The 10 Best Movies of 2024

Conclave 

It’s not an easy feat to make the Vatican’s changing of the guard into a taut, intelligent drama that rivals the intrigue of TV’s Succession. Infighting, secret offspring and sinful shenanigans of all sorts are revealed among cardinals in stunning red robes. Led by the brilliant Ralph Fiennes, 61, with John Lithgow, 79, and Stanley Tucci, 64, in strong support, this astute drama is a must-watch papal battle royale.

Gladiator II

Sir Ridley Scott, 87, has done it again! He’s returned to the Roman Colosseum in a bloody sequel to his 2001 Academy Award winner for best picture with a new starry, sweaty cast led by Paul Mescal as the gladiatorial hero. Pedro Pascal flexes his muscles as a Roman general alongside the scene-stealing, ignoble noble Denzel Washington, 69. Bring on the over-the-top battles to the death against hungry sharks and raging rhinos — this is Hollywood spectacle at its best.

Heretic

My arthouse crush, the romcom king of Notting Hill, Hugh Grant, 64, plays a very, very bad homeowner. In Heretic, Grant’s squirrely theologian invites two tasty young Mormon missionaries into his house on a dark and stormy night. As the trio debate religious dogma, he’s a smiling spider leading them like flickery flies into his sticky web in an unexpectedly scary, smart and shocking thriller that proves Grant to be as delightful a villain as he is a romantic lead. 

Nosferatu

Just when you thought the heyday of Dracula movies had come and gone, Robert Eggers (The Witch) puts his own visionary stamp on the Transylvanian bloodsucker. The seductive, visually stunning and swiftly paced film overflows with vivid characters: undead Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard, who played the also-scary Pennywise in Stephen King’s It), ethereal beauty Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny’s daughter) and her husband (Nicholas Hoult), who traipses into the Count’s castle. Also on hand is Willem Dafoe, 69, as a daring vampire hunter, in contrast to his famous portrayal of the original Orlok, actor Max Schreck in F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu, in the 2000 Shadow of the Vampire. 

Thelma

How is it possible that 2014 Nebraska Oscar nominee June Squibb, 95, is only now getting her first leading role? In this genial female empowerment action movie, Squibb knocks it out of the park in the title role — and performs her own stunts! When a telephone scammer cheats Thelma out of $10,000, she enlists her grandson (ubiquitous rising star Fred Hechinger) and friend Ben (late, lamented Shaft star Richard Roundtree) to get justice. The fast-paced comedy is an anthem to the power of grandma grit in the face of the villains that prey on them — a story rarely told at the movies. 

Wicked

The Yellow Brick Road shines bright in this vibrant musical adaptation of the long-running Broadway takeoff of The Wizard of Oz. The origin story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and bubbly schoolmate Glinda pops off the screen thanks to the magical voices of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. There’s not a single false note, and Jeff Goldblum, 72, makes his own kind of magic as the dazzling wizard himself. 

September 5

The power of the press proves mighty in the suspenseful tale of the real-life massacre of Israeli athletes by the group Black September at the 1972 Olympics. Spielberg told the story in Munich (2005), but this film takes the perspective of the ABC Sports crew who unexpectedly had to broadcast a terrorist attack on live TV, watched by millions worldwide — and also by the terrorists, so any mistake could cost more lives. It’s a ticking time bomb of a movie.  Starring Peter Sarsgaard, 53, as Roone Arledge.