Scottie Knollin’s Top Films of 2021
BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
For any generous hope we all cheered to at the end of 2020, 2021 worked its magic in a very similar way: going out with a bang of pandemic proportions. While awards season seems to be in flux over the rise in COVID-19 cases, celebrating the slate of films from Pandemic Season Two is still a worthy mission.
Each year, I keep an ongoing ranked list of every new film I see. Sometimes, the list fluctuates as I revisit films and sort through the list from time to time. For 2021, I found myself reorganizing the Top Ten over and over and over again. In fact, my first iteration of a Top Films had nearly twenty titles that I couldn’t shake. Films like “Tick, Tick…Boom” and “The French Dispatch” required multiple viewings, but ultimately just missed the cut. “Nine Days” remains one of the finest debut films in recent years (I wish there was more room in the ten I settled on). I fell for the strangeness of “Annette” and the whimsy of “The Mitchells vs. the Machines.” I shed several tears during “Supernova” and “Procession.” I was surprised at how much I enjoyed “West Side Story.”
All in all, this year will go down as a divisive one. We returned to the days of blockbusters, but still must include asterisks in any reporting on box office numbers. We were given several critically-acclaimed crowd-pleasers, but the saccharine nature of many of these (hello, “Belfast”) failed to connect with me. The films that earned the most engagements online, like “Don’t Look Up” and “Dune,” will more than likely become cemented as must-see cinema of the pandemic era. Even more important, however, is the vast audience a number of independent (“Red Rocket”) and international (“Petite Maman”) films received, now that we’re all spending way more time at home.
I want to return to the days when several days in a week include the smells of freshly popped popcorn and massive surround sound experiences. Until then, I’ll continue pouring myself a glass of wine and posting up on my couch to see filmmaking masters at work. See you at the movies…hopefully soon!
Flee (Dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
Brilliant is the only word I can think to effectively describe Rasmussen’s poignant animated documentary about an Afghan refugee recounting his immigration survival story twenty years later. The storytelling is dazzling in its content alone, but shared through the lens of graphic novel-style animation allows the picture to build to an emotional toll that may not have been reached if only shared through actual footage. While the animation is a well-chosen device for the film, when it’s revealed that the film’s subject’s identity is being preserved by the animation (and a pseudonym), it makes the experience feel even more grand, powerful, and remarkable. The film isn’t just a retelling of an immigrant’s story, it’s a study on what it means to search for your identity when every aspect of the word is constantly being taken from you. Brilliant.
2. The Power of the Dog (Dir. Jane Campion)
One of the best things about a Campion film is how she delivers an ever-evolving story while captivating the audience to just linger for a while in the setting. With her newest film, Campion powers through a complicated twist of a drama with picturesque visuals and even grander performances. Benedict Cumberbatch has never been better in a role that is, with all due respect, completely against type (that’s the magic in his performance, actually). Kirsten Dunst is finally getting her long-awaited Oscar moment. And Kodi Smit-McPhee, who’s been around for a while, may just breakout as his generation’s most accomplished actor. There are moments where the film leans into exploring things like misogyny and internalized and institutionalized homophobia, but it knows it’s not meant to be a morality tale. Instead, it’s a cerebral and visceral revenge thriller painted to look like a sweeping drama.
3. The Worst Person in the World (Dir. Joachim Trier)
As someone who’s single and in their thirties, Trier’s romantic comedy-drama struck more than just a relatable chord. Renate Reinsve stars as a lively thirtysomething who finds herself consistently surrounded by men who find her interesting. Unwilling to commit, thanks to a fresh youthfulness, her world begins to change when she starts to realize how quickly time is going by and how fleeting her youth is with each passing minute. The film is darkly funny and charming and Reinsve is one of the most deserving performers of 2021 of awards attention. For a year that’s been so heavy, finding introspection through the form of something as lovely as Trier’s film is a treat for all of us.
4. Drive My Car (Dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
An adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami, the film is a testament to the patience of a film-going audience (it clocks in at three hours), but it’s a worthy time spent digesting the film’s slow burn nature and fascinating look into its characters’ lives. There’s plenty of grief to be discerned and healing to be celebrated. There’s also the craftily pieced together story of a theater director embarking on the endeavor of directing a production of Uncle Vanya with an international cast of actors each performing in their native language. Hidetoshi Nishijma and Tôko Miura offer powerful performances as the theater director and a local driver he is assigned, respectively, in this gorgeous meditation of a film.
5. C’mon C’mon (Dir. Mike Mills)
The magic in this film is newcomer Woody Norman, a kid actor whose screen presence is so layered and mature. Shot in black-and-white, the film is a study on familial relationships and self-rediscovery in only the way that a master storyteller like Mills can provide. Like his previous films, Mills’s screenplay is where the film’s ethos finds its footing. We’re given delicious, thought-provoking dialogue over and over again. In addition to Norman’s fine performance, Joaquin Phoenix delivers one of his most astounding turns yet. There’s a heartbreak in his character that’s ever-so-carefully masked and unmasked at just the right moments. It takes a king of the profession to pull that off.
6. The Green Knight (Dir. David Lowery)
I’ve long been a fan of Lower’s vision with his films like “A Ghost Story” and “Pete’s Dragon” (not kidding), so I already expected to be a fan of his latest, long-awaited medieval drama starring Dev Patel. Boy, were my expectations not only met, but I ended up venturing to the theater multiple times to take it all in. Patel’s performance alone is worthy of a spot on this list. Additionally, the grandeur of Lowery’s enthralling picture is beautiful and must be seen. Seriously. For being an Arthurian epic, there’s something so gracefully intimate in what Lowery pulls off that it comes across as almost as too many genres bundled together. What could be a mess, however, ends up being the secret sauce to a film that knows exactly what it’s setting out to do. Don’t sleep on this one.
7. The Hand of God (Dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
Sorrentino’s autobiographical coming-of-age tale is set in Napoli in 1984. Filippo Scott is a revelation as the 17-year-old Fabietto who spends much of the film discovering love, betrayal, and tragedy. A Sorrentino project always includes vibrant cinematography and we’re treated to so many wonderful shots, it’s impossible to look away. The film succeeds with its placated depiction of adolescent angst, a feat that is sometimes hard to produce without feeling cheesy or pandering. Like Luca Guadagnino’s much-celebrated “Call Me By Your Name,” this film finds its footing pretty quickly and never lets off the gas, even in its most quiet and harrowing moments (like that one bedroom scene).
8. Licorice Pizza (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
I’ve found a spot for nearly every Paul Thomas Anderson film in my list of favorite films of all time. I especially love his more recent era of prestige pictures, but I have to admit, it’s a lot of fun to have him return to his L.A. roots with this goofy and free-spirited observation of youth and love. Beautifully shot in the San Fernando Valley, where Anderson is from, the inspired-somewhat-by-real-life opus is capped by brilliant performances by newcomers Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. The film is overly long, but Anderson is so good at world building that the time commitment flies by as you ease into enjoying each frame of our star-crossed lovers. Come for the jovial plot and stick around for a wild, extended cameo from Bradley Cooper.
9. Bergman Island (Dir. Mia Hansen-Løve)
A triple-layered romance about a filmmaker who travels to Sweden with her partner only to pitch him a screenplay about her first love, the film excels thanks to director Hansen-Løve’s focus on calmness as the stakes continue to get higher. Filmed on location on a remote skerry in the Baltic Sea, a location famed for being the place Ingmar Bergman called home following the production of his film, “Through a Glass Darkly,” in the early ‘60s, the film’s careful attention to detail and leveled visual scope are equal parts inspiring and suffocating. Add to it the delectable performances by its cast: Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, Mia Wasikowska, and Anders Danielsen Lie (who also pops up in “The Worst Person in the World”).
10. Shiva Baby (Dir. Emma Seligman)
Anyone studying filmmaking should watch Seligman’s debut about a young woman (played with aplomb by Rachel Sennott) trapped at a shiva and forced to constantly navigate one disaster after another. I saw this back at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020, but it’s stuck with me since then. Once it was finally released earlier in 2021, I’ve consistently included it on lists I’ve provided people who’ve asked about movies they should watch. It’s bitingly funny. It’s brilliantly claustrophobic. It’s perfectly acted. It’s an all around treat that seems more simple on the surface than it actually is. This is filmmaking at its absolute best.
