2021 Films in Review

I watched so many goddamn movies in 2021. Over 150, which I think maybe the most in my whole life. I gained weight this year, perhaps because instead of going outside, I watched TV and movies. I mentioned last year, and it remains true this year, that my movie watching has been significantly influenced by Letterboxd, a website (and app) for movie lovers. It can be as solitary or social as you want it to be. You have a diary of watching movies, can create a watchlist (my original attraction), and make other lists. This year, I regularly explored strange film lists, read interesting film writing that led me to other films, and listened to movie podcasts to help me understand and contextualize films, and appreciate some movies that I had previously pooh-poohed. I would say that film is where I put most of my focus this year in terms of cultural cache and interest.

Similar to previous years, Staehli and I did theme nights of double features. We watched older films (better than last year’s Baron Von Terror schlock-fests). I saw 6 movies in theaters, 31 international movies, and 8 animated films. I re-watched 29 films. We did almost two solid months of horror films, including nearly a film-a-day in October. I watched a movie from every decade from 1930 to present, though the vast majority were focused from 1980 – Present. It’s relatively well spread out, with the 1980s and 90s sounding in at 26 films a piece, slightly less for the 2000s, and then back up to around 30 for the 2010s, and then over 30 for 2020s. We bought movies for one another for the first time in years, and talked a great deal about certain films.

You can see my thoughts on Letterboxd here.

Favorites:

Moonstruck (1987): Everything everyone has said is true, this is amazing. A young Nicolas Cage and Cher make for a dynamic couple. It’s funny, it’s romantic, it’s Italian.

Bound (1996): The first Wachowski Sisters films is a taught noir film featuring two lesbians, the incredible Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon as dual femme fatales. It’s so tightly edited, tense, and amazing. 

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974): Gangsters hijack a subway. Truly an amazing movie with a great final shot. But also, what a New York Movie! I love all of the NYC stereotypes that show up in this, and the casual diversity. What gem of a movie.

Police Story (1985): Saw this one twice, once at home and once for Staehli’s birthday when we rented out Central Cinema. Fabulous both times. The stunt work is amazing here, the story is a bit loosey-goosey, but what movie!

Bacurau (2019: A surreal, beautiful, kinda pulpy Brazilian film. Another review I read summed this up perfectly: Brazilian John Carpenter Spaghetti Western.

The Hunt of the Wilderpeople (2016): One of Taika Watiti’s best. Funny, full of heart, but also a little sad too.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): Scary, yet not a horror film. Amazing cinematography, haunting score. I also love the urban legend that this actually happened (it did not).

Personal Shopper (2016): A ghost story. Kristen Stewart brings trepidation, hallowed out grief, desire, and more to this intimate, fascinating story. I loved it more than I thought it would. 

Luca (2021): This was utterly delightful. A low stakes Pixar movie. Not everything needs to be about saving the world! Some things can be allegorical, or just plain low stakes. This almost read as a Ghibli movie. I had a delightful time.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020): I picked this up because I watched Werewolves Within and Letterboxd reviewers mentioned this one. I found the blend of horror, comedy, drama, and thriller wonderful. The editing is so propulsive, it never lets it’s total asshole main character off the hook, every actor gives their character so much life, the editing makes this so sharp. I had a delightful time. A great horror film that is a tight 90!

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021): The best time I had inebriated watching a movie. Silly, funny, nearly Muppet-esque in its anarchy, a smashing musical number, and again, relatively low-stakes. Give me more movies like this.

Out of Sight (1998): Still great, perhaps my favorite of Soderberg’s (who is the Director I most watched this year). He’s capable of harnessing Clooney’s charm, a great turn from Jennifer Lopez, and plenty of lovely side characters. Romantic, sexy, and slickly made. A great time at the movies.

The Fog (1980): The tightest of tight 90s. I loved it, my favorite Carpenter film. Spooky, atmospheric, but also direct! We know what the stakes are very early on. 

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008): Frothy, delightful, but also technically sound. Good blocking, smart camera moves, a bit theatrical but at the same time, the material calls for a bit of staginess. I had a fabulous time. Amy Adams is a delight, and so is Frances McDormand. Young and old romance!

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999): Surprisingly this LGBTQ focused flick has stood up relatively well! I had a great time with these characters embracing themselves. It was a great double feature with…

Hairspray (1988): Tons of fun. Campy, but not winky about it. Anarchic in the best way. Some of the attitudes are a little bit dated, but I had a blast.

The Matrix (1999): This really holds up, in part because the Wachowski’s are such King Fu nerds, they take their time with the editing, the choreography, and keep the shots mostly wide. How did people learn all the wrong lessons from this? This was one of my favorite movies as a teenager for story and aesthetic reasons (the aesthetics are a bit goofy today), but now from a craft point of view, I appreciate it a ton more.

The Apartment (1960): Baxter is kind of a drip (which is the point), but Shirley McClaine kills it, and Wilder directs the hell out of this. It’s surprising to me how dark some of these older movies are, and they don’t really shy away from it.

The Shining (1980): Staehli had never seen it. It’s as tense as I remember, those spooky big wide shots. The alcoholism hit the most this time.

Chungking Express (1994): Wong-Kar Wai’s big hit that is basically two stories smooshed together. This has stuck more in my head after my viewing. Initially, I liked it, but did not love it. Really beautiful to look at, but something didn’t quite hit me as much as I wanted. But those visuals have really stuck with me, the framing, the editing, specific compositions really make this a unique film.

Rumble in the Bronx (1995): Saw the original Hong Kong version, which is well worth it. The story beats are a little nutty, especially toward the end, but the action is a consistently better here through than most of Police Story 3 (excepting the end chase of that film, which is magnificent).  The tone whiplashes a bit, but it’s fun to see the grimy New York again, and there’s a ton of great stunts, with fun fights and some good gags.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940): The other Jimmy Stewart Christmas film. The basis for You’ve Got Mail, but this has a ton of charm. It’s funny to see this take place in Hungary, but once you sign up for the conceit, I like it quite a bit. May watch again in future holiday times. 

Speed Racer (2008): It’s a true lifelike cartoon. The Wachowski’s continue to innovate on action sequences, and now that I knew what I was getting in for, I liked this movie much more the second time around (it helps that I was much, much more sober this time). I liked how earnest it was, and like I said before, there’s real chemistry in this movie. 

Prospect (2018): I’d heard about this film before, but didn’t prioritize watching it. Staehli picked up a love for Pedro Pascal, so we watched this, and it was great! A good, tight sci-fi film (filmed in Washington!) with some good aesthetics, and smaller stakes than saving the galaxy. Totally recommend.

The Green Knight (2021): My first David Lowry film. Nicely shot, appropriately strange journey. I really had a great time with this in theaters. 

Body Double (1984): I had a lot more fun than I expected. I’ve only ever seen Mission Impossible and clips from Carrie of Brian De Palma’s work before, but know of his reputation as the artier, sleazier, contemporary of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. I also knew a bit of Body Double’s history as not being kind to women. However, I was really taken with this twisty thriller. I loved that Brian De Palma had such a weak protagonist, and used framing to make the audience identify with him and then use the police inspector to pull back and reveal from a second perspective what a creep Jake was. He was gross! Unacceptable behavior! Then he goes down the rabbit hole, and the whole Frankie Goes to Hollywood scene is just gonzo amazing. So much fun. When was the last time a porn was like that?! The twisty lunacy just continues. Melanie Griffith serving hair inspiration for Kristen Stewart. I also really liked the wide shots, the split diopter, and the playing with focus. I sort of can’t believe the budget this got. I could see some of the influence on The Bling Ring, and other films.

A Fish Called Wanda (1988): I’d seen parts on TV, but never the whole thing. Really funny! Some broad humor, some subtle humor, some great looks for the characters. A pretty comforting movie. 

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992): I saw this in college for class, and didn’t think of it much then, though the scene where Dracula cries “purple tears of emo and screams Vince” became part of our college lexicon. This time, it’s way better than I remember! Great production design, costuming, casting (amazing work from Anthony Hopkins). Just fabulous, go-for-it energy from Coppola. I think it’s reputation has gotten better. 

Bad Education (2020): Some career level work from Hugh Jackman here, who I think does well as characters who are hiding something (see: The Prestige). A tight little thriller based on a true story.

The Howling (1981): Way better than I thought it was going to be! Scarier, and much less cartoony that Joe Dante’s later work that I think Gremlin’s essentially crystalizes. Real scares, amazing transformation, totally recommend!

The Babadook (2014): This was so fucking scary. All in the editing.

Knife + Heart (2018): Moody modern giallo set in 1979 Paris and surrounding environs. A serial killer stalks the gay porn scene, brutally murdering men as they just try to live their lives. 

Filmed in bright 35mm, I wish the film had a bit more texture, but otherwise the lighting was great, and sometimes surprisingly moving. Also eerie, with some scenes in the countryside that were unnerving. It was good at finding unnaturally alone spaces. The score slaps.

Working Girl (1988): Harrison Ford never did too many romantic comedies, which is a shame because this one is so good. Everyone is great in this, and it’s also a very New York movie.

Luz (2018): A lean 70 minute European demonic possession film. More theatrical than cinematic, but effective nonetheless with some neat staging tricks. Very memorable, very effective, spooky but not too scary. Recommended!

Pretty Good:

Ocean’s Eleven (2001): There are so many wipes in this movie. I also like how everyone bags on Matt Damon.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988): I wish modern movies were this horny. Silly and funny, and not really scary at all.

The Great Mouse Detective (1986): Gorgeous animation with real personality. The characters are a little thin, but I had a great time, and the tension was always clear.

Double Indemnity (1944): This is objectively great, though not necessarily for me. Who’s playing who, great lighting, great plot set up, some good acting. I just had a hard time with how much Fred McMurray kept saying Baby. 

Matinee (1993): Way, way better than I suspected it may be. I’d long seen the poster on video store walls but been suspicious. It turns out that I was long wrong, and this is a love letter to terrible movies (that I watched all last summer and fall). It also brings out the joy of going to the movies, the surprising charm of actual child actors, the charisma of John Goodman. It’s got parts of Spielberg, but more venom to some of its jokes.

Carrie (1976): What really sells this movie is that we honestly care for Sissy Spacek’s Carrie in this film. She’s a weirdo, but we side with her, believe in her, which makes the ultimate dynamite end sequence all that more effective.

Scream (1996): The genre-aware murder-spree movie. Not quite as bloody as I remember (I remember it as truly horrific when I was 11 or 12), but still well done! The genre touchstone for so much that came afterward.

Police Story 2 (1988): Truly amazing stunts, with deeper stakes. I missed the manic energy of the last film, but this was really good. A more traditional story, but a great one.

Dune (2021): A serious blockbuster without too much sense of humor. An epic scale that I liked okay. 

Married to the Mob (1988): Michelle Pfeiffer is killer in this, everyone else is pretty good. It takes some weird twists.

Buffaloed (2019): Zoey Deutsch is compelling as a woman who becomes a Buffalo debt collector. She plays it all with verve, a manic hustle, who is barely keeping it together. I really liked the energy here.

Thoroughbreds (2017): You can tell it’s based on a play with the few set pieces and focus in dialogue, but what a tense film where you have to explore who’s playing who. Anya-Taylor Joy is good in this, but Olivia Cooke is the one who really sells me on this one.

The Informant (2009): This holds up! A silly film that is also filled with twists and turns. Loved the conceit of comedians playing straight roles.Reminds me of how much comedy is physical rather than verbal.

Commando (1985): So much better than I remembered. Just gloriously wild action movie bullshit. Nearly every single action movie trope is in this, and it’s all great.

Audition (1999): The slow moving Japanese horror film. Starts off as a melancholy exploration of being a widow, but the track that takes slowly leads to a horrific ending. Difficult to recommend because of the viscerally uncomfortable ending, but certainly effective. 

Last Night in SoHo (2021): I think I liked this more than most folks. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but certainly better than Baby Driver (in my mind).

Brigsby Bear (2017): One of the movies that I talked about the most unsolicited this year. The last shot leaves it open to interpretation, but we certainly took the darker version. Good to see Mark Hammill getting live action work unrelated to his past career.

Shiva Baby (2020): A rapidly descending breakdown of a girl at a Shiva with epic cringe, but somehow I really liked it?

The Rocketeer (1991): So many people die horribly in this PG Walt Disney film. A classic 90’s movie-movie with budgets for everything: costumes, sets, stunts, nice working actors for all the roles. I had a good time.

It Follows (2014): I had a better time with this film this time around. I found it easier to follow, and scarier actually. A great one.  

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1964): I never had a sibling, but this seems like taking sibling rivalry to a whole new level:

Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 (2021): The real actual end of Evangelion goes out hopeful. Huh.

The Mask of Zorro (1998): Swashbuckling and never boring. Sexy, smoldering, charming leads dominate the screen. It’s got big budget 90’s production values. I loved it!

Redline (2008): Weirder and less psychedelic than I remember, but still amazing.

Gremlins (1984): A Holiday Tradition at this point

Escape from New York (1981): Theoretically I have seen this before but remembered nothing except Isaac Hayes. This was pretty good! I remember it as a more soaring film than the grittiness we get, but I still had a good time.

Palm Springs (2020): Good the second time around. Great chemistry between Samberg and Milotti. Good dynamics and the script is pretty clever. Part of my wishes we got a little more about Nyles’ background, but at the same time, it’s more about the mentality of being afraid to move forward. Milotti is the one who moves everything forward: Roy, escape, the relationship itself. In some ways, the whole thing is about her!

Side Effects (2013): So many shifting allegiances here. We start with Rooney Mara then Channing Tatum, then Jude Law, then others!! This movie is so damn twisty, what the fuck.

A Simple Favor (2018): Trashy, but so very fun. Great outfits and costuming in general. I forgot exactly how twisty it got at the end. 

The House of Gucci (2021): A soapy family drama with larger than life characters filmed like a realist drama. The contrast clashes a bit but I had fun with the whole thing. Jared Leto and Lady Gaga disappear into their roles, Adam Driver slow builds, and Al Pacino is pretty good!

Miracle Mile (1988): Good, but sad! That panic at the end is really, really effective. I have a difficult time buying the romance, which makes this less effective for me than some. I think the leads have chemistry, but Anthony Lane has the white knight syndrome that makes it difficult for me to sympathize with him.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Train to Busan

The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008): This is still wild, and that desert plain chase is epic, but it doesn’t hold together as well as I remember. “The good” is less fleshed out than he should be, my favorite is all the Song Kang Ho’s side business. The ending isn’t as good as it could have been, but overall, not a bad time.

Dredd: Solid action flick! A bit of misogyny throughout, but it’s light. The action is fun, and this a take on the Raid, though I liked this pacing better.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021): Loved all the animation quirks and the quick humor and heart. A wonderful family film!

Muppets Most Wanted (2014):

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): Genuinely spooky!

Dragon Inn (1967): Great! You can tell King Hu is developing the language of action cinema. I’m not super versed in wuxia films, so grabbing the Criterion Disc and watching the scene breakdown was super helpful to get a sense for what exactly some of the editing was going for except being non-linear. Instead, it’s speed, especially in some of those wide shots, which are composed beautifully. It’s obvious this movie had an impact on Tarantino, but I prefer the simplicity (and unexpected directions this goes).

Heavenly Creatures (1994): Teens are just like that!

The Uninvited (1944): One of the first haunted house films. Ghosts Fight! Why don’t we see more rival hauntings?

I Married a Witch (1942): Cute! Veronica Lake really carries this, she’s like a modern girl dropped into a 1940’s film.

Wild Things (1998): Swamp noir with Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon, and Kevin Bacon. This movie knows what it is, and it’s better for it. 

Mystic Pizza (1988): Last year, we watched the great Slumber Party Massacre, and you could tell this film wasn’t written by a man (for the time). Instead, it was written by that writer/director. I wish she had been able to direct. This was cuter than I expected.

Elf (2003): Parts of this are very ridiculous in a good way, and some are ridiculous in a bad way. Some of the interstitial skits are great, the overall arching story is a little pat. Still not too bad though!

The Court Jester (1955): I remember this being a riot when I saw it in college, and while not quite as structurally sound as I’d like storywise (a few things are awfully convenient), a fair number of the jokes hold up. The evil king has some menace and Angela Lansbury has some too.

Ocean’s Twelve (2004): A very different movie from the first one. I understand much better what it’s doing aesthetically now than when I first saw it in theaters. More of Brad Pitt’s movie than George Clooney, and has more of that energy: freewheeling and kinetic.

Censor (2021): Disturbing! The ending sort of reminded me of Swiss Army Man almost, though this film blinks and that one never did. Instead, captures the brutal depression of Britain in the 80s.

The Suicide Squad (2021): Weird, enjoyably dumb, and everything works together.

Fine! 

The Holiday (2006): It’s fine! I wish the pace was not so lackadaisical. The ending felt a little blah?

Venom: Let There be Carnage (2021): It can really be hard to understand Tom Hardy some times. A tight 90!

Midnight Special (2016): I go back and forth on this film. It’s an interesting premise about belief, parenting, and more. Some good performances, but somehow it still feels loose? I kind of wanted it to be tighter, more suspenseful, but the suspense is rooted in who believes if the child has magic powers, and who believes the father is doing a good thing. It’s a film more interested in that than playing a chase quite straight.

Police Story 3: Supercop (1992): The last 20 minutes are perfect, before that is less lively. Michelle Yeoh doing great work with Jackie Chan, but it’s a lot of lead up to those last 20 minutes.

Wild at Heart (1990): This is totally nuts, and so very David Lynch. Now that I’ve seen Twin Peaks, I’m able to spot more of his quirks from this era: soap opera inspiration and emoting, strong music cues, strong psychosexual drama. It’s all there. It’s kind of unpleasant though, not quite as haunting as his other work, which I think I prefer.

The Lure (2015): Polish mermaid musical. Truly sensational, in that I experienced a lot of sensations while watching this: awe, fear, disgust, wonder, and bewilderment. The song lyrics didn’t half make sense to me, but I had a good time.

Rush Hour (1998): Actually not too bad action for an American Jackie Chan flick. This one really thrives in its stars’ charisma and some okay jokes. The music cues were super racist though.

Nosferatu: The Vampyr (1979): Gorgeous cinematography and synced score, with an otherworldly Klaus Kinski performance. This expands and rounds out the original Nosferatu in many ways. I particularly liked the inclusion of the plague rats and Lucy’s assertiveness.

At the same time, this is still a nearly silent film. It’s moody, dreamy, but can be a bit too languid for my taste. I wanted something more tense, but this was still good.

Friday (1995): I was prepared for something anarchic, given various memed moments from this film, but it was much more chill with more verbal set pieces, and anti-gun PSA tacked on. Not a bad hangout film. 

Muppets Take Manhattan (1984): I have seen part of this before, but never the whole thing. It is lumpier and less zanier than I remember, but it’s still Muppets! They have a good time, and I have a good time.

No Sudden Move (2021): Solid film that was way more somber than I expected. Full of twists, anti-capitalist rhetoric, and a movie about the past for the times.

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021): It’s just the ride, but with Muppets. I miss the original writing, but ultimately it was fine. 

Hocus Pocus (1993): I had fun, even if some of my friends did not.

The Ring (2002): The horror sequences are good, but there are too few of them. It’s amazing this guy went on to do the Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Fright Night (1985): Lotta subtext in this one

Scream 2 (1997): This was appreciably dumb.

Wolf Guy (1975): Sonny Chiba plays a werewolf who never ever transforms. Some good action, but I felt like it dragged and dragged toward the end. 

Braindead (1992): What I wish all those dumb sci-fi and horror movies were actually like. Just delightfully gory and stupid. You see some of Peter Jackson’s sensibilities forming right there. 

Hugo (2011): I appreciate Martin Scorsese, but this became less about the kids, and more about film preservation, which is strange. 

Fright Night (2011): Saw this one before the older one. More twists than expected! Good sense of humor once it gets up and rolling. Some of the dialogue is kinda bad though. Colin Farrell says beer very strangely. 

Save Yourselves (2020): This film is trying to say something, and I’m not sure what. There’s a good monologue about masculinity, there’s some good fun about phones, there’s neat monster design, but then it all sort of added up into…what?

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017): what even was this musical zombie christmas movie in Scotland

Bit (2019): Totally fine vampire flick!

Greener Grass (2019): Gonzo humor. 

Bo Burnham: Inside (2021): I hope Bo Burnham is okay. Felt important at the time, and then I think I got embarrassed about liking it and re-assessed my evaluation.

Serial Mom (1994): Amazingly Campy

Okay: 

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994): I don’t get it.

Tenet (2020): This was more fun than I thought it would be. I read it as a neat commentary about the nature of blockbusters and also an excuse to make some cool action sequences. The car heist is the coolest part.

Stoker (2013): I liked the build up but by the last third, I felt like the story had overplayed its hand and I could see where it was going and lost interest. Great direction, but still a bit humdrum.

Mr. Vampire (1985): Some amazing stunts! Kinda weird Chinese vampire flick.

Werewolves Within (2021): This was cute!

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007): It’s really that 45 minute fight in the whirlpool. Goes really weird and I like it.

The Mummy (1932): The protagonist is a drip, Karloff is great (as is the makeup), the editing is a little sloppy. Still! I enjoyed a lot of the lighting, and you can tell the cinematographer knows their stuff (and that the director began in cinematography). Some really great shots and special effects especially for the time. I just wish the English folks weren’t so dumb.

Malignant (2021): Just… all the tropes. You can see where this is going a mile away. It’s so dumb, but nicely campy.

Repo Man (1984): Some good bits, but it doesn’t hang together quite the way that I want. Funny that I keep saying I want more anarchy, when an actual anarchist filmmaker gives me this, I say “meh.”

Hands on a Hardbody (1997): My only documentary of the year. Surprisingly riveting, but at the same time: what people are willing to do for an okay truck! It meant livelihood and freedom and a lot of other things. Sad that my preferred candidate didn’t win, but boy did she crack in a very specific way!

Onward (2020): This was okay! Some clever D&D jokes, some good animation, but the story felt overstuffed until the back half. Once they actually take the path of peril, then I felt like the characters actually had a chance to shine. I feel like Chris Pratt did well with what he was given but Tom Holland really was only so-so.

Nobody (2021): Some fun fight scenes, and a very silly plot. Nearly entirely disappeared from my memory after I watched it. 

Ginger Snaps (2000): Much more sisterly vibes, less queer vibes

The Great Wall (2016): Not as bad as I was led to believe. Some interesting action and choreography, and a neat concept. But boy does Matt Damon feel out of place here. He reminds me of another actor but I can’t place who. Pedro Pascal knew the assignment, as always. Willen Defoe is also here, doing okay. The beginning is muddled (also, that is when the edible was at full strength) but later was a-okay

An American in Paris (1951): Absolutely gorgeous set, costumes, choreography, and some witty one liners, all sunk by an aggressively creepazoid romance. All the actors are trying their best, but the structure and thin romance really left me hanging here.

Fear Street: 1994 (2021): This was the exact right kind of dumb schlock that I yearn for during the summer months.

Fear Street: 1978 (2021): Schlock at summer camp.

Fear Street: 1666 (2021): Be gay, do witchcraft? Enjoyable, and at the conclusion of the series, the themes that have has not been subtly laid down become full on text: white people suck, the rich will do anything to get what they want, and misogyny is historical and upheld.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002): I cannot believe this made so much money. I think the guy doesn’t…look…great?

Avengers: Endgame (2019): Parts of this are fun, especially the time heist middle. Parts of it are definitely endings and feel sorta pro-forma. I have a lot of positive memories of the comic characters, and have felt pretty mixed about the movie portrayals at various points. Like I’m glad people connect to these characters who are ultimately about trying to be your best self, fighting for justice and good, but at the same time, this can be so simplistic, so obviously about do-gooding that I feel like it just skims the surface. But still, they made a big ole movie.

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021): Good enough action actually, in service of a parent issues feelings film that never quite establishes its own world. It feels like a strange blend of John Wick assassin world with almost a stagey musical bent.

Running Man (1987): A bunch of dudes in a terrible murder future with a barely coherent overarching plot. Like, what does the resistance stand for, and why are there no shots of people really changing? The whole world is barely set up. This is super silly, and also pretty homophobic, many dudes die of dick trauma.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and her Lover (1989): Moving visual tableau, but the copy I had was plagued with terrible sound mixing, so I had a difficult time understanding what exactly was being said more than half the time. Michael Gambon chews the scenery.

Single All the Way (2021): Perfectly charming on its face, but the more you think about the implications of any character’s actions, it gets a little weird!

Mortal Kombat (2021): I am surprised at the hate! The action is legible, the fights are pretty good so long as they involve Sub Zero, the characters are shallow but get like one major character beat each (my biggest complaint is Jax getting stiffed), and it’s about the right combo of just serious enough and pretty cheesy. I could have used one final fight, but otherwise I had a great time.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996): I am surprised at all the love this gets! I was not a fan as much. Samuel L Jackson was great (and doing actual honest to god acting! It’s affecting), Geena Davis is a good actress, but terribly served by the script in my opinion. There’s just a lot going on, most of it for too long.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006): Silly, and the the pacing starts sagging around halfway through, and I wish there was more Elizabeth

Johnny Mnemonic (1995): The technobabble is strong with this one.

Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill (1965): This is a pretty well made B-movie, and apparently the most coherent by Russ Meyer, who I used to confuse regularly with Roger Corman. They are very different filmmakers, as the rest of Russ Meyer’s films are basically softcore porn. 

Monster Hunter (2021): I thought this was okay. Matt and Staehli, who love the games, had a terrible time.

Bad: 

Sweet Home Alabama (2002): This made the whole “barn wedding” aesthetic on Pinterest, and whole “big city girl has to go back to the country to really find love trope” big and we are worse for it.

JFK (1991): It’s an Oliver Stone movie, big emotions about justice, edited with an M-16, and featuring surprisingly big names. Everyone is in this! It’s also 3 fucking hours long. Overall, I think it muddles its facts, and it’s strange to watch this post-Trump, as some of this stuff reads a bit like someone getting red-pilled.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001): A great send up of classically shitty movies, which I spent a lot of time watching last year. Clear homages to Teenagers from Outerspace, Plan 9, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Manos: Hands of Fate. Funny, but even at 90 minutes, a bit of a drag in the last third (like any of those movies).

Southland Tales (2006): Enjoyably incomprehensible. I loved this in college and was on it’s wavelength (it was a product of its times). Now, 15 years later, everything reads as not as urgent.

Godzilla vs. King Kong (2021): Not the right level of dumb. Where does ANY of that light underground even come from?!!

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017): This was so dumb, but enjoyably so, more than I expected. None of this is good, but it is at least mostly entertaining

Wonder Woman: 1984 (2020): Parts of this are better than I was expecting, but basically after Max becomes the stone, this just becomes utter nonsense

RocknRolla (2008): Way worse than I remembered. Plot convolutions for the sake of plot convolutions. Weak characters outside the Wild Bunch and Archy, and just sort of macho repellant.

And that was my big year in movies.