Top 25 Movies of 2021

Introduction:

I don’t know what to say, y’all. 2021 was another weird one. As COVID continued to ebb and flow, the film industry floundered and box office receipts remained dismal for all but the biggest franchise tentpoles. Hollywood’s gambit to delay most of their major 2020 releases until 2021 paid off only intermittently. Dune, for example, met expectations and won itself a sequel. In the Heights, on the other hand, underperformed at the Box office despite rave reviews, while Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho proved divisive to critics and audiences alike. 

Speaking of In the Heights, musicals came back in a big way last year, but they consistently underperformed at the box office when given the opportunity to do so (West Side Story, In the Heights, Dear Evan Hansen). 

I think it’s safe to say the industry hasn’t quite recovered from its COVID cataclysm, but even so, there were plenty of amazing films released last year. And since the Oscars are airing tonight, I’m happy to uphold tradition and share my favorites from the movie year. But first:

Still haven’t seen: 

Parallel Mothers, No Time to Die, A Hero, Petite Maman, Bergman Island, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Honorable Mentions:

The Tragedy of Macbeth (Apple TV+) - A late cut from my top 25. For a Shakespeare adaptation, this is absolutely gripping. Denzel is the GOAT.

The Power of the Dog (Netflix) - Having now seen all of Jane Campion’s oeuvre, this is one of her best. I won’t be at all disappointed if it wins best picture.

CODA (Apple TV+)  - An amazing step forward for disability representation and an emotional gut punch of a final act.

Flee - A foreign, animated documentary, which has been nominated for each of those three categories (Foreign Film, Animated Feature and Documentary). And the film deserves it. 

Shang-Chi (Disney Plus) - Like if Disney made a Wuxia movie in the MCU house style. Some of the best fight choreography I’ve seen in years!

Black Widow (Disney Plus) - May have been too little too late to sufficiently honor Black Widow’s character, but the story and other characters really worked for me!

Together Together (Hulu) - Ed Helms can be a great actor when paired with good material, and Patti Harrison is an instant star!

No Sudden Movie (HBO Max) - A classic Soderbergh crime thriller, plus a reminder that Don Cheadle is a real actor, not just a cog in the Marvel machine.

Nightmare Alley (HBO Max, Hulu) - Slow but stylish, with a murderer’s row of talent on-screen! 

Last Night in Soho (VOD) - Takes a sharp turn from prestige into pulp about two thirds in. With a smoother transition, it would’ve been among Edgar Wright’s best. Still good though!

The Last Duel (HBO Max) - Historical/war dramas aren’t typically my favorites, but Ridley Scott’s no-frills style really works here, and the story resonates with our cultural moment quite well.

Don’t Look Up (Netflix) - If you hate this but like Idiocracy, you’re a hypocrite. They’re both ham-fisted and misanthropic, but this one made me laugh. SUE ME!

Eternals (Disney Plus) - Should’ve been a masterpiece given the director’s pedigree, but mostly just an admirably strange story with lush visuals.

Tick Tick Boom (Netflix) - Came out right before my 30th birthday, essentially about what a nightmare turning 30 is. Yeesh.

Matrix Resurrections (HBO Max) - Best Matrix since the first.

Belfast (VOD) - Very nice!

Benedetta (Hulu) - Poor Benedetta. All she wanted to do was be gay and love Jesus, but she was too addicted to the drama. Relatable.

Candyman (VOD) - An impressive blend of deference toward its 1992 predecessor and a freshness of perspective informed by the blackness of its creators

Passing (Netflix) - Ruth Negga was snubbed for a lead actress nod. She’s incredible in Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut.

The Beta Test (Hulu) - Jim Cummings is such a consistently off-kilter screen presence. Fascinating and thorny, and his movies really show it all off. 

Plan B (Hulu) - TV’s Natalie Morales (Parks and Rec, Santa Clarita Diet) directed this female-centric coming-of-age sex comedy with maximal charm and a dose of pertinent political insight

The Humans (VOD) - A rare Thanksgiving horror movie, mostly about how the disapproval of family is the scariest thing of all.

Werewolves Within - Like Knives Out plus Tucker and Dale vs evil, plus an invocation of Mister Rogers’ memory. Delightful!

Zola - the first (but probably not last) twitter thread-turned-cinematic thrillride. 

Shiva Baby - A true bisexual nightmare. 

Titane - Titane has everything! Serial killers, cross-dressing, exotic dancing, sex with cars. Fun for the whole family

The List:

25. The Eyes of Tammy Fay (8.5/10) HBO Max - A few major Hollywood films have attempted to tackle American Evangelicalism head-on, but they’ve overwhelmingly taken a jeering, parodic approach. While some of them work on the whole (Saved! and Easy A are personal favorites), I think that approach is ultimately a mistake, because even if there are good reasons to criticize evangelicals (especially now that they’re propping up authoritarian leaders and refusing to take public health seriously during a pandemic), mocking beliefs often comes at the expense of understanding them. I believe we should at least seek to understand a worldview that shapes the lives of so many of our neighbors, if only so we can criticize it more accurately. But also because evangelicalism is not a monolith. It spurs some toward tangible acts of love and service, and others toward selfishness or condemnation. It is a tangled mess of conflicting theologies and perverse political allegiances. And all of that is compellingly explored in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which is by no means a perfect film, but it is an engaging blend of gaudiness and sincerity (much like Miss Tammy herself). What works unequivocally is the film’s central performance. Chastain’s Tammy Faye authentically embodies both the ostentatious moments and the quiet, spiritually intimate ones (the latter ringing uniquely true for my own spiritual experience). 

24. The Lost Daughter (9/10) Netflix - Maggie Gyllenhaal has long been a favorite actress of mine. She belongs to a class of contemporary actors who consistently make bold choices, such that even when said choices don’t entirely connect, their presence still adds vitality to the movies around them (I’d add Jesse Eisenberg, Lakeith Stanfield, Rebecca Hall and Maggie’s brother Jake to that list). This year Gyllenhaal was added to the ranks of acclaimed actors who took a turn in the director’s chair, and the resulting adaptation of Elene Ferrante’s 2008 novel The Lost Daughter is a showcase both for Gyllenhaal’s visual instincts and lead Olivia Colman’s virtuosic acting chops. In fact, the cast is uniformly remarkable, with up-and-comer Jessie Buckley garnering some well-deserved acclaim (and an Oscar nomination) for playing a younger version of Colman’s character, and Dakota Johnson a younger mother whose presence triggers the protagonist’s memories of young motherhood. The result is a moving, if disturbing, picture of motherhood as a soul-deep wound.   

23. The Suicide Squad (9/10) HBO Max - Turns out James Gunn's inner troll hasn't totally died. He's still capable of some pretty weird, transgressive stuff, and boy did DC let him fly his freak flag with their latest Suicide Squad (he also got away with the kind of legitimately scathing indictment of US foreign policy you'd be hard-pressed to find in a military-approved Marvel movie). Incidentally, I love that Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn has now been in more good movies (Birds of Prey, this) than bad ones (Suicide Squad 2016). If she's really retiring the character, this isn't such a bad swan song. There was a singular moment around the halfway mark when I was concerned for the direction Gunn and his collaborators were taking Harley’s character, but I was proven wrong in one of the film's more shocking (and satisfying) moments. Overall I love to see James Gunn meld the sentimentality of his Guardians movies with the gross-out aesthetic of his earlier work (Slither, Super). It's a blend only he could pull off on this scale. 

22. The Night House (9/10) VOD - David Bruckner’s The Night House may be misinterpreted as yet another horror movie about grief as such (in the Babadook or Hereditary vein). And grief is certainly on the film’s mind, but to be more precise, The Night House is about the fear that our darkness will infect those we love. That when we stare into the void, it will not only stare back but may spill over into our most precious relationships. I guess I’m not the only one who worries about that sort of thing. I’m still deciding whether the film’s climax goes too far out of its way to explain its mysteries, but either way, I’ve never seen a horror movie tackle this specific shade of fear. It connected with me in a big way. Also REBECCA HALL ladies and gentlemen! One of our most consistently interesting actresses.

21. Malignant (9/10) HBO Max - James Wan’s latest horror show was a top contender for the most fun I had in a theater last year. While it may not have reached the emotional *echem* heights of my number 4 film, it was the wildest theatrical ride by far. Truly, I can't believe how audacious Malignant was. For the first few minutes I was concerned about the tone, acting and writing, but I should've trusted Wan's instincts as a horror auteur, because what came after was pure, delightful, horrific lunacy. It was like Cronenberg went blockbuster, or an arthouse Roger Corman. Actually, nobody but Wan himself could've pulled it off. To say nothing of the playful, virtuosic camera work we've come to expect from Wan's horror features. Also the story is super twisty but each twist plays totally fair with the audience. Everything was hiding in plain sight and it's absolutely brilliant. Just don't go in expecting the tasteful subtlety or emotional intelligence of The Conjuring. This is not that. This is bonkers. Embrace it.

20. Pig (9/10) Hulu - Every now and then Nicolas Cage decides to really bring his A game, to harness his famously gonzo energy into something thoughtful or nuanced. While some of his gonzo performances of the last decade were inspired in their own right (Mandy comes to mind), by 2021 we were overdue for a prestige Cage performance. Even knowing what he was capable of, I was truly shocked by Pig, the story of an anchoritic ex-chef in search of his truffle pig through the seedy underbelly of Portland’s culinary scene. I’ve heard Pig dismissed as John Wick but with a missing pig instead of a dead dog, but that comparison fails to recognize what a meditative, philosophical text Pig manages to be at its best. Lesson: you can’t keep a good Cage down.

19. Encanto (9/10) Disney Plus - Disney’s latest animated behemoth, whose songs have been dominating the Billboard charts for months, might be the apotheosis of the studio’s last decade of diverse, emotionally sophisticated, villainless storytelling (other examples include the Frozens, Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon). I’ve heard Encanto catch flack for being light on plot, filled with colorful, catchy character introductions but lacking in central narrative conflict. And… yes, but isn’t that sort of the point? Encanto isn’t a story about cartoonish villainy. It’s about the unintentional harm we can inflict upon those we love, unless we’re prepared to deal with our baggage and love others despite theirs.The “villains” are miscommunication and unprocessed trauma. And the songs FREAKING SLAP!

18. The Killing of Two Lovers (9/10) Hulu - I have a soft spot for gritty, naturalistic indie movies, light on plot and filled with raw emotions. I’m also perpetually on the hook for deconstructions of American masculinity. Robert Machoian’s The Killing of Two Lovers checks all these boxes, taking a sympathetic but unflinching look at the soul torture visited upon a young father when his wife requests an open marriage. While this turn of events may trouble any reasonable man, Clayne Crawford’s protagonist is so thrown that he edges dangerously close to crossing a line he can never un-cross. Can American men process their deepest emotions without resorting to violence? I have to believe the answer is yes, but it’s an uphill climb for men all over the country who were denied the tools of introspection and socialized into aggression and violence.

17. The Green Knight (9/10) Showtime - David Lowery’s movies resist impatient viewing. Their pace is often languid, lingering on images or moments until you can hardly stand it (hello Rooney Mara eating pie for 10 minutes in A Ghost Story). The Green Knight might be my favorite of Lowery’s films, as his characteristically idiosyncratic yet meticulous approach suits this story nicely. He doesn’t water down the strangeness of the medieval source material; he doubles down on it. A slow, strange take on Arthurian legend that eschews all the glory and sheen of typical medieval blockbusters in favor of mood, metaphor and mystery? Yes please.

16. West Side Story (9/10) HBO Max, Disney Plus - I don’t blame folks for doubting whether remaking one of the most acclaimed musicals of all time was a worthy enterprise to begin with. I’d have probably shared their skepticism, if not for the remake’s acclaimed, record-breakingly successful director (and my personal favorite): Steven Spielberg. Inexplicably Spielberg, famous for his sentimentality and dynamic camera, had never taken a crack at directing a musical before. So why reheat a classic property rather than creating something original? First, West Side Story (1961) was a foundational text for young Steven, one that sparked his interest in cinema to begin with. Second, while the original certainly earned its classic status, it is not an unproblematic film. For example, rather than populating his cast with Puerto Rican (or even Latinx) actors, Robert Wise and co. filled the original’s cast with white actors in brownface (including Natalie Wood as Maria). Even Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for playing Anita and was more racially appropriate for the role, was forced to wear heavy makeup to darken her skin. Spielberg course-corrects by filling WSS 2021 with a cast of stunning Latinx actors, particularly newcomer Rachel Ziegler as Maria and Broadway’s Ariana DeBose as Anita. Screenwriter Tony Kushner even filled the script with uncaptioned Spanish, a bold choice which centers the Latinx characters and audience without alienating white viewers. Sure, it’s fair to question whether two white storytellers were the best fit to update the material, but if they were bound to do it, I think Spielberg’s West Side Story is a best case scenario.

15. Spencer (9/10) Hulu - Like Kristen Stewart’s remarkable performance at its center, Pablo Larraine’s Spencer manages to be cold and precise without losing sight of the humanity. Once or twice, just when the audience might surrender to the frosty claustrophobia of Princess Diana’s royal prison, there is a burst of life, of vibrancy, culminating in a cathartic climax that I suspect some may view as an irreconcilable tonal shift. It worked for me. In fact, while Spencer may alienate some viewers with its cold aesthetic and claustrophobic tone, I found it to be an inspired meeting of director, star, and additional creative talent (Johnny Greenwood’s score is one of the year’s best). It appears that Kristen Stewart will likely be passed over for best actress at this year’s Oscars, but can we take a moment to appreciate the actress’ journey from YA laughing-stock to indie darling to Oscar-nominated movie star? You love to see it. 

14. The Mitchells vs the Machines (9.5/10) Netflix - I love Disney, but even I’ll admit their animation, particularly their CGI animation, can feel a bit same-y. Thank God, then, for Sony Pictures Animation, who have somewhat inexplicably managed to push the envelope over the last few years. Sure, not every Sony animation is an instant classic (they inflicted both The Emoji Movie and the Angry Birds Movie on the world), but when they hit, they hit big, challenging even Disney’s dominance. In fact, the stars seem to align every time they collaborate with comedy giants Phil Lord & Chris Miller. 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was an underrated comedic gem, but the studio soared to revolutionary heights in 2018, with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse. Then last year, Lord & Miller produced a story by Gravity Falls writer Michael Rianda which has all the heart, humor and novelty of Sony’s best animation. Despite all its sci-fi bells and whistles, The Mitchells vs the Machines is a touching story of familial love.

 

13. Dune (9.5/10) HBO Max - While I’m a ride-or-die fan of Blockbuster auteur Denis Villeneuve, I was not a Dune-head prior to this year. I’d neither read the book nor watched David Lynch’s notorious 1980s adaptation. Still, between my implicit trust for the director (who proved his sci-fi cred with 2016’s Arrival and 2017’s Blade Runner 2049), and the slam dunk casting (Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Mamoa etc), I was all in. Then the COVID-19 pandemic swooped in, depriving us of Dune for over a year, which only served to set expectations even higher. That said, I cannot overstate what an unmitigated triumph the final product turned out to be. Fans and skeptics alike had long deemed Frank Herbert’s original novel unadaptable, and David Lynch all but proved them right, but Villeneuve makes it look effortless. Dune’s world-building is elegant and economic, its story feels remarkably fresh for such a seminal science fiction text, and its visuals are so awe-inspiring I’m grateful to have seen them in a theater. The film’s success suggests that grown-up, non-comic book adapted blockbusters can still make a splash at the box office, even during a global pandemic, which means Villeneuve will get the chance to finish his story in part 2. I, for one, can’t wait to see how he lands the plane. Ornithopter?

12. Summer of Soul (9.5/10) Hulu - The Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 brought together voices of hope and worship, desperate cries for unity across races, and unflinching displays of righteous black indignation. All beautiful. I had waited to watch Questlove’s acclaimed musical documentary with my mom because I knew she’d recognize most of the music. And she did, but she couldn’t believe she’d never heard of a festival featuring most of the favorite artists of her childhood. Summer of Soul has the insight to answer that exact question, thoughtfully exploring how white supremacy constantly threatens to snuff out the cultural memories of black art. But ultimately, it cannot, so long as we keep telling the stories and singing the songs. Art, like spirit, is indomitable.

11. Red Rocket (9.5/10) VOD - Sean Baker makes stories about those who live on society’s fringes. The disreputable, the marginalized, the outcasts. Often sex workers. The latest iteration of this narrative impulse finds Baker and his star Simon Rex zeroing in on a washed up adult film star (Rex) who returns to his hometown in search of stability, sympathy and some fresh marks to con. Set in 2016 during that year’s presidential election, the story draws parallels between a small-time conman in rural Texas and the big-time conman running for our nation’s highest office. I wouldn’t recommend Red Rocket to just anyone, as it’s just as raunchy and uncomfortable as its premise might suggest, but for those with the constitution for it, Red Rocket is sick, fairly insightful fun. 

10. Licorice Pizza (9.5/10) VOD - Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest feature has already been discourced to death. And I don’t want to dismiss the film’s criticisms offhand, because I believe that our culture’s increasing concern for child safety is a net good. But there’s a fine line between genuine concern for children on the one hand and creating a moral panic to score cheap political points on the other (I may have last week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in mind). All of that to say, Licorice Pizza has garnered some pretty intense backlash for its depiction of an ostensibly romantic relationship between a 15-year old child actor (played by Cooper Hoffman) and a 20-something young woman caught in arrested development (Alana Haim of the band Haim). If you want a comprehensive breakdown of Hollywood’s historical depiction of age-gap relationships, I recommend film Youtuber Broey Deschanel’s treatment on the subject. She essentially parses the difference between depiction and endorsement, and outlines how directorial choices can influence how audiences perceive the morality of age-gap relationships. At the end of the day my read is this: I don’t believe Paul Thomas Anderson endorses adult-child romantic relationships, but that he made a movie about two deeply flawed young people trying to figure themselves out, mostly as an excuse to explore the vibes and aesthetic of 1970s Southern California. The result is not salacious or titillating, but it is thorny. More than anything, it’s an absolute vibe, and nobody cultivates a vibe like PTA. If for no other reason, watch Licorice Pizza for its two leads. Cooper Hoffman movingly evokes the memory of his late father (and frequent PTA collaborator) Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Alana Haim is an instant movie star. While their relationship may be complicated, their talent is not.

9. The Worst Person in the World (9.5/10) VOD - One of the last I watched to crack my top 25, Joachin Trier’s The Worst Person in the World feels tailor-made to resonate with the experience of your average disillusioned Millennial. Protagonist Julie (Renata Reinsve) is afflicted with the grass-is-always-greener restlessness characteristic of her generation. She cannot manage to find contentment in her work or personal life, bouncing between careers, degree programs and boyfriends in search of something meaningful. And then she finds it. And then she loses it. Rinse, repeat. As a thirty year old on his second or third career, with two degrees I’m not “using” in the traditional sense, who has so neglected romance that it’s hard to imagine ever settling down, Trier’s opus hit me where I live, while wringing a few droplets of hope from the grimness of it all.

8. Luca (9.5/10) Disney Plus - My favorite of the 3 animated features on my list, Pixar’s Luca was dumped rather unceremoniously onto Disney Plus early last summer. Granted, so was the Pixar film before it (Soul) and even more egregiously the one after it (Turning Red), but that doesn’t change the fact that Luca deserved a wider audience. Returning to the narrative simplicity of Pixar’s earlier work, Enrico Casarosa’s feature debut languishes in the breezy atmosphere of the Italian seaside while telling a charming, poignant coming-of-age story with just the faintest whiff of LGBTQ+ representation. Should Disney bite the bullet and write an explicitly gay character at the center of one of their movies? Yes. Did Luca feel revolutionary for what it was, and charming as anything I saw last year? Also yes.

7. Nine Days (9.5/10) VOD - Maybe I’m sentimental (ok I’m definitely sentimental), and perhaps I’m a hair too preoccupied with big existential questions for my own good, but I got a lot out of Nine Days. Even beyond its strong visual choices, excellent performances (especially Winston Duke at the film’s center), and compellingly simplistic premise (think a minimalistic, live-action version of Pixar’s Soul), Edson Oda’s debut stares life’s most brutal realities square in the eye before ultimately wringing some hard-won hope from its story. Maybe some will find it saccharine or treacly, but for my money Nine Days strikes just the right balance between emotional honesty and aspirational optimism.

6. Drive My Car (9.5/10) HBO Max - For most folk, a three-hour long Japanese drama about loss, grief and live theater may feel like a big ask. And yes, in our day of divided attention, it’s harder than ever to fix our focus on any one thing for that long. Still, if you can manage to give yourself over to its gentle tone and modest story, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s best picture-nominated Drive My Car proves to be a moving exploration of art’s ability to provide catharsis when our feelings seem impossible to sort out by ourselves. Ultimately Hamaguchi’s story (adapted from Haruki Murakami’s short story) reminded me of a quote by the gone-too-soon Rachel Held Evans about the nature of healing:

“The thing about healing, as opposed to curing, is that it is relational. It takes time. It is inefficient, like a meandering river. Rarely does healing follow a straight or well-lit path. Rarely does it conform to our expectations or resolve in a timely manner. Walking with someone through grief, or through the process of reconciliation, requires patience, presence, and a willingness to wander, to take the scenic route.”

5. The French Dispatch (10/10) VOD - Wes Anderson’s latest, the long-delayed The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun may not win many converts to the Anderson aesthetic, but if you already have a taste for his style, The French Dispatch pays out like crazy. It’s an absolute feast of film writing, cinematography, and perfectly-calibrated performances from an absolutely star-studded cast (Timothee Chalamet, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Benicio Del Toro, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, etc). There is not one dot or tiddle out of place. Some may find this ode to journalism tedious or indulgent, but for whatever reason it struck me as one of Anderson’s most soulful films yet, especially its final short story in which Jeffrey Wright’s James Baldwin-esque food writer talks about love and loneliness as a queer man of color in the 1960s. I will readily admit that Anderson can at times hyperfocus on style to the detriment of substance, but that’s not the case here. 

4. In the Heights (10/10) HBO Max - It’s impossible for me to be objective about In the Heights. It was a superb theatrical experience when I very much needed one. It’s a story about community, which I have missed so much these last two years, and about finding power in said community when the world makes us feel powerless. It’s a spectacular movie musical when I’d just about given up hope such a thing could still get made. And then, just when I thought I couldn’t be any more on the hook for the John Chu-directed Lin Manuel Miranda musical, there’s an It’s a Wonderful Life reference (my very favorite movie), because this is a story about learning to love the place that raised you. 10 out of 10.

3. Spider-Man: Far from Home (10/10) VOD - I have a knee-jerk antipathy toward broodier superhero movies. Granted, some of the best entries in the genre utilize dark color palettes or mature themes (The Dark Knight, Logan, this year’s The Batman). Still, to quote superhero scholar and culture critic Tyler Huckabee, superhero stories lose something when they fail to be accessible to children. I think that’s why my favorite hero has always been Spider-Man: he’s just a kid! Trying his best. Balancing the hopes and desires of adolescence with an overly-developed sense of responsibility (relatable). For my part, I consider Jon Watt’s Spider-Man: No Way Home to now be the consummate Spider-Man movie, and not just because it features (SPOILER) all three live action Spider-Men from each iteration of Sony’s Spider-verse, but because it distilled the Spider-Man ethos more effectively than even the best Spider-Man movies that came before (Spider-Man 2, Into the Spider-Verse). What this story understands is that Spider-Man helps people. Even people who don’t deserve his help. Perhaps especially them. It may be foolish, but it’s the sort of foolishness that can transform hearts. That’s just who Spider-Man is.

2. Mass (10/10) VOD - The high school I work at was the site of one of America’s earliest and most influential mass shootings. To this day, the building and its students are haunted by the memory of violence inflicted within its walls. That’s why stories like Mass will always hit different for me. Writer/director Fran Kranz’ debut follows two sets of parents, one whose son was killed in a school shooting years before, and the other whose son perpetrated said shooting. The couples meet in a church basement seeking the closure that has eluded them in the aftermath of such unthinkable tragedy. This movie is so special, and it’s devastating to me that, while it has won critical acclaim and the rare awards nomination, Mass remains criminally underseen and underrated.

1. C’mon C’mon (10/10) VOD - I think my favorite movies of 2021 wound up being the ones that best met my deepest emotional or psychological needs. Needs that have been neglected, or denied. Perhaps ones I’d failed to even recognize within myself. For example, after two years of disillusionment with how poorly Americans took care of one another during a global pandemic, Spider-Man showed me what uncompromising heroism looks like, how it always works for others’ good even at personal expense. Mass gave me a picture of impossible forgiveness at a time when coming together feels like a pipe dream. Drive My Car modeled how to keep on living in the aftermath of profound trauma, even when your grief is wrapped up in a thousand messier feelings. In the Heights reminded me what it feels like to live in community, and The Worst Person in the World provided me solidarity and hope for my restless Millennial soul. 

So what did my favorite film of 2021 have to offer? Simply put, Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon is a warm hug of a movie. Feel-good but not saccharine. Stylish but not ostentatious. Personal but universal. It’s a story about an estranged uncle (Jaoquin Phoenix) and nephew (Woody Norman) thrust into relationship by quirk of circumstance, but more universally it’s about the messy love shared between family, about listening to children and attempting to see the world through their eyes. About what a profound honor it is to show up in the life of a child. About how only love and connection can preserve our memories and steward our stories. It’s one of those small, intimate movies which manages to be about the human experience writ large. It’s kind of everything. And it’s my favorite movie of 2021.