Top 12 Favorite Movies of 2021
Time for the time of the year when we can all reflect on our favorite movies of the past year (...yearly). So here’s mine. This is not put in any particular order because I couldn’t be arsed enough to rank them. So, instead, they’re simply alphabetized and you can take this as 12 films that you should check out if you haven’t done so yet. Either way, here’re my favorite movies of 2021. (Also, before some smartass feels like getting cheeky, the "where can I watch it?" superlative for your convenience refers to streaming services; just about all of these are also available on Blu-Ray and DVD if you prefer that venue.)
Directed by Sian Hider (Tallulah (director))
Written by Sian Hider (Orange is the New Black (writer))
Genre: Coming-of-age
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes
Where can I watch it? Apple TV+
CODA is a movie that’s been making its rounds now that we’re in the thick of awards season and has been getting lauded for breaking ground. Specifically, CODA is a step forward for the deaf community as it features several main actors who are actually deaf portraying deaf characters. The film centers around Ruby (Emilia Jones) who is the only member of her family who isn't deaf. Her parents (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) want her to join in on their fishing business because they can’t afford an interpreter but she wants to go to college to pursue her passion in music.
Briefly ignoring how the family should be able to get an interpreter from the government for free as part of the American with Disabilities Act (which is admittedly a big plot hole with the movie), this is the kind of set-up for a film that could easily become way, way too schmaltzy. Right down to the fact that the daughter’s passion in life being music that her parents can’t even hear or understand on account of the whole, y’know, being deaf thing. And, yeah, the film does make a few choices for the climax that are a bit much for me but for most of the rest of it, it’s a really solid slice-of-life tale. And a lot of it comes from the portrayal of the family. CODA does a great job at threading the line between showing the real plights of being deaf while also giving the characters agency.
Plus, they’re also actual characters and really likable ones too. The dad is especially good as he still comes off as a blue-collar perverted pig who frequently gloats about banging his wife in polite company. Yet, you still get the relationship with his daughter down and you can tell he genuinely wants what’s best for his daughter. Ruby’s also a great protagonist and I really love her teacher, Mr. V (Eugenio Debez). Once again, this is a character who could’ve been a bit too over-the-top but they dial it back just when it’s about to go a step too far. And I think that’s the best way to describe CODA in general. This film could’ve easily gone so awry or too corny but, instead, it’s a damn solid family film.
Directed by Adam Wingard (Death Note, The Guest)
Written by Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok) and Max Borenstein (Godzilla: King of the Monsters)
Genre: Action-adventure, so-bad-that-it's-good (yes, it's a genre as far as I'm concerned)
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes
Where can I watch it? HBO Max
I realize that this is probably the most unorthodox pick on this rundown but, remember, this list is my personal favorites, not the best. There is an art to making a good summer blockbuster just like there is an art to making a good monster movie and there is also an art to making mindless entertainment that is truly entertaining as well as an art to making a movie that’s so bad that it’s good. Godzilla vs. Kong manages to hit all four marks. Unlike most other big action movies of 2021 which strived to say something meaningful about society, tried to elevate itself by being way too serious or surrounded itself in annoying zoomer humor, Godzilla vs. Kong has no such afflictions. It gives you exactly what it advertises.
This was made by the same team who made 2019’s King of the Monsters which was equally dumb fun. What both of these movies have in common is knowing perfectly well that audiences just want to watch these monsters go at it but what I really like about them is that they have a real sense of adventure to it. When King Kong and Godzilla aren’t fighting, the film features our hilariously insipid human protagonists trying to find Kong’s homeland. There’s a lot more emphasis on the interesting vistas they see and wondering what exactly they’ll find. And, of course, when King Kong and Godzilla do fight, it is freaking badass.
I saved the real reason why I loved this movie for last though. In case you don’t know, this is actually technically a remake as there was a King Kong vs. Godzilla made a long time ago in the 1950s. In case you can’t tell, I love those old hilariously bad Godzilla kaiju monster rumbles, both for the unintentional hilarity and the monster fights. And that movie was so disappointing when I finally watched it because it’s not even so bad that it’s good, it’s just straight-up garbage. Having a concept like this finally done well feels so rewarding.
Look, I have no delusions here on this choice. Godzilla vs. Kong is a very, very stupid film. But if you enjoy films that are so bad that they’re good and know exactly what they are, then this will be one of your favorites of the past year too.
Directed by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians)
Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes (screenwriting debut)
Genre: Musical drama
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes
Where can I watch it? HBO Max
Lin-Manuel Miranda has had one Hell of a meteoric rise in recent years, hasn’t he? He made a big splash on the Broadway community with Hamilton back in 2015 and now it seems like he’s everywhere, directing Tick, Tick… Boom and writing the songs for Encanto. In the Heights is my vote for the best film he’s worked on to come out in 2021 though. Based on Miranda’s earlier play of the same name, In the Heights revolves around a group of young adults in the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York City (for those not in the know, it’s as far North as you can possibly be while still being on the island of Manhattan; you’re practically in the Bronx at that point) who pursue their various dreams and relationships.
The plot is very Broadway-ey for lack of a better term: it mostly just focuses on the setting and has a big dance, relationship misunderstandings and characters explaining their (melodramatic) thoughts and feelings through the power of song. Unlike many other films coming off of Broadway, however, In the Heights successfully makes the leap to cinema; the song sequences are incredible and something that could only have been accomplished through the medium of film. One memorable scene features two characters starting off singing in their apartment before they migrate out the window and start dancing on the side of the building as the sun sets in the background.
The film isn’t just the musical numbers though; it’s still a really great story and provides a great slice-of-life look at one of the lesser known cultures in New York City. Most of the characters are highly memorable and the film details some heavy themes and conflicts whilst still keeping an element of fun needed for a musical. While it’s a shame that this movie ended up bombing at the box office, I’m glad to see that it’s catching on. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this could easily fit in as one of the great musicals of the 21st century. It’s fun, funny, engaging and, most importantly, catchy as all Hell.
Directed by Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Shaun of the Dead)
Written by Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917)
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes
Where can I watch it? Video on Demand
So I know I said at the beginning that this list isn’t really in any sequential order. If you did twist my arm to try to get me to say what my single favorite movie of 2021 was, though, it would have to be Last Night in Soho. A young adult named Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) who moves into a new apartment while going to college in London. Whenever she falls asleep in the apartment, she ends up traveling back in time to the 1960s where she follows the life of an aspiring dancer named Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy a.k.a. The Queen’s Gambit lady).
This is the latest film by Edgar Wright, and he’s just as creative in his style here as he is in all of his films. The way he shoots 1960s London is so stylized and cool and the color practically pops off the screen. There’s also a few scenes where he plays with the split dynamic between Ellie and Sandy that were so fluid that they had me wondering how they pulled it off. This kind of stylized atmosphere also feeds the story. For example, there’s one scene where Sandy is running away from her tormentor while feeling overwhelmed with anxiety; this could be shot any number of ways. Wright chose to instead shoot the camera in a jerky, wavy formation which, combined with the very green color, honestly made me feel motion sickness watching it.
Last Night in Soho is a very feminist film and acts as both a commentary on the horrors of the casting couch while also being a great mystery as well. Instead of being preachy and explaining the moral, the film lets it all simmer at the surface and show (rather than tell) you the unapologetic sexism of the film’s villains. This is what great horror does: not dumb jump scares; it genuinely disturbs you and leaves you questioning some of your own values after it’s over. It’s a damn shame that this movie hasn’t seemed to catch on because I feel like it could be a great horror classic and Sandy would make for a great horror icon/Halloween costume (any girls reading this, you can have that one for free).
Directed by Enrico Casarosa (directorial debut, long-time animator at Pixar)
Written by Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Mike Jones (Soul, The Wind Rises, The Tale of Princess Kaguya)
Genre: Coming-of-age, fantasy
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Where can I watch it? Disney+
If you’re like me, when you saw the trailer for Luca, you probably wrote it off as a lazy Disney/Pixar just ripping off their classics instead of coming up with new ideas. Luca is about a young sea monster named Luca (Jacob Tremblay) who is bored with his life under the sea and dreams of going on land to be with the people. If this set-up sounds eerily like The Little Mermaid, you’re not alone. If you actually sit down and watch Luca, however, you’ll discover that it’s very much its own thing with its own unique characters and one of the most relaxed and delightful animated adventures in recent years.
Luca meets with another sea monster named Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) and the two discover that if they go on land, they can turn into normal boys once their skin dries off. They ingratiate themself in the local town of Porto Rosso and enlist in a local community race so they can use the winnings to buy themselves a (hilariously crappy) vespa. It’s a small scale story, nothing more, but it’s so much fun to watch. The characters, both the two leads and the people they meet in the town, are all likable, three-dimensional and delightfully Italian. The animation is, of course, gorgeous. And there is still this constant sense of suspense since the locals all fear and kill sea monsters. This is where the fun of the movie comes from as they get really creative with the water-on-skin dynamics (something as simple as spitting on the boys can turn them back into sea monsters) and the boys constantly have to hide it and come up with excuses.
Pixar is one of the most celebrated names in animation as during the late 90s and most of the early 2000s they released classic after classic. At some point in the 2010s, however, it seems like they took a few pegs down. Not to say they were terrible but most of their films were either pointless sequels (did we really need a Toy Story 4?), not good (The Good Dinosaur) or a combination of both (the Cars sequels). Between Luca and 2020’s Soul, however, it seems like Pixar has finally found their groove again and I hope they continue the trend.
Mass
Directed by Fran Kranz (directorial debut)
Written by Fran Kranz (screenwriting debut)
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Where can I watch it? Video on Demand
Along with Last Night in Soho, this is my other favorite movie of last year. This is also going to be one of the shorter descriptions since Mass is one of those movies where the less you know going in, the better it’ll be. Mass is about two couples who meet in a church to settle old differences and try to bury a hatchet. And that’s all I’ll say in regards to that. I also seriously encourage you to not even read any plot synopses or watch any trailers that exist online since they’ll give away what the characters are talking about and it’s better if you don’t know going in (I got spoiled this way and I really wish I wasn’t).
The closest film I can compare Mass to is 12 Angry Men (one of my personal favorite movies of all time) as the whole film is basically just these characters having a conversation but it’s so much more engaging than I make this sound. The conversation can get very vicious and heated and it engages you from beginning to end. And, just like 12 Angry Men, Mass also acts as a textbook of film theory as the camera shots get tighter and more uncomfortable as the conversation gets more and more heated, until you eventually feel scared of Jason Isaacs’ rage yourself.
Mass does have some issues as there’s some cutaways that I think interrupt the flow of the movie and the opening could’ve been trimmed a bit. But, aside from that, this is one of the heaviest and darkest films I’ve seen in a while. And it’s one that I think most people these days should see as it offers a healthy challenge to the audience in today’s rage-filled world.
Directed by Sarah Smith (Arthur Christmas) and Jean-Philippe Vine (directorial debut)
Written by Peter Baynham (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Hotel Transylvania, Arthur Christmas) and Sarah Smith
Genre: Science-fiction, comedy, coming-of-age
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Where can I watch it? HBO Max, Disney+
Ron’s Gone Wrong is the first film to be made by a brand new animation studio, Locksmith Animation, and, similar to Luca, this is such a good family film that I can’t wait to see what they do next. A tech giant named Bubble unveils a new invention called a Buddybot that will act as a robotic best friend/general connection to the internet for everyone who buys one. All the kids immediately get one except for poor Barney Pudowski (Jack Dylan Grazer), turning him into even more of an outcast than he already is. Seeing how upset he is, his dad (Ed Helms) decides to buy him a buddy bot. Upon discovering that they’re all sold out, he buys one that quite literally fell off the back of a truck nicknamed Ron (Zach Galifianakis). On account of his physical damage, Ron starts malfunctioning, running amok and causing all sorts of mischief for Barney.
As you can quickly gather, Ron’s Gone Wrong is a satire about social media and phone addiction and a very clever one at that. It’s become very concerning over the past few years about the general digitization of reality, especially in regards to how it affects children. Ron’s Gone Wrong acts as an excellent cautionary tale that shows how this kind of lifestyle damages children’s self-esteem. Bubble is a pretty obvious allegory for Apple, many of the other kids’ personalities seem like the generic YouTube archetypes that I’m sure many children are aspiring to be and I liked how they showed the two heads of Bubble each having different motivations for managing Bubble in the way they do (one’s misguided but means well, the other is more ruthless and is chasing the almighty dollar). The movie also has an excellent ending as it provides a very even-handed look at what an ideal future of social media could and should be.
While that’s all well and good, the thing that makes me really love Ron’s Gone Wrong is just how mean its sense of humor is. I’m not kidding when I say that this is one of the funniest movies last year. While Barney is the typical outcast loser we see as the protagonist in a lot of family films, Ron’s Gone Wrong seems to take a special delight into turning him into a Charlie Brown-esque character where they crap on him in increasingly cruel and humiliating ways. And when I said earlier that Ron causes mischief, it’s not just standing up to bullies or making fun of girls; he ends up kidnapping infants and stealing 6-packs of beer. This kind of casual cruelty is exactly my type of humor, in case you couldn’t tell.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Kick-Ass)
Written by Matthew Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek (The Last Days of American Crime, Stranger Things, Oblivion)
Genre: Action-adventure
Rating: R
Running time: 2 hours 11 minutes
Where can I watch it? Will be on HBO Max at the end of this month
Along with Godzilla vs. Kong, The King’s Man is my vote for best action movie of 2021. Now, let me go on record saying that the original Kingsman: The Secret Service was one of the best movies of the year it came out (in a year that was a much better year for movies than this past one) and its sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, was also a ton of fun while being an admittedly inferior sequel. The prequel, The King’s Man, is about as good as The Golden Circle.
The plot of The King’s Man is the right balance of silly but you can still take it kinda seriously. World War I has broken out but little does everyone know that it’s being orchestrated by a shadowy organization known only as the Shepherds, whose membership includes real-life scumbags, Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) and Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman). Thus, it is up to the Kingsmen, led by Duke Orlando (Ralph Fiennes) and his son, Conrad (Harris Dickinson), to stop them. These two have a great relationship that acts as the heart of the movie and I was surprised by how much I got into it. Also, like the other two Kingsman movies, their arc does not go the way you think.
The action is awesome, they use music in creative ways like the other 2 movies and when it came time for the final battle, I was getting into it and wanted the good guys to win. I’d also like to take this time to make a public service announcement to ask for more historical fiction action movies. Considering the majority of historical films are trying to tell true-life stories of important people, it’d be nice to see some more that are just comedies or adventures set during interesting times.
All that having been said, I will caution that this is no masterpiece as the plot isn’t nearly as tightly written as the first film (it feels like the goalposts keep getting moved). Though if we’re going to talk about problems, the thing that really bothered me is that Rasputin’s comeuppance is not nearly as over-the-top as his real-life counterpart’s demise. Especially considering how hilarious Rasputin is in this movie, this felt like a massive waste of comedic potential.
Directed by Bao Tran (directorial debut)
Written by Bao Tran (screenwriting debut)
Genre: Action-comedy
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes
Where can I watch it? Netflix
(No, that song isn’t in the movie but it’s the first thing that popped up when I typed “paper tigers music” into Youtube’s search bar.)
Trying to be a film buff and watching Netflix original movies can be a difficult endeavor. On the one hand, you want to keep up to date with what’s topical and coming out and I enjoy how Netflix is willing to give most artists carte blanche to do more unique ideas. On the other hand, they clearly have no quality control and most Netflix original films are so terrible that they leave me pissed off in envy because my dog could make a better movie than most of this crap. But every now and then, you find a diamond in the rough. This brings us to The Paper Tigers.
The Paper Tigers starts off with a montage of three students training under their sifu (Roger Yuan) and you’re expecting a nice coming-of-age story á la The Karate Kid. Instead, after the montage ends, it fast-forwards many years into the future as they are all a bunch of washed-up, out-of-shape losers who don’t speak to each other anymore. They finally reconnect after many years when their sifu mysteriously dies and vow to avenge his death. Of course, this is easier said than done considering how they’re all one bad decision away from blowing out their knees.
This is a very funny movie that acts as a fun twist on your typical martial arts movie romp. The fights are, of course, excellent and the wit is very, very funny. Watching three blowhards get their asses handed to them time and again makes for great comedy and the three actors work well off of each other. The Paper Tigers also has a surprisingly great heart to it too. Even if you can see the moral coming from a mile away, the movie really takes its time developing it and I surprisingly really bought the main guy’s relationship with his son by the end and how vulnerable he gets.
The only thing that holds The Paper Tigers back from being a true classic is that the villain sucks. Considering how funny the rest of the movie is, you’d think they’d come up with an equally whacky bad guy but they ultimately decide to go the menacing route instead. The problem is that he isn’t all that menacing either so it fails flat on both accounts. Ah well, at least the final fight is still pretty badass though.
Directed by Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men, Fargo, The Big Lebowski)
Written by Joel Coen
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Where can I watch it? Apple TV+
A truly great Shakespeare adaptation only comes along every now and then, doesn’t it? I mean, the Bard’s plays have been adapted countless times over the past 500 years so it does take something special to stand out from the crowd and leave an impression. This past year’s Tragedy of Macbeth succeeds in doing just that, telling the story of the cursed Scottish nobleman who leaves a trail of blood and death in his quest for power. It’s a classic tale that is usually one of the harder Shakespeare tragedies to do well. With this in mind, I feel pretty confident in calling this the best film adaptation of Macbeth I’ve ever seen (it’s also the only halfway decent film adaptation of Macbeth I’ve ever seen but the point remains).
The Tragedy of Macbeth was directed by one of the Coen Bros. and his way of directing Macbeth gives the film a truly surreal atmosphere. It’s shot entirely in black-and-white with heavy use of fog and shadows. The setting seems to blur the line between “obviously a set” and “somewhat realistic,” giving it a very otherworldly feel. This makes the whole thing come off as very Gothic and feel like you’re identifying with Macbeth (Denzel Washington) and his wife, Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand), as their grips on reality slowly slip.
Denzel Washington is phenomenal as Macbeth, playing him as an aging soldier who has spent his whole life in the service of the King and wants to get what he feels he’s owed. I also really like the portrayal of the Three Weird Sisters (the witches who tell Macbeth his fortune) here. They’re all played by the same actress (Kathryn Hunter) who sometimes appears only on her own or, occasionally, as three people with the same face. This makes her feel a lot more mysterious and magical and her appearances leave you wondering if she’s real or simply in Macbeth’s head. This is the kind of murkiness that the film excels at and makes it a must-watch for any Shakespeare fan.
Directed by Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes, At Any Price, Chop Shop)
Written by Ramin Bahrani
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Where can I watch it? Netflix
Boy, there’s been a lot of crap about tigers these past couple years, hasn’t there? The White Tiger is another Netflix original film and was one of the first movies released in 2021. When I was compiling the movies together for this list and thinking about what should go on it, I was surprised that my mind kept going to this, despite watching it over a year ago and the film’s numerous flaws. Upon thinking about it some more, yeah, this was actually a pretty damn good movie. The White Tiger is a fascinating look at Indian culture and, more specifically, how oppressive and brutal the expectations of Indian society and its caste system can be. The best way I’d describe it is as a very cynical antithesis to Slumdog Millionaire.
Before we explain why this movie is awesome, let me address its main flaw, because it’s kind of a big one: the monologuing. The White Tiger takes its style cues from Martin Scorsese’s epics (e.g. Goodfellas, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street), as its protagonist, Balram (Adarsh Gourav), explains to us in great detail the world he’s in, with all of its nuances and double-standards, and describes how he reacts with his own mean-spirited wit. And I’m a big fan of Martin Scorsese’s films so this is right up my alley. The problem is that the monologuing never stops, even in scenes where it should have. There are moments that are relying heavily on symbolism and the main character explicitly spells out what he’s feeling in that moment, thus destroying the power of the symbolism. (Imagine if in the famous restaurant entrance scene in Goodfellas, Henry Hill was monologuing over it.) I could easily see this ruining the movie for some people.
If it doesn’t, however, The White Tiger is a really good epic about the miseries of caste India and they go all the way with it. Some of the older masters of Balram are just straight-up cruel while the younger couple that he’s directly assigned to try to stand up for him. When push comes to shove, however, they also have no problem with throwing Balram under the bus if it means saving their own asses. And though sometimes the style can backfire, when it works, it really works. The cinematography in this movie is almost as good as Last Night in Soho: the color is just gorgeous to look at and the movie gives a beautiful look at India, despite also showing its hideous warts.
Directed by Josh Ruben (Scare Me)
Written by Mishna Wolff (screenwriting debut)
Genre: Horror-comedy
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Where can I watch it? Video on Demand
To close off this retrospective of the most entertaining movies of 2021, we end with this indieist of indies: Werewolves Within, a horror-comedy romp that is just plain old fun at the theater (or, more likely, your home service of choice since this film tanked at the box office). Werewolves Within is set in a one-horse town in rural Vermont as a new forest ranger, Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson), finds out that one of the locals has died under mysterious circumstances. Hysteria quickly rises as everyone starts pointing fingers and trying to figure out who was the murderer.
Granted, the characters take an annoyingly long amount of time to realize that it’s a werewolf killing everybody (the damn movie is called Werewolves Within, it’s not a big twist when that’s revealed) but, after that, it turns into a really fun whodunnit. All the members of this town are straight-up nutbags, who each have reasons for holding grudges and wanting to kill the other villagers. Enough so, that it’s actually hard to figure out who the werewolf is by the end of the film. And I also really love Sam Richardson as Finn Wheeler, who strikes the perfect balance between being a warm guy who wants to believe in the best of everyone, a professional ranger who’s responsible for their well being and a pathetic doormat whose optimism is frequently ruined.
Werewolves Within is not what you would call knee-slapping funny but it’s got a smart wit to it. It’s not what you would call disturbingly scary but it has a cool atmosphere and monster makeup. And it’s not what you would call high art, but it also reminds you why you even watch movies in the first place: to just have fun. This is a very good movie from a new director and is worth a watch for anyone who enjoys more genre type films.
Honorable Mentions
Annette: Interesting arthouse opera about toxic fame but, holy Hell, this did not need to be 2-and-a-half hours long.
Bo Burnham: Inside: Really pushed the envelope on what you can do and mean with a comedy special. Does end up feeling like it repeats the same bit over and over again though.
Raya and the Last Dragon: A pretty good Disney film that was one or two rewrites away from being a masterpiece. Boring villain and pulling a big dramatic punch at the end brings it down.
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: Great documentary about a very interesting man. And I never even watched Anthony Bourdain before.
Spider-Man: No Way Home: Fun nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up with the Spider-Man movies and easily the best of Tom Holland’s outings. Too many painfully unfunny lines are what stops this from being a classic.
The Last Duel: Medieval thriller that has a clever plot structure and is very historically accurate, if a bit long in the tooth. Honestly was torn between this and CODA for the last movie to put on the list; I just chose CODA because I found it easier to write about. Consider The Last Duel the # 13 choice and the one I’d most recommend you to see out of these honorable mentions.
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