Best/Worst Movies of 2021

How nice that I can truly do these lists again, after a fractured 2020 that had only a small amount of actual releases post-COVID.

2021 still didn't get back on track movie-wise until the summer. The winter and spring mostly had smaller movies, with few doing much business. Even the year's hits only made a fraction of what they would have made pre-COVID. Well, except for Spiderman.

I would hope Spiderman convinces studios of the value of theaters again, after basically 2 years of them trying so hard to push streaming for everything. You need the theater. Not to go all Nicole Kidman on it, but they do make movies better.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I do feel like the movies I got into most this year were about spectacle. Escapism was in. 

My Top 10:

1. Spiderman: No Way Home

Yeah, I mean, it's fucking great. It's a great Spiderman movie, a great MCU movie, and it manages to retroactively make all 7 other Spiderman films better.  Can we talk about Tobey and Andrew now? Holy shit what a homerun swing this was. It hit every note you could want. That bittersweet ending really sticks. It's going to end up as one of the biggest films of all time and it deserves to.

2. Licorice Pizza

My favorite Paul Thomas Anderson film in over 20 years. A joyously meandering romance between Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim, equally brilliant making their debuts. I already love it, and PTA films always improve on repeat viewings  

3. Black Widow

Absolutely worth the wait. An awesome sendoff for Scarlett Johansson and an incredible MCU debut for the glorious Florence Pugh. 

4. In The Heights

In a pretty big year for musicals, nothing came close to besting this one. This thing was pure movie magic. 

5. Godzilla vs Kong

Few things made me happier this year than this being the 1st blockbuster released post-COVID ànd it being this satisfying.

6. Nine Days

A truly original film set not in the afterlife, but the beforelife. It was emotional, funny, and deeply cathartic. 

7. Judas and the Black Messiah 

The best film ever made about the Black Panthers. It pulled no punches. This thing already won Daniel Kaluuya an Oscar, and Lakeith Stanfield is his equal. 

8. The Harder They Fall

Maybe the best Netflix film ever, just a massively entertaining western with charismatic movie stars in full bloom. 

9. C'mon C'mon 

Basically the whole movie is just Joaquin Phoenix hanging out with his nephew (Woody Norman in one of the best child performances ever), but it is so endlessly natural and charming and sweet.  

10. Eternals

Haters can hate all they want, but this was a bold, exciting variation on the Marvel Studios formula, with some of the best visuals the franchise has ever conjured, and an emotional story. 

The next 10: A Quiet Place Part 2, Stillwater, Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell, The Last Duel, Blue Bayou, King Richard, The Suicide Squad, Spencer, Tick, Tick...Boom, Antlers

And why not, the next ten after that: West Side Story, The Courier, Copshop, Wrath Of Man, Last Night In Soho, A Journal For Jordan, Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar, The Protege, Pig, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings 

And the 10 worst:

10. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

Why was this even made? 

9. Don't Breathe 2

Hey, remember how the bad guy in the original was a woman abusing sadist? This sequel tries to make him the hero. 

8. Zola

This got some acclaim, but I found it to be a completely insufferable film with a crew of utterly loathsome characters.

7. Bliss

Hey, let's take The Matrix and remove literally all the good parts. (Yeah, come to think of it Resurrections did kinda the same thing)

6. Til Death

Ugh, can we just be done with Megan Fox now? Please? 

5. Prisoners of the Ghostland

Nicolas Cage does all sorts of odd curiosities these days. Occasionally they turn out very badly. 

4. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City

Manages the seemingly impossible task of making the Milla Jovovich movies look good by comparison.

3. Space Jam: A New Legacy

Porky Pig raps. I still have not recovered from the trauma. 

2. Dear Evan Hansen

This entire movie made my skin crawl.  

1. Halloween Kills

Holy hell this latest entry is one of the worst, dumbest, most lazy horror movies of all time. Complete incompetence from beginning to end. 



And some of my favorite performances of the year. I'm just gonna list some of the best, in no particular order....

-Florence Pugh in Black Widow
-Kristen Stewart in Spencer
-Andrew Garfield in Tick, Tick...Boom, and Spiderman: No Way Home
-Joaquin Phoenix and Woody Norman in C'mon C'mon 
-Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield in Judas and the Black Messiah 
-Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza
-Jodie Comer and Adam Driver in The Last Duel
-Winston Duke and Zazie Beetz in Nine Days
-Will Smith in King Richard
-Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera and Leslie Grace in In The Heights 
-Halle Berry in Bruised
-Rachel Zegler and Arianna Dubose in West Side Story
-Gemma Chan in Eternals
-Millicent Simmonds in A Quiet Place Part 2



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