Movie Reaction: Licorice Pizza

Formula: Harold & (Maude – 40 Years) ^ Inherent Vice

 

The ability to make a movie that doesn’t really go anywhere is a skill not a lot of directors have. It’s hard to make a rambling movie that feels like it was time well spent. When it goes wrong, you end up with a mess like Under the Silver Lake. Three directors come to mind when I think of this kind of movie: Cameron Crowe, Richard Linklater, and Paul Thomas Anderson. Crowe and Linklater are better known for these, because they make “hang-out” movies. Dazed and Confused and Almost Famous are movies that you just want to chill with. That’s why no one complains when Linklater basically does the same movie again with Everybody Wants Some!! or Crowe releases longer cuts of Almost Famous. PTA is great at these too, but he often gets Oscar love with them. Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Inherent Vice are scattered movies with thinly connected chapters, yet they all feel of a piece. You get to the end and even though it’s not that clear why you went on that journey, it feels right. Licorice Pizza is very much in that vein.

 

[Note: After writing this, I remembered the Coen brothers. They are so idiosyncratic that it almost feels unfair to include them. They certainly make movies that don’t really go anywhere though.]

 

The plot of this movie is best summarized as a 15-year-old boy and 25-year-old woman become friends and possibly more in 1970s Los Angeles. The 2h20m movie is just a collection of adventures they go on: often together, sometimes apart. The 15-year-old, Gary, is played by Cooper Hoffman. The 25-year-old woman, Alana, is played by Alana Haim. While the age gap of the actors is actually even larger, it’s hard to notice in the movie itself. Gary is a very assured young-man. He has endless confidence and always has an angle. He’s the kind of person that’s going to be a success by hook or by crook. Everyone seems to know him and like him. Alana, meanwhile, is very much still trying to figure herself out. She’s a listless 20-something in Los Angeles, open to just about anything. Maybe she’ll be an actress. Maybe she’ll date a celebrity. Maybe she’ll go into business with Gary. It’s easy to see why Alana and Gary appeal to each other. His confidence and her willingness to try anything open them to a lot of adventures. While the movie is pretty long, it didn’t feel that way because I enjoyed all the little chapters of their story.

 

There’s something so familiar about this movie. It’s sort of a love story, but I watched it much more as a friendship story. It’s similar to Harold and Maude or Penny and William in Almost Famous. They are kindred spirits; friends by chance who just click for some reason. I haven’t had a friendship like this, but I’ve seen them. Sure, there might be something romantic to it, but that’s not the point. It’s similar to how in every romantic comedy it’s way more fun to see the two people as friends before they become a couple.

 

It’s got plenty of the PTA touches too. He has a very offbeat sense of humor where you almost need an extra beat to figure out if something is tense or funny. There’s an unhinged sequence with Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters that embodies this. It’s pure comedy but entirely because Cooper as Peters is a sociopath. And even in the middle of that, there’s a surprisingly harrowing sequence driving a truck downhill backwards. The segment isn’t quite Alfred Molina and the firecrackers in Boogie Nights, but it’s not far off. I really like the use of long shots in this. He uses them a lot but for pretty mundane scenes. Normally directors make a meal out of how they can do an unbroken take for some intricate fight scene or something. PTA does it just to show someone running for a while. And really, does any director capture 1970s L.A. better than him? Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I’m really a sucker for that era on screen.

 

There are no towering performances in this like in many other PTA movies. Alana Haim is funny and shockingly at ease in her first film role. Cooper Hoffman has unbelievable swagger for his debut as well. If there was a “Guest Acting Emmy” equivalent to the Oscars, Bradley Cooper would have that locked up for this. He’s barely in the movie but makes such a huge impression. It makes me sad he doesn’t do comedies anymore. The cast is too huge to list everyone off. Just know it’s the familiar mix of A-list actors, familiar faces you don’t know the name of, and complete newcomers.

 

I fell just short of loving this movie. That’s where I land on most PTA movies for some reason. I love the craft. There’s a ton to unpack in the movie. Great performances. It’s one of those lovely screenplays that sounds unfocused if you describe it but somehow isn’t when you watch it. There is something slightly too academic about it that I can’t put my finger on that stops me from loving it. I could see it growing on me a lot or being yet another PTA movie that I’m always saying I should watch again and never do.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend

Movie Reaction: The King's Man

Formula: Kingsman: The Secret Service / 1917

 

Most of the time, these Reactions I write up are meant as reviews of a movie. I try to write them the same as I would if it was for a publication. It’s an easy habit to fall into. I do call these Reactions and not Reviews for a reason though. I use them as my processing tool for the movie. It’s as much about the context of its release or how I saw it as the content of the film itself. That is what I want to react to the most about this movie: the context of the release.

 

I’m not that invested in the Kingsman franchise. I remember liking the first one with Matthew Vaughn bringing his gleeful violence to a James Bond story. It was a lot of fun. The second movie wore of me the wrong way though. I still can’t figure out exactly why. It threw out a lot of the story in order to riff on the premise more and how it could be extended. So, when I heard about The King’s Man, I wasn’t terribly excited. I do like WWI stories, but it otherwise looked like a retreating reboot: an attempt for Vaughn to play with the original good idea without having to address where he left the franchise after the second movie. I only watched this movie because Licorice Pizza seemed a little too daunting that afternoon.

 

More than anything, I really want to applaud 20^th Century’s ad campaign for this movie. I love when a movie successfully bluffs its way to release. Based on the trailers, this looked like Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson, repeating the Colin Firth and Taron Egerton dynamic, facing Rhys Ifans as Rasputin, this film’s flamboyant villain. It turns out that was a massive misdirect. Rasputin? Dead halfway in. Harris Dickinson? Also dead. It was thrilling to be that surprised by the movie. I noticed early on how almost the entire trailer had been used up by the Rasputin fight. When they killed him, it clicked that they pulled the switcheroo on me. The rest of the movie could be about anything. I then approached it thinking they’d played their one big card. Then Harris Dickinson’s protégé character gets killed. People in my theater actually gasped. No one should be gasping during a Kingsman movie. When talking about twists, I often say that I don’t predict a single twist as much as I’m aware of all the story options available. I don’t know the killer, but I know what the story will look like depending on who the killer is. However, I truly didn’t see Dickinson’s death coming. I wasn’t looking for it. Normally, a misdirect trailer obscures one big twist. Including a second twist is almost overkill. They even use the fact that Fiennes is the biggest star to hide in plain sight. They can put him in the center of the poster just like they put Colin Firth in the middle of the first movie’s poster. So, even though he’s the actual star of the movie, I still went into it thinking he was just a prominent supporting character who earned first billing due to his stature.

 

The movie itself is OK. The prequel/reboot actually allowed Vaughn to hit a different tone with the film. It’s still hyperviolent but it’s a bit more restrained. The King’s Man doesn’t try so hard to be funny. Really, it’s only a comedy in the sense that it takes such an extreme premise seriously. I needed that after the second movie went too far in the other direction. The story does suffer somewhat due to the misdirects. We spend an awful lot of time with Hunter Dickinson for him to only be a motivation for Ralph Fiennes. Perhaps the more straightforward 110m version of the movie would’ve been more purely entertaining.

 

This film ends up being about how Ralph Fienne’s Lord Orlando Oxford starts the Kingsmen to stop WWI. He’s a founding member along with Gemma Arterton, his house nanny, Djimon Hounsou, his multi-purpose butler, Stanley Tucci, the U.S. ambassador in England, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, a soldier Harris Dickinson sent home from the front lines of the war in his stead. It sets things up well for sequels set during any post-WWI conflict, and any of those founding member would be welcome back. Fiennes has the same quality as Colin Firth of not being physically imposing but being believable as highly if not casually efficient in a brawl. Studios have been looking for an action franchise for Arterton for nearly a decade now and she only scratches the surface of her physicality in this. I’ll choose to ignore the potential ‘shipping of her and the 24-years-older Fiennes. Hounsou is astoundingly ageless. At 58, I still wouldn’t want to challenge him in a fight. Tucci is mainly there to explain the Statesmen. Taylor-Johnson doesn’t do much at all here. He’s been in action movies before, so I’m guessing Vaughn brought him in with a promise of a sequel.

 

Even if the movie itself is only ok, it’s hard for me to be negative about something which caught me so off guard. This is a tough movie to recommend, because much of the value of it is in not knowing the surprises. However, the surprises are kind of the reason to watch it. Anyway, I’m glad I came into it cold. That won me over enough to see where else the franchise will go.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

2021 Movies: Top 10, Bottom 10, and Everything In Between

Welcome to 2021. An in-between year. Not quite COVID shut down. Not quite back to normal. Still enough interest out there to make Spider-Man: No Way Home a box office behemoth. Not enough to help almost any other movie released. When I did this list last year, it was pretty dire. I'd seen only 17 movies from that year in theaters. I only managed to see 85 new movies that year total. 2021 was a mix of added and removed constraints. I didn't see anything in a theater until March and "only" say 44 total: a lot for most but still way down for me. I doubled-down on my commitment to at-home viewing though and saw 146 movies released this year though. I don't know if that's my record, but it can't be far from it. Much of that was helped by getting to take advantage of the fully online Sundance when I watched 44 movies in about 5.5 days. All the streaming services helped too. It made for a good year in movies. Better in variety than 2020 for sure.

 

This is my 11th year doing this, but I still feel the need to review a little about what this list is and isn't. It is a list of all the movies released in 2021 that I have seen, from first to last. I like to include all movies because I don't think a normal top 10 list does much good if you don't know what I have and haven't seen. That way, you don't have to ask things like "Does he hate C'mon C'mon or has he just not seen it?" This list is my favorite movies of 2021. I gave up the idea of picking the "most perfect", "most important', or "most revolutionary" movies in a year a while ago. I can only answer the question "What movie added more to my year"? This list is a snapshot in time. My relationship with all movies evolves over time. I change and my understanding of movies changes. That's not to say I don't stand by the ordering of my list. Rather, I'm not naive enough to think I'll still have the same list in a few months or years. This list isn't an attempt to appease some sense of what I'm supposed to like. It isn't as definitive in the middle as the top and bottom. Feel free to read into the order of the 3rd and 4th movies. Please don't read in as much to the ordering of the 58th and 63rd movies. Almost by definition, those are movies I don't have a strong feeling about.

 

As always, I'd like to add a few clerical notes. I determine a film's release based on its public US release. Film Festivals don't count. So, only the Sundance movies I saw that have been released otherwise will count. If there was a theatrical release tracked on Box Office Mojo, I go with that. Otherwise, I use the US release per IMDB. Since I've posted Reactions to all these movies, I'll keep my comments here pretty brief. If you really want to know more, click on the link.

 

The list looks a little confusing this year. Thanks to an altered eligibility window, you'll see several of last year's Oscar contenders mixed in. It's been a while since I had a really strong year of movies. Or, at least it's been a while since the strength was apparent by Dec 31. This year remains the same. I'm not sure if many all-time favorites released this year. It sure was deep with quality though. The mix of late Oscar arrivals, delayed theatrical releases, Sundance selections, and streamers establishing themselves left a lot of quality options.

 

Finally, I set a new record for new-to-me movies. I saw 438 movies I hadn't seen before, smashing my previous record of 378. I'm definitely not hitting that number again, since it really burned me out. Anyway, to recognize the other 292 movies I saw not released in 2021, I'll include my top 10 of those.

 

Previous Lists:

2020

2019

2018

2017 (2017 Updated)

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

 

Top 10

 

1. The Green Knight

I’m a David Lowery slut when it comes to this slow meditative A Ghost Story-style, mixed with Arthurian Legend no less.

 

2. The Last Duel

I love a good Rashomon. With all the top tier names tied to it, I have no idea how this whiffed so completely at the box office (even with COVID considerations).

 

3. Dune

Denis Villeneuve makes movies I love to stare at.

 

4. Worth

Buried by a release to coincide with the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, this Spotlight-lite movie deserved way more attention than it got.

 

5. CODA

This busy coming-of-age movie was a charming watch back at Sundance and remains just as delightful.

 

6. Belfast

Basically, a more crowd-pleasing, less showy Roma.

 

7. West Side Story (2021)

Only Spielberg would have the stones to take on a classic like West Side Story, and dammit, he pulled it off and even evolved the material.

 

8. Flee

No movie took me more by surprise than this foreign animated documentary. Truly, not like anything else I watched this year.

 

9. The Rescue

That’s right, two documentaries in my top 10. But good luck finding anything more harrowing in 2021 than this account of the Thai football team rescue.

 

10. The Night House

The most simply satisfying 2021 horror movie I saw this year, complete with 2 of the most effective scares.

 

Everything In Between

11. Nomadland

It’s weird to have the last Best Picture winner on this year’s list, but it’s been a weird 22 months. Anyway, I just want to hang out in this movie for a while.

 

12. Spider-Man: No Way Home

I put up with really strained setup in the first half in order to have an absolute blast in the second half. And no movie in 2021 tapped into my nostalgia in a better way.

 

13. The Power of the Dog

This feels like the movie most likely to rise in my estimation in the coming months. Probably my favorite ending of the year, thanks mostly to how understated it is.

 

14. One Night in Miami

Just because a film feels very stage-bound doesn’t mean it’s bad. I love listening to four people talk in a room as long as the discussion is interesting.

 

15. In the Heights

What a good year for musicals. This is one of those movies that’s going to get a lot of jobs for a lot of its stars.

 

16. Zola

This tweet thread-turned-movie wears its source like a badge of honor. A great integration of social media into film that is also a total blast to watch.

 

17. Censor

I love when a movie is both commenting on a film genre and is a film in that genre at the same time. Censor is a great ode to the video nasties of the 80s.

 

18. V/H/S/94

Few discoveries made me happier than finding out this film franchise was back. While lacking the top tier talent of the first two movies, it’s a nice return to form for this anthology horror franchise.

 

19. Mass

Remember when I said I loved listening to four people talk in a room? Here’s another movie like that. Less cinematic than One Night in Miami but even more gutting.

 

20. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

I like Marvel doing Marvel-y things. If Shang-Chi is any indication, the MCU is looking just fine in a post-Endgame world.

 

21. King Richard

The only downside to Will Smith possibly winning an Oscar for this is that it may dissuade him from making more movies like this to chase an Oscar.

 

22. Fear Street: Part 2 - 1978

I really love this inventive horror trilogy from Netflix, and the 70s-80s slasher homage in the second installment was peak form for Fear Street.

 

23. Being the Ricardos

Putting Sorkin dialogue in the mouth of Oscar-winning actors in an old Hollywood setting is damn near a cheat code to access my pleasure center.

 

24. Eternals

I don’t know what people were expecting this movie to be. It’s sprawling and overambitious, but the MCU needed some of that. I really enjoyed what the newly minted Oscar winning director did with this huge and talented cast.

 

25. No Time To Die

Daniel Craig was a good Bond. His tenure saw the franchise break a lot of its decades-old rules and it was mostly for the better. Now I’m just trying to figure out how they can bring Ana de Armas back for the next one.

 

26. Luca

Of course Pixar is going to make a movie about friendship that I’ll like. While I hate to lose the theater experience, I do appreciate them sparing me from being that lone guy in his mid-30s setting in a theater full of families on a Saturday afternoon to see this.

 

27. Black Widow

Honestly, just bringing in Florence Pugh’s Yelena into the MCU was enough to justify this movie for me.

 

28. Jungle Cruise

Ever since The Curse of the Black Pearl crashed into my all-time favorite movies list in 2003, I’ve been excited any time Disney wants to attempt to make a classic ride into a movie. Jungle Cruise is by no means perfect but it sure is a lot of fun.

 

29. Raya and the Last Dragon

A South East Asian inspired animated movie structured like a Zelda game: yes, please.

 

30. Fear Street: Part 1 - 1994

The Feat Street trilogy started strong with this somewhat Wes Craven-y slasher. That said, I’m still uncomfortable with 1994 being considered a “period piece”.

 

31. Encanto

The Disney playbook is super familiar at this point, but until they stop winning with it, who am I to complain about it?

 

32. Nobody

The thrill of this movie is seeing how it reveals itself over time. What a fun role for Bob Odenkirk.

 

33. Together Together

This starts as an annoying Ed Helms movie and turns into a really lovely film about friendship. I’m sad this one didn’t get more attention.

 

34. Summer of Soul

I’m super impressed with how Questlove mixes the concert footage with context of the bands and context of the time for this Harlem Cultural Festival film. He took on way too much and somehow pulled it off.

 

35. tick,tick...BOOM!

Andrew Garfield is really spectacular. I just wish the I was better grounded in Broadway to fully appreciate this film.

 

36. Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

It’s impressive how much this movie made me care about Sesame Street considering that I never really watched it when I was young.

 

37. First Date

This indie “one crazy night” movie is a lot of fun.

 

38. The Harder TheyFall

I didn’t realize how much I needed an All-Star Black Western until I watched this.

 

39. Candyman (2021)

I don’t mean it as a slight when I say my favorite part was the closing credits. That really stuck with me.

 

40. Jockey

Clifton Collins Jr. gets the kind of starring role that accomplished character actors dream of. He’s never been better.

 

[Side Note: This is about where in the list I stop being thoroughly tickled by all the movies. It’s nuts that I still like so many of the movies this far down on the list. 2021 was a deep year for quality movies.]

 

41. House of Gucci

I enjoy seeing this many big performances on screen at the same time.

 

42. Judas and the Black Messiah

I’ll be honest. I thought Daniel Kaluuya’s Oscar love for Get Out was a fluke. He’s quickly cemented himself as an elite Hollywood star.

 

43. A Quiet Place Part II

The larger narrative lost my interest some, but the filmmaking and conceit remain engaging in these films.

 

44. Fear Street: Part 3 - 1666

The final installment does all the technical stuff as well as the first two parts. This is just a reminder that doing a period piece right is expensive, and the 1666 parts looked a little too much like they were filmed at Colonial Williamsburg.

 

45. Shadow on the Cloud

This is one of the hardest movies to recommend. The thrill of the movie is watching it reveal itself, but knowing that there’s something to reveal takes some of the fun out of it. This really should be higher on my list, but I think I’m just embarrassed how much this movie sucked me in.

 

46. How It Ends

This is a nice, quirky bit of COVID cinema. Not in that it is about COVID. More in that it was made out of boredom and made around COVID protocols in the Summer of 2020. This is a movie that gets worse the more you remove it from that context.

 

47. Nightmare Alley

It’s always fun to look at a Guillermo del Toro movie. Giving him a circus to play with is brilliant. I wish I cared a little more about the non-circus parts.

 

48. Spencer

There’s no denying that Kristen Stewart is phenomenal is this Princess Diana fairy tale. She may have sealed up an Oscar with that first production still.

 

49. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Sony’s weird deal for the Spider-Man rights has resulted in some really entertaining stuff. There’s no reason for there to be this silly Venom franchise, but I’m glad it exists.

 

50. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

If nothing else, this is a really touching goodbye to Harold Ramis.

 

51. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

I’m a sucker for a Groundhog Day movie. And a coming-of-age movie. And a Kathryn Newton movie. I guess I’m the target audience for this.

 

52. Writing with Fire

While journalism has the habit of overinflating its significance, this documentary about a female-run newspaper in India is super impressive. Seeing how these women battle both gender norms and the caste system is pretty inspiring.

 

53. The Suicide Squad

It’s pretty funny to me how they were like “OK. Suicide Squad was garbage. We like the idea though. Let’s bring back maybe 3 of the actors and shake the DC archives for even more embarrassing villains to use. Kill everyone else.” The movie isn’t a classic, but it’s fun and a nice improvement.

 

54. Godzilla vs. Kong

If nothing else, it was one of my favorite Reactions to write this year.

 

55. Passing

I’m still perhaps unfairly indifferent about the movie but Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson’s performances sure are good.

 

56. Cruella

Proof that a movie can’t have enough Emmas. Emma Watson, Mackey, and/or Roberts better be on the phone for the sequel. This movie takes on too much but it sure looks good doing it.

 

57. At the Ready

I like a documentary where the decision to film a thing is enough to make it interesting. Following high schoolers on a border town who are part of a police officer training program at school is almost impossible to mess up.

 

58. The Sparks Brothers

You know when a friend is really obsessed with something, and their enthusiasm makes you genuinely curious to know more, but when they see you are even a little interested, they take it too far to the point that you’re like “cool it”? That’s pretty much what Edgar Wright does with this movie.

 

59. Last Night in Soho

I swear, I had no idea I put both Edgar Wright movies next to each other. In a way, I guess that proves his consistency in my mind. This sure is a stylish movie. It was maybe a better trailer though.

 

60. F9: The Fast Saga

I mean, we’re 9/10 movies deep now. You know what you’re getting into. Things exploded. I had fun.

 

61. Gunpowder Milkshake

Do I need to come up with a list of actresses who I like seeing beat people up? Karen Gillan is definitely top 5.

 

62. Red Notice

Yeah, we’re fully into the portion of the list where I struggle to find anything to say. This movie is most notable for how much Netflix spent on it. While mildly enjoyable, I don’t think it was worth the cost.

 

63. Without Remorse

Michael B. Jordan should get the first call for any action franchise. While I think he could do better than this movie, he does elevate this one.

 

64. Stowaway

It’s another movie that feels like it was developed by a Netflix algorithm and feels like about a dozen other movies I’ve enjoyed. Who am I to turn down a Toni Collette/Anna Kendrick in space movie?

 

65. Free Guy

Video game cinema has always struggled to not seem 5 years behind any trend. Free Guy has the same problem but has a good time doing it, at least.

 

66. The Matrix Resurrections

I know the movie would judge me for this, but the things I liked about the Matrix trilogy are not what they brought to Resurrections. I did enjoy some of the expansion of the world though, and having Neo and Trinity back will always work on some level.

 

67. Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin

It broke some cardinal rules of the franchise, but it’s a decent horror movie otherwise.

 

68. Mortal Kombat (2021)

But seriously, how did they not use the famous music until the end credits? Nice setup for future movies though.

 

69. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions

Still a fun premise although they took away a lot of the stakes with decisions made in this installment.

 

70. Luzzu

I never thought I’d care so much about a family fishing boat.

 

71. Land

A nice directorial debut for Robin Wright.

 

72. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

When did I get so indifferent to this franchise? The movie was fine, I suppose.

 

73. Coming 2 America

I’m still trying to understand the decision to make this a reboot as well as a sequel.

 

74. The French Dispatch

Wes Anderson is gonna Wes Anderson. At least this film gave him in bite-sized chunks.

 

75. The Tomorrow War

And now we know that Chris Pratt can’t carry a franchise on his name alone. Cool idea for a movie though.

 

76. The Guilty

I just wish this movie would’ve been more upfront with the audience.

 

77. The Eyes of Tammy Faye

It’s a shame Jessica Chastain’s great performance is lost in a rather muddled movie.

 

78. Moxie

Amy Poehler is building a charming filmography as a director.

 

79. Pieces of a Woman

That opening sequence set the bar impossibly high for the rest of the movie.

 

80. Malignant

Well, this sure went in a bonkers direction. That last act makes the mediocre movie before it worth it.

 

81. Kate

“Uncouth adult mentors an impressionable child” is a sweet spot genre for me.

 

82. Try Harder!

I sure am glad I’m not applying for college anymore.

 

83. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

Very smart to movie Salma Hayek to the forefront of this.

 

84. Love Hard

I need more movies that allow me to enjoy Nina Dobrev.

 

85. Prisoners of the Ghostland

This is a deeply strange movie that I wish was even stranger.

 

86. The World to Come

Vanessa Kirby and Katherine Waterston do everything they can to give this movie life.

 

87. I Care a Lot

Rosamund Pike can be so damn terrifying.

88. The Dig

A movie that tried to cast its way out of a hole, and it nearly worked.

 

89. No Sudden Move

Steven Soderbergh in the all-star crime caper is normally a sweet spot for me. Not sure why this one didn’t click.

 

90. The White Tiger

Still an odd screenplay Oscar nominee. I do enjoy films about the proximity of enormous wealth to deep poverty in India.

 

91. Reminiscence

Ironically, I have trouble remembering much about this movie.

 

92. Old

If you ended this about 10 minutes earlier, it would’ve been a much better movie.

 

93. Silent Night

That was pretty bleak. Not sure how it fell this low.

 

94. Beckett

I’m having a hard time forgiving them for how little Alicia Vikander this movie provided.

 

95. Army of the Dead

This is a really fun 2005 movie.

 

96. Snake Eyes

Shang-Chi really ate this movie’s lunch. It turns out, you don’t have to choose between your Asian lead being handsome or able to fight.

 

97. Beanie Mania

80 minutes of “Remember Beanie Babies? What was that?”

 

98. Coming Home in the Dark

Killer premise and opening that slowly ran out of gas.

 

99. Mother/Android

I respect how matter-of-fact the android takeover is in this movie. It sort of takes the stance “Of course The Terminator would happen”.

 

100. Psych 3: This Is Gus

To some degree, it’s nice to hang out with Shawn, Gus, and the gang. I do wish it didn’t feel like they were writing the movie as they were making it.

 

101. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

I’m glad some people enjoyed this. The humor was just not a flavor I cared for.

 

102. Army of Thieves

I do appreciate how they were like “We have this zombie franchise, but we don’t really want to deal with that. Just put it on in the background.”

 

103. Vacation Friends

I’ll say this much. The plot kept going in directions I didn’t expect. Had the jokes been a little better, I would’ve been very impressed with this.

 

104. The Card Counter

Oscar Isaac is good, so does anything else really matter?

 

105. Those Who Wish Me Dead

Kind of a fun 90s action movie made in 2020.

 

106. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway

As long as they put Rose Byrne and Domhnall Gleason together in a movie, I don’t really have a choice now do I?

 

107. In the Earth

It’s looking more and more like Free Fire was the exception for how I feel about Ben Wheatley’s movies.

 

108. Thunder Force

At the very least, these Melissa McCarthy/Ben Falcone movies aren’t as toxic as they used to be.

 

109. The Unforgivable

Seriously though, how old is Sandra Bullock supposed to be in this movie?

 

110. Tom and Jerry

The move is a bit of a waste, but there is something I like about these kids movies where all the talented adult actors give “I know I’m in a kids movie” performances.

 

111. Finch

So much better than Chappie.

 

112. The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Andra Day is very good in this.

 

113. Knocking

As someone who chased a bug sound I was hearing for 10 minutes last night, I can relate to a movie about a woman obsessed with a knocking she keeps hearing.

 

114. The Many Saints of Newark

Perhaps I should’ve done a Sopranos rewatch first.

 

115. The Voyeurs

The erotic thrill genre is almost dead, so it’s nice to see someone still trying to make them.

 

116. Dear Evan Hansen

All Broadway show film adaptations need someone on staff whose entire job is to tell people “It’s ok do change that.”

 

117. Don't Breathe 2

Not the best franchise to turn the antagonist into the protagonist.

 

118. To All the Boys: Always and Forever

After the letter gimmick wore out, I had a hard time staying interested in this franchise.

 

119. Palmer

Justin Timberlake’s best performance, but that’s not a very high bar.

 

120. The Little Things

A movie with this many Oscar winners shouldn’t have only one good performance.

 

121. Bruised

Another movie where I got a little too distracted trying to figure out how old the main character is supposed to be.

 

122. He's All That

The best thing I can say is that I didn’t hate this genre swapped Influencer remake of the 90s hit.

 

123. False Positive

Pregnancy as horror is such a natural idea.

 

124. The Last Letter from Your Lover

I keep thinking this movie would’ve been better if you’d swapped the lead actress roles.

 

125. Wild Indian

Michael Greyeyes is good and intense in a movie I’ve otherwise forgotten.

 

126. Halloween Kills

How does the same filmmaker who made the 2018 movie make the mistake of sidelining Jamie Lee Curtis for the sequel?

 

127. Things Heard & Seen

I know I saw this. I remember watching a screen playing this movie and hearing the words and sounds…I can’t tell you a thing about it though.

 

128. Trust

The couple at the center of this were never on the equal footing that this movie needs for it to work.

 

129. Mayday

A great idea that often felt more like an extended music video.

 

130. The Woman in the Window

By 2023, you won’t be able to convince me that this and The Girl on the Train are different movies.

 

131. Prime Time

It’s ironic that these movies about someone taking over a TV broadcast to say something rarely ever have anything to say.

 

132. Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir

To be honest, I watched this when I was too burned out on movies to enjoy anything. That said, the entire message of this movie was “I wrote The Joy Luck Club”. I think I would’ve gotten more out of just rewatching The Joy Luck Club.

 

133. Malcolm & Marie

Considering that this is a two-hander at a single location, it’s a bad sign that I would’ve rather watch this on mute.

 

134. Cherry

The Russo brothers spent their Avengers goodwill on this? That’s unfortunate.

 

135. John & the Hole

This movie is either way too smart for me or it’s meaningless.

 

136. Ma Belle, My Beauty

For whatever reason, this love triage movie just didn’t click with me.

 

Bottom 10

137. Cusp

Overtime, the feeling of gawking and judgment in this movie has grown for me.

 

138. Cryptozoo

I found the animation style too messy to overcome some clever ideas.

 

139. Don't Look Up

I really want to like an Adam McKay movie again. Such a waste of an amazing cast.

 

140. Aftermath

There are movies that 5 minutes in I realize I’ve made a horrible mistake and should turn them off. I need to get better about turning them off and considering the time spent a sunk cost.

 

141. Locked Down

All of my least favorite things about “COVID Cinema” plus a jewel heist for some reason.

 

142. Chaos Walking

The only movie of 2021 that actively gave me a headache.

 

143. Space Jam: A New Legacy

Space Jam is already a movie that Millennial nostalgia has inflated, then A New Legacy strips it all of the things that did work about it. It’s hard to think of how they could’ve made this worse.

 

144. All Light, Everywhere

I…don’t…get it. This documentary makes some points about surveillance in the most scattered way possible.

 

145. A Glitch in the Matrix

What can I say? I just hated watching this simulation theory documentary. Since watching it, I’ve heard some compelling cases in its defense but I have no desire to give it a second try.

 

146. Cry Macho

Will Clint Eastwood let Clint Eastwood retire, please?

 

 

2021 "New to me" Top "10"

OK. I couldn't leave it to just 10. Think of this more as a list of the movies that stuck in my brain that I saw this year. They are somewhat ranked though.

 

The Quick and the Dead

A Western than has all the fun of the genre and none of the problematic stuff.

 

Supercop

How do you improve on the already great Police Story series: Add Michelle Yeoh.

 

The Legend ofDrunken Master

I swear. I'll limit myself to 2 Jackie Chan movies. This one had the most impressive stunts of the ones I saw.

 

Minari

I love a Sundance movie that refuses to go away all season.

 

The Father

Lost in the shock of Anthony Hopkins winning the Oscar over Chadwick Boseman is the fact that it was really deserved.

 

Magic Mike XXL

I'm so impressed with how they flipped this to a road trip buddy movie.

 

Marvelous & the Black Hole

I have a couple Sundance 2021 movies that haven't been release yet. Be on the lookout for these. This one was so surprisingly pleasant.

 

Whip It

Could Drew Barrymore please direct more movies?

 

Four Lions

Leave it to the Brits to find a way to make a terrorist comedy that somehow doesn't feel offensive.

 

Hero

Such a ridiculous amount of style in this movie.

 

Princess Cyd

A lot of the movies that connected with me this year were the gentle ones about people being good to each other.

 

Clay Pigeons

I have no idea how I only saw this movie now and not on TBS in 2001.

 

One for the Road

Another Sundance movie without a US release. This imperfect Thai road trip movie has stuck with me a surprising amount.

 

A Christmas Horror Story

I did not watch a movie called "A Christmas Horror Story" expecting it to actually be a tonally strong horror anthology. Bravo.

 

How to Survive a Plague

Such an impressively made documentary.

 

The Strangers

So simple and creepy.

 

Someone Great

What a great friend movie.

 

Desperately Seeking Susan

I love how definitively 80s this movie is.

 

We're All Going to the World's Fair

My last Sundance 2021 yet to be released movie. A really fun found-footage horror movie that I'm excited to see get a proper release.

 

Waiting for "Superman"

Let's ignore the fact that a movie from a decade ago is talking about the same problems schools still face.

 

My Octopus Teacher

I was not ready to care so much about an octopus.

 

Dora & the Lost City of Gold

Way more fun and funny than it had any right to be.