The Best Films of 2021

Top 10 of the Year

1. The French Dispatch	Wes Anderson
2. The Green Knight	David Lowery
3. The Tragedy of Macbeth	Joel Coen
4. Dune	Denis Villeneuve
5. The Underground Railroad	Barry Jenkins
6. The Card Counter	Paul Schrader
7. C’mon C’mon	Mike Mills
8. Nightmare Alley	Guillermo del Toro
9. Spencer	Pablo Larraín
10. The Power of the Dog	Jane Campion

Best Film

The French Dispatch. Some call it Wes Anderson’s most ‘Wes Anderson’ film, as if that were a negative thing. It’s not – Anderson is one of the greatest working directors, unrelenting with his cinematic vision and frequently rubbing up against accusations that his style is too stilted and unnatural. The French Dispatch isn’t going to convince anyone otherwise, though it would be tough to argue that he has anything less than a thorough understanding of film’s full potential. This is his tribute to storytellers, or more specifically those journalists who pick up on odd stories in small towns, and with his anthological structure he constructs a dazzling formal cinematic statement, alternating between black-and-white and colour much like the magazine his characters produce. With a keen comedic sensibility and astounding visual flair, The French Dispatch will go down as one of Anderson’s finest works.

Most Underrated

The Tragedy of Macbeth. As one of the greatest displays of mise-en-scène in a year full of beautiful films, it is clear this is a huge miss on behalf of the critical consensus, sitting outside 2021’s top 25 films on the TSPDT 21^st century list. It is a bold new direction for Joel Coen who has already spanned so many genres – neo-noirs, westerns, comedies, crime films, and yet this is the first to dig so deeply into the influences of older European directors like Fritz Lang and Ingmar Bergman. The deftness and intelligence of the script goes without saying, though obviously the credit for this must go more to Shakespeare than Coen. It is in the visual direction where he takes this classical narrative to transcendent heights, creating a claustrophobic world of shadows, fog, and barren landscapes that reflect the same decrepit darkness residing within Lord and Lady Macbeth.

Most Overrated

Drive My Car. Ryusuke Hamaguchi draws on a Haruki Murakami short story to craft a three-hour epic drama based in Japan’s contemporary theatre industry, additionally using the works of playwrights Chekhov and Beckett as springboards into examinations of grief and companionship. This is currently sitting at #1 of 2021 on the TSPDT list, and I might be closer to #30. It is a very fine film, slow and meditative in its pacing and backed up by a strong script, but from a direction standpoint there is far less going on here than a number of other films that I have ahead of it. Hamaguchi is evidently a good filmmaker, but Drive My Car doesn’t push its cinematic style or form enough to earn its #1 spot.

Best Directorial Debut

Passing. Rebecca Hall makes the leap from acting to directing with a complex examination of racial prejudice and identities in 1920s New York. She carries a bit of Paweł Pawlikowski’s style in her blocking of actors on the edges of her frames and her choice to shoot in black-and-white, but it is especially in her use of shallow focus to obscure our perception of this hazy world that she dedicates the film to a specific aesthetic and follows through on it to the end.

Gem to Spotlight

The Hand of God. Paolo Sorrentino made one of the best films of the year in 2013 with The Great Beauty which feels very much like a Federico Fellini tribute, and he draws the connection even closer with this semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age story set in 80s Italy. There is a theological sense of destiny woven through its narrative parallels of Italian folklore, sporting legends, and cinema culture, and he binds it all together some exquisite visual artistry.

Best Male Performance

Oscar Isaac is one of the most consistently great actors currently working, but the performance he gives in The Card Counter is an achievement that is only second to his career-best work in Inside Llewyn Davis. He is morose and austere, gazing out at the world from beneath heavy lids with an unblinking focus, making him perfectly suited to Paul Schrader’s deeply self-reflective character study of regret, self-discipline, and atonement.

Timothée Chalamet proves he can lead blockbusters as much as he can indie dramas with Dune, and he carries the archetypal character of Paul Atreides with great emotional weight. So too does Dev Patel accomplish something similar in The Green Knight with his grand medieval quest, subverting conventions of the hero’s quest facing up to the consequences of his own rashness.

If Joaquin Phoenix‘s contorted performance in Joker was expressionism, then his role as the awkward uncle Johnny in C’mon C’mon is pure realism – a very purposeful shift on his part that shows off his range, proving he can play sweet and wholesome just as well as he does dark and intense.

Bradley Cooper is the perfect showman and con artist in Nightmare Alley as Stanton Carlisle, but he also knows when to turn it down, making for a particularly haunting delivery of his final line. Benedict Cumberbatch claims a mention for The Power of the Dog, playing against type as gruff, menacing rancher Phil, and then gradually peeling back the layers to his vulnerability. Lastly, Joel Edgerton is given the role of the villainous slave catcher Arnold Ridgeway in The Underground Railroad, and still finds a surprising nuance in his backstory.

Best Female Performance

Kristen Stewart takes the number one spot of the year, and it isn’t terribly close. Before Spencer it was a common misconception that she is a poor actress, but she proves all the doubters wrong in her portrayal of Princess Diana, playing the doomed royal not as how history has recorded her, but as a subjective rendering of her own unstable psychology. I previously underrated Rebecca Ferguson in Dune, but a recent re-watch proved that she rivals Timothee Chalamet with the best performance of the film. She is there every step of the way as Lady Jessica, carrying the burden of her son’s arc as the unsung hero.

Frances McDormand wields a skilful control over the weighty and loquacious material of The Tragedy of Macbeth, returning to her theatrical roots and proving Lady Macbeth to be an incredibly natural fit for her. Last of all, Thuso Mbedu pulls off a great feat of endurance in carrying Barry Jenkins’ epic series The Underground Railroad, carrying its heavy emotional stakes through its most punishing moments.

Best Cinematography: The French Dispatch

Title	Cinematographer
1. The French Dispatch	Robert Yeoman
2. The Tragedy of Macbeth	Bruno Delbonnel
3. The Underground Railroad	James Laxton
4. The Green Knight	Andrew Droz Palermo
5. Nightmare Alley	Dan Lausten
6. Dune	Greig Fraser
7. West Side Story	Janusz Kaminsi
8. The Power of the Dog	Ari Wegner
9. Passing	Eduard Grau
10. Spencer	Claire Mathon
11. The Hand of God	Daria D’Antonio
12. Belfast	Haris Zambarloukos

Best Editing: Dune

Title	Editor
1. Dune	Joe Walker
2. C’mon C’mon	Jennifer Vecchiarello
3. Last Night in Soho	Paul Machliss
4. The French Dispatch	Andrew Weisblum
5. The Underground Railroad	Joi McMillon
6. The Green Knight	David Lowery
7. After Yang	Koganada
8. West Side Story	Michael Kahn, Sarah Broshar

Best Screenplay: The Card Counter

Film	Screenwriter
1. The Card Counter	Paul Schrader
2. Dune	Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Eric Roth
3. The Green Knight	David Lowery
4. The French Dispatch	Wes Anderson
5. C’mon C’mon	Mike Mills
6. Belfast	Kenneth Branagh
7. The Worst Person in the World	Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
8. A Hero	Asghar Farhadi
9. The Power of the Dog	Jane Campion

Best Music Scores

Title	Composer
1. Dune	Hans Zimmer
2. Spencer	Jonny Greenwood
3. The Underground Railroad	Nicholas Britell
4. The French Dispatch	Alexandre Desplat
5. The Power of the Dog	Jonny Greenwood
6. The Green Knight	Daniel Hart
8. Passing	Devonte Hynes
9. Nightmare Alley	Nathan Johnson
10. C’mon C’mon	Aaron and Bryce Dessner

Year Breakdown

After a disappointing down year, the film industry came roaring back in 2021 with many postponed films finally getting their release. The French Dispatch is notable among these – had it been released according to its original schedule, 2020 might have been able to lay claim to at least a single masterpiece. No Time to Die also made headlines as the first major film to have its release date pushed back, going for the complete opposite strategy as Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and it was clearly the smarter decision in terms of profitmaking.

Spider-Man: No Way Home tops the box office, grossing a staggering $1.8 billion and bringing a jolt of life back to cinemas during the COVID-19 pandemic. No Time to Die, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals are also deservedly up there, but Dune is the defining blockbuster of the year where artistic quality and popularity collide. It is Denis Villeneuve’s highest grossing film yet, and further sets him up as an auteur for a generation.

Julia Ducournau becomes the second female director after Jane Campion to win the Palme d’Or, disturbing audiences at Cannes Film Festival with her vehicular body horror Titane, while over at the Academy some truly strange choices are made awarding Best Picture to CODA – easily the weakest winner in a long time. It was clearly the sentimental pick and has solid representation of the deaf community, but there is absolutely no visual artistry behind it and much of the writing is as flat as anything you would find on the Hallmark channel.

Streaming services were the saving grace of 2020, and they remain strong here. The Tragedy of Macbeth is the first time Apple TV Plus has produced a film of this quality, and Amazon Prime Video has continued to get behind bold visionary auteurs with The Green Knight and The Underground Railroad. Netflix is also in the game, picking up Rebecca Hall’s stunning debut Passing and bringing back Jane Campion after her 12-year break with The Power of the Dog. Adam McKay also concludes his freak-out trilogy (The Big Short, Vice) on Netflix with Don’t Look Up – the weakest of the three but still worthy of praise for its editing and performances.

During this early period of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend emerged of films calling back to theatrical and musical roots. We have three great classical auteurs working in the realm of Shakespearean tragedy (The Tragedy of Macbeth, West Side Story, House of Gucci), and the works of playwrights Anton Chekhov and Samuel Beckett play significant roles in Drive My Car. When it comes to musicals, we have West Side Story, Cyrano, Annette, and Tick, Tick… Boom!. This trend is largely led by familiar auteurs like Steven Spielberg, Joe Wright, and Leos Carax dipping their toe in the genre, and Lin-Manuel Miranda joins them with his directorial debut.

Lastly, black-and-white cinematography has had a resurgence of late, but with The Tragedy of Macbeth, C’mon C’mon, Passing, sections of The French Dispatch, and Belfast, 2021 proves to be a particularly significant year here. I would hesitate to put the influence solely down to Roma from 2018, but its impact is certainly at least felt in the rise of memory pieces based on directors’ childhoods, with both Belfast and The Hand of God explicitly crediting Alfonso Cuaron’s recent masterpiece.

Year Archives

Title	Director	Grade
A Hero	Asghar Farhadi	HR
After Yang	Koganada	HR
Annette	Leos Carax	R
A Quiet Place Part II	John Krasinski	R
Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar	Josh Greenbaum	R
Belfast	Kenneth Branagh	HR
Benedetta	Paul Verhoeven	R
Benediction	Terence Davies	R
Bergman Island	Mia Hansen-Løve	R
Blue Bayou	Justin Chon	R
C’mon C’mon	Mike Mills	HR/MS
Cyrano	Joe Wright	R
Don’t Look Up	Adam McKay	R
Drive My Car	Ryusuke Hamaguchi	R
Dune	Denis Villeneuve	MS
Eternals	Chloé Zhao	R
House of Gucci	Ridley Scott	R
Judas and the Black Messiah	Shaka King	R
Lamb	Valdimar Jóhannsson	R
Last Night in Soho	Edgar Wright	HR
Licorice Pizza	Paul Thomas Anderson	R/HR
Memoria	Apichatpong Weerasethakul	HR
Nightmare Alley	Guillermo del Toro	HR/MS
No Sudden Move	Steven Soderbergh	R
No Time to Die	Cary Joji Fukunaga	R
Parallel Mothers	Pedro Almodóvar	R/HR
Passing	Rebecca Hall	HR
Petite Maman	Céline Sciamma	R
Pig	Michael Sarnoski	R
Red Rocket	Sean Baker	R
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	Destin Daniel Cretton	R
Spencer	Pablo Larraín	HR/MS
Squid Game	Hwang Dong-hyuk	R
The Card Counter	Paul Schrader	MS
The Dig	Simon Stone	R
The Eyes of Tammy Faye	Michael Showalter	R
The French Dispatch	Wes Anderson	MP
The Green Knight	David Lowery	MS/MP
The Hand of God	Paolo Sorrentino	HR
The Last Duel	Ridley Scott	R
The Lost Daughter	Maggie Gyllenhaal	R
The Power of the Dog	Jane Campion	HR
The Souvenir Part II	Joanna Hogg	R/HR
The Suicide Squad	James Gunn	R
The Tragedy of Macbeth	Joel Coen	MS
The Underground Railroad	Barry Jenkins	MS
The Worst Person in the World	Joachim Trier	HR
Tick, Tick… Boom!	Lin-Manuel Miranda	R
Titane	Julia Ducournau	R
West Side Story	Steven Spielberg	HR
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy	Ryusuke Hamaguchi	R

Documentaries

Flee	Jonas Poher Rasmussen