We’re only halfway through 2024 — but boy, has it been a year for cinema up until now. We’ve been treated to all kinds of movie goodness over the past six months: epic sequels and prequels; wholly original, genre-blending flexes from some of our most exciting directorial auteurs; emotional animated adventures; heartbreaking historical biopics; industry-defining documentaries; and more.
As we move into the second half of 2024, Team Empire got together to vote on the best movies of the year so far — based on UK release dates, from 1 January to 30 June. The result is an eclectic, mostly non-franchise list of big-screen bangers that surprise and delight; that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you feel. 2024 is off to a fantastic start. Have a read of the full list, counting down from 20, below:
20. Kinds Of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos returns to his roots with this traumatic triptych, which feels more in line with his darker, bleaker early work (Dogtooth, The Lobster) than his last two extravagant features (The Favourite, Poor Things). The film trisects its near 3 hour runtime into stories linked by a rotating cast of A-listers (including Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe), the amusingly apathetic R.M.F (Yorgos Stefanakos, who remains the same character throughout), and obscure images: dogs, feet, cannibalism — the list goes on. Across each section, we see a fascination with power dynamics — the first between an employee and his hyper-controlling boss, the second between a woman and her paranoid police-officer husband, and the third between a cult follower and its revered leaders. Shot beautifully and acted as brilliantly awkwardly as its blunt dialogue demands, this experimental trilogy secures Lanthimos as one of the most unique voices in cinema today.
19. Priscilla
It may be following 2022’s Elvis — and obviously sharing its characters, setting, and plot —but Sofia Coppola’s dreamy biopic is a very different movie. Adapted from Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, it follows her journey as she is courted, then carted away from her family by The King. The focus on fine-fashion, decadent interiors, and an overwhelming amount of pink (seriously, it gives The Grand Budapest Hotel a run for its money) are shot as enticingly as they would have looked to Priscilla, and Cailee Spaeny in the lead role brings an innocent fish-out-of-water quality to the character that makes her manipulation even more uncomfortable to watch.
18. The Greatest Night In Pop
Some documentaries cover decades; others zero in on a specific moment in time. This is one of the latter, depicting in delightful detail that happened in 1985 when a horde of the decade’s biggest music stars walked into a room in LA for an all-night recording session, coming out the other side with charity single ‘We Are The World’. With such oversized personalities involved, there’s plenty of zesty detail: one highlight is Lionel Ritchie, one of the talking heads, recounting the time a song-writing session at Michael Jackson’s house was derailed by Jackson’s pet snake slithering towards Ritchie (‘I’ve seen this horror movie, and it doesn’t end well for the brother’). And best of all is the footage from the night, as the eclectic likes of Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and Kenny Loggins cope with tech gremlins, nerves and a no-show from Prince. A fever-dream of an evening becomes surely the most entertaining doc of 2024.
17. A Quiet Place: Day One
When A Quiet Place arrived back in 2018, its high-concept premise — you make sound, you die — was a breath of fresh air. This third film in the franchise — a prequel at that — can’t possibly hope to bring that same freshness, but instead replaces it with deeply engaging character work, as two lonely people stuck in New York City (Lupita Nyong’o’s Sam, and Joseph Quinn’s Eric) are thrust together amid an alien invasion. The result is undeniably a film by Pig director Michael Sarnoski — a tender and emotional character drama pepped with effective monster-movie sequences, all leading to one of the best endings of the year so far. Nyong’o and Quinn both excel, making the reluctant partnership of Sam and Eric sing, and finding light in some exceptionally dark places — but special mention must go to feline friend Frodo, played with aplomb by cats Schnitzel and Nico. Catnip Oscars for both, please.
16. La Chimera
When Greta Gerwig says that a film has made her ‘euphorically happy’, you’d better take note. Alice Rohrwacher’s sunbathed curio, set in ‘80s Tuscany, stars rakish man of the moment Josh O’Connor as a gifted tombaroli (tomb raider) who is mourning the loss of his girlfriend and lives hand to mouth, making money by stealing artefacts from neighbourhood land. It’s a delightful role for O’Connor, who, armed with just a filthy linen suit and a knack for speaking fluent Italian, showcases irresistible charm. Yet it’s Brazilian actor Carol Duarte as local mother Italia who gets the film’s defining moment — a dazzling, weird, freeing display of choreography that is truly captivating to behold. Around them, Rohrwacher builds a fantastical world full of off-kilter characters and strange, bucolic corners of rural Italy. Paired with one of the most sweet and sincere closing shots that you’ll see this year, you’ll find that La Chimera is simply unmissable.
15. Inside Out 2
Effortlessly slipping back inside the eye of a now-teenage Riley’s (Kensington Tallman) mind, Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2 offers a thoughtful continuation of Inside Out’s emotional journey as the onset of puberty and a whole host of new emotions take centre-stage. Chief amongst Headquarters’ latest additions is Anxiety (an outstanding Maya Hawke), whose calamitous efforts to prepare Riley for high-school life — aided by Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) — set her childhood emotions adrift. Sar-chasms, dark secrets, and a recurring bit involving a 2D toon from Riley’s favourite childhood show recall the first film’s zany visual sense and quick-witted humour. But it’s returning writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein’s new, nuanced takes on the complexities of our emotions — here, an empathetically lensed and profoundly relatable deconstruction of social anxiety and self-doubt — that invariably leaves you feeling all the feels.
14. The Iron Claw
Sean Durkin’s portrait of the Von Erich wrestling family goes deeper than your typical biopic. More than just dramatising the brothers’ careers as their father (Holt McCallany) slowly inducts them all into the ring, the film uses their tragic history to explore themes of toxic masculinity, brotherhood, success, and more. The Von Erich’s eponymous curse unfolds on-screen as Zac Efron’s Kevin wrestles (pun intended) with his past, and we spend the duration of the film waiting for him to realise that the family’s misfortune actually has nothing supernatural about it — that instead, the figure haunting them is their macho-man dad, and his strength-first worldview. The warm, grainy colour palette, some truly tragic haircuts and a nostalgic soundtrack immerse us in ‘80s and ‘90s rural Texas, as we’re guided through this tale of overcoming trauma cycles. Bring tissues for the final scene.
13. American Fiction
Cord Jefferson’s incredibly smart, highly entertaining drama stars Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, an author struggling to find success who accidentally breaks through when he writes a parodical novel filled with offensive Black stereotypes. Based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, Jefferson’s debut feature masterfully weaves together social satire, familial grief and gentle romance to paint a picture of a somewhat stubborn man learning to lean in to his vulnerability. Wright is in impeccable form, and he’s surrounded by stellar support including Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, John Ortiz, and a never-more-heartbreaking Sterling K. Brown. The clean, sharp, simple visuals let the excellent screenplay do the talking — and out of five Academy Award nominations, the script was the one gong American Fiction won, with Jefferson taking Best Adapted Screenplay.
12. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Every few years or so, George Miller decides to unleash a bommy-knocker on the world of cinema. So it is that, nine years after Fury Road, we finally got the long-awaited Furiosa origin story — a rare prequel that enriches and complements its cinematic sibling perfectly. With a different energy and distinct narrative structure, Furiosa sprawls outwards, unspooling hardscrabble chapters in the Wasteland to get under the skin of its title character in surprising and engaging ways — bolstered by excellent turns from Anya Taylor-Joy, and youngster Alyla Browne. Given that Miller is a mastermind director, there are astonishing sequences here — a War Rig raid to rival Fury Road’s greatest moments; a propulsive chase as Furiosa’s mother sets out to recapture her lost daughter; a pulse-pounding assault on the Bullet Farm gone horribly wrong. And thanks to Chris Hemsworth’s deranged Dementus, you don’t even miss Max that much. If it’s not quite up there with Fury Road, it’s still a mad, Miller miracle.