It’s that time of year again, when I add on to the “best of” lists I have already published at Film Festival Today (where I am managing editor) and Hammer to Nail (where I am lead film critic). We all thought 2021 was going to radically different than its predecessor, both in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic and theatrical screenings. The less said about the former, the better (though vaccines and boosters were more than welcome), but as far as movies go, things did change to some degree, and many of us were happy to head to the cinemas upon occasion. Still, most of what I saw was via screener (disc or link), though I am happy to report that I went to one live, in-person film festival (Middleburg).
Whatever the challenges of watching films, as a critic I have been inundated in offerings throughout the global health crisis, so there is clearly no shortage of material out there. The list, below, constitutes my top choices—Top 10 lists for documentaries and narratives, followed by runners-up and then honorable mentions—from among the nearly 400 movies I saw. Where I previously wrote about a movie (whether for Film Festival Today or Hammer to Nail), I hyperlink the title of the movie to that review. If I did not review a film (and I have reviewed most of the below), I hyperlink the title to the movie’s official website.
If there are films you saw and loved this year which are not included on my list, then it is possible that I either did not see them or saw them and maybe liked them but not enough to include among my favorites. I also may have seen them and not liked them at all (the films I actively hated are listed at the end, under “worst of the year”). In addition, I am trying to only list films that had some kind of general release in 2021. If they played at a film festival but have not yet been released to the general public, I have kept them off (though I may have made a few mistakes in that regard).
TOP 10 DOCUMENTARIES (in alphabetical order):
- Ascension (Jessica Kingdon)
- Attica (Traci Curry/Stanley Nelson)
- Citizen Ashe (Rex Miller/Sam Pollard)
- Enemies of the State (Sonia Kennebeck)
- LFG (Andrea Nix Fine/Sean Fine)
- Listening to Kenny G (Penny Lane)
- Misha and the Wolves (Sam Hobkinson)
- Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Questlove)
- Tina (Daniel Lindsay/T.J. Ma)
- Writing with Fire (Sushmit Ghosh/Rintu Thomas)
TOP 10 NARRATIVES (in alphabetical order):
- C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills)
- CODA (Sian Heder)
- Drive My Car (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
- The Killing of Two Lovers (Robert Machoian)
- King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green)
- Mass (Frank Kranz)
- Passing (Rebecca Hall)
- Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
- Prayers for the Stolen (Tatiana Huezo)
- There Is No Evil (Mohammad Rasoulof)
10 DOCUMENTARY RUNNERS-UP (in alphabetical order):
- Faya Dayi (Jessica Beshir)
- Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
- Gunda (Viktor Kossakovsky)
- Jagged (Alison Klayman)
- Julia (Julie Cohen/Betsy West)
- Lily Topples the World (Jeremy Workman)
- My Name Is Pauli Murray (Julie Cohen/Betsy West)
- Sabaya (Hogir Hirori)
- Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (Marilyn Agrelo)
- Val (Ting Poo/Leo Scott)
10 NARRATIVE RUNNERS-UP (in alphabetical order):
- The Green Knight (David Lowery)
- Hive (Blerta Basholli)
- Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King)
- The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
- Ma Belle, My Beauty (Marion Hill)
- Moxie (Amy Poehler)
- Pig (Michael Sarnoski)
- Raya and the Last Dragon (Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada/Paul Briggs and John Ripa)
- Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in alphabetical order):
- Ailey (Jamila Wignot)
- Beans (Tracey Deer)
- Becoming Cousteau (Liz Garbus)
- Belfast (Kenneth Branagh)
- Best Summer Ever (Michael Parks Randa/Lauren Smitelli)
- Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know (Peter Galison)
- Black Widow (Cate Shortland)
- Bring Your Own Brigade (Lucy Walker)
- Bulletproof (Todd Chandler)
- Cousins (Ainsley Gardiner/Briar Grace Smith)
- Cryptozoo (Jane Samborski/Dash Shaw)
- Final Account (Luke Holland)
- First Date (Manuel Crosby/Darren Knapp)
- The First Step (Brandon Kramer)
- Free Guy (Shawn Levy)
- A Hero (Asghar Farhadi)
- Homeroom (Peter Nicks)
- In the Heights (Jon M. Chu)
- Jockey (Clint Bentley)
- Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson)
- Limbo (Ben Sharrock)
- La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)
- The Lost Sons (Ursula Macfarlane)
- Luzzu (Alex Camilleri)
- The Mad Women’s Ball (Mélanie Laurent)
- Mayor Pete (Jesse Moss)
- My Beautiful Stutter (Ryan Gielen)
- Night Raiders (Danis Goulet)
- Paper Spiders (Inon Shampanier)
- Port Authority (Danielle Lessovitz)
- Pray Away (Kristine Stolakis)
- Rebel Hearts (Pedro Kos)
- Red Rocket (Sean Baker)
- The Rescue (Jimmy Chin/Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)
- Slalom (Charlène Favier)
- Storm Lake (Beth Levison/Jerry Risius)
- Supernova (Harry Macqueen)
- Test Pattern (Shatara Michelle Ford)
- Two of Us (Filippo Meneghetti)
- The Velvet Queen (Marie Amiguet/Vincent Munier)
WORST MOVIES OF THE YEAR (in alphabetical order):
- Annette (Leos Carax)
- The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (Patrick Hughes)
- Kate (Cedric Nicolas-Troyan)
- The Lady of the Manor (Christian Long/Justin Long)
- Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro)
- Skyfire (Simon West)
- Spencer (Pablo Larraín)
- Sweet Girl (Brian Andrew Mendoza)
- Thunder Force (Ben Falcone)
- The Tomorrow War (Chris McKay)
Happy New Year, and may 2022 finally return us to a semblance of real normal, whatever that may look like to you and yours.
chrisreedfilm 