My Year of Movies 2021
For the last few years I have been consistently rating and occasionally reviewing the movies I watch over on Letterboxd, a site that might be described as “Goodreads for movies, but MUCH BETTER” (please please someone make a Letterboxd-style, modern, improved alternative to Goodreads and I will be there in a second). By my count here I watched about 80+ movies in 2021. This is actually far less than I used to, I probably watched 5-10 movies a week back in the day! I also only watched three movie in the theatre this year due the the ongoing pandemic: Dune (well worth catching on the big screen) and a double feature of Cruella and Black Widow at the drive in.
Making up this list I noticed that I often didn’t review my favorite or highest-rated films, so a quick shout-out to some of best movies I watched in 2021 but didn’t review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Dune, His House, Sorry to Bother You, and Freaks. I’ll try to fill these in with reviews as I inevitably rewatch these in the years to come.
The movies below are roughly in the order I watched them. If you’d like to see more of my ratings and reviews or chat about movies throughout the year, please connect with me over on Letterboxd!
Arctic ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Terminator: Dark Fate ⭐️⭐️
“This one starts of semi-promising and quickly descends into a morass of unintelligible action and logic-defying silliness.”
Minari ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“I will say that this rather conventional film takes an unexpected turn at nearly the final moment and ends on a narratively unsatisfying note that feels very far from everything that preceded it.”
La Bolduc ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Rewatch)
“An often surprisingly moving collection of varied tales in which mere mortals bicker and brawl, but Death is always waiting to have the final word.”
Those Who Wish Me Dead ⭐️⭐️
“Overstuffed and overlong.”
Promising Young Woman ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Tour de force acting by Carey Mulligan but an uneven script and a beyond pitch-black ending that leaves a very nasty taste in your mouth (as I am sure it is meant to).”
Dune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Inside Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Rewatch)
“A mechanically-precise bank heist film full to the brim with fantastic character moments and hilarious “New York is the greatest city in the world” touches that make it a highly re-watchable.”
Life ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Blood Red Sky ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
I Care a Lot ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“This film does run straight into the problem of being about a throughly unsympathetic, cruel, and downright irredeemable protagonist who is brought into conflict with a (perhaps?) slightly more wicked antagonist, it’s just hard to root for anyone to come out on top.”
Count Dracula ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“I loved the occasional pop-art psychedelic moments and the goofy special effects, including the appearance of a very cute, very not scary flying fox on a bed.”
Beautiful Girls ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Funny, awkward, and occasionally discomfiting, this film could have been great if the many women characters (with a who’s-who of top-notch talent playing them) got a bit more focus and centrality.”
No One Gets Out Alive ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
30 Days of Night ⭐️½
2 Guns ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ma ⭐️⭐️
In The Cut ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Kate ⭐️
“Squandered potential, with only a couple cool scenes drowning in a morass of dull dialogue and recycled plot beats that feel like they were produced via random number generator.”
The Good Liar ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Equalizer 2 ⭐️⭐️½
The Courier ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Freaks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cold Skin ⭐️⭐️
“A fantastic setup that could have been the basis for an intriguing and thematically rich film, but this is just a repetitive and predictable bore.”
Cruella ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“Fun, punk-inspired, remixed supervillain origin story where style is the ultimate superpower.”
Beckett ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Cam ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Night Eats the World ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The Quiet Earth ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“This artsy sci-fi meditation on solitude and society feels like a film I should have caught in the late 90s when I was watching double features at my local rep house (the much-beloved, much-missed Ken Cinema in San Diego) like 2-3 nights a week.”
Runaway Jury ⭐️⭐️⭐️
La Grande Seduction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fear Street: 1994 ⭐️⭐️, Fear Street: 1978 ⭐️½, Fear Street: 1666 ⭐️⭐️
Black Widow ⭐️⭐️½
1981 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, 1987 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Quiet Place Part II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“…starts off on firm footing with an excellent flashback that caught me by surprise and underlines everything that has already been lost, but the continuation of the story from “A Quiet Place” disappoints on almost every level. Probably the most shocking lapse is the very odd and blatant sidelining of Emily Blunt’s character, but there really isn’t much new on the story front that either makes sense from a world-building or character development point of view.”
1BR ⭐️⭐️
Blow Out ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Luca ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Quite a gorgeous if lightweight concoction, probably the most straightforward and conceptually simple Pixar film I can recall seeing, without any stand out characters or set pieces.”
No Sudden Move ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Unsurprisingly rock-solid, with plenty of nuance and subtext, an often darkly comic look at capitalism’s infinite appetite for betrayal and greed: ‘You just don’t know when to stop, huh?'”
Desperado ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (Rewatch)
Cold Pursuit ⭐️⭐️½
The Little Things ⭐️⭐️½
The Commuter ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“Delivers the action goods with some nice conspiracy twists while also sneaking in some pointed elements of economic rage.”
Unknown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Delivers the goods in reliable Liam Neeson/Jaume Collet-Serra action-thriller-mystery mode. But the biggest mystery to me is why a German actress was cast to play an illegal immigrant in a film set in Germany?”
The Last Detail ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The Devil All the Time ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Nomadland ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Captain Fantastic ⭐️⭐️½
Palm Springs ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Greyhound ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Knives Out ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Army of the Dead ⭐️⭐️
“I appreciated that it was almost (almost!) a self-parody and a sideways critique of capitalism, with characters happily throwing away their lives for less and less money, a race to the bottom that knows no end. The house always wins! But that point would have been a bit too deep for this movie to get to I suppose.”
The Block Island Sound ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The Homesman ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Sorry to Bother You ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Pokémon Detective Pikachu ⭐️⭐️½
“I went in hoping for cute Pokemon and I got Cute Pokemon! I think I would have enjoyed a more “down-to-earth” mystery, this got pretty epic by the last act, I had more fun in the earlier silly bits.”
Buena Vista Social Club ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Barbarella ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Rewatch)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ammonite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
American Psycho ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The Crazies ⭐️½
Shivers ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Journey to the Beginning of Time ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“My 2nd film from Czech director Karel Zeman, wonderful (in the sense of literally being filled with wonder).”
Road House ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“This movie was about twice as good as I expected, totally a solid Western/samurai tale, on the razor’s edge between the ridiculous and the sublime.”
Cat Ballou ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
“Little glimmers of social consciousness and progressive ideas jostle with typical mid-1960s insensitivity but overall I think “Cat Ballou” comes out alright even after all these years.”
The Vast of Night ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The story is simultaneously very small and connects with something much greater… A lovely way to spend an evening, and a promising film from this first-time director.”
I’m Your Woman ⭐️⭐️½
“Great premise and starts off strong, but by the end of the film it really falls apart. Characters constantly do things for no reason whatsoever and the plot devolves into a stew of illogic. Some lovely moments along the way, tho.”
His House ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Congo ⭐️⭐️ (Rewatch)
The Dig ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You Should Have Left ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Piranha ⭐️
“I was slightly distracted watching this, but I don’t think there was a single moment where someone reached out to help someone out of the water and just pulled out their severed bloody hand, so that knocked it down to a single star for me.”
Mank ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Lethal Weapon ⭐️½
Tomb Raider ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Freeway ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Rewatch)
“Pitch black comedy, raw, violent, cruel, hilarious. Witherspoon is amazing, pure star power.”