AP picks 2024's best movies so far, from 'Furiosa' to 'Thelma,' 'I Saw the TV Glow' to 'Challengers'

The movie year, jumbled a bit by 2023’s strikes, might feel like it’s only just getting going. The box office is, finally, booming thanks to “Inside Out 2.” But at the year’s midway point, a lot of terrific movies have already come out – more, maybe, than you might realize.

Not even counting some of the movies that had qualifying releases last year — two of our favorites were “La Chimera” and “Tótem” — 2024 has accumulated a wide range of standout movies big and small, with and without sandworms. Here are our favorites:

Jane Schoenbrun’s sophomore feature — a dramatic leap forward for filmmaker and a transfixing trans parable — is one of the most exciting movie events of the year. The film, available for digital rental, is a chilling 1990s coming of age in which a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”-like series called “The Pink Opaque” offers a possible portal out of drab suburban life and other suffocations. It feels chillingly, beautifully ripped out of Schoenbrun’s soul — and it’s got a killer soundtrack. —Coyle