Shaun Munro presents his top 50 films of 2021…
And like that, 2021 has come to a close. While hardly heralding cinema’s great return at the box office, the past 12 months have seen the industry inch closer to something approaching “normality,” even as mid-budget films largely seemed to enjoy much greater success streaming at home.
In large part thanks to the miracle that is virtual film festivals, I managed to see more than 350 new releases this past year, many of them screened digitally at Sundance, SXSW, TIFF, the London Film Festival, and Frightfest.
And so, I felt it prudent to not merely write a top 10 or top 20 list for 2021, but spring for an entire 50. Having scoured my list and checked it twice, these are the 50 films that came out on top; the 50 that, above all others, I’d recommend in a heartbeat.
This list is largely concerned only with feature films rather than documentaries, though a few allowances were made for docs that toyed with the conventions of documentary form or had a meta-narrative component of some kind. To recommend a few straight-up docs I loved this year: In the Same Breath, The Rescue, Summer of Soul, Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, Hold Your Fire, The Sparks Brothers, Attica, All Light Everywhere, United States vs. Reality Winner, The Return: Life After ISIS, and Val.
I didn’t however get around to seeing every feature film I wanted to for this list, whether due to a lack of time or screener availability, so the following films were not considered: Licorice Pizza, The Lost Daughter, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Nightmare Alley, Parallel Mothers, and Memoria.
With all the housekeeping done, let’s get on with the list…
50. The Many Saints of Newark
Though few were actively hankering for a movie prequel to The Sopranos, David Chase adds a welcome post-script – or rather, pre-script – to the stories of Tony Soprano et. al, even if not all creative decisions are sure to please everyone.
With the sturdy directorial hand of regular Sopranos director Alan Taylor, The Many Saints of Newark traces the environment that shaped Tony – played here by the late James Gandolfini’s gifted son Michael – into the man he became, though this is far from a mere origin story for the vaunted mobster.
Alessandro Nivola is fantastic as Chris Moltisanti’s father Dickie, leading a cast that carves out memorable parts for a bevy of fine actors including Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Ray Liotta, and Vera Farmiga.
Though few will be left thinking this film absolutely needed a theatrical release at all – it feels like a “TV event” in its very bones – the predictable fan service melds well enough with new characters and stories to make this a worthwhile sit for fans.
Its modest-yet-sprawling ambitions may have been better suited for a mini-series format, but The Many Saints of Newark breathes fresh – if hardly vital – new life into a watermark of “prestige TV.”
49. Belfast
It’s easy to picture Kenneth Branagh’s vibrant love letter to his hometown and childhood growing up in 1960s Belfast being the crowd-pleasing, populist pick for the Best Picture Oscar; a difficult-to-dislike, easy charmer filled with gorgeous visual details and strong performances.
While perhaps slight to a fault in how it engages with both time and place, Belfast is nevertheless an affecting drama about the ties that bind people to locales and indeed to each other.
Young lead Jude Hill makes an attention-grabbing debut as sweet Buddy, while Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan are remarkable as his beleaguered parents, and Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench turn in magnetic work as his wryly funny grandparents.
Lensed to perfection by Branagh’s regular DP Haris Zambarloukos, this mostly feel-good drama isn’t the deepest or richest film you’ll see this year, but it’s a comforting warm blanket of a movie that’s also a technical and performative triumph.
48. Luzzu
Few films have more keenly evoked a sense of place this past year than Alex Camilleri’s evocative debut Luzzu, a neorealist drama about a Maltese fisherman (Jesmark Scicluna) struggling to make ends meet amid diminishing catches and the need to provide for his infirm newborn son.
Less a cautionary tale than it is a deeply felt look at the traditions lost by sometimes-dubious “progress,” Luzzu richly observes a man trying to preserve a fast-eroding generational way of life, with just enough moral tension to keep provoking after the credits roll.
With enormous aid by a shockingly lived-in performance from non-professional actor Jesmark Scicluna, this winning drama offers insight into a world you probably knew nothing about with the absolute impression of authenticity.
Read my full review from Sundance here.
47. Spider-Man: No Way Home
Without getting into any spoilerific particulars, the MCU’s latest mega-blockbuster is surely the notion of fan service and “nostalgia-bait” filmmaking taken to its natural conclusion. That it also happens to be an entertaining and unexpectedly affecting film is really just the icing on the cake.
The mechanical machinations that set the plot in motion are admittedly contrived and unwieldy, but they’re worth swallowing down for the terrifically enjoyable arc that follows. Director Jon Watts continues to prove he’s a rather uninspired filmmaking choice to helm these pictures, but the basically un-fuckupable tenacity of the premise aids him immensely.
While clunky multiversal storytelling and middling direction prevent Spider-Man: No Way Home from becoming the MCU’s first great Spider-Man movie, this is for the most part an inspired take on the oft-cynical fan service-rife sequels flooding Hollywood these days.
46. King Knight
Horror auteur Richard Bates, Jr.’s (Excision) latest puts The Addams Family and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion in a blender, only to serve the hilariously off-the-wall remnants up to his legion of fans.
In King Knight, coven leader Thorn (Matthew Gray Gubler) finds his standing in the clan threatened when he’s invited to attend his 20-year high-school reunion, unraveling a past he’d much prefer to keep secret.
While admittedly very low on out-and-out horror, Bates’ film is an absolute thigh-slapper, delivering a spirited, low-fi satire of both witch-themed and high school reunion-centric movies. With the help of an excellent ensemble cast and snappy 78-minute runtime, this absolutely deserves to become a hallowed cult classic.
Read my full review from Frightfest here.
45. Wheel Of Fortune & Fantasy
Most filmmakers would love to release one well-received movie in a year, but Ryusuke Hamaguchi dared to put out two, Drive My Car being preceded by his winning anthology drama Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
The three stories within focus on fortuitous – though not particularly fantastical – events that happen to three Japanese women, each centered around strange coincidences and unexpected surprises.
Compared to most anthology films this is a refreshingly low-key affair that mines drama both everyday and heightened to ends both comedic and dramatic. This odd yet sumptuous canvas is used to explore under-scribed aspects of the human condition, while mining the inner humanity of its even its most questionable characters.
Read my full review from the London Film Festival here.
44. Islands
Martin Edralin makes a quiet but memorable feature debut with Islands, as middle-aged Filipino immigrant Joshua (Rogelio Balagtas) attempts to find a romantic partner in the wake of his parents’ declining health.
Much as mainstream Hollywood has made middle-aged singletons something of an easy joke, Islands couldn’t be much more the opposite, treating Joshua with an enormous amount of dignity and empathy all while confessing the rather unfamiliar predicament he finds himself in.
Rogelio Balagtas, in his film debut, gives a restrained belter of a lead performance, devising a character so utterly relatable despite his flattened affect, and no matter the relationship status you might find yourself in. We’ve all been lonely before, and Joshua’s mid-life anxieties reflect that beautifully.
Read my full review from SXSW here.
43. Petite Maman
Few filmmakers in recent years have more ingeniously confounded audience expectations than Céline Sciamma, who followed up her beloved romantic drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire not with another emotionally fraught, quietly epic drama, but an altogether different, totally unique portrait of longing for that which cannot be.
You’re best advised to watch Petite Maman with as little knowledge of its narrative as possible, so I’ll keep the details scant. All in all it’s a wonderfully slight 72-minute drama focused on a young girl mourning her recently deceased grandmother and the unexpected opportunity she’s granted to process that grief.
Melding low-key magical realism with a very palpable sense of grounded human wist, Sciamma’s film approaches its potentially labyrinthine elevated concept with unexpected restraint, resulting in a film as beguiling as it is charming.
Read my full review from the London Film Festival here.
42. Drive My Car
Even card-carrying fans of “world cinema” might admit to being a little perturbed by a drama clocking in a mere minute under three hours, yet despite its willfully sedate pace, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car mostly earns its epic length.
Sure, it could’ve probably been cut down by 20 or 30 minutes had somebody leaned on Hamaguchi, but the film’s methodical rhythms add space and power to its complex portrayal of a man (Hidetoshi Nishijima) reckoning with his messy fallout of his wife’s sudden death.
Unsentimental but certainly not in any way detached, this emotionally beefy character study is yet further testament to Hamaguchi’s singular penchant for the toils of the human soul, as is quickly earning him a reputation as one of the most exciting and fascinating filmmakers working today.
Read my full review from the London Film Festival here.
41. I’m Your Man
Despite recently making the shortlist for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, Maria Schrader’s delightful sci-fi romance I’m Your Man truly feels like it’s flying way too low for a film starring the terrific Dan Stevens – in a performance this wonderful no less.
Maren Eggert is Alma, a scientist who agrees to a most unorthodox experiment in order to receive research funding for her work; she will live with a highly advanced humanoid robot, Tom (Stevens), for a period of three weeks.
Pitting the cynical Alma against this hunky hunk ‘o metal makes for an infectiously entertaining, most unconventional rom-com which uses the gulf between humans and machines to examine the absurdity of contemporary dating rituals. There’s also plenty of sweetness and charm to go around, though, courtesy of the spot-on work from the two leads.
A deceptively thoughtful film about modern human relationships, I’m Your Man is powered by a perfectly-cast Dan Stevens and the appealingly prickly work of Maren Eggert.
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