Neon lights, creepy birds, white people rapping the studio spawned an aesthetic universe.
Here are the good, bad, and vibe-y.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
A new verbal tic has taken over cinephile circles.
Because for movie fans,the indie studios badge means something.
Its a marker of quality, but more than that, its a promise of a certain singularity.
But I have because Ive seen every A24 movie.
The festival darlings and the horrible flops, the toniest Oscar bait and the sleaziest slashers.
In this list, Ive ranked all of them from worst to best.
As you might be able to guess, dozens of them do, often wildly so.
And baby, youd better believe there are some bad ones.
Strap on your Furby necklace, cook up a plate of spaghetti, and get ready to live deliciously.
Note: This list covers narrative features only.
If you seekAmy, you wont find it here.
These ones do, too, but in the opposite way.
Theyre impossible to describe while keeping a straight face.
Some come from venerated filmmakers whod lost the plot; some come from neophytes in over their heads.
Their terribleness is proof theres a downside to creative freedom.
But give them this: They are frequently bonkers in a way that focus-grouped studio fare could never achieve.
113.The Vanishing of Sidney Hall(2018)
113.
Is it the fact that every woman in his life is presented as totally devoid of independent thought?
What little we hear of it is terrible, of course.
112.A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III(2013)
112.
111.Slice(2018)
111.
(If theyre ghosts, why do they look and act more like zombies?)
You could forgive all this if the movie were funny.
Instead, its a laugh-free wasteland that feels twice as long as its meager 83-minute run time.
110.The Sea of Trees(2016)
110.
109.Revenge of the Green Dragons(2014)
109.
A Chinese AmericanGoodfellasbased on aNew Yorkerstory, co-directed byInfernal Affairs Andrew Lau and executive-produced by Martin Scorsese himself?
This movie should be much better than the slo-mo-ridden cheesefest it is.
108.The Captive(2014)
108.
Man, what happened toAtom Egoyan?
The mind boggles at how the same guy made bothThe Sweet Hereafterand this very special episode ofSVU: Canada.
When faced with villains this ridiculous, the only thing to do is guffaw incredulously.
This is preferable to the reaction the rest of the film arouses: yawns.
107.Remember(2016)
107.
To say it strains credulity is an understatement.
The bigthird-act surpriseisCaptive-level bad, though, and its no less goofy for being entirely predictable.
106.Dark Places(2015)
106.
The sole failure in the Gillian Flynn cinematic universe,Dark Placesis the definition of a lot going on.
105.Low Tide(2019)
105.
The films wistful romanticization of these bozos feels as fake as pyrite.
104.Outlaws(2019)
104.
As far as I can tell, that never happened.
103.The Adderall Diaries(2016)
103.
A cursed production in whichJames Francoplays authorStephen Elliott, with an underwritten love-interest part forAmber Heard.
102.Free Fire(2017)
102.
I bet it was fun to makeFree Fire.
101.Backstabbing for Beginners(2018)
101.
Dont be fooled by the title, which hints at a puckishness absent from the movie itself.
The movie that exists offers only bland intrigue.
100.Tusk(2014)
100.
Twenty years into his career, Kevin Smith was feeling burned-out.
99.The Last Movie Star(2018)
99.
Every so often, a movie comes around with the aim of resuscitating an aging legends career.
Unfortunately, they cant all beNebraska.
98.False Positive(2021) (co-produced)
98.
(A workplace subplot has the tenor of a Buzzfeed video about microaggressions.)
The insemination isnt the only thing here thats artificial.
97.Barely Lethal(2015)
97.
Its also about 3 percent funnier than it needs to be.
96.Life After Beth(2014)
96.
95.Woodshock(2017)
95.
94.The Monster(2016)
94.
93.The Sky Is Everywhere(2022)
93.
92.The Death of Dick Long(2019) (co-produced)
92.
91.Cut Bank(2015)
91.
Its like I always say: Never send a Hemsworth to do William H. Macys job.
90.Under the Silver Lake(2019)
90.
If we were awarding points solely for ambition, this L.A. neo-noir would be much higher on the list.
A24 didnt think much of the film, delaying its release multiple times before burying it.
89.Mid90s(2018) (co-produced)
89.
88.The Hole in the Ground(2019)
88.
87.The Ballad of Lefty Brown(2017)
87.
86.Native Son(2019) (co-produced)
86.
But the films decision to play the book basically straight puts it on an odd wavelength.
85.The Rover(2014)
85.
84.In Fabric(2019)
84.
This is a movie that could have been made by only one person.
83.Into the Forest(2016)
83.
Nerves fray and rumors fly, but on the bright side, people also learn new hobbies!
(In this case, berry picking and pig slaughtering.)
Also, more than a year into this blackout, theyve still got perfect hair and makeup?
82.Woman Walks Ahead(2018)
82.
Its a good frisson, but otherwise the title is apt.
This is a movie that walks rather than runs.
81.Bodies Bodies Bodies(2022) (co-produced)
81.
And one of thems played by Pete Davidson?
Still, I would be lying if I said Ineverlaughed.
80.The Kill Team(2019)
80.
How much doesThe Kill Teamnot exist?
79.Never Goin Back(2018)
79.
Dirtbag teens Maia Mitchell and Camila Morrone attempt to make rent money in Augustine Frizzells scruffy debut.
Everyone onscreen feels more like a character in a script than a real person.
78.Skin(2019)
78.
Move over Albert Speer theres a new Nazi who said sorry.
Ironically, though,Skins human drama rarely gets below the surface.
77.Son of a Gun(2015)
77.
76.How to Talk to Girls at Parties(2018)
76.
Mitchells giving us a rock opera when three chords would do.
75.Mojave(2016)
75.
You know the Florida A24 movies: neon carnival rides through the underbelly of America.
And you know the New York A24 movies: grittyverite-style projects filled with freakazoids.
But a striking performance can redeem a lot, and Isaac is devilishly good in this.
He achievesPacinos dreamof single-handedly making a bad movie mediocre.
74.The Children Act(2018)
74.
(Its a co-production with the BBC.)
So far, soChicago Med, until a second-act turn shakes the plot out of its predictable rhythms.
Unfortunately, the film remains too stately and middlebrow to dive into its strange new dynamic.
If you didnt catch that its based on an Ian McEwan novel, you could probably guess.
73.Morris From America(2016)
73.
Good thing Craig Robinson is on hand to add some poignancy as Morriss well-meaning dad.
72.Equals(2016)
- you’re able to very easily?
But not a bad one.
Visually, its a meal a world of granite modernism mixed with botanic-garden excess.
(It was shot in Japan and Singapore.)
And the yearning movie-star faces of Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart have a benzod chemistry thats actually kinda hot.
71.Trespass Against Us(2017)
71.
Sometimes, thats enough.
70.Hot Summer Nights(2018)
70.
Its a bit derivative, is what Im trying to say.
Still, I found a certain charm in its shamelessness.
Even Leo had to makeThe Beach.
69.Men(2022) (co-produced)
69.
This is a film to offend both misandrists and mens-rights activists alike.
68.The Exception(2017)
68.
67.Laggies(2014)
67.
Hardly a black mark on the resume, but everyone involved would do better work in the future.
66.Share(2019) (co-produced)
66.
Okay, so its an issues movie, but its one of the better ones.
As the news ripples through town, the inexorable wheels of bureaucratic ass-covering turn her into a pariah.
65.Ginger & Rosa(2013)
65.
64.The Lovers(2017) (co-produced)
64.
Inthe immortal words of Kevin Smith, its almost as if theyre cheating on each otherwitheach other!
63.X(2022) (co-produced)
63.
Can smut be art?
Maybe a better question is,shouldit be?
62.The Bling Ring(2013)
62.
In either case, if youcantake it, why wouldnt you?
61.Lamb(2021)
61.
But in its determination to shock, the ending strips the film of much of its metaphorical power.
Turns out this was just a monster movie all along.
60.The End of the Tour(2015)
60.
59.It Comes at Night(2017) (co-produced)
59.
But they share an interest in messed-up family dynamics, the way a parents issues echo in their children.
Though Shults effectively maintains a slow-burning suspense, there are times you wish hed go for the jugular.
(Something he would indeed end up doing in his next movie, for better or for worse.)
58.Obvious Child(2014)
58.
Obvious Childs legend as the abortion rom-com precedes it.
Not the comedy version ofNever Rarely Sometimes Always just a charming, low-key indie.
57.The Disaster Artist(2017)
57.
Thankfully, its also very funny, which for therare A24 comedycounts for a lot.
Altogether, a surprisingly conventional movie about an extremely unconventional one.
56.Waves(2019) (co-produced)
56.
55.The Blackcoats Daughter(2017)
55.
DirectorOz Perkinscombines classic genre hallmarks schoolgirls and Satanists, what could be better with Christopher Nolans structural ticks.
That doesnt bother me.
Its the moments in between that stick with you, the desolate winter filled with slowly mounting dread.
54.A Prayer Before Dawn(2018)
54.
The film is more internal than that.
53.Cmon Cmon(2021)
53.
52.Funny Pages(2022)
52.
51.Swiss Army Man(2016)
51.
The track record of music-video directors making the leap to movies is mixed.
Sometimes you get David Fincher; sometimes you get McG.
Confronted with actual human emotions, the directors arent sure what to do with them.
An awkward teenager of a movie but the kind of endearing oddball that gave A24 its good name.
50.On the Rocks(2020)
50.
Thats the question vexing Sofia Coppola in her latest minor-key exploration of bourgeois ennui.
49.Lean on Pete(2018)
49.
Some of these can feel like condescending or inauthentic cultural tourism, sure.
48.Mississippi Grind(2015)
48.
Unless theyre, like,Casino Royale, gambling movies often run together for me.
47.While Were Young(2015)
47.
(As always with Baumbach, the temptation to examine for traces of autobiography is irresistible.)
What stands out is Baumbachs ear for middle-class platitudes.
You laugh and think,Ive said something that stupid, too.
46.High Life(2019)
46.
Before Robert Pattinson rejoined the world of franchise filmmaking, the actor and A24 enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.
Case in point:High Life, the first English-language film from Claire Denis.
But still what a pedigree!
These include films with small ambitions that nail them and films with huge ambitions that dont quite get there.
45.A Ghost Story(2017)
45.
To paraphrase another film on this list: This is my shit.
(The famous scene in whichRooney Mara eats a pieclocks in at nine minutes.)
But I dig the way Lowery applies a personal lesson change is the only constant at an epic scale.
Its not easy being Holocene.
44.Slow West(2015)
44.
43.The Tragedy of Macbeth(2021) (co-produced)
43.
Many modern Shakespeare adaptations labor to open up the source material.
Their childlessness underlines the nihilism of the whole bloody endeavor: After them, the void.
But when the couple split up in 2016, that seemed to be the end of him.
This is the cutest way two people have ever worked through their divorce.
41.Enemy(2014)
41.
(Jake Gyllenhaal plays both.)
The same person split in two?
The movies less interested in answeringwhythan in luxuriating in the strangeness of it all.
Just dont ask meabout the spiders.
40.Room(2015)
40.
But Lenny Abrahamsons film is clear-eyed and sensitive about what its characters have been through.
The movie earns its manipulations.
39.Locke(2014)
39.
As a man who always has a contingency plan up his sleeve, hes never anything less than magnetic.
38.Climax(2019)
38.
Then comes the agony: Someones spiked the sangria with LSD!
Theres none of the slow fuse of other A24 horror films here.
The second half ofClimaxis pure balls-to-the-wall madness as the drugged-out ensemble viciously turns on one another.
This is film as an amusement-park ride, and contraScorsese, thats not always a bad thing.
Call it haunted house.
37.The Spectacular Now(2013)
37.
In my notes forThe Spectacular Now, I kept jotting variations of the phrase stubbornly resists cliche.
But thats not quite true.
The film doesnt resist cliche so much as it invites cliche in for a nice cup of tea.
However, the moviefeelsmore original than it is thanks to sparkling performances from Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley.
36.Red Rocket(2021)
36.
With good reason: Hes a motor mouthed narcissist with nary an honest bone in his body.
(You knowwho elsewas a compulsive liar?)
35.Menashe(2017)
35.
Can the distancing effect of subtitles work in a films favor?
But as it happens,Menasheis a glimpse inside the Haredi enclave of Borough Park.
Its obvious thats not in the cards.
Menashe is an odd duck: a little too soft and a confirmed schlimazel.
(When he tries his hand at making kugel, you shudder instinctively.)
The real Lustig is an inviting screen presence, no matter the language his charisma defies translation.
34.Saint Maud(2021)
34.
33.After Yang(2021) (co-produced)
33.
Bumped up a few spots for featuring copious amounts of tea.
32.Gloria Bell(2019)
32.
Gloria Bell (Julianne Moore) is trying.
Even when shes surrounded by people, she feels like the only one in the room.
They more than earn the catharsis of their triumphant Laura Branigan needle drop.
31.Zola(2021)
31.
Thankfully, theres no algorithmic smoothness to the actual work.
30.Green Room(2016)
30.
Its short, punchy, and uncompromising.
29.The Last Black Man in San Francisco(2019)
29.
When a film is this extravagantly aestheticized, its easy to say its got more style than substance.
28.Ex Machina(2015)
28.
I dugEx Machinathe first time I saw it, but it holds up slightly less well on re-watch.
But as a techno-noir about a patsy who gets in over his head, its a cracker.
And to the memes: Hislate-night disco dancewas an early beneficiary of A24s viral magic.
27.The Humans(2021) (co-produced)
27.
Something is rotten in the Chinatown apartment where the Blakes are celebrating Thanksgiving.
Its nothing theyve done: Theyre warm, good-hearted people who get along reasonably well.
Nevertheless, their celebrations are haunted by a palpable unease.
Strange noises erupt from the ceiling.
The walls harbor cancerous growths.
The rifts between parents and children geography, class, religion are growing wider.
Nothing is as good as it used to be, and were all going to die alone.
A shame A24 buriedThe Humanson Showtime, when it could have been the feel-bad movie our pandemic malaise deserves.
26.Krisha(2016)
26.
As depressing as the Thanksgiving inThe Humansis, the one inKrishais worse.
25.The Killing of a Sacred Deer(2017)
25.
24.A Most Violent Year(2014)
24.
A film about architecture.
His one weird trick?
Lying to himself about his wealth, his business practices, and his own morality.
23.Everything Everywhere All at Once(2022) (co-produced)
23.
But the setup also write catharsis checks that the sentimental and repetitive third act cant cash.
(Turns out human existence can be saved by … a hug?)
Until then, their films feel like brilliant drawings done only in primary colors.
22.Spring Breakers(2013)
22.
Every subsequent A24 project about young people behaving badly should pay royalties.
21.Eighth Grade(2018) (co-produced)
21.
20.First Reformed(2018)
20.
Paul Schraders return from the VOD desert is as austere and severe as an old church pew.
Years after its release, Schraders vision of the old ways breaking down feels more prescient than ever.
How do we live in hopelessness without letting it win?
19.First Cow(2020)
19.
The events in that film, he wrote, seem to be happening for the first time.
No one here has read a history book from the future.
All they can do is ride it as best they can.
Inside this tender tale of friendship are two key insights.
18.The Lobster(2016)
18.
Much of A24s early reputation was built on offbeat efforts from established European auteurs.
What a match it proved to be.
They bring life to a universe that runs on its own bizarrely calibrated logic.
17.Minari(2021)
17.
Help arrives in the form of her mother (Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung).
16.Good Time(2017)
16.
In the hands of the Safdies, failure has a relentless energy all its own.
Its like riding a roller-coaster that only goes down.
15.The Green Knight(2021) (co-produced)
15.
14.American Honey(2016)
14.
You could call them burnouts, except they were never in.
(Most are nonprofessionals essentially playing themselves.)
13.The Lighthouse(2019) (co-produced)
13.
(The answer: quite a lot!)
Its like someone threw the entire syllabus of Bard College in a blender and let er rip.
12.The Souvenir(2019) &The Souvenir Part II(2021)
12.
For years,Joanna Hogghad a reputation as the best British director Americans had never heard of.
By the end, its almost like you lived it, too.
10.Midsommar(2019) (co-produced)
10.
Its all too much an orgy of squashed skulls, internal-organ origami, and frankly impressive feats of taxidermy.
When the sun-drenched horrorshow gets going, its an appropriate payback for the preceding two hours of emotional violence.
9.The Witch(2016)
9.
Not the first A24 horror film, but certainly the most influential.
Before this, did fans ever cheer a scary movie for its commitment to historical verisimilitude?
8.Uncut Gems(2019) (co-produced)
8.
His Howard is so convinced thatthis timewill be his big score you cant help but go along with him.
Compared to the leanerGood Time,Gemscertainly has lower lows.
(That sexting scene!)
But just like that climactic triple-parlay bet, the ambition speaks for itself.
As did the results: UntilEverything Everywhere All at Once, this was A24s biggest domestic hit.
7.Under the Skin(2014)
7.
(A special effect so good it was ripped off wholesale byStranger Things.)
Not a film with the rosiest view of existence, but theres stark purity in its nihilism.
6.The Farewell(2019)
6.
How doesThe Farewellswerve around all the cliches of the Snowball Lie plot?
The film itself is attuned to that communal spirit.
5.The Florida Project(2017)
5.
4.20th Century Women(2016)
4.
They think its a terrible idea, but they decide to give it a go anyway.
But this isnt their list.
What a lovely film.
3.Lady Bird(2017)
3.
Unapologetically basic a love letter to the suburbs, DMB, greatest-hits compilations, andcalling your mom.
But basicness is as valid an aesthetic choice as any other.
The real problem is being phony, which despite theviral takedowns, this movie is not.
It comes by its convictions honestly.
2.Moonlight(2016) (co-produced)
2.
(Theres something positively Sirkian about Jenkinss use of color, his swooning blues and raging pinks.)
Its third act in particular is near-perfect cinema.
1.Hereditary(2018) (co-produced)
1.
(Her delivery of the line All I get is that fucking face on your face!
should have earned her a nomination all by itself.)
Does it matter that the film has essentially the same ending asThe Witch?
Would you ding the Beatles for re-using four-part harmonies?
Its just A24 developing its signature, throwing viewers into the mouth of madness with no prospect of relief.
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
