best movies

Best Movies of 2021 – So Far

by
Photo caption: RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my Best Movies of 2020 and Best Movies of 2019 lists.

To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

THE BEST OF THE YEAR

Here’s the running list as of mid-July:

  • Riders of Justice: A character-driven comedy thriller, embedded with deeper stuff. Marvelous. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
  • Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): Questlove’s magnificent revelation of the long-overlooked 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival – glorious musical performances at an important moment in our history and culture. In theaters and streaming on Hulu.
  • Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: An unusually profound, revealing and unsentimental biodoc of a complicated man – a shy bad ass, an outwardly cynical romantic, a brooding humorist. A triumph for director Morgan Neville, Oscar-winner for 20 Feet from Stardom.
  • About Endlessness: The master of the droll, deadpan and absurd probes the meaning of life. One of the best movies of the year, but NOT FOR EVERYONE. Streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
  • Slow Machine: An incomprehensible art film that is surprisingly engrossing.
  • Special mention: Lune: This Canadian indie, the Must See at this year’s Cinequest, is an astonishingly authentic exploration of bipolar disorder. A mother and teen daughter must navigate the impacts of the mom’s illness. Played by writer and co-director Aviva Armour-Ostroff, the mom Miriam is the most singular movie character I’ve seen recently. Miriam’s streams of manic speech have the rhythm of poetry. On the festival circuit and not yet available to stream.

Note that you see Summer of Soul and Roadrunner in theaters this week, and you can stream Summer of Soul and Riders of Justice at home.

There’s still plenty of room for more excellent 2021 movies. I’m especially eager to see the new works from directors Sean Baker, Asgar Farhadi, Joachim Trier, Hong Sang-soo, Todd Haynes, Joanna Hogg, Pedro Almodovar, Jacques Audiard, Emmanuelle Bercot, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Arnaud Deplechin, Leos Carax, Francois Ozon, Paul Verhoeven, Ruben Ostlund and Valdimar Johannson. Stay tuned.

Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson in SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)

Best movies of 2020

by
Frances McDormand in NOMADLAND. Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

Recently catching up with Nomadland, Sound of Metal, Mayor and Black Bear has allowed me to finalize my Best Movies of 2020. In the Year of Pandemic, I somehow managed to watch one hundred and fifteen 2020 movies (and another one hundred and forty-nine movies from earlier years). Here are the thirteen that I most admire and engage with.

To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

Chadwick Boseman in MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

THE BEST OF THE YEAR

Brian Dennehy and Lucas Jaye in DRIVEWAYS.
Itsaso Arana in THE AUGUST VIRGIN
Dev Patel in THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD

Best movies of 2020

by
Chadwick Boseman in MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM. Photo courtesy of Netflix.

In the Year of Pandemic, I somehow managed to watch one hundred and fifteen 2020 movies (and another one hundred and forty-nine movies from earlier years). Here are the Best Movies of 2020.

Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here’s last year’s list.

To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later. I haven’t yet seen Nomadland, Mayor or The Sound of Metal, and I will add films to the list as I see fit.

THE BEST OF THE YEAR

BEFORE THE FIRE: world premiere at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

2020 sucked so badly that several of my favorite movies weren’t from 2020. Noir CIty led me to discover the Czech neo-noir masterpiece …And the Fifth Horseman Is Fear and the amazing German romantic tragedy Black Gravel. And I loved A Colt Is My Passport on Turner Classic movies, a 1960s Japanese hybrid – a Spaghetti Western in the guise of a Yazuka film.

BLACK GRAVEL

Best Movies of the 21st Century – So Far

by

Patricia Arquette and Eller Coltrane in BOYHOOD
Patricia Arquette and Eller Coltrane in BOYHOOD

Okay – here’s a first class Argument Starter.  In the past week, The New York Times’ Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott released their list of The 25 Best Films of the 21st Century So Far.  And it seems that everyone is weighing in with their own lists.  Me, too.

Of course I agreed with some of the NYT picks (Boyhood, The Hurt Locker, Million Dollar Baby, Spirited Away). But I thought they picked the wrong Coen brothers movie (the dreadful Inside Llewyn Davis instead of any other Coen brothers film) and the wrong Dardennes brothers movie (The Child instead of The Kid with a Bike or The Son). Moonlight and Mad Max: Fury Road are just too 2017-trendy.  I’m skeptical of their three Chinese and Taiwanese films that I haven’t seen (although I have some obscure picks on my list, too).

I found less fault with the accompanying article, Six Directors Pick Their Favorite Films of the 21st-Century.  I particularly dovetailed with Sophia Coppola’s choices of Ida, Grizzly Man, Force Majeure, Fish Tank and Ex Machina.

So, just for shits and giggles, here’s The Movie Gourmet’s Best 25 Movies of this Millennium (so far).

  1. Boyhood
  2. Million Dollar Baby
  3. Minority Report
  4. Winter’s Bone
  5. Ida
  6. Sideways
  7. Hell or High Water
  8. 25th Hour
  9. The Hurt Locker
  10. Ex Machina
  11. Best in Show
  12. The Kid on a Bike
  13. Gosford Park
  14. Memories of Murder
  15. Children of Men
  16. Spirited Away
  17. Monster’s Ball
  18. Toy Story 3
  19. Stories We Tell
  20. A Serious Man
  21. Grizzly Man
  22. Talk to Her
  23. I’ve Loved You So Long
  24. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
  25. Blue is the Warmest Color

Just missed:  Margaret, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, The Secrets in Their Eyes, Incendies, Monster, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Take Shelter, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Crash, Traffic, After the Wedding, Away from Her, Mystic River, Wild Tales and The Hunt.

Jennifer lawrence breaks through in WINTER'S BONE, featured at the Camera Cinema Club
Jennifer Lawrence breaks through in WINTER’S BONE, featured at the Camera Cinema Club

IDA
IDA

Michael Polley in STORIES WE TELL
Michael Polley in STORIES WE TELL

Best Movies of 2016

by

Chris Pine and Ben Foster in HELL OR HIGH WATER
Chris Pine and Ben Foster in HELL OR HIGH WATER

Visit my Best Movies of 2016 for my list of the year’s best films, complete with images, trailers and my comments on each movie – as well as their availability to rent on DVD and to stream. My top ten movies for 2016 are:

  1. Hell or High Water
  2. Manchester by the Sea
  3. Toni Erdmann
  4. Elle
  5. La La Land
  6. Eye in the Sky
  7. Chevalier
  8. Weiner
  9. Frank & Lola
  10. Take Me to the River

The other best films of the year are:

  • The Handmaiden
  • OJ: Made in America
  • Green Room

And these three would be on my list if they had been made widely available to US audiences through release in theaters or on video:

  • The Memory of Water
  • Magallanes
  • Lost Solace

Note:  I haven’t yet seen Paterson, Fences or 20th Century Women.

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Caset Affleck and Lucas Hedges in MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Best Movies of 2016 – So Far

by

THE MEMORY OF WATER
THE MEMORY OF WATER

Instead of waiting for my year-end Top Ten list, I keep a running list throughout the year: Best Movies of 2016 – So Far. At year’s end, my list usually is comprised of 20-25 films with an Official Top Ten.  I’ll also be updating my list throughout the year as films become available to stream or to rent on DVD.  Right now, my list includes:

  • The Memory of Water
  • Eye in the Sky
  • Magallanes
  • Chevalier
  • Weiner
  • Frank & Lola
  • Take Me to the River
  • Lost Solace
  • Green Room

I usually start my list in April or May, and I don’t think that I’ve ever waited until July before.  I guess that’s because none of these early-in-the-year releases have popped out at me like Ex Machina from last year, Boyhood or Ida from 2014, Blue Is the Warmest Color or The Hunt (2013), Winter’s Bone (2010) and the like. But these are all really, really excellent films.

Eye in the Sky and Take Me to the River are available streaming or on DVD right now, (see Best Movies of 2016 – So Far for details) and Frank & Lola will be in theaters later this year.

I’m self-conscious about how many of these films can’t be seen right now (or maybe ever) because they don’t have US distribution. I really try NOT to be precious and list a bunch of super obscure films. I’m particularly wringing my hands over three gems from Cinequest – The Memory of Water from Chile, Magallanes from Peru and the Canadian indie Lost Solace. But I’m pretty sure that you’ll be able to find the rest of the movies on my list by year’s end.

I’m still waiting to see many, many contenders for my year-end list, including film festival favorites Loving, Manchester By the Sea, The Birth of a Nation and Toni Erdmann.  I also reserve the right to reshuffle the list.

Helen Mirren in EYE IN THE SKY
Helen Mirren in EYE IN THE SKY

2015 – so far an exceptionally good year for movies

by

EX MACHINA
EX MACHINA

Wow, we’ve had a great start to 2015 in the movies. I’ve already placed eight films on my running list of Best Movies of 2015 – So Far.  Usually, I only have three or four at this time of year. Here’s my Best of 2015 to date:

  • Wild Tales (saw at Cinequest; DVD release in June)
  • Leviathan (available to stream from Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and DirecTV)
  • Ex Machina (in theaters now)
  • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (saw at San Francisco International Film Festival; releases June 12)
  • The End of the Tour (saw at San Francisco International Film Festival; releases July 30)
  • ’71 (saw at Cinequest; DVD release in July)
  • The Look of Silence (saw at San Francisco International Film Festival; limited release July 16)
  • The Grief of Others (saw at Camera Cinema Club; release undetermined)

I’m also mulling over adding to the list I’ll See You in My Dreams (in theaters now).  And I know I’ll include Corn Island, an exquisite Georgian film that I saw at Cinequest, if it gets a US release.  This is a GREAT and uncharacteristic start to the year in movies!

I’m already looking forward to some especially promising films that debuted at the Cannes International Film Festival. The universally acclaimed, heartbreaking biodoc of Amy Winehouse, Amy, releases July 3. Other Cannes films that will contend for my top ten list include The Lobster, Louder Than Bombs, Mia Madre, The Measure of a Man, Sicario (releases September 18), Youth, Green Room, The Assassin and Dheepan.

Plus there will be some superb documentaries that I don’t know about yet AND the usual stream of Oscar Bait movies released in the fall by the prestige arms of the Hollywood studios.  We should have a pretty good handle on 2015’s pool of excellent cinema at the time of the Toronto and Telluride film festivals in September.

2015 has been an excellent year so far and has the potential to be a great year of cinema.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL