9 of the year’s best films features powerful, unapologetic women who speak up and stand out

If you haven’t already noticed, those feelings of uncertainty and instability you’ve been experiencing all year long aren’t just the result of another stomach-churning election and an increasingly bizarre news cycle, they’re products of fictional media, too. This year has been filled with films that contend with the concept of power and the broad spectrum of ways it can be wielded. Take “Conclave” (perhaps the most on-the-nose choice given that it was released just weeks before the election), a movie about how major global power changes hands and the internal battles occurring within these sequestered systems. 

Audiences were fascinated by how quickly favor turns in Edward Berger’s film, but it felt all too familiar watching men grovel and gripe over authority, at least until a twist changes the ranks. “Conclave” is a well-made film, but one we’ve fundamentally seen before. Far more memorable were the movies that didn’t just save their big, prickly ideas for the end, but dared to challenge the norms by the start. Often, these movies saw women in the driver’s seat, controlling the action and calling the shots. 2024 was the year when these characters — and the actors who embodied them — either didn’t play by the rules or stuck their necks out to dispute them. It was a year of bold, striking performances, where women defied power structures to take it back for themselves. 

Here, then, are nine of the year’s best films, boasting some of the most unapologetic, delightfully power-hungry performances in recent memory.

Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl” (Courtesy of A24/Niko Tavernise)

“Babygirl” is not only this year’s most outrageously erotic film, it’s also Nicole Kidman’s most daring role in years — which should say a lot, considering Kidman’s decisions consistently surprise. Kidman’s character, the outrageously named, high-powered tech CEO Romy Mathis, enters into an illicit relationship with one of her interns, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), and what follows is a torrid, totally magnetic tête-à-tête for the ages. The latency of Romy’s intense sexual desire keeps her focused and in control, but her connection with Samuel is unlike anything she’s ever experienced before, even with her husband. Writer-director Halina Reijn probes how sex can be a willing exchange of power, and at the film’s most ferocious moments, how easily a singular connection can convince us to sacrifice it all for our most carnal needs. “Babygirl” is a complex study of both restraint and how hard we swing after being held back for so long.

Mike Faist as Art, Zendaya as Tashi and Josh O’Connor as Patrick in “Challengers” (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures)

Zendaya was always destined for big things, but with her role as fictional tennis wunderkind Tashi Duncan in Luca Guadagnino’s sweat-soaked “Challengers,” the former Disney star and “Euphoria” powerhouse stepped into a new echelon entirely. Tashi is a maneuvering schemer who, throughout the course of a decade, is unmoored by the faults thrown at her. After an injury dashes Tashi’s shot at professional stardom, she gets her thrills off the court, managing her slightly less talented husband Art (Mike Faist). To get Art’s game up, Tashi arranges for him to face off against his former best friend Patrick (Josh O’Connor) for an electric three-way rivalry as steeped in power and global influence as it is in sexual tension. Alongside a propulsive electronic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Zendaya’s withering expressions are the centerpieces of some of this year’s most memorable sequences of pure, unfettered cunning.

Emma Stone in “Kinds of Kindness” (Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures/Yorgos Lanthimos)

Just six months after Emma Stone won an Oscar for bringing an eccentric tale of a woman’s sexual discovery to life in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” she returned in Lanthimos’ follow-up feature “Kinds of Kindness,” a triptych of stories dealing even more expressly (and abstractly) with the tricky dynamics of power. Stone jumps from playing a beautiful woman baiting a man (Jesse Plemons, her co-star in all three stories) to ruin, to a wife who is acting mighty strange after being lost at sea, to finally, the right-hand of a sex cult tasked with tracking down a woman who can revive the dead. Lanthimos scrutinizes blind faith and how misplaced, steadfast belief can easily empower the wrong people, while Stone turns in three exemplary micro-performances that further add to the excellent canon of work she’s established alongside the director.

Pamela Anderson in “The Last Showgirl” (Courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

One of the year’s most heartening onscreen turns is courtesy of Pamela Anderson in Gia Coppola’s simple, stunning film “The Last Showgirl.” As Shelly, an old-school Vegas-era dancer classified by most as past her prime, Anderson cleverly winks at her real-life public persona while embodying a character trying with all her might to overcome a world that no longer favors her or her art. When her long-running show on the Vegas Strip closes, Shelly grapples with losing the one thing she loves the most, trying not to get left behind in the process. Anderson’s performance is brimming with heart, yet quiet in its execution. But even when all of her cards have been played, Shelly refuses to go quietly into the night, chasing every last shining moment in the warmth of the spotlight’s glow. It’s a display of complete, unassuming vulnerability. Sometimes, there is power in letting go, even if it’s the last thing we want to do.

Devon Ross as Dina in “My First Film” (Courtesy of Mubi)

Performance artist and filmmaker Zia Anker already had a hit with “My First Film” while it was still a pandemic-era Zoom presentation about her experience making a movie that went untouched by every festival and distributor she could get it in front of. This year, Anker adapted her piece into a metafiction film about a young woman, Vita (Odessa Young), who sets out to make her debut feature, only to run into a litany of problems that come with being an independent artist. Vita is halted by industry roadblocks and her film is constantly beset by personal difficulties, while Anker’s candid screenplay layers fiction and fact to transform the movie into an empowering artistic manifesto. “My First Film” is a blisteringly honest look at how failure — as crushing as it can be — is its own gift, and often, a necessary component in the search for our true creative voice. 

Juliette Gariépy in “Red Rooms” (Courtesy of Entract Films)

Arguably one of 2024’s most criminally under-seen films, the stomach-churning techno-thriller “Red Rooms” holds you in its clutches and won’t let go for days after the credits roll. That trance alone is its own kind of control, but more mesmerizing is the enigmatic central character, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy). Kelly-Anne holds a disturbing fascination with a serial murder case that has just started its high-profile trial. While I’ll spare you the more grisly details, “Red Rooms” won’t, and that’s partially why Canadian director Pascal Plante’s film is so haunting: It does not shy away from our distinctly modern darkness. When she shows up as a courtroom spectator during the trial, Kelly-Anne’s intentions are unclear and her motivations are murky. But her opacity is her weapon; Kelly-Anne can be both a ghost and a cipher, and when she uncovers the truth by dastardly means, she proves that a cunning mind is powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with the deeds of the wicked, even if it means compromising your society’s moral code.

Demi Moore in “The Substance” (Courtesy of Mubi)

No power grab was more gnarly and vicious in 2024 than the one seen in French director Coralie Fargeat’s film “The Substance,” primarily because it’s a startling reminder of how often we screw ourselves over by just trying to keep up with society’s ever-changing standards. When mega-celeb Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) ages out of her superstar status, she opts into a mysterious program that promises to transform her into an entirely new person, restoring her youth and beauty. There is, however, one caveat: This separate woman, Sue (Margaret Qualley) is the product of human mitosis, and the program can only work if both Sue and Elisabeth respect the balance between them. Unsurprisingly, their equilibrium is quickly thrown out of whack when Sue realizes how much power her bubbly laugh and poreless skin can yield. What happens next is a jaw-dropping, subtext-free thrill ride as Moore and Qualley spit in the face of gender norms, beauty standards and Hollywood industry perverts in a scathing, blood-soaked satire that pulls no punches.

Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in “Wicked” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures/Giles Keyte)

This year’s most massive blockbuster in every sense of the word was also a notable model for standing tall in the face of relentless marginalization. In the long-awaited film adaptation of the Broadway hit “Wicked,” Cynthia Erivo instills Elphaba Thropp, the not-so-wicked Witch of the West, with enough resonant vulnerability to affect audiences worldwide. There’s a reason that people were “holding space” with the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” (at least in a few posts), and it’s because Erivo’s stirring rendition transformed one of the most well-known showtunes into a towering cinematic climax that was impossible to deny. While Elphaba will certainly face more challenges when “Wicked: Part Two” is released next year, Erivo’s work has already inspired countless people of all ages to be unwavering in the face of the world’s many injustices — especially if they have a good friend to stand by their side to back them up.

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