Halfway Mark 2021 - Movie Achievements of the Year (Thus Far)
Monday, July 5, 2021 at 11:41AM Okay, sooooo the Oscars f***ed around with their eligibility calendar but we did not for our own annual prizes. Anything released after January 1st or on its way to release at the moment was eligible for this fluid keeping-track list (unless it had a qualifying release in 2020 -- confusing, yes but please go see I Carry You With Me, one of 2020's best that only just surfaced for the public). It's just our way of jotting things down before the film year really gets crazy so that we don't forget. Still, there's no guarantee any of these accomplishments will show up in January for the Film Bitch Awards. Generally Hollywood backloads the film year, as you know. We'll do fav performances tomorrow but for now our 'cheat sheet' for everything else...
TEN BEST MOVIES THUS FAR (alpha order)
- Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar
Blissfully silly hijinx. [HBOMax] - Black Widow
A long-deserved well-told solo outing for one of Marvel's best. [Theaters] - Dance of the 41
Sensual riveting dramatization of a true queer scandal. [Netflix] - In the Heights
Exuberantly realized, the best movie musical in years. [HBOMax/Theaters] - Luca
Simplicity is a virtue. Resonant, clever, and good-natured. [Disney+] - Never Gonna Snow Again
Enigmatically affecting and memorable. [In theaters soon] - A Quiet Place Part II
A tense thrill ride; perfect fun for reentry to cinemas. [Theaters] - Shiva Baby
Compartmentalization backfires in this compact and very funny comedy [VOD] - Zola
Raucous inspired original that gets new media and POV power. [Theaters]
Special Mention because I never feel comfortable comparing docs to narrative features...
- Wojnarowicz: F--k You, F-ggot F--ker
A doc on a confrontational artist that the subject himself might actually love. That's pretty rare given how smoothly mainstream most bio docs are, even of the most daring artists [VOD]
DIRECTOR
- Janicza Bravo
For very modern storytelling and guiding clever performances Zola - Jon M Chu
For expert understanding of movie musical throughout In the Heights - Emma Seligman
For panache with the comic claustrophobia of Shiva Baby - Cate Shortland
For potent action beats & character interplay within Black Widow - Malgorzata Szumowska & Michael Englert
For hypnotizing with Never Gonna Snow Again
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar
- Dance of the 41
- Luca
- Never Gonna Snow Again
- Shiva Baby
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
COSTUME DESIGN
- Jenny Beavan, Cruella
- Rosángela Nascimento, Dance of the 41
- Deborah Newhall, I Care a Lot
- Paolo Nieddu, United States vs Billie Holiday
- Derica Cole Washington, Zola
CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Carolina Costa, Dance of the 41
- Alice Brooks, In the Heights
- Sean Bobbitt, Judas and the Black Messiah
- Marcell Rév, Malcolm & Marie
- Michael Englert, Never Gonna Snow Again
PRODUCTION DESIGN
- Steve Saklad, Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar
- Fiona Crombe, Cruella
- Nelson Coates and Moin Uddin, In the Heights
- Sam Lisenco, Judas and the Black Messiah
- Jagna Janicka, Never Gonna Snow Again
FILM EDITING
- Leigh Folsom Boyd, Black Widow
- Myron Kerstein, In the Heights
- Agata Cierniak & Jaroslaw Kaminski, Never Gonna Snow Again
- Michael P. Shawver, A Quiet Place Part II
- Joi McMillon, Zola
VISUAL EFFECTS
MAKEUP AND HAIR
- Paul Gooch, Black Widow
- Nadia Stacey, Cruella
- Alfredo Maro and Alejandre Velarde, Dance of the 41
- Charles Gregory Ross and Laini Thompson, United States vs Billie Holiday
- Kristen Alimena & Charles Gregory Ross, Zola
ORIGINAL SCORE
- Lorne Balfe, Black Widow
- Carlo Ayhllon and Andra Balency, Dance of the 41
- Dan Romer, Luca
- Marco Beltrami, A Quiet Place Part II
- Mica Levi, Zola
SOUND
MUSICAL SEQUENCE
- "96,000" (Cast) In the Heights
- "Carnival del Barrio" (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Cast) In the Heights
- "In the Heights" (Anthony Ramos and Cast) In the Heights
- "Patience and Faith" (Olga Merediz) In the Heights
- "Strange Fruit" (Andra Day) United States vs Billie Holiday
ACTION SEQUENCE
- Black Widow vs Taskmaster (Round 1)- Black Widow
- Godzilla vs Kong on the water - Godzilla vs Kong
- Godzilla & Kong vs Mecha Godzilla - Godzilla vs Kong
- Prison Escape - Black Widow
- Tower Escape - Those Who Wish Me Dead
KISS
- Kristen Wiig & Jamie Dornan - Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar
- Alfonso Herrera & Emiliano Zurita - Dance of the 41
- Anthony Ramos & Melissa Barrera - In the Heights
- Daniel Kaluuya & Dominique Fishback - Judas and the Black Messiah
SEX SCENE
- Alfonso Herrera & Emiliano Zurita - Dance of the 41
- Rosamund Pike & Eiza Gonzalez - I Care a Lot
- Alec Utgoff - Never Gonna Snow Again
- Andra Day & Trevante Rhodes - United States vs Billie Holiday
- Taylour Paige & Ari'el Stachel - Zola
OPENING SEQUENCE
THE END
- Dance of the 41
- Luca
- Raya and the Last Dragon
- Shiva Baby
P.S. Despite running a movie site, we're struggling like the general public (from all reports) to track the where and when and how much of seeing new movies. It was fairly simple our whole lives until a few years ago when streaming began to gain strength. And then, of course, maximum confusion hit once the pandemic arrived and Hollywood suddenly chose CHAOS with six different ways of releasing things (maybe seven or eight - it's possible we've forgotten something):
- Theater only
- Theater simultaneous w/ VOD rental at various prices
- VOD rental only at various prices
- Theater simultaneous w/ Streaming free
- Streaming only free
- Theater simultanous w/ Streaming at "premium" (aka theatrical+) prices.
To add to the confusion of the half-dozen systems, most distributors appears to be employing multiple strategies so it's anyone's guess when you hear about a movie which strategory it will employ. You can't even make assumptions based on bankable stars and directors anymore since even the most traditionally bankable artists and most traditionally bankable genres will do "free to stream" movies alongside their theatrical releases. We can't imagine this consumer confusion is good for the long-term health of the industry. It's obviously one reason why Netflix has such a strangehold on the public imagination: it's easier to understand/predict than any other way to see movies now. (sigh)
Personally speaking, though I rarely balk at paying $20 to see a movie in a theater, I refuse to pay even half of that to watch something at home. So if I miss something at theaters (much easier to do now even in NYC with much-shortened windows and fewer theaters) I have to wait until a free streaming option or cheap rental opportunity arrives. In other words I personally have not yet seen the following for various reasons, ranging from meager enthusiasm, through unfortunately missing a theatrical window, to 'excited for but can't justify that rental price'...: Breaking News in Yuba County, Chaos Walking, Dream Horse, False Positive, Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Moffie, Oxygen, Port Authority, Queen Bees, Stowaway, Undine, Without Remorse, and World to Come.
If you have seen any of those, which would you most recommend?
Reader Comments (34)
I preferred Oliver Hermanus's Beauty, but Moffie has really stuck with me. A parched romance told within a terrifyingly masculine environment.
stoked for Zola and Black Widow!!
I cannot understand the high praise for In the Heights. It’s not bad, it’s just so uh sanitized and ridiculously overlong. I think Tim Brayton’s review in Alternate Ending express better what I think of the movie.
Shocked to see so much love for our failed Oscar entry, "Never Gonna Snow Again". At the Polish Film Awards it was among top nominees but didn't win anything sans Cinematography (and that was in a tie).
I've only seen 3 of the above listed as among the 10 Best and can't say I thought that highly of any of them. In the Heights is good-enough but can't boast of even one truly memorable song (and is overlong to boot); Luca is fine I but ultimately fairly typical Pixar fare; A Quiet Place II is just more of the same of what we saw w/ Pt I - there's no real expansion of what was already a pretty thin premise.
It's so funny how all the flippant CALL ME BY YOUR NAME cracks about LUCA actually have legitimacy. Like, the movie literally has a teary train station goodbye scene between the two boys! Sleeping together under the fishes? The gay "subtext" feels hardly subtextual at all, especially as an LGBTQ person. What a lovely movie.
rmk -- well, it's early in the year still. Though I didn't think LUCA was typical Pixar fare at all. I found it's simplicity so resonant. They always try to cover so much (i think SOUL really suffers from how it's trying to be "meaning of life!" and "existence!" and "all religions") but this one is just really resonant coming of age, stepping out on your own.
Jonathan -- agreed.
The Drmistry -- i just loved it. i sensed it wsasn't going to do well at the Oscars though... too elusive in its meaning.
ben1283 -- i really want to see it but i think it's even non-rentable now. You have to buy it at like $14. and i dont usually do blind buys of movies.
I'll throw a little love to TOGETHER TOGETHER and MY SALINGER YEAR. Really lovely, small films that I imagine will get lost in the shuffle of their release dates, but both had well-crafted screenplays and performances I quite enjoyed.
Never Gonna Snow Again is really fantastic. So glad to see it get some love here.
We need a list of films that were eligible for the 2020 Oscars but are really 2021 releases. The United States vs. Billie Holliday, Judas and the Black Messiah and White Tiger were all nominees last year, yet I see them here. I assume The Father and I Carry You with Me are considered 2020 by their absence from these lists. It's bad enough in normal times with those one-week runs in L.A. and not seeing the film until April or even later for those of us in the sticks.
I tried to do a Top 10 list of bankable everytime out stars and could only come up with DiCaprio and The Rock,I struggle with the ladies there's no Julia,Cameron or Sandra so I was left with Meryl and Emma Stone.
@Amy Camus: I did a spreadsheet based on the released eligibility list, separating 2020 titles (309) from 2021 titles (47) as well as the 10 that I'm not sure of where they land.
Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CR9Y-ndqACt0b5f-xnutslqcTms1-3oeqhMOswLhQAQ/edit?usp=sharing
Luca is so different than anything Pixar has ever done. It’s much smaller scale which creates more of an intimate experience. I find it more quietly moving whereas some of their other movies try to just devastate you. I’ve seen it a few times now and I love it more with every viewing. I wouldn’t call it perfect but it hits the right notes, at least for me.
Moffie was a disappointment for me. It just didn't do anything for me. It didn't move me. I didn't connect with the characters. I didn't feel the romance. It was simply sluggish and unrelatable. Maybe it's just me. I don't know.
Barb and Star was too corny for me. In the Heights made me happy, but something was missing. Perhaps I wanted an earworm, but didn't get any.
Luca was a joy to watch.
I have nothing but praise for BREAKING NEWS IN YUBA COUNTY. It's a black comedy harking back to the 90s flurry (that was prompted by Tarantino's emergence), and I loved almost every minute. Alisson Janney anchors it so well and gets the character right, and special mention in the ensemble for Juliette Lewis as a vapid television presenter.
I also saw CHAOS WALKING which, whilst a few years late in terms of cinema trends, is one of the better YA adaptations. Having Mads Mikkelsen as the bad guy certainly helps, as does Cynthia Erivo in the second half and a small role for Demian Bichir (who seems to be having a bumper 2021, with this, LAND and GODZILLA VS KONG all upping his profile).
Oooo! Nice to see you liked Black Widow. I'm excited to see it next week (in a real theater!). Review coming soon?
FYI, Unpregnant was definitely a 2020 movie, it's been on HBO Max since last September.
I do wish that Disney cut this Disney+ route for their Pixar titles. Luca, like pretty much all Pixar titles, is so very beautiful, with some sequences really rewarding on the big screen (saw it in Hong Kong). Hopefully Luca will 1) be properly released in theaters for an exclusive run at year-end (Oscar push!) and 2) be the last Disney+ Pixar title.
MJS -- wow. okay. not sure how i missed that. this past year has been so confusing. Okay. shall remove it.
No mention of Bo Burnham Inside renders this list bunk.
I agree with you 100% about not paying $20 to watch a movie at home. Although I did pay close to that to watch movies online at some of the film festivals last year but that was only to support the fests.
I would recommend "Undine" which I saw online during the NY Film Fest
Dance of the 41 is complex, intriguing, poignant and has one of the best endings I've seen in years (that's how you drop the mic). It really should be starting a Best Picture campaign already, despite the obvious hurdle of being in Spanish. It'll be on my "best" list, for sure.
Saw "Tomorrow War" yesterday... what a Frankenstein monster of a film: mix up Back to the Future, Edge of Tomorrow, Alien, The Thing, World War Z... overlong and quite dumb, to be honest, and living out of convenient chance... plus pissing on the time travel paradoxes. ** / D
maliano -- except that that's a tv comedy/performance special, rather than a feature film.
anthony -- yes, there are exceptions like "virtual cinema" to support movie theaters during the pandemic or film festival stuff. but really. it should not cost the same thing to watch a movie at home as it does in theater where they have considerable overhead.
Jesus -- yeah, it's truly terrible. One of the three total duds with practically no redeeming features this year (thus far)... the others being LITTLE THINGS and THUNDER FORCE.
kin -- that would be sweet. it did the movie such a disservice.
My favorite film of 2021 was In the Heights. The other releases on this list that I've seen are Shiva Baby and Barb and Star, but I didn't care much for either of them. I was surprised how disappointed I was in Barb and Star, since I loved Bridesmaids, but I thought a lot of its ideas were half-baked, and Jamie Dornan was pretty terrible.
The other narrative 2021 releases I've enjoyed are all foreign - Quo Vadis, Aida?, This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection, and Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time. I agree that Undine is very worth watching, though I wish Petzold would work with Nina Hoss again.
Questlove's Summer of Soul may have been too late a release to qualify for this list, since it just came out this weekend, but it is terrific. Other documentaries I enjoyed include Some Kind of Heaven, No Ordinary Man, Gunda, and The Truffle Hunters (I think they are all technically 2021 releases - this year is so confusing!).
I definitely agree that everyone should check out Unpregnant on HBO Max. It's a really enjoyable movie that unfortunately didn't get much attention, and the two lead performances are great. Haley Lu Richardson is really talented.
What about The Killing of Two Lovers? I loved that film.
Rod -- i haven't seen that one yet! but will add it to the list.
I haven't been to a theater yet, and usually wait until VOD is below $5.99, so haven't seen many new releases. However, these two would certainly make my top-ten list:
HERSELF (Amazon Prime)
SUMMER OF SOUL (Hulu)
Also, as a musical theater and musical film fan, I loved IN THE HEIGHTS, but hated THE PROM. The last musical film I saw in a theater was THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, and I loved it, but on rewatch at home, I'm less enamoured, Must be something about a big screen to make a musical come alive (no pun intended).
So understandable !
Will you still try a halfway-mark prediction this month ? Or do u rather wanna wait ?
I think u will love Moffie - not for the award season... But impressive and visually beautifully narrated movie from our little South African industry, which just comes more & more to live with innovative stories !
And so great to read that there are some great uplifting movies coming our way like Barb, Luca & Hights !
Interesting to see that you weren't that big on Black Messiah. I liked it well enough, but found that it hued surprisingly close to biopic cliches.
I'm glad to watch so many mentions to El Baile de los 41 even when is not at my top of favorite films suscribed for the Ariel awards to receive a nomination the next July 25th.
The year of release considered to the awards mentioned before are so weird that makes me wonder when are released that films in other countries.
Add me to the chorus in favor of SUMMER OF SOUL - it really is that good.
And so glad you liked BLACK WIDOW! I'm seeing it this weekend in a theater and am really excited for it.
Confusion around what gets released where and when is only added to overseas. In Australia, for instance, we don't have HBO Max or Hulu or Peacock (yet).
I Care a Lot which is on Netflix most places is on Amazon Prime here. Herself which was an Amazon release in the US in January came to theatres here... in July. Small Axe which went to Amazon in the US went to Binge (a local service) here etc. etc.
Shiva Baby is on HBO and HBOMax now. I was surprised to see it pop up today because it didn't have a standard Saturday night premiere.
Trust me, "Moffie" is definitely worth $14.00 (I purchased the DVD last year).