We’re just past the halfway point of 2024; so to commemorate the occasion a few of your friendly neighborhood SunBreakers took stock of the films we’ve seen so far. As was the case last year, SIFF’s opening night gala film made all three of our lists.
Below, we revisit some of our favorites.
Films receiving multiple votes:
Thelma (Josh Margolin)
Chris: SIFF’s opening night film is hilarious and joyous. And it has a nonagenarian protagonist. June Squibb finally gets her due as an above-the-title movie star and it’s a great one. She plays a woman who sneaks away to track down scammers who ripped her off. It’s a fantasy everyone has surely had at one time or another.
Josh: I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed as much as I did during this sweet little inspired-by-true-life comedy. Smartly written with heart-swelling sentiment and staged with brilliantly shot age-appropriate action sequences, Thelma is complete and utter delight from start to finish. Like its plucky protagonists, Josh Margolin’s impeccably made, note-perfect, and heartwarming Sundance debut just keeps going and going.
Morgen: What can I say? I’m a sucker for an undervalued character showing up all those jerkfaces and taking care of business. I was honestly worried about Thelma there at the end, but she proved us all wrong. I love that it was a happy ending, we so often see “realistic” endings that may seem more true to life, but sure don’t leave us feeling good.
Thelma is currently playing in theaters
Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve)
Morgen: I think we all forgot that this movie came out at the beginning of 2024, but it has to make my list of top five. Beauty of epic proportions and Zendaya’s strong female presence on screen make it one of my favorites so far.
Josh: It feels like such a long time ago! Although he can’t entirely shake loose some of the cornier elements of Frank Herbert’s novel of sandworms and space messiahs, Denis Villeneuve’s supremely realized conclusion to (at least the first part) of this epic space saga is far and away the most accomplished blockbuster of the year. Packed with tremendous performances from the likes of Timotheé Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, its scale, scope, and set pieces made for an IMAX-worthy adrenaline rush.
Dune Part Two is now streaming on Max and available on various VOD platforms
The rest of our lists
Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film is a deeply moving film about a small Japanese village being invaded by a talent agency who wants to put a glamping site nearby to take advantage of COVID-era subsidies and dispatches two flacks to smooth over things with the locals. It’s an emotional ride with an ending I couldn’t stop thinking about. — Chris
Evil Does Not Exist is playing in theaters
Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)
Thanks in part to last year’s the SAG-AFTRA strike-induced slowdown, another movie with sun, sweat, and a trio young and ridiculously attractive actors makes my list for the first half of 2024. This time it’s Zendaya (again), Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor (stay tuned) whose scintillating chemistry burns the screen for over two sweaty hours of wonky serves, spinning slices, and volatile volleys on a sweltering tennis court and throughout more than a decade of interpersonal lust, longing, and competition. Luca Guadagnino adds another to his canon of how our sexy human bodies drive us to madness, this time with a mind-blowing house-inspired soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, gallons of perspiration, and creative camerawork that are giving churros the moment they’ve long deserved. — Josh
Challengers is currently in theaters and available on VOD platforms
Civil War (Alex Garland)
Alex Garland’s latest is a powder keg of a film. It’s a dystopian future where the United States is at war with itself and a group of journalists (led by Kirsten Dunst) travel from New York to Washington DC to try to interview President Ron Swanson before he’s deposed by rebel forces. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. — Chris
La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
In Alice Rohrwacher’s dreamy contemporary fable, Josh O’Connor wanders the Italian countryside in a rumpled linen suit, using supernatural intuition and a dousing stick (ostensibly) to uncover high-value buried Etruscan artifacts to sell on the black market. What he’s really searching for is something far deeper, but his ramshackle quest brings him in contact with both some breathtaking art as well as many left on the periphery of a rapidly gentrifying society before playing with the conventions of a high end heist movie. I saw this last year during the mad rush of “screener season”, but like the ancient treasures below the soil, this film and its near-perfect ending have remained firmly lodged in my memory. — Josh
La Chimera is currently available on VOD platforms
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
While I loved the first installment of the Mad Max reboot, I connected with Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa far more than Charlize Theron’s. She brought a depth to it that wasn’t due to the character-enhancing script. I wasn’t a fan of Taylor-Joy when I first came upon her in the deeply disturbing Thoroughbreds, but she’s definitely grown on me since, and this solidifies it. — Morgen
Furiosa is available on various VOD platforms, but you really should see it in a theater while you can.
Hit Man (Richard Linklater)
It took me some time to warm up to Richard Linklater’s film because it bears little resemblance to Skip Hollandsworth’s Texas Monthly piece (it’s not even set in Texas) but once I got past that, I found it to be an inventive and creative movie with Glen Powell as its hero who can take on a host of personalities depending on who it is that wants someone rubbed out. People never learn that hit men don’t really exist, and Hit Man is better for it. — Chris
Hit Man is streaming on Netflix
Ultraman: Rising (Shannon Tindle)
Just like Godzilla Minus One last year, this cherished decades-spanning series has been brought back with a huge amount of character building that pulls you into the humanity of the story. It didn’t try to work within the bounds of the classic story, Netflix made it their own and I really loved it. — Morgen
Ultraman is available on Netflix
Perfect Days (Wim Wenders)
I’m going to cheat a little because it’s a 2023 film I didn’t see until January, but this movie is unique and special. Wim Wenders’s wonderful latest film is easily the most beautiful and moving film about public restrooms ever made — Chris
Perfect Days is streaming on Hulu
A Quiet Place: Day One (Michael Sarnoski)
Based on the trailers alone, I wasn’t particularly interested in the loud origin story for the A Quiet Place franchise until I saw that Michael Sarnoski (who made Pig, my favorite film of 2021) was directing it. By some miracle, he convinced a major studio to spend blockbuster money to make a movie about how when confronting the near-certainty of impending death amid a world crumbling around you, the only thing that really matters in life is finding a great slice of pizza. And that’s all before the aliens arrive.
Acting alongside Schnitzel the cat, and rising star Joseph Quinn, Lupita Nyong’o holds every moment of the unfolding disaster with compelling determination as a woman who knows with certainty that her days on this foul planet are numbered. The small miracles of transient human connection that they find amid precious quiet moments between invading audiophile bombast brought me to tears. If any summer’s ripe for meditations on impending despair, it’s certainly this one. — Josh
A Quiet Place Day One is currently in theaters
Sebastian (Mikko Mäkelä)
I talked about this one a bit in my SIFF pocket reviews, but Ruaridh Moillica made a truly powerful performance in his first leading role. The story may have been dark, but Mollica’s Sebastian made it hopeful even after the most worrisome moments. — Morgen
Sebastian is awaiting theatrical release
Individual lists
Below, our individual nominations, along with links to previous coverage of our favorite films.
Chris
- Evil Does Not Exist
- Civil War
- Thelma
- Hit Man
- Perfect Days
Josh
- Challengers
- La Chimera
- Dune: Part Two
- Thelma
- A Quiet Place: Day One
Yet to be released: Presence, A Real Pain
On the bubble: I Saw the TV Glow, The Beast, the New England Patriots schedule release video (sorry Chargers), the middle of Furiosa, the ending of Immaculate.
Morgen
- Dune: Part Two
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Thelma
- Ultraman Rising
- Sebastian