Review: N/A Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime, YouTube
Watching The Great Indian Kitchen is like watching a time bomb slowly counting down to zero. It’s wild that there are still families that place such a burden on the women in their lives. It’s no wonder why the main couple are never named, simply credited as “wife” and “husband,” standing in for all the countless lazy husbands who force their wives to be lovers, housekeepers, and cooks. Nimisha Sajayan is a treasure here, doing fantastic work often with little dialogue. An amazing performance in a brilliantly universal film.
Review: N/A Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: VOD, Home Video
What David Lowery does so beautifully here is tell the story of Sir Gawain in a way that embraces all the sensibilities and weirdness that the original legends evoked. It feels like a film lost in time, looking and sounding like nothing else these days, and it’s all the more timeless because of it. Dev Patel shines as a man put to the ultimate test, and the imagery continues to astonish me even just thinking about it.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Netflix
Paolo Sorrentino’s masterful new film feels so wasted on a streaming service, but as long as people get the chance to see it, that’s what matters. Few filmmakers are able to craft images that are so evocative, sexy, and painterly as Sorrentino, but it’s never at the expense of the humanity of his characters. That goes double for this film, which has the filmmaker looking back at his youth. It’s pure slice-of-life cinema, intimate, beautiful, soulful, and transportive to a time and place that I could soak in forever.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: HBO Max, VOD, Home Video
A prime example of what pop cinema can be when resources are given to artists to pull off their vision, allowing for not just entertainment, but meaning and maturity. This may be a Ridley Scott film, but it is just as much a collaboration between him, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Nicole Holofcener. A story of man’s ego and ignorance, of women as property, and how much, and yet so little, has changed. Would make a decent double feature with The Great Indian Kitchen in that regard. A masterclass in moviemaking from top to bottom.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: VOD, Home Video on March 8th
Admittedly, I do wish that the action in this film were better than it is, and I think it would have helped folks swallow what the film was trying to sell as a whole. However, it isn’t concerned with being an action film, it’s a full blown reclamation, the likes of which I don’t think I’ve seen before in a mainstream film, much less a franchise entry. Working not only as a beautiful metaphor on being a trans person in the public eye, it is Lana Wachowski reckoning with her series, its impact, its legacy. There is so much to chew on here that I feel sad that people are so quick to dismiss with very superficial gripes. It’s a special film, a deeply personal film, and one that I have continuously thought of and revisited since I first saw it.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: AMC+, Shudder
Banjong Pisanthanakun delivers what might be the best horror film of 2021. While I am still ambivalent on the mockumentary format, it still manages to creep me out with the smallest moments before going full gonzo. Strong performances create this sense of reality, allowing you to ease yourself into this culture before really cranking up the brutality. It was one I was eager to see due to it being a collaboration with Pisanthanakun and Na Hong-jin, and it did not disappoint.
Review: N/A Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: VOD, Home Video
Between this and his Netflix folk horror film, The Ritual, David Bruckner is becoming one of those filmmakers I’ll be keeping an eye on because both of his features are incredibly strong works of drama that, unlike most “elevated horror,” is more than willing to embrace the indulgences that the horror genre allows. The scares in this are clever, creepy, and have so much thought put into them. On top of that, you have a tour de force performance from Rebecca Hall that, in a more fair world, would be recognized by awards season.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Netflix, VOD, Home Video
There are some films where you can really feel the passion behind every frame, and Tran Quoc Bao’s The Paper Tigers is one of those. A low budget martial arts action comedy about friendship, growing up, and vengeance. Tran had to go outside the studio system to make this because he was only offered funding under the condition that the lead be white. We need more filmmakers like Tran, not just because he effortlessly pulled off a warm, charming, and overall great action comedy, he did it with vision and integrity.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: HBO Max, VOD, Home Video
“Rats are the lowliest and most despised of all creatures, my love. If they have purpose, so do we all.” This line, this moment in general has really stuck with me. James Gunn has made a career of finding heart, charm, and pathos in scumbags, so of course, The Suicide Squad would be a natural fit for his sensibilities (and if I’m being honest, his Peacemaker show is arguably better). After all, that is the question at the heart of this blockbuster. Can these villains have value? Can they overcome their past actions and do good? If only most of these movies can go as weird and wild as this.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Netflix
Usually when animation goes for spectacle, it is usually by crowding the screen with details and colors, but Patrick Imbert goes almost the opposite way. The animation is more subdued, minimal, but it works so well cinematically. This French adaptation of a Japanese manga explores man’s relationship with nature, the elusive feeling of doing something dangerous because you feel like you need to. There’s almost a spiritual nature to the way this explores mountain climbing that really connected with me. It’s a haunting but beautiful story, and using animation to tell that story is deeply inspired and worth celebrating.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Theaters, Apple+ TV
One would initially think that something like Macbeth would feel like a strange pick for Joel Coen, but when you really think about it, it’s a story about a man who is in over his head, tries to cheat his way into power, and faces dire consequences for it, that could easily describe a number of Coen Brothers films when stripped to their barest elements. Either way, it’s a strong adaptation, with an incredible performance from one of the finest actors of all time with Denzel Washington, and one that also happens to be one of the finest pieces of digital cinematography ever captured.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: VOD, Home Video
I can understand this one being hard to connect with for a lot of folks, it can be mystifying and difficult to grasp, but in his first feature, Nicholas Ash Bateman has crafted a wondrous dreamscape that is profoundly ambitious, and filmed in a way that is as astonishing as the film itself. This is a film that washed over me like a cool breeze, unlike anything I’ve seen before, and will probably never see anything like it again. Pure vibe cinema.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Theaters
One of the biggest lies that we often see in coming-of-age films is the notion that you generally figure yourself out once your done with your teenage years and out of high school. Joachim Trier’s incredibly funny, thoughtful and refreshing The Worst Person In The World explores the messiness of growing up and the continuous process of growing up even as you enter your thirties. It’s one of the few films that feels so in tune with how millennials operate that it feels clinically designed to emit “I feel seen” reactions. It’s long, but it earns its length, and Renate Reinsve proves to be a truly gifted performer.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Netflix
As someone who finds Lin-Manuel Miranda’s general vibe to be rather irritating, I was shocked by how much I connected with his adaptation of tick, tick…BOOM! As someone who recently turned 29, trying to maneuver his way into the film industry, and grinding away at job, while putting time in for my personal work, it was hard not to see bits of myself and my anxieties in Jonathan Larson, portrayed impeccably by Andrew Garfield. While I’m not sure all of Miranda’s choices work, it spoke to me on such a guttural level, I had to put it here.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: Theaters, HBO Max/Disney+ on March 2nd, Home Video on March 15th
The 1961 West Side Story is an iconic and groundbreaking picture, but Steven Spielberg’s first foray into the musical format is a technical masterwork that carves its own identity, easily standing among the very best musicals that Hollywood has ever produced, and it’s perfectly fine to have both! Obviously, the music and songs and choreography are outstanding, but it’s the talent of folks like Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose that really brings so much life into this. The energy on display is infectious, and it was a joy seeing Spielberg at work in a genre he clearly has so much love for.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: VOD, Home Video
The latest film from Guy Ritchie was the very first film I saw in theaters after being stuck at home, and I’m so happy that it managed to stick around for almost an entire year and end up on my list. This is Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham working at the top of their game, and tackling an atmosphere that neither have really done before. This is a blunt, mean, dark, and cruel picture, it’s practically a horror film with Statham as the slasher. This is one I’ve revisited a couple times throughout the year, and it hasn’t lost any of its power. Easily one of Guy Ritchie’s very best.
Review: Click here! Trailer: Click here!
Where To Watch: HBO Max, Home Video
While I was never ultimately invested in Zack Snyder’s particular vision of the DC universe, this is just a terrific piece of blockbuster filmmaking, one that I’ve admired more and more as time has passed. A big, weird, bold, unabashedly earnest epic that still contains the intimacy, passion, and idiosyncrasy of an artist who needed to express himself, and it’s hard not to see this as Snyder’s attempt to bring some much needed catharsis after experiencing a horrible tragedy in his family. While much can be said about how this ultimately came to be, I think it’s important to consider the actual work, and the work here is – for the most part – incredibly strong. I can’t imagine a situation like this ever happening again, and the fact that the final film is as good as this is nothing short of miraculous.
And that’s my list! I hope you find some films here that you perhaps haven’t had on your radar, and if that’s the case, feel free to let me know what you think of it when you check them out! What are some of your favorite films of 2021? What are some films you’re most looking forward to in 2022? Comment below! Thanks to all the folks who have been sticking around, and reading my work. Here’s to an awesome year of movies in 2022!
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