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As a bonus, here are a few awards for the first half:

Best Director – Denis Villeneuve for Dune: Part Two (runner-up: Luca Guadagnino for Challengers)

Best Actor – Glen Powell for Hit Man (runner-up: Adam Sandler for Spaceman)

Best Actress – Zendaya for Challengers (runner-up: Kirsten Dunst for Civil War)

Best Supporting Actor – Jesse Plemons for Kinds of Kindness (runner-up: Josh O’Connor for Challengers)

Best Supporting Actress – Emma Stone for Kinds of Kindness (runner-up: Adria Arjona for Hit Man)

Best Adapted Screenplay – Hit Man (runner-up: The Fall Guy)

Best Original Screenplay – Challengers (runner-up: Kinds of Kindness)

Best Animated Feature – Robot Dreams (runner-up: Inside Out 2)

Best Documentary Feature – Girls State (runner-up: Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World)

Best Production Design – Dune: Part Two (runner-up: Civil War)

Best Cinematography – Challengers (runner-up: Dune: Part Two)

Best Costume Design – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (runner-up: The Fall Guy)

Best Film Editing – Challengers (runner-up: The Fall Guy)

Best Makeup & Hairstyling – Hit Man (runner-up: Dune: Part Two)

Best Sound – Civil War (runner-up: Dune: Part Two)

Best Visual Effects – Dune: Part Two (runner-up: The Fall Guy)

Best Original Score – Challengers (runner-up: Kinds of Kindness)

Best Original Song – N/A

Best Ensemble – Kinds of Kindness (runner-up: Challengers)

What are your favorite films and performances so far in 2024? Let us know!