My top movies & TV shows of 2024

'Gimme A Break!' reruns are No. 1 again this year

Before we screw the lid on 2024, I wanted to share some of my top screen experiences thus far. If I’m overlooking something, it’s probably because I haven’t seen it yet (sorry, Shōgun) or hated it and am politely excluding it from the conversation (i.e. two superhero movies I almost walked out of).

Look for more “best of” rankings soon and feel free to comment with your own picks!

MY 11 FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2024:

11. I Saw the TV Glow - Perhaps the first “shoegaze horror” film, Glow gives off Twin Peaks/Buffy vibes and transports us to a time when the shows we watched defined us before we had the words to define ourselves.

10. Girls State - The Apple TV+ doc follows smart, confident girls who form a mock government at summer camp — and, ultimately, question the purpose and sexism behind this century-old tradition.

9. Wicked - What more do you want from a glittery holiday blockbuster, flying monkeys?

8. Anora - I expected to cringe while watching this super-sexy movie in public, but I didn’t realize I’d laugh so much.

7. Kinds of Kindness - Say it three times, and you’ll return home: MargaretQualley, MargaretQualley, MargaretQualley.

6. Will & Harper - Will Ferrell and Harper Steele star in the best road trip movie of the year and eat many Pringles!

5. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Watching this sequel, I felt like Sally Field with her Oscar, incredulous that something I’d dared to dream about had finally come true.

4. Flipside - Documentarian Chris Wilcha returns with a movie that’s sorta about trying to save a record store but more so about midlife, the passage of time and how to get through it. (currently on Amazon Prime)

3. Janet Planet - The first feature from Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker captures misfit-kid/misfit-mom feelings like few things I’ve seen in recent years.

2. Eno - This revolutionary documentary — which never screens the same version twice — will make you want to leave the theater and make something. Isn’t that the ultimate achievement? (Note: This film will ONLY stream on Jan. 24.)

1. The Substance - I gobbled it all up, even the shrimp.

And special recognition to … June Squibb in Thelma; the Indigo Girls doc It’s Only Life After All; Sharon Hayes’s Ricerche: four at the Whitney Biennial; Willem Dafoe’s omnipresence; the Challengers soundtrack; Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain; the absorbing His Three Daughters; KStew & Katy O’Brian going for/at it in Love Lies Bleeding

MY 11 FAVORITE TV SHOWS OF 2024:

11. Summer Olympics (NBC/Peacock) - What you don’t call this a “show”? Have you forgotten about the guy who played a vertical piano midair in the rain?

10. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Amazon) - Hot spies never go outta style!

9. Traitors (Peacock) - It’s got loads of kilts plus a passel o’ housewives, what devil would complain?

8. Saturday Night Live (NBC/Peacock) - Still worth watching in its 50th season — and now my 12-year-old patiently explains any references that sail over my head.

7. The Bear (FX/Hulu) - Just typing the word “napkins” gets me teary-eyed.

6. What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu) - Whenever I encounter an energy vampire (which is more often than I’d prefer), I’ll think of this dearly departed crew.

5. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) - Next season I hope Fran Lebowitz and Laurie Anderson join the cast as a Cagney & Lacey-style detective duo.

4. Hacks (Max) - Female friendship at its finest and most vicious.

3. Somebody Somewhere (HBO) - If only Bridget Everett’s sweet show could last forever, like The Simpsons.

2. Industry (HBO) - Binging this finance drama got me through Covid. After 24 episodes, I still can’t tell you what exactly Pierpoint does, but there sure are lots of drugs and butts!

1. English Teacher (FX/Hulu) - Pass the steak nuggets, Brian Jordan Alvarez’s new series was heartfelt and funny and weird and everything I desired.

And special recognition to … Ali Wong’s Single Lady & Langston Kerman’s Bad Poetry on Netflix; Brats, the Hulu Brat Pack film; Veronica Mars-Seth Cohen sparks in Nobody Wants This; Chloë Sevigny as C.Z. Guest & Kitty Menendez; Principal Ava (Janelle James) on Abbott Elementary; honorary housewife Kathy Hilton

A scene from I Saw the TV Glow (and my living room in 1989)

Previously:

• Holiday gift ideas

• Buy my 2024 Diary Comix!