The best movies of 2024 so far… and where to watch them

These are the movies we’ve gotten excited about this year – and where you can watch them.

Can’t decide what to watch? Well, look no further—there’s bound to be something on this list of our fave movies so far this year, whether you’re watching for the first time, or revisiting a recent highlight.

This post will be updated each month with new recommendations for viewing both in cinemas and at home. And, for the avoidance of any confusion, these are titles we covered in 2024—as opposed to what a formal release year might say. Look, we just want you to watch some good stuff, OK?

To help keep up with movies and shows, our watchlist feature lets you keep track of them, and our notifications tell you when they land in cinemas or on streamers. Join Flicks (it’s free) to start using these features, and access exclusive rewards: ticket giveaways, discount offers and—from time to time—advanced screenings.

My Old Ass

In a charming coming-of-age tale, a free-spirited 18-year-old woman (Maisy Stella) on the cusp of some big life changes comes face-to-face with her older self (Aubrey Plaza) while on mushrooms. Even after the trip wears off, the two can somehow contact each other by phone, an absurd scenario carried by great performances. As Steve Newall observes, “Like a less cynical version of The Substance, the two have very different ideas about life and how to live it—but they do remain one, even across the years.”

Rap World

You’d be forgiven if this one passed you by—a sub-one-hour found-footage mockumentary from cult (ie pretty obscure) comedian Conner O’Malley. If you’re asking “Conner who?”, Tom Augustine wrote a great primer on where to start with O’Malley’s hilariously unconventional comedy. Set in 2009 and shot on video cameras available at the time, a group of friends set out to record a rap album and document the process—which is inevitably sidetracked. Augustine called it “a cutting portrayal of white suburban malaise packaged within an incredibly funny ‘night-gone-wrong’ saga”—and isn’t wrong when he says “it might just be the funniest movie of the year.”

Where can you watch it? Right here:

A Different Man

Seeing an opportunity to reverse his neurofibromatosis, aspiring actor Edward takes part in a drug trial that leaves him looking like Sebastian Stan, providing a boost in confidence that proves shallow and temporary. What he’s definitely not ready for is the introduction of Oswald (Adam Pearson), who might resemble Edward pre-treatment, but is full of the charm and confidence he has always lacked. According to Eliza Janssen, what unfolds is “A black comedy rich with complicated characters, bold shifts in story that’ll keep viewers guessing, and above all a compelling challenge to the masks we all wear.”

The Wild Robot

Animated pic from DreamWorks follows an abandoned robot shipwrecked on an uninhabited, heavily forested island. As she becomes the unexpected protector to an orphaned gosling, together they struggle to survive the harsh environment alongside a close-knit group of misfit animals. As Liam Maguren says, “It doesn’t fully escape feeling like bumper sticker morals typical of mainstream family films, but that gooey softness complements nicely with the film’s edgier aspects”.

Will & Harper

Road trip doco sees Will Ferrell drive across America with his old friend, recently out trans woman Harper Steele. Among other things, it’s a film about how trans people are just trying to live their lives and be happy, and a doco capable of genuinely ridiculous and beautiful moments, says Amelia Berry: “As a portrait of two friends reconnecting, rediscovering how much they really care about each other, driving around making stupid jokes and drinking cheap beer? When Will & Harper is that, it’s brilliant.”

The Substance

Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley star in a perverse Hollywood fairy tale that sees a TV fitness instructor combat the impact of aging on her career by using “The Substance”—offering the best version of herself, but to unimagined consequences… Split into older and younger versions of herself, with strict rules about switching back and forth, soon things are spiraling out of control in this satirical body horror. The film proved polarising— even at Flicks. Luke Buckmaster writes: “I think this film will come to be regarded as a modern classic—a status that some productions accrue almost instantly.”

Rebel Ridge 

The latest from director Jeremy Saulnier (the excellent Blue Ruin and Green Room) is a must-watch action thriller that sees tension, anger and adrenaline simmer from the get-go. Knocked off his bike by small-town cops and legally(?) relieved of a wad of cash he needs to bail out his cousin, Terry (star-in-the-making Aaron Pierre) goes up against a crooked police department headed by Don Johnson in an effort to make things right. Spoiler: it’s not that easy. As Steve Newall writes, “Measured, confident, and blessed with fantastic performances, this is a superb new film from the ever-reliable Saulnier”.

Speak No Evil

A family’s dream holiday turns nightmarish in dark, dark thriller (and sometimes black comedy) Speak No Evil.  Viewers will be suffering some level of discomfort as the film’s microaggressions accumulate, and the avoidance of awkwardness leads a family into deeply dangerous territory as their hosts slowly reveal a different side of themselves. While this has been remade in English just two years after the Danish original played film fests, as Daniel Rutledge explains: “Anyone questioning the reason this Speak No Evil exists should rest assured there is an emphatic answer: James McAvoy celebrating his villain era. Hard.”

Thelma

In her first(?!) lead role, the great June Squibb stars in this action film as the 93-year-old victim of a phone scam who embarks on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken—teaming up with Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree, in his final film role (Thelma premiered some months after he died of pancreatic cancer last year). As Vicci Ho observes: “Squibb expertly balances her understated comedy with moments of vulnerability, making her character such a joy to watch and reminds us just how lucky we are as an audience to have Squibb in our lives.”

Kneecap

Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap play themselves in this profane and druggy story of their formation and scraps with authority—a fascinating look at the circumstances they came from in Belfast, and how their championing of the Irish language in their lyrics captured people’s imagination. “This has got to be the most provocative, drug-laced, and funniest anti-authoritarian movie you’re likely to see that’s also about language revitalisation.” wrote Steve Newall.

We Were Dangerous

The Special Jury award winner at SXSW 2024, We Were Dangerous tells the story of a band of teenagers in 1954 New Zealand who attempt to escape an institution for delinquent girls. The film’s powered by “a burning sense of sisterhood”, says Liam Maguren’s review, with its three talented leads adding buckets of fuel to the fire in Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s strong directorial feature debut.

Bookworm

An incredibly smart girl and her estranged American father search for a mythical beast in the Canterbury wilderness in Aotearoa family adventure flick Bookworm. Alongside strong performances from Nell Fisher (“almost effortlessly energetic”) and Elijah Wood (“played to a perfectly pathetic tune”), Liam Maguren’s review observes “an adventure film is nothing without the actual adventure, and Bookworm does its duty to warrant a big-screen family experience”.

Deadpool & Wolverine

Ryan Reynolds is back as Deadpool, Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine, and the MCU rattles with nostalgia and piss-taking in Deadpool & Wolverine. Easter eggs aside, it’s exactly the movie you expect, and nothing you don’t, says Travis Johnson’s review.

I Saw the TV Glow

A visually stunning film about loners connecting over their shared love for a cult TV show gives way to something much deeper and emotionally resonant in I Saw the TV Glow. It’s the best kind of personal film, says Rory Doherty’s review: “A transmission directly from filmmaker to the audience member who needs it the most”.

Longlegs

A rookie FBI agent (Maika Monroe) investigates serial killings with an occult overtone in horror smash Longlegs. Steve Newall’s review says it screams out to be seen with an audience that can be as pummelled as he was—”by one of the scariest films in ages.”

Twisters

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung takes the reins for this sequel to 1996’s tornado-chasing hit. The result is a surprisingly adept disaster epic, says Katie Parker’s review, one that wisely keeps things cheerful, wholesome and enjoyably dumb.

Inside Out 2

2015’s Oscar-winning head-trip of a film grows up with Inside Out 2. Not so much an improvement than an expansion on the original, Liam Maguren’s review reckons it’s a great next step in a series that could move into even more exciting territories: “If Pixar dares to push the series further into bolder directions, it may very well be the successor to the Toy Story franchise.”

The Promised Land

The director of A Royal Affair helms a stoic western, one that sees Mads Mikkelsen try to tame the inhospitable 18th century Danish moorlands. The Promised Land may share a star, country, and (roughly) a time period with their previous pairing, but is a very different beast, says Steve Newall’s review: “Blessed with excellent performances, particularly Mikkelsen’s ability to both infuriate and in turn radiate fury by seemingly doing very little, it’s a contrast to their prior film and an interesting setting for some familiar frontier storytelling beats.”

Divinity

Surreal black-and-white sci-fi, set on a ruined Earth made all the more complicated by an age-reducing drug that makes its users immortal, as well as either muscled up (dudes) or slender (dudettes).  Two brothers set out to capture the drug’s inventor and mete out punishment… but all hell breaks loose. According to Liam Maguren’s review, it’s a case of style over substance in the best way: “Positively explodes with the energy of a particular kind of B-movie—one that throws caution to the wind, acid on the tongue, and audiences into a completely different universe.”

Hit Man

Glen Powell is a fake assassin in this new comedy, co-writing the script with director Richard Linklater. A philosophy professor by trade, Gary Johnson (Powell) poses as a killer, working with police and wearing a wire to catch would-be clients—until he talks one of them (Adria Arjona) out of the desire to murder, and falls for them. Luke Buckmaster’s review calls the film a “breezily enjoyable romantic comedy, a minor work for the veteran director but nevertheless a rock-solid genre subversion”.

Anora

A Brooklyn sex worker (Mikey Madison) and a Russian oligarch’s son fall for each other in Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora. It owes its prize-winning success to how shrewdly Baker taps into the emotional extremes of labour and love, says Rory Doherty’s review from Cannes: “These crazy kids feel something real for one another, but the intimacy Ani is promised was not given with an equal and balanced share of power. The complex realities of work and romance often boil down to dependency.”

Jim Henson: Idea Man

Premiering at Cannes, Ron Howard’s biographical documentary revisits the fascinating life and work of Jim Henson. The film does its level best to platform the restless counterculture side of Henson, says Sarah Thomson’s review: “Especially in earlier years, a creative fascinated by synaesthesia and eschewing any systems or oppressive ways of being. One who, let’s be honest, never wanted to make entertainment for children.”

Stopmotion

In this unsettling, psychological disintegration horror, Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale) plays a stop-motion animator whose work and reality begin to bleed into one another—particularly when she starts dressing her creation in fresh meat…  It’s the stuff cults are made of, which is the audience this film deserves, according to Liam Maguren’s review: “Learned horror aficionados will play spot the Lynch or catch the Cronenberg with the way Morgan illustrates Ella’s warping world (especially with his use of curtains and raw beef). The parallels may be obvious, but they fit cosily into this disturbing space, peppered with the odd wince-inducing moments of shock to accompany this simmering descent into madness.”

Kinds of Kindness

Director Yorgos Lanthimos tells three loosely connected stories in Kinds of Kindness, premiering at Cannes and starring his repeat collaborator Emma Stone (alongside Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley and a Cannes award-winning Jesse Plemons). Full of delirious thrills, it’s incisive and shocking, said Rory Doherty’s Cannes review: “The unfortunate inhabitants of the three sub-hour anthology instalments go to horrid lengths to belong and be meaningful. It feels even more punishing because the characters are played by the same rotating troupe of seven actors, and the abuse becomes more pointed in each successive chapter. Please, for the love of god, give Jesse Plemons a moment’s peace.”

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Wes Ball takes the reins for a new run Apes pic, taking place hundreds of years after War for the Planet of the Apes, in an era more reminiscent of the 1968 original. Kingdom is a worthy, if overlong, successor to one of the finest trilogies in modern blockbuster storytelling, says David Michael Brown’s review: “Huge of heart with enough bravura action set-pieces to sate the biggest Apes aficionado”. That’s echoed in Luke Buckmaster’s review: “Works spectacularly well, even if the cultural moment around these movies has changed, and the sheer number of them has diminished their wow factor.”

The Fall Guy

A stuntman returns to the biz (and an ex) in action-rom-com The Fall Guy. A genuinely touching sense of affection for the stunt double profession is evident, according to Katie Parker’s review—and while it may not challenge stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt (or the audience) too much “it is still a pleasure to see them flex their skills with ease, effortlessly riffing and bringing out each other’s A-game.”

Out of Darkness

A small group in the Scottish Highlands of 43,000BCE fight for survival in Out of Darkness, a wildly ambitious feature debut that punches well above its weight, says Liam Maguren’s review: “Punching well above its weight to hit a humble target, [director Andrew Cumming] has kicked off his career with one of the most unconventional conventional horror films to come out of Britain.”

Challengers

Jumpy chronological pacing and hard-to-like characters would be an issue in most films. Not Luca Guadagnino’s entertaining tennis love triangle Challengers (starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist), though… Luke Buckmaster’s review appreciates the gameplay on and off the court: “This is a charming, feisty film, that goes down easy and has some kick to it, like a spritzy summer cocktail.”

La Chimera

Speaking of O’Connor, La Chimera follows him through a woozy 1980s Tuscany. Blessed(?) with a preternatural ability to uncover 2000-year-old Etruscan artefacts, he’s haunted by his own past, even while pillaging the histories of others to earn a living via the black market. As Sarah Thomson wrote after seeing La Chimera at NZ International Film Festival: “Beautiful and broken, our band of ‘tombaroli’ (gravediggers) led by a magnetic Josh O’Connor, raid the countryside’s past to provide for their present—both as the many-headed beast and the impossible liminal dream of the film’s title. Stunning.”

Robot Dreams

Another film fest fave from last year that returned for wider release, a dog and a robot form a precious bond—one that gets tested—in Oscar-nominated animated film Robot Dreams. Liam Maguren’s impressed review draws a direct line between this cartoon and Celine Song’s Past Lives: “Both films are set in New York, they look back at a bygone era, rely on nuanced performances, examine a relationship tested by time, and find something profound to say about the nature of love.”

The First Omen

The Antichrist Damien is but a twinkle in a Catholic conspiracy’s eye, in unexpected horror prequel The First Omen. As Eliza Janssen’s review details, no one prophesied the film’s imagery, lead performance, and gutsy ideas to take us to church quite so much: “With the help of fearless lead performer Nell Tiger Free, The First Omen is a nasty yet welcome surprise, reminding us of the religious horror genre’s greatest hits while introducing us to bold new talents.”

Origin

Featuring a powerful lead performance from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Origin is much more than a mere book adaptation, skipping through time to weave its author’s contention. As Luke Buckmaster’s review says, for all its flaws, Ava DuVernay’s film is utterly singular: “It’s part biopic, part ruminative cine-essay, part adaptation of Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, which was described by The New York Times as a seminal text exploring “how brutal misperceptions about race have disfigured the American experiment.” The Guardian called it “an American reckoning.””

Monkey Man

A man named Kid is out to avenge his mother in action flick Monkey Man—along the way, kicking butt and standing up for everyone pushed to the margins by India’s elite. First-time feature director Dev Patel also leads the film, and as Katie Smith-Wong’s review praises, he’s helmed a cathartic stunner of a debut: “Behind the camera, his visuals feel unrefined but intimate, daring to bare the soul of Monkey Man’s sordid settings and its protagonist to show a raw directing skill that compensates for the film’s inconsistencies in pacing and tone.”

Io Capitano

Two Senegalese teens attempt a border-crossing journey—and quickly find themselves out of their depths—in Io Capitano. This Oscar-nominated odyssey goes to some intense places, Liam Maguren’s review notes, constantly upping the stakes even when there appears to be no more stakes to up: “If you’re familiar with writer-director Matteo Garrone’s previous work, like 2008’s Gomorrah or 2018’s Dogman, you’ll know the pair’s in for an increasingly painful journey through the Sahara Desert and across the Mediterranean Sea.”

The Mountain

New Zealand screen legend Rachel House makes her directorial feature debut with The Mountain, following three kids on a mission to find healing under the watchful eye of Taranaki Maunga. Liam Maguren’s review expresses why it’s an incredibly rare kind of film: “A distinctly New Zealand film centred on kids that young audiences can latch onto while also telling a story with enough substance to affect anyone of any age.”

Love Lies Bleeding

Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian star in this superb sophomore pic from Saint Maud director Rose Glass, an off the rails love story serving a slice of queer noir with plenty of extras—not least of all, an impressive collection of muscles.  “This movie is a good goddamned time,” declares Eliza Janssen’s review: “Especially for the gals who’ve been waiting for a full-blown, gratuitous lesbian K.Stew role like this.”

Late Night With the Devil

A lost 1970s talk show broadcast provides the premise of this found footage horror (and 2023 film festival highlight). Alongside its wonderfully realised talk show setting and a great lead performance by star David Dastmalchian, Tony Stamp’s review praises both Late Night with the Devil‘s journey and destination: “Suffice to say this is a slow burn, but things get pretty gnarly by the end, and genre fans will leave satisfied”.

Immaculate

Sydney Sweeney stars in (and produces) this religious horror in which a devout young nun finds her own body being treated as a means to an end by controlling forces. As Steve Newall’s review notes, while Immaculate may be in the tradition of many other great horrors, it is no pastiche, and “offers plenty of gore, surprises, and gonzo plotting, wrapped up in a classical (yet not throwback) aesthetic.”

Road House

Jake Gyllenhaal and Doug Liman go back to first principles with this redux of the classic Patrick Swayze vehicle in a new version of Road House. It’s a movie where everyone understands the assignment, says Travis Johnson’s review: “Road House is a sledgehammer. It’s made for big swings. It makes an impact.”

Goodbye Julia

Two women from different parts of Sudan form an uneasy friendship against a backdrop of tragedy and racism in Goodbye Julia. As Liam Maguren’s review says: “This class act of a drama relishes in small details, concocting a compelling clash of classes that echoes loudly to the wider state of the country.”

Wicked Little Letters

Oscar winner Olivia Colman and Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley star in Wicked Little Letters, a comedic war-of-the-words British feature based on real events. As Fatima Sheriff’s review notes: “This small island seems to have a bottomless supply of fascinating tales to tell, with prestige casts lining up to play these icons uncovered from history”.

The Convert

A lay preacher finds himself caught in the crossfire of two warring tribes in 1830s New Zealand in Lee Tamahori’s The Convert. In some measures, arguably the most important measures, Liam Maguren’s review says the film hits its marks: “When The Convert reaches its inevitable musket-fuelled climax, it weaves a strong net of spectacle and sorrow”.

How to Have Sex

Winner of the top prize in the Un Certain Regard competition at Cannes Film Festival, How to Have Sex follows three British teenage girls on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up. An impressed Rory Doherty reviewed the film at Cannes in 2023: “The chemistry between the cast, both friends and romantic interests alike, crackles with adolescent excitement—but is also charged with constant anxiety knowing where the story is heading.”

Dune: Part Two

Director Denis Villeneuve returns to finish the sci-fi spectacle he started, reuniting with a stacked cast led by Timothée Chalamet—and with new faces including Christopher Walken, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler and Léa Seydoux. As Matt Glasby says in a spoiler-lite review, the movie’s “a staggering achievement; a stirring piece of grown-up sci-fi delivering more spectacle than you’d see in several ordinary blockbusters stitched together.”

American Fiction

Playing an embittered literature professor, Jeffrey Wright makes American Fiction a troubling character study that rings true to boardrooms and classrooms everywhere. Luke Buckmaster’s review marks it as the peak of the actor’s career: ” I dare say that Wright, who received an Oscar nomination for the role, has never been better: he’s brilliant as this sharp, eviscerating character, blessed with a silver tongue and cursed with a foot stuck in his mouth.”

The Great Escaper

Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson star in The Great Escaper, based on the true story of a World War II veteran who snuck out of his care home to attend the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings. As Liam Maguren’s review says, the film is a strong entry in a popular genre that has no name: “Senior moviegoers will know what I’m talking about. Trailers and marketing materials for these films aggressively trumpet the same notion: you’re never too old to [blank].”

Spaceman

Without a silly voice or Kevin James in sight, Adam Sandler stars as a lonely astronaut in Johan Renck’s melancholic Spaceman. It’s a genuine and psychologically stirring voyage, says Luke Buckmaster’s review: “The heart of the film felt totally genuine, once the initial wackiness wears off and the experience finds its gentle introspective rhythms”.

This Is Me…Now: A Love Story

This narratively-driven, musically-slanted album movie depicting Jennifer Lopez’s path of self-healing and unwavering faith in fairytale endings is both very heartfelt and complete madness, according to Liam Maguren’s review: “We’re barely past a minute when biker Lopez appears riding with a nameless fella in a shiny CGI landscape while a remarkably unhinged news anchor played by Ben Affleck in a set of false teeth declares Love Is Dead!”

“This is not planet Earth. This is the J-Lo dimension.”

The Zone of Interest

Multiple Oscar nominee The Zone of Interest sees director Jonathan Glazer explore life over the wall from the mass exterminations of a Holocaust concentration camp. Everything the characters do, however mundane, doubles and redoubles in significance because of where and when they are doing it, says Matt Glasby’s review: “While Höss worries away at the business of mass extermination with his colleagues, Heddie tends her garden, perhaps the ultimate act of barbarism, especially as its soil is sown with ash from the furnaces.”

Orion and the Dark

Surreal screenwriter Charlie Kaufman may seem an odd fit to adapt a children’s book about being afraid of the dark into an animated film—though you’d be right to feel there’s somewhat of a “but” coming… As Luke Buckmaster’s review notes, “this delightfully playful family film fits his oeuvre like a glove, sitting comfortably alongside the squirrely scribe’s other idiosyncratic scripts, with their cascading realities and meta-textual angstiness—from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to Synecdoche, New York and Being John Malkovich.”

The Iron Claw

The wrestling world’s tragic “Von Erich Curse” gets retold in subtle, melancholic detail by director Sean Durkin (The Nest), who assembles a great cast including Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons to bring the true story to life. “Visually the film is modest, with a spongey timeworn veneer, although it has one head-turning special effect: Efron,” says Luke Buckmaster’s review: “Here he’s something else: a human beefcake, strapping and sturdy as all get-out, with a body like Schwarzenegger circa Pumping Iron, and a lantern-jawed face banged up like an old catcher’s mitt”.

Priscilla

Based on Priscilla Beaulieu’s own memoir detailing her life with Elvis, Sofia Coppola’s latest sees Cailee Spaeny as the teen Priscilla, whose life changes unimaginably when she’s romanced by Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi). Describing the film as her finest work in over fifteen years, Rory Doherty’s review observes: “Sofia Coppola sensitively reapproaches girlhood without sacrificing the emotional rawness behind a tremendously famous love story. Priscilla is intimate, revealing, and devastates with the lightest touch.”

Mean Girls

It’s Mean Girls but not as you know it. The new movie take on a 20-year-old classic is a musical—based on a Broadway musical, which is based on the 2004 film, which was itself based on a parenting book. The musical element proves essential in breathing new life into a familiar screenplay, says Rory Doherty’s review: “It’s why the song numbers, hyper-poppy and earworm-y as they may be, are the true highlights—it’s a fundamentally novel way of engaging with this story that doesn’t invoke comparisons with the original.”

The Beekeeper

A Jason Statham revenge-fueled action pic may not be what you expect to find on this list, but thankfully we have Luke Buckmaster’s review that highlights: “This is the kind of B̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶i̶e̶  bee movie for which the terms “guilty pleasure” and “so bad it’s good” were coined. I found The Beekeeper almost breathtakingly funny, laughing out loud heartily at least a dozen times, even if comedy gold wasn’t director David Ayer’s intention.”

Society of the Snow

The remarkable true survival story of a rugby team whose flight crashed on a glacier in the Andes (originally depicted three decades prior with 1993’s Alive) is retold by director J.A. Bayona (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power).  The plot doesn’t pussyfoot around issues of death and cannibalism, according to Luke Buckmaster’s review: “Do the dead have a right to not be eaten? Do the living have a right to survive? Bayona understands his job is to raise these questions inside a credible dramatic space rather than propose any answers.”

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