A compendium of year-end lists
CAHIERS DU CINÉMA: 10 Best Flms of 2021
1 First Cow
Kelly Reichardt
2 Annette
Leos Carax
3 Memoria
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
4 Drive My Car
Ryűsuke Hamaguchi
5 France
Bruno Dumont
6 The French Dispatch
wes anderson
7 All Hands on Deck
Guillaume Brac
8 The Girl and the Spider
Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher
9 The Card Counter
Paul Schrader
10 Benedetta
Paul Verhoeven
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 01-17-2022 at 05:35 PM.
The add-ons continue.
I would add to my runner's up list Michel Franco's SUNDOWN, even though Anthony Lane recently said it "lacks the courage of its despair" (the concluding "explanation" for Tim Roth's strange behavior is indeed too easy). Not a great movie but a memorable performance by Tim Roth and a movie that lingers in my mind. I remain glad that THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD is belatedly up there on my list. I like that Paul Thomas Anderson is quoted (where?) as saying "THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD is the best movie in the world." I'm more aware than ever this year that you can't make a Best List till you've seen all the year's good movies, and that may take a long time. You're right about that, Oscar.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 02-16-2022 at 07:59 PM.
From the SF IndieFest (Feb. 3-13, 2022): Paul Owens' LANDLOCKED
MASON OWENS IN LANDLOCKED
An ingenious DIY found footage/time travel movie
Watch the film HERE
I did not cover this festival but was kindly sent some screeners, and came across this title by accident and was intrigued. Using real family home movies and members of his own family as actors, Owens has fashioned a subtle genre-blending found footage/scifi/horror film that's intricate and subtle. It reminded me of Shane Carruth's Primer (2004), which considering that film's reputation is pretty high praise. Likewise Landlocked is an example of how a no-budget DIY movie can be more complex and real, more peculiar and ingenious, than a commercial one. (Four Owens family members, including the director and his father, make up the cast; Paul wrote, directed, shot, and edited the film himself.)
The premise: Owens pčre has arranged that immediately after his death the family house will be demolished. Younger sibling Mason Owens goes to his now largely empty childhood home to explore. After another brother turns up and points out a hidden closet, he finds a big old video camera that turns out to have magical properties for delving back into the past. Mason becomes obsessed.
Owens worked on the camera/technical crew of Lee Daniels' 2005 Shadowboxer and his Precious (NYFF 2009) He also was a writer and director of the five-hour 2012 TV series about video game development, "Amnesia Fortnight."
I wanted to post not an "external review" on IMDb but rather - it seemed more appropriate - a "User Review," a category for which I've been listed as a "prolific" reviewer from times past, but I couldn't figure out how to add one for this film where there are so far none. There are some External Reviews, several very enthusiastic.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 02-28-2022 at 02:34 PM.
Did you get a chance to watch Benedetta? If so, did you review it?
Not that one, no. Also have still not seen from my watch list CMOON CMON or ANNETTE.
Here's a list of the NYFF 2021 Main lSlate films I have and haven't reviewed: LIST.
Benedetta (Verhoeven) TRAILER
I watched Benedetta; I find all Paul Verhoeven films at least "worth-watching", maybe "must-sees". He is both an image maker (or stylist), and a master storyteller. Verhoeven has purely pictorial or aesthetic assets as well as narrative ones. Benedetta again provides plenty of evidence of the octogenerian director's skills and talents. However, I had a somewhat harrowing experience because it's unpleasant for me to witness acts of cruelty. There's plenty of torture and self-abuse as you probably figure from promotional materials. I'm glad I sat through it because the film provides ample rewards. I especially value the ambiguous characterization of the protagonist: I'm still making my mind up about who Benedetta really is.
I have reviewed THE BLACK BOOK (2007) TRICKED (2012), and ELLE (2018). BENEDETTA is not a priority. I'm still catching up on Pasolini!
I'm happy the critics at Cahiers love FIRST COW. In the US, we watched it in 2020. It was my favorite that year, or nearly so.
Still too soon for me to do a 2021 list, still catching up. The last 2021 release I watched is Azor, which you reviewed and it's just my cup of tea (I wrote a dissertation about movies like this one that don't quite answer the questions they pose)
. The films you list in your top 10 are mostly also-rans for me at the moment; very good movies like Card Counter, Hand of God, King Richard, Spencer...
I am extremely interested in the movie with the highest metacritic score in 2021: Quo Vadis, Aida?
Last edited by oscar jubis; 08-18-2022 at 10:31 PM.
I was confusing FIRST COW with PIG (just joking), which I haven't watched. I saw FIRST COW at the NYFF and remember where I was sitting, which is usually a good sign about a movie-watch. My Ten Best lists are often very approximate, easily may not be the actually best. But I make the list, unlike you who take three years to make a list. That isn't of much value to anybody but you.
CAHIERS usually hates everything everybody else loves, but I always look for where their review of a film ranks on ALLOCINE, and also INROCKUPTIBLES, because they take independent stands.
AZOR was good and got good reviews after I saw it.
I loved HAND OF GOD, I won't give that up. But SPENCER and KING RICHARD may not stand the test of time. CARD COUNTER, I'm not sure....
I seem to have missed QUO VADIS, AIDA. Some very good reviewers, ones I respect a lot, are cited for it on Metacritic.
Another film (that I think was a 2021 release) that I watched recently and would make my Top 10 is NOCHE DE FUEGO aka PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN. This is the first fiction feature of Tatiana Huezo, a documentarian primarily concerned with the experience of violence in Central America and Mexico from a female perspective. It was part of the NYFF last year. But it was seen by a relatively low number of critics compared with other films with recognizable or famous actors and bigger advertising and marketing budgets. All 14 reviews on metacritic are "positive". I think that part of what facilitates a good performance in these lists, generally speaking, is the exposure that the film has had. There are movies that make it into few top 10s because few people have seen them. You can have a sense of a film's exposure by the number of critics' review it receives. In Metacritic, for example. "Prayers for the Stolen" has 14 reviews; a film directed by an Almodovar or a Campion, with stars, gets over 40 reviews and a better chance to get into the lists than films of equal quality that few people get to watch (for many reasons).
Last edited by oscar jubis; 09-01-2022 at 10:33 PM.
As you see my NYFF coverage was incomplete last year and I haven't caught up on this one. 14 years on Metacritic isn't bad. Almodovar or Campion is an unfair comparison.
PIG (Michael Sarnoski 2021)
I caught up on this highly praised film of last year today on Amazon, perhaps because I was thinking of seeing Andrea Arnold's COW to catch up on this year's most admired). It's a slow, distinctive little film shot in 20 days, set Oregon about a reclusive truffle hunter (Nicolas Cage) whose companion and truffle-hunting tool has been kidnapped. Some think its rich in many-layered meanings (Mike D'Angelo, for instance), others think it's shallow and pseudo-profound (Richard Brody). All agree it's one of Cage's best performances, and an impressively tamped-down one. It's No. 14 on IndieWire's 50 Best Movies of 2021 list and 82% Metacritic rating. A unique little movie that may be especially thought-provoking for those interested in the mystique surrounding food and trendy restaurants - if you've sat through a lot of Nicolas Cage performances and want to see him do something that shows what he's really capable of.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-27-2022 at 06:51 PM.
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