Twenty Twenty-One in Film

Howdy everyone. Since 2017 (I believe?) I've made one of these year-end lists, ranking all the movies released in the previous year, that I've seen, in order from best to, let's say least-best.

The factors that go into the ranking are all arbitrary, but they include overall quality (obvs), novelty, and rewatchability, as well as many other metrics. For rule sticklers, there are some pre-2021 films in here which were added because their initial release was either outside the U.S., at a film festival, or maybe even both. Add to that COVID's effect on theatrical screenings and my cautious avoidance of the ones there were, and I ended up counting a lot of "released on streaming dates" as "wide release" dates.

There is a method to the madness.

To that end, there are also some short films and some miniseries included on here because that is the way things are trending - streaming services are willing to shell out the moolah for a project, but more easily for a miniseries than a single, non-franchise, average runtime film.

Also, I usually include a poster or other image from the flick, but currently I'm having a lot of fun with that Wombo Dream app, which is an art app which uses artificial intelligence to generate an image based on your prompting, so I've used that to make "movie posters" for the films. Enjoy!

DEAD PIGS

Dir. Cathy Yan

PIG

Dir. Michael Sarnoski

STRAWBERRY MANSION

Dir. Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney

SPOOR

Dir. Agnieszka Holland

ALL THE MOONS

Dir. Igor Legarreta

NOBODY

Dir. Ilya Naishuller

NO SUDDEN MOVE

Dir. Steven Soderbergh

F9

Dir. Justin Lin

CENSOR

Dir. Prano Bailey-Bond

PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN

Dir. Steven Kostanski

ONE SECOND CHAMPION

Dir. Chiu Sin-Hang

THE GREEN KNIGHT

Dir. David Lowery

MALIGNANT

Dir. James Wan

CANDYMAN

Dir. Nia DaCosta

SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE

Dir. Danishka Esterhazy

WILLY'S WONDERLAND

Dir. Kevin Lewis

HAND ROLLED CIGARETTE

Dir. Chan Kin-long

THE POWER OF THE DOG

Dir. Jane Campion

THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES

Dir. Michael Rianda

SQUID GAME

Dir. Hwang Dong-hyuk

THE EMPTY MAN

Dir. David Prior

GHOSTING GLORIA

Dir. Mauro Sarser, Marcela Matta

SEXY FURBY

Dir. Nicole Daddona, Adam Wilder

MIDNIGHT MASS

Dir. Mike Flanagan

THE SUICIDE SQUAD

Dir. James Gunn

GLASSHOUSE

Dir. Kelsey Egan

LAST NIGHT AT THE STRIP CLUB

Dir. Nicole Bazuin

SAINT MAUD

Dir. Rose Glass

GODZILLA VS. KONG

Adam Wingard

KING KNIGHT

Dir. Richard Bates Jr.

A TALE OF REDEMPTION AND REGRET WITH SUNNY THE HEAT

Eric Carosella

BUBBLE

Dir. Haonan Wang

BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR

Dir. Jos Greenbaum

EARWIG AND THE WITCH

\Dir. Goro Miyazaki

CONCRETE COWBOY

Dir. Ricky Staub

NOMADLAND

Dir. Chloé Zhao

FOLLOW THE LIGHT

Dir. Youichi Narita

KING CAR

Dir. Renata Pinheiro

THE HARDER THEY FALL

Dir. Jeymes Samuel

HELLBENDER

Dir. Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams

JAKOB'S WIFE

Travis Stevens

THE FOREVER PURGE

Dir. Everardo Gout

SLAXX

Dir. Elza Kephart

STALKED

Dir. Wesley Mellott

OPERATION LUCHADOR

Dir. Alain Vézina

HOLD ME TIGHT

Dir. Mélanie Robert-Tourneur

SWEETIE, YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT

Dir. Yernar Nurgaliyev

FLORA & ULYSSES

Dir. Lena Khan

JUNGLE CRUISE

Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra

ALIEN ON STAGE

Dir. Danielle Kummer, Lucy Harvey

LUCA

Dir. Enrico Casarosa

FRANK & ZED

Dir. Jesse Blanchard

SEANCE

Dir. Simon Barrett

ON THE THIRD DAY

Dir. Daniel de la Vega

DEREK DELGAUDIO'S IN & OF ITSELF

Dir. Frank Oz

ROMY & LAURE... AND THE MYSTERY OF THE ENCHANTED PLUG

Dir. Laure Giappicono, Romy Alizée

DUNE

Dir. Denis Villeneuve

WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING

Dir. Sean King O'Grady

BRAIN FREEZE

Dir. Julien Knafo

YAKUZA PRINCESS

Dir. Vicente Amorim

OXYGEN

Dir. Alexandre Aja

MORTAL KOMBAT

Dir. Simon McQuoid

BLACK WIDOW

Dir. Cate Shortland

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

Dir. Destin Daniel Cretton

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

Dir. Joe Wright

GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE

Dir. Navot Papushado

A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX

Dir. Rodney Ascher

MAD GOD

Dir. Phil Tippett

THE 12 DAY TALE OF THE MONSTER THAT DIED IN 8

Dir. Shunji Iwai

THUNDER FORCE

Dir. Ben Falcone

BOSS LEVEL

Dir. Joe Carnahan

ARMY OF THE DEAD

Dir. Zack Snyder

UNHINGED

Dir. Derrick Borte

ESCAPE THE UNDERTAKER

Dir. Ben Simms

IN THE EARTH

Dir. Ben Wheatley

AFTERMATH

Dir. Peter Winther

DEMONIC

Dir. Neill Blomkamp

INDEMNITY

Dir. Travis Taute

HOTEL POSEIDON

Dir. Stefan Lernous

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DICKS

Dir. Ilja Rautsi

ROGUE HOSTAGE

Dir. Jon Keeyes

DON'T SAY ITS NAME

Dir. Rueben Martell

ESCAPE FROM AREA 51

Dir. Eric Mittleman

LOCKBOX

Dir. Jake Noecker

STOWAWAY

Dir. Joe Penna

A PAID CONNECTION

Dir. Lauren Elizabeth Schwartzbard

THE COLUMNIST

Dir. Ivo van Aart

WE CAN BE HEROES

Dir. Robert Rodriguez

THE TOMORROW WAR

Dir. Chris McKay

BED

Dir. Emily Bennett

AZULSCURO

Dir. Evandro Caixeta, João Gilberto

FRUIT

Dir. Ivan LI

ANDRONICUS

Dir. Mark Rapaport

PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND

Dir. Sion Sono

THE POOL

Dir. Ping Lumpraploeng

SHADOW IN THE CLOUD

Dir. Roseanne Liang

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Thanks for reading. If you've got a year-end list, or wanna talk movies, maybe drop a comment below or you can find me on twitter, instagram, or letterboxd.

I hope you have a great holiday and that 2022 is a better year for us all, and as always - Long Live the Movies!