If our lives were a movie the year 2021 would be called "2020: Part 2". Things somewhat improved socially and economically for businesses, which were able to charge more money for their services and products, under the clever guise of inflation (remember, businesses set the price for their products not the government). The movies also improved too. That statement would mean more if 2020 wasn't so dreadfully awful (in every way imaginable) but the movies tried to "return to normal". Hollywood went back to releasing their big box-office blunders (er, I means hits) in movie theaters, sometimes exclusively in theaters instead of simultaneously streaming. It felt like a money grab and I personally stayed away. Since the pandemic began I have been in a movie theater four times. Still Hollywood released titles like "Godzilla vs Kong", "Mortal Kombat", "Space Jam: A New Legacy", "Raya and the Last Dragon", a host of comic book movies ("Black Widow", "The Suicide Squad", "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", and "The Eternals") and the long delayed James Bond action movie, "No Time To Die". And while box-office numbers were up compared to last year (again not saying much since movie theaters were practically shut down the majority of the year) it didn't top 2019. Insiders say the movie industry has changed and we are moving towards streaming services now replacing theaters. If true, it has been a long time coming. It was a controversial decision at the time but maybe that is why Warner Brothers decided to release its 2021 schedule on the streaming site HBO Max as well as in theaters. Of course the year is ending with the surprise (?) box-office success of the latest comic book movie, "Spider-Man: No Way Home". Maybe not so surprising is the fact that five of the top six highest grossing domestic movies of the year were comic book movies. Going as far back as 2014 a comic book adaptation has been in the top three biggest box-office hits of their respective year (with the exception of 2020).
So that's the business side of movies, what about the quality? Well, for me, it was as dismal. In fact it has been a years long trend for me to struggle making a "Top Ten" list. Do my readers even realize I never made a list for 2018? Over the years I have given fewer and fewer movies four stars. Back in what I can now consider the "glory days" of the early 2000s it wasn't unheard of for me to give 12 - 15 movies four stars. And I would still complain about the quality of cinema! This year I've given seven movies four stars. The problem seems to be the "artistic sensibilities" of today's "artists" are rooted in nostalgia. The up-and-coming artists are around my age (I'm an 80s baby) and they have a fondness for what was popular during their youth. While I see nothing wrong with having sentimental attachments to movies, this crowd creates no distinction between childhood favorites and great artistic cinema. It is all lumped together! There is no appreciation or understanding of the history of cinema. That leads to artists believing "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990) and "Ghostbusters" (1984) are classics. Look at all the 80s throwbacks circulating in pop culture now with more coming. Who do you think is responsible for this? Who are they trying to capture the interest of? Sure I went to see "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" for the nostalgia factor but I'm not going to tell you it was a great movie. Cinema is losing its value as it becomes intertwined with left-wing social activism and mainstream politics. Some are simply too eager to erase film history (and history in general) rather than learn and grow from it. Study it not erase it.
One trend I noticed in movies this year thematically was it was supposed to be "the year of the woman". Ever since the political / social movement #MeToo back in 2017 Hollywood has tried to appear sympathetic and capitalize on it while also being seen as part of the problem. Hollywood has tried several times to turn particular movie years into "the year of the woman". The years 2002 and 2003 stand out when actresses such as Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench and Salma Hayek were nominated for several awards and celebrated for their acting diversity and emotional range. It was (correctly) noted that some of the best acting was being done by women (I say due to gender constraints placed on what defines "masculinity" but that's another story). For "girl power" movies this year we had a wide variety of movies from all genres ranging from animation ("Raya and the Last Dragon" and "Earwig and the Witch") action movies ("Gunpowder Milkshake", "Jolt", and "Sentinelle") comedy ("Moxie" and "Coming 2 America"), and drama ("My Salinger Year" and "The Perfect Candidate"). And although nothing has been confirmed, elements of the latest James Bond movie suggested the next movie could follow a woman as the new 007 agent. These movies and many others all tried to portray women as fierce, independent and sometimes violent individuals. They were going to make their mark in the world and change the social construct which they viewed as male dominated. Even in the real world, what was the media's biggest backlash against President Joe Biden's decision to leave Afghanistan, after a 20 year war? What about the women? What will happen to them? What type of world are we leaving behind for them?
The other trend this year was an incredible amount of good documentaries: "Fake Famous", "Operation Varsity Blues", "Seaspiracy", "The Big Scary "S" Word", "Val", "JFK: Revisited", and "The Real Charlie Chaplin". Many of these were serious contenders to make my top ten list. It has been a long trend dating back to 2004 and the financial success of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11". More and more documentaries are being released and finding mainstream success. Of course the downside is that documentaries have essentially turned into political weapons.
I saw a lot of movies this year (a personal best in fact). Due to Covid-19 I was even able to "attend" various film festivals throughout the year - Cleveland International Film Festival, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, and of course my hometown Chicago International Film Festival. I did a better job this year (compared to last year) keeping up with new releases on Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV, Amazon Prime, and various Video on Demand sites. I counted approximately 600 movies released this year. While I didn't see all of them, I did notice a theme emerging with the films of 2021. It was a theme which serves as a reflection not only among the films released this year but a theme that has gripped this country the last six years. Truth! Two quotes come to my mind - the biblical verse (John 8:32) "The truth shall set you free" and the belief that in cinema lies the truth. Morality and the arts. The political attacks against art supposedly come from a moralistic standing. Correcting the wrongs of the past. Our politics are deceitfully infused with morality. I've never heard people talk in terms of morality so often. We are fighting a "holy war" between each other as we foolishly look to politicians to offer salvation, guidance, and leadership. Some actually believed former TV host Donald Trump came from God! But where lies the truth? What is truth? The right and left have really muddied the waters. One side of the political spectrum has "questioned" is Covid real? Are masks helpful? Will the vaccine deplete the population? Did Joe Biden really win the election? It's no accident I am making this list on the one year anniversary of the January 6th Capital riots. Some even question that. Who was responsible for those events?
The movies on my list mirror this reality. These are movies featuring characters searching for the truth, molding the truth, bending the truth, or even hiding the truth. The truth would seem to be an existential concept. Redefining the term definitely helps those that want to make the argument that there is no such thing - there is "my" truth and "your" truth. Truth is predicated upon your skin color, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, and political ideology. There is no singular truth because "truth" has been defined by others. "Others" that are viewed as oppressors. It is a dangerous viewpoint because it takes away from our shared experience, as this entire Covid ordeal has revealed to me. We all live in our own bubble, living our own "truth" and as such we need not interact with others. They may, after all, burst our bubble.
Before revealing my list I would like to take a moment and bid a final farewell to some of the great artists that left us in 2021: Betty White, Jane Powell, Christopher Plummer, Olympia Dukakis, George Segal, Ed Asner, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmuller, Cloris Leachman, Ned Beatty, actor Normal Lloyd who died at 106. He worked with Chaplin and Hitchcock! There was also Charles Grodin, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, French filmmaker Bernard Tavernier, Dean Stockwell, and great comedians Jackie Mason and Mort Sahl. They, and many, many others, will be fondly remembered and greatly missed.
Here now are my choices for the top ten best movies of the year followed by a runner's up list and my picks for the worst movies of the year!
1. CLIFF WALKERS (Dir. Zhang Yimou; China) - Yimou, perhaps the greatest filmmaker to come out of China in the past 40 years, was at one time one of cinema's great humanist directing social period dramas like "Raise the Red Lantern" (1992) and "To Live" (1994), both topped my top ten lists. Then the great Yimou changed course directing spectacular martial art films - "House of Flying Daggers" (2004), "Curse of the Golden Flower" (2006) and "Shadow" (2019), all of which made my top ten lists. Now Yimou has given us an espionage thriller. Yes, the movie has sumptuous visuals but this political tale set in the 1930s, revolving around communist agents looking for a traitor, recalls the work of Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. This is a story of political will and resistance. Too bad the sheep (movie critics) couldn't appreciate Yimou's work.
2. HAYMARKET : THE BOMB, THE ANARCHISTS, THE LABOR STRUGGLE (Dir. Adrian Prawica; U.S.) - The subject of labor history in the United States is one that is sadly neglected and instead has been infiltrated by political propaganda. The Haymarket Affair was an incident that took place right here in Chicago in 1886 with workers striking for an eight hour day. A bomb was thrown into a crowd resulting in a deadly riot between the police and workers. Although the anniversary of the event is never celebrated in Chicago (!) the event, which took place May 4th, is seen as having lead to the creation of May Day throughout the world and Labor Day here in the U.S. It is also no accident the holiday is celebrated in September in the U.S. and not in May. This documentary explores what really happened that day as well as questions the motives for the events that followed.
3. WORTH (Dir. Sara Colangelo; U.S.) - Michael Keaton stars in this piercing morality, social drama based on the real events following the September 11th attacks. Keaton is an attorney asked to help with the creation of a 9/11 Fund for those that lost their lives at Ground Zero and to distribute the funds. The title "worth" refers to the financial worth of one's life. How do you decide how much money each family should receive for the loss of an individual's life? A class battle ensues between the haves and the have nots. Keaton delivers an emotionally powerful performance. "Worth" is unfortunately another movie the sheep decided not to celebrate and have shut out for any award consideration. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
4. THE GUILTY (Dir. Antoine Fuqua; U.S.) - Another Netflix movie! A remake of the exceptional 2018 Danish movie of the same title, this one-man show stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a 9-1-1 dispatcher caught in a moral dilemma and searching for redemption. Perhaps meant by Fuqua to be a commentary on Black Lives Matter, "The Guilty" is at its most powerful when it focuses on one man's hunt for the truth and desire to do the right thing. Some American sheep disliked the movie stating it is inferior to the original. In some ways it is but both movies are brilliant, intense works of art that succeed for different reasons.
5. THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE (Dir. Michael Showalter; U.S.) - My favorite performance of the year comes to us from Jessica Chastain in what is a career highlight performance. Based on real life incidents and a documentary of the same name Chastain stars as Tammy Faye, the wife of TV preacher Jim Baker and explores the empire they created. While some sheep commentated Guillermo del Toro's "Nightmare Alley" was a fable about the ways in which our system exploits individuals, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" was a superior example of the same theme. Watching this movie all I could think of was how people are able to lie to one another and create phony justifications for those lies. It is kind of a modern day "Elmer Gantry" (1960). If there is any justice in this world Jessica Chastain will win an Academy Award!
6. WEST SIDE STORY (Dir. Steven Spielberg; U.S.) - The only pop culture, Hollywood entertainment movie on the list, Steven Spielberg's remake of the multiple Academy Award winner "West Side Story" (1961) struck me as unnecessary when I first heard of it. Why can't we leave the classics alone! And although this movie is inferior to the original but only in terms of acting, singing, dancing, choreography, cinematography, editing, and pacing, Spielberg's version works best as a stand alone movie. I know some have tried to read a social and political commentary into this love story based on Romeo & Juliet but I found I liked it best as a piece of Hollywood entertainment and a renewed interest in the Hollywood musical. Whatever social commentary it makes is subtle and much better than anything Lin-Manuel Miranda did in his "West Side Story" inspired "In the Heights".
7. HOUSE OF GUCCI (Dir. Ridley Scott; U.S.) - If Jessica Chastain gave my favorite performance of the year than Lady Gaga comes in second! This Ridley Scott operatic drama is a mixture of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" (1972). It is a tale as old as time - a power struggle within a wealthy family for control of the family business - the fashion brand Gucci. It also has shades of Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti's masterpiece, "The Damned" (1969). Some say the movie is uneven in tone. It is but I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen. And how could you with a cast consisting of Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Adam Driver and an unidentifiable Jared Leto, who should get an Academy Award nomination.
8. BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN (Dir. Radi Jude; Romania) - A sex tape featuring a school teacher is released on the internet. Now parents are demanding the school fire the teacher. But this is only a pretext for a social commentary on a 101 issues ranging from Covid, marketing, sex, and politics. The movie is sexually graphic and controversial. When I saw it at the Chicago International Film Festival some people walked out. I have to admit though the movie has stayed with me and lingered in my mind. Luckily Romanian cinema is still alive and well.
9. THE HAND OF GOD (Dir. Paolo Sorrentino; Italy) - Based on director Sorrentino's life, this is perhaps the most Fellini-esque movie I have seen in a while. It doesn't have the caricature view of society filled with distinguished faces but it has an adolescent viewpoint focusing on a dysfunctional family jumping from one episodic moment to the next. It recalls Fellini's "Amarcord" (1973) and is similar to this year's "Belfast" directed by Kenneth Branagh in the ways it deals with childhood memories.
10. CRY MACHO (Dir. Clint Eastwood; U.S) - Sheep have been busy celebrating Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog" and its commentary on "toxic masculinity" but it is Eastwood's variation on the theme I found much more entertaining. This is a lyrical and poetic tale about family, masculinity, honor and tradition. With its commentary on the duality of the male psyche - sensitive (cry) and masculine (macho), Eastwood becomes the perfect icon to play such a role despite his age. In some ways the movie is a continuation, in theme, of the character Eastwood played in his Oscar winning western, "Unforgiven" (1992).
RUNNER'S UP (Alphabetically)
BELFAST (Dir. Kenneth Branagh; U.K.), THE BIG SCARY 'S' WORD (Dir. Yael Bridge; U.S.), THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (Dir. Michael Chaves; U.S.), DON'T LOOK UP (Dir. Adam McKay; U.S.), FAKE FAMOUS (Dir. Nick Bilton; U.S.), JFK REVISITED: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (Dir. Oliver Stone; U.S.), THE WHITE TIGER (Dir. Ramin Bahrani; India / U.S.)
WORST MOVIES OF THE YEAR (Alphabetically)
BAD TRIP (Dir. Kitao Sakurai; U.S.), MALIGNANT (Dir. James Wan; U.S.), RUMBLE (Dir. Hamish Grieve; U.S.), SECRET MAGIC CONTROL AGENCY (Dir. Aleksey Tsitsilin; Russia / U.S.), SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (Dir. Malcom D. Lee; U.S.), THE STAND IN (Dir. Jamie Babbit; U.S.), THE SUICIDE SQUAD (Dir. James Gunn; U.S.)
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