© Paramount Pictures, Scott Free Productions, Lucy Fisher/Douglas Wick ProductionsWhen cinema audiences weren't marveling this year at Paul Mescal's muscles, they were being bowled over by Zac Efron's sudden emergence as a pretty decent actor.
Some viewers were amused by the appearance of an unlikely 94 year old action movie heroine and others enjoyed a cheeky Belfast rap trio who were adept at ducking and weaving both ends of the law.
Those movies and many others were part of a smorgasbord of unusual films that 2024 offered audiences escape.
But which of them made slots 30 to 21 in the 60 films Pomona saw this year?
30. I SAW THE TV GLOW (Jane Schoenbrun)
If you were handing out a prize for the oddest American horror film this year, Jane Schoenbrun's movie would win it hands down.
A horror tale that has cult movie written all over it, the film tells the story of a 1996 TV show 'The Pink Opaque' that becomes the obsession of two teenagers, Justice Smith's Owen and Brigette Lundy-Paine's Maddy Wilson.
With Owen forbidden to watch the show at home because it airs at 10.30pm which is past his bedtime, he sneaks over to Maddy's to catch it.
However when Maddy breaks down while watching an episode two years later and reveals she intends to run away from her abusive stepfather, Owen finds himself in an awkward place as she begs him to join her.
He balks at the suggestion - only for Maddy to disappear just weeks later.
Things take another turn when Maddy returns eight years later and claims to have been living in the world of 'The Pink Opaque'.
As the film wears on, it seems the show is having a psychological impact on Owen too but will it end up destroying him?
Beautifully shot by cinematographer Eric K Yue, Schoenbrun gives her horror film a surreal quality, bathing it regularly in neon pink.
The uncomfortable tone set early on in the film never really relents and it is clear to viewers that more is going on, with the film addressing transgender issues and repression.
A critical success that has picked up fans across the world, there's been speculation about Schoenbrun returning to this world in a sequel but she would do really well to come anywhere near matching the originality and tone of this distinctive psychodrama.
29 THELMA (Josh Margolin)
We've become used to seeing older male movie stars who could qualify for a bus pass like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Liam Neeson kicking younger butt.
But who would have thought June Squibb would fly the flag for elderly women as action stars?
'Thelma' doesn't quite put the 94 year old star of 'About Schmidt' and 'Nebraska' in the same category as Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham or Arnold Schwarzenegger but it's a delightful mickey take of the action genre - specifically the 'Mission Impossible' movies.
Squibb plays an elderly grandmother who takes matters into her own hands after being financially scammed by a phone caller posing as her twenty-something slacker grandson, Fred Hechinger's Danny.
Ignoring police claims that nothing can be done about it, Thelma inveigles Richard Roundtree's care home resident Ben into joining her by nicking his mobility scooter and tracking down the culprits.
Their disappearance sends Daniel and his overbearing parents, Parker Posey's Gail and Clark Gregg's Alan into a flap as they try to track Thelma's movements.
Charming, tongue in cheek and wonderfully acted, Margolin delivers a laugh out loud parody of 'Mission Impossible' and Hollywood revenge thrillers that's also a smart meditation on how society mistreats its oldest citizens.
Even with Malcolm McDowell along for the ride, the film's biggest assets are Roundtree, Hechlinger and especially Squibb who revels in becoming the most unlikely revenge thriller action heroine we have ever seen.
28. QUEER (Luca Guadagnino)
Guadagnino's second feature this year saw the Sicilian filmmaker return to the homo-erotic territory of his most celebrated film 'Call Me By Your Name' and it was far more impressive than 'Challengers'.
Adapted from a 1985 William S Burroughs novella, the three Act tale focuses on an opiate addicted, older American outcast, Daniel Craig's William Lee who becomes infatuated with Drew Starkey's much younger Eugene Allerton.
Set in Central and South America, the film revels in the gay subculture of 1950s Mexico City where American men have trysts that are forbidden back home in cramped, sweaty bars and dingy motel rooms.
Stylishly shot by Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom mostly on impressively sun baked sets created in Rome's Cinecitta Studios, it follows Lee and Allerton on a journey to Ecuador and an encounter in the jungle with Lesley Manville's Dr Cotter.
The quest for a plant known as the yaga brings them three because Lee has been told it enables people to become telepathic.
Simmering with tension and occasionally boiling over, Guadagnino's film is an affectionate nod to the intense films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Craig impresses in a very committed performance that is several worlds away from the macho antics of 007, while a barely recognisable Manville and Jason Schwartzman as a fellow US exile also turn in eye catching performances.
Guadgnino and his screenwriter Justin Kurtizkes' meandering storytelling style and the stylistic flourishes will not be to everyone's taste.
But the film holds the audience's attention in a way that the irritating antics of 'Challengers' doesn't.
It also boasts a memorable Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's score and soundtrack, with some great needle drops from the likes of Nirvana, Sinead O'Connor, Prince, Verdena and New Order.
'Queer' makes such a lasting impression that it woukd be a huge shock if Craig isn't vying for the Best Actor Oscar and several other awards in prizegiving ceremonies over the coming months.
27. KNEECAP (Rich Peppiatt)
Love them or loathe them, there was no avoiding Kneecap in 2024.
The provocative Irish language rappers played Glastonbury, the Electric Picnic and also the Leeds and Reading Festivals and appeared on US TV on NBC's 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon'.
But their career was turbo charged this year by a tongue in cheek, fictionalised biopic about their west Belfast upbringing that cemented their status in Ireland as pop culture rebels and won them new admirers elsewhere as it scooped the audience award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, three gongs at the Galway Film Fleadh, cleaned up at the British Independent Film Awards and earned them places on two Academy Awards longlists.
Mixing politics with bawdy humour, the film courted controversy with its scenes of prolific drug taking including one sequence where former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams rather unexpectedly appeared in one of the act's hallucinations.
If, at times, the humour in some sequences comes across a bit like a raunchier version of the ropey BBC Northern Ireland's sitcom 'Give My Head Peace,' there's no denying Peppiatt's skill as a director, aided and abetted by Ryan Kernaghan's slick cinematography and Julian Ulrichs and Chris Gill's energetic editing.
Of the trio at the centre of the film, JJ O Dochartaigh emerges as Kneecap's most natural and convincing actor in a film buttressed by more experienced hands like Michael Fassbender and Simone Kirby.
Few would argue, though, that Peppiatt's energetic tale is not worth watching, even if some of the Jack the Lad antics are a bit much.
It's not up to the standard of Danny Boyle's 'Trainspotting' movies which it clearly draws inspiration from but it's still a pretty decent attempt.
Don't be surprised if 'Kneecap' becomes the second Irish language film to land an Oscar nomination in the Best Feature not in the English Language category, following Colm Bairead's more restrained 'An Cailin Ciuin (The Quiet Girl)'.
Expect Kneecap to also be around in years to come, stirring up controversy for a long time.
26. THE IRON CLAW (Sean Durkin)
Wrestling fanatics would have been familiar with the tragic story of the Von Erich family.
However for those unaware of the tale, Sean Durkin's movie is a tragedy about ambition and bad luck on a scale that is akin to the misfortunes of the Kennedy dynasty.
Zac Efron is a revelation as Kevin, the second oldest brother in the Texan professional wrestling clan whose initial casting by his father as the family's great white hope in the ring is superseded by his siblings, Harris Dickinson's more flamboyant David Von Erich and Jeremy Allen White's Kerry who turns to the sport after his hopes of competing as a discus thrower in the 1980 Moscow Olympics are dashed by the West's boycott following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Hanging around the movie is a lingering superstition that there's a family curse brought about by the patriarch, Holt McCallany's Fritz's decision to change the family name from Adkisson to his mother's maiden name Von Erich.
The Von Erichs are reputed to have a history of misfortune and this theory is given further weight when a succession of tragedies befall Fritz's boys outside the ring including the youngest sibling, Stanley Simon's Mike.
Dickinson and White are in sparkling form as David and Kerry, while Simon delivers the most heartbreaking performance.
McCallany also turns in an eye catching performance too as the domineering Joe Kennedy/Joe Jackson father figure, living vicariously through his sons' achievements.
Lily James and Maura Tierney are effective as the Kevin's wife and mum but it is Efron who most impresses.
The former 'High School Musical' star should be cursing his luck for failing to make awards season shortlists with a potentially career redefining role.
If Efron has the bravery to tackle more demanding roles like this, he could yet surprise us with a rich career.
25. INSIDE OUT 2 (Kelsey Mann)
Pete Docter's 2015 original was one of the smartest animated comedies to ever come out of the Disney Pixar stable.
But could the trick be repeated?
Yes and then some, with Kelsey Mann's sequel not only adeptly tackling puberty but also outgunning 'Deadpool and Wolverine,' 'Despicable Me 4' and 'Dune Part II' to become the year's top grossing film.
Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black gleefully returned as Joy, Sadness, Anger - three of the emotions inside the head of Kensington Tallman's 13 year old girl Riley Andersen, with Diane Lane and Kyle McLachlan reprising the roles of her parents.
Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling were replaced by Tony Hale and Liza Lapira as Fear and Disgust, as the control tower inside Riley was stormed by a whole new set of emotions following the onset of puberty.
Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adele Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, June Squibb comfortably settled in as the new emotions Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, Embarrassment and Nostalgia in a very funny, intelligent family film beautifully written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein.
It's so much fun that you find yourself saying roll on 'Inside Out 3'.
But good luck to the team working on that because they have set the bar even higher.
24. THE APPRENTICE (Ali Abassi)
With a second spell of Donald Trump in the White House about to get underway, Abassi's examination of the influence of one man on the future President is timely and illuminating.
Jeremy Strong is impressively fierce as Roy Cohn, the infamous counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy who secured the execution of Rosenbergs for being communists and later became a mentor to Trump as he rose to prominence as a New York real estate magnate.
Sebastian Stan turns in a sensational performance tol as Trump, lapping up Cohn's law of the jungle philosophy and later claiming it as his own.
Sharply written by Gabriel Sherman, the film features notable performances from Martin Donovan as Trump's arrogant father Fred Sr, Charlie Carrick as his alcoholic brother Fred Jr and Maria Bakalova as his first wife Ivana.
It's also a suitably flashy production, turbo charged by needle drops from Bacarra, KC and the Sunshine Band, New Order, Suicide and the Pet Shop Boys.
The Trump family has already condemned the film which portrays the President in a less than flattering light and engaged in a legal battle designed to thwart its release in the US.
But it will be interesting in the second coming of the Trump Presidency to see if Oscar voters have the courage to give Stan and Strong deserved Best Actor and Supporting Actor nods when the nominations are announced on January 17.
23. POOR THINGS (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Winner of four Oscars, two Golden Globes and five BAFTAs, Yorgos Lanthimos' surreal 'Frankenstein' feminist satire must have seemed at the outset like an unlikely darling of awards season.
Yet it won over audiences and critics with its mix of acerbic satire, bawdy slapstick and surreal humour.
Emma Stone bagged the second Best Actress of her career as Bella, a young woman in Victorian London who is given a second chance at life after committing suicide by Willem Dafoe's eccentric, disfigured scientist Dr Godwin Baxter.
Learning to become a woman again, her development is closely monitored by Ramy Youssef's medical student Max McCandless who develops feelings for her.
But these feelings are cast aside as Bella is persuaded by Mark Ruffalo's self serving cad Duncan Wedderburn to elopeswith him, venturing into the world as an uninhibited woman raised outside normal societal conventions.
As Bella does as she pleases on their global adventure, Wedderburn is unable to cope with her free spirit.
Adapted from Alasdair Grey's 1992 Whitbread Award winning novel by Tony McNamara, Lanthimos serves up a visual feast with garish, distorted studio versions of cities and seascapes, strange costumes and make up with vibrant colour palettes and Robbie Ryan's daring cinematography deploying an array of lenses, unusual lighting and Kodak's 35mm Ektachrome colour reversal stock.
Even composer Justin Hendrix's score is distorted, deploying strings, a pipe organ, uillean pipes and synthesised breath sounds to amplify the sense of the surreal.
Stone is wonderfully uninhibited as Bella, with Dafoe, Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley, Jerrod Carmichael and Hannah Schygulla all delivering eye catching performances.
Ruffalo occasionally overacts as the film's buffoonish villain and while the nudity, sex and wild behaviour will not be to everyone's cup of tea, the film confirms Lanthimos as one of the most inventive and daring visual storytellers working in cinema today.
22. THE END WE START FROM (Mahalia Belo)
There's always a danger with single issue movies that they can be too preachy.
However that is a temptation Mahalio Belo's powerful climate change disaster movie avoids by simply letting its cataclysmic events unfold onscreen and allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions.
Working from a script by Alice Birch, Belo and her lead actor Jodie Comer take audiences on a plausible journey of how Britain would cope if it was pelted by incessant rain and saw huge swathes of land submerged by flood water.
Comer is compelling as an unnamed mother who gives birth during the course of the film and does all she can to protect herself and her newborn in the face of a major environmental catastrophe.
Reminiscent of Danny Boyle's zombie flick '28 Days Later,' the film is peppered with many striking sequences like its depiction of a submerged City of London and moments of genuine terror as a distressed population becomes increasingly desperate for food and other supplies.
The film is packed with superb supporting performances from Joel Fry as her husband, Mark Frost and Nina Sosanya as his parents, Katherine Waterston as a newfound friend on a journey through a drastically changed land, Benedict Cumberbatch as a kind stranger and Gina McKee as the strict leader of an island commune.
From the off, cinematographer Suzie Lavelle, sound effects editor Joe Jackson and film editor Arttu Salmi do a superb job marrying images with a soundscape that makes every drop of rain sound really foreboding.
An astute sensory experience, while it may not have convinced voters in some countries to reject climate change deniers at the polls, Belo's film will still have achieved something if it persuades a handful of viewers to behave responsibly.
21. GLADIATOR II (Ridley Scott)
'Gladiator II' is nonsense but sometimes you just need enjoyable nonsense.
Ridley Scott's follow-up to his Best Picture Oscar winner from 2000 has sharks in the Colosseum, a fighting rhinoceros and some really weird looking CGI monkeys.
But it also has a winning lead performance from Paul Mescal as Lucius Aurelius, the exiled son of Russell Crowe's Maximus Meridius who is captured and enslaved by Roman soldiers among the Numidian warriors of North Africa.
Their conqueror, Pedro Pascal's General Acacius is feted by Rome's unhinged twin Emperors, Joseph Quinn's Geta and Fred Hechinger's Caracalla whose reckless stewardship of the Empire alarms the Senate.
Lurking in the wings is Denzel Washington's Machiavellian former slave Macrinius who acquires Lucius, giving him the name Hanno after spotting his potential as a gladiator.
Macrinius believes Lucius' rage could propel him to the top of the sport.
Striking a deal with Lucius that he will one day arrange a showdown in the arena with Acacius, Macrinius plots his own ascendancy to the position of trusted adviser to the Emperors.
But he is also keen to discover his gladiator's true identity and his connection to Connie Nielsen's Lucilla, wife of Acacius and widow of Maximus.
With a running time of almost two and a half hours, Scott and his screenwriter David Scarpa deliver a rollicking adventure that doesn't sag under the weight of its bloated spectacle.
While Mescal grabs his moment to shine in a major action hero role, he is ably supported by Pascal, Nielsen, Quinn, Hechinger, Tim McInnerny as a gambling addicted Senator, Alexander Karim as a former slave from India turned medic and Derek Jacobi who reprises his role as a Senator from the original movie.
However it is Washington who steals the show with a wonderfully predatory performance as a master manipulator, prowling Rome like a tiger circling its targets and choosing his moment to strike.
Don't be surprised if Washington is in the hunt for supporting actor gongs during awards season because it's a masterful performance.
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