My top movies & TV shows of 2024

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

Dec 18, 2024

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!

Emma Stone Dancing GIF by Searchlight Pictures

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