Best Movies of 2024: Best New Movies to Watch Now
Welcome to our guide of the Best Movies of 2024, featuring every Certified Fresh movie as they come in week by week!
And what about February? Dune pretty good, thanks for asking. Part Two went Certified Fresh within an hour after the reviews embargo lifted on February 21st. With it outclassing the first Dune, we took a look at 20 sequels that got better Tomatometer scores than their originals. Otherwise, things got freaky with horror film Stopmotion and the comic zaniness of Hundreds of Beavers taking the crown for the best-reviewed of the year.
We didn’t have a blockbuster January like we did in 2023‘s, when genre surprises M3GAN and Plane went Certified Fresh. But Daisy Ridley got her post-Skywalker win with Sometimes I Think About Dying. Mads Mikkelsen re-teamed with his A Royal Affair director Nikolaj Arcel to find The Promised Land. With The Crime Is Mine, Francois Ozon is getting career-best reviews, and his 10th Certified Fresh film over the past decade-and-change. And Netflix scored with The Kitchen, Orion and the Dark, and Good Grief.
#1
Adjusted Score: 99805%
Critics Consensus: Sustaining a zany premise with stylistic bravura and inspired gags, Hundreds of Beavers is a comedic gem that gives a dam.
Synopsis: A slapstick epic about a frostbitten battle between JEAN KAYAK and DIABOLICAL BEAVERS–hundreds of them–who stand between him and survival…. [More]
#2
Adjusted Score: 99834%
Critics Consensus: With alluring razzmatazz, The Crime is Mine and its superlative stars will seduce farce lovers and Francophiles.
Synopsis: In 1930s Paris, Madeleine, a pretty, young, penniless and talentless actress, is accused of murdering a famous producer. Helped by… [More]
#3
Adjusted Score: 99540%
Critics Consensus: Following its own alluringly inscrutable path between past, present, reality, and dreams, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell rewards patient viewers with an absorbing spiritual odyssey.
Synopsis: Winner of the prestigious Camera d’Or for best first film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the enthralling Inside the… [More]
#4
Adjusted Score: 99361%
Critics Consensus: More than making up in style and sheer creativity whatever it might lack in terms of budget, Molli and Max in the Future blends sci-fi and rom-com to wildly entertaining effect.
Synopsis: ‘Molli and Max in the Future’ is a sci-fi romantic comedy about a man and woman whose orbits repeatedly collide… [More]
#5
Adjusted Score: 100253%
Critics Consensus: A heartfelt film that tells a poignant story without straying into sentimentality, Tótem is a life-affirming triumph for writer-director Lila Avilés.
Synopsis: In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in a whirlwind of preparations for the birthday party for… [More]
#6
Adjusted Score: 101376%
Critics Consensus: Mads Mikkelson leads us through the savage terrain of The Promised Land with a glimmer of hope in this epic Nordic tale with Western bones.
Synopsis: In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) — a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero — sets out… [More]
#7
Adjusted Score: 99428%
Critics Consensus: A journey toward hope, Io Capitano perambulates through the ravishing Saharan landscape encountering the most sublime and debased corners of humanity.
Synopsis: In this acclaimed film which won top directing and acting prizes at the Venice Film Festival, writer-director Garrone presents a… [More]
#8
Adjusted Score: 96610%
Critics Consensus: Led by a Maddie Ziegler performance that’s as funny as it is fearless, Fitting In takes a boldly provocative look at the assumptions and expectations surrounding modern femininity.
Synopsis: A coming-of-age “traumedy” that follows 16-year-old Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) who is unexpectedly diagnosed with a reproductive condition, MRKH syndrome. The… [More]
#9
Adjusted Score: 95689%
Critics Consensus: Fueled by the sparkling chemistry between Line Renaud and Dany Boon, Driving Madeleine proves a sweetly sentimental drama that deftly tugs the heartstrings.
Synopsis: Madeleine, 92 years old, calls a taxi to take her to the retirement home where she will be living. Charles,… [More]
#10
Adjusted Score: 127048%
Critics Consensus: Visually thrilling and narratively epic, Dune: Part Two continues Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the beloved sci-fi series in spectacular form.
Synopsis: “Dune: Part Two” will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while… [More]
#11
Adjusted Score: 95305%
Critics Consensus: As harrowing as it is humane, The Settlers serves as a sharp-edged excavation of long-marginalized history.
Synopsis: Chile, 1901. Three horsemen embark on an expedition, tasked with securing a wealthy landowner’s vast property. Accompanying a reckless British… [More]
#12
Adjusted Score: 93953%
Critics Consensus: About Dry Grasses keeps us warm with dark humor through its unhurried and verbose wintry meditation on the human condition.
Synopsis: Nestled away in wintry East Anatolia, public-school art teacher Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) yearns to leave the sleepy village for cosmopolitan… [More]
#13
Adjusted Score: 96684%
Critics Consensus: An uncommonly ambitious animated film, Orion and the Dark benefits from a Charlie Kaufman screenplay that isn’t afraid to tangle with existential ideas.
Synopsis: The thing Orion fears the most is the dark. When the embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark… [More]
#14
Adjusted Score: 91601%
Critics Consensus: Smart sci-fi that’s solidly grounded in social commentary, The Kitchen suggests a bright future for the directing duo of Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares.
Synopsis: London, 2040 — rising house prices, computerized labor and eradication of the Welfare State has turned the city into a… [More]
#15
Adjusted Score: 90070%
Critics Consensus: Stopmotion takes the conflict between art and artist to chilling, visually thrilling extremes, distinguished by director Robert Morgan’s excellent effects work.
Synopsis: A talented stop-motion animator becomes consumed by the grotesque world of her horrifying creations — with deadly results…. [More]
#16
Adjusted Score: 89742%
Critics Consensus: Carried by Lily Sullivan’s outstanding lead performance and enriched by an expertly administered sense of creeping claustrophobia, Monolith is an eerie thriller that burns slow and lingers.
Synopsis: While trying to salvage her career, a disgraced journalist begins investigating a strange conspiracy theory. But as the trail leads… [More]
#17
Adjusted Score: 87598%
Critics Consensus: Visually stylish and alluring in a dreamlike way, Disco Boy finds writer-director Giacomo Abbruzzese building on his obvious influences to tell a story that’s distinctive in its own right.
Synopsis: After a painful journey through Europe, Alex, the Belarusian, joins the Foreign Legion in France and clings to a confused… [More]
#18
Adjusted Score: 86495%
Critics Consensus: Departing from corporate comedy,Sometimes I Think About Dying modestly explores critical human connection through a superbly melancholic Daisy Ridley.
Synopsis: Lost on the dreary Oregon coast, Fran finds solace in her cubicle, listening to the constant hum of officemates and… [More]
#19
Adjusted Score: 81595%
Critics Consensus: A solid first feature for writer-director Dan Levy, Good Grief offers a generally affecting look at love after death whose refreshing sincerity only occasionally veers into sentimentality.
Synopsis: Marc (Daniel Levy) was content living in the shadow of his larger-than-life husband, Oliver (Luke Evans). But when Oliver unexpectedly… [More]
#20
Adjusted Score: 74424%
Critics Consensus: Debuting director Jake Johnson acquits himself admirably with Self Reliance, a unique comedy-thriller hybrid that does a generally effective job of balancing silly and sincere.
Synopsis: When a middle-aged man (Jake Johnson) is invited into a limo by famous actor Andy Samberg, his dull life takes… [More]