Friday, December 31, 2021

2021 Movie List - The Top 254 of the Year


THE STANDOUTS (12) - This should go without saying, but these are all must-sees.

CODA ***1/2
Dear Mr. Brody ***1/2
The Rescue ***1/2
Flee ***1/2
Tiger ***1/2
The Worst Person in the World ***1/2
King Richard ***
After the Murder of Albert Lima ***
Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself ***
Pleasure ***
Untold: Crime & Penalties ***
Run Hide Fight ***

THE GOOD (63) - These represent quality filmmaking all-around.

Coming Home in the Dark ***
The Alpinist ***
Old Henry ***
Kevin Garnett: Anything Is Possible ***
Untold: Malice at the Palace ***
Shiva Baby ***
Luca ***
Stillwater ***
Red Rocket ***
Worth ***
American Skin ***
Together Together ***
Violation ***
Catch the Fair One ***
Rose Plays Julie ***
Copshop ***
The Trip ***
Joe Bell ***
In the Earth ***
Four Good Days ***
Stowaway ***
Silo ***
The Harder They Fall ***
Tick Tick... Boom! ***
Spencer ***
Ray Donovan: The Movie ***
Spider-Man: No Way Home ***
American Underdog ***
A Hero ***
Encounter ***
Dark Blood ***
Travis Roy: A Life & A Legacy ***
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain ***
Clerk. ***
Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal ***
9/11: Inside the President's War Room ***
Enforcement ***
Below Zero ***
Red Dot ***
8-Bit Christmas ***
The Suicide Squad ***
Cryptozoo ***
The Mitchells vs. the Machines ***
Fear Street Part 2 - 1978 ***
Julia ***
The Marksman ***
The Mauritanian **1/2
Pig **1/2
Wild Indian **1/2
Sundown **1/2
Silent Night **1/2
Kid 90 **1/2
Woodstock 99: Peace, Love & Rage **1/2
The Unforgivable **1/2
The White Tiger **1/2
4x4 **1/2
On the Count of Three **1/2
Fear Street Part 3 - 1666 **1/2
Golden Arm **1/2
Ron's Gone Wrong **1/2
Plan B **1/2
Held **1/2
Initiation **1/2

THE GOOD... BUT SHOULD'VE BEEN BETTERS (61) - Why weren't these good movies better? I don't really know. But they should've been. Hence, the name of this section.

Blue Bayou ***
Val ***
Licorice Pizza ***
C'mon C'mon ***
Small Engine Repair ***
Mogul Mowgli ***
Jockey ***
House of Gucci **1/2
West Side Story **1/2
The Father **1/2
The Novice **1/2
I Care a Lot **1/2
Nightmare Alley **1/2
Slalom **1/2
Bruised **1/2
A Quiet Place Part II **1/2
The Little Things **1/2
Belfast **1/2
Being the Ricardos **1/2
The Dry **1/2
Passing **1/2
Why Did You Kill Me? **1/2
Nobody **1/2
Profile **1/2
Riders of Justice **1/2
Georgetown **1/2
Nail Bomber: Manhunt **1/2
Cruella **1/2
The Truffle Hunters **1/2
National Champions **1/2
The Tender Bar **1/2
Free Guy **1/2
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings **1/2
Swan Song **1/2
Summer of Soul **1/2
No Time to Die **1/2
Don't Look Up **1/2
Enemies of the State **1/2
The God Committee **1/2
Petite Maman **1/2
Boiling Point **1/2
Beckett **1/2
Malcolm & Marie **1/2
Antlers **1/2
Army of the Dead **1/2
Without Remorse **1/2
Breaking News in Yuba County **1/2
Above Suspicion **1/2
City of Lies **1/2
The Courier **1/2
The Boy Behind the Door **1/2
The Voyeurs **1/2
15 Minutes of Shame **1/2
Oxygen **1/2
Come True **1/2
#Like **1/2
Beanie Mania **1/2
Mentally Al **1/2
Detainee 001 **1/2
7 Days **1/2
R#J **1/2

THE GUILTY PLEASURES (20) - These are movies that I shouldn't like but I do, for one reason or another. I only feel ashamed because the Internet tells me I'm supposed to.

Wrong Turn ***
The Protege ***
The King's Man ***
Love Hard ***
Slaxx ***
Zack Snyder's Justice League **1/2
The Tomorrow War **1/2
Don't Breathe 2 **1/2
Queenpins **1/2
Gunpowder Milkshake **1/2
Kate **1/2
Thunder Force **1/2
Bad Trip **1/2
Yes Day **1/2
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions **1/2
Brothers by Blood **1/2
Last Call **
Sweet Girl **
V/H/S/94 **
Vacation Friends **

THE UNDERWHELMING DISAPPOINTMENTS (83) - Chalk it up to expectations but these movies just didn't cut it for me.

Judas and the Black Messiah **1/2
Annette **1/2
Titane **1/2
Mass **1/2
Silk Road **1/2
Rage **1/2
Lamb **1/2
The Last Duel **1/2
No Sudden Move **1/2
Those Who Wish Me Dead **1/2
The Card Counter **
The Eyes of Tammy Faye **
The Survivor **
Black Widow **
Fear Street Part 1 - 1994 **
Saloum **
The Lost Daughter **
F9 **
Red Notice **
Dune **
The Beta Test **
No Man of God **
Pharma Bro **
Wrath of Man **
Mortal Kombat **
Godzilla vs. Kong **
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar **
Don't Tell a Soul **
Body Brokers **
The Ice Road **
The Green Knight **
Old **
Candyman **
The Tragedy of Macbeth **
Crisis **
Mother/Android **
Nine Days **
Happily **
Encanto **
The Evening Hour **
Eight for Silver **
Lakewood **
Venom: Let There Be Carnage **
Voyagers **
Cry Macho **
Ghostbusters: Afterlife **
The Many Saints of Newark **
Eternals **
Locked Down **
Werewolves Within **
The Gateway **
Midnight in the Switchgrass **
Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson **
Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes **
The Humans *1/2
The Power of the Dog *1/2
The French Dispatch *1/2
Finch *1/2
Dear Evan Hansen *1/2
Jungle Cruise *1/2
Spiral: From the Book of Saw *1/2
There's Someone Inside Your House *1/2
Infinite *1/2
Every Breath You Take *1/2
The Forever Purge *1/2
Die in a Gunfight *1/2
Karen *1/2
Moby Doc *1/2
Halloween Kills *1/2
Last Night in Soho *1/2
Dashcam *1/2
False Positive *1/2
Murder Bury Win *1/2
Funny Face *1/2
Prime Time *1/2
John and the Hole *1/2
The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain *1/2
A Glitch in the Matrix *1/2
Knocking *1/2
Honeydew *1/2
Censor *1/2
The Guilty *1/2
Gunda *

THE BAD (15) - For better or worse, I just don't know what these movies were thinking.

Malignant *1/2
Cherry *
The Matrix Resurrections *
The Woman in the Window *
Prisoners of the Ghostland *
Space Jam: A New Legacy *
Separation *
Awake *
Mayday *
Home Sweet Home Alone *
Willy's Wonderland *
Flashback 1/2*
Demonic 1/2*
Untitled Horror Movie 1/2*
Reminiscence (zero stars)

IN PROGRESS (5) - I started watching these but I never quite finished. Make of that what you will... but not always. Sometimes, it's just a matter of viewing circumstances.

Army of Thieves (25 minutes)
Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell (40 minutes)
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed (35 minutes)
The Day Sports Stood Still (30 minutes)
Persona (30 minutes)

EMBARGOED (0) - Silence is golden... for now.

DON'T FORGET (10) - I first saw these 2021 movies a while back. This list is for me, so I don't forget them.

Dinner in America ***
The Killing of Two Lovers ***
New Order **1/2
Summertime **1/2
The Night House **1/2
Monster **1/2
The Nowhere Inn **1/2
Zola **
Boss Level **
The Vigil *1/2

OOPS, I MISSED (179): About Endlessness, The Addams Family 2, Adrienne, All Light, Everywhere, American Dream, Apex, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Bad Tales, Bastards' Road, Belle, Benedetta, Bergman Island, Best Summer Ever, Black Friday, Blast Beat, Bliss, Blithe Spirit, Boogie, The Catch, Chaos Walking, Cinderella, Citizen Ashe, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Come From Away, Coming 2 America, Concrete Cowboy, A Cop Movie, Cosmic Sin, Cowboys, Crime Story, The Croods: A New Age, Cyrano, Dating & New York, Dead Asleep, Dear Comrades!, The Deep House, The Dig, The Djinn, DMX: Don't Try to Understand, Dream Horse, Drive My Car, Drunk Bus, The Duke, Eat Wheaties!, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Ema, Escape From Mogadishu, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Falling, Fatal Distraction, Fatherhood, Fear of Rain, Flag Day, Flora & Ulysses, Framing Britney Spears, French Exit, Funhouse, Gaia, The Good House, Good on Paper, Gully, Habit, The Hand of God, Hard Luck Love Song, Heart of Champions, Here Are the Young Men, Here Today, He's All That, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, Hold Your Fire, Holler, Horizon Line, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Hypnotic, Identifying Features, I'm Your Man, In the Heights, Intrusion, Jagged, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, Jolt, A Journal for Jordan, Joy Ride, Jumbo, The Knot, Land, Language Lessons, Lansky, The Last Letter From Your Lover, Limbo, Little Fish, Little Girl, Lorelei, The Lost Leonardo, Malmkrog, Mama Weed, The Man Who Sold His Skin, The Medium, Memoria, Me You Madness, Milkwater, Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad, Mainstream, The Misfits, Mixtape, Miyagi, MLK/FBI, Moffie, Monday, Monster Hunter, Mothering Sunday, Moxie, Music, My Salinger Year, Night of the Kings, Night Teeth, North Hollywood, Oslo, Our Friend, The Outside Story, Outside the Wire, Palmer, Parallel Mothers, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, Percy Vs Goliath, Pixie, Port Authority, Postal, Pray Away, Prayers for the Stolen, Prey, Psycho Goreman, Quo Vadis, Aida?, Rare Beasts, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Reckoning, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, Respect, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, Rushed, Saint Maud, SAS: Red Notice, The Scary of Sixty-First, Seance, The Serpent, Settlers, Sheep Without a Shepherd, Shoplifters of the World, Siberia, Sing 2, Snake Eyes, Some Kind of Heaven, Sound of Violence, South of Heaven, The Souvenir Part II, The Sparks Brothers, The Starling, Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, The Summit of the Gods, Supernova, Swan Song (Udo Kier), Sweat, Sweet Thing, Swing, Test Pattern, There Is No Evil, Things Heard and Seen, This Is the Night, Together, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, The Tunnel, Undine, Vanquish, The Vault, The Virtuoso, Vivo, The Wanting Mare, The Water Man, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Whirlybird, Wolf, The World to Come

COMING SOON (0):

2 comments:

Random Fandom said...

Hey Jeff,

Big fan of your work. I really miss seeing you on a panel with people, especially those collaborations Simon Thompson back in the day on popcorn talk. I feel like there is a major void in the Youtube landscape for that time of hard hitting movie/entertainment beyond the headline reporting that doesn't ignore the big franchise news but gets deep into those trade talk articles about upcoming studio and director projects, casting news, movies reviews, awards talk, etc. I especially enjoyed hearing from you because you were often a bit more critical (honest?) than other reviews and pundits were willing to be even if you knew yours wasn't a popular opinion. Do you think there is a possibility you could do more of that type of video panels in the future? I really enjoyed this list and from one rando fan in Pittsburgh I'm wishing you every success and hope all is well in the land of California. Thanks for the great content and contributions you provide.

Anonymous said...

hey before my plea i wanted to thank you for all these lists. i've gone through every one you've made to make my own watchlists. but i would love if you could somehow make it easier. i have to google every movie for the imdb link to come up. i can double click to highlight a word or a full line which would include the "*** 1/2" stuff which makes the search not work right sometimes, and i use the search google for feature. but sometimes i have to type "imdb" and the year into my search to get the right one, and often the movies in your list don't have the current year because their release schedule was weird or something. which is why i cant just go on imdb and go through a list of every movie from this year and look out for ones from your list. but i would appreciate if you could find a way to make your list more accessible. maybe if you just switched to a site like imdb or criticker it would make it easy. or you could change your format for your blogs so they're easier to google. like have headings that say "***" and all the movies with that rating below, in separate lines. then in your unwatched section it would be better to keep all on separate lines instead of using commas, although this would make the post way longer to scroll through but maybe that's fine if someone has scrolled to that point. and if you added the years for the movie like Some Foreign Movie (2019) it would be easier. but maybe that is too much extra work for you to check imdb or something. which is why i think imdb or criticker is the easiest. it also makes it easier to reflect on/show your ratings over time by seeing them overall, not just by year unless that filter is chosen.