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