My Top 10 Movies of 2021

2021 has been a strong year at the movies. The worst of the worst has been some direct to streaming trash that may not be interesting enough to justify an entire article, and Being the Ricardos, but I already wrote about that piece of trash. I did see two of the worst movies that I have ever seen, I will leave links here and here for those, but this is about the best and narrowing down my Top 10 Best of 2021 has been really hard.

I have a lot of movies that I really loved in 2021, one of which is a movie I will be thinking about for years to come and hoping that others will finally give it a look. That’s my number one movie, but you will have to skip the end to see what that one is.

First though, a list of honorable mentions. Each of the following movies could have made my Top 10 on any given day…

The Last Duel

Zola

CODA

Bergman Island

Dune

Last Night in Soho

Don’t Look Up

Spencer

The Novice

Shiva Baby

Licorice Pizza

And now, my Top 10 Movies of 2021…

10. I Blame Society starring Gillian Horvat Written and Directed by Gillian Horvat My full length review here.

I Blame Society is a bracing, feisty, weird, and wonderfully out there horror movie from Gillian Horvat, a filmmaker whose work will forever be on my radar going forward. The combination of pitch black horror and daft wit in I Blame Society should have made the movie a phenomenon. As it is, it’s one a lot of people missed out on. Here’s hoping people see I Blame Society on this list and give it a chance. In the Me-Too and Post-Me-Too era, I Blame Society has a trenchant quality that few other movies can claim.

9. Pig starring Nicolas Cage Written and Directed by Michael Sarnoski Read my full length review here.

I was furious that people referred to Pig as ‘John Wick but with a pig.’ That reductive description strips away so much of what Pig truly is, which is a thoughtful exploration of loneliness, longing, and grief. Pig features one of the most nuanced and full-bodied performances of Nicolas Cage’s career. No histrionics, no typical Cage meme stuff, just acting on a level that few other actors reached in 2021.

8. John and the Hole starring Charlie Shotwell Written and Directed by Pascual Sisto Read my full length review here.

Haunting, strange and unique, John and the Hole is a stunning glimpse into the mind of a budding sociopath. In star Charlie Shotwell, writer-director Pascual Sisto found a way to put us inside the mind of a potentially very dangerous young man. The details, the odd avenues of storytelling, and the remarkable use of allegory make John and the Hole of the most exciting and haunting movies of 2021.

7. Lamb starring Noomi Rapace Co-Written and Directed by Valdimar Johannsson Read my full length review here.

Lamb has a mind blowing premise and carries out that premise in a fashion that is riveting. Lamb is one of those movies that press you into your seat while you stare wildly at the screen, scanning every inch for some kind of clue. Then, it slows down for a while to let you catch your breath before delivering yet another moment of breathtaking or weird bit of suspense. Lamb is undoubtedly the most original and one of the most exciting movies of 2021.

6. Nightmare Alley starring Bradley Cooper Co-Written and Directed by Guillermo Del Toro Read my full length review here.

There may be no better visual filmmaker working today than Guillermo Del Toro. Del Toro’s visual style is extraordinary, crisp, clear, detailed and lush. Even in the grimy, muddy, and grim world of the freak show circus, you can’t help but admire the color and the richness of even the deep, inky, darkness of Nightmare Alley. That Del Toro is able to match the visual with a compelling and engrossing story is a testament to the seemingly unending talent of Guillermo Del Toro. Of course, having an all star cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Ron Perlman, and Bradley Cooper, doesn’t hurt.

5. The Lost Daughter starring Olivia Coleman Adapted and Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal Read my full length review here.

I was about halfway through The Lost Daughter and I was convinced that I was going to write a negative review. I was hating the experience, I was cringing at every turn of the plot, at every agonizing moment of social dysfunction. And then, it started to click for me, the challenge, the cringe, the agony, that’s what makes The Lost Daughter so powerful, so connective. The reason The Lost Daughter is so good is because it is a challenge to watch. Maggie Gyllenhaal has made a movie about anxiety that captures the feeling of angst in a way few other movies ever have. It’s a bold and beautiful work of art in the end even as it can make your skin crawl.

4. The Green Knight starring Dev Patel Written and Directed by David Lowery Read my full length review here.

I watched The Green Knight with my jaw hanging open. The Green Knight may not be a big budget epic but writer-director David Lowery captures the epic sweep of classic movies about Knights even without a cast of thousands, bloody battlefields, or the pomp and circumstance that often accompanies a classic Hollywood epic. Each chapter of The Green Knight feels epic in its own unique way. The Green Knight recalls the great Arthurian adventures of the past but given new life by David Lowery's visionary use of practical and special effects. Dev Patel’s complex and thoughtful performance of Gawain is deeply underrated as is his supporting cast including actor Barry Keoghan, an actor of such unique energy that he charges any scene he is in with a life all its own, a breathtaking unpredictability that few actors this side of Dennis Hopper have ever embodied. The Green Knight sweeps you up and carries you along and you leave having had an unforgettable, breathtaking experience.

3. Giants Being Lonely starring Jack Irving Written and directed by Grear Patterson Read my full length review here.

Giants Being Lonely may have been released in 2019 but I didn’t see it until this year when Guillermo Del Toro helped the movie find distribution to some film festivals. I saw it with an introduction by Del Toro and an interview with director Grear Patterson and I was immediately intrigued. The movie I then watched was an utterly hypnotic experience, a deliberately paced, thoughtful and poetic story of youth and jealousy with deep echoes of Amadeus on a small town scale. Then the ending arrived and stunned me like few other movies ever have.

2. Tick Tick Boom starring Andrew Garfield Directed by Lin Manuel Miranda Read my full length review here.

The most emotional experience I had in the movies in 2021 was Tick Tick Boom, the story of Broadway icon Jonathan Larson. Few films have ever gotten at the heart of a work of art in the way Tick Tick Boom gets at the heart of creating art. Director Lin Manuel Miranda paints a gorgeous tribute to Larson, someone who influenced a very young Lin Manuel Miranda on his own Broadway journey, hitting one big emotional note after another while using Larson’s own music to further the story of Larson’s life. It’s a love letter but never a cloying, begging for attention, kind of love letter. Rather, it's a genuine uplifting tribute of a love letter.

1. The Killing of Two Lovers starring Clayne Crawford Written and Directed by Robert Machoian Read my full length review here.

The Killing of Two Lovers floored me on my first viewing and has haunted me since then. The emotions at the core of The Killing of Two Lovers are so raw and familiar that you can’t help but feel the emotional pain. The empathy I feel for Clayne Crawford’s heartbroken husband and father, David, is immense as is how much I relate to him. I may never have been married or watched as my wife moved on with another man but I have had enough similar experiences to feel what he’s feeling and I imagine you do as well.

But writer-director Robert Machoian doesn’t merely have empathy for Crawford’s lead character, he has empathy for all of his characters. Machoian makes sure that you understand the motivations of Sepideh Moafi’s Nikki, the wife trying to move on with her life after her seemingly failed marriage. She’s no monster, she’s not unrealistic or cruel. She’s human and she could not keep going on with Crawford’s David if his intentions were to simply stop living and take her down with him. It’s that fairness while keeping us almost strictly in David’s orbit, inside of his pain and isolation, that proves to be the storytelling strength of The Killing of Two Lovers.

Then there is the remarkable way that Machoian uses the setting and atmosphere as part of demonstrating David’s pain and isolation. Machoian brilliantly deploys the tools of filmmaking, remarkable visual details, framing of shots, to force us into David’s perspective and help us to understand and empathize with his remarkable pain and all while we also see how he got here through his own actions and failings. Machoian and Crawford give us heaps of remarkable exposition without ever saying a line of dialogue. Watching a movie so deftly use visuals to communicate emotional pain and regret impressed me with their formal execution and broke my heart with their emotional power.

The Killing of Two Lovers is my pick as the best movie of 2021.