‘Inside Out 2,’ ‘Conclave’ and More

Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” is the highest grossing movie of 2024 with $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office. It was also named the best movie of 2024 by Variety’s Peter Debruge, who wrote: “By following the path taken by ‘Toy Story’ — whose sequels grew up alongside Andy, rather than simply rehashing what fans liked about the first movie — ‘Inside Out 2’ is able to offer a richer, more mature window into the human mind…Screenwriters Dave Holstein and Meg LeFauve have come up with invaluable innovations, from a beautiful way to visualize one’s core identity to the scene where Riley is flooded by repressed memories. No wonder Pixar refers to its top storytellers as ‘the Brain Trust.’

Ralph Fiennes gives a quietly conflicted performance as a Catholic cardinal struggling between devotion and doubt in “All Quiet on the Western Front” director Edward Berger’s latest. It’s Fiennes’ job to oversee the selection of a new pope in this thinking man’s thriller, which unfolds like a murder mystery behind locked doors, except no one suspects foul play in the previous pontiff ’s death. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, “Conclave” lobs one of the most satisfying twists in years. It’s easy to see why the film is a major Oscar contender this year.

Universal’s summer blockbuster “Twisters” earned more than $370 million globally at the box office. Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones lead the action film as two storm chasers with competing personalities who form a bond while investigating a tornado outbreak in middle America. Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, David Corenswet, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane and more co-star. “Twisters” was directed by Lee Isaac Chung and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. From Variety’s review: “Chung made the incandescent humanistic drama ‘Minari.’ And while that wouldn’t seem to make him the likeliest contender to helm a popcorn spectacle as rooted in technological wonderment as this one, he does a smooth and confident job.”

Denis Villeneuve’s  second “Dune” installment was named the fifth best movie of 2024 by Variety’s Peter Debruge: “It’s the first sci-fi franchise to make us tingle in the same way as ‘Star Wars’ … It’s the relatable human moments amid Villeneuve’s awe-inspiring vision that bring ‘Dune: Part Two’ down to earth, so to speak. Frank Herbert purists are obsessed with telling you what’s missing, but the real feat here is how dramatically the film simplifies all that arcane plotting into clear story beats, making the mythology feel almost intuitive, the way witnessing a double sunset did half a century earlier.”

Warner Bros. earned backlash for seemingly burying the theatrical release of Clint Eastwood’s morality drama “Juror #2,” which might be the iconic director’s final movie behind the camera. From Variety’s review: “Nicholas Hoult plays a guilty man tapped to judge someone else for his own mistake in Eastwood’s unlikely yet engaging courtroom drama…it’s a slightly preposterous but thoroughly engaging extension of the 94-year-old filmmaker’s career-long fascination with guilt, justice and the limitations of the law.”

George Miller’s long-awaited “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa” disappointed at the box office and is not shaping up to be the Oscar powerhouse its predecessor was, but it’s still easily one of the best studio tentpoles of the year. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the epic “darkly bedazzling.” Anya Taylor-Joy is fiercely committed as the title character, who is taken from her home as a child and raised by the sociopathic warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). After becoming a bargaining tool in an escalating war, Furiosa takes matters into her own hands to exact revenge.

Alex Garland’s “Civil War” earned critical acclaim in the spring and a strong $122 million at the worldwide box office. Kirsten Dunst plays a jaded war photographer who journeys through a war-torn America in order to get one of the last interviews with the U.S. president. The supporting cast includes Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Nick Offerman. From Variety’s review: “The press are the good guys, but also kind of the bad guys, in Alex Garland’s virtuosic ‘Civil War,’ a jarring ground-level account of what a near-future disunification of the United States might look like.”

“The Substance” dominated headlines at the Cannes Film Festival, where it took home the prize for best screenplay, and became a box office sleeper hit this fall with $14 million at the domestic box office and nearly $50 million worldwide. Demi Moore plays a Hollywood icon whose being forced out of the industry due to her age. Her frustration leads her to take the eponymous serum, which creates a younger and more beautiful version of her (Margaret Qualley). Everything goes bonkers as the two halves try to live their own lives. From Variety’s review: “Filmmaker Coralie Fargeat works with the flair of a grindhouse Kubrick in a weirdly fun, cathartically grotesque fusion of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ and ‘Showgirls.’”

Blake Lively’s box office smash hit “It Ends With Us” is adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name. Lively plays a flower shop owner forced to confront an abusive relationship to a handsome doctor (Justin Baldoni, also the film’s director). Things become even more complicated when her first boyfriend, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), re-enters the picture. The romance drama exceeded industry expectations when released in theaters in August with a huge $350 million worldwide gross. Variety hailed the film as a “convincing soap opera” and “affecting adaptation” of Hoover’s book.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is the second highest-grossing film of 2024, earning a whopping $1.3 billion at the global box office. It also ranks as the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever. The movie follows Reynolds’ Wade Wilson/Deadpool as he faces off against the Time Variance Authority and becomes frenemies with Wolverine (Jackman) to save his world. It’s the first Marvel Cinematic Universe entry to be headlined by comic book characters that were previously licensed to 20th Century Fox, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2019.

Jacques Audiard’s audacious musical cartel drama “Emilia Pérez” won best actress honors at Cannes (Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz shared the prize) and is Netflix’s biggest Oscar contender this season. Saldaña plays a high-powered lawyer who is recruited to set up gender reassignment surgery for a fearsome cartel leader. The two reunite later in life to combat cartel violence, but the former leader’s loyalty to his wife and children complicate their mission. Variety called the musical a “dazzling and instantly divisive film” out of Cannes, adding: “‘Emilia Pérez’ emerges as a powerful, unfiltered portrait of someone who challenges several stereotypes at once. That’s a testament to leading lady and the audacity of Audiard.”

Pablo Larrain concludes his “Jackie” and “Spencer” historical trilogy with “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as the doomed opera singer Maria Callas. The film, set during the singer’s final days, acts as a wandering and emotional coda on her acclaimed but troubled life. Jolie is widely considered a lock to land an Oscar nomination for best actress. From Variety’s review: “Jolie does an extraordinary job of lip-syncing to the nuances of Callas’s vocal splendor. And we can feel how the singing haunts Maria, who can’t listen to her old records; they have a perfection that gives her pain.”

Malcolm Washington directs Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington in the August Wilson adaptation “The Piano Lesson.” The actors reprise the roles they performed on Broadway. “The Piano Lesson” follows the lives of the Charles family, led by Doaker Charles (Jackson), in 1936 during the aftermath of the Great Depression. The family’s heirloom piano is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. One brother plans to build a family fortune by selling the instrument and buying the land his family toiled, while his sister tries to keep it to preserve the family history. Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Danielle Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins co-star.

Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” stars Amy Adams as an exasperated mother who begins to have the feral urges of a wild dog as she fights the temptation to rebel against her suburban domesticity. From Variety’s review: “It’s been more than half a century since Helen Reddy sang, ‘I am woman, hear me roar!’ but the line remains as good a mantra as any for Amy Adams’ ferocious lead performance… The allegory is a bit confused, but the message still has bite in Marielle Heller’s surrealistic statement about all that mothers are asked to sacrifice.” Adams is nominated at the Golden Globes for her performance.

Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was a box office hit with $451 million worldwide. Micheal Keaton returns as the disruptive ghost with the most alongside newcomer Jenna Ortega as the tormented daughter of Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder, also back). Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review that the sequel has “got just enough Burton juice” to make it worth the price of admission, adding: “There’s good fan service and bad, and as stilted and gimcracky as it can sometimes be, I had a pretty good time at ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.’”

The Christopher Reeve documentary “Super/Man” is directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui and follows the late actor’s rise to superstardom as the Man of Steel, as well as his fight to find a cure for spinal cord injuries after he became a quadriplegic following a horse riding accident. Reeve’s family participated in the making of the doc, which includes personal archive material. Variety called the doc a “superbly made and supremely moving portrait of an actor’s rise and fall.”

The “A Quiet Place” prequel is now available to stream on Paramount+ or Prime Video. “Day One,” starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, follows a group of New York City residents as they fight to stay alive on the first day of a deadly alien invasion. The film grossed $261 million at the worldwide box office over the summer.

Playwright Annie Baker makes her feature directorial debut with the A24 mother-daughter drama “Janet Planet.” From Variety’s review: “Once again, A24 gambles on an unproven filmmaker, and once again, the indie studio comes away with an incredibly specific and personal glimpse into the mysteries of childhood… Baker has made an honest and endearing portrait of how an 11-year-old girl’s clingy relationship to her single mom evolves over the course of the summer between fifth and sixth grades. Watching it feels eerily akin to running one’s fingers along a scar sustained in childhood and being magically projected back to the moment that injury was sustained.”

Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as two troubled high school students who bond over their mutual love over a cult television series. But the show and mysterious events in their real lives lead them to question their reality and identities. From Variety’s review: “The character-centered setup is where ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ is most affecting, grounded by the tense, tacit bond between two highly guarded people — and given an electric jolt by Lundy-Paine’s fragile, volatile performance as someone certain there’s no accepting place for them outside the rectangular confines of the TV set.”

Scarlet Johansson and Channing Tatum’s historical romantic-comedy “Fly Me to the Moon” fizzled at the box office this summer with a weak $42 million worldwide on a reported $100 million production budget, but it deserves more eyeballs. Johansson plays a marketing specialist hired by NASA before the launch of Apollo 11 to film a fake moon landing in case the real mission fails. Tatum is the launch director who slowly wins her heart. Variety’s Peter Debruge called the movie a “crowd-pleaser” and “the rare 21st-century rom-com to boast the brains and heart to support repeat viewing.”

Megan Park’s crowdpleaser “My Old Ass” was one of the biggest hits at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Maisy Stella plays an 18 year old whose coming-of-age journey gets complicated when she gains the ability to see and communicate with her older self (Aubrey Plaza). From Variety’s review: “Megan Park’s amusing and emotional second feature presents an original riff on the fantasy of going back in time to advise your younger self.”

June Squibb earned critical acclaim for her leading role in “Thelma,” which debuted to great reviews at Sundance and earned a strong $9 million at the domestic box office. The 94-year-old Oscar nominee plays an elderly woman who breaks out of her old-age home on a mission to find the scammer who tricked her over the phone. From Variety’s review: “She’s been stealing scenes from the sidelines for decades, and now the ‘Nebraska’ favorite finally gets top billing as a headstrong woman who takes her scammers to task…she’s an unlikely yet satisfying action star.”

“Oddity” was one of the most acclaimed horror films of the year. Variety called the film an “effectively frightening and unexpectedly droll haunted-house horror” in its review earlier this year. The synopsis from Shudder reads: “When Dani is brutally murdered at the remote country house that she and her husband Ted are renovating, everyone suspects a patient from the local mental health institution, where Ted is a doctor. However, soon after the tragic killing, the suspect is found dead. A year later, Dani’s blind twin sister Darcy, a self-proclaimed psychic and collector of cursed items, pays an unexpected visit to Ted and his new girlfriend, Yana. Convinced that there was more to her sister’s murder than people know, Darcy has brought with her the most dangerous items from her cursed collection to help her exact revenge.”

“Late Night with the Devil” centers on a late night network broadcast devolving into supernatural chaos on Halloween night. David Dastmalchian leads the film as the Johnny Carson-esque host, whose desire for big ratings leads to terrifying consequences when he invites an allegedly possessed girl onto the show. From Variety’s review: “This isn’t the scariest movie, but neither is it entirely a self-conscious joke. The Cairnes maintain an astute balance between pop-culture irony, familiar if not always predictable thrills (including some creature/gore FX), and a kind of hallucinatory mass-media surrealism.”

The slasher hit “In a Violent Nature” became such a favorite among horror fans this year that a sequel is already on the way. Directed by Chris Nash, the movie puts a new spin on the horror subgenre by telling a frightening cabin-in-the-woods horror story entirely from the perspective of the killer. From Variety’s review: “This Canadian indie manages to keep us engaged, stirring queasy viewer dread if not much outright terror.

Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with Netflix’s “Woman of the Hour,” which is based on a true story. Kendrick stars as a contestant on “The Dating Game” in 1978, who picks Rodney Alcala as her potential date. Alcala, who died in prison in 2021, turned out to be a serial killer of at least eight victims but possibly over a hundred more. The “Dating Game” contestant, Cheryl Bradshaw, never went on the date with Alcala, who had already been convicted of being a sex offender. Daniel Zovatto plays the killer, who posed as a photographer in Los Angeles to take pictures of his victims. Tony Hale and Nicolette Robinson also star in the film.

Sean Wang’s “Didi” won the U.S. dramatic audience award at Sundance this year and grossed $4.8 million for Focus Features at the summer box office. The film follows a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy in the throes of an awkward adolescence in 2008, as he enjoys the last month of summer before high school begins. He experiences the pangs of first love, becomes friends with some skaters, fights with his older sister and gets a hard-earned understanding of his mom. From Variety’s review: “Wang does a nice job of balancing his naturally comedic sensibility with serious insights into how he triangulated his own identity as a teenager. Still relatively original in the overcrowded teen-movie genre, ‘Dìdi’ proves an effective calling card.”

Andrea Arnold’s latest directorial effort “Bird” centers on a 12-year-old girl who searches for meaning in life while coming of age alongside her unpredictable father (Barry Keoghan). From Variety’s review: “It certainly has Arnold’s empathy and integrity, as well as her raw-boned craftsmanship. It also has a couple of charismatic rising movie stars in key roles… Arnold, doing her indie-rock Dardenne thing, gives us many scenes of the camera following Bailey, tracking her movements over a wire-mesh bridge, and in that very tracking capturing what makes her a wayward soul. The film also spotlights Bailey’s cell-phone videos, mostly footage of birds that she projects onto her wall.”

Alice Rohrwacher’s enchanting “La Chimera” is led by “Challengers” and “The Crown” favorite Josh O’Connor and tells the beguiling tale of a group of grave robbers in Italy who must evade authorities and navigate interpersonal drama if they want to pull off their biggest score yet. Variety critic Guy Lodge named “La Chimera” a Critic’s Pick and called it “a marvelously supple and sinuous film,” adding praise for O’Connor: “Raffish and boyish at the same time — or switching between either mode as a cover for the other — O’Connor’s deft, droll performance implies such possibilities without sentimentalizing them.”

“Will & Harper” centers on the relationship between Will Ferrell and his best friend Harper Steele as they take a road trip. The two met during their days on “Saturday Night Live,” which Harper wrote for from 1995 to 2008. Harper came out as transgender in 2022. From Variety’s review: “You’ll laugh and you’ll cry as ‘Barb and Star Go to Del Mar’ director Josh Greenbaum shadows Ferrell and Steele on a revealing (entry-level) road trip. Structured as an on-camera road trip between two longtime friends, fueled by laughs and tears and the occasional ‘Borat’-style stunt, ‘Will & Harper’ gives the general public a chance to meet this incredible woman. Technically, Ferrell is meeting her for the first time, too.”

Azazel Jacobs’s acclaimed family drama “His Three Daughters” stars Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne as three sisters who converge in a New York City apartment to care for their ailing father and smooth over their rocky family history. From Variety’s review: “It’s a drama that’s funny, moving and true…The film is a finely observed, winningly unsentimental memory play about three adult sisters who have come together to take care of their father, who is dying of cancer and approaching his final days. It’s like ‘Cries and Whispers’ recast as a fast-talking tale of sibling rivalry.”

Glen Powell proved his star power this year in not only “Twisters” but also “Hit Man,” the Richard Linklater-directed crime comedy that Powell also co-wrote. Inspired by a true story, Powell plays an undercover New Orleans police officer who pretends to be a contract killer in order to arrest his clients. However, his latest case goes awry when he falls for the woman who hired him, played by Adria Arjona.

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s action romance “The Fall Guy” didn’t exactly set the box office on fire when it opened in May and grossed $171.8 million worldwide, but it’s certainly a blast worth streaming on Peacock. Gosling stars as a stunt man who agrees to search for the missing lead of a new Hollywood blockbuster being directed by his former flame (Blunt). The two stars’ chemistry earned rave reviews, with Variety critic Peter Debruge adding in his review: “Gosling serves up one of his most appealing characters yet, blending the dedicated action hero of ‘Drive’ with the charismatic ladies’ man of ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love.’”

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” earned $396 million at the worldwide box office this summer. The fourth chapter in the “Apes” reboot franchise from 20th Century Studios, “Kingdom” centers on a young ape named Noa (Owen Teague) who sets out to find his missing family when they are kidnapped. Kevin Durand, Freya Allen, William H. Macy and Peter Macon round out the cast. In his positive review, Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the film for connecting “with the spirit of ‘Planet of the Apes,’” adding: “I was more than gratified to sink into its relatively old-fashioned dramatic restraint.”

Inspired by the 1968 photo book of the same name by Danny Lyon, Jeff Nichols “The Bikeriders” follows a Chicago motorcycle gang and the tension that forms between a young member (Austin Butler) and the gang’s leader (Tom Hardy). The film’s cast also includes Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Emory Cohen and Norman Reedus. Variety’s Peter Debruge named the film the third best movie of 2024, writing:  “Nichols watches this social microcosm slowly implode upon itself, the way the gangster world did across the ‘Godfather’ saga. If that comparison sounds lofty, think again: ‘The Bikeriders’ resonates on multiple layers, interrogating American masculinity as Jodie Comer’s awestruck Kathy falls for one of these stallions.”

Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, “Daughters” centers on a program that allows young girls to participate in a special dance with their incarcerated fathers. The movie won the Audience Award in Documentary Competition at Sundance. A rave review for Variety reads: “The film is rife with visually lyrical moments that connect viewers with the young ones’ sorrows, fears, insights and hopes. In the hands of the directors, cinematographer Michael Cambio Fernandez and editors Troy Lewis and Adelina Bichis, the documentary exercises the kind of compassionate attention that leaves room for the girls to be girls.”

The Zellner Brothers’ absurdist comedy “Sasquatch Sunset” transforms Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg into Big Foot beasts thanks to heavy makeup and a whole lot of hair. The official synopsis reads: “In the misty forests of North America, a family of Sasquatches — possibly the last of their enigmatic kind — embark on an absurdist, epic, hilarious and ultimately poignant journey over the course of one year. These shaggy and noble giants fight for survival as they find themselves on a collision course with the ever-changing world around them.”

Rose Glass’s pulpy queer crime thriller “Loves Lies Bleeding” stars Kristen Stewart as the owner of a local gym in middle America who quickly falls for a bodybuilder who’s new to town. Their steamy romance is upended by murder. Variety critic Owen Gleiberman named “Love Lies Bleeding” a critic’s pick out of Sundance, writing: “The film tarts off lean and mean, then grows slowly and steadily more delirious… As the movie goes on, it generates enough ultra-violence and gonzo twists to be a midnight movie. ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ turns wild and garish, and you may think the film is losing control, yet Rose Glass is fiercely in control of what she’s doing.”

Winner of three British Independent Film Awards, the provocative queer thriller “Femme” centers on the relationship between a celebrated drag artist in London (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and the closeted gay man who brutally attacked him (George McKay). The two meet months later at a sauna and begin an affair all while the desire for revenge looms in the air. From Variety’s review: “A pair of sensational performances by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay, locked in a nervy duet as two men with virtually nothing in common but their sexuality, represents the chief selling point for this stylish, commendably uncompromising fusion of genre fireworks and measured, thoughtful character study.”

Nathan Silver’s comedy “Between the Temples” won Carol Kane the best supporting actress prize from the New York Film Critics Circle this year. Variety called the film a “winningly off-kilter comedy” in its rave review, adding: “Buoyed by the unlikely chemistry between its two stars, this alternately raucous and tender ‘Harold and Maude’ riff is the warmest work to date from microbudget auteur Silver…Collapsing divides between old age, middle age and adolescence into a universally relatable paean to doing whatever the hell feels right for you in your own weird situation, this scruffy shoestring indie won’t be seen by the internet’s most hawkish age-gap monitors, though it has much to gently teach them.”

Variety’s Peter Debruge named “A Different Man” the sixth best movie of 2024. The film, which won the Gotham Award for best feature, stars Sebastian Stan as struggling actor who finds success after undergoing a procedure to correct a facial disformity. His life is upended by the arrival of a beloved actor who has the same condition. Debruge writes: “The lesser-seen of two radical sci-fi fables this year, both confronting issues of body image in the film industry, Aaron Schimberg’s grungy dark comedy shares a ‘be careful what you wish for’ message with ‘The Substance,’ but pushed all kinds of buttons about representation, identity and casting.”