The year is ending, and you know what that means? It’s time for the annual tradition that is The Movie Mensch and its reveal of the best that film had to offer in 2021.
It was not the best 365 days as a whole, what with the pandemic still dominating our world and disrupting the making of and promoting of movies—like countless other businesses. Movies, I feel, have become our national pastime. It is during tough times, especially, that we turn to those cinematic stories to take us away. In that sense, 2021 did its job and certainly kept us entertained. Will it go down as a landmark year, such as the so-called Hollywood Golden Year 1939 and its height of the Depression, or 1975 and its explosion of filmmakers pushing envelopes of excellence? Time will tell…
The cinema landscape that is our top 21 of 2021 is a varied group that includes actioners, period pieces, a piercing lampooning of our response to potentially world-ending issues, and even a tale of a man and his Pig that will likely result in Nicolas Cage working his way back into the world of Oscar nominee. So, without further ado… here are the top 21 of 2021.
21. Nobody
Few play the “everyman” as well as Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul). The previously known as solely a comedic actor made the leap to the big screen effortlessly in the action-packed thrill ride that is Nobody. Then, there’s the pedigree of the film. The actioner comes from the writer of the John Wick movies, Derek Kolstad, and Russian director Ilya Naishuller (who gave us the grossly underrated Hardcore Henry in 2015).
Odenkirk is just a Nobody, except he is a somebody. He thought he could quit the life of being a highly trained assassin behind. Promises were made. Mansell thought he was good to go—he got married and had children for goodness sakes! Now, something or someone from his past has returned to take the only commodity that matters—his life. The thing is, they chose the wrong guy to drag out of retirement.
20. The Last Duel
Ridley Scott had one amazing year in 2021. He has two films on this end-of-year list. The first features a superstar cast (Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer) in the most chilling of true tales that takes place in 1386 France. The film gets its moniker, which is perfectly fitting, as it chronicles the literal last duel authorized by the monarch King Charles VI. It was meant to serve as a means of soliciting justice. There was a disagreement between two former best of friends (Damon’s Sir Jean de Carrouges and Driver’s Jacques Le Gris). Le Gris is accused of rape against Damon’s onscreen wife, Marguerite.
Something Scott does extremely well with The Last Duel is his uncanny ability to tell a he said, she said story from three different angles—the accused assailant, the victim, and the husband of the victim. Scott should also thank his lucky stars that the Oscar-winning writers for Good Will Hunting, Damon, and Affleck (along with co-writer Nicole Holofcener) chose this Middle Ages-set search for justice tome as the tale that would re-team the superstars as screenwriters. Their script is flawless as it creates a giant question mark in this true story that would result in the titular battle to save his wife’s good name. That question mark also smartly involves the nature of the institution of friendship itself.
The film is well directed, albeit a little long. The performances are all top-notch, especially Comer and Affleck. Seriously, those two deserve Best Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor nods, respectively.
19. Pig
Remember how far Nic Cage’s character was prepared to go to get back the stuffed animal bunny that he had bought for his little girl in Con Air? “Put the bunny back in the box!” Well, multiply that times a million and you have Cage’s state of mind as he approaches his killed or kidnapped beloved pig in Pig. This simultaneously touching and thrilling vehicle for Cage allows him to go “full-Cage,” but in a manner that is restrained as it befits the character as penned by co-writers (and director) Michael Sarnoski and Vanessa Block.
The two have woven a web that is as rich as the soil needed to grow truffles. That wasn’t a reference taken out of left field! It is because not only does Cage’s Rob unabashedly adores this Pig, but the animal has a gift for smelling out truffles. People pay good money for that tasty food item that seems to be getting rarer by the day.
Pig is not simply a tale about a man and his pig. Why it resonates so much is the hurricane of emotion exhibited by Cage throughout the entire endeavor. The Academy Award-winning actor swung for the fences with his latest turn, and it paid off. That Oscar buzz for Cage that is swirling around him will hopefully find him returning to the Oscar telecast for the first time in years.
18. Profile
There are found footage films and then there’s what filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov has delivered lately with the “entire movie takes place on screens” such as iPhones, tablets, and laptops. That is how the narrative is delivered to us sitting in the dark. Given the nature of what Valene Kane’s journalist Amy experiences in this ripped from the headlines true tale, it takes the promise of the John Cho starring Searching and exponentially expands it to crisscross the globe as Amy befriends a jihadist in Syria via an online venue such as Facebook (it’s Facebook, but not Facebook).
She is careful. She covers her tracks. Amy works closely with a chap from IT, but let’s be real here for a second. While she flirts with this man who has killed people for what he believes they have done to his people, Amy has put her face out there (can’t cover everything with a hajib) and it would be relatively easy for motivated folks to secure her address as she’s a journalist and it’s 2021.
Her boyfriend is supportive but to a point. Profile gets rawly real in its third act when transportation is arranged to and from Syria. The jihadist has fallen in love with her, and believes he has successfully recruited her. When she arrives, she won’t meet him, but the shackles of the sex slavery trade. It’s what has happened to a few other local London girls—thus why the journalist is investigating for her editor, Vick (Christine Adams).
Profile is an intense experience from beginning to end and one could easily argue that it is because the film takes place solely on screens, i.e., we only see what is communicated between these two “lovebirds” and the people who have their ears or eyes. Things get scary in a hurry and because it’s a true tale. Timur’s film is uniquely told and captured. It is an outstanding addition to the post-9/11 terrorist-centric stories that Hollywood has produced that go deeper and explore the issues focused on in Profile as exactly where our battle against global terrorism needs to go—online. That’s where they’re recruiting, teaching, and turning people against their homelands, their friends, and family.
17. House of Gucci
Scott has been a busy boy, directing two top 21 of 2021 movies… and both are true stories where people were put in peril. The first was The Last Duel at number 20. Now, we’ve got the true tale of the House of Gucci which finds Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga, a lock for another Oscar acting nod) getting the spotlight. Reggiani meets Maurizio Gucci (Driver, another person having a stellar year) at a party. The two would eventually marry, even if it meant losing his fortune because his father Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons) cut him off. He finds himself working for her father at his trucking company and has the time of his life. They marry, and then she truly starts twisting the screws with Maurizio, getting him to return to the family business, working closely with Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino), while he tries to push his cousin Paolo Gucci (an unrecognizable Jared Leto) out of the door.
As Gaga plays her, one pulls for Patrizia to get her due, and for the cemented in the past family to share her vision for how to move the Gucci brand into the present… at the least! Considering that we’re talking about a woman who hired a hitman to (successfully) kill Maurizio, that’s something else. Yes, there are elements that are over the top, and that includes the performances of some in the ensemble. But the thing is, Scott has been at this for far too long for everything he does to not be fiercely on purpose. It all adds up to an explosive true story full of flash, and a priceless opportunity to see how one of the most famous names in branding period—regardless of its industry—and how it all came crashing down long before Patrizia Reggiani came into the Gucci picture.
16. Luca
Disney and Pixar having an entry on a year-end countdown is hardly a surprise, that’s how high the bar is for their films. I should say, “their stories,” because at the Emeryville, California-based animation house, from day one it has always been all about the story. With Luca, the famed creative forces of nature take us to a fantastical village in the Italian Riviera where fisherman’s tales of sea monsters might make a sea monster want to hide their identity behind their supernatural ability to walk among us. That is exactly the case for Luca, voiced by Room breakout talent Jacob Tremblay. His new pal Alberto (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer of Shazam! fame) believes that Luca should embrace the fullness that is life and intends to show him the way to not live in the shadows anymore.
What makes Luca so special is its cinematic heart. There is such a sense of love emanating through every frame. Love for the country of Italy, complete adoration for the water and the gifts that it brings, and above everything—even if they drive us crazy—love for family.
15. The French Dispatch
To say that Wes Anderson has a style is one of the grossest understatements ever put together. The man who gave us Isle of Dogs, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Rushmore, is at it again as only he can with The French Dispatch, the film that brings us to the top 15 of 2021. Anderson’s patented filmmaking tone breathes the most unique of air into a story centered on a fictional publication set in a fictional French city whose staff is made up of ex-pats from America whose journalistic integrity should be the model for how one runs a real journalist-driven endeavor.
The all-star ensemble is sublime and the way in which Anderson dishes out his story in magazine story-like vignettes is ingenious. Leading the charge is Bill Murray as the publication’s longtime and beloved editor-in-chief Arthur Howitzer, Jr. Joining him is many regular Anderson collaborators, such as Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Tony Revolori, Owen Wilson, Léa Seydoux, and Adrien Brody. Mr. Buzz himself, Timothy Chalamet makes his Anderson debut with The French Dispatch, along with Benicio Del Toro and Jeffrey Wright.
It is easy to see why folks would drop everything and head to France to make an Anderson movie. It’s not about the size of the role, many of the above thespians were in the film for no more than fifteen to twenty minutes. His scripts are pointed, and always about something. What The French Dispatch says is much, but I’ll leave it to each one of you to draw your own conclusion. That’s another reason why we admire Anderson. His films mean different things to the varied movie appreciators of the world. But they all share one thing in common, great taste in filmmakers.
14. In the Heights
Before Hamilton made Lin-Manuel Miranda a household name, he tackled the Broadway world with the celebration of a certain New York City neighborhood, Washington Heights. It overlooks the iconic GW Bridge and the city’s neighbor to the south, New Jersey. Like so many neighborhoods across the planet, culture and history are being pushed aside by gentrification masked as progress and “the future.” With Miranda’s In the Heights, he puts many a treasured face to the issue that is relevant today as it was when it rocked Broadway in 2008.
The songs are catchy and magnificently Miranda. What makes the film version of his Broadway breakout so special is how director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) shot and edited one of the best films of the year. There are images, such as the one above in the poster, that have become instantly iconic and elevated the message of the music with its pairing of the vibrancy of the visual.
What impressed me most during the entire In the Heights experience is how Miranda’s story never feels as if there is a message beyond enjoying one another, regardless of where our parents or their parents were born. Yet, one cannot help but be moved by every single word from the soundtrack and the dialogue penned by screenwriter extraordinaire, Quiara Alegría Hudes.
13. Judas and the Black Messiah
This film may have seemed like something from last year, thanks to the pandemic and how the Oscars were much later than usual and films qualifying for it had a much expanded time window to qualify. Judas and the Black Messiah landed in February earlier this year and would go on to win two Oscars: Best Supporting Actor for the hurricane that is Daniel Kaluuya, and Best Original Song for H.E.R.’s Fight for You.
It was a talent announcement as well for director Shaka King, who co-wrote the script with Will Berson and Kenneth Lucas. This is the haunting true story of the Messiah of the title, Kaluuya’s Fred Hampton—who was the leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panthers—and how he was taken down by his own Judas, LaKeith Stanfield’s Bill O’Neal. After being arrested, O’Neal was facing major jail time and thus, was being pushed by Jesse Plemons’ FBI Agent Roy Mitchell, to infiltrate the Black Panthers and get dirt on Hampton. The mission of the Feds was an arrest of Hampton with the hopes of, frankly, quieting him. His speeches were seismically stirring and were becoming legendary—and, as played by Kaluuya, it is pure fire to witness.
12. Being the Ricardos
Being the Ricardos could also have been titled, A Week in the Life of Desi and Lucille. After all, that is what writer-director Aaron Sorkin delivered with his titanic take on the biopic milieu. It was a week that would define them, the country, democracy, and the brilliance on one Lucille Ball (played impeccably by Nicole Kidman). Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) and his real-life wife were starring in the number one comedy in America, with over 60 million Americans tuning in every week. Then a double-barreled pair of scandals came at the couple, allegations of his cheating being reported by a tabloid while the couple awaits news whether the mainstream media will run with it as well.
The crux of the film centers on Ball and how she registered as a Communist Party member in the early 30s as a tribute and salute to her stepfather. She forgot about it, lived her life, became famous, and then Joe McCarthy got elected to be a Senator from Wisconsin. Guess who’s banging the drum of love America or leave it and wants to know more about America’s sweetheart and how American is she, really?
With Sorkin, one expects the dialogue to be as rich as is humanly possible, and that certainly is the case with Being the Ricardos. After dominating television with The West Wing, The Newsroom, and Sports Night, the cinema has seen where the word wunderkind’s attention has fallen of late. Last year’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 and his debut film, Molly’s Game packed quite a one-two punch. With his third directorial effort, Being the Ricardos, Sorkin changes it up a bit. There isn’t a whole lot of what they call “walking and talking” that Sorkin has brilliantly made his own. Yet, the urgency that that storytelling trope produces is all over his latest.
11. No Time to Die
Bond (finally) returns, and audiences say farewell to one of the best Bonds who ever donned a tux, Daniel Craig. The actor’s final 007 flick after 15 years in Her Majesty’s Secret Service is not only the exit Craig deserves, but it is one of the best films of 2021.
There is not nearly enough buzz along the awards circuit for Craig to be recognized with a nod for Best Actor. It’s (always) a crowded field, but there is something about what the Cheshire, England native did with his last installment in a storied franchise that had countless folks reaching for the tissues one minute while the next we’re gasping for air from the ever-rising tension that is a Cary Joji Fukunaga directed flick. It’s a special kind of actor who can accomplish that emotive feat.
10. The Beatles: Get Back
From the moment it was announced that director Peter Jackson was given countless hours of tapes that had never seen the light of day from the famed The Beatles Let it Be studio sessions, Beatles fans were aflutter. During that reveal, it was also said that Jackson was given free rein over the project, directed from the top—i.e., Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. That the doc was coming from Mr. Three Hour Lord of the Rings’ movies, those of us who ponder the cinematic for a living wondered, “Would fans have the stamina to sit with Jackson and the greatest band of all time for what was being reported as a six-hour epic (it’s actual run time revealed when it debuted on Disney+ was closer to eight hours).”
As soon as I was able to review Get Back, I could see that the answer would be a resounding “yes!” There’s something about what Jackson has done with the genre of documentary filmmaking that has brought something out of him that is stunning. They Shall Not Grow Old found him colorizing newfound World War I footage to chronicle what was supposed to be the “war to end all wars” and it was an achievement of the highest honors. If possible, he’s grown as a documentarian as Get Back compels beyond belief. Who would have thought that hearing George Harrison and McCartney talk about whether John Lennon is going to show up today as Ringo uncomfortably rocks back and forth pounding his sticks on the floor (or anything nearby for that matter) for 20 minutes, would add up to riveting and be seen as a documentary filmmaker’s dream footage?!
It is and we cannot get enough of it as many have returned for a second viewing.
But the greatness in Get Back is not the scandalous Yoko Ono and her “splitting” of The Beatles nonsense that has ricocheted through pop culture since it happened over a half-century ago. It’s the opposite. These are four lads who love each other and are each filled with the most unique senses of humor, aspects of the Fab Four that were grossly missing from the documentary released in 1970, Let it Be. That film worked as an explanation for millions wondering why their beloved band was no more. Leave it to Jackson to sort through all this joy and see the need for an eight-hour Beatles documentary. Honestly, we could’ve used more.
9. Nine Days
It’ll take about nine minutes to fall for Nine Days, a movie that—on paper—seems to be ambitiously about the preciousness that is life. In fact, writer-director Edson Oda’s debut film will leave you thinking about that, yes, but about so much more by the time those credits roll. Us star Winston Duke is Will, a man who seems to have chosen a life of loneliness for himself, but also for the greater good of humankind as a collective (and enormous) whole. His charge is to determine, amongst the candidates who come to his in the middle of nowhere abode, is worthy of the distinctive honor that is being born. Told you this was some heady stuff! The thing is, in the hands of Oda, the film never feels heavy, and features some stellar performances from every single person in the ensemble. Above all else, Nine Days is always entertainingly compelling.
Among those who have shown up are Kane (Bill Skarsgård, who did such a lovely job as Pennywise in It and It: Chapter 2), Tony Hale’s Alexander (who should be receiving Oscar buzz for his work on Being the Ricardos), and Emma (portrayed by Zazie Beetz, the only person on the planet who could steal scenes from Ryan Reynolds, as she did in Deadpool 2). Everyone has nice chats with Will, but there is something about the dialogue between Emma and him that are so well written, orchestrated, deeply moving—which is insane given the time the characters have spent together, yet it feels wholly organic—and push the narrative about the complexities of life, the roads taken and untaken… and so much more that washes over you like the most comfortably embracing of blankets.
9 (tie). Tick, tick…Boom!
Andrew Garfield IS Jonathan Larson. From the instant he first appears in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s cinematic directorial debut/love letter to the creator of Rent, he has captured the soul of an artist. In fact, Garfield’s entire turn (which is a lock for a Best Actor nod), is also a love letter to Larson. So, who is this man who was shockingly taken from the world the day of Rent’s premiere by an aortic dissection at the age of 30?
Miranda, Garfield, and screenwriter Steven Levenson (based on the stage musical of the same name) have done something truly otherworldly. Not only have they mutually captured the spirit and essence of Larson with Tick, tick… Boom!, but also mesmerizingly crafted a film experience fitting of the man they’re spotlighting. Warning… after witnessing the Netflix film, you will put the soundtrack on repeat.
8. Cyrano
One of my most personally beloved stories ever experienced arrived early in the form of a high school production of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Even though it was written in 1897, it felt as pertinent to me as Bret Easton Ellis. When I heard that a Joe Wright (Atonement) directed, Peter Dinklage starring (and produced) musical of Rostand’s work was in the works, I could not wait. It was so worth the wait. It is a fresh and inspired take on a story that’s been done countless times since it first appeared at the close of the 19th century.
One of the reasons is the titular protagonist. He may carry himself with a uniquely confident panache. But in his head, something else is keeping him from finding true happiness (and true love for that matter). He is insecure about his appearance. In the original form, Cyrano had an enormous nose. But it could be anything that makes us physically question ourselves from an early age with kids being the caring and understanding souls that they notoriously are.
Dinklage deserves the Oscar buzz (and might just win) as he has created a wickedly original Cyrano who is not worthy of his timeline. To say he was ahead of his time is too tame. The character of Cyrano transcends periods. Also, deserving major props for her Roxanne is Haley Bennett (The Magnificent Seven). She had a task ahead of her as well when she said yes to playing the iconic character and Bennett made it her own. Cyrano’s Roxanne is one to remember.
7. King Richard
Biopics, yeah, we know, we know! You only get one shot and it’s been an outstanding year for biopics. I never would have thought that an “origins story” based around the rise and triumphs of Serena and Venus Williams would be as magnificently moving as it is, and then some. Why it works is because all involved smartly decided to focus on the sisters’ father, Richard (Will Smith). Although he bears the title of the movie, not to be out-tributed, but filmmakers also gave equal footing to Richard’s better half, Oracene ‘Brandy’ Williams (Aunjanue Ellis). There’s been serious chatter for Smith for Best Actor and frankly, he deserves it, but equally so is Williams—especially as written by Zach Baylin in his script. The man formerly known as The Fresh Prince did not act in a vacuum. Ellis is electric.
Despite their humble Compton, California locale, the duo instilled a work ethic in their four daughters as a way out of those gang and drug-laden streets. Immediately, Richard saw something in Venus and Serena. When it came to a tennis racket, these two were naturals. In the trailer, he famously says, “I’ve got two.” Two of what, you ask? Michael Jordans. Saniyya Sidney is phenomenal as Venus and Demi Singleton dazzles as Serena.
The film smartly focuses on the pair and their effort to find a coach, as well as a safe tennis court with a functioning net in their neighborhood. A lot of the push back then was on Venus. She was older and more prepared to debut as a pro, but King Richard smartly—in the hands of director Reinaldo Marcus Green—illustrates that Serena’s father knew he had the greatest the sport has ever seen waiting right behind her big sister.
6. Licorice Pizza
Paul Thomas Anderson returns to the Valley outside Los Angeles—where he grew up—with his most welcoming of films yet in the auteur’s career. The man who gave us Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, has crafted a love story centered around a teenager named Gary (Cooper Hoffman) who pines after Alana, a twenty-something still in search of life’s purpose.
It’s 1973 and the City of Angels is nothing but opportunity for Gary. A child actor with his own PR firm (run by his mother), he’s also an uncanny entrepreneur. How else would he wind up selling a waterbed (right before they became the rage) to Bradley Cooper’s Jon Peters? The uber-producer provides the most astonishing of characters for Cooper to inhale and exhale perfection.
Licorice Pizza is a slice-of-life film with a lot to say and like the greats, including Robert Altman, Anderson has a knack for crafting ensemble pieces whose beginnings are as chaotic as an unopened puzzle. Somehow, he gets them to interact in ways that are true-to-life and above all else, achingly memorable. I still remember major details about Boogie Nights, don’t you?
5. Mass
Kicking off The Movie Mensch’s top 5 of our top 21 of 2021 is Mass. This gut-wrenching film puts a cinematic face on one of our nation’s biggest epidemics—mass shootings. It follows the parents of two high schoolers affected by a school shooting. There is Linda and Richard (Ann Dowd and Reed Birney), whose son took the lives of so many on that awful day. Then, there’s Jay and Gail (Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton), whose son left for school one morning and never came home. Each comes at the tragedy from different origins, but as they gather in a meeting room at a church, all of that comes to life in the most intense, moving, and powerful two hours.
The film feels like a stage play, with its actors in one place for the entire span of the experience. It, therefore, gives off a piercing sense of intimacy, which with these two sets of parents, is as explosive as one would think. Mass does it in such a way that it not just pulls off the band-aid about the violent and death-laden epidemic, it rips it off. For example, both parents are still mourning. Linda and Richard have been made to feel that they shouldn’t. When they hear news reports about “the X number of kids dying that day,” Linda tears up and is consumed by the media’s lack of including their son in the number of dead.
Mass is an acting clinic. All four thespians deserve Oscar love, and if we were to predict, there is no way Dowd does not get a nod. But that’s for another column. Each actor takes the seriousness of the subject to heart and knows that it is discussions just like this fictional one, that we as a society should be having more of and to emit that to the viewer is job number one and they just crushed it. It’s a tough watch, I’ll give you that. But when it’s over, you’ll be better for having experienced its potent message.
4. Last Night in Soho
After Baby Driver, filmmaker Edgar Wright became one of those directors whose name alone would get us in the theater. Of course, I loved his work previously with the so-called The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. But there was something about Baby Driver that showed he had graduated to a whole different level of storytelling. He returned twice this year for the first work since 2017’s Driver. There was the music documentary The Sparks Brothers and the flick that lands him at number four for 2021—Last Night in Soho.
The film is a bit supernatural, a tad of a love letter to the fashion and music of London in the 1960s, and above all else—a thrilling and suspenseful horror-like spectacle. It’s shot beautifully and features performances from its two leads that are downright otherworldly. Thomasin McKenzie (JoJo Rabbit) is Eloise, who moves to London from her rural English home to attend fashion college. She has dreams of making it big, but first… she must excel at her studies. Initially, it doesn’t go so well. She feels like a fish out of water. Then, she starts having visions (it’s hinted at that this is not new for Eloise) and in them, she sees Sandie (the seems she’s everywhere Anya Taylor-Joy—and rightfully so, just look at her work on Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit). Both actresses are sublime their characters have a complicated relationship that had to be the most enormous of challenges for each woman that they met and exceeded.
With Wright’s unreal command of his gift that seems to fully be flexing its muscles of late, Last Night in Soho goes back and forth effortlessly between modern-day and swinging 60s London. Sandie is an aspiring singer who landed in London with stars in her eyes, just like Eloise. Only her tale takes a darker turn in that she wound up with Matt Smith’s Jack. Eloise is convinced that Sandie is reaching out to her and that it is her murder that needs solving. Turns out, nothing is remotely what it seems. That is the greatest gift of Wright’s second 2021 film. There’s unpredictable, and then there’s the experience of Last Night in Soho.
3. Belfast
Kenneth Branagh took to the pandemic lockdown and decided to finally put pen to paper and tell his story of growing up as a young boy in the titular Irish city. Belfast is the result, and it is a joy to behold on numerous fronts. It is a deeply moving movie that will touch your heart in ways you think you know heading in but have no idea the unbridled joy that will not leave you for some time from experiencing Branagh’s film.
It’s the most incredible feat that Branagh has achieved with his latest writing-directing effort. It is the late sixties and as the rest of the world is grappling with economic woes and debates over the Vietnam War, the citizens of Northern Ireland were fighting amongst themselves, right down religious lines. The battle between Catholics and Protestants was turning ugly, violent, and deadly as Belfast gets going. It’s scary, but young Buddy (Jude Hill) is still just a boy being a boy—struggling with school, a girl he rather fancies but in a manner that is foreign to him, and playing like there’s no tomorrow in the streets with the other Belfast kids who wear their birth city as a proud badge. As the violence escalates and the economic situation of Buddy’s parents becomes an issue, a decision must be made… stay in Belfast or move to London. I mean, you get the impression that nobody leaves that city. Your parents were born there, your grandparents and so on…
The ensemble that surrounds the delightful discovery that is Hill is a top-notch cast, from Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds as Granny and Pop respectively, to Jamie Dornan and Pa and Caitriona Balfe as Ma. Each loses themselves in their role as the audience is treated to one of the most feel-good movies I’ve seen in some time, which is a unique achievement if you think about it. Being forced from your home due to a budding Civil War doesn’t scream “feel-good.” But in Branagh’s hands, the notes he hits dramatically (and even comedically) are perfection. Belfast is an utter delight and do not be surprised if you’re singing Everlasting Love by Love Affair for days!
2. Don’t Look Up
The mirror that Adam McKay puts up to America in Don’t Look Up is not a reflection—I would hope—that the country would enjoy. Sadly, just like he did with The Big Short, McKay has hit the nail on the head with his latest that looks at current events without making you feel like you’re watching a movie about current events.
Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Dr. Randall Mindy, a Michigan State University physicist whose Ph.D. candidate student Kate Dibiasky (played with pedal to the floor urgency by fellow Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence), discovered a comet that is over seven kilometers long. Yes, you guessed it. It’s heading right for Earth. And yes, it’s a planet killer. That gets the attention of some of the United States government’s top scientists in this arena and next thing you know, the good doctor and Dibiasky are heading to Washington to meet with President Orlean (a hauntingly hilarious Meryl Streep) and her chief of staff/son Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill). As the trailer reveals, the president decides to “sit tight and access,” which shocks government scientist Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), not to mention Dr. Mindy and Kate.
The world is going to end in a matter of months and they’re going to “sit tight?!” Mindy and Diabiasky wind up on a, as they are, blazingly well-lit cable news show to get an end of the world update to the population. Hosts Brie Evantee (Oscar winner Cate Blanchett) and Jack Bremmer (Tyler Perry) receive the news with a similar response. Their we’re all going to die announcement is met with piercingly off-putting ear-to-ear smiles as if they’ve just been given the secret to the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. …and we’re off to the races.
People can debate what exactly McKay is parodying, whether it is the government’s response to climate change or as I thought, the pandemic. Regardless of its true source—perhaps an amalgam of issues—it has provided the man who gave us Anchorman and Step Brothers plenty to skewer. From the utter complacency of our government and its ability to respond to world-ending issues, or the media’s complacency in not calling them on their piss poor effort, to its reflection of a large swath of the population that cannot seem to grip reality if it doesn’t fall within their political and personal belief system, Don’t Look Up is the movie the world requires, more than any other, in 2021.
1. CODA
The thing is, Don’t Look Up is number two because there was another film that I found equally as righteous, but had at its core a story whose experiencing of it will result in your heart melting in the most organic of ways—and that is what we need now more than ever. AppleTV+’s CODA is our film of the year. CODA stands for Children of Deaf Adults and that is exactly the life landscape that newcomer (and the find of the year) Emilia Jones’ Rubi Rossi exists in and it has defined her entire life. She’s in high school and starting to look at colleges, which isn’t something her parents have figured into their business plan for the near future. Dad, Frank Rossi (Troy Kotsur) has a fishing boat while Mom, Jackie Rossie (Marlee Matlin) runs the business side of things. Her brother, who is also deaf, Leo Rossi (Daniel Durant) works on the boat, and it is just assumed that is the future that will assimilate Rubi. The thing is, she loves to sing, and her music teacher Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) believes that she could earn a scholarship. She’s afraid to tell her parents because they will make it about them. Like, is she taunting them by pursuing singing—something they cannot share her joy of because of their lack of hearing? It’s complicated on many levels.
Jones commands in every scene. She’s in practically every single one. It is easy to see why filmmakers knew she was the one when she walked into that audition. She has something about her that is just captivating. What is required of the woman who plays Rubi is uncanny. Having to confront parents who you adore and treasure while trying to balance your own dreams and desires for “a life” is something that is meticulously laid out by Heder and delivered by Jones on the screen.
One last thing. All involved deserve Oscar nods, obviously Jones, but especially Kotsur. His father figure/business owner/fisherman is as layered as characters come, all without being able to hear or say a word. Oh, he still communicates with sign language. But what the actor does with his body is the stuff of legend. He transmits so much via his vessel, his body, that it results in a provocative performance that one can see clearly why Rubi is pained about which way to go in this fork in the road of life that has reared its head.
Honorary Mentions: Riders of Justice, Free Guy, Werewolves Within, Dune, Under the Volcano, The Many Saints of Newark, Antlers, Army of Thieves, I’m Your Man, Copshop, Kate, The Suicide Squad, Vivo, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, The Dry, The Courier, Raya and the Last Dragon, Cruella, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Black Widow, The Forever Purge, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, Malignant and Supernova.