2021 Films I Saw and Liked 

— Here are my favorites from the films made in 2021 that I was able to see:

• 
  Annette
• The Beatles: Get Back
• Being the Ricardos
• Cruella
• Cry Macho
• Dune
• The Harder They Fall
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• King Richard
• The Last Duel
• The Lost Daughter
• News of the World
• Passing
• The Power of the Dog
• tick, tick…Boom!

Since March of 2020, the pandemic has kept me from theaters.  My streaming budget isn't unlimited and some of the best films take a long time before they're easily accessible at home. These are obvious contenders for inclusion in any list of best films released in 2021, but they haven't been available for me to see so they aren't on my list (yet):  “Belfast,” CODA,” “Drive My Car,” “The French Dispatch,” “The Green Knight,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Memoria,” “Nightmare Alley,” “Summer of Soul,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “West Side Story,” and “The Worst Person in the World.”

I watched a lot "television" this year, in some cases just for escape.  Here are the shows I enjoyed most:

• And Just Like That... (HBO Max)
• Big Shot (Disney+)
• Blue Bloods (CBS)
  
• Bull (CBS)
• The Chair (Netflix)
• Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, & Chicago PD (NBC)
• CSI: Vegas (NBC)
• Emily in Paris (Netflix)
• The Equalizer (CBS)
• The Good Fight (Paramount+)
• Good Girls (NBC)
• Hacks (HBO Max)
• Halston (Netflix)
• Hawkeye (Disney+)
• Loki (Disney+)
• Lupin (Netflix)
• Made for Love (HBO Max)
• Magnum PI (CBS)
• Maid (Netflix)
• Mare of Easttown (HBO Max)
• NCIS & NCIS Hawaii (CBS)
• New Amsterdam (NBC)
• Pretend It’s a City (Netflix)
• Scenes from a Marriage (HBO Max)
• Squid Game (Netflix)
• Succession (HBO Max)
• Wahl Street (HBO Max)
• The White Lotus (HBO Max)

 Other things watched in December:

12/27/21 The Matrix Resurrections (HBO Max)

12/25/21 Father Christmas Is Back (Netflix)

12/22/21 Hawkeye (Disney+ series)

12/13/21 Succession, Season 3 (HBO Max)

The Lost Daughter

— Wow. This is a pretty amazing “first film.” It’s light on dialogue and heavy on glance, emotion, and atmosphere. Somehow a psychological thriller of sorts emerges, with emphasis on the psychological. Leda, a Harvard professor, has rented a place near the water on a small Greek island, planning to work and relax for the summer. The beach is quiet with the exception of a large and unsettling family that rents an oversized, pink villa every summer. A friendship of sorts forms between Leda, and a young mother from the villa who sometimes seems overwhelmed by the demands of her daughter. Olivia Coleman’s performance again demonstrates her skill which, combined with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s talent, manages to expose the pain and ambivalence felt by an unnatural mother doing the best she can but never meeting societal expectations. It’s a murky film, told internally with dark edges. It’s a very good film and well worth watching. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 121 minutes. Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, and Peter Sarsgaard.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lost-daughter-movie-review-2021

Christmas Inheritance

— Another formula film, where wealthy people learn the value of family, friendship, and the simple things in life, and a gentle soul who's never recovered from being jilted, finds himself falling in love the rich heiress. No doubt everyone lives happily ever after. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2017. 104 minutes. Directed by Ernie Barbarash. Starring Eliza Taylor, Jake Lacy, and Andie MacDowell.]
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a14458560/christmas-inheritance-netflix-movie-review/

The Matrix Resurrections

— [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2021. 148 minutes. Directed by Lana Wachowski. Starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, Jessica Henwick, Neil Patrick Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Christina Ricci.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-matrix-resurrections-movie-review-2021

Silent Night

— "Silent Night" fits perfectly into the Black Comedy Christmas Apocalypse genre, except I’m having trouble coming up with other films to give it genre-defining status. Suffice it to say you’re in for something different if you decide to watch this film. Actually, it’s almost like watching two films since the first third moves to one beat, with old friends arriving at a country estate for the holiday. A smiling Keira Knightley greets the arrivals at the door and handsome hubby Matthew Goode is by her side, making it look like we're in for a pleasant enough time. At some point things shift. You notice Ms. Knightley’s mouth may be smiling, but if looks could kill, some of her guests would be dead. Goode’s calm voice is starting to be a little less convincing, as though he's holding back the urge to run screaming into the night. Heck, if I had to be around the children in this film, I'd run screaming into the night too! Both Knightley and Goode ably depict sadness and anger under a façade of holiday cheer. But really, this isn’t a Christmas film, just a film set in December. I won’t spoil the film, but I will say I didn’t exactly enjoy the viewing experience—it’s so very, very dark—but I liked it after I’d seen it and kept thinking about it, and could appreciate the sliver of hope that may still have existed at the end. Dare I suggest that hint of hope might be enough to make it suitable New Year’s Eve viewing fare as well—if you dare! Included in the cast are the boy from “Jo Jo Rabbit” who is fantastic, his brother, and Johnny Depp's daughter. [AMC+ streaming.]

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[2021. 92 minutes. Written and directed by Camille Griffin. Starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Roman Griffin Davis.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/silent-night-movie-review-2021

Father Christmas Is Back

— [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 105 minutes. Directed by Mick Davis and Philippe Martinez. Starring Elizabeth Hurley, John Cleese, and Kelsey Grammer.]
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/father-christmas-is-back-review/

Don't Look Up

— I generally like black humor and satire, and I'm usually up for an apocalypse film, but I tend to appreciate subtlety too. No one would call this film subtle or, for that matter, more than occasionally humorous. During the first part of the film, I thought it was just “too soon” for this kind of treatment, then I moved to thinking it was just going on too long for this particular topic. Throughout most of it, I felt sorry for the cast who tried but just couldn’t elevate the film from its lumbering pace. DiCaprio and Lawrence’s characters at least have some human emotions, but poor Streep and Blanchett’s characters are little more than flat stereotypes. What a waste of talent. Toward the end I was feeling a little better about it, maybe because it was almost over, but I’m glad I stayed through the credits, interrupted midway by a final scene that I honestly did enjoy. I imagine some people will love the film for its subject matter, but I’m not one of them. It’s a shame, too, since I’m interested in how we move forward now that truth and lies have become contranyms. In fact, the immediacy of the content may make it worth watching. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 138 minutes. Directed by Adam McKay. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, and Meryl Streep.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dont-look-up-movie-review-2021

Joy for Christmas

— Nothing new here, just standard Christmas fare. A big-city publicist returns to her home town to find her family’s charity in trouble so she manages to save the day and, along the way, meet up with a famous athlete who needs someone to remind him about the true meaning of Christmas. Love blossoms, the family charity is saved, and local kids get plenty of presents. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 86 minutes. Directed by Pat Williams. Starring Erin Boyes, Cindy Busby, and Sam Page.]
https://decider.com/2021/12/22/joy-for-christmas-gac-family-amazon-prime-review/

Being the Ricardos

— Don’t worry about whether or not Nicole Kidman can play Lucille Ball or why a Spanish actor was cast as Desi Arnez. This film shines based on decent acting and a well-written, complex script. In a reasonable amount of time, Aaron Sorkin manages to shift timelines so events—reports of Ball’s link with the Communist Party, her pregnancy, and Desi’s reported infidelity—are shifted into a single week of rehearsals for an “I Love Lucy” episode. When combined with the rapid success of the show and other tensions on and off set, it’s a marriage in crisis. These various stories, rippling through both public and private lives, make for a good, fictional look at Lucy and Desi playing Lucy and Ricky. I liked the film a lot, but it isn’t for people who want a documentary or have trouble separating fact from fiction in film. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2021. 106 min. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Starring Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons, and Nina Arianda.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/being-the-ricardos-movie-review-2021

A California Christmas: City Lights

— A slight variation on the usual Christmas storyline, this is a country girl and a city boy in love but needing to deal with different lifestyles and friends. As you might expect, love and Christmas win out. It's actually vaguely charming and evidently a good follow up to the first film. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 131 min. Directed by Shaun Paul Piccinino. Starring Lauren Swickard, Josh Swickard, Ali Afshar, and David Del Rio.]
https://decider.com/2021/12/16/a-california-christmas-city-lights-netflix-review/

Passing

— If there were awards for perfect and consistent style, this film would win, but it has a lot more than an ambience going for it. It's a look at racial identity in the 1920s, focusing on one woman who passes as white. Tension is everywhere and beneath every scene and every encounter is an air of racism. The uneasiness of bigotry is the norm. The film is extremelty well done and worth watching. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 98 min. Directed by Rebecca Hall. Starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, and Adre Holland.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/passing-movie-review-2021

The Unforgiveable

— Sandra Bullock still commands our attention, even in this film where she's dulled from years in prison and now dealing with an unsympathetic world, and sporting make-up designed to make her look as plain as possible. The story is sometimes unfocused and not as good as the cast, but I still watched from start to finish and considered it worth my while. I'm not sure Viola Davis would agree since her part doesn't seem in any way up to her acting abilities. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2010. 112 min. Directed by Nora Fingscheidt. Starring Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, and Vincent D’Onofrio.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-unforgivable-movie-review-2021

The Song of Lunch

— I think I'd like anything with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman, and this is no exception. The story is a little sad and the self-loathing and drinking is difficult, but that's because the acting is so good and the story so familiar, if not in reality at least as a possiblity never played out. It's based on the narrative poem by Christopher Reid and well worth viewing. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2010. 48 min. Directed by Niall MacCormick. Starring Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson.]
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/oct/08/the-song-of-lunch-review

A Boy Called Christmas

— I see a lot of Christmas films and this one is a cut above the pack. It's fresh, engaging, heart-warming, and worth seeing. [Disney+ streaming.]

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[2021. 106 min. Directed by Gil Kenan. Starring Maggie Smith, Isabella O’Sullivan, and Joel Fry.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-boy-called-christmas-movie-review-2021

Single All the Way

— This is "Netflix’s first gay holiday film." It doesn't venture far from the plot of many holiday rom-coms, just reworking a few characters so the primary relationship is gay instead of straight. Still, it's fun and, if you don't look too hard at how one person or another might be portrayed, better than no gay representation in such films. Netflix also deserves praise for casting three openly gay guys in the main roles. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 99 min. Directed by Michael Mayer. Starring Michael Uri, Philemon Chambers, and Luke Macfarlane.]
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/02/single-all-the-way-review-netflix-first-gay-christmas-romcom

Jungle Cruise

— No surprises from this bit of escapism based on a Disney theme park ride! Emily Blunt may be under-utilized, but she does the role of a hard-headed British feminist/explorer justice and Dwayne Johnson is appropriately endearing as the captain of the boat making its way down the Amazon. Between the two of them, this thing works well enough so it’s fun to watch. [Disney+ streaming.]

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[2021. 127 min. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Jack Whitehall.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jungle-cruise-movie-review-2021

The Power of the Dog

— Jane Campion’s latest film is methodical, beautiful, smoldering, and unsettling. Benedict Cumberbatch, as an American cowboy, is at first a little too stereotypic until you realize the part he’s playing is someone whose facade is carefully maintained. Kirsten Dunst is perfect as the woman who marries a rancher and finds herself unable to adjust to ranch life and one omnipresent ranch man in particular. Throw in a bookish, gangly, somewhat effeminate son, and you end up with more stuff smoldering under the surface than anyone needs. It’s a struggle to be the alpha male, to come to terms with sexuality, to live with addiction, to overcome loneliness... It’s a wonderful film, but the kind of thing about as many people will dislike as like. I really liked it. Kudos to both Cumberbatch and Dunst and, of course, to Campion. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2021. 126 min. Directed by Jane Campion. Starring Benedit Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-power-of-the-dog-movie-review-2021