Top Movies of 2024

Many of last year’s best movies resonated in some powerful way with our current cultural and political moment, in which our most disenfranchised neighbors have become outright targets of a fascist authoritarian regime. I’m Still Here, for example, provided a snapshot of life under a similar US-backed far right dictatorship, while Wicked depicted a fantasy-tinged allegorical version of the same. Rebel Ridge, Nickel Boys and Sing Sing all shed light on the deeply-rooted racism of our criminal justice system, and A Real Pain explored the generational trauma visited upon victims of government violence. Thelma and The Beekeeper foregrounded our neglect of the elderly, The Substance and The First Omen each told a twisted feminist parable about our world’s grotesque mistreatment of women’s bodies, and The Brutalist found itself in strange company with Problemista for their portrayals of the surreality of the American immigrant experience. Each of these stories, in its way, speaks meaningfully to our time, to its sickness and to whatever glimpses of redemption may be found for those willing to look hard enough.

I’m perhaps beyond thinking that movies (or art in general) can reclaim the ground we’ve lost in the war for America’s soul, but they can at least shed a little light. They can help us feel less alone in our struggles, and for those with even partially-open minds and hearts, they can widen our lens of understanding enough to engender a little empathy. 

So in lieu of my typical year-end blog post in which I write at length about all my favorites of the year, I’m instead going to single out from the rest of my list only the stories which center one of the United States’ most imperiled communities: our transgender friends and neighbors.

Notice ahead of time how Emilia Pérez did not make the list. Here we go!

25. Rebel Ridge (Netflix) - 9/10

24. Late Night with the Devil (Amazon Prime) 9/10

23. Nosferatu (Peacock) 9/10

22. Alien: Romulus (Hulu) - 9/10

21. Wicked (VOD) - 9/10

20. Will & Harper (Netflix) - 9/10

What often gets lost in debates around trans people and the imagined “threat” they pose to our country is how many of them love the very same country that scorns them. The bravery and self determination they demonstrate in coming to terms with their own identities is not, it turns out, intended as an act of political subversion, but one of radical authenticity in the pursuit of happiness. A pursuit specifically articulated by our founding fathers in their most influential writings. Indeed, some trans people have quite a bit more affection for this country than I do, and such is the case for Harper Steele, the former SNL writer and longtime-friend of funnyman Will Ferrell.

Prior to her transition, Steele had routinely road-tripped all over the country visiting its most rural corners, cultivating profound affection for the peoples and cultures she encountered. For the documentary Will & Harper, then, she opts to revisit the same old haunts, but through a new lens of understanding: that of a newly-out trans woman. And suddenly, the places that once felt like refuge have become hostile, cold and unsafe. Such is the nature of our country for those who defy its rigid gender categories: needlessly dangerous and casually cruel. Indeed, even for our most patriotic trans siblings, life is an upstream swim against everything from subtle bigotry to outright hatred. It is a miracle any of them can find humor in the tragedy, but Harper Steele, of all people, is certainly up to the task, with her well-intentioned friend and ally Will Ferrell in tow. Will & Harper is a touching exploration of this tension, and a must-see for those in search of a nuanced perspective on the American trans experience.

19. Strange Darling (VOD) - 9/10

18. Wild Robot (Peacock) - 9/10

17. Thelma (Hulu) - 9.5/10

16. Nickel Boys (MGM+) - 9.5/10

15. I’m Still Here (Theaters) - 9.5/10

14. The Substance (Mubi) - 9.5/10

13. Hit Man (Netflix) - 9.5/10

12. Sing Sing (VOD) - 9.5/10

11. The People’s Joker (Max) - 9.5/10

The most challenging of last year’s trans stories, at least from an artistic standpoint, is the experimental superhero parody The People’s Joker. Lampooning everything from institutional comedy and celebrity culture to the ever-ubiquitous comic book movie, The People’s Joker is afraid neither to provoke nor to play its sincerest moments heartbreakingly straight. Unfolding something like an autobiography but filtered through the lens of apocalyptic genre storytelling, this controversial gem sees its writer/director/star Vera Drew playing a Joker/Harley Quinn hybrid carving out her niche in big city Gotham, meanwhile while reckoning with all the traumas commonly associated with gender-diverse youth: disapproving parents, fraudulent therapists peddling a “cure,” and a certain relational naiveté born of having experienced so little of the world. These forces interweave to create a tapestry of black humor and earnest pain, setting The People’s Joker apart from both the IP schlock which dominates the box office and the rote, awards-thirsty dramas striving for their place in the prestige cannon. If you’re in the market for something truly original, The People’s Joker can’t be beat.

10. Conclave (Peacock) - 9.5/10

Others may balk at calling crowd-pleaser Conclave a “trans story,” but (SPOILER ALERT) I think there’s a strong case to be made for its inclusion in the category. After all, the reforming papal candidate who eventually ascends to the coveted seat of authority turns out to be somewhere within the LGBTIA+ community. Stop reading if you’d rather stay unspoiled, but if you're intrigued so far, DEFINITELY watch Conclave. It’s both politically relevant and theologically literate, understanding the stakes of its characters’ choices both for the church and the world. And it, among all popular films of our moment, is perhaps the best portrayal of how intersex people problematize not just our social categories around gender, but even our biological categories around sex.

For my part, as a queer person of faith, Conclave reminds me that God calls upon each of us to accomplish His works of love and justice no matter our gender or orientation. To quote Father Benitez at the film’s climax, “I am what God made me.” And that is such a precious perspective to highlight in our corner of the world, where we are every day torn further apart by the toxic marriage between political power and exclusivist, fundamentalist religion. 

9. A Real Pain (Hulu) - 9.5/10

8. Challengers (Prime, MGM+) - 9.5/10

7. National Anthem (VOD) - 9.5/10

One of my favorite up-and-coming actors is the fresh-faced and painfully-sincere Charlie Plummer. Few other young performers have carved out quite the same niche: the hyper-vulnerable, ambiguously masculine young protagonist desperately striving to survive in a world full of harshness and brutality. Plummer’s raison d'etre has particularly resonated with me as my own search for "traditional" masculinity has often proved elusive, with stories foregrounding open-hearted and overly-sensitive young men tending to capture my imagination like few others (The Outsiders, The Perks of Being a Wallflower etc).

Last year, Plummer’s oeuvre expanded to include explicitly-queer stories, namely the indie gem National Anthem. Taking place at and around a queer rodeo commune, National Anthem finds its characters exploring gender and sexuality within a pocket of rural America ostensibly hostile to such expression. This juxtaposition of queer and country serves both to problematize our narrow assumptions around the “backward” nature of rural living, and to reaffirm how queerness is never truly safe in a sexually-repressed society. In other words, bucolic queerness is valid, but it is not exempt from American homophobic nonsense. 

6. Dune: Part Two (Netflix, Max) - 10/10

5. Snack Shack (Prime, MGM+) - 10/10

4. Flow (Max) - 10/10

3. Anora (VOD) 10/10

2. My Old Ass (Prime) - 10/10

1. I Saw the TV Glow (Max) - 10/10

That’s right, my very favorite movie last year was a deeply (and unsubtly) trans allegory about how popular media allows us to imagine ourselves at our most authentic, long before the world gives us such permission. In a long tradition of genre fiction giving expression to human realities too precious to over-explain, I Saw the TV Glow imagines two young friends who bond over their shared love of a cult teen fantasy show, which eventually comes to stand in for the two’s queerness, their otherness, and their precious us-against-the-world bond. While I may just be a cis dude hoping to ally myself to the trans people I’m blessed to know, the story's central relationship between a weird teen and their favorite show mirrors directly one from my own youth.

In fact, IStTVG’s The Pink Opaque was intentionally and transparently modeled after the teen fantasy series of my adolescence: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (writer/director Jane Schoenbrun has cited Buffy as their primary inspiration). And what The Pink Opaque did for Owen/Isabel and Maddy/Tara, Buffy once did for me, with its monsters standing in for my own teen struggles (an invisible girl representing social isolation, a vampire ex-boyfriend conjuring fears around young love and betrayal etc). Even more fundamentally, the series' radical queer representation gave me permission to imagine a world in which I could, someday, be my own queer self. For those reasons, and because my whole heart aches for my beloved trans siblings who face stupidity and institutional disenfranchisement every damn day, I Saw the TV Glow is the story which cut into me deepest last year. And I hope that everyone I know still struggling with their own identity will heed the film’s final admonition: There is still time.