2021 Year End Film List–LOVED Or LOATHED
I've seen most of these in the theater, a couple at home. Missed last year's list. You can imagine why. (Ratings based on personal reaction, opinion, enjoyability and my delight for the art. Not a critic's critique. A LOVED to LOATHED list, not Best and Worst. Also a WHATEVER category. All titles and IMAGES are HOT-LINKED. Feedback welcomed. Suggest films you loved or movies to avoid. See you at the movies.
LOVED: My 3 Favorite films of the year are...
The Green Knight: I saw it twice. I wanted it to go on forever. It wasn't like going into a theater, more like entering another world.
Drive My Car: Three hours of filmic bliss. NYT Review: 'A Director Takes Your Heart For a Spin.' Japanese is a beautiful language.
Licorice Pizza: Paul Thomas Anderson has created his own style of writing and filmmaking. It's more enjoyable than any film this year. It stars two first time movie actors. One with bad skin, the other with crooked teeth.
ALSO LOVED:
SPENCER A perfect horror film. A demonic operatic affair. Gorgeous. And you know they pan to kill her.
SHIVA BABY Best surprise of the year. At a Jewish funeral with her parents, a gay college student runs into her sugar daddy. A sweet and satisfying crowd pleaser!
MASS : Mesmerizing. Like a detective story. Grand profound issues at play. An acting tour de force. Like watching the best play in years.
ANNETTE: Inventive beyond imagination. Acting extraordinaire! I watched it twice and copied the songs' style to fit my world.
LIKED:
Don't Look Up Nifty film about our demise. Which I think is happening now.
Another Round A comedy? A drama? Storytelling at its best. You can taste the foam on every beer.
VAL What can you say? A thousand hours of footage, perfectly edited down to staggering documentary. Val Kilmer is so much cooler than Batman.
Our American Family A GREAT film. This is the real Philadelphia Story. And an entry to the REEL Recovery Film Festival. One of the best real documentaries of the last ten years. About Addiction, Family and Healing.
THE SPARKS BROTHERS What can I say? I was not an initiative. Somehow I missed out on the brothers' greatness, until this film. Unsung BRILLIANCE !
WHATEVER:
No Time to Die I knew to leave after 75 minutes.
Being the Ricardos Even the remarkable Aaron Sorkin can phone it in sometimes. Although, the J. Edgar Hoover scene is amazing. I cried in the theater.
The House of Gucci Better than I expected. Though sometimes I wasn't sure what country they were in. However, I did always know Lady Gaga was Lady Gaga.
LOATHED:
