The Best Movies of 2021 — and All the Rest of Them, Too

Good thing I didn't call it Film Frequently

2021 was a lot more like 2020 than most of us were probably hoping. One exception was the movies, which struck me as more memorable than their immediate predecessors — if only just. And while the “occasionally” part of this newsletter proved to be an understatement (désolée, dear readers), I have stayed busy. In addition to being taken on as a freelancer for Variety, a publication that always eluded me during my full-time days, I was admitted to both the Denver Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association. (You’ll always have my heart, LAFCA.) Something else is also on the horizon, about which more soon.

Here are my top 10 films of 2021 — a list that I’ll call ever so slightly tentative, as I’ve still yet to see either Céline Sciamma’s much-adored Petite Maman (hit me with that viewing link, Neon!) or Tsai Ming-liang’s Days, both of which seem to be very much My Shit. I’ve also made note of some favorite performances and included ratings of every single 2021 release I’ve seen. There are a hundred or so of them, with Pig, The Lost Daughter, and The Worst Person in the World coming closest to cracking this list — don’t hold it against them that a top 13 wouldn’t make as much sense, okay?

1. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Drive My Car has emerged as perhaps the most acclaimed film of the year, with only The Power of the Dog reaching the same level of universal praise, but to my mind it wasn’t even the best one directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. 2021 was an annus mirabilis for him nevertheless, with Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy bewitching me like nothing else.

2. The Power of the Dog

I love few things more than a killer ending, and The Power of the Dog’s is nothing if not killer. Jane Campion’s latest initially appears to be one thing, slowly morphs into another, and finally reveals its true, final form in the last few minutes. It’s a remarkable feat, as is the fact that Kodi Smit-McPhee delivers the best performance in a movie headlined by Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, and Jesse Plemons.

3. The Card Counter

Paul Schrader ranked his follow-up to First Reformed #1 on his own list, and who can blame him? The dude is operating at arguably the highest level of his career, which is an incredible thing to say of the guy who wrote Taxi Driver a full 45 years ago. If, like me, you can’t imagine Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish competing for the title of Best Screen Duo of 2021, seek this out and see how magnetic they are.

4. Memoria

Apichatpong Weerasethakul made Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and for that alone I’ll always be in the tank for him. Even if I weren’t, his English- and Spanish-language debut would be a uniquely hypnotic experience. For certain stretches I felt as though I wasn’t quite on the film’s wavelength, but it always pulled me back — not just because of another mesmeric turn by Tilda Swinton, but also because of its thrumming sound design and increasingly dreamlike milieu.

5. Dune

Sometimes, when trying to be eloquent about a movie I enjoyed, I’m inclined to just say that it fucking rules. Dune is such a movie, and I’d like to officially apologize to my ex-girlfriend’s mom for putting off reading the novel until shortly before Denis Villeneuve’s superlative adaptation was released — it, too, fucking rules, even if Dune Messiah mostly left me feeling like I’d done too much spice.

6. The Killing of Two Lovers

Probably the most stressful movie of the year, as well as the most pleasantly surprising — not that any one minute of Robert Machoian’s film could accurately be described as pleasant.

7. Passing

Ruth Negga. That’s it, that’s the blurb.

8. Benedetta

Never change, Paul Verhoeven. Now in his eighties and not content to just be the Basic Instinct, RoboCop, Starship Troopers, and Showgirls guy — but what a guy to be! — he’s still out here making movies that no one else could (or, if we’re being honest, should). This account of a 17th-century nun is as bawdy and blasphemous as you’d expect, but it’s as much an exploration of the soul as it is an instant classic in the nunsploitation canon.

9. Candyman

Man, did I not expect to love this one so much. The original is one of many horror flicks I saw at far too young an age and retained unsettling, half-formed memories of, but not even those years of vague unease were enough to prepare me for Nia DaCosta’s lulu of a sequel. From the brilliant, tragic double meaning of “say his name” to the way it deepens and expands the original’s mythos, it’s brilliantly executed on every level.

10. El Planeta

What a strange little movie, the kind of debut you look back on as a sign of great things to come from its debut writer/director — in this case Amalia Ulman, who also stars in the lead role. It’s funny and sad in a way that so many movies about never-ending economic crises try to be but so rarely are.

Performances

Nicolas Cage, Pig

Jodie Comer, The Last Duel

Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter

Ruth Negga, Passing

The Rest of Them

America: The Motion Picture: ●●◐○

The Amusement Park: ●●●○

Annette: ●◐○○

Antlers: ●◐○○

Army of the Dead: ●●◐○

Atlantis: ●●◐○

Azor: ●●◐○

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: ●◐○○

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar: ●●◐○

Beginning: ●●●○

Being the Ricardos: ●●○○

Belfast: ●●◐○

Benedetta: ●●●○

Benny Loves You: ●○○○

Black Widow: ●●◐○

Blue Bayou: ●●◐○

A Boy Called Christmas: ●●◐○

Candyman: ●●●◐

The Card Counter: ●●●◐

Coda: ●●◐○

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It: ●●◐○

The Dig: ●●◐○

Don’t Look Up: ●◐○○

Drive My Car: ●●●○

Dune: ●●●◐

Edge of the World: ●●◐○

El Planeta: ●●●○

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions: ●◐○○

Eternals: ●●◐○

The Eyes of Tammy Faye: ●●◐○

F9: ●●○○

The Father: ●●●○

Fear Street Part I: 1994: ●●◐○

Fear Street Part 2: 1978: ●●◐○

Fear Street Part 3: 1666: ●●●○

Finch: ●●○○

The Forever Purge: ●◐○○

Free Guy: ●◐○○

The French Dispatch: ●●◐○

Ghostbusters: Afterlife: ●●○○

Godzilla vs. Kong: ●●○○

The Green Knight: ●●◐○

The Guilty: ●●◐○

Halloween Kills: ●●●○

A Hero: ●●◐○

Hive: ●●●○

I Care a Lot: ●●○○

I Was a Simple Man: ●●○○

Jungle Cruise: ●●◐○

Karen: ●○○○

Keep an Eye Out: ●◐○○

The Killing of Two Lovers: ●●●○

King Richard: ●●◐○

Lamb: ●●○○

The Last Duel: ●●●○

The Last Son: ●●○○

Licorice Pizza: ●●◐○

Little Fish: ●●●○

The Little Things: ●●●○

The Lost Daughter: ●●●○

Madres: ●●○○

Malcolm & Marie: ●●○○

Malignant: ●○○○

The Many Saints of Newark: ●●●○

The Matrix Resurrections: ●●◐○

Memoria: ●●●○

Mixtape: ●●◐○

Mortal Kombat: ●●○○

The Night House: ●●●○

Nightmare Alley: ●●●○

No Time to Die: ●●●○

Old: ●●◐○

Parallel Mothers: ●●●○

Passing: ●●●○

Pig: ●●●○

The Power of the Dog: ●●●◐

Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time: ●●○○

Prisoners of the Ghostland: ●●◐○

A Quiet Place Part II: ●●●○

Red Rocket: ●●◐○

Riders of Justice: ●●○○

Saint Maud: ●●◐○

The Scary of Sixty-First: ●●○○

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: ●●◐○

Spencer: ●●●○

Spider-Man: Far From Home: ●●●○

Spiral: ●●◐○

Suicide Squad: ●●●○

The Summit of the Gods: ●●◐○

The Tender Bar: ●●◐○

There’s Someone Inside Your House: ●●◐○

Those Who Wish Me Dead: ●●○○

Titane: ●●◐○

Together Together: ●●◐○

The Tragedy of Macbeth: ●●●○

Venom: Let There Be Carnage: ●●◐○

West Side Story: ●●●○

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?: ●●◐○

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy: ●●●◐

Wife of a Spy: ●●●○

Willy's Wonderland: ●●◐○

The Woman in the Window: ●●○○

The Worst Person in the World: ●●●○

Wrath of Man: ●●○○

Zeros and Ones: ●●○○

Zola: ●●○○