Half-Year Review - The Films I've seen so far this year

2021 has seen a vast improvement of films at the halfway point compared to last year, where I’d only felt motivated to watch 3 films by June. With a lot more to offer and with cinemas now open giving me the opportunity to go see a film whenever I want, I’ve seen more films in these 6 months than I saw in the entirety of last year, and with that many films (and a couple of TV series too) came both good and bad.

So this one’s going to be a bit different from the format I had for my last list; rather than simply ranking the films and TV seasons, I’m going to separate them into 5 categories first – very bad, bad, middling, good and very good. Good and very good are the ones that I’d definitely recommend, while the others I would either hold off on or do some research to see if they’re the films for you. I feel that this would be more helpful than last time.

And just as a quick side note, so far I’ve seen no films as good as last year’s Minari or as bad as The New Mutants, so I don’t have any definitive “of the decade so far” statements.

Right, here we go, starting with the really bad…

The Very Bad (Never recommend)

31. Thunder Force

Director: Ben Falcone

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Melissa Leo, Bobby Cannavale

Sigh. The most depressing film of the year is somehow the one that is trying to be the most comedic. I’d joyously call it irony if I didn’t shrink inside remembering this film.

Every single element of this movie – plot logic, pacing, costume design, direction, production value, cinematography, villains, the acting especially – catastrophically fails at some level, along with failing to take advantage of its superhero setting in any meaningful way or commentary. It is not unfair to say that parts of this movie reached the same lows of quality of films like Leonard Part 6, as the two films even share the same structure of jokes and foreshadowing.

That is all.

30. America: The Motion Picture

Director: Matt Thompson

Cast: Channing Tatum, Jason Mantzoukas, Olivia Munn, Raoul Trujillo, Andy Samberg, Will Forte, Bobby Moynihan

I’m absolutely shocked by how bad this movie was. From the creators of Archer, a show which knew how to balance ludicrous violence and idiocy with genuinely clever humour, America: The Motion Picture is non-stop idiocy and stupidity that simply fails to have any impact. Only sporadically achieving laughs, every joke in this film is either based on the use of the f-bomb, some anachronism or a joke that doesn’t even make sense if you’ve studied anything about this period in history (for instance, King James is a non-existent person as at the time, King George was ruling – they couldn’t even get that right).

Aside from that, the TV-quality animation and absolutely awful story means that each tired joke or commentary sticks out like a sore thumb. This film is merely a series of animation cels which may have the intention of emulating how the dumbass lead characters of Archer view their own country's history. If so, then it succeeds wildly – but because of how annoying it is to watch, I just want to watch what Archer characters do instead of what Archer characters think.

29. Awake

Director: Mark Raso

Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Barry Pepper, Finn Jones, Lucius Hoyos, Ariana Greenbladt, Francis Fisher, Shamier Anderson

Remember M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, widely considered one of the worst films of all time and one of the best funny-bad experiences ever? Awake is that, but without the funny-bad. It’s just bad.

Set in a world where suddenly no-one has the ability to sleep, Awake is full of giant plot holes and logical flaws as the filmmakers shy away from actually explaining anything about their premise. Awake is also shot with a very ugly and boring aesthetic, without any tension or style, and the acting is barely passable. Also incredible is how this world just turns into Cormac McCarthy’s The Road after 4 days of not being able to sleep, where it just becomes this extremely derivative and somewhat hilarious post-apocalyptic slog.

To quote YouTuber Elvis the Alien’s review, should have slept on this one.

28. The Woman in the Window

Director: Joe Wright

Cast: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh

I’d actually almost recommend this movie because I had a great time laughing at the contrivances and incredible dialogue on display, but ultimately much of that humour is derived from the third act with the crazy slasher-film killer chase and such. The first two-thirds of the movie are slow, boring and only alleviated by Joe Wright’s strong handle of the technical qualities of his movie.

Centring on an agoraphobic woman who believes that her neighbour across the street is a murderer, The Woman in the Window feels derivative and tired from the start, and eventually drags into hysteria and logic gaps which defy imagination. Amy Adams and the cast are trying, but their efforts are like sprinkling sugar on a rock – it’s still not edible until the final bit where you’re mirthlessly laughing at the fact that you ate a rock/watched this movie.

27. Dynasty Warriors (真·三國無雙)

Director: Roy Chow

Cast: Louis Koo, Carina Lau, Wang Kai, Tony Yang, Han Geng, Justin Cheung, Gulnazar, Lam Suet

Dynasty Warriors feels like a 2-hour cutscene from a 2005 Japanese hack-and-slash video game. Dull, repetitive and poorly filmed, this truly is the proof that video game adaptations, if they try to take themselves seriously, are always destined to suck.

After the opening ten minutes of ridiculous fun, this film slows to a crawl as dull exposition and posturing permeate this movie, with characters just standing around and talking blankly for 5 minutes or more (an annoyingly common staple in Chinese cinema). Clearly intending to be really dumb fun, the movie tries to make its action scenes as ridiculous as possible, but they’re few and far between, and the ones that are there are filled with bad editing, terrible cinematography and continuity errors out the ass.

After the fifth time guys flew into the air for no reason, I just tuned out.

26. Shadow in the Cloud

Director: Rosanne Liang

Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Taylor John Smith, Beulah Koale, Nick Robinson, Callan Mulvey

Shadow in the Cloud really divided people a la Event Horizon, one group considering it a fun throwback B-movie and praising the first half, and the other decrying the physics errors, logic and shocking filmmaking on display in the second. Clearly, I’m in the second.

If this movie kept the low-fi tension of the first act throughout its narrative and focused on character and acting instead of the eventual Photoshop explosions, then I probably would have loved this film as a loving Twilight Zone-esque WWII shlockfest. Unfortunately, the movie jarringly shifts into over-the-top action, which the low New Zealand budget was clearly not meant to deal with considering the utterly appalling CGI, green screen and cinematography on display in combat scenes.

At least the movie is earnest and the cast really try, but I did not enjoy this film at all. With a bit more refinement on tone, it could be a great film to watch with friends, but the cinema I watched it in was dead silent (aside from that one really creepy guy in front of me).

Right, the worst is over. Now onto…

The Bad (Do not recommend)

25. Outside the Wire

Director: Mikael Håfström

Cast: Anthony Mackie, Damson Idris, Emily Beecham, Michael Kelly, Pilou Asbæk

I actually tried typing a review of Outside the Wire, but could barely remember anything from it and eventually just gave up. That’s how indifferent I am to it.

Playing like the most generic Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare draft you could possibly get, Outside the Wire is a video game story without the enthralling gameplay. Boring to look at and only barely grazing on the edgy themes it tries to include in its story to seem intelligent, it’s incredibly uninvolving and uninteresting, which is a surprise coming from a great director like Mikael Håfström.

Thankfully, Anthony Mackie’s action does save this from being a complete disaster, so there’s that if you want it.

24. Malcolm and Marie

Director: Sam Levinson

Cast: John David Washington, Zendaya

Getting both 10/10 and 1/10’s on Metacritic, Malcolm and Marie either enlightens or enrages people about the issues relating to hubris, addiction, racism, sexism and relationships at its core. It reaches for the stars and some may say that the fascinating back and forth between the two titular characters is enough. I, on the other hand, feel that this entire film is essentially a pianist holding one key down for 2 hours.

The actual discussions between the eponymous couple are rote, repetitive and actually make no sense at all, merely dropping buzzwords in occasionally to seem more important than they are. The film lacks tension as Levinson uses wides and gliding camera moves to seemingly undermine his own intended sense of claustrophobia, and the black-and-white cinematography is more distracting than its worth. Washington and Zendaya do their absolute darn hardest to try and make this seem intense, but it’s a futile effort as neither character is remotely likeable, humorous or possessing interesting qualities.

Some of you may absolutely love this for what it shows and discusses, but I found it tedious. Watching an actual couple having a break-up fight for two hours would be far more interesting.

23. F9/Fast and Furious 9

Director: Justin Lin

Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, John Cena, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Nathalie Emmanuel, Charlize Theron, Sung Kang

F9 plays like a reunion show of a sitcom that wasn’t that great in the first place and where everyone is clearly there to just do whatever. It’s limp, uninvolving and surprisingly dull for a film where 100 cars explode in some shape or form.

Action scenes are overcut and full of stunts that are too short to be effective, while the rest of the movie is divided between very dull exposition, poor character development and humour that’s too speculative to be funny and which just leaves the audience annoyed. Some of the chemistry is fine, but this is a movie where, if you are not already a die-hard follower of the Fast and Furious films, you will probably be bored as hell.

And also, the trailers spoiled every good part of this movie, which is naturally very unhelpful.

22. Stowaway

Director: Joe Penna

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson, Toni Collette

Receiving mostly positive scores from critics, Joe Penna’s Stowaway was notable for its central moral quandary – do we kill this man or risk all of our lives? Unfortunately, as a film and narrative around that quandary, Stowaway is just dull.

The uninspired production design and visuals do little to alleviate the banality of the character interactions, with the actors trying their best to convey the professionalism of these characters and alleviate the dry air of the script. Beyond that, the film cops out on its central debate with an inconclusive answer and stereotypical ambiguous ending, while the movie also suffers from science errors and stupidity that frustrates more than it intrigues.

My advice would be to watch The Martian, or Gravity, or Interstellar, or any number of other space films.

21. Wish Dragon

Director: Chris Applehans

Cast: Jimmy Wong, John Cho, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Constance Wu, Jimmy O. Yang, Aaron Yoo, Will Yun Lee, Ronny Chieng

Essentially a Shanghai-set modern retelling of Aladdin, I legitimately thought this was a joke when the laughable thumbnail dropped into my recommended section on Netflix. But no, this is a real movie about another small boy trying to climb to the top with a weird creature as well. And it was tiring as hell.

Wish Dragon plays like a cheap knockoff of a DreamWorks film, with flat animation filled with errors (like some character’s hair not flowing in the wind when they fly) and piling on toilet joke and slapstick time after time with the condescending attitude of the corporations and committees that clearly made it. This movie can barely escape the shadow of Aladdin’s story structure, basically ripping major plot points off without any inventiveness of its own.

It will entertain small children, but the other animated films on this list will serve them far better (except America: The Motion Picture, of course).

Now for the middling, which you have free license to peruse…

The Middling (I mean, go ahead, but no guarantee)

20. Army of the Dead

Director: Zack Snyder

Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighofer, Nora Arnezeder, Garret Dillahunt, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro

I was disappointed by Army of the Dead, but there’s a lot to it that’s objectively quite good. The acting and cast are great, the depiction of the eponymous army is absolutely fantastic, and when the movie really hits the silliness its marketing seems to strive for, it’s bloody entertaining.

But that silliness is caught between itself and the typical Snyder drama, which involves a ludicrous runtime of 2 and a half hours, unnecessary subplots which annoy more than provide, and a mean streak running underneath which can be very tiring to watch eventually. This movie is utterly entertaining one minute and boring the next, with the best intro of the year and the worst ending by far (really, “Zombie” by the Cranberries? Really?!).

Army of the Dead is Snyder at his most polarized, neither terrible nor great. It’s worth checking out, but really depends on your mood.

19. The White Tiger

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra-Jonas, Rajkummar Rao, Mahesh Manjrekar, Vilay Maurja

This was actually nominated at last year’s Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay, but came out in January of this year. I know that I’m rare in my dissent about this film’s quality, considering it has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I can at least justify it.

The White Tiger tries to be a commentary on the struggle and the demeaning nature of rising economically in India, but is hamstrung by a weird restraint in both direction and content. The film is very odd tonally, never really hitting with the true horror of the main character’s situation as the M-rating leaves out all of the possible violence and terror of the main character’s suffering.

For all of the great cast work and competent filmmaking on display, The White Tiger is never as interesting as other Indian-set movies like Lion as it doesn’t understand how to really make a vicarious impact (and Lion is PG, which says a lot about The White Tiger’s restraint).

18. Fatherhood

Director: Paul Weitz

Cast: Kevin Hart, Alfre Woodard, Lil Rey Howery, DeWanda Wise, Anthony Carrigan, Frankie R. Faison, Paul Reiser

As generic and basic a story like Fatherhood is, it at least manages to become interesting as a result of the very against-type performance of Kevin Hart in the lead role. Bringing a surprising amount of pathos to his grieving father character (although still slipping into his annoying routine sometimes), Hart is really strong in the film, and I hope he chooses more roles like this.

Aside from that, Fatherhood is stuck between a genuinely meditative look at grief and love and a stupid, mid-2000’s kids comedy like Daddy Day Care, featuring both emotional gravitas and jokes which would be dated 5 years ago. It’s a basic watch, not demanding anything from the viewer, and so I would only recommend it if you are really tired, because anything else on this list would probably be more engaging as a narrative.

17. Fear Street Part One – 1994

Director: Leigh Janiak

Cast: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr, Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Ashley Zukerman

Perhaps I’m unfortunate with this one, as I didn’t grow up with the 80’s slasher films this movie clearly had a grand love affair with. Full of neon, random references and bizarre dialogue, this is the kind of film that a lot of 20-somethings will find joy in. I just didn’t find that much from my perspective.

In spite of the gorgeous aesthetic, a neat little love story and the great central performances, Fear Street Part One (there’s two more coming out in the next two weeks) never grabbed me until the second half where the overdue character development started kicking in. Before that, the characters are unlikeable, the humour is delivered so oddly, and as is typical of most slasher films, massive leaps in logic are required for the actions of the villains. Perhaps most disappointingly, the film has not learned core lessons from Stranger Things and The Vast of Night that you don’t need to reference your 80’s time period every 5 seconds, which got very grating.

And can I just say, Netflix’s judgement of rating of “strong sex scenes” is fucking hilarious. You call one brief makeout, without nudity and with background music “strong”, when you let a ton of more intense hetero stuff go through with “medium”? Fuck off.

16. Sweet Tooth (Season 1)

Creator: Jim Mickle

Directors: Jim Mickle, Alexis Ostrander, Toa Fraser, Robyn Grace,

Cast: Christian Convery, Nonzo Azonie, Adeel Akhtar, Stefania LaVie Owen, Dania Ramirez, Aliza Vellani, Will Forte, James Brolin

Although acclaimed by critics and audiences, for me, Sweet Tooth did not hold together well whenever it moved away from the eponymous deer-boy. The relationship between him and his grumpy protector is cute, but whenever it cuts away to the cliched villain guy or the starkly different tone of the doctor trying to find a cure for an infectious disease, I became indifferent.

Still enjoyable for the cinematography and production design, Sweet Tooth is an acceptable fantasy outing for Netflix, but it’s nowhere near the best show you could see on the platform right now. Lacking a satisfying conclusion, the aforementioned consistent audience attention, and the streak of black comedy that underpinned the graphic novel that inspired it, Sweet Tooth is less effort than perhaps I would have hoped.

15. Godzilla vs. Kong

Director: Adam Wingard

Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, Kaylee Hottie, Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza Gonzalez, Demian Bichir

Godzilla vs. Kong has still not learned the basic lesson that we yelled at the last two Godzilla’s for – human characters should not be distractions from the main story. The combination of forced emotional stakes, uninteresting performances and comedy relief which you can’t even hear due to the dreadful sound mxiing really drags the pace of the film, especially when you consider how great parts of it are.

At points aiming for a Doom 2016 no talk, all walk approach, Godzilla vs. Kong’s spectacular action set pieces are neon-lit, bonanza and a welcome deviation from the tepid human drama. I was also especially impressed by the depiction of Kong in the film – brilliantly motion captured, great sound design and beautifully visualised, but Godzilla’s characterisation also disappointed me. There’s an odd balance between the tepidity of the humans and the roar of the monsters that make this movie more meh than any of the others on this list.

Perhaps wait until it hits streaming, then skip to all the action. Screw the story.

14. Lupin (Season 2)

Creator: George Kay

Directors: Ludovic Bernard, Hugo Gélin

Cast: Omar Sy, Ludivine Sagnier, Clotillde Hesme, Hervé Pierre, Fargass Assande, Soufianne Guerrab, Shirine Boutella, Vincent Garanger, Vincent Londez, Antoine Guoy

After the brilliant and charming surprise that was the first season of Lupin, I was hoping for more of that slick style and Omar Sy sexiness that got me into it. Unfortunately, having lost director Louis Leterrier and several major players in the story, Lupin’s second season comes off surprisingly naff by comparison.

Following the genuinely terrible first episode, full of bad editing and camerawork done by an 8-year-old, the rest feel more languorously paced and less confident than the first season, refusing to really delve into the darker aspects of Assane’s character while offering less exciting heists than the first season.

It had its moments, and left me wanting for more, but maybe just stick with the first season for now until the third comes out at some point this year.

Now out of the blur, into the clear, with…

The Good (I recommend)

13. Love and Monsters

Director: Michael Matthews

Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, Ariana Greenbladt, Michael Rooker

Fun and without any pretension, Love and Monsters is the perfect cup of tea after a year of grim drama and dirt. The film, having been made on the Gold Coast, is bright and full of life, focusing on a regular young man as he wanders across a monster-infested California to find his girlfriend.

With a good mix of practical effects, solid humour and grounded emotion, Love and Monsters can be enjoyed by the whole family without question, treating its audience maturely and with enough respect to understand what’s going on. Maybe some will want more from the characters, or more out of the ending, but I found this film very fun to watch, and a good recommendation for a lazy afternoon.

12. Luca

Director: Enrico Casarosa

Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saviiero Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, Marco Barricelli

Sure, maybe Luca’s world building, villains and visual gags are less prominent and worse-off than other Pixar movies, but it was never intending to be a heartbreaker like Soul or Inside Out. It was a show about the friendship of two weird sea monsters and their dreams to win a Vespa motorcycle in 1960’s Italy, and it does mostly succeed.

Luca is funny and gentle, feeling more like a nostalgic movie from the 90’s than an intense movie from now, and plays brilliantly off the chemistry between the two leads and their eventual friends in a nearby town. The animation (as you’d expect from Pixar) is brilliant if lacking visual gags, the Italian setting is brimming with personality, and it never feels forced or overdone. One day, this will be appreciated more as a gentle vibe Pixar rather than a crying Pixar, which everyone can enjoy without breaking out tissues.

And yes, before you ask, I do agree with the internet concensus that the two lead characters are gay. It's just too perfect to not be so.

11. Love, Death and Robots (Season 2)

Creator: Tim Miller

Directors: Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Supervising), Tim Miller, Kevin Van der Meiren, David Nicolas, Laurent Nicolas, Robert Valley, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Leon Berelle, Dominique Boidin, Remi Kozyra, Maxime Luere, Simon Otto, Elliot Dear, Alex Beaty

Cast: Steven Pacey, Michael B. Jordan, Joe Dempsie, Peter Franzén, Zita Hanrot, Nolan North, Elodie Young, Emily O’Brien, Archie Madekwe, Nancy Linari and others

Season 2 of Netflix’s animated short series is a significant improvement over the first, tightly focusing on 8 stories instead of 18 and having much more consistent animation, acting and story quality. While I do think some episodes from the first season were overall better, the total season quality is much more constant, with only one episode mildly tanking with me.

Gone is the overreliance on sex and male-gazey distractions and in place is a stronger focus on narrative, with Jennifer Yuh Nelson proving a worthy successor to the supervising director’s table. The season switches between silliness and seriousness far better, allowing more outlandish and interesting premises to ome to light that just could not have been pulled off the first time.

I’m actually pretty intrigued for Season 3 now. Don’t let me down, Netflix.

10. Oxygen

Director: Alexandre Aja

Cast: Melanie Laurent, Mathieu Almaric

Placing an entire movie inside a sci-fi coffin seemed impossible, but the madman behind Piranha 3D pulled it off. Melanie Laurent stuns as a woman who wakes up to find herself randomly trapped in a coffin-like box, who decides to fight her way out instead of simply lying there until she chokes to death.

The brilliant use of the location and Laurent’s performance makes the movie intense enough, but the added emotional drama behind the character makes the film much more interesting and bizarre as it goes from horror to sci-fi to romance, making it watchable enough for people who don’t quite like mass intensity. The final 20 minutes try to go for the unfortunate philosophical edge which does not quite land in the way the filmmakers intended, but the film’s excellent structure and style make it one of the must-watches for horror and thriller fans this year.

By the way, this movie was made in French, so switch to the French dub/English subtitles on Netflix for the best experience.

9. The Dry

Director: Robert Connolly

Cast: Eric Bana, Genevieve O’Reilly, Keir O’Donnell, John Polson, Bruce Spence

An Australian crime drama with plenty of fire under the hood, The Dry finds Eric Bana as a federal police officer returning to his hometown after a murder-suicide involving his friends. Once there, he gets drawn back into his old drama and hatred in the town as he solves the crimes that have occurred there for decades, all while the sun beats down and great acting ensues.

The Dry is of course brilliantly acted and shot, but what makes the film really enjoyable is Robert Connolly’s slow, intense direction, never leaping off into an action scene or some ludicrous plot twist without setting it up first and gently pushing. His direction helps overpower the central mystery, which is hampered by a lack of backstory and being overshadowed by the side mystery, and it makes The Dry one of the more engaging Australian films you’ll see this year.

8. Close Enough (Season 2)

Creator: J.G. Quintel

Directors: J.G. Quintel, Calvin Wong

Cast: J.G. Quintel, Gabrielle Walsh, Jason Mantzoukas, Kimiko Glenn, Jessica DiCicco, James Adomian, Danielle Brooks

For those looking for a more adult take on the hilarious absurdism of Regular Show, J.G. Quintel answered your question and brings you an animated sitcom about two couples and a kid stuck in an apartment in some American city. Bringing a combination of bizarre animated absurdism and dryly-humoured realism to the pains of being an adult, Close Enough is relaxing, hilarious and really well made.

Season 2 is very tonally similar to the first, but delves more into the side characters alongside the main cast, giving us a diverse range of stories that don’t just revolve around Homer Simpson-esque shenanigans. The brilliant animation and voice acting returns, as well as the cute emotional core that defined the series in the first place. Perhaps the Rick and Morty anthology stylings aren’t to everyone’s liking and ruin the continuity somewhat, but the show is still an easy 15-minute watch of silliness and relatable humour each time.

7. In the Heights

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, Jimmy Smits, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-Hamilton test run gets a big-screen adaptation from the director of Crazy Rich Asians, focusing on the Latino community in Washington Heights and their musical embrace of love and culture in the height of gentrification summer. Like Hamilton, it’s big, loud and full of heart, but unfortunately lacking the same level of excitement or intrigue with the characters (possibly due to the absence of a historical background or characters who aren’t sex machines).

Jon M. Chu directs this movie with excellent choreography and style, colourful and without dragging it down with unnecessary humour or silliness. The cast is absolutely brilliant (especially Ramos and Merediz) and the two central romances are engaging to watch and entirely believable, while the backdrop of racial tensions and issues is certaintly interesting. Not everyone’s going to feel represented while watching, but it does feel like a certain unity of humanity throughout.

Perhaps the best indicator of In the Height’s quality is that throughout, I wasn’t thinking of ways to improve the film, but rather ways in which I could do something similar. That’s something new and inspiring to me.

6. Lupin (Season 1)

Creator: George Kay

Directors: Louis Leterrier, Marcela Said

Cast: Omar Sy, Ludivine Sagnier, Clotillde Hesme, Hervé Pierre, Fargass Assande, Soufianne Guerrab, Shirine Boutella, Vincent Garanger, Vincent Londez, Antoine Guoy

What’s better than 1 heist movie? 6 heist movies back to back!

Adapting the classic French books of the same name, Lupin follows the eponymous gentleman thief (played to perfection by Omar Sy) as he embarks on a mixture of vengeance and swashbuckery in his latest adventure. Slick, stylish and never truly going overboard, Lupin has a confidence in its cool moves that most TV shows simply don’t have.

What surprised me about Lupin was really the character work – Lupin isn’t a superhero, he’s a complex figure with many problems and vices. He’s as willing to handsomely swoon your wife as he is to interrogate you and threaten to frame you for murder. It’s a great portrayal and a great storyline, only sometimes let down by the show’s unfortunate editing of fight scenes, a typical vice in this genre.

5. Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Director: Zack Snyder

Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Henry Cavill, Ciaran Hinds

4 hours of my life? Kind of worth it.

Despite a slow start and naff CGI and slow motion, Zack Snyder’s director’s cut feels like a total revitalisation, free of the jokey bullshit than dominated the original and feeling much more like a grandiose epic than a mean little jab. With brilliant cinematography, genuinely great Mad Max-style action and a stronger focus on character for the ones who actually need it like Cyborg, this version is the one we didn’t need or deserve, but which was good.

Yes, 4 hours is too long, but Justice League now feels complete, like the universe builder it was actually meant to be. Now we know the extent of the universe, everyone’s power and desires, the style and tone Zack Snyder always wanted, and we no longer have the terrible Steppenwolf, the sexist humour or the visual gravel that dominated the Whedon Cut. I hope that no more studios cave into the internet trolling like Warner Bros did with this film because that sets a toxic example, but for this film, it was worth it.

Now onto the total recommendations…

The Great

4. A Quiet Place Part 2

Director: John Krasinski

Cast: Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, Djimon Hounsou

I love the first Quiet Place, and it’s clear that John Krasinski was not just looking to make a cheap follow-up. Quiet Place 2 ratchets up the emotional drama while still keeping the nail-biting tension and beautiful visuals of the first, leading to an organic experience which is great both stand-alone and as a sequel.

After an incredible opening sequence that demonstrated just how good Krasinski is at wordless tension, the film leans into a more emotional and discovery-based tale with the brilliant acting of Millicent Simmonds and Cillian Murphy, all while retaining the great cinematography, score and especially sound design from the first film.

Yes, a lot of elements are kept from the first film, and yes, some elements are overused like the use of sound in jump scares, but the film still wildly succeeds as a horror and an emotional drama. If you loved the first film, don’t skip this.

3. Bo Burnham: Inside

Director: Bo Burnham

Cast: Bo Burnham

Less a film and more a singular piece of performance art, Bo Burnham goes through many tones in his latest Netflix special. Filmed entirely in one room over the course of a year as Burnham pieces together his experience and anger generated over that time, Inside slips between pitch-dark comedy, musical extravaganza and personal darkness with considerable élan. All three elements are delivered wonderfully, fully realizing the stress of COVID-19 times as Burnham goes through suicidal depression and raging against society to the beat of his own bizarre yet hilarious drum.

This isn’t just Burnham standing in front of a screen cracking jokes, though – each segment (entirely shot and edited by Burnham himself) feels like its own professional music video, with amazing cinematography, music and acting from the man himself. The fact that this comedy special filmed by one guy shows more directorial talent than most major films in 2021 says a lot about how good this film is.

2. Judas and the Black Messiah

Director: Shaka King

Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback

Yes, I know this was a Best Picture nominee last year, but it was cinematically released in February, so I have to include it on this list.

It cannot be overstated how amazingly powerful Judas and the Black Messiah is at points. From its startling opening to its bloody action and the incredible ending sequence depicting the assassination of Fred Hampton, director Shaka King milks every bit of gut-punching anger out of the unfair and racist situations of the time. Shot brilliantly and crackling with excellent dialogue, this would be a great film without the added power of the stars.

For Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield absolutely dominate this film, stealing every scene they are present. Kaluuya is magnetic as Hampton, obviously, providing all the power and rage you would expect out of one of the most influential revolutionaries of all time. But perhaps even better is Stanfield, a terrified young man torn between what he feels is his moral duty and his safety, and a personification of the true horror that faces every single person who suddenly comes across the opportunity to do something right.

Is the Best Picture nominee the Best? Not quite, in my opinion. That would be…

1. The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Director: Mike Rianda

Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Eric Andre, Olivia Colman

Perhaps this looks like a dumb kid’s movie to you, but to me, The Mitchells vs. the Machines is the funniest, most resonant and heart-warming film of the year. If looking at the animation alone, it’s wonderfully creative, vivid and really sets into the tone of insanity and craziness that defines the film. But that’s without regarding everything else about this fantastic film.

All about a family who embark on a road trip as robots start invading Earth, this movie brims with personality and life that other movies only dream of. Whether it be the brilliant humour, amazing voice performances, stylish visuals, heart-warming messages of love, excellent soundtrack and a tone that feels like a Pixar version of Little Miss Sunshine, The Mitchells vs. the Machines has it all, and I highly recommend it.

What films on this list have you seen, and what did you think of my ranking? Leave your answers in the comments below.