Concluding the countdown of my favorite 2021 movies…
Best Films of 2021
#1 – CODA
My top ten list features films that push boundaries visually and narratively. It includes documentaries, animation, films in black and white, and movies by directors I’ve loved for most of my life.
But the title in the #1 spot doesn’t fall into any of those categories. It’s simply the movie that moved me more than anything else I saw last year. And it wasn’t even close.
Continuing the countdown of my favorite 2021 movies…
Best Films of 2021
#2 – The French Dispatch
I understand why a lot of people have trouble engaging with Wes Anderson’s films. The fast pace, obsessive attention to detail, overly formal camerawork, deadpan dialogue, all of it. I get it.
But I am happily immune from that aversion. On the contrary, I soak up every fastidious minute of his movies with rapturous glee.
And so, when Anderson releases a movie in The French Dispatch that fans and detractors alike describe as “the most Wes Anderson film yet,” you can bet your ass I’m onboard.
Continuing the countdown of my favorite 2021 movies…
Best Films of 2021
#3 – West Side Story
I’m not a fan of the original West Side Story, something I discovered when watching it as part of my AFI Movie Musicals series in 2020. I don’t know if that made me a harder or easier target for this new take on the source material, but I came out of it convinced I’d seen a new classic.
This movie is such a visual and audio treat from the first bravura shot to the last. Nobody knows how to position and move a camera like Steven Spielberg, and it’s a treat to see him finally try his hand at an epic musical.
Continuing the countdown of my favorite 2021 movies…
Best Films of 2021
#4 – C’mon C’mon
I have somehow missed all three of C’mon C’mon writer-director Mike Mills’ previous films: 2005’s Thumbsucker, 2010’s Beginners, and 2016’s 20th Century Women.
I missed them despite great casts, glowing reviews and multiple award nominations. His latest effort, C’mon C’mon, suggests I have some catching up to do.
Continuing the countdown of my favorite 2021 movies…
Best Films of 2021
#5 – The Worst Person in the World
Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World was one of the last 2021 films I saw before finalizing my top ten list, and the one I was most anticipating. Despite the burden of those expectations, this movie managed to surprise and delight me in a dozen different ways.
First it was more narratively daring than I expected, then more dramatically resonant. It was more sexually frank, more emotionally intuitive, more stylistically clever, more willing to engage with modern cultural debates. Finally, it was unexpectedly thoughtful about mortality and purpose.
