My Favourite 10 Movies of 2021

So here we stand, 82 movies in the bank, the New Year has arrived, and all that’s left to do is talk about la crème de la crème! 2021; another challenging year for cinema – Melbourne had another months-long COVID hiatus that delayed the release schedule for many movies. We also had big blockbuster movies nearly every other week, trying to cover for last year’s delays. And there have been just some hella-strange movies providing rich talking points throughout the year (Malignant, Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Dear Evan Hansen). But this is exciting, because I love to highlight the best experiences and pass on my recommendations here. Whilst compiling this list, I discovered that I have a clear top 8, and then I could throw a dart at about five more movies to fill in the last two spots – I opted for two movies for which I never wrote reviews, but keep your eyes on that ‘honourable mentions’ section, because there’s bound to be some more beauties there! Like always, this list of my favourite 10 movies of 2021 is my personal list, and if there’s a movie on here that you think is the pits, then let me revel in my naivety… but also, let me have it in the comment section below, because how dare I like a movie that you didn’t like; I need to be told! Although, if you’re going to be disagreeable, you need to also tell me what other movies you liked instead, mmmkay?

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My Favourite 10 Movies of 2021

10. High Ground

I mayn’t have reviewed any Australian content this year, but there were two big local movies that starting out the year, in The Dry and High Ground. Both were enjoyable, but High Ground struck me like an Australian western, with guns and land disputes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. I cherish one tense scene where the Aboriginal elder meets with the Colonel dressed in white, who’s asserting himself as the real chief by ‘declaration of the King’, and the Aboriginals are like, ‘King? Who gives a hoot!?’. Aboriginal actor, Jacob Junior Nayinggul, is excellent as the young lead, and High Ground probably gives Callan Mulvey a defining role, at least in my eyes, after years in training as a bastard across other films and TV shows. Simon Baker, Caren Pistorius, Jack Thompson and Witiyana Marika also star. Another great thing about the movie is how it sets out to capture the ever-different landscape of Australia – rock formations, grasslands – with beautiful wide-shots, and a secondary focus on the native wildlife and bird calls throughout the sky. It’s beautiful, and contrasts the blood being spilled by the small people down below, fighting out of fear and cruelty, with vastly different rationale and ideologies regarding living. High Ground explores the strain of coexisting peoples (indigenous and settlers) during the 1930s; a problem that’s always been tumultuous, and will probably never be resolved. I love material that deals with this complex circumstance. More Aboriginal content please, especially regarding white invasion and first settlements, because it’s fascinating and helps fuel a connection to responsibility, people, and land.

9.   Pig

Yeah, I’m as surprised as you – finding out about a movie called ‘Pig’, staring a dirty Nic Cage, was met with an appropriate snort of derision; and I doubt I’d be alone there. This movie could’ve been another garish rip-off of John Wick (and for a hot minute it looks like it will be), but Pig actually has something to say, about life, society, and our bonds. I promise minimal spoilers, but someone is clearly a fan of Ratatouille‘s sentiment on the healing power of food, for the climax of this determined quest to retrieve a stolen pig. I know Nic Cage has been around in recent years, but I’ve barely seen him, and it’s a treat watching him play so well opposite Alex Wolff; a sturdy young up-and-comer in his own right, across from Cage, who was a megastar in the ‘90s. The script is full of purposeful writing, accomplishing some awesome moments in execution. But as Cage says in the best scene of the movie, the critics don’t matter, so don’t listen to me – see Pig for yourself.

8.   Dune

Now we’re into the premier picks, and Dune has to make this list. I wrote in my review that the more I ponder Dune, the more I admire its greatness, and that enthusiasm has continued to grow after publishing. But I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, for a lot of what Dune is doing story-wise, is setting up for Part 2, and it’s unclear which moments in Dune will pay off fantastically later on and which parts may fizzle (remember how It was great, and then It: Chapter 2 let its own impetus go to its head, rejigging the first one?). Yet the sights and sounds of Dune make it a masterful production alone, not to mention the contribution of a high calibre cast that fulfils its potential and made me so happy. I’m quietly confident; hell, I’m very confident, that director Denis Villeneuve can steer this baby home.

7.   Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Despite owning a Foxtel subscription, which holds an exclusive deal with HBO, I had to mess around with Binge to get a look at Zack Snyder’s Justice League; cheeky. But this movie turned out to be an event not to be missed, and I enjoyed it wholeheartedly, feeling very fortunate for the moment. It just goes to show how good the DCEU could have been. But it’s also puzzling, seeing the scale for this project mapped out, that in no way would have ever seen the light of day if streaming hadn’t become a thing. Yet with Zack Snyder’s vision, every frame a picture, carefully crafted character development is pumped back into the movie, where it was sorely missed in Joss Whedon’s makeshift edit a few years back. I wouldn’t want a four-hour superhero extravaganza every year (or maybe I would 🤔) but as a one-off, culminating Snyder’s vision and the fanboys’ victory that ‘The Snyder Cut’ was possible, I was ecstatic to be part of it. I thought it was marvellous, and I’m so glad I saw it.

6.   The Father

So, just like how my top ten lists usually go, there’s a couple of stragglers that’ve fallen in, already heaped with accolades by the mainstream movie organisations from the previous year. Oh well, I don’t make the Australian release schedule, so take your complaints higher. The Father: Anthony Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role, and despite beating out Chadwick Boseman, who was a shimmering favourite for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the award for Hopkins was also so well deserving. The Father serves to showcase what dementia must be like for the people who suffer from it day-to-day, through complicated staging of a sophisticated script, and brilliant performances all round. To say much more about The Father here would be an insult to the magic trick, but I deeply recommend The Father to anyone wanting to appreciate the living moment, and the power of great cinema.

5.   Malcolm & Marie

Hey-hey! If anyone else watched Malcolm & Marie and found it a little indulgent, then I understand. But for me, this is exactly a two-person play, where fine actors get to exercise their complete range, highlighted on camera through a black-and-white aesthetic that really helps it pop. I remember some slight controversy around this movie when it came out, since Malcolm & Marie is written and directed by Sam Levinson, a white man commenting on how African Americans are viewed in mainstream culture. But Zendaya and John David Washington are no scrubs, and if they’d had a problem with the material, then I doubt they would have put their services to it. Plus, how is it much different to Jane Campion adapting a movie about the inner machinations of toxic masculinity, as a woman? The Academy may have missed Zendaya and Washington’s performances in their awards at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t, and Malcolm & Marie is the first movie on this list which I gave the full five stars. So, you know what that means – the only way is up!

4.   Spider-Man: No Way Home

DUDE! DUDE!! DUDE!!! DUDE!!!! The mind-blowing-ness of Spider-Man: No Way Home begins with the fact that this movie actually exists! Twenty years of Spider-Man, rolled into one; a treat for all Spider-Man fans, old and new, that combines my initial infatuation, with the current day success. There are easter eggs everywhere, and I was like a kid with my basket on Easter morning, collecting on a garden hunt. Truth be told, I nearly didn’t give this movie the perfect score because there are a couple little niggles I have, that come with a movie trying to do so much. But the spectacular intentions of this movie completely overshadow any little stretches of inconsistencies that may exist, and the joyously competent occasion alone is undeniable. There were moments in this movie that choked me up all over again, as I wrote them up for my review. With Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s more than just the novelty, but it is the novelty, that makes this an amazing experience.

3.   Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Yes, Shang-Chi beats out Spider-Man; or ‘Spider-Mans’, if you want to get multiversial. I just figure that it’s more difficult to build a gigantically effective superhero movie from scratch, than beat the drums of nostalgia, considering the multitude of superhero origin stories already attempted. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, for me, was one of those movie-going experiences that kept getting bigger, and kept getting better. But, I’ve noticed a boost in positivity amongst reviewers for the first movies they saw in cinemas after lockdowns, and some of my own personal excitement regarding Shang-Chi’ could be due to that deprivation-factor. But no, I’m confident that when I revisit this movie down the line, it will still hold the quality ingredients baked in, that gave me that satisfying crunch in the first place 😋 Baller action, dramatic family dynamics, dragons, Slattery and Awkwafina; what’s not to love?! (P.S. Looking back this top ten list so far, I’ve really cut a path with four action blockbusters appealing to me a lot this year 😁 I don’t mind that my fanboy is showing, because the big-budget productions have been great, and the alternative would have me crying 😭)

2.   Promising Young Woman

Coming in at number two, we have to go all the way back to the third movie I reviewed for the year – oh baby; what an emotionally uncompromising exploration into gravely important social etiquette. Promising Young Woman will break your heart and have it soar. Most importantly, it will provoke a conversation for anyone who finishes it, on the attitudes and treatments towards women in terms of sexualisation, courting, and rape. The entire project – the script, the performances and production – is designed to be bold, and not every movie wants to slap its audience in the face with such ferocity as Promising Young Woman. A must see. See it, and see it again! Why aren’t you seeing it?

1.   tick, tick… Boom!

Yep, Spider-Man: No Way Home tickled my nostalgia brilliantly this year, but tick, tick… Boom! does it three better. Not only does it revamp Rent, the ground-breaking stage musical of the nineties, using Jonathan Larson as the main character, but it actually appeals to me in another way that I didn’t quite articulate in my review, and that is of a character deeply invested in their craft and discovering how to do their job well. That investment always appeals to me, and of course, some of my favourite movies are about writing – Spotlight, Barton Fink; gems. Over the next month, more candidates for best performances are going to come in thick and fast, but Andrew Garfield is clubhouse leader right now, surely, right? He’s singing and dancing and emoting, and putting it on. tick, tick… Boom! isn’t going to be for everyone, but I know that a great musical can touch me in a wonderful way, and leave me singing all year. So, what must it mean for a great musical ABOUT great musicals? Exponential exuberance! Hench, tick, tick… Boom! sits at number one. Ah, thank-you.

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I also totally recommend The Night House, A Quiet Place: Part II, and Ammonite as my honourable mentions, while Luca and Don’t Look Up are creeping up in my appreciations, and are worth a look. I also really enjoyed Wonder Woman 1984, but I need to give it another look.

Below, I’ve posted a full list of movies I’ve seen this past year, so you can see exactly what I had to pick from. What great movies did I miss out on last year? What movies do I have in my top ten that are a complete disgrace? What movies did you love? Let me know in the reply box below and let’s revel in the silver screen. Farewell 2021, nice seeing ya.

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Cinema Releases and VOD

A Quiet Place: Part II

Ammonite

– Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar

Black Widow

– Boss Level

– Breaking News in Yuba County

– Buddy Games

– Chaos Walking

Cruella

– Dear Evan Hansen

Don’t Breathe 2

Dune

Encanto

Eternals

Free Guy

French Exit

Godzilla vs. Kong

– Gunpowder Milkshake

– High Ground

In the Heights

Judas and the Black Messiah

Jungle Cruise

Last Night in Soho

Malignant

Minari

Mortal Kombat

– Music

No Time to Die

– Nobody

Old

– Pig

Promising Young Woman

Raya and the Last Dragon

Shadow in the Cloud

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Space Jam: A New Legacy

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spiral

Supernova

– Synchronic

– The Dry

The Father

The Forever Purge

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard

The Little Things

The Nest

The Night House

The Suicide Squad

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Those Who Wish Me Dead

Tom & Jerry

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Wonder Woman 1984

Wrath of Man

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Netflix Original Releases

Army of the Dead

– Army of Thieves

Don’t Look Up

– Fear Street Part 1: 1994

– Fear Street Part 2: 1978

– Fear Street Part 3: 1666

He’s All That

Love and Monsters

Malcolm & Marie

Moxie

News of the World

Pieces of a Woman

Red Notice

Run

The Dig

– The Guilty

The Harder They Fall

The Michells vs. the Machines

The Power of the Dog

The Unforgivable

The Woman in the Window

Things Heard & Seen

tick, tick… Boom!

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Disney+ Original Releases

Home Sweet Home Alone

Luca

Soul

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HBO Exclusive Releases

Let Them All Talk

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

* A dash (-) in front of a movie title indicates I did not write a review.