My Favorite Films of 2021

So 2021 didn’t turn out to be quite the corrective to 2020 that lots of folks were hoping for. The pandemic continued to keep everything pretty messed up, resulting in another 12 months without a single trip to a movie theater. Even so, I still managed to see a whopping 250 movies in 2022, a substantial increase from any previous year. And quite a few of them were pretty darn good!

As usual, this list compiles the films I enjoyed most this year, regardless of what year they were actually released, the better to reflect the streaming-dominant viewing model that most people, including me, are following these days. I also don’t call this list “The Best of 2021,” since everyone has their own tastes, and my “best” probably aren’t going to be anyone else’s. Also per usual, my favorites this year are a fairly eclectic grab bag, ranging from whacked-out prank-fueled road trips to troubled Japanese cops. So, with no further ado, here are my favorites of another crazy year, in alphabetical order.

Bad Trip (2020) The Eric Andre Show has been one of my favorite TV shows since pretty much the moment it went on the air, a crazed deconstruction of the late night talk show that threatens to devolve into complete chaos at every second. He managed to channel that same manic, dangerous energy into Bad Trip, a prank flick that ranks as probably the best of the relatively recent genre. The “plot,” such as it is, consists of Andre and his best friend (Lil Rel Howery) taking a road trip from Florida to New York, while being pursued by Howery’s escaped convict sister (Tiffany Haddish). Of course, this is nothing more than an excuse for Andre and his co-stars to engage in all kinds of insane, raunchy shenanigans across the Atlantic coast. I don’t want to give away too much, because half the laughs are in the surprises Andre pulls just when you think you know where a scene is headed. Seriously, though, this movie is hilarious. I appreciated that the jokes aren’t ever at the expense of the random bystanders caught up in Andre’s insanity—he’s not out to expose America’s dark side like Sasha Baron Cohen. In fact, pretty much everyone actually comes out looking pretty good, accepting even Andre’s most out-there behavior with good humor and understanding. For a flick featuring penises caught in a Chinese finger trap, it’s actually got a surprisingly sweet attitude underneath it all. And did I mention it’s hilarious?

The Harder They Fall (2021) Director Jeymes Samuel’s wild (almost) all-black revenge western was one of the best times I had watching a flick during 2021. While some may quibble with taking the names of real-life men and women from the Old West and putting them in a violent tale of frontier vengeance that has no bearing on reality, for me, the resulting flick is too much fun to deny. Jonathan Majors holds the whole thing together in the central role of Nat Love, but it’s really the ridiculously talented supporting cast that makes the film so entertaining. Idris Elba is fantastic as the twisted visionary despot whose dreams of black independence bleed into madness, but it’s Regina Hall who steals the show. She’s loving every minute of a rare villainous role, and sports the jauntiest hat slant this side of the Beer Baron. Pity that Zazie Beetz’ character turns from independent bad-ass to damsel in distress about halfway through. This is a really fun flick that any western fan will appreciate, filled with memorable character turns from a whole string of fantastic actors. Here’s hoping they make that sequel the final frames allude to.

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Finally, someone made a movie about Fred Hampton! And it’s fantastic! Hampton has been a hero of mine since I wrote an essay about his murder for my Black Radicals class at UCSB in the late 80s. I’ve always been aghast at how his story has been pretty much swept under the rug (along with most of the actual history of the Black Panthers, I might add). This incredible film goes a long way toward correcting that. It’s anchored by a pair of great performances, headed by Daniel Kaluuya’s mesmerizing turn as Hampton. From the first time you see him speaking to a crowd, declaring, “I don’t need a microphone,” Kaluuya channels the charisma and power that caused the FBI to fear Hampton’s growing influence. You believe this is a man that really could unite a “Rainbow Coalition” and change society. Maybe even better, though, is LaKeith Stanfield as Bill O’Neal, the “Judas” who served as an FBI informant and ultimately ended up helping set up Hampton’s murder by federal authorities. Stanfield delivers one of the best performances I’ve seen in ages, perfectly portraying Gates’ rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma and his absolute ambivalence about what he’s being coerced into doing. He channels the pain, frustration, and confusion of the situation O’Neal found himself in so well that you really do feel bad for the guy despite his often despicable actions. Everybody is at the top of their game, frankly, from Dominique Fishback as Hampton’s lover Deborah Johnson to Jesse Plemons as O’Neal’s morally compromised FBI handler. This is a powerful, important film that tells a story that’s been forgotten for far too long.

Killer Constable (1980) One of the most original and unique martial arts flicks I’ve seen. ‘Moody, dark, and atmospheric’ are not adjectives you normally apply to Shaw Brothers’ garish color spectacles, but director Chih-Hung Kuei created a martial arts flick that looks and feels more like a horror flick at times. He sets the action in foggy, abandoned temples and ruins, and makes great use of shadows to create a dark, scary aesthetic. The film stars Shaw Brothers staple Kuan Tai Chen as the constable of the title, who proudly bears the reputation of having killed every criminal suspect he’s ever questioned. He and his men are sent out in search of the gang who stole 2 million taels of gold from the royal treasury, which inevitably leads to a series of wild sword fights with gangs of suspected heisters. As his compatriots start to get picked off one by one by vengeful criminals, the constable starts to rethink his devotion to murder in the name of law and order. It’s a much more emotionally fraught piece than you would expect, especially once the constable meets a vulnerable blind girl whose father is in his crosshairs. And unlike most Shaw Brothers flicks, which tend to end on wacky freezeframes, Killer Constable wraps up with a haunting, devastating final image that brings home the true cost of the violence that has followed the protagonist everywhere. Really good.

The Last of Sheila (1973) I had never even heard of this early-70s whodunit until the esteemed Michael McKean tweeted out his recommendation prior to its airing on TCM early in 2021. But what a fun flick! It’s a star-studded parlor mystery, with James Coburn playing a ultra-wealthy Hollywood tycoon who invites a group of friends for a week-long yachting excursion in some exotic European locales. It seems he has an ulterior motive, though: to actually find out which of his invitees was responsible for the hit-and-run death of his wife Sheila at a party the year before. Written by the unlikely duo of Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, the script is one of the best Agatha Christie-type mysteries outside of her actual writing (Rian Johnson’s recent Knives Out is high on that list, too). I don’t want to give too much away, since most of the fun of the flick is trying to figure out what’s really going on between these show business “friends.” The cast is great, led by Dyan Cannon as a party-girl agent, James Mason as a down-on-his-luck director, and Coburn as the blustering leader of the pack. There’s hardly a misplaced note throughout, although it was with a certain amount of dissonance that I watched Raquel Welch tell Richard Benjamin how irresistibly attractive he is… The flick doubles as a pretty scathing indictment of Hollywood phonies, too, as everything from child molesting to murder seemingly can be laughed away with a promise of a producer’s credit. The Last of Sheila is entertaining from start to finish, with several twists that I truly did not see coming.

Los Tallos Amargos (1956) – This recently rediscovered and restored Argentinian gem was shown on TCM’s ‘Noir Alley’ in July, and it’s amazingly good. The film won the Argentine equivalent of an Oscar when it was released, but by the 2000s was considered a “lost film.” When a battered copy was discovered, the Film Noir Foundation funded its restoration, and they’ve done an incredible job. The flick looks fantastic. It’s hard to believe it was pieced together from archival sources.
Anyway, the flick focuses on a down-on-his-luck reporter in Buenos Aires who hooks up with a Eastern European was refugee to start a learn-by-mail scam. He soothes his conscience with the knowledge that he’s only doing it to help his friend bring his family over from war-ravaged Europe. But when he starts to see cracks in his friend’s story, the reporter’s angst and distrust lead him to some disastrous choices. Shot with true shadowy noir style, the story unfolds as a dark tragedy, with each bad decision leading to another crisis. I really don’t want to give too much away, because the twists and turns of the plot are half the fun in a flick like this. Los Tallos Amargos is easily one of the best noirs I’ve seen in ages, and any fan of the genre should track it down and check it out.

Palm Springs (2020) I’m not a big fan of rom-coms, but I am a huge fan of Andy Samberg, which tilted the scales in favor of watching this. I’m so glad I did. It’s kind of a drunken prankster’s riff on ‘Groundhog Day,’ and easily one of the funniest flicks I’ve seen in a while. Samberg and Cristin Milioti are fantastic and hilarious as the couple trapped in their own endless time loop, doomed to relive the same Palm Springs wedding for all eternity. Their chemistry is clear, but not overly obvious or overstated; they come across as more fully-rounded characters than most in these kind of time-loop flicks do. Being caught in the loop enhances and brings out what’s inside each of them, once they run out of pranks to play. Add in J.K. Simmons as a mysterious stalker who seems determined to kill Samberg, and you’ve got the makings of a really fun flick. A perfect, light dose of sunshine that was more than welcome in 2021.

Sudden Fear (1952) This sly noir stars Joan Crawford as a lonely playwright who falls prey to the slimy charms of struggling actor Jack Palance, only to discover that he’s up to no good and hiding a sexy side piece (the always fantastic Gloria Grahame). What sets this flick apart from most with similar plotlines is Crawford’s character’s reaction. Rather than cower in fear or run to the (undoubtedly unbelieving and unsympathetic) authorities, she decides to get the jump on Palance and his scheming gal pal—and starts plotting how she’s going to murder them! Crawford meticulously lays out a scheme to entrap her dastardly hubby in his own plot. It’s a really clever and fun flick, filled with quality actors in every role. Palance is especially great, really young but still every bit as unsettling as ever. His strangely menacing and untrustworthy screen presence is perfect. He can’t scare Joan Crawford, though.

Summer of Soul (2021)
This awesome doc is basically a rediscovery of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of free concerts held in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park that drew nearly 300,000 fans during the summer of 1969. The concerts featured some truly legendary performers, from Sly and the Family Stone and Nina Simone to Gladys Knight and Hugh Masakela, and were all filmed for possible broadcast or theatrical release. It turns out that no one in a position of power at the time was interested in a Black cultural festival, so the footage was shelved and the event faded into obscurity—even as the much whiter Woodstock festival from the same summer was deified as a cultural touchstone. Luckily, Questlove got his hands on the discarded footage and used it to create a dynamic, stunning tribute to the event. There’s some truly incredible concert footage here, from Stevie Wonder shredding out a drum solo to Simone’s powerful rendition of “Backlash Blues.” Maybe the best thing that Questlove manages to pull off, though, is to put the whole thing in its proper context. He intercuts the concert clips with short excursions that help flesh out and define what Harlem and the world were going through in 1969. The result is a fantastic reclamation of a groundbreaking event that was in danger of being forgotten completely. Plus, the footage clearly demonstrates that the Urban Sombrero was in wide usage in late 60s’ Harlem, which is another historical tidbit that seems lost to history…

Violent Cop (1989) This mesmerizing flick from director Takeshi “Beat” Kitano really blew me away. It’s a slow-burning and intense flick, with Kitano starring as the brutal police officer of the title. He lives with his mentally disabled sister, and spends his working hours slapping, beating, and otherwise torturing the criminals he encounters. The matter-of-fact way in which Kitano’s character explodes in violence is incredibly affecting; you never have any idea when he’s going to blow, because he’s supremely calm even when beating people up. His character soon discovers that one of his partners on the police force has been running drugs for a local kingpin, which sets up a shattering finale. There’s some rough stuff here, including the assault of Kitano’s sister in an especially shocking plot turn. Through it all, the soundtrack of oddball electronic Eric Satie tunes serves to keep the flick as tightly wound as its main character. Probably the least “fun” flick on the list, it’s a powerful genre flick that rises well above the standard.

Other highlights from the year:
Bastard Swordsman (1983), Blast of Silence (1961), Boss Level (2021), Dirty Ho (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Hercules in the Haunted World (1961), Hollow Triumph (1948), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Last King (orig. Birkebeinerne) (2016), Les Maudits (The Damned) (1947), The Lineup (1958), Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020), Raw Deal (1948)

And in case you’re interested, here’s a link to a complete list of every flick I watched in 2021…
Complete Alphabetical List, 2021