Whew! What a year. Full of happiness and niceness and people just generally getting along and… sorry, I can’t. 2021’s been a bit of a shitshow really, hasn’t it? Covid is not only not going away but actively getting worse; the Tories have proven themselves to be even more corrupt than we already knew; women don’t feel safe on the streets and the government doesn’t want to do anything about it; the world is literally on fire and nothing is being done; and honestly I think everyone is just really, really tired at this point.
But still, even if everything else about this year sucked, cinemas reopened! Since May I’ve been back 56 times (at the time of writing!) and had a blast, even though I’ve seen some very bad movies. This year has really driven home how important the cinema is in my life, and just how great that collective experience is. Because of the reopening, 2021 has been a bumper year for movies, and we’ve had some absolute belters.
While the box office is still in the process of bouncing back from Covid (though a certain Peter Parker seems to be helping with that), many actual films we’ve had this year have been great. In my yearly ranking, I have to scroll down to #72 (out of a current 79) to get to a film that I didn’t like – and I think that’s pretty great! And given that Feels For Reels is all about celebrating cinema, what I’m going to be doing here is running through my favourite films of the year, from twenty-one all the way down to one.
But first, a disclaimer: I’m a very busy person and as a result there are some big gaps here. Sorry! Genuinely couldn’t be helped. I’d also like to start with a few honourable mentions: movies I loved but which sadly didn’t crack my top twenty-one!
Ammonite
Mandibles
Dune
King Richard
Spencer
The Suicide Squad
Eternals
The Night House
The Green Knight
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to it, shall we? Here we go!
21: Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Is this where I hand in my film critic pass? Cool. Worth it for this movie. Going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Snyder Cut, but given that 2017’s Justice League was the most disappointed I’ve ever been in a cinema, I figured the only way was up. And boy, was I in for a treat. This is basically everything I wanted in a Justice League movie as a kid: it’s huge, sweeping, operatic, a little self-indulgent, with great performances, amazing characters, and one of the best scores of the year. Though a lot of the fans are real pieces of shit, I can’t help but be glad that Snyder got to finish his film after he stepped down from the original version (and I’ve still got my fingers crossed for a sequel). I realise it’s not for everyone, but the Snyder Cut is extremely my shit – and that’s why it’s my favourite comic book movie of the year.
20: The Empty Man
Despite being completed in 2017, David Prior’s The Empty Man was shelved by Disney after its acquisition of Fox and then dumped onto Disney+ unceremoniously earlier this year. And that’s a real shame, because it absolutely rules! It’s very long, yes, but it’s absolutely worth every second. Its 22-minute prologue is one of the finest pieces of horror I’ve seen in the last ten years, and the film’s remaining two hours are just as good. It’s the kind of horror that’ll lodge itself deep in your consciousness after you’ve watched it, haunting your nights even when you think it’s passed you by. Fronted by an electric performance from James Badge Dale, the film features some of the most genuinely horrifying moments of the year, as well as a last-minute reveal that’ll leave you speechless. Don’t look it up, just trust me on this one: The Empty Man is more than worth your time.
19: Censor
I haven’t seen Censor since the end of August, and honestly? I think about it at least once a week. An astounding debut from Prano Bailey-Bond, it follows Enid (an incredible Niamh Algar), a film censor in the middle of the Video Nasty era of the ‘80s. When watching a film at work one day, she sees an actor she swears is her sister, who’s been missing since they were kids. Enid goes down the darkest rabbit hole of the year in the search for her sister, and drags the audience down with her as she descends deeper and deeper into madness and desperation. Algar’s performance is the finest in any horror flick this year, while Bailey-Bond’s direction is better than that of people with decades more experience than she has. Censor is bold, brutal, horrifying, and ultimately extremely moving as it asks the question, ‘How far would you go for a sibling?’ Bet it isn’t as far as Enid.
18: Encanto
It’s been a few years since Disney started branching out and telling stories that aren’t just about white people – and honestly, it’s done wonders for their films. Much of the company’s latest fare has been excellent, and its characters’ races have often been key to that success: Encanto is no different. Stephanie Beatriz stars as Mirabel, the only giftless child in a family bestowed special gifts by a magical candle. When the house starts to crumble and the magic is under threat, Mirabel is forced to discover what’s putting everyone at risk, and do her best to fix it. True to its central plot device, Encanto is a magical film. It’s perhaps the best-looking film Disney has ever released: every shot dazzles with colour and life, and the quality of the animation is stunning. Throw in some excellent songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, a brilliant voice cast, and the fact that I cried over a doorknob, and you’ve got one of Disney’s best in recent years.
17: Shiva Baby
Speaking of directorial debuts, Emma Seligman’s is a beauty. Shiva Baby is at once genuinely terrifying and absolutely hilarious, for a myriad of reasons. We meet college student Danielle, who’s attending a shiva (the Jewish mourning period) with her parents. First she’s poked and prodded with questions about her degree and her future, both of which she’s clueless about (and who isn’t, let’s be honest). Then her ex arrives. As does her sugar daddy. And his wife. And his kid. Seligman quietly ramps up the tension, aided by stellar performances across the board and a killer score from Ariel Marx, until everything explodes in a final scene that’s funnier and more awkward than anything else I’ve seen all year. And as an added bonus, Seligman offers up some great bisexual and Jewish representation, if that at all tickles your fancy. By turns hilarious and horrifying, Shiva Baby is the best comedy of the year.
16: tick, tick… BOOM!
Who knew Andrew Garfield could sing? I sure as hell didn’t. His performance as Jonathan Larson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tick, tick… BOOM! is easily one of the best of the entire year, and the film that surrounds him is every bit as good. Based on Larson’s semi-autobiographical show of the same name, tick, tick… BOOM! tells the story of Larson living in NYC, approaching his 30th birthday, and still trying to make it as a writer. He’s stuck in a dead-end diner job while trying desperately to finish his first show on the side, and he’s struggling. The action flips back and forth between the main story and a recreation of Larson’s own tick, tick… BOOM! show, carried out beautifully. The songs are stellar (with ‘30/90’ a contender for best opening track of the year), the acting extraordinary as Garfield delivers a performance that more than deserves an Oscar, and the entire affair an exhilarating musical with life, bravado, and heart.
15: No Time to Die
There was a lot riding on the 25th Bond movie. Not only was it widely heralded as the film that would save cinema, but it was also Daniel Craig’s last in the title role. And boy, did he go out with a bang. No Time to Die is by no means a perfect movie, but it’s without a doubt one of the standout action flicks of recent years: its action scenes hit, and hit hard. The scene in Matera is easily a highlight, while the chase through the woods and final showdown are equally as impactful. Craig leaves it all on the table as Bond: director Cary Joji Fukunaga really leans into Bond’s humanity, and that’s ultimately what makes the film work. Where Bond has previously been something of a blank slate, we care about him here because Craig and Fukunaga tug at the heartstrings to figure out what makes Bond tick, and what he finds worth living for. In the end, No Time to Die works because of the sheer size of its heart: its finale is one of the best moments of the entire year, and the film as a whole is certainly a Bond to remember.
14: In the Earth
I’ve always been a big Ben Wheatley fan. Kill List is one of my all-time favourite horror flicks, and I’m one of the few champions of his version of Rebecca – and his latest did not disappoint. In the Earth is an unflinching little eco-horror that is, by a decent way, the best genre movie I’ve seen this year. Following a pair of scientists (Joel Fry and Ellora Torchia) on an expedition into the woods to find their missing colleague – what they encounter (including a beautifully unhinged Reece Shearsmith) will leave them forever changed. Wheatley is great at pulling incredible performances out of his leads, and In the Earth is no different: Fry and Torchia are on incredible form, while Shearsmith is wonderfully, deceptively menacing. You might find yourself wondering what it all means by the time the credits roll, and to that I say: does it really matter? For some it will, for others it won’t, but either way, In the Earth is one of the biggest headfucks of the year.
13: Promising Young Woman
CW: This section contains brief mentions of sexual assault
Yet another directorial debut makes the list as Emerald Fennell roars into the industry with one of the loudest, angriest, and boldest films of the year. Promising Young Woman follows Cassie (a truly stellar Carey Mulligan), a woman haunted by the death of her friend at the hands of a sexual predator. Bent on revenge, Cassie preys on the men who would take advantage of her in bars and clubs, determined to teach them a lesson before she confronts the man who caused the death of her friend. Fennell’s debut film certainly marks her out as a voice to be reckoned with, while Mulligan certainly deserves awards for her incredible turn. Few films lately have felt like such a direct response to #MeToo, and our increasing awareness of sexual assault and the scumbags who perpetrate it. Promising Young Woman would make an excellent double bill with Revenge, as each film shows us a different way of teaching with attackers: the former is deliberate, calculating, the latter straightforward, direct – and both a brutal “fuck you” to the patriarchy.
12: Petite Maman
Every once in a while we get films that are just lovely. Movies that have the biggest hearts in the world, and feel like a warm hug from your favourite person on the planet. This year’s is Celine Sciamma’s Petite Maman. The French director’s follow-up to the searing romantic tale Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Petite Maman is undeniably a sibling film to the period film. Instead of a romantic relationship, here Sciamma is interested in parent-child dynamics, as we follow Nelly (a dazzling Josephine Sanz), a young girl reeling from the death of her grandmother, who bonds with her mother (an equally brilliant Gabrielle Sanz) in the aftermath of the loss. It’s a sublime work – 72 minutes of hopeful, heartbreaking wonder. It deals with grief in a way that’ll feel familiar to many of us, but that we so rarely see explored on screen. Sciamma has a wonderful relationship with her actors that’s never been clearer than it is here, as the real-life Sanz twins bring her sparkling dialogue to beautiful life in a film that’ll leave your heart so, so full.
11: Titane
I literally just wrote about Titane earlier this month, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here. What I will say, now that it’s out in cinemas, is that it’s absolutely worth your time if you can stomach it. It’s at once the sweetest and most gruesome film of the year, and a more-than-worthy follow-up to Julia Ducournau’s Raw. Seek it out at your local indie cinema!
10: The Last Duel
CW: This section contains brief mentions of sexual assault
It’s been a long time since Ridley Scott made a film as good as The Last Duel. Not that any of his recent movies have been bad (House of Gucci is just about saved by the pairing of Gaga and Driver, despite Jared Leto's best efforts), but The Last Duel is so good that it blows most other films he’s made in the last twenty years out of the water. The story of a woman in medieval France (Jodie Comer, in one of the best performances of the entire year) fighting for her name after she is raped by a friend of her husband, it’s a scathing indictment of masculinity while also being a vehicle for some of the best acting of the year. Adam Driver (who plays the aforementioned rapist) is stellar, while Matt Damon (the husband) plays dramatically against type and bristles with Short Man Energy, and Ben Affleck is absolutely off the rails as a French count. Comer is the standout, though: the story of the assault is told three times from three different perspectives, and her performance in each segment is beyond stunning. From the microscopic differences in her facial expressions to huge changes to her physical actions, Comer gives one of the most layered, nuanced, defiant, and heartbreaking performances of any western movie in a very, very long time.
9: Malignant
James Wan’s Malignant is, quite frankly, the most fun I’ve had in a cinema all year. When the first trailer for the film was released it garnered a lot of criticism – but I still haven’t figured out why! Even from that little peek I was fully on board, and the final film is more insane than I ever thought it could be. Annabelle Wallis stars as Madison, who begins to have visions of people being murdered, only to realise those murders are happening in real life. Solid premise! But wait – there’s more… that I’m not going to tell you here. Thanks to a stupidly brilliant (or brilliantly stupid, depending on who you ask) middle-act twist, Malignant ends up evolving into a completely different kind of horror film by its final third. It’s the kind of bonkers, utterly bizarre filmmaking we don’t really see in the west anymore, and I thank the Lord for James Wan and his incredible team – they throw everything at the wall just to see what sticks, and what does stick is some of the darkest fun you’re likely to have with a horror this year.
8: C’mon C’mon
Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon is the most life-affirming movie of the year. Starring Joaquin Phoenix as radio journalist Johnny and Woody Norman as his young nephew Jesse, the film follows the pair as they bond in the wake of Jesse’s mother needing to tend to his ill father. Johnny has no idea how to deal with kids but throws himself into the situation headfirst as Jesse joins him in his cross-country road trip for his current project. Phoenix and Norman are one of the best acting pairs of the year: they instantly click with each other, and Norman (in his first on-screen performance) matches Phoenix perfectly. Mills’ script is brimming with notes on life, happiness, and sadness, and is brought beautifully to life by all involved. Johnny and Jesse’s relationship is easy to track through the film’s distinct sections, and flows wonderfully from beginning to end, through all its ups and downs. C’mon C’mon is one of those films that words can’t really do justice to, but if you need some reassurance that maybe the world isn’t quite as bad as it seems, then I implore you to see it. Few films lately have left me feeling quite so full of life as this.
7: The Father
The Father is one of those films that you’ll watch once, absolutely adore, and never want to see again for the rest of your life. It is for me, anyway. Anthony Hopkins stars as a man living with late-stage dementia in Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his play of the same name. Olivia Colman plays Anne, Anthony’s daughter, who’s struggling horribly to cope with the increasing onset of Anthony’s condition. Rarely has dementia been portrayed so well on film: its largely single-location setting allows for an incredible feeling of claustrophobia, while a jumbled narrative and periodic recastings throughout force the audience into Anthony’s shoes as he starts to lose his grip on his life. Hopkins is truly terrific in the role (even though we all know the late Chadwick Boseman should have won that Oscar), and his performance is one of the best of the year. No punches are pulled at all, resulting in one of the year’s most devastating endings as Anthony is left broken. The Father is by no means an easy watch, but if you can manage it, it’s well worth your time.
6: The Mitchells vs The Machines
Philip Lord and Christopher Miller have an excellent track record with animated films. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve contributed to three of the best of the century so far: The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (which remains the best Spider-Man film), and now The Mitchells vs The Machines. Our protagonist is Katie (Abbi Jacobson), a movie lover who’s desperate to move to uni and escape the confines of her stifled family life, but finds her plans disrupted by a sudden robot apocalypse (brought on by a not-very-subtle Amazon/Facebook-type conglomerate). She and her dysfunctional family are left to save the entire human race, while also overcoming their own relationships and their overreliance on technology. Mitchells is by quite a way the most visually dazzling film of the year: every frame sizzles with life and heart in a way that feels incredible rare at the moment, considering the visual drudgery of most live-action efforts from Hollywood. It’s a film stuffed with visual gags and overflowing with a genuine fondness for family, particularly fathers. You’ll laugh your heart out and cry your eyes out over a magnificent two hours, and immediately want to do it all over again.
5: Luca
Despite the muted reception it got earlier this year, I honestly believe Luca is top-tier Pixar. It’s a relatively low-stakes affair compared to their more recent output, but that’s no bad thing: who doesn’t want to watch a little film about a little queer kid competing in a little bicycle race in a little Italian town? No one, I’d imagine. It’s a lovely little gem about the importance of friendship, but I’ll admit that my placing it so high on my list is rather biased. Because Luca is a film that really helped me figure out who I am. Let’s get real for a moment: Luca is about a closeted bisexual discovering his bisexuality for the first time, and the freedom that comes with it. When I watched it for the first time back in July, that was me. And if I’m being totally honest, it helped encourage me to figure myself out and start coming out to friends and family. Romance can be read into Luca’s relationships with both Emma and Alberto, and the final product is far and away the queerest film Disney has ever made. For all of these reasons and so many more (including the gorgeous animation, the huge heart, the incredible laughs, and the beautiful voice performances), Luca is my favourite animated movie of the year.
4: Pig
Of all the John Wick-style revenge movies we’ve gotten over the past few years, Pig is perhaps the only one that surpasses the Keanu Reeves action joint. It’s also Nicolas Cage’s best film in years, by quite a way. Cage plays an ex-chef whose prize truffle-hunting pig is stolen one night, and who sets out to find her and bring her home. Pig is a film that actively, deliberately ignores every preconception you may have about it: it foregoes any action or violence in favour of philosophy and empathy that slowly creeps up on you, until before you know it you’re crying about how much a man loves a pig. It’s staggering that this is Michael Sarnoski’s directorial debut: he directs with a confidence and assuredness well beyond his experience, and grapples with love and loss in a way a lot of filmmakers feel uncomfortable to do themselves. His interest in the power of food is also fascinating: the film’s standout scene is when Cage’s character cooks a particularly meaningful meal for the man he believes has stolen his pig. It’s quietly shocking and incredibly moving, and shows off the acting talents of all involved (including a stunning Alex Wolff), as well as the ridiculous promise of Sarnoski as a director. For meditations on how we find meaning in this world, few this year are better than Pig.
3: Another Round
The combination of Thomas Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen will always be a winning one. Partly inspired by Vinterberg’s daughter Ida (to whom the film is dedicated after her untimely death four days into filming), Another Round tells the story of a group of teachers who decide to experiment with slightly increasing their blood alcohol content, in order to determine the effects of alcohol on their day-to-day lives. The group sets boundaries and initially sees radical improvements, but inevitably things get out of hand. Alcohol isn’t something we really see explored in such depth on film, so to see Vinterberg dive headlong into it is a bold move for the Danish director, but one that pays off in spades. He never takes a side in the debate around alcohol, but explores it freely, and leaves the film’s ending completely open to interpretation. Add in some incredible performances (across the board, but from Mikkelsen in particular), excellent dialogue, and the best needle drop of the year, and Another Round is one of the best movies of recent times. And haven’t we all wanted to be as happy as Mads is in that final dance?
2: In the Heights
For a long time this year, In the Heights sat atop this list. Maybe it’s because I’d had a really shit year-and-a-bit, but seeing something as joyous, hopeful, life-affirming, and fun as this proved to be the absolute dream. I saw it four times in the cinema – four times! That’s more times than I’ve ever seen anything in a cinema! That’s how good In the Heights is. Set in the Washington Heights borough of NYC, John M Chu’s film (based on the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical) follows Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) as he navigates tricky times in his neighbourhood, accompanied by a stellar supporting cast (including Jimmy Smitz, Melissa Barrera, Corey Hawkins, Stephanie Beatriz, and more to boot). There are a thousand things that make In the Heights work, not least of which is its stellar soundtrack. A few changes are made to the original stage musical to make the film more streamlined, but everything works: from the titular opening number that tells us everything we need to know about what’s about to go down, to the beautiful and heartbreaking ‘Paciencia Y Fe,’ to the excellent ‘96,000,’ a song that makes it clear that everyone has dreams, not just our main characters, the film’s soundtrack is stacked with bangers. And at its heart, In the Heights is a love story: it’s about the love we share with our families, with our friends, with our partners, and with our homes. It’s about finding where we truly belong, and realising how good that can be when we find it. It’s not quite the best film of the year, but it’s so damn close.
1: The Matrix Resurrections
So here we have it. The best film of 2021. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Matrix Resurrections. After a trilogy of two masterpieces and a dud (fight me), and a gap of nearly twenty years, I don’t think anyone did. But director Lana Wachowski delivered the impossible: she took one of the most famous sci-fi franchises of all time, and turned it into a love story. Her film is bold, beautiful, staggering, exciting, and, above all, achingly romantic. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss return as one of cinema’s sexiest couples in Neo and Trinity, kept apart by the machines and desperate to find each other again. There’s so much going on in Resurrections that it’s hard to even begin to explain, but I’ll try anyway. First, there’s Lana Wachowski grappling with her own legacy as co-creator of the series (her sister Lilly didn’t return this time around), and coming to terms with making a good sequel in today’s Hollywood climate. The film would have allegedly gone ahead with or without her involvement, and she wastes no time in pointing fingers at Warner Bros. for their need to produce a sequel. It’s an incredibly meta commentary on the film series as a whole, Lana’s role in it, and the modern reboot/remake culture we seem to have found ourselves in. Second, there’s the outright rejection of any kind of binary, gender or otherwise. Such a way of thinking is looked at with total disdain, and Lana ultimately finds that salvation lies outside the binaries of traditional society, while also pushing non-binary actors to the fore in her supporting cast. And third, there’s the framing of the narrative as a love story. Neo and Trinity’s relationship is the be all and end all of this world: they’re more powerful together than they are apart, and the machines know that. Neo’s quest to find Trinity is the film’s driving narrative, but there’s a ton going on outside of that. There are also some incredible performances: Reeves puts in the best shift of his career, while Jonathan Groff’s performance drips with malice, Yahya Abdul-Matteen II matches Laurence Fishburne in his turn as Morpheus, Carrie-Ann Moss is as stellar as we should have come to expect, and Jessica Henwick surprises as newcomer Bugs. The film’s visual texture and world-building are some of the best of the entire year, while Lana proves yet again that no one in Hollywood directs action like a Wachowski. And apologies to Zack Snyder, but she also takes the crown for best slo-mo of the year. Everything about Resurrections is better than it has any right to be: from its endlessly fascinating meta-narrative to its thematic depth, one can only hope that it spawns a new slew of films, because there is plenty here to follow up on, and I, for one, would love to see a sequel. Few will agree, and I’m certainly surprised at myself, but I will happily call The Matrix Resurrections the best film of 2021.
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