A Marvel masterpiece, Sony’s best toon, a horror cult classic, a comedy cult classic and a few awards season gems make up just a some of the best movies of 2021.
And now it’s time to list the absolute best, or at least my ten favorite, films of 2021. Every year we enter post-summer season wondering if there will not be enough good movies and every year, we spend December making horrible choices about what gets left off. Just offhand, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story, Last Night in Soho, Encanto, Army of the Dead, The Green Knight, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Night House and Pig deserve a mention even if they did not “make the cut.” As always, this list will not be your list, because what fun would that be? And now, without further ado, in cowardly alphabetical order… Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Lionsgate) It’s downright tragic that it took Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo a decade to pen another original comedy after Bridesmaids. It’s doubly tragic that Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar arrived in a time when the theatrical hope of more female-led theatrical comedies had mostly been extinguished due to VOD and streaming. Still, this quirky, absurdist comic adventure also arrived right when we all needed a PVOD cinematic pick-me-up. Directed by Josh Greenbaum, the picture concerns two lifelong friends (Wiig and Mumolo) who get fired from their retail jobs and decide to embark on an impromptu holiday to Florida. The vacation leads to a Lewis Gilbert-style 007 plot, a lustful/romantic Jamie Dornan (in a go-for-it musical performance) and reaffirming their own friendship. The first reel is rough, but once the vacation begins, Barb and Star quickly becomes the funniest movie of 2021. The Harder They Fall (Netflix) Netflix had a killer year in terms of worthwhile awards season flicks ( The Power of the Dog, The Lost Daughter, Tick Tick… Boom, Passing, etc.) without even getting into the ridiculous Don’t Look Up discourse. However, I would argue this pulpy, star-packed western is their most vital accomplishment because it’s a spectacular mockbuster that rises to the level of the best of the genuine Hollywood article. Jeymes Samuel corrals a ridiculous cast of heroes (Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, etc.) and villains (Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, etc.) in a rumbustious, violent and genuinely cinematic Netflix western. Loosely based on real-life characters and understandably sold as a “very important milestone for representation,” The Harder They Fall refuses to let its importance get in the way of its showmanship, offering up an adventure closer in spirit to Silverado or The Quick and the Dead than Unforgiven or The Proposition. King Richard (Warner Bros.) Writer Zach Baylin and director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard is a terrific piece of character-focused popcorn entertainment, a true-life story that never uses its “inspirational true story” as an emotional crutch as an excuse to be less than it can be. The entire family takes the spotlight, including Aunjanue Ellis as a long-suffering wife doing invisible labor to mold her daughters into tennis stars. Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams and Demi Singleton as Serena Williams get full-on character arcs, both within and outside of their father’s ambitions and his shadow. And, yes, it offers up an Oscar-worthy turn from Will Smith in a deeply complex portrait of a complex protagonist, a guy whose plans succeeded sometimes despite his passive-aggressive instincts. That nobody showed up (it will probably get out-grossed by American Underdog) is heartbreaking, but Warner Bros.
