Josh’s Favorite Movies of 2021 — Part One!
Welcome to my list of my favorite movies of 2021! While I’ve seen a lot of movies this year, as usual there were plenty I wanted to see but didn’t get to. In specific, I’ve been continuing to avoid movie theaters, so there are a number of movies that were released to theaters towards the end of the year that aren’t yet streaming, so I haven’t seen them yet, including: Nightmare Alley, West Side Story, House of Gucci, Licorice Pizza, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and more. But, there are still SO MANY great 2021 movies that are worth celebrating!! Let’s dive in:
25. The Super Bob Einstein Movie — This joyous documentary, directed by Danny Gold, salutes the great Bob Einstein, who passed away in 2019. The doc features interviews from Mr. Einstein’s family (including his brother, Albert Brooks), and the many creative talents who worked with him and loved him, including many of the key players on Curb Your Enthusiasm (including Larry David, Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, J.B. Smoove, and others). The doc also features robust clips of Mr. Einstein’s work from throughout the years, including some of his great moments on Curb, his incredible scene with Albert Brooks in Modern Romance, and lots and lots of Super Dave ridiculousness. A fun salute to a comedic giant. (My full review is coming soon.)
24. Val — Next on my list is another wonderful documentary. Val, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo, explores the life and career of Val Kilmer. Utilizing the epic trove of home video footage that the actor has recorded throughout his life, both at home and on the sets of many of the movies in which he has performed, the documentary is remarkably intimate. It’s also bittersweet, as Mr. Kilmer has lost the use of his beautiful voice due to throat cancer (something I had no idea had happened until I saw the first trailer for this film). (Click here for my full review.)
23. Justice League: The Snyder Cut — OK, why is this movie on my list? It’s not, by any of my usual metrics, a good movie. It is insanely long. It is howlingly dumb at times. There are plot points that make no sense. Mr. Snyder demonstrates a near-complete lack of understanding of these iconic characters. Time and again things happen in the film because someone (likely Mr. Snyder) thought they’d be cool or look cool, but what’s happening doesn’t make any plot or character sense. And yet, I think it’s very cool that this film exists. I think it’s a shame and unfair that Warner Brothers lost faith in Mr. Snyder during the film’s production, and I think it’s great that, years down the road, Mr. Snyder was able to show his fans a version of the Justice League film he’d intended to make. I had fun watching this and there’s plenty of cool stuff for fans of Mr. Snyder’s DC films to finally get to see. (Click here for my full review.)
22. The Matrix: Resurrections — Here’s another film that’s not entirely successful but that is on my list because I think it’s cool that it exists. I had a lot of fun watching this return to the world of The Matrix, even though I don’t think the film entirely works. It’s too confusing, with too many ideas thrown up on screen but not given the time to be developed or explored. The same could be said for the characters, who are mostly one-dimensional. At the same time, I think writer/director Lana Wachowski came up with an interesting premise for a new Matrix story, and I thought both Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss were terrific reprising their classic roles. I was particularly pleased to see how the third act focused in on Trinity; that was well-deserved and long in coming. (I have a lot to say about this film; my in-depth full review will be coming soon!)
21. Last Night in Soho — I’m a huge fan of Edgar Wright’s films and so I was of course eager to see Last Night in Soho. I went into the film entirely cold; I didn’t have any idea what type of film this would be, and I loved how the film kept me guessing right up until the end. That was a lot of fun! However, this film would be higher on my list if it hadn’t turned out to be, at its heart, a horror film. I’m not a huge fan of horror films, and there was more violence and horrific stuff in the film’s second half than suited me. Still, this is an exquisitely well-made film. As always, Mr. Wright has an incredible eye for capturing beautifully designed sequences and beautifully framed images in nearly every frame of his film. This film contains one gorgeous and surprising sequence after another. The cast is terrific: both Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie are luminous, and the late great Diana Rigg is terrific in her final screen role before she passed away. (My full review is coming soon.)
I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for numbers 20-16!
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