First things first: It wasn’t a great year at the movies.

Hollywood, bouncing back from last year’s twin strikes, had a bit of a rocky schedule. There wasn’t a consensus crowd-pleaser that united great swaths of moviegoers the way “Top Gun: Maverick” did in 2022 or “Barbie” did in 2023. And with few exceptions, the sequel and IP mindset that drives the studios — at present, 11 of the year’s 12 highest-grossing movies are all sequels or franchise entries, and the other is based on a wildly popular musical that’s been in the culture for 20 years — continues to underwhelm.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t exciting, thrilling, wondrous movies to be found; there were just fewer of them this trip around the sun.

Here’s my list of the 10 best movies of 2024.

10. ‘Snack Shack’

In Adam Carter Rehmeier’s throwback ‘90s coming-of-age summer comedy, Moose is a fast-talking slickster who runs a poolside snack shack for the summer with his best bud A. J. and Brooke, the lifeguard who comes between them. The vibes here are as pristine as a lazy August day that never seems to end. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)

9. ‘My Old Ass’

This thoughtful, engaging and bittersweet coming-of-age story is so well done that it doesn’t even bother explaining the logistics of its time travel premise. The delightful Maisy Stella is about to head off to college and Aubrey Plaza is the older version of herself, who becomes her mentor of sorts. Others might get caught up in the details, but writer-director Megan Park focuses on what matters, the heart, and lets everything else fall by the wayside. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)

8. ‘A Real Pain’

Kieran Culkin is a wiry emotional timebomb in writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s exploration of the relationship between two cousins who go on a Holocaust remembrance tour to Poland. Eisenberg is his neurotic travel partner, both in awe of and embarrassed by his cousin’s combustible personality, and together we walk the tightrope in this slyly observed dramedy that is equal parts sharp, funny and devastating. (In theaters)

7. ‘Longlegs’

Dread hangs over this serial killer tale — part “Silence of the Lambs,” part “Se7en” — like a thick, dense layer of fog. Maika Monroe is a rookie FBI agent tracking a serial killer, and Nicolas Cage, insane even by Nicolas Cage standards, is the pale-faced glam rock occultist responsible for the murders in writer-director Osgood Perkins’ atmospheric doom machine. (Available for rental)

6. ‘Anora’

In this not-quite-fairy tale about a whirlwind marriage between the son of a Russian oligarch and a New York sex worker, everything goes spectacularly wrong, and writer-director Sean Baker lets his characters pick up the pieces. (In theaters)

5. ‘Dune: Part Two’

“Dune’s” kinda clunky first chapter had the burden of introducing this massive Spice world and its many inhabitants, while this second chapter navigates that world much more fluidly. Timothée Chalamet and company all build on their characters, while Austin Butler is killer as the story’s bald-headed, black-toothed baddie. Hollywood doesn’t get much bigger than this. (Available on Max)

4. ‘Civil War’Alex Garland’s cracked view of an America at war with itself doesn’t take traditional sides but rather depicts the worst-case scenario vision of our deeply divided state. Kirsten Dunst is a war photographer and Cailee Spaeny is her young apprentice headed together to Washington, D.C., in the middle of an overthrow of the government. Garland presents a deeply unsettling mosaic, most terrifyingly embodied through Jesse Plemons’ rogue soldier who asks in a chilly, disaffected tone, “What kind of American are you?” (Available on Max)

3. ‘The Substance’

Demi Moore has never been nominated for an Academy Award, but she deserves to be for her role as a fading star, aging out of Hollywood in this bonkers body horror satire, which keeps pushing boundaries until there are no more boundaries to push. Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a former starlet who undergoes an experimental procedure to extend her youth, and then everything goes hilariously haywire. (Available on Mubi)

2. ‘Robot Dreams’

Dog and Robot are two best friends in this simple, dialogue-free, but lovingly rendered ode to friendship, loss and moving on. Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger creates an alternate New York, entirely inhabited by animals, but where the sweet sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire still ring out every September. No movie this year was sweeter, more straightforward or more heartbreaking. (Available on Hulu and Disney+)

1. ‘Challengers’

Through its performances, score and visuals, no movie this year felt more radically, thoroughly alive than this hyper-sexual sports romance about a red hot love triangle between three tennis players. It’s the most exciting, most pulse-racing movie of the year — game, set, match. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)