John Waters' Best Movies of 2024
The movie business as I knew it is now over. Except in New York City, where feel-bad, risk-taking, ratings-defying art flicks still play and I pay to see them in theaters. Thank you, distributors, from the bottom of my damaged little cinematic heart, for getting these films out there to the perverted public, who still demand to be startled and soothed by troublemaking directors from all over the world. Here they are — my ten best. See them and suffer … joyously.
1.
Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
This hilarious, bloody film noir is the best movie of the year, one that Russ Meyer might have made if he had been a lesbian intellectual addicted to steroids. Even the pig-men are cute. Sort of.
2.
Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
Daniel Craig may be queerbait for taking on the gay beatnik role of William Burroughs’s alter ego, but I’m all for it. He’s absolutely brilliant and even has a “snowball” scene, a happy reminder of a sex act I had long forgotten. Oh, if today’s homos were this radical, I’d be a much happier queer myself.
3.
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
A cold-as-concrete VistaVision (!) epic about the cruelty of architecture and the agony of being ahead of your time, with Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce butting to the front of the line of Oscars hopefuls. Yes, the running time is 3.5 hours, but the only thing too long is the intermission.
4.
Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
A horribly sad and sometimes hilariously funny portrait of the most unpleasant sourpuss woman in the history of cinema. She’s a rotten mother and a terrible wife, and everyone around her is racked with pain except the audience, which slowly begins to root for her. A wretched experience I’ll cherish forever.
5.
Messy (Alexi Wasser)
A snappy, witty little indie by a new female auteur (who also stars in the film) that brings to mind the best of Woody Allen’s comedies with very different subject matter: hipster women and their sex addictions. It’s sparkling, it’s rude, it’s knowing, and it’s hot. I’m glad young people are still angry and confused about mating.
6.
Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips)
Finally, a love story I can relate to. So insane, so well thought out, so well directed, so much smoking! It’s Jailhouse Rock meets Busby Berkeley with a 9/11 That’s Entertainment! ending that will make you shake your head in cinematic astonishment. Stupid critics. Gaga so good. Joker so right. Die, dumbbells, die!
7.
Femme (Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping)
A twisted S&M love affair between a black drag queen (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and a white rough-trade gay-basher (George MacKay) that gives new meaning to sexual role-playing. Butch? Femme? It’s all drag when it comes down to being a “top” or “bottom.” Each man kills the thing he loves, indeed.
8.
Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard)
The Rocky Cartel Horror Picture Show: This wildly original musical-drama about the Mexican drug syndicate and its trans crime boss hiding in plain sight proves you can sing about anything in a film if it’s well-enough directed. Right now, I’m belting out, “It’s No. 8 on my list,” and who knows, maybe I’ll make a movie about it?
9.
Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
Okay, heteros are cutting edge this year, too. Nicole Kidman continues taking big chances in her career, and she deserves our salute. Here, she howls, she moans. She’s a verbal power-bottom cougar at the top of her business-executive career who meets a dominant, lowly intern top who makes her lap up milk from a bowl like … like … well, like a pussy.
10.
Viet and Nam (Truong Minh Quy)
Who could knock off Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, and Guy Maddin’s terrific new films from my list this year? I’ll tell you who, and they’d probably understand why I’m giving this new (to me) filmmaker the spot. It’s an eerie, surprisingly haunting drama about two young gay coal miners, one of whom licks anal blood off his partner’s stomach and the other eats wax from his lover’s ears before they flee together to foreign shores as immigrants in a doomed floating container. It’s a beaut.