The Ten Most Polarizing Films of 2024
There are some movies which are almost impossible to feel ambivalent about. They split audiences down the middle, and the only thing which detractors and defenders have in common is the strength of their opinions. We've come up with a way to calculate how contentious a film is, and have crunched the numbers. According to the Criticker Community, these are the ten most polarizing fims of 2024.
How was this calculated?
For every film with at a certain number of ratings, we calculate the percentage of people who loved it (percentle greater than 75%) and hated it (less than 25%). The "contentiousness" score is the lower of those two percentiles.
Consider the most contentious possible scenario -- an equal number love and hate it, with nobody in between. That would be 50% - 0% - 50%, for a score of "50". Let's say another film has a "love/ambivalence/hate" ratio of "38/30/32". That gets a score of 32: still extremely polarizing!
But a movie that almost everyone hates? Let's say a breakdown of 4/35/61. That's a score of just 4, which means it's not very contentious at all.
#10.
The Shrouds
17.46% High
"The Shrouds is a strange, thoughtful film that lingers. Cronenberg dives into grief, death, and how tech and capitalism shape mourning. Vincent Cassel’s numb performance contrasts with Guy Pearce’s edgy paranoia, capturing the fog of loss. Beneath its quiet surface lies a web of hacked graves and unsettling conspiracies—grief made glitchy and surreal. It’s not perfect, but it’s quietly gripping and gives space to feelings we usually avoid." - griggs79
25.4% Low
"A new David Cronenberg film? Awesome! Oh wait, it's the worst thing he's ever made..." - JSchlansky
17.49% High
"As an agnostic to Almodóvar's gaudy colors and plots, this feels and looks like a classic to me. A humanist story of surviving amidst war, where the joys of living have been dulled and made to seem insubstantial. But just looking out the window we find poetry. Is this his most spiritual film? Iglesias' sweeping score carries the love and sorrow of this friendship, portrayed with a natural and gentle hand. How else but in close-ups can this be told? And by who else? Bergman is dead." - schnofel
19.73% Low
"The dialogue is fine, you get used to it in five minutes. I struggled with the pacing though, as I have with most modern Almodovar. That manic (even in slow scenes) drive towards something that never seems to arrive. It’s not as fun without the 90s soap opera aesthetic." - closedmouth
18.68% High
"Incredibly well executed. Really engrossing. You're immersed all the way." - tpbradbury
18.13% Low
"Boomers or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Become Completely Self-Absorbed" - NothingsGood
#7.
Queer
18.36% High
"Outstanding. This is what Guadagnino has been working towards: a free-flowing chimeric canvas on the subject of desire and queerness, creatively uninhibited (worthy of Burroughs; Christ, I wish every adaptation or quasi-biopic had this kind of spirit!), every bit as transgressive and confrontational as it is intimate and vulnerable. I figured Craig had something like this in him but even so he's astonishing. Man. This and Challengers is just an all-time great year for a filmmaker." - chadisdanger
20.77% Low
"Falls extremely flat on a character level for me, which has me itching to read the see source material. Going in, I knew the book was written by William S. Burroughs of Naked Lunch fame, but I didn't realize the texts were related to this extent. The surreal moments sing while the core narrative left me cold with the complete lack of chemistry between the leads and the lack of insight into either character" - jschlansky
19.1% High
"Weird, uneasy, and dry, which is to be expected from Lanthimos, but I didn't expect it to be so fun" - igormachete
23.59% Low
"Turned it off after 36 minutes. Just tired of having my time wasted by this director. No more." - BadCosmonaut
#5.
The Substance
32.01% High
"Every shot, every beat, every second of this movie is flawless, and the unrelenting crescendo that explodes into a climax for the ages left me breathless. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is now one of my favorite films of all time." - rihrey
19.69% Low
"Only Moore and Qualley deliver (considering what they had to work with) in their performances, otherwise this was the weakest film I've seen in years. Truly a piece of shit in writing, acting, SFX, tone, pacing and atmosphere. Sometimes a complete lack in subtlety works, this time it just annoys. Underwhelmed by the gore as well, any 80s film can easily top this. And thought provoking? Don't make me laugh." - Guillaume
#4.
Civil War
20.15% High
"What a stunning movie. Garland is one of the most underrated visual directors currently working. Seeing the "race to Berlin" take place in Washington was surreal and left me with a huge respect to war photographers. I look forward to enjoying this film for years to come" - newtothelyte
20.66% Low
I can't find enought words to insult this movie. Extremely dull, top notch bs, just a waste of time. In the middle of the movie I thought to drop it, but with the hope of a good final I gave up the idea. That was a huge mistake that cost me an hour and I'm writing this feedback for you, to save your time. Journalists on the front of a war and getting into action like soldiers engaging behind a cover... Really??? I will blacklist this director and his other jobs. - bapretus
21.04% High
"This is unadulterated fun on steroids. D&W has the laughs, the action and the feels. It’s a prepubescent wet dream of what an entertaining superhero movie should be. Exposition is dealt with swiftness, the story doesn’t grovel over boring bits just to get to the juicy bits. It’s all just the juicy bits. It’s lowest of the low brow humor, violent, inappropriate and equal opportunity offender of common decency and modern moral puritanism. Puts the marvel into marvelous." - Kuroel
23.87% Low
"Cowardly, desperate, embarrassing. I could feel myself wilting as the movie went on (and on and on). I spent real American dollars to see this and subsequently spent most of the movie wondering if I don’t love myself enough." - JLFM
#2.
Wicked
22.95% High
"Loved the musical. Loved it. Saw it in previews on Broadway. And I loved this casting, but, still, slightly worried. I needn't have been, it was absolute perfection, just what I wanted. True to the show, and honoured the beloved MGM film, and even the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz book (lots of stylistic nods to 1900 and 1939!) And apparently it was 2 hours and 40 minutes, but it was the fastest 2 hours and 40 minutes of my life." - ashleym
24.03% Low
"In the event that I am suffering from a horrible, uncureable disease that causes unending pain, and all my loved ones are exhausted to the point that they cant go further, but I keep on clinging to life, clenching my teeth, stubborn and against all odds - please put on Wicked, so I can eagerly and gratefull cross to the other side, fleeing from the world that made this." - karlson
30.27% High
"On one hand, a love letter to the ability of fandom to bring a sense of purpose and community to our lives. On the other hand, a horrifying portrait of how we use fandom to cover up the existential meaninglessness of our tepid lives. It's a sublime work of beauty and, simultaneously, a terrifying mirror that I can't help but see myself reflected in." - Zangin
23.3% Low
"This movie was not only boring but had some horrible energy to it. My husband and I had to turn it off cause it was causing us extreme anxiety. There was barely anything said during he movie. The actors were horrible yet made me feel sick to my stomach just to look at them. Worst movie I've seen in a long time." - irenebethh