Top Ten Films of 2021

Honorable Mentions: Don’t Look Up (I don’t know if it’s about climate change or Covid or whatever, but I do know it’s really about us); Free Guy (a piece of philosophical meta-fiction masquerading as an action comedy); In the Heights (energetic and dazzling); No Sudden Move (a classic twisty noir-ish crime story with a crackerjack script); The Harder They Fall (a Sam Peckinpah movie for the hip hop age); Val (warm, weird, touching); West Side Story (better than the original); Wrath of Man (a scruffy popcorn thriller from Guy Ritchie); Dune (a feast for the eyes); Ghostbusters: Afterlife (not a great movie but still a great, nostalgic time at the movies)

And now, my ten favorite films of the year:

10. The Alpinist

This documentary follows — when it can! — climber Marc-Andre LeClerc, a free-spirited wunderkind in the alpinist tribe, as he free climbs rock, ice, snow, whatever. LeClerc comes off as something of a fun-loving enigma, and there’s a refreshing draw to his approach to climbing as less a sport and more a means of adventure. As in Free Solo, the closest comparison to this film, the camerawork is outrageous (and outrageously terrifying), and I’ll confess this movie cracked my top ten mainly because it provided the most visceral reactions to a movie I’ve had this year. It genuinely had me on the edge of several panic attacks. A true tribute to the power of film.

9. Summer of Soul: (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Questlove’s joyful and patient re-presenting of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival is not just an excavation of some incredible music — Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, The Staples Singers, et.al. — but a powerful situating of this days-long concert into its historical context (civil rights, the moon landing, etc.) A real gem.

8. Nobody

Ok, so obviously this Married with Children meets John Wick flick isn’t a great film, but it’s a good one, and it was probably the greatest time I had at the movies last year. Clever, exciting, funny. After so many reheats of this kind of movie, it was just a blast to see one feel so fresh, a reinvention that felt original and enjoyable (thanks mainly to star Bob Odenkirk, to be sure). And for entertainment value, I even think the bus fight scene outranks the bus fight scene in Shang-Chi. Two popcorn-butter coated thumbs up.

7. Last Night in Soho

This bonkers ghost story from the auteur behind Scott Pilgrim Saves the World and Baby Driver is a master class in dazzling and effective use of color, illusion, and choreographic staging. (It's still crazy to me to know that most of the mirror work through the first two-thirds of the film were practical effects and not CGI!) The 60’s music and styles feel cool, the story is a slow burn through ominous noir to gjiallo-like terror. The last 20 minutes feels a bit by-the-numbers supernatural thriller, and the twist is only a twist because writer/director Edgar Wright cheats at a key point in the narrative, but everything leading up to these moments more than makes up for these (honestly, minor) deficiencies.

6. Encanto

It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a Disney movie, to be honest. I tire of the same ol’ storylines with the same ol’ messages. Encanto took me by surprise with its kinetic energy, how’d-they-do-that animation, and innovative musical numbers (with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda — Mugatu voice: "He’s so hot right now.”). And it totally helped that the message is one reminiscent of the gospel/law dynamic. Also helping? The thing flew by. I can’t remember a Disney movie in the last few years where I didn’t wonder, “When is this going to be over?” Without a slack or lazy scene in it, Encanto just moves, and it carried me right along with it.

5. Power of the Dog

This latest movie from acclaimed director Jane Campion, after a long hiatus from moviemaking, is a veerry slow burn about an abrasive bully of a rancher (Benedict Cumberbatch) who takes to terrorizing the new wife (Kirsten Dunst) and stepson (Kodi Smit-McPhee) of his taciturn brother (Jesse Plemons). Why does he do that? The mystery of his motivation is held close to the vest for a long while, and I actually think it remains a mystery even after the ostensible revelation. To say more would give spoilers, but I will say that there’s one way to read this movie as along the lines of our culture’s new sexual orthodoxy and there’s another way to read it as about the repercussions of victimization and control, and I have chosen the latter, which I think is just as credible a read given the available depicted evidence. This film is not for everyone, to be sure, but the acting, while understated, is great and the unspooling narrative is haunting.

4. Licorice Pizza

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest is a flawed but effervescent tribute to adolescence (ambitious and arrested) and his own upbringing in the San Fernando Valley of the 1970’s. Where Tarantino gave us a tribute to the dusk of Old Hollywood head on, Anderson shows us the other side — bit players, playful characters, homely dreamers. Licorice Pizza is just a heartfelt display of what it’s like to be a young idiot full of energy and heart. I had a smile on my face nearly the entire time.

3. C’Mon, C’Mon

Mike Mils’s story about a documetarian (Joaquin Phoenix) who agrees to care for his nephew while the boy’s mother attends to the hospitalization of her mentally ill husband is an insightful, charming, and moving examination of childhood and parenting. It’s about the effects of fathers on kids, on whole families. It’s about the beauty and imagination of childhood. It’s about the self-centeredness of humanity. And it’s about learning how much sacrifice adds up to real love. Shot in gorgeous black and white, C’Mon C’Mon is an exceptional film. (More about it in this previous post.)

2. Pig

First of all: it’s not what you think. The previews made this Nicolas Cage vehicle look like yet another variation on the John Wick revenge flick. But it’s not. It’s practically the opposite. Man “avenges” the theft of his precious truffle pig by . . . reaching out, building bridges, making amends, seeking healing, submitting to rage, and, most notably, by cooking. I don’t want to say more, lest I give too much away and steal the enjoyment, but like a fine multi-course meal, Pig slowly deepens and develops as it goes. It’s a film about grief, mainly, but in the end, a very sweet one.

1. Belfast

I don’t know what your plans are for this weekend, but if you haven’t seen Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, you need to update your to-do list post-haste. Sort of an Irish Cinema Paradiso set against the Troubles, it’s loosely based on Branagh’s childhood and is equally an ode to boyhood — at the age when your mom’s the most beautiful woman you know and your dad hung the moon and stars — as it is to the wondrous escape of moviegoing itself. And it’s a tribute of course to the eponymous city. See it for the heartbreak and the humor. See it for the rich photography. See it for the stellar performances, including the joy-inducing revelatory debut of Jude Hill. Heck, see it for the wall to wall Van Morrison. Just see it, is what I’m saying. It’s the best film of 2021.