Best of 2021

The Top Ten Movies of 2021

/ / Top Tens & Lists

It’s that time again to look back on the year that was and celebrate the best in film. While there may not be a common theme working its way through the entire list, music will play a large role (although the musical remake you may most expect isn’t to be found as it’s one of many solid films that narrowly missed the cut). 2021 offered a number of good movies, a solid amount of very good films, perhaps the best concert film of all time, and one amazing piece of cinema to top our list. Without further ado, here are the best movies of 2021.

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Drive My Car

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Drive My Car
  • IMDb: link

Movies find you in interesting ways. Drive My Car is the film I’d been searching for through all of 2021, a true cinematic experience that enveloped me, taking me on a completely unexpected journey built on strong storytelling and great performances.

Adapting Haruki Murakami‘s short story, writer/director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi delivers a beautiful look at loss, moving on, and the unexpected relationships that form when you least expect them. Our main character is Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a stage actor and director. The script spends more than a half-hour developing his relationship to his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), including some shocking discoveries by Kafuku, which works as backstory for the main film still yet to come, but is still presented with such care it could easily have been fleshed out into its own film.

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The Tragedy of Macbeth

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Tragedy of Macbeth
  • IMDb: link

Joel Coen‘s take on William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a stylish affair with minimal but visually stunning sets and striking cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel that boils down the five-act play to 105-minute black-and-white cinematic experience. The story is Shakespeare’s, but Coen and Delbonnel’s presentation sets a standard for Macbeth which will likely lead it into both homes and classrooms for decades to come.

Denzel Washington stars as the Scottish Lord and Frances McDormand his ambitious wife, convinced by a witchy prophecy (Kathryn Hunter) that Macbeth will become the next King of Scotland. What follows is one of the most famous tragedies in literature which Coen takes care to pare down while still keeping to both the text and texture of Shakespeare’s work. It’s a terrific play presented by a talented group both behind and in front of the camera leading to one of the best films of the year.

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Licorice Pizza

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Licorice Pizza
  • IMDb: link

During the 70s in San Fernando Valley a 15-year-old child actor will meet a 25-year-old photographer’s assistant on his yearbook picture day and nothing will ever be the same. Licorice Pizza offers the unlikely pairing of the charming hustler Gary (Cooper Hoffman) and the smart but somewhat lost Alana (Alana Haim) who begin as friends, become something more complicated, and then eventually give into their feelings for each other.

Other characters will come and go, including Bradley Cooper offering an insane take on John Peters in one of my favorite performances of the year, but the movie is about our leads’ (often dysfunctional) relationship. The film takes several unexpected turns including Cooper’s introduction, Gary being momentarily arrested, Alana looking for a more meaningful life working on the mayoral campaign of Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie), and Gary’s various enterprises which include a waterbed company and arcade.

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The Harder They Fall

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Harder They Fall
  • IMDb: link

Although fictional, writer/director Jeymes Samuel‘s film is inspired by real outlaws, cowboys, and lawmen of color from the Wild West. The primary character of The Harder They Fall is Nat Love (Jonathan Majors). Tormented as a boy by outlaw Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), Love has grown into an outlaw who hunts and kills other outlaws while still seeking revenge for the massacre of his family.

With Majors and Elba, Samuel has the two pillars he needs to make the film work while surrounding each man with an assortment of strong characters played by the likes of Zazie Beetz, Edi Gathegi, Danielle Deadwyler, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, and Delroy Lindo. When circumstances allow the Buck Gang to free their leader, Rufus Buck returns to the western town of Redwood. This puts Nat Love, and his friends, and Rufus Buck, and his gang, on a collision course for an extended shoot-out on the Main Street of Redwood.

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