2024 was a great year for film if your name is Robert J Gannon and you're addicted to weird fiction and genre films. Slyness aside, it's been a very long time since we've had so many compelling, cross-genre explorations releasing theatrically in a single year and 2024's cinema landscape will hold a place close to my heart for many years to come.

I'll be listing my top 10 films of the year in no particular order, then revealing the two best in the category. As previously established with the Sketchys, these awards do not gender categories, so every category has 10 nominations and 2 winners.

"Let's Party in Hell," music video from Choriza May

When I say cross-genre offerings had a fantastic year, this music video is exhibit A. Choriza May, in preparation for competing in RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs The World Series 2, recorded an original talent show track called "Let's Party in Hell." The music video is a fantastic horror/dark fantasy/brutal comedy film about a family hiring the cheapest entertainer they could for their unpopular son's birthday party. Out pops Choriza May, with devil horns, tricking the young boy into believing all the guests at his party are actually pinatas that he must pop open to get the candy inside. It's a deranged, New Wave Spanish horror film at the same level of disturbing as Piggy or Veronica. 

The Substance

"Respect the balance." I'm not an "I told you so" kind of critic. I will proudly say that I awarded writer/director Coralie Fargeat with wins in more categories than not for her previous feminist, deeply critical exploration of the cruelty of male-dominated society revenge/horror film Revenge in 2017. The world has caught up by recognizing her follow-up feature film The Substance and I've been on Cloud 9 for months. This satire/body horror/feminist critique of Hollywood sees a trio of star performers (Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid) commit to exceptionally realistic performances of absolutely grotesque images and concepts for two hours. Flowers for everyone, especially [redacted]'s debut in Act III.

I Saw the TV Glow

I feel seen, called out, terrified, and hopeful everytime I rewatch I Saw the TV Glow from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun. The story of two teenagers finding their true identity and purpose through their relationship to a 90s tween monster of the week show is fantastic. This is one of the most honest trans/asexual/aromantic narratives ever constructed in any medium and it deserves our full protection. Cradle this gem from the horrors of society and join us in The Pink Opaque.

Love Lies Bleeding

So Exhibit B in my cross-genre Renaissance argument is Sketching Details' favorite Rose Glass' film Love Lies Bleeding. This queer romance/crime drama/thriller/body horror/Magical Realist film about a gym worker falling in love with an amateur body builder is unlike any film you've ever seen before. Glass, famous for my comfort film Saint Maud, gets into the psychology of love blindness and competitive drive without turning away from the innate horror of steroid abuse, addiction, and generational trauma. And that third act? A fever dream beyond my wildest imagination. 

Longlegs

My biggest question mark for 2024 cinema is how Longlegs basically failed to gain any awards traction. I saw the film three times in theaters and more times at home than I care to admit. Writer/director Osgood Perkins knocked it out of the park on his debut feature-length film and earns the victory lap of a reveal at the end of the film. This is the 2024 version of Silence of the Lambs, only unquestionably a horror film. The cast, the production, and editors Greg Ng and Graham Fortin joined forces to create one of the most remarkable murder mystery/thrillers I've ever seen. "Let me in now," indeed.

Challengers

As a friendly reminder, Challengers was originally slated to be a big awards season contender with a release date of fall 2023. The writers and actors strikers pushed the release to the following spring and it's still holding on for categories like Original Score at precursor awards. Imagine the alternate reality where Challengers was competing against Oppenheimer and Poor Things as a stylish, romantic/sports crowdpleaser of a film. Imagine Zendaya finally breaking through at the Oscars and Luca Guadagnino taking another lap at the Academy Awards. The hype is less present in 2024, but the film still holds as a fantastic, stylish romance about tennis dreams made and broken on the court.

“The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel,” video essay from Jenny Nicholson

Move over The Brutalist, there's a far more engaging and somehow even longer film about architectural choices to watch from 2024. Jenny Nicholson's 4+ hour post-mortem analysis of the Star Wars Hotel experience is riveting. Imagine if Sisyphus, the mythological metaphor for the pointless grind of modern corporate existence, could live vlog himself watching the boulder roll back down the hill day after day with witty and increasingly despondent commentary. That's Jenny Nicholson's first-hand experience with the failed Star Wars hotel at Disney World. Nicholson, a superfan of Star Wars, Disney, and Theme Parks, was poised to love this experience more than any other theme park creator in the world. Instead, every step of the way, the people running this interactive experience dropped the ball. How do you put a well-known media critic behind a pole for a seated dinner show so she can't actually watch and review the show? That's not even the worse of the stay. This video essay is riveting and became a pop culture touchstone in its own right when major media outlets reported on the video essay. 

Nickel Boys

Exhibit C for cross-genre exploration dominating my cinematic experience of 2024. Nickel Boys is an experimental film wrapped around a historical drama about two African American boys trying to survive in an abusive boarding school in the 1960s. The creativity on display is mind-blowing. This film is shot in first-person, drawing you into the action and emotion of the storytelling with no way to escape. If you experience joy, it's exhilerating; if you experience pain, it's devastating. This is writer/director RaMell Ross' debut narrative film and I'm chomping at the bit to see where he goes from here.

Didi

I saw an advanced screening of Didi and kind of fell in love. This is the debut film of writer/director Sean Wang and tells the coming-of-age story of Chris (aka Di Di), the American-born son of a Taiwanese immigrant mother. Chris is trying to find his way in the world as a teenager in an immigrant family that doesn't fully accept American teen culture and as a teenage boy dealing with the realities of microaggressions and internalized racism in his community. I'm not selling this right. The film is a lot of fun to watch and certainly a crowd-pleaser; it's just not afraid to deal with the darker aspects of reality for its characters. Sean Wang has a strong voice that deserves to be heard.

Nightbitch

Marielle Heller has quickly become one of my favorite working writer/directors. She has a strong eye for visual storytelling and a mind that knows how to bring out the deeper psychological reality of the characters she's directing. Nightbitch is exhibit D for cross-genre filmmaking in 2024. This dark comedy/horror/satire/character study follows a never-better Amy Adams playing a professional artist and stay-at-home mother convinced she's becoming a literal dog. The source novel by Rachel Yoder is a wild ride, and Heller makes the story feel real onscreen. And I cannot stress this enough: not a werewolf, a dog. And that might not be the weirdest thing happening in the film.

And the top films of 2024 are:

I Saw the TV Glow and Love Lies Bleeding

Don't make me chose because I refuse. This is the result after eliminating a six-way tie for the best film of the year and all but turning to a random generator to narrow down 23 films to a Top 10.

More categories will be revealed over the coming weeks. This barely scratches the surface of what a great year for film 2024 was.