Once again, for reasons beyond my control, I missed the goal of 50 movies in a year, managing only 33 in 2021.
As always, only movies seen in the cinema count to receive a ranking. I might make some comments on streaming movies watched at home at the end.
Whilst it’s always hard to compare movies I saw in December with movies I watched in January, the enforced breaks from cinema seem to have made that even harder this year.
Interestingly, there is a strong bias towards films released late in the year at the top of the list. This is perhaps a result of the breaks I mentioned above, however, I suspect it’s more a reflection of studios holding back titles until the audiences started to return to cinemas in the US, as well as the problems in film production across 2020.
Nevertheless, I did feel that the opening months of 2021 were weaker, and there was a very strong end to the year.
Although I only saw 33 films in 2021, I want to point out that the list still bats very deep; I’d rate all of the films in the top 20, and there’s only two films on the list I’d outright consider “bad”. The Top 5 really are very close to each other as well.
Anyway, the list….!
1. Tick, Tick… Boom!
I’m quite surprised to find this at number 1 for 2021, but there’s honestly nothing I’d put above it. It’s also the movie I’ve most thought about after watching, and wanted to go back to.
This is a film absolutely full of energy, not least in Andrew Garfield’s performance, but also in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s direction. The characters feel real, and the story moves effortlessly through excitement and sadness and hope and disappointment in equal measure.
Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Ben Levi Ross, and Robin de Jesús are all great.
The music captures Jonathan Larson’s original well, and the story genuinely kept me guessing. Bonus points for Bradley Whitford’s wonderful cameo as Stephen Sondheim. Some other amazing “blink and you’ll miss them” cameos – I spotted Bebe Neuwirth, and Bernadette Peters.
A really good film. Andrew Garfield surely in award contention this season.
2. Dune
I’m far less surprised to see Dune in the top 5. This is a superb piece of cinema.
What sets Dune apart is that even in 2021, the visuals and sound blew me away; it looks like a sci-fi epic, with the filming and SFXs blending together perfectly.
It also has a complicated story told well, and uses its length to immerse the viewer in that story.
A strong cast led by Timothée Chalamet. This is cinema at its best.
3. The Last Duel
Another surprising entry, but also another film which makes full use of all aspects of cinema. A story told three times from three perspectives, I was utterly fascinated by the concept, and by the subtle differences in each story.
The cold colour-palette and filming adds to the tone of the film, and there’s an effort to feel closer in style to the 14th century than most movies attempt.
Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, and Ben Affleck all at the top of their game, and Ridley Scott shows what he can do as a director.
4. Supanova
This is a gorgeous, if sad, little film.
Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci are perfectly cast, bringing real humanity to the story as Tucci’s character grapples with oncoming dementia.
Lovingly shot; just a really well made film.
5. Dear Evan Hansen
I went in as a fan of the musical, having seen the show on Broadway a few years ago. The film not only succeeds in bringing the emotion and depth of the movie to the screen, but also adapts the story to better suit the cinema, adding depth to characters and rethinking scenes to work at their best cinematographically.
Ben Platt shows how good an actor he is, although sadly the film can’t quite capture the power of his voice the way the stage can.
Hit me in all the right ways.
6. Spider-Man: No Way Home
Just a wonderful cinema experience!
Like the best MCU movies, No Way Home blends great actions with some effective character moments. Tom Holland delivers his best Spider-Man performance yet, in what is effectively his Spider-Man’s origin story.
And yes, I loved seeing <SPOILERS> back on the screen!
Drops out of the top 5 because it could have been a little tighter, but overall a really great movie!
7. Blackbird
A 2019 film which finally made it to Australian screens in 2021, and the second film on this list to deal with assisted suicide.
A thoughtfully written film, which relies of the performances of the cast led by Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill, Kate Winslett, and Lindsay Duncan. Gently directed, this is a very effective story.
8. The Father
A deeply unsettling movie to watch; I walked out honestly feeling I’d experienced the world as the titular Father had.
Anthony Hopkins absolutely earned his Oscar with this performance.
A mentioned, the result of the direction is remarkable.
9. French Exit
The odd-ball film of my 2021 top 10. The film casts Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges as the leads, puts them in Paris, and then just has fun with the ideas. Quirky, but still just in touch with reality enough to work. Just. Maybe not!
10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Just fun! A well made action-adventure which spans from San Francisco to “China”. The cast is pitch perfect, and able to deliver humour just as well as they deliver the action beats. Looks amazing, and always enjoyable. Worthy of rounding out the top 10.
11. Pixie
A low budget Irish gangster movie, this is another film which is just lots of fun! Very typical of the British gangster movie genre (so therefore not quite worthy of breaking into the top 10), but does it’s own thing with the concept very well.
12. The Tragedy of MacBeth
Denzel Washington does Shakespeare, as directed by Joel Cohen. What more do you need?
The movie beautifully blends cinema effects & style with an evocation of the stage, and contains all the dialogue you remember from MacBeth.
Washington and Francis McDormand are excellent leads.
13. West Side Story
Steven Speilberg’s direction, and the wonderfully colourful visually style of the filming, elevate a middle-tier musical (with a story which doesn’t really make sense) into a strong movie. Enjoy the spectacle and the emotion!
14. Red Notice
Look, this is schlock, but it’s very fun schlock. Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, and Dwayne Johnson all know exactly what they’re doing, and do it well. Plenty of laugh lines, good action beats, and a story which keeps moving at a fast pace.
There’s a place in the world for fun movies like this.
15. The Courier
A rare Benedict Cumberbatch performance which I enjoyed! Why can’t he play roles like this more often?!
Another in the ever growing “Cold War real event spy thriller” genre, The Courier tells the story well, and remains engaging throughout.
16. Judas and the Black Messiah
This is a film which rises on some excellent performances, especially Daniel Kaluuya in an Oscar winning turn.
Again based on true events, the movie keeps the narrative moving and the audience interested, whilst making some important points. However, I couldn’t help but feel that in the end it pulled its punches, and perhaps wasn’t as powerful or memorable as it could have been, or as other recent entries in the civil rights genre have been.
17. Nomadland
A good film, and an interesting film, but not a great film.
I was certainly surprised this won the Oscar for Best Picture, although not surprised that Frances McDormand won the Oscar for Best Actress.
Whilst Nomadland tells an interesting and different story very well, I don’t really feel that if ever makes any strong points, and ten months later I can’t say much of it stays in the memory.
Good, not great.
(I did recognise some of the locations from my own road trips, though!)
18. Buckley’s Chance
I’m usually pretty down on by-the-numbers made-for-overseas Australian films, but this had enough humanity for me to really enjoy it. Buckey’s Chance is certainly helped by the casting of Bill Nighy, who doesn’t play the role as if he’s in an Australian movie, and the direction mostly avoids the “please look at me” traps of Australian cinema.
The story is not original, but it looks great, and was a perfectly enjoyable watch.
19. No Time to Die
I feel like I’ve been a little harsh putting this at 19, but as I said at the start, it’s a strong top 20 this year!
The strengths of this movie include Craig’s best performance as Bond (by some margin), a strong story, good filming (especially in the opening act), and an ending that lands its punches.
The weaknesses are that the movie is very flabby in places, and the focus of the story a little all over the place.
But it’s a great example of Bond doing Bond things, and probably the best of the modern Bond films.
20. The Swimmer
An Israeli queer movie which commits to its story and tells it well. If this were a western film it would probably have drowned under the weight of queer-cinema cliché, but the Israeli twists and spins keep it afloat nicely.
21. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
In some ways the most visually worthy of the Star Wars films, as we move between some epic locations, which makes seeing this in the cinema a worthwhile experience.
Some of the best moments in the saga are in this movie, not least the final climax in the Emperor’s throne room, which includes easily the best duel of the saga. The ending is perfectly done.
However, watching in the cinema rather than at home, I really appreciated how much this film can drag in places, and the Luca$ changes do nothing for it.
22. Promising Young Woman
I really enjoyed the first half of this movie, but it completely fell apart in the second half, and the ending (spoilers, the lead character loses) just felt like a really off-note finish to it. Could have been a lot better.
23. The Power of the Dog
I find it very hard to rate this film. It doesn’t really tell you what it is until the very final scene, and only then did I find all the pieces came together. This makes for quite an interesting approach, but I also found it hard to ever immerse myself in the story and just go along with it.
The pacing is slow, but the location filming is spectacular.
I found Cumberbatch’s performance very off-beat, and didn’t help me to get into the film. On the other hand, Kodi Smit-McPhee was excellent, and there’ll be some buzz around him this awards season.
24. Eternals
This is not a bad movie. I enjoyed this movie. But it does pack in WAY too much, which can make it a struggle to keep up with, and requires a lot of time introducing and explaining things, without moving the story. However, it gets points for having a very different ending to the usual MCU stuff! Hopefully the set up to better things to come.
25. De Gaulle
A perfectly good movie, but in choosing to focus on such a narrow part of De Gaulle’s life, I found it a little empty in the end.
26. Black Widow
I didn’t mind this movie, but being released when it was in the MCU canon, I did find it all a bit pointless, with a strong “we’ve seen this all before” vibe.
27. Chaos Walking
Some unusual and interesting ideas, and Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland work very well as leads together. Well shot, entertaining, but to me really failed to stick the landing.
28. Voyagers
Tye Sheriden gives a good lead performance in this story, which has some really interesting sci-fi ideas going on. However, the beats of the story are all very straight forward and obvious, and the whole thing never really rises to meet its potential.
Not bad, but should have been better.
29. Six Minutes to Midnight
A really strong premise and opening third, but it really meanders around in the middle, and loses its way in the end.
30. Days of the Bagnold Summer
The performances are great, but this is so by-the-numbers, and so twee, I really did wonder what the point was, unfortunately.
31. Godzilla vs Kong
Probably unfair to have this so low, because it delivered what it said on the tin perfectly well, and was great spectacle. But completely shallow, and very forgettable.
32. Cruella
A terrible film. Obvious. Boring. Lurching from one tone to the other. But it’s worst mistake is that having chosen to make a prequel, the filmmakers completely fail to deliver on the premise, and fail to arrive where the film has to; this is the problem with trying to base a film around a Disney villain.
33. The French Dispatch
I really struggled to get to the end of this. I know it’s a Wes Anderson film, so my expectations were low, but even by his standards this was not just a nonsense, but a boring nonsense. Trying to be clever, but just being dull. Anderson’s direction was very nice in the opening twenty minutes, with his usual strong image construction, but that’s about it. Nice to see Alex Lawther turn up for one scene, though.
Some quick comments on non-cinema movies:
- Mayor Pete
A really powerful and effectively documentary.
- Love and Monsters
Dylan O’Brien is great, and as an adventure on streaming works perfectly well.
- Luca
I’m not a massive Pixar person, but this was a really nice little movie.
– Single all the Way
Really bad. Not a new or interesting thought in this cliché riddle plot.
dksblog.com 