FAVE FILMS 2021

2021 was not a great year for films. It was better than 2020, don’t get me wrong. But there were slim pickings, in my humble, from which to choose from. It took a long time to choose these 10 because once again, it took the awards season (at the end of the year) to motivate me to see how the industry separated the wheat from the chaff. As well as critics’ lists & especially some friends’ lists (shout out to you who continue to inspire me). I wish I’d had the opposite problem, the usual problem, of not being able to choose just 10. Covid once again caused many films to get postponed to 2022. And a number of films that were finally released, that I’d been looking forward to, were disappointing. 

I say this every year, but it always bears repeating. I don’t think these are the ‘best’ films of the year. These are my favorite films of the year (many of which I do believe are the ‘best’ of the year as well). I saw objectively better films that simply weren’t my cup of tea, ones that will win awards & so forth, & ones many critics included in their ‘best-of’ lists. By now, my long-term readers of my lists should know what to expect from these things. I have my preferences of subject matter, genres, directors & actors as well as my biases. Just like you.

I publish these lists on Oscar Sunday every year, so hopefully I have enough time to catch up on stuff I missed during the year, can check out critics’ top lists & add many more to my watchlist & some films released at the end of the year aren’t available to watch until some months later. Just to be clear, these are my favorite films released in 2021, not just ones I watched before the end of December. 

Here are my top-10 favorite feature films of the year (regardless of their genres), in alphabetical order, followed by my favorite Horror films, Documentaries & Animated films. There are many I quite liked that didn’t make this list. Some of those might be your favorites & some of my choices might be ones you didn’t or wouldn’t like. And that’s cool. Feel free to leave some comments & share your opinions or favorites below.

My favorite feature films

This is in alphabetical order

All my reviews are spoiler-free

ANNETTE

An astonishing & inspired collaboration between 2 creative geniuses: the band Sparks & French director Leos Carax, who won Best Director at Cannes last year for this film (whose previous film, 2012’s HOLY MOTORS, was my favorite of that year & which earned him the Palme d’Or at Cannes). You should watch the 2021 documentary THE SPARKS BROTHERS (see my Documentary section below) before watching ANNETTE. You’ll have an intimate understanding of who they are & it’ll dramatically increase your appreciation of this remarkable cinematic art. These 2 films are my most recommended double-feature of the year & a very herb-friendly experience as well. Saturated with symbolism that’s bathed in the 3-tone color scheme of green (power), red (compassion) & yellow (possession), or something to that effect, this film requires some patience to get through. Some may find the music a little repetitive & redundant (I did at times), but Sparks have always been an eclectic & weird band.

Musicals are usually not my favorite genre. Sometimes one comes along that I absolutely love (HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH, DANCER IN THE DARK, THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN, & SING STREET, for example). But of the 4 Musicals I surprisingly did watch from 2021, this was my favorite (the other 3 are of course TICK… TICK… BOOM!, WEST SIDE STORY & IN THE HEIGHTS – all recommended, in that order), primarily because I love the director (Carax) & this film comes from so far out of left field it pushes the boundaries of filmmaking towards new horizons more than any other film of the year (except perhaps Romania’s indescribable BAD LUCK BANGING, which I do not recommend watching, but would love to hear about your attempt at doing so). The aforementioned HOLY MOTORS & Carax’ 1991 masterpiece LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE come with my highest possible recommendation for follow-ups in this director’s short list of outstanding previous works.

CODA

When I finished watching this, in early March of 2022, it was my favorite film of the year. It immediately dug its hooks into me & its barbs never let me go. Every movie in all my lists is amazing & something I recommend, & I don’t really have a favorite film of the year, but this must be in the top 2 or so. I was an emotional wreck after watching this. What struck me most immediately & surprisingly is how funny this film is. I didn’t expect that a film cast with real deaf actors would be so richly & emotionally raw. Main actress Emilia Jones spent 9 months learning sign language, taking singing lessons & learning how to operate a fishing trawler for her role in this film. This is one of those films that you wish was longer, with more scenes with some of the more neglected characters (the music teacher, for example). Even if they didn’t add much to the plot. Because everyone on screen projects such a poignant & genuine performance, I didn’t want this film to end.

With the backdrop of a potential WWIII on the horizon, a cat sleeping on my reclined legs the whole time, some top-shelf whiskey & a Cheshire moon grinning at me through my balcony’s glass door as company, the night felt perfect & as if it were one of my last alive on this planet. And that’s as good as it gets for me these days. A perfectly-cast spell for my mood that evening. It will never be possible for me to watch the ending song, the cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now,' with its perfectly-edited montage, without it gut-punching a tear out of me. CODA stands for Child of Deaf Adults & is director, writer & producer Sian Heder’s 2^nd feature film. I haven’t seen her debut, the 2016 Netflix-released Indie drama TALLULAH, starring Elliot Page, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing what she does in the future.

DON’T LOOK UP

From director Adam McKay (THE BIG SHORT, VICE, ANCHORMAN), whose career has taken quite a respectable turn in the last 6 years. Probably the best ensemble cast of the year (THE FRENCH DISPATCH probably being 2^nd), all of whom give great performances in this frighteningly disturbing Black Comedy / Satire. A number of right-wing types have cast a lot of shade towards this film for its portrayal of what’s clearly meant to represent a Republican administration’s caricatured representation, which I find not only quite realistic, but aptly done. Every faucet of society is caught in the satirical crosshairs of the story – from government, big tech, the media & the music industry to the average person on the street. Society itself is the butt of this film’s allegorical joke.

The faults of willful ignorance, identity politics & tribal allegiance are not limited to one political party, nor is the film’s ‘comet-as-metaphor’ limited to one social commentary. The overall theme I took from this story is that this is simply the way the current world is & no one person is able to fuel the various changes we should be making to right many various societal wrongs, even if we have truth on our side. Every self-righteous, virtue signaling & best-intended member of our society, at every point on the social-political spectrum, is not only part of our many problems, but also a possible solution to them. Or something along the lines of being able to allow those we disagree with to share in the credit of success instead of continuously attempting to seek solutions that only strengthen our own biases towards those we believe are at fault for the world’s many injustices. Because some problems are so potentially catastrophic, that the concept of a ‘hero as outcome’ is so insignificant to the solution that to merely attempt it is a hubris that might guarantee failure. Also of course, always believe the science, because it’s the most objective form of reality we can ever have.

DRIVE MY CAR

This is the first film by Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi I’ve seen. This is a rather existential & meditative work that those who value more accessible, traditional & action-packed stories flashing before their eyes probably won’t appreciate very much. Especially because it’s 3 hours long.  My love of the playwright Anton Chekhov & his play Uncle Vanya, which I’d read in college, also heavily influenced my appreciation of this film. It’s a film about putting on that play & how it mirrors the lives of various other characters in the film. It examines what it means to live in the absence of a loved one & how our relationships with others form & evolve our core identity & perceptions of ourselves.

The film was adapted (& greatly expanded) from a short story by the great Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (from the short story collection Men Without Women), whose books I generally like quite a lot. As well as other films adapted by his work (like 2018’s BURNING & 2010’s NORWEGIAN WOOD). So for follow-ups, I’d actually recommend following the Murakami rabbit hole instead of the director’s. In tone & style, that’s probably going to be more rewarding for fellow fans of DRIVE MY CAR.

THE GREEN KNIGHT

I saved this film all year & watched it in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve. And I look forward to watching it again next year, as this might be a new daytime staple during the holiday like KRAMPUS has become an evening traditional watch during the holidays. From director David Lowery (A GHOST STORY – one of my top-10 favorite films of 2017). It’s a medieval Fantasy film that many critics have also included on their favorite Horror film lists. Based on the 14^th century story Sir Gawain & the Green Knight by an unknown author. The importance of the story has had a profound influence on tradition, culture & literary motifs for nearly 7 centuries.

At university, I studied this story & was told that the green, red & gold color scheme is why we even associate those colors with Christmas today. Because this story, with all its variations throughout the centuries, growing the mythology & popularity of it, is a folklore bible for countless European cultures & those cultures touched by its influence. It’s a work full of symbolism & is perhaps the quintessential (secular) Christmas story. Arguably, only the collected stories by 15^th century writer Sir Thomas Malory (in his book Le Morte d’Arthur) have had a bigger impact on keeping the King Arthur legend & stories alive.

There’s a 1973 film adaptation starring Sean Connery, which is not great, but which I watched in high school. Also 1 of 3 films in this thread released by A24 – one of the most reliable distribution companies in the business today, releasing films I usually love (or at least like a lot).

LICORICE PIZZA

The latest from P.T. Anderson (henceforth PTA), one of my favorite living directors. I didn’t love this film as much as I was hoping to. Once I realized that the plot is basically a ‘will they or won’t they’ type of thing, & everything else is kind of arbitrary, I was a bit disappointed. If I were ranking these films in order, this would probably be #9 or even #10. But I can’t deny its raw beauty & nostalgic feel, PTA’s 6^th period piece in his filmography. This film absolutely should not work, but somehow it does. I mean a love story between a 15-year old boy & 25-year old woman? It’s sort of like THE SHAPE OF WATER, in that if the roles were reversed… know what I mean? Probably the only thing that saves it is the fact that they don’t actually sleep together during the film.

In case you’re wondering, ‘licorice pizza’ was a 70s slang term for an LP, vinyl record (black like licorice, flat & round like pizza), as well as a short-lived record store chain in California. PIZZA reminds me a lot of FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMOUNT HIGH (which features a scene set in an actual Licorice Pizza record store). It looks & feels as if it were made in the 1970s, with a bunch of new & unknown actors. It’s a breezy & fresh coming of age story that I hope casts an equally lovely spell over you as it eventually did me.

The story is inspired by PTA’s own childhood, as well as various stories he heard growing up in the San Fernando Valley in L.A., where the film is set. In elementary school, PTA’s art teacher was Donna Haim, actress Alana Haim’s mother, who he had a crush on. The secondary & background characters in the film are all people PTA knows, many of whom are children or parents of famous people. Alana’s real sisters & parents play themselves in the film. Cooper Hoffman (the late, great Philip Seymore Hoffman’s son), who plays Gary, was really babysat by the Haim sisters when he was 13. That’s a lot of trivia, I know. Am I going to talk about the plot? No, why bother? It’s a ‘slice’ of life love story. It’s on my list. It’s from PTA. ‘Nuff said.

THE POWER OF THE DOG

From Oscar-winning Kiwi director Jane Campion (THE PIANO). One of the best directed, written (she wrote the script herself) & performed Dramas I saw all year. I love a good Western & this is a great one (Sam Elliott’s opinion be damned). It’s so good I watched it twice in 3 days. The last 20 minutes are so intricately choregraphed & subtle I had to go back & study the ending again immediately after watching it the first time. It’s a real work of art. Benedict Cumberbatch gives perhaps the best performance of his career. Real-life couple Kirsten Dunst & Jesse Plemons are also in it & are really great in their roles. Also a great performance from Kodi Smit-McPhee, who plays Nightcrawler in two of the most recent X-MEN films. I’ve been a fan of Campion for 2 decades now. I’m also a big fan of her 2009 film BRIGHT STAR, about the poet John Keats.

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME

I’ve recently rewatched this, after its digital release, & do have some mixed feelings about including it on this list. Like a number of other MCU films, there is a simple solution to the conflict that is completely ignored so the story can happen (cast the spell to make everyone forget Mysterio instead of Spider-Man, duh!). But I do really like this film a lot. And in the context of Comic films, especially MCU films, it’s really good. It’s an ambitious & unbelievable achievement of casting & my favorite of the ‘Home’ trilogy (I guess that’s what we’re calling it right?). All 3 MCU SPIDER-MAN films are great on their own, as well as contributing significant story elements to the overarching MCU omnibus.

(Gotta keep it spoiler-free, right…) Not that everyone doesn’t know exactly what happens in this story by now, even if they haven’t seen it. I understand the criticism of this film for its ‘fan service,’ which wasn’t ‘necessary’ for this story to work. Other films have tried various other ‘gimmicks’ with ‘shoe-horning’ something into the story with much worse (and better) results. But as a fan, I appreciate that it was done here. Though I will agree that a key scene in particular seemed to do it quite suddenly & a bit forcefully & that the ‘twist’ wasn’t as fully ‘earned’ as it could have been. But I will be forgiving because of the genre. This is completely standard stuff that happens in comics all the time.

The weight of the story, the conclusion of this trilogy, the ramifications for the MCU in general & the overall quality of the performances in this film far outweigh my ‘devil’s advocate’ attempt of negative criticism. Also noteworthy is that this is the first trilogy in the MCU that has been directed by the same person (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY will soon be the 2^nd). Jon Watts has created a fun, heart-warming & ambitious story-arc with his 3 SPIDER-MAN films. The 2nd one was partially shot in Prague & other parts of the Czech Republic, where I live, & that had a very positive & personal effect on my love for it (even though FAR FROM HOME is my 3^rd favorite film in this trilogy & HOMECOMING is my 2nd). I have full confidence that his direction of the upcoming FANTASTIC FOUR will finally do that comic the cinematic justice it rightfully deserves.

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

Directed by Joel Coen, half of the Coen brothers. I’ve read nearly every one of Shakespeare’s plays, many of them multiple times, both for school & in my free time, especially my favorite ones. I wrote a lot about his works in school. Macbeth is probably my 4^TH favorite play by the bard. I’ve seen Orson Welles’ & Roman Polanski’s films (Polanski’s first film after Sharon Tate’s death was his adaptation), as well as most Shakespeare film adaptations in total, & I do like Welles’ B&W film a little more. I used to criticize this story for how quickly Macbeth takes the witches’ prophecies for granted. But I think the power of this story has a modern context in how easily some are persuaded to believe various things due to the Internet in today’s world. So this 400-year old play feels even more relevant today.

Denzel Washington is fantastic. Frances McDormand is amazing. The film uses the actors’ older ages to the plot’s advantage of adding immediacy to the character’s urgency to fulfill the prophecy. I love the black & white cinematography, which I also love about Welles’ version. We had another modern MACBETH film 6 years ago, with Michal Fassbinder & Marion Cotillard starring. I like that film a lot. But I like this new one more. For the record, my 1^st 3 favorite Shakespeare plays are: HAMLET, KING LEAR & ROMEO & JULIET. Another release by A24.

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

I liked this film quite a lot & agree that, objectively, it’s very good. I love a great deal of it but part of me was somewhat ‘triggered’ by how close this hit to home. I can personally relate to all 3 main characters in this story, including the woman (not as a woman, but as somebody in her situation), so my emotional reaction is quite conflicted. Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve gives a wonderful performance while the film subverts various tropes we’ve come to expect from a Romantic Comedy (though this film is more Dramady / Romance). This frees the story to dive into some hard-hitting truths about the complexity of dating in our modern world & allows the real story to take aim at the elusiveness of finding one’s meaning & place in life when one’s own evolving desires can both define who we are as well as threaten who we want to become.

Norwegian director Joachim Trier is a filmmaker whose work I’ve admired for years. My favorite film by him is THELMA, which was my 6^th favorite film of 2017. WORST PERSON completes the director’s thematic trilogy, simply referred to as the ‘Oslo Trilogy,’ which began with 2006’s REPRISE & continued with 2011’s OSLO, AUGUST 31^st. Every film’s story is self-contained & you can watch them in any order. Check out my 2017 review of THELMA for a more in-depth review of the director & his former films.

SPECIAL MENTION

 

MIDNIGHT MASS

Yes, this is a TV miniseries. Yes it’s cheating to count its 7.5 hours as a film. No I don’t care. I’m not including it in my top-10 so whatever. It’s my favorite & perhaps the best-written filmed fiction I saw all year. It feels like it was written by Stephen King, but in fact it’s a party autobiographical masterpiece from writer / director Mike Flanagan (THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, DOCTOR SLEEP), written in a style similar to King. Flanagan grew up on a small & isolated island full of Catholics, which is how he was able to craft such a well-developed story set in such a location. This is probably going to remain Flanagan’s masterpiece that he writes himself, because of how much of his own memory he put into it. It takes about 3 episodes to really get going, preferring to densely flesh-out its characters & set a solid foundation for its premise instead of succumbing to attention-deficit & cheap thrills to hook a more traditional audience. If you like smart, philosophical & theological Horror stories, you won’t want to miss this outstanding work. Most of the Horror elements are near the conclusion of the story, so don’t avoid it just because you’re not a typical fan of the genre.

This list is in alphabetical order

 

CENSOR

A film founded on the question, ‘if film censors remove content to protect an audience from potentially ‘harmful’ content, what type of effect does this content have on the censors themselves?’ This Psychological Horror / Mystery does a great job capturing the tone of the 1980s ‘Video Nasties,’ craze, where very violent & questionably ‘real’ exploitative content was being distributed by a (then) new medium called VHS. Commissions were created to attempt to stop the trading & sales of it, as well as attempt to identify the often uncredited participants to see if they were ok in real life. Basically a retro version of a website censor today - those who remove the most vile content from various websites & can only do so for a relatively short time before being so disgusted they have to quit. It’s a rather easy job to get because of the extremely high turnover. But as many Reddit threads with first-hand accounts can tell you, that job will fuck you up forever. This is the feature film debut of Welsh director Prano Bailey-Bond. I am really looking forward to what she does next.

THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY (1994, 1978 & 1666)

Yes, it’s cheating to count 3 films as one, but it’s a seamless story, chopped into 3 films, that were released as a summer event on Netflix one week apart from each other & is basically one, long film. My personal favorite is the 2^nd film - 1978. If these had come out a year or two apart, they wouldn’t be that special. It’s the synergy effect of the entire trilogy, all 3 of which directed by the same person, Leigh Janiak, & their ambitious release schedule that makes this a remarkable achievement. The 3 films cover 3 distinct time periods. The first has a clear SCREAM influence (typical 90s throwback tone) before diving straight into a late 70s / early 80s summer camp slasher & continuing with early American witch hunting (there’s something more but I don’t want to ruin the surprise). I highly recommend watching all 3 in a very short period of time (1 or 2 days) for maximum effect.

PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN

There were many better (& more frightening) Horror films in 2021, but this is one of my favorites. This is also a very divisive film – you’ll either ‘get it’ and love it, or you’ll probably quite dislike it. This Horror / Comedy was one of the most entertaining films I watched in 2021. Your enjoyment of the entire film, or the lack, will probably hang on how annoying & tolerable you find the young character Mimi’s performance. And she is annoying. But that’s part of what makes her character so fun & creates the absurdity of the premise. It’s made by the geniuses behind such classics as 2011’S FATHER’S DAY & 2014’S THE EDITOR – 2 of the most entertaining, modern day, underappreciated, deliberate B-movies of the last decade.

SAINT MAUD

A hospice nurse becomes obsessed with saving the soul of one of her patients. Only to lose her own. First time writer & director Rose Glass has crafted a unique & unforgettable character study that plunges you into the disturbed headspace of a mentally ill young woman & traps you there until the shocking & unforgettable climax. Swedish actress Morfydd Clark (yes, I spelled that correctly) also stars in 2019’s CRAWL – one of my favorite Horror films of that year. This film is in English, so don’t avoid it thinking there are subtitles. Another release by A24.

TITANE

This Palme d’Or-winning French film is the second feature from French director Julia Ducournau (whose 2016 debut RAW was my favorite film of that year). This Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi film is probably the most disturbing film I saw all year. Actress Agathe Rousselle gives an unforgettable, gender-defying & powerful performance. The film will absolutely challenge you to empathize with such a horrible character as we follow her sociopathic journey into chaos. Lots of critics have drawn obvious comparisons to other body-horror related films (David Cronenberg is often brought up, especially his 1996 film CRASH). There are also thematical elements that fans of director Gaspar Noé will certainly appreciate. If you’re a fan of other French nihilistic Horror films (BAISE-MOI, MARTYRS & INSIDE, for example), TITANE is certainly a film for you.

This list is in order

THE BEATLES: GET BACK

Peter Jackson produced this, editing 150 hours of audio & video down to almost 8 hours of footage. My only complaint is that this isn’t longer. As you might not know, the songs for the albums LET IT BE and ABBEY ROAD were all recorded during the same studio session & most from LET IT BE were done first. I’m not really sure why ABBEY ROAD was released first. And I wish more of this Doc included more songs from that album. But the reason we have this Doc is because the Beatles were working with a film crew who decided they had enough footage & left before much of ABBEY ROAD was recorded.

THE SPARKS BROTHERS

From director Edgar Wright (The Cornetto trilogy of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ, THE WORLD’S END, as well as SCOTT PILGRIM), who also directed 2021’s LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (which I liked a lot). Over Sparks’ 50-year career, they’ve influenced, well, basically everyone. It’s fair to say they’re one of the most influential bands of all time. Their music is so eclectic & experimental, they’re like the Herbie Hancock of Pop music. Even if their various songs & albums aren’t the ‘best’ of various genres, they often did it first & chances are you love many bands whose work wouldn’t exist had Sparks not paved the way for it. I’m not going to pretend that I’ve always been a fan, or even knew who they were, all my life. My love for them only started around 6-7 years ago. And, like many bands, my self-created playlist of their work that I listen to is just filled with my favorite songs from many of their albums. But this Doc inspired me to give many of their albums a complete listen once again & I’ve now added many more songs to that playlist. Sparks also worked with French director Leos Carax to make the 2021 film ANNETTE, which is in my top-10 above.

WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR

This excellent 3 hour and 15-minute Doc is a must-see for any Horror film fan. It’s inspired me to put many films on my watchlist, many of which I’d never heard of before. Folk Horror is an often overlooked subgenre, but one that has been making a great comeback in the last decade or so. Again, my only complaint about this Doc is that it isn’t longer. I know many titles were left out, especially non-British or American titles (foreign films are almost entirely excluded I’m sad to say). But, like the first IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS film, maybe there will be a sequel that makes up for that.

IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS 2

The first film in this series, 2019’s 4.5-hour Doc of the same name (see my review on that Fave List), was a good start for introducing one to the many great Horror films of the 1980s. But, as I criticized in my review, it was completely lacking in foreign-language titles. This follow-up more than makes up for that by filling in the majority of the first film’s gaps. Foreign horror (especially from Europe and Asia) takes center stage here in yet another nearly 4.5 hours of interviews with the directors, cast & various technicians who helped make some of the very best Horror films of the 1980s. Even smug ‘know-it-alls’ like me will discover new films to add to their watchlists & bask in the behind-the-scene commentary & trivia that is revealed through the impressive amount of interviews. Part 3 is coming later this year & I can’t wait. I Tweeted the director & thanked him for all the foreign films included in this follow-up & he immediately responded with humble gratitude, so that also made me very happy.

SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)

The 1969 Harlem Culture Festival was a forgotten & overlooked event for the African-American community in NY, until now. I had never heard of this festival until the trailer of this Doc was released. Directed by Questlove (of the Roots fame), this outstanding Doc allows us to witness the phenomenon that was this amazing festival of culture & music for the first time. I only wish it was longer than 2 hours & included more content because I absolutely couldn’t get enough of this. Held over the course of 6 weekends, this festival included performances by: Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, The 5^th Dimension, The Staple Singers & many others. Parts of it were shown on television once & then the whole thing was boxed & forgotten about for nearly 50 years.

This list is in order

For the record, I’m quite aware that there are some objectively ‘better’ Animated films from 2021 not on this list. Three more traditional & more popular titles that I liked were: LUCA, ENCANTO & RAYA & THE LAST DRAGON. But you know me, there’s no accounting for taste & I prefer something a little different. From one POV, I’m a grown-ass man & it’s both weird & geekily awesome that I’d even watch anything animated anyway. I’m happy to point out & hopefully influence you to watch these other titles, which are more my cup of tea.

FLEE

This really should have been included in my Fave Docs category, but putting it here allows me to include all 5 of the above Docs, which I really wanted to do. Especially because this is probably the ‘best’ Doc of the year (& will probably win an Oscar). It’s the first film nominated for: Best Animated Feature, Best Doc as well as Best ‘International’ Feature by the Academy. So it could win for any of those (or multiple times). I honestly could have included this in my top-10 Fave Films in general as well. FLEE tells the story of a gay Afghan man who is forced to flee his native country of Afghanistan to Denmark. I’ll leave it up to you to discover the rest of the details by watching this outstanding film. Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen earned our protagonist’s trust & was allowed make a Doc about his life story, providing that his real name not be used. Oscar-nominated actor Riz Ahmed is the main executive producer of the film. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau agreed to take an executive producing credit for free, which is noteworthy. Bong Joon-ho, director of PARASITE, listed FLEE as one of his favorite films of 2021 calling it, ‘the most moving piece of cinema of the year.’ And it certainly is.

EVANGELION 3.0+1.01 THRICE UPON A TIME

One of the most influential & confusing anime series of all time reaches its (final?) conclusion (again). The one handicap for this film is that it’s not ‘stand-alone,’ meaning you have to watch other stuff first in order to really appreciate this. And in this case, well, you have to watch many hours of stuff. And in the right order. Luckily, you’ve got me to help you. The good news is, this series is awesome & if you’ve never seen it, you’ve got a lot of amazing stuff to look forward to. Here’s how I recommend watching the EVANGELION saga & where THRICE UPON A TIME fits in. This is also for my fellow geeks to give myself some street cred.

The 1995-96 TV series, episodes 1-20

The TV series director’s cuts of episodes 21-24

(the story changes, there are alternative, better scenes & they are longer)

The TV series episodes 25-26 (end of TV series)

THE END OF EVANGELION film (1997)

You could stop there (many have). Or…

If you don’t want to do any of that, you could simply watch the following films. They revisit the beginning of the TV series, but then quickly enter an ‘alternate dimension’ with a completely new & reimagined story thread that begins like the TV series does, but then soon goes in a completely different direction. You’re really missing out on a hell of a lot of great content by avoiding the TV series, but enjoying part of this story is better than nothing. That’s what the following series of films was designed to do. If you go this route, you should watch the first 3’s director’s cuts (all of which are also different & with slightly different titles than the theatrical releases) called:

EVANGELION: 1.11 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE (2007)

EVANGELION: 2.22 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE (2009)

EVANGELION: 3.33 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO (2012)

And that brings us to the conclusion of this storyline with…

EVANGELION 3.0+1.01 THRICE UPON A TIME (2021)

Anything else by any other name (DEATH/REBIRTH, etc..) is just episodes of the TV show edited down to feature-film length, basically as a money-grab (although with updated animation, which is also used in the aforementioned films) & you’re better off just watching the complete TV series. I think I got all of that right. Please let me know if I missed something.

THE SPINE OF NIGHT

Although technically unrated, consider this an R-rated film. It earns the right to be compared to HEAVY METAL or any Ralph Bakshi film. This ultra-violent Horror / Fantasy / Adventure tells one hell of a fucked-up story that’s not meant for children. The main female character is topless throughout the entire film. There is a lot of full-frontal male nudity as well. The story is essentially about a drug that allows the user to communicate with a spiritual entity that grants them supernatural powers. And how that power corrupts Mankind & is misused & exploited by cultures that we would call ‘primitive’ by today’s standards. The English-language version features the vocal talent of: Richard E. Grant, Lucy Lawless & Patton Oswalt, among many others. I haven’t seen anything else from the limited CVs of the two directors, but I’m very much looking forward to whatever they do next.

THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES

I like this film a lot. The reason why it isn’t higher on the list is simply because it’s less original than the previous 3. It clearly steals from, I mean was inspired by, many well-known classics that we’ve all seen. It’s produced by SONY & certainly heavily influenced by SPIDER-MAN INTO THE SPIDER VERSE (one of the producers is the same) in both style and tone. So it is fast-paced & exciting (at times excessively so for this type of story). But it’s got a hell of a lot of heart & has clearly been a life-long goal of writers / directors Michael Rianda & Jeff Rowe to tell this story (as the end credit sequence, full of real-life photographs, can attest). They wrote many episodes of the animated TV show GRAVITY FALLS, which I’ve seen some of, & I’m sure if I were kid, would really love. Rowe is also a writer on DISENCHANTMENT.

MAD GOD

Phil Tippett is not a household name. Unlike Stan Winston, for example (in my house anyway). But he’s been a pioneering visual effects artist since the original STAR WARS. MAD GOD is his passion project. He’s been working on it for 30 years. For me, the most attractive aspect of the genre is when it’s stop-motion. It’s something I’ve done & I know how painstakingly time-consuming & difficult the craft is. I admire stop-motion films greatly & actually prefer this style over computer animation. These days, the two can blend flawlessly to bring us something new & unique. And that’s what MAD GOD is. But I also need to love the story. And MAD GOD is dark, dystopian & quite fucked-up. So of course it’s exactly what I’m looking for. To be honest, there’s not much story here, but I don’t care. It’s a amazing achievement of craftmanship & I’m just happy this film exists.