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  1. #1
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    BEST MOVIES OF 2021 (Lists)

    Best Movies of 2021

    I will be putting up other people's lists as I hastily try to compile one of my own to send to IndieWire. Due to missing the NYFF and every other in-person festival this year and not spending any time in NYC or Paris either, I have not yet seen a lot of the festival favorites that will be popping up on critics' lists. Maybe I'll have seen and loved some few others even noticed, though.

    On one site these are the only personal lists available so far:
    JONATHAN ROSENBAUM
    First Cow - Kelly Reichardt
    Her Socialist Smile - John Gianvito
    Tiong Bahru Social Club - Tan Bee Thiam
    Martin und Hans - Mark Rappaport
    John Farrow Hollywood's Man in the Shadows - Claude Gonzalez & Frans Vanderburg
    While We Are Here - Clarissa Campolina and Luiz Pretti
    Letters from the Ends of the World - a dozen of the first graduates of Béla Tarr’s FilmFactory
    Uncut Gems - Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
    Cry Macho - Clint Eastwood

    JOHN CRONK:
    Annette- Leos Carax
    Benedetta -Paul Verhoeven
    The Hole - Michelangelo Frammartino
    The Card Counter - Paul Schrader
    Cry Macho - Clint Eastwood
    Drive My Car - Ryűsuke Hamaguchi
    France - Bruno Dumont
    In Front of Your Face - Hong Sang-soo
    Memoria - Apichatpong Weerasethakul
    What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? - Aleksandre Koberidze

    JOHN WATERS
    (For his annotated version go to ArtForum)


    1
    ANNETTE (Leos Carax)
    The best movie of the year is an insane, over-the-top, and thankfully self-indulgent Sparks Brothers musical about an angry macho performance artist, his opera-diva girlfriend, and their daughter, who is somehow born a puppet. See it by yourself so no one you know can possibly ruin this nutcase masterpiece. Oh yeah—it’s really long.

    2
    SUMMER OF SOUL (...OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) (Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson)
    Beautifully edited from forgotten footage left behind in a lab, the so-called Black Woodstock concert film, originally shot in 1969 in Harlem, rises to the top of 2021 with a vengeance. The camera practically goes down Clara Ward’s throat to show us just where her great gospel voice actually begins. Wait till you see Nina Simone—never angrier! She’ll kick your ass and so will this movie.

    Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), 2021, 2K video, color, sound, 117 minutes. Nina Simone.
    Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), 2021, 2K video, color, sound, 117 minutes. Nina Simone.
    3
    VORTEX (Gaspar Noé)
    The director’s most humane and unironic yet scarily claustrophobic feel-bad drama about death is filmed in split-screen Duo-Vision, so be prepared for twice the disturbing power of his other cinematic shockers.

    4
    FRANCE (Bruno Dumont)
    This psychological study of a fictitious popular female newscaster may start out conventionally, but the assured director’s long pauses and cruel plot twists quickly turn a quasi attack on the media and its ravenous consumers into a searing critique of both the tedium and the emotional risk of living in the public eye.

    5
    THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY IN THE WORLD (Kristina Lindström, Kristian Petri)
    Imagine, today, openly gay director Luchino Visconti being allowed inside a high school to parade auditioning half-naked teenage boys in front of him for his film Death in Venice. This harrowing documentary explores the perils of teen stardom for the kid who got the part and went from being the most beautiful to the most fucked up.

    6
    MANDIBLES (Quentin Dupieux)
    The stupidest art film of the year, directed by a Gallic auteur who specializes in one-joke dumbbell comedies, about a giant fly and two French stooges, is also one of the funniest and most charming.

    7
    RED ROCKET (Sean Baker)
    Shocking? Refreshing? The male gaze comes out of today’s PC closet in an incredibly well-cast tale of a washed-up hetero male porn star who goes back to his meth-head ex-wife and mother-in-law in Texas to start a new dysfunctional life. Finally, fuckin’, fightin’, and frontal nudity are back on the art-house screen, where they belong.

    8
    THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (Joel Coen)
    If Ingmar Bergman came back from beyond the grave today to direct Shakespeare on film, this is what it would look like. Kathryn Hunter as all three of the witches has to be seen to be believed.

    9
    SAINT-NARCISSE (Bruce LaBruce)
    The Canadian punk queer director’s most successfully realized movie, elegantly shot and seamlessly put together. Think Vali the Witch of Positano meets twin Joe Dallesandros. Catholic, sexy, and oh so deviantly devout.

    10
    THE ONANIA CLUB (Tom Six)
    OK, I’m really going out on a limb here, replacing Pedro Almodóvar’s exquisite Parallel Mothers, a film everybody should love, with this loathsome unreleased feature everybody will probably hate. The Human Centipede director tops himself with a story of rich Los Angeles women who gather together to masturbate while watching news footage of the world’s misery. Often wrongheaded but sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, it has been rejected by film distributors worldwide. All I can say is that the movie sure as hell delivers. You will probably never be able to see it. Maybe that’s a good thing . . .
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2022 at 12:05 PM.

  2. #2
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    Chris Knipp's 2021 Best Movie Lists
    Films for a not-yet-final annual movie best list for 2021:
    Favorite features and documentaries of the Year among those that I have seen so far. Some are films I saw last year that had theatrical release this year.

    A work in progress.

    Categories IndieWire asks you to list: Best Film (top 10), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, Best Documentary, Best Performance, Best International Film, and the Best 2022 Release You've Already Seen.

    Favorite features
    THE HAND OF GOD/Č STATA LA MANO DI DIO (Sorrentino) - seen and added later
    THE FRENCH DISPATCH (Anderson)
    THE CARD COUNTER (Schrader)
    KING RICHARD (Green)
    THE SOUVENIR: PART II (Hogg)
    ABOUT ENDLESSNESS (Andersson)
    THE DISCIPLE (Tamhane 2020) - but seen in the virtual NYFF last year
    UNDINE (Petzold)
    SPENCER (LARRAÍN)
    BEGINNING (Kulumbegashvili) - same as THE DISCIIPLE
    THE DIG (Stone)
    WIFE OF A SPY (Kurosawa)

    Also liked:
    THE VIGIL (Thomas)
    TITANE (Dumoustier)
    DUNE (Villeneuve)
    JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (King)
    NIGHT OF THE KINGS (Lacote)
    PASSING (Hall)
    I CARRY YOU WITH ME (Ewing)
    RIDERS OF JUSTICE (Jensen)
    TICK, TICK...BOUM! (Larson)
    SUMMER OF 85 (Ozon)
    AZOR (Fontana)
    THE FEAST (Jones)
    DAYS (Tsai Ming-liang)

    Best Documentaries:
    THE RESCUE (Chin, Evasarhelyi)
    THE THINGS WE DARE NOT DO (Razo)
    THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (Haynes)
    SABAYA (Hirori)
    SUMMER OF SOUL (Thompson)*
    ACASĂ, MY HOME (Ciorniciuc)
    YOUNG PLATO (McGrath, Ní Chianáin)

    Other 2021 films I also need to see
    (when I have seen these, my favorites list may change):

    BEING THE RICARDOS (Sorkin) - seen, did not like
    COMPARTMENT NO. 6 (Kuosmanen)
    DRIVE MY CAR (Hamaguchi)
    LICORICE PIZZA (P.T. Anderson) - seen, somewhat disappointed
    MEMORIA (Weerasethakul)
    NIGHTMARE ALLEY (Del Toro)
    THE POWER OF THE DOG (Campion)- seen, chilled but impressed
    THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (Coen)
    DON'T LOOK UP (McKay)- seen; witty but not successful as a movie
    WEST SIDE STORY (Spielberg) - coming Dec. 9/10
    ------
    *But I have to remember that SUMMER OF SOUL is ruined despite its great performances by constant interruption for commentary and historical footage.

    ...and also the remaining NYFF 2021 Main Slate films I've not seen yet, a few of which I might like:--at least the starred ones:
    *PARALLEL MOTHERS (Almodóvar) - seen, liked
    CHIARA (JCarpignano)
    *AHED'S KNEE (Lapid)
    BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN (Jude) - seen, not much liked
    *BENEDETTA (Verhoeven)
    IL BUCO (Framarttino)
    THE FIRST 54 YEARS (Moghrabi)
    *FLEE (Rasmussen)
    FUTURA (Marcello, Munzi, Rohrwacher)
    THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER (R and S Zurcher)
    *HIT THE ROAD (Panahi)
    OTHER Hong Sangsoo film
    INTEGRALDE (Munteen)
    *NEPTUNE FROST (Williams, Uzeyman)
    *PETITE MAMAN (Sciamma)
    PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN (Huezo)
    UNCLENCHING THE FISTS (Kovalenko)
    VORTEX (Noe)
    *THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Trier)

    Additional 2021 releases I'd forgotten:

    THE REASON I JUMP (Jerry Rothwell)

    A HERO (Asghar Farhadi) METACRITIC reviews (80%)
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-02-2022 at 12:18 PM.

  3. #3
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    Important coming end-of-year 2021 releases.

    WEST SIDE STORY (Spielberg) is out in the UK and Peter Bradshaw's review in the GUARDIAN is a rave.

  4. #4
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    My other choices - Indiewire Poll

    Best Director
    Wes Anderson

    Best Actress
    Kristen Stewart

    Best Actor
    Will Smith

    Best Screenplay
    Spencer

    Best Documentary
    Summer of Soul

    Best Undistributed
    Things We Dare Not Do

    Best Cinematography
    Dune
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 12-21-2021 at 12:55 PM.

  5. #5
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    The Indiewire Poll https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/be...the-year-2021/

    1. The Power of the Dog
    2. Licorice Pizza
    3. Drive My Car
    4. Flee
    5. Titane
    6. Summer of Soul
    7. Memoria
    8. The Card Counter
    9. The Green Knight
    10. Parallel Mothers


    Richard Brody's (New Yorker) favorites (which may make more coherent sense because they are not a poll): https://www.newyorker.com/culture/20...movies-of-2021
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 12-26-2021 at 01:58 PM.

  6. #6
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    Thanks for these lists.
    Great to have a heads up on the best of the year…
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

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