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.

Kristen Stewart - in a wrenching, career-best performance - disappears into the role of Diana, Princess of Wales in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, a haunting gauntlet of psychological horror in the guise of a biopic. Forgoing historical specificity in favor of evocation and the hazy purgatory between dream and nightmare, Spencer rebukes the royal mythos with a portrait of an unraveling spirit. Minor spoilers ahead…