Taking On 2021 - Top Films

Quite the year, this past one, 2021, what with the release dates of things causing enough overlap that I ended up skipping my normal half year recap because I simply had not seen enough. Thankfully, I did manage to see a respectable number by the year's end, which I've still been keeping a running list of on Letterboxd. And now they've been narrowed down in a truly grueling process to filter out only the best of the best, a top ten that is truly one for the ages. It did turn out to actually be a pretty damn good year, even with titles still getting shifted around and some getting pushed back indefinitely. So fuck all that, might as well get to it. 

 10. The Green Knight One of the films that seemed to kind of get placed in to a release purgatory was the latest from David Lowery, an adaptation of the Sir Gawain Arthurian story. Having been nearly a decade since I've last read it, going in the details I recalled were more of the broad strokes, but even without a familiarity with the text I think the visuals here would be enough to carry it fairly far; however, the touches in the adaptation that make it play better in a modern context elevate it beyond just a beautifully shot film. The way the story is distilled down to the core themes and then expanded upon along Gawain's journey makes this a tremendous adaptation of a true classic. 

 9. West Side Story Continuing along with the idea of strong adaptations, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner's remake of the classic musical is probably one of my favorite straight adaptations of 2021. I've had, to put it generously, a rocky road with Spielberg's filmography, but even looking beyond the choreography there's plenty to fall in love with when it comes to the visuals. The set design creates this world between film and theater, a transfixing tension that completely drew me in. Also of note is the way it blends English and Spanish fluidly in the non-musical sections, forgoing subtitles and just letting us as the audience exist as we would in the real world. Going in I was pretty hesitant, but at every turn this film surprised me, right up to my narrowing down process when it made its way on to this list. 

 8. Benedetta The latest from Paul Verhoeven isn't quite as controversial as some of the pictures of 'protests' leading up to its wider release led me to believe, but that's not a requirement for it to succeed as an examination of religious institutions. Despite taking place in the seventeenth century, it doesn't have the traditional feel of a period piece; instead, the final product prods at the ideas of truth and lies in religion, the manipulation of power structures especially in a society where upward mobility was limited, and the line between self delusion and conviction in one's self. Oh, and, Jesus totally fucks shit up with a sword. 

 7. Licorice Pizza Not nearly as many swords in this one, unfortunately. But more waterbeds, which isn't the worst tradeoff. Paul Thomas Anderson guides the film with his typical mastery, and the central performances by Haim and Hoffman create an emotional anchor that grounds the feature even as it focuses on a time and place distant from my own experience. What also struck me was how much happens on the periphery, especially for a film that is so resitant to a complex, traditional plot. There's not just the implications about the central characters's lives, but between the fuel crisis, political campaign, and the look at classic Hollywood there's plenty to look at without ever really losing sight of that emotional core. And having these ideas mostly exist on the fringes, it wraps the viewer up in the power of this connection, even if it's not forever, even if there are flaws, for just a few hours it can feel permanent. 

 6. The Power Of The Dog Despite the title there are not all that many dogs in this one, actually thinking back I'm not sure if there even was a single one in any prominent scene, but thankfully it's somehow able to overcome that massive ovesight. A lot of that has to do with Jane Campion's work with the camera, of course, and how it works to frame the bubbling conflict at the center of the film. It's just how thematically sound everything is that elevates it for me though, seeing how each charcter confronts expectations and grapples with their inability to meet them. It's in that performativity that you discover the rage, tragedy, and conflict that, even when it get a little too direct or on the nose, one of the year's most rewarding watches.  

5. Drive My Car Another of the year's more dense dramas, the latest (or co-latest, though I think this one technically released stateside after Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) from Ryusuke Hamaguichi is a nice blend of an emotional core with meta-textual layering. Having there be a play taking place in the film, and using that as a centerpiece to explore and flesh out character dynamics is a narrative choice that opens up the film thematically as well. It would be easy to focus on the length, which is daunting, but throughout the nearly three hour runtime it never actually felt close to that long, with the story paced incredibly well. And it does get a ton of mileage out of the differet types of fiction. Even if we aren't ever completely watching a play within the film, just the notion of story and fiction functions completely drew me in. Hamaguichi balances theme and narrative so well here, all without ever sacrificing the emotional weight of the different characters.

 4.  Red Rocket

3. Vortex

2. The Worst Person In The World

1. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

Draft I published because didn’t want to lose it