The Best Movies Of 2021

Image courtesy of MGM.

 

The future of the film industry - one that appears will be dominated by the production of large-scale comic book movies, reboots and sequels to known properties, with some pocket change left over for more serious endeavors - was again given a bleak outlook in 2021, partially due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but also as a result of audiences mostly giving the cold shoulder to anything other than existing "properties" (the top 10 grossing films including five from Marvel, four other sequels and a movie that was set inside of a video game).

That being said, there was much to recommend this year. Against all odds, some great independent and foreign films made their way to movie theaters, and a handful of filmmakers released their best work in over 20 years. My top two of the year could technically have been in a tie for first place.

However, this Best of 2021 list is, most likely, incomplete. I have yet to see Rade Jude's "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" or Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Memoria," which has a release schedule that involves the film playing in one theater at a time indefinitely across the United States, so who knows when I'll get to see that one. Regardless, this list will be updated (if necessary) once I've seen those or any others that crack the top 20.

This was one of those years when it was difficult to narrow down the top 20, so a number of movies I really liked didn't end up landing on the list, but still deserve some recognition. They include: Maggie Gylenhaal's "The Lost Daughter" (reviewed here), Jonas Poher Rasmussen's "Flee" (reviewed here), Asghar Farhadi's "A Hero" (reviewed here), Questlove's "Summer of Soul (or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)" (reviewed here), Edgar Wright's "The Sparks Brothers," Reinaldo Marcus Green's "King Richard" (reviewed here), Mike Mills' "C'mon, C'mon" (reviewed here), Ridley Scott's "The Last Duel (reviewed here), Florian Zeller's "The Father" (reviewed here) and Potsy Ponciroli's "Old Henry."

Also, a special mention is in order for Barry Jenkins' extraordinary Amazon miniseries "The Underground Railroad," which is based on the novel by Colson Whitehead. It compares favorably to some of the year's best films.

As usual, I've ranked not just a top 10 of the year, but also a list of 10 runners up (11-20). Here they are:

Ten Runners Up

20. Pig (Michael Sarnoski)
19. Passing (Rebecca Hall) - reviewed here. 

18. West Side Story (Steven Spielberg) - reviewed here.

17. Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Love) - reviewed here.

16. Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro) - reviewed here.

15. The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes) - reviewed here.

14. Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King) - reviewed here.
13. Red Rocket (Sean Baker) - reviewed here. 

12. In the Heights (Jon M. Chu) - reviewed here.
11. The Card Counter (Paul Schrader) - reviewed here.

Top Ten
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen) - reviewed here.
  9. Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodovar) - reviewed here.

  8. Belfast (Kenneth Branagh) - reviewed here. 

  7. CODA (Sian Heder) - reviewed here. 

  6. No Sudden Move (Steven Soderbergh) - reviewed here. 

  5. The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson) - reviewed here. 

  4. Titane (Julia Ducournau) - reviewed here. 

  3. Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) - reviewed here. 

  2. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) - reviewed here.

  1. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson) - reviewed here.