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Last year, I watched over 210 films — more than 400 hours — with 86 of them released in 2024. Thank you, AMC A-List, for fueling this addiction, providing endless date nights, and turning the love of cinema into a nightly ritual. With the 2025 Oscars ceremony recently concluding, here are my top 10 films of last year, along with the Letterboxd reviews I wrote for them.
Lisa Frankenstein (Directed by Zelda Williams)
Rating: 4/5
Lisa Swallows might be the only woman I’d turn heterosexual for. pure masterclass in camp cinema. this was so so so incredibly charming, genuinely funny, and a modern film that finally is so saturated and stylistic. I definitely think its only weaknesses lie within its beginning, where I was worried it would just be another cheesy film desperately trying to recapture the cheesy magic only early 2000s films of this nature could. To my surprise, the second and third acts of this movie actually do capture those indescribable feelings of our cinematic guilty pleasures. Even the moments in this film that attempt to be deep genuinely warmed my heart instead of making me wince in my seat. A film that unjustifiably probably will be missed by the masses. Yet another new classic for me!
Wicked (Directed by Jon M. Chu)
Rating: 4/5
Republicans watching this on Thanksgiving: “Is this f*cking play about us?”
It’s criminal we have to wait a year to hear their rendition of “For good.” this actually reignited my hope that Hollywood is still capable of actually making amazing blockbusters after the amount of slop this year so far. this was such an amazing experience, I was sat open-mouthed smiling for most of this film I probably looked psychotic. I completely didn’t think she had it in her, but Ariana Grande is a STAR. the singing, the dancing, the comedic timing; she became Galinda. I’m also happy to see Cynthia Erivo is getting her much deserved flowers for this performance here too. I’m so thankful this movie has been delayed for the last two decades because outside of the OGs, they truly were meant for these roles. I felt exactly the same excitement I felt in the theater as I did seeing it on Broadway earlier this year—it’s such a great translation of this stage show to the screen, and people are so lucky to be able to experience it.
There are some moments where the lighting and coloring are a bit dull, but there are other scenes that easily prove that complaint wrong as well. Michelle Yeoh is in a completely different movie than everyone else here; her performance is truly my only other gripe.
So so so magical, and I can’t wait to see it again as soon as possible.
Nightbitch (Directed by Marielle Heller)
Rating: 4.5/5
I was in the theater expecting to join the doubters and dissenters of this film, but I left loving it. Sure, its scope can be limited, but the execution here that is propelled by Amy Adam’s performance was so great! The child actor in this deserves so much praise, where is his Oscar buzz?
Sing Sing (Directed by Greg Kwedar)
Rating: 4.5/5
This is the yasssification for the perception of male prisons, like “orange is the new black” was the yasssification for the perception of female prisons. One of the most absolutely heartwarming films of the year for me.
Queer (Directed by Luca Guadagnino)
Rating: 4.5/5
Starting to think this movie is just for gay people to understand, and that’s perfectly okay. I think Lee is such a great depiction of what almost every gay person expects their life to be. Undeserving of love; whether it be because of society, their family’s view of them, or their own moral dilemmas. He quite literally refers to his queerness as a “sickness.” Society tries to tell us that real love isn’t meant for us; those traditional love stories aren’t ours. Lee was able to feel it for a moment and had to make that tiny experience of love last his entire life. That feeling of love couldn’t be replicated through the high he chased from drugs or through the unemotional hookups he encountered.
I’m so grateful I’ve been able to realize that I deserve that real love for the rest of my lifetime, and found someone who thinks the same
Conclave (Directed by Edward Berger)
Rating: 4.5/5
RuPaul’s Drag Race for Catholics… these queens were so so so messy.
Didi (Directed by Sean Wang)
Rating: 4.5/5
Was sat in the theater, actually wishing death on every character who put the mom through absolute hell.
His Three Daughters (Directed by Azazel Jacobs)
Rating: 4.5/5
This was just such a beautiful and emotional showcase of how alongside the sheer loss that occurs with death, its process can simply make us use the time it takes to… listen.
“the only way to put things into perspective… what they did, who they were, how they loved and were… had nothing to do with death in real life, so he wanted to explain to me that… the death that we were seeing in the film that books, and films, and everything that tries to show us death, fails.”
Problemista (Directed by Julio Torres)
Rating: 5/5
LOVED THIS!!! the writing was so funny, and I was hooked from beginning to end. it offers such great commentary on such serious issues as immigrating to the United States, the sickening joke that job searching is, and the made-up systems made to protect our livelihoods (that just end up hurting us more in the end). THE ENDING WAS SO SWEET!! I CRIED. I LOVE YOU TILDA SWINTON!!! All I wish is that they kind of offered her character a bit more of a redemption arc in the final act of the film; it would’ve been perfect! definitely my favorite 2024 film so far.
Memoir of a Snail (Directed by Adam Elliot)
Rating: 5/5
Thank god for the ending because every scene had me further on the brink of also ingesting snail poison.
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