HAMMER TO NAIL’S BEST FILMS OF 2024 (Part II)

Dear Hammer to Nail readers- Happy New Year and thanks for your unwavering support. Things have been going very well here at HtN with nary a dry spell for new indie films. Sundance is just around the corner and that always kicks off a deluge of new, great films. Speaking of, last week we ran part one of our “Best Films of 2024.” Since we have an ever deepening and diverse staff, we broke the lists into two parts. Below, find part two featuring Editor in Chief Don R. Lewis as well as staffers Jack Schenker, M.J. O’Toole and Bears Rebecca Fonte.

Critic M.J. O’Toole.

NARRATIVE FICTION

1. The Beast
2. I Saw The TV Glow
3. Hard Truths
4. Nosferatu
5. Hundreds of Beavers
6. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
7. Sing Sing
8. Between The Temples
9. Flow
10. Universal Language

Hundreds of Beavers

I was lucky to be one of the first to see Mike Cheslik’s feature debut Hundreds of Beavers as a juror at the 2023 Oxford Film Festival.I was unprepared for the amount of gonzo energy and slapstick splendor I would experience. Its micro-budget innovativeness and ability to exceed expectations made it a no-brainer for me and my fellow jurors to award it Best Narrative Feature that year. When I saw it again this year at IFC Center during its North American theatrical tour, the film – not to mention the live performance brawls and drunken Q+As – made the audience go wild with laughter and sheer amazement. Cheslik and star/co-writer Ryland Brickson Cole Tews give the story an immense creative charm that forgoes realism in this bewildering tale that just gets crazier and crazier. This, along with the unforgettable moviegoing experiences they brought on the road, are why I consider this the best comedy of 2024. I can’t wait to see what lunacy Cheslik and Tews come up with next.

DOCUMENTARY

• No Other Land
• Sugarcane
• Dahomey
• Gaucho Gaucho
• Mediha
• Mistress Dispeller
• Ryuichi Sakomoto | Opus
• Flipside
• Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat
• Skywalkers: A Love Story

Critic Bears Rebecca Fonté

NARRATIVE FICTION

1. Queens of Drama
2. Civil War
3. Ponyboi
4. Sleep
5. Maxxxine
6. Summer Solstice
7. Kneecap
8. We Were Dangerous
9. Femme
10. Light Light Light

A still from KNEECAP

DOCUMENTARIES

1. Dickweed
2. Eternal You
3. The Anti Social Network
4. The Truth vs. Alex Jones
5. Seeking Mavis Beacon
6. Desire Lines
7. Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion
8. Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
9. Zurawski v Texas
10. Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

Critic Jack Schenker

1. Nickel Boys
2. I Saw The Tv Glow
3. The Substance
4. Dune 2
5. Furiosa
6. Nosferatu
7. Seed of the Sacred Fig
8. Anora
9. The Beast
10. First Omen

Honorable Mentions: Challengers, Perfect Days, Close Your Eyes, Oddity, Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World, Love Lies Bleeding, Between The Temples

The Beast

Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast stands as one of the years most ambitious and mesmerizing achievements – a genre-defying epic that feels like Cloud Atlas reimagined through the combined sensibilities of Lynch and Cronenberg. Spanning multiple time periods with remarkable formal precision, Bonello weaves together period drama, psychological thriller, and cerebral sci-fi. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay deliver spellbinding performances as souls caught in an eternal dance across time, their chemistry evolving with each new incarnation. What begins as a lush period piece transforms into something far more challenging and profound – a meditation on fear, connection, and the cyclical nature of human experience. While its bold structure and metaphysical themes may perplex mainstream audiences, The Beast represents the kind of fearless filmmaking that demands to be experienced on the big screen, where Bonello’s stunning direction and thematic ambitions can fully envelop the viewer. In a landscape of increasingly timid sci-fi, here is a film willing to be both intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant, crafting something that feels genuinely new while paying homage to the genre’s most thoughtful traditions.

Editor in Chief Don R. Lewis

NARRATIVE FICTION

• The Substance
• My Old Ass
• A Real Pain
• Sasquatch Sunset
• A Complete Unknown
• Anora
• I Saw The Tv Glow
• Dune 2
• Longlegs
• Azrael

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