The Best Films of 2021

THE STRANGE HARBORS PICKS FOR 2021'S BEST FILMS

2021. Another year down, COVID is still raging, and things are looking pretty grim for movie theaters out there. The pandemic has transformed the cinematic landscape into a tempest of uncertainty, with only the most gargantuan of tentpoles being sure things at the box office. But just because profitability is scarce doesn’t mean movies are dead. Just to name a few gems, this year saw lush Arthurian legend come to life, a new freewheeling Paul Thomas Anderson flick, Ridley Scott in his element, fresh bloodcurdling horrors, and another jaunt into the Matrix. Movies have still got it. Here’s my list of the best movies of 2021.

12. The Empty Man

Technically a 2020 release hobbled by poor test screenings and a buried release mid-pandemic, David Prior’s little-seen horror movie didn’t pick up steam until 2021, where it quickly became a cult favorite. Don’t let its generic, creepypasta title fool you, The Empty Man quickly transforms its detective-hunts-bogeyman tale into pure ontological dread and cosmic terror, buoyed by its confident visuals and pulsating score. Residing in the haunted, unexplored nooks and crannies of less thoughtful genre fare, The Empty Man is textured, crafted horror that begs the question: “How on earth did they allow this to be made?” Thought plus concentration plus time equals flesh. Long live The Empty Man.

11. Saint Maud

Saint Maud is yet another 2020 release pushed to 2021. Centered around a young palliative care nurse (Morfydd Clark) in the throes spiritual crisis, director Rose Glass’ searingly taut debut warps religious tension into sharpened body horror as Maud weaponizes her fervent faith to “save” her charge: a retired dancer riddled with lymphoma (Jennifer Ehle). A cutting two-hander that effortlessly clears the standard devotion vs. delusion tropes, Saint Maud uses its lean economy to command your attention in its unrelenting psychological gauntlet. Come for Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle’s bracing performances, stay for the unforgettable, unshakable ending.

10. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched

Film programmer and horror scholar Kier-La Janisse’s sublime Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched acts as a mesmerizing education in a bottle. A three-hour-plus treatise on folk horror examining the power of storytelling and tales inherited, Woodlands Dark spans from the 1960s until present day, exploring twisted folklore from at least four different continents. Diving deep into modern favorites such as Robert Eggers’ The Witch all the way to deep cuts like England’s Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan’s Claw, the film finds the perfect balance and rhythm to convey the depths of Janisse’s knowledge. From my SXSW review this year: “As a true History of Folk Horror, Woodlands is a rich and dizzying tome of information, but never inaccessible.”

9. Benedetta

Even before its release, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta was labelled as “that lesbian nun movie,” but leave it to Hollywood’s resident satirist to deliver something much more than “nunsploitation.” A prodding rebuke of Puritanism, Catholic hypocrisy, and the shackles we place upon women’s bodies, Benedetta serves up one of the most uproarious - yet incisive - films of the year, anchored by a calculating and poised Virginie Efira. Caught in power plays and the throes of sapphic passion as she climbs the ranks of her convent, Benedetta is a classic Verhoeven heroine utilizing her equanimity against a time and place that won’t have her. A mish-mash of tones and ideas that has no business working as well as it does, Benedetta pulls off a high-wire act that only Verhoeven knows how to navigate. Read my full review from NYFF here.

8. The Matrix Resurrections

Lana Wachowski’s passionate reclamation of a cultural touchstone, The Matrix Resurrections is a signature big swing that connects in a very big way. In my review last month, I called it “a bare-knuckle haymaker across the dome of our obsession with nostalgia and Hollywood’s reboot complex.” A potent tonic against the very concept of legacy sequels, The Matrix Resurrections is intimate and defiant filmmaking exploring the core that has always hummed at the center of the franchise: love. Exploring themes of creator vs. destroyer, revival, and the illusion of choice in an expansive new context, it’s Lana Wachowski’s meditation on why she didn’t want do another Matrix movie…via another Matrix movie - and it’s better than anything we could have hoped for, even if not everyone will agree. Read my full review here.

7. The Last Duel

“The truth does not matter. Only the power of men.” Ridley Scott returns to the medieval action drama that has long been his greatest strength, this time bolstered by an excellent screenplay by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Nicole Holofcener. A Rashomon-style account of the final, real-life judicial duel allowed in France, the story conveys the weaponization of chivalry, romance, and codes of honor against women. Layered with bleak, bloody combat and thoughtful subjectivity, The Last Duel finds Matt Damon and Adam Driver in carefully wrought scumbag roles, while Jodie Comer delivers some of the best work of her career. A testament to craft that its repeating structure never tires, The Last Duel re-shapes its perspectives through subtle shifts in performance. One of the few films this year that applies heavy, felt gravity to its stakes.

6. Spencer

Kristen Stewart is Diana in this haunting work caught between the vapors of a dream and a nightmare. Pablo Larraín’s Spencer is the last movie I expected to appeal to my horror-obsessed sensibilities, but even more so than 2016’s Jackie, it captures an icon’s unraveling spirit through a psychological guantlet. Portraying three hellish days at the Queen’s Sandringham estate, Spencer forgoes historical specificity in favor of powerful evocation with one of the year’s most haunting performances, perfectly encapsulating Princess Diana’s isolation wrought by a loveless marriage and a smothering royal station. Combined with Jonny Greenwood’s discordant score and Claire Mathon’s expressive photography, Spencer offers refreshing deliverance from the tepid biopic formula. Read my full review here.

5. The Power of the Dog

Filmmaker Jane Campion’s first film in over a decade, The Power of the Dog captivates with hidden teeth and seeping venom, upending the rawhide masculinity of turn-of-the-century Montana with a career-best performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. Full-on proof that Cumberbatch should be playing more layered, magnificent bastards, the film simmers with shifting power dynamics and unpredictable tension. “A mix of sweet, bitter, angry, and humane into a caustic - yet delectable - poison, it balances its environment and its pent-up emotions upon a knife’s edge.” Read my full NYFF review here.

4. Licorice Pizza

There’s nothing quite like the shaggy, freewheeling brilliance of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. Perhaps the esteemed director’s most fleet and accessible film, it marks a third trip to chronicle Los Angeles in the 1970s, this time with sensational performances from Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Caught on opposite ends between adolescence and adulthood, Licorice Pizza’s awkward, elusively chaste romance frames two connected souls - and hustlers - just trying to figure things out. Hilarious, stirringly emotional, and as messy and hazy as the reality it simulates, Licorice Pizza proves that there’s no one out there like Paul Thomas Anderson when it comes to creating a world and those who inhabit it.

3. Pig

“We don’t get a lot of things to really care about.” There are so many impressive things about Michael Sarnoski’s directorial debut, Pig, but perhaps the most startling of all is how the film weaponizes our expectations. From its “where is my pig” marketing, to the casting of Nicolas Cage, to its revenge-tinted premise - a reclusive chef hunts down the people responsible for the disappearance of his beloved truffle pig - Pig seemed to be fully poised as a bugnuts John Wick clone. And that’s not what it is at all. A beautiful, melancholy treatise on the permanence of love, the mystery of loss, and the power of food, Pig finds empathy and soulfulness in defiance of the expectation of violence. Nicolas Cage at his very, very best.

2. The Green Knight

The type of medieval epic we almost never see anymore, The Green Knight thoughtfully tangles with the tensions between Christian honor and primordial pagan magic amidst a classic hero’s journey. Cerebral, deliberate, and visually splendid, David Lowery’s latest rises above its sword and sorcery as true poetry in motion. The Green Knight is an act of resurrection: Scholarly, demanding, and utterly transportive, it is a cinematic masterstroke in an industry and landscape that frowns upon its kind. There are no easy thrills within The Green Knight’s cavernous and threatening walls, but those willing to surrender to its talking animals, to its fevered surrealness, and to its Old World myth-weaving will be thoroughly rewarded with one of the year’s best films. Read my full review here.

1. Titane

There’s no one doing it like Julia Ducournau. A follow-up to 2016’s cannibalism body horror flick Raw, Titane is an equally transgressive portrait painted with grease, motor oil, and rent flesh. And it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. It’s easy to pigeonhole Titane with its most outlandish conceit - a woman has sex with a car resulting in the world’s strangest pregnancy - but to do so would belie its surprising tenderness and jolting sweetness. With phenomenal performances from Vincent Lindon and newcomer Agathe Rousselle, there’s a soft, beating heart underneath Titane’s hood that interrogates the societal lenses we place upon gender, sexuality, and human connection that fully transcends its wince-inducing body horror. Read my full review here.

Other 2021 Favorites

The Suicide Squad
C’mon C’mon
Luca
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Mass
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
Dune
The Card Counter
West Side Story
The Novice
Malignant
Saloum
Raging Fire