Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Bring Them Down:
The Banshees of Inisherin
The story in The Banshees of Inisherin is simultaneously laugh-out-loud audacious and deftly potent with real questions on life and legacy. This is essentially Martin McDonagh’s treaties on friendship and what you leave behind once you leave Earth. Colin Farrell is the film’s stand-in for niceness towards those around you, and Brendan Gleeson’s character is a stand-in for tangible contributions to the world (in the film’s case, music). McDonagh constantly tries to unearth what it means to leave behind a legacy, and who will care about us when we die.
The Favourite
The Favourite sees director Yorgos Lanthimos recontextualizing 18th-century British royalty. A searing dark comedy featuring many of 2018s’s best performances, including Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz.
Inside Llewyn Davis
Inside Llewyn Davis is indeed a masterpiece of nuanced character study, where the Coen brothers bring their signature blend of dark humor, existential despair, and offbeat storytelling into a film that feels as emotionally resonant as it is stylistically unique. It’s a film that pulls no punches in portraying the painful, humbling reality of an artist struggling against not just the world, but also his own shortcomings. Llewyn Davis (played perfectly by Oscar Isaac) may be a man adrift, emotionally wounded by the loss of his partner, selfish and hard to like, yet he is also profoundly human, filled with raw talent and unfulfilled potential.
Magnolia
Magnolia might feel a bit like the film that got away from Paul Thomas Anderson (because it kinda is), but it’s the sort of big-budget passion project that up-and-coming filmmakers rarely get to make nowadays. The ensemble cast of Magnolia is littered with A-listers and common Paul Thomas Anderson players, from Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman to Tom Cruise and John C. Reilly, each actor adds their own weight to this shotgun blast of characters.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary and its single location premise may feel light for a feature length film, but stellar performances by Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott, as well as tight direction by Zachary Wigon, helps the movie stay fresh and alive.
Kraven the Hunter
It’s almost impressive how Kraven the Hunter manages to be the final nail in the coffin for the Sony Spider-Verse, a franchise that never really got off the ground. With the exception of the Venom films, the consistency just wasn’t there, and Kraven the Hunter is no exception. This was a doomed project from the start—after delays, reshoots, and minimal studio enthusiasm, it arrived in late 2024 already feeling like an afterthought.
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino directs one of his best movies with Challengers, which pairs his interests in yearning, miscalculated protagonists to the competitive world of tennis. It’s exhilarating and wild, with three prophetic performances from Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor that’ll challenge many of 2024’s best efforts.
Anora
Sean Baker isn’t the sort of filmmaker you’d expect to be a Palme d’Or winning director and Oscar frontrunner. His movies (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) don’t scream “accessible” to large audiences, and they aren’t self-anointed, high art pieces. Even The Florida Project, which was critically acclaimed in 2017 and includes many of the best technical elements and set pieces I’ve seen in a movie in the 21st century, isn’t the feel-good drama that usually cleans up at awards ceremonies. But Baker’s craft is undeniable, and it was only a matter of time before one of his movies broke through the mainstream in a real way, announcing its director as a must-see auteur for decades to come. Anora is that – and some. Featuring grandiose style and a remarkably vulnerable and physical lead performance from Mikey Madison as the titular protagonist, Anora is among the greatest accomplishments in filmmaking in 2024.
Saltburn
Emerald Fennell‘s sophomore movie, Saltburn, emerges from the rubble of her polarizing debut, Promising Young Woman, with a cast that elevates the material despite its endlessly convoluted and plainly put narrative. This comedy-drama-thriller hybrid film weaves a perplexing tale of obsession, deception, and tragedy within the confines of the aristocratic Catton family’s titular estate.
The Gorge
The Gorge, Scott Derrickson’s latest film for Apple TV+, is a frustratingly uneven blend of action, sci-fi, and romance that starts with promise but ultimately succumbs to convention. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy do their best to elevate the material, and their on-screen chemistry carries the movie’s far more compelling first half, but by the time the action-heavy second half kicks in, The Gorge loses much of what made it intriguing to begin with.