A Year Full of "MEH": Anthony's Top 10 Films of 2021

 

So yes...I was not as happy with 2021 as a year for film like I was for 2020.

I had thought there was a lack of excitement of film in 2020, but now I have realized that I didn’t give that year enough credit.

I guess you could say that hindsight is 20/20 for 2020...

Ha. Ha.

...no?

Anyway...moving on...

I didn't feel as much passion for the films this past year like I did for 2020 and especially for 2019 which was one of the best years for film in a very long time.

If you were to judge 2021 as a year of film strictly by the Academy Awards, it looks even worse than it actually is. That reminds of me 2018 when the Academy rewarded films like Green Book, Roma, and Bohemian Rhapsody while ignoring great films like Burning, Shoplifters, First Reformed, or not giving enough Oscars to films that deserved it like The Favourite.

The Best Picture win for Coda this year is one of my least favorite wins in its category...and other nominees like Power of the Dog were overhyped or baffling in its presentation like Licorice Pizza. 

There were certain gems that I do want to call attention to, so I will start off with a few Honorable Mentions and then we will go into the Top 10 proper.

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Honorable Mentions:

tick, tick...Boom! (Lin Manuel Miranda)

A very solid film adaptation of a musical that deserved a lot more recognition than the more famous piece by its composer. 

Oh, and both Andrew Garfield and Robin de Jesus were FANTASTIC in this!

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The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen)

Joel Coen’s dive into the world of German Expressionist-style or perhaps similarities of early Ingmar Bergman was a sight to behold.

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Dune (Denis Villeneuve)

I’ve never read the novel and only saw the rather bizarre 1984 David Lynch adaptation. Here, I can say that Denis Villeneuve proves he is one of the best filmmakers working today. 

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Summer of Soul...or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised (Questlove)

A truly entertaining music documentary. It’s a shame it’s moment in the spotlight at the Oscars was overshadowed by that stupid slap.

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Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodovar)

Another great outing by the exuberant Almodovar, led by the career-best work of Penelope Cruz.

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Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

A haunting film that further proves that Tilda Swinton is an actress who makes such bold and interesting choices in her career.

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#11 - In Front of Your Face 

(Hong Sang-soo)

My final Honorable Mention and my #11 film is perhaps the most obscure selection in some ways.

South Korea has been on a roll in the last few years with films like Parasite and Burning and the streaming series sensation Squid Game. In the case of a movie like In Front of Your Face, it offers a more grounded and genteel approach that might perhaps be a little more universal.

In Front of Your Face is another outing by Hong Sang-soo, whose filmography includes Our Sunhi and Woman is the Future of Man among others. He is a very talented filmmaker though he hasn't had the same widespread appeal and success of other South Korean filmmakers like Lee Chang-dong, Park Chan-wook, or Bong Joon-ho.

This would be my favorite work of his...and it is also his most emotional and assured.

Filmed during COVID and utilizing the setting complete with extras in masks, we meet former actress Sangok (Lee Hye-young) who is living on the futon of her sister Jeongok (Cho Yun-hee) as she is planning to meet with a young director and reconsidering starting up her acting career again.

But Sangok is a woman who carries a lot of hesitancy and weight on her shoulders...and she has to face a lot of personal demons as the film progresses.

When the film premiered to strong but quiet fanfare a year ago at Cannes, David Katz of TheFilmStage referred to Hong's style as being similar to that of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who gave us some of the best films of the 70s such as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and his magnum opus, The Marriage of Maria Braun.

This is high praise indeed...and I can see the comparison. It is subtle, but it is there. 

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THE LIST!

#10 - L'evenement (Happening)

(Audrey Diwan)

One of my favorite films of 2020 was Eliza Hittman's Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which was about a teenager who travels with her cousin from rural Pennsylvania to New York in order to obtain an abortion.

It was a film that both infuriated and enthralled me in how much someone has to go through all because of truly archaic and ludicrous laws.

In 2021, Audrey Diwan gave us L'evenement which tells the story of a young girl who seeking an abortion in 1960s France.

The film is actually based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux and focuses on the similarly named Anne played by Anamaria Vortolomei.

Anne gets pregnant and suddenly sees her future of pursuing college slipping away. As she starts to progress further into her pregnancy, she looks to seek to get an abortion when she realizes her life may never be able to recover the way she would like it to...even at the risk of going to prison if caught.

While it didn't quite hit at the same level as Never Rarely Sometimes Always, I can't deny that I was still left angry by the fact that so many lives were negatively affected by such strict laws and religious beliefs.

Also, Anamaria Vortolomei is a young actress I was not familiar with and she most certainly wowed me with this performance. I would've given her an Oscar nomination for sure.

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#9 - The Souvenir Part II 

(Joanna Hogg)

I was very pleased with The Souvenir, which came out in 2019 and I think I actually found myself even more pleased with this follow-up.

The film still focuses on Honor Swinton Byrne's Julie as she recovers from the tumultuous and fraught relationship she had with an older man and puts that energy into making a film for her final school project.

There was something that felt so raw and piercing and deep about The Souvenir Part II. This is a film sequel that was made simply because Joanna Hogg had more of the story to tell and it wasn't a cash grab. Not only that, I feel like Hogg to the concept to a new level by changing up the tone into a meta-filmmaking atmosphere that blurs the line between real-life/fiction. 

Still another sterling performance by Honor Swinton-Byrne and her mother Tilda Swinton is also back to completely steal every scene she is in.

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#8 - Petite Maman 

(Celine Sciamma)

It was going to be hard to top Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but Celine Sciamma followed it up with a really lovely film that takes on another kind of complex female relationship.

Petite Maman revolves around Nelly, an 8-year-old who is deeply affected by the death of her maternal grandmother. When going into the woods to play, Nelly comes across a girl around the same age named Marion.

Marion's cheerful attitude provides great comfort to young Nelly, but when a rainstorm brings playtime to an end, Nelly realizes Marion might have a connection to her that she didn't realize.

Petite Maman is a strong follow-up to a film like Portrait of a Lady on Fire which had a very rhapsodic look at a forbidden lesbian love affair. Here, Sciamma goes off in a rather fanciful and bittersweet direction which shows great range and variety compared to her previous works. I would say this is easily her second strongest outing and she is officially a filmmaker I will gladly be on the lookout for. 

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#7 - Wheel of Fortune & Fantasy

(Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

2021 was a banner year for Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

He hit it big with Drive My Car (stay tuned for more on that film...), but a lot of film critics and fanatics found a lot to really like with his other outing this year: Wheel of Fortune & Fantasy. 

Told in three separate vignettes that are only connected in theme than by its actors, Wheel is a unique offering that has an intriguing first two-thirds and then really strikes with its final third in which two women who are seemingly strangers mistake each other for someone else only to find out that perhaps they can provide a little comfort to each other's lives.

I would argue the movie is more about coincidences or maybe happenstance encounters. 

The first portion tells the story of a love triangle in which two female friends who have a connection to the same man.

The second portion revolves around a college student who uses his older female lover to seduce a college professor whom he felt betrayed him.

The more bitter and sultry angles to these first two portions are certainly well portrayed but it was smart of Hamaguchi to end the film with that heartwarming third story. 

It leaves the film on a rather upbeat high.

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#6 - Titane

(Julia Ducournau)

Speaking of upbeat, Titane is anything but upbeat.

Perhaps one of the more volatile and controversial outings this year, Titane is 2021's Palme D'or winner at the Cannes Film Festival...and its omission from the Academy's shortlist of International Feature films angered many film buffs.

The film begins with young Alexia who is misbehaving in the backseat of her father's car and ends up causing him to crash the car. 

This accident leads to her needing a metal plate installed in her skull and as she leaves the hospital, she shows little interest in her parents but chooses to hug and kiss the car.

We then fast forward to an older Alexia, played by Agathe Rouselle. She is working as show girl for a motor show and seems to attract many suitors...but Alexia is not all what she seems.

I was not prepared for Titane. 

Even when it ended, I wasn't quite sure what I thought of it. I knew it was more positive than negative, but I just found myself intrigued and disgusted and impressed and...to further add to my shock...oddly comforted?

A lot of that comfort stems from the character of Vincent, played by Vincent Lindon, an older man who comes into Alexia's life as the film progresses. 

 I am choosing not to spoil more with this film. 

If you have seen the film before or you don't care about spoilers, you can read my original review of the film here:

ART ISN'T EASY: A Blog About....The Arts!: My Review of Julia Ducournau's TITANE (w/some spoilers) (anthonyjhost.blogspot.com)

This is a film that I recommend with some hesitation because I know it won't be for everyone.

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#5 - Passing 

(Rebecca Hall)

When Passing was first released, I remember the critical praise and buzz surrounding it and the thoughts seemed to be that it could be an outside dark-horse to get a few major Oscar nominations and that Ruth Negga was a frontrunner to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Instead, Passing got shut out completely.

Read my original review for Passing here:

ART ISN'T EASY: A Blog About....The Arts!: My Review of Rebecca Hall's PASSING (anthonyjhost.blogspot.com)

Rebecca Hall's writer/directorial debut was sublime and, frankly, the fact she got shafted from recognition all season is nothing short of shameful.

Ruth Negga managed to get nominated for several precursor awards only to get snubbed at the end at the expense of Judi Dench's unremarkable performance in Belfast. Her work as Clare was quite the marvel as she plays the character who is passing herself off as white...and in the process, she really embodies Hall's desire to have the film feel like it has been lost to time.

Negga possesses the spirit of the women who dominated film in the Pre-Code era of Hollywood like Norma Shearer, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, and Joan Crawford (the Grand Hotel era, not the Mildred Pierce era) and while it may seem a tad jarring at first, once I realized the intention, I was blown away.

Tessa Thompson doesn't quite have that same acting style, but I was blown away by her in this. As Irene, she watches her old friend pass herself off as white while being married to a proud racist who is completely oblivious to his wife's roots.

Thompson was an actress I admired but after this film, I became an unabashed fan. She was royally robbed of an Oscar nomination when I honestly would've considered giving her the win.

Passing was shafted. I hope time will be kind to this movie because the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems that it was ignored. Sadly, this won't be the last film on this list that ignored.

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#4 - Judas & The Black Messiah 

(Shaka King)

With how COVID affected the Hollywood system in 2020, many films were pushed to 2021 in hopes that they could have a proper theatrical release date. In the case of a film like Judas & The Black Messiah, it went from a scheduled August 2020 release date to being released simultaneously in theatres and on HBO Max in February 2021. That deemed it eligible for the 2020-2021 Oscar season as they changed the timeline thanks to the pandemic and the delays of some releases.

So yes, Judas & The Black Messiah is technically a 2021 film and it still stands out strong when put next to the films that came out in the remaining months of the year.

My original review for the film is at the following link: https://anthonyjhost.blogspot.com/2021/03/my-review-of-best-picture-nominee-judas.html

One of the many remarkable attributes of the film is its unapologetic take on the story...which is exactly what it needed. For something to revolve around the Black Panthers and particularly Fred Hampton, it needed to have a brash and progressive tone. 

Case in point: Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 was set during the same time period in the same city and even featured the assassination of Fred Hampton as a subplot. That film was your typical Hollywood neo-liberal fluff with a final third of the film that felt insulting to the Leftist movement and the ideals of the Chicago 7 or the Black Panthers...oh and I will still never get over the sappy and cringe-worthy ending that felt as cliched as anything to come out of a movie in quite some time.

While Judas could've gone a little further, I was still quite impressed that a movie that was distributed by Warner Bros. actually had such a strong progressive edge. It also helps that Hampton's own son and his wife served as consultants on the film...and I admire the work that Shaka King and his team put into it. Read the review at the link provided if you haven't seen the film because I think you should seek it out!

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#3 - The Worst Person in the World 

(Joachim Trier)

Now let's get down to business....

We have reached The Worst Person in the World and with that, we have reached the first film on my top 10 to get a 5/5 rating.

I struggled greatly with this top 3 because in many ways, these three films are all so drastically different and it simply becomes an apples and oranges debate. 

I almost considered calling The Worst Person in the World my favorite film of the year when I was drafting this list last week...and maybe I will again if you ask me a month from now...but hey, this is just a snapshot after all.

If you read my original review for the film here...

ART ISN'T EASY: A Blog About....The Arts!: My Review of Joachim Trier's THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (anthonyjhost.blogspot.com)

...you will see that I had some slight reservations about the pacing and the ending.

I feel less concerned about these criticisms now.

In the end, this film was a cathartic viewing experience and it was truly a delight to discover the brilliance of Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve who gave one of the best performances of the last couple of years in this film.

Joachim Trier gave us his best film yet and it was considered the final installment of his Oslo Trilogy. 

Consider seeking this one out, especially if you like films of the romantic variety that have a cynical edge of sorts.

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#2 - Drive My Car

(Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

The single deserving Best Picture nominee this year was...and it probably isn't a shock to those who know me that I would consider this film as such...Drive My Car, the nearly 3-hour long Japanese film about a theatre director/actor who is looking to put up a multi-lingual production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima.

Our lead, Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is also suffering from the abrupt death of his wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter who tends to conceive her stories during sex. Prior to her death, Yusuke discovers her sleeping with a younger actor named Koji (Masaki Okada), but she never learns he witnessed it.

It is two years after her death that he accepts a residency at a Hiroshima theatre and chooses to do Uncle Vanya. As part of his contract, the theatre insists he be driven by a chauffeur to and from the theatre as the commute is roughly an hour. He, at first, chooses to use the car rides to listen to cassette tapes of his wife telling stories to inspire him only to discover that the lady driving him, Misaki (Toko Miura), may prove to be able to reach him during this time of grief.

Drive My Car might be one of the best portrayals of grief that I have seen in a film. As I stated in my original review (which you can find here: ART ISN'T EASY: A Blog About....The Arts!: My Review of Ryusuke Hamaguchi's DRIVE MY CAR (anthonyjhost.blogspot.com), Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura both give marvelous performances as people dealing with grief and a lot of repressed emotions. It is the best example of grief on film since Juliette Binoche in Krystof Kieslowski's Blue. 

Also, Masaki Okada as the young and virile actor Koji is another performance that deserved more attention than it got. He gives a very sterling monologue in the middle of the film that was such an enthralling moment.

Drive My Car managed to get nominations for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and International Feature.

 It won the latter. It should've taken the other 3 too but aside from Campion's Directing win, it lost the other two to Coda...

Excuse me while I go break something in protest.

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#1 - C'mon C'mon

(Mike Mills)

For the last 3 years, I chose a foreign film as my #1 selection. I frankly could've easily done it this year too and it would've made sense as both Drive My Car and The Worst Person in the World have been showered with praise with many critics calling both of them the best the year had to offer.

Maybe this will change, but there was just this extra dash of warmth and heart and just all-around strong filmmaking that led me to giving Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon my vote for the best film of 2021.

It's not a long movie, it is not an epic movie, and it doesn't even really deal with any insane or bombastic topics.

It's a movie about familial relationships and we get to watch an actor like Joaquin Phoenix connect on a such a deep level with the young Woody Norman (who, by the way, has a very posh British accent in real life and you wouldn't know that at all watching him in this. He does a better job at mimicking an American accent than most adults!) and I loved seeing Gaby Hoffman get a role like this as she is a truly underrated character actress. She conveys such warmth while also showing her character's tired and nervous energy.

The greatness of Phoenix almost goes without saying, but I do think young Woody Norman easily gives one of the greatest performances I have ever seen by a child onscreen

Here is a link to my original review, where I go into a little more detail: 

ART ISN'T EASY: A Blog About....The Arts!: My Review of Mike Mills' C'MON C'MON (Starring Joaquin Phoenix) (anthonyjhost.blogspot.com)

I am truly saddened that this film has not managed to receive the exposure it deserves, and I would hope that over time, many will come to discover it and love it just as much as I did.

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IN CONCLUSION:

2021 as a Year in Cinema may not have excited me as much as other years have, but these films are certainly admirable efforts...particularly my top 3. 

I do have high hopes for 2022 as so many prominent filmmakers have movies lined up to be released this year: David Cronenberg, Park Chan-wook, Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sarah Polley, Hirokazu Kore-ada, Darren Aronofsky, Florian Zeller, Maria Schrader, and Steven Spielberg just to name a few. 

Until then, I will have to revisit these films and see if my opinions may have changed for better or worse.