2021 Films That Didn’t Make the Cut

Before I get into my top films of 2021, I’m going to list all the films that didn’t quite make that list. Some of these films are pretty good, others I didn’t like at all. I will go deeper into a handful, then list everything. My cut-off point between the two lists is based on a 5 star scale. Any film that received 4 cats or higher is on my Top Films of the year. That list numbered 61. The lower half of my Top Films of 2021 were those films that scored 3 1/2 stars are fewer. There were 79 of those films. I counted both Independent and mainstream films, but I did not count Festival films, as they will be counted in the year they are released.

False Positive

Sitting at the top of the bottom half of my list are a bunch of films I can still recommend, led by False Positive, an over-the-top horror film that I first saw as part of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. This film written John Lee, Alissa Nutter, and Ilana Glazer, directed by John Lee, and starring Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, and Pierce Brosan tells the story of a young couple who seek out the help of a fertility doctor to have a child. Glazer plays the paranoid mom, Theroux, her patient husband, and Brosnan, the charismatic doctor. Extra points go to Gretchen Mol as Brosnan’s head nurse, whose performance, along with Brosnan’s really livens things up. Also of note at the top of this list is Home, the directorial debut of Run, Lola, Run star, Franka Potente. Marvin (Jake McLaughlin) returns to his hometown from a decade and half of prison for murdering someone and must face his ailing mother (Kathy Bates), the victim’s granddaughter (Aisling Franciosi) and mistrustful and angry town. Potente does a commendable job in this tough tale of redemption.

Licorice Pizza

Other films of note near the top of the list include Paul Thomas Anderson’s uneven Licorice Pizza, which is buffered by the outstanding performance of its stars, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman; Funny Boy, an Indian epic about a young homosexual during the escalating tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamils in the years leading up to the 1983 uprisings, directed by Canadian Deepa Mehta; Days of the Bagnold Summer, a sweet coming-of-age film starring Earl Cave (son of Nick) and Monica Dolan, about a teen-aged boy who just wants to listen to heavy metal who must spend the disappointing summer with his librarian mom; and Dune, Denis Villenueve’s much-lauded, visually spectacular, and largely successful adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic.

Days of the Bagnold Summer

At the bottom of my list are two films that received one star. My apologies to anyone who enjoyed this films. My opinions are purely subjective. In the 90’s, I enjoyed the musician Moby, whose ambient, electronica reached its pinnacle with the album Play, so I was interested in a new documentary about him, Moby Doc. After professing at the outset of the film, he had no interest in making just ‘another biopic about a weird musician,’ he proceeds to do exactly that… and not a very good one at that. In fact, the movie is so self-indulgent, self-important, and self-conscious, that it actually made me like his music less! I was even somewhat embarrassed that David Lynch appeared in the film, looking like he wasn’t quite sure what he was doing there. The other film earning the dubious distinction of receiving only one star last year is a little more sensitive, as I know some people who really enjoyed it. Cryptozoo is an animated film written and directed by Dash Shaw utilizing a flat, 2D hand-drawn style that felt like it was written by a middle-schooler who had just discovered the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual for the first time and decided to write a story about the creature discovered therein. The story uses an environmental theme to kick things off, but the overly-preachy message is more about free will and humanity’s need to control beings it perceives as lesser. The animation-work is really rather atrocious, and being forced to listen to Michael Cera voice a simulated orgasm in the first 10 minutes of the film was just adding insult to injury. The one saving grace was the inclusion of Grace Zabriskie among the vocal performances, earning it its single star rating.

False Positive, directed by John Lee ***1/2
Home, directed by Franka Potente ***1/2
Sugar Daddy, directed by Wendy Morgan ***1/2
Licorice Pizza, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ***1/2
Funny Boy, directed by Deepa Mehta ***1/2
Wife of a Spy, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa ***1/2
Days of the Bagnold Summer, directed by Simon Bird ***1/2
Dune, directed by Denis Villenueve ***1/2
El Planeta, directed by Amalia Ulman ***1/2
Sun Children, directed by Majid Majidi ***1/2
The Nowhere Inn, directed by Bill Benz ***1/2
Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton ***1/2
Lamb, directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson ***1/2
Fully Realized Humans, directed by Joshua Leonard ***1/2
Mama Weed, directed by Jean-Paul Salomé ***1/2
Blue Bayou, directed by Justin Chon ***1/2
You Will Die At 20, directed by Amjad Abu Alala ***1/2
The Disciple, directed by Chaitanya Tamhane ***1/2
Violet, directed by Justine Bateman ***1/2
Saint Narcisse, directed by Bruce La Bruce ***1/2
Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt), directed by Monica Zanetti ***1/2
Black Widow, directed by Cate Shortland ***1/2
Fever Dream, directed by Claudia Llosa ***1/2
Stowaway, directed by Joe Penna ***1/2
Luzzu, directed by Alex Camilleri ***1/2
Some Kind of Heaven, directed by Lance Oppenheim ***1/2
Spring Blossom, directed by Suzanne Lindon ***1/2
The Sleepless, directed by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas ***1/2
Concrete Cowboy, directed by Ricky Staub ***1/2
Percy vs. Goliath, directed by Clark Johnson ***1/2
Lorelei, directed by Sabrina Doyle ***1/2
Baby Done, directed by Curtis Vowell ***1/2
Reign of the Superwomen, directed by Xavier Fournier & Frédéric Ralière ***1/2
Through the Glass Darkly, directed by Lauren Fash ***
The Witches of the Orient, directed by Julien Faraut ***
Ailey, directed by Jamila Wignot ***
Summer of Soul (… or, When the Revolution Couldn’t be Televised), directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson ***
Beyto, directed by Gitta Gsell ***
Moffie, directed by Oliver Hermanus ***
Pig, directed by Michael Sarnoski ***
Range Roads, directed by Kyle Thomas ***
Breaking Fast, directed by Mike Mosallam ***
Supernova, directed by Harry Macqueen ***
Stray, directed by Elizabeth Lo ***
Son of Monarchs, directed by Alexis Gambis ***
The Inheritance, directed by Ephraim Asili ***
The County, directed by Grímur Hákonarson ***
The Mimic, directed by Thomas F. Mazziotti ***
About Endlessnessm directed by Roy Andersson ***
Dream Horse, directed by Euros Lyn ***
The American Sector, directed by Courtney Stephens ***
CODA, directed by Sian Heder *** 
Chasing Wonders, directed by Paul Meins ***
The Get Together, directed by Wil Bakke ***
Falling, directed by Alessandro Nivola***
Malcolm & Marie, directed by Sam Levinson **1/2
Mandibles, directed by Auentin Dupieux **1/2
Cicada, directed by Matt Fifer **1/2
Freeland, directed by Mario Furloni & Kate McLean **1/2
Memory House, directed by João Paulo Miranda Maria **1/2
Slow Machine, directed by Joe Denardo **1/2
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, directed by Kristina Lindström & Kristian Petri **1/2
Don’t Look Up, directed by Adam McKay **
Sublet, directed by Eytan Fox **
Take Me Somewhere Nice, directed by Ena Sendijarevic **
HipBeat, directed by Samuel Kay Forrest **
Godzilla vs. Kong, directed by Adam Wingard **
Annette, directed by Leos Carax *1/2
Mogul Mowgli, directed by Bassam Tariq *1/2
In the Heights, directed by Jon M. Chu *1/2
Boy Meets Boy, directed by Daniel Sanchez Lopez *1/2
Paper Spiders, directed by Inon Shampanier *1/2
Little Fish, directed by Chad Hartigaqn *1/2
Tick, tick… Boom!, directed by Lin Manuel Miranda *1/2
Dramarama, directed by Jonathan Wysocki *1/2
Last Night in Rozzie, directed by Sean Gannet *1/2
Mark, Mary, & some other people, directed by Hannah Marks *1/2
Cryptozoo, directed by Dash Shaw *
Moby Doc, directed by Rob Gordon Bralver *

Films Seen in 2021

The one or two of you reading this know that I run an independent film society, The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film. Boston-based, but with national membership our mission is to teach audiences to view films actively. We do this through film discussion, special film events, and most famously, our annual Awards Ceremony, where we spotlight the memberships best in independent film for the year.

Because of my involvement with Chlotrudis, I tend to see a lot of films. In the golden years (late 90’s early to mid 2000’s) I would seen anywhere from 75 – 100 eligible films per year, but that number slipped to the 35 – 50 range for many years. Then a pandemic hit, and I made a conscious effort, since i wasn’t doing as much socializing, to work on my film viewing. It was easy, since most everything was streaming as the public was/is still hesitant to go back to the cinema, which makes me sad, but I understand. Now streaming outlets have made it SO easy to see films from the comfort of your own home, I worry about the future of cinema… again. At any rate, my point is in 2020 and 2021, I have met and surpassed my previous highs for movie viewing. In 2021 specifically, I saw 216 films, 138 of which were Chlotrudis eligible indies, two were Festival films that haven’t been released official;y yet, six were bigger releases that were not eligible for Chlotrudis consideration, and 70 of which were older films that I missed.

That’s a lot of films this year. I doubt I’ll be able to keep it up, but we’ll see. The catch-up viewing of older films really dropped off around September as I dove deeply into the Chlotrudis films to prepare for nominations (which are being announced publicly today — check out the Chlotrudis website tonight or tomorrow if you’re interested.)

For the next set of blog entries I will be talking about the films I saw in 2021, starting today, with just a straight list of older films that caught up on this year. I did this mainly because I finally started to listen to the Brattle Theatre’s podcast and listening to that team’s discussion of films throughout history inspired me to see a lot of films I’ve been meaning to, and just never got around to it. So for today, it’s just a list of those films that I finally watched for whatever reason.

The Last Picture Show directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Phoenix (2014) directed by Christian Petzold, ****
Alex of Venice (2014) directed by Chris Messina, *** 1/2
Aviva (2020) directed by Boaz Yakin, ** 1/2
Fireworks Wednesday (2006) directed by Asghar Farhadi, **** 1/2
Four Sheets to the Wind (2007) directed by Sterlin Harjo, *** 1/2
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018) dir. by Stacie Passon, *** 1/2
Transit (2018) directed by Christian Petzold, ****
Ikiru (1952) directed by Akira Kurosawa, **** 1/2
My Man Godfrey (1936) directed by Gregory La Cava, ****
Startstruck (1982) directed by Gillian Armstrong, ***
The One I Love (2014) directed by Charlie McDowell, ****
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) directed by Nicolas Roeg, *** 1/2
The Fountainhead (1949) directed by King Vidor, ****
Daughters of the Dust (1991) directed by Julie Dash, ***
Spotlight (2015) directed by Tom McCarthy, *****
Can You Ever Forgive Me (2018) directed by Marielle Heller, *** 1/2
You Can Count On Me (2000 directed by Kenneth Lonergan ****
Monsters (2010) directed by Gareth Edwards, ***
The Conversation (1974) directed by Francis Ford Coppola, **** 1/2
Blowup (1966) directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, ****
Labyrinth (1986) directed by Jim Henson, **
Citizen Kane (1941) directed by Orson Welles, ***
Orpheus (1950) directed by Jean Cocteau, ****
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) directed by Robert Wise, *** 1/2
The Wild Pear Tree (2018) directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, ****
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) directed by Jon M. Chu, ****
Gattaca (1997) directed by Andrew Niccol, **
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) directed by Cathy Yan, *** 1/2
Eighth Grade (2018) dircted by Bo Burnham, ****
The Invitation (2015) directed by Karyn Kusama, ** 1/2
The Last Picture Show (1971) directed by Peter Bogdanovich, *****
Repo Man (1984) directed by Alex Cox, ***
Coma (1978) directed by Michael Crichton, ****
Enemy (2013) directed by Denis Villeneuve, **** 1/2
I, Tonya (2017) directed by Craig Gillespie, ****
A New Leaf (1971) directed by Elaine May, ****
Beauty and the Beast (1946) directed by Jean Cocteau, **** 1/2
Burning Cane (2019) directed by Phillip Michael Youmans, *** 1/2
Altered States (1980) directed by Ken Russell, **
Pikadero (2015) directed by Ben Sharrock, **** 1/2
The Seventh Seal (1957) directed by Ingmar Bergman, **** 1/2
Black Girl (1966) directed by Ousmane Sembène, ****
Blow-Out (1981) directed by Brian De Palma, **
The Out-of-Towners (1970) directed by Arthur Hiller, ****
Emma. (2020) directed by Autumn de Wilde, ****
Hud (1963) directed by Martin Ritt, ****
Love & Friendship (2016) directed by Whit Stillman, *** 1/2
Ishtar (1987) directed by Elaine May, ****
Stage Door (1937) directed by Kogonada, Gregory La Cava, **** 1/2
Yojimbo (1961) directed by Kogonada, Akira Kurosawa, ***
Columbus (2017) directed by Kogonada, *****
Alter Egos (2012) directed by Jordan Galland, *** 1/2
Afternoon (2015) directed by Tsai Ming-liang, **** 1/2
The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks, **** 1/2
Weirdos (2016) directed by Bruce McDonald, *** 1/2
Alphaville (1965) directed by Jean-Luc Godard, **
Key Largo (1948) directed by John Huston, ***
To Have and To Have Not (1944) directed by Howard Hawks, ****
Midsommar (2019) directed by Ari Aster, **
Rebels of the Neon God (1992) directed by Tsai Ming-liang, ****
Animals (2012) directed by Marçal Forés, ****
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) directed by Tay Garnett, ***
Barking Water (2009) directed by Sterlin Harjo, *** 1/2
Stray Dogs (2013) directed by Tsai Ming-liang, ****
The Lighthouse (2019) directed by Robert Eggers, * 1/2
Berberian Sound Studio (2012) directed by Peter Strickland, ** 1/2
His House (2020) directed by Remi Weekes, ***
Relic (2020) directed by Natalie Erika James, **** 1/2
La Llorona (2019) directed by Jayro Bustamante, ****
Sleep Dealer (2008) directed by Alex Rivera, *** 1/2

Michael’s Top Books Read in 2021, #’s 6 & 7

the Guncle#7 The Guncle by Steven Rowley (2021) – 76ers I find grief to be one of the richest subjects for storytelling, whether that be books, movies, TV, music, etc. Everyone reacts to grief in different, sometimes unexpected ways, and it’s usually a lengthy process to deal with. Steven Rowley knows grief, and handles it well creatively. His first novel, Lily and the Octopus was all about grief… the grief of losing a friend, a beloved pet dog, and how her owner dealt with an impending terminal illness. It was beautiful and fantastic and kicked off his career strongly.

Now, with his third book, The Guncle Rowley has written a fun and funny novel about a gay, former TV star living a slightly solitary life in Palm Springs, who is called upon to take his young nephew and niece for the summer. But what it’s really all about is grief and coping with loss. ]Patrick, has lost his dearest friend Sara to cancer. Sara also happened to be married to Patrick’s brother, Greg, and mother to Maisie and Grant. When Greg checks himself into rehab after his wife dies, he entrusts Patrick with his children’s care, much to Patrick’s consternation. Reeling with his own grief about the loss of Sara, now he was expected to cope with her children’s grief as well? And as a single gay male, Patrick is unsure of his qualifications to do so. Then there’s another wrinkle… Patrick is still struggling with the grief he never properly dealt with after the death of his boyfriend in a car accident several years prior. Instead, he covers it up with snappy comebacks, fashionable caftans, and that solitary life. Until the summer he became “GUP” — gay Uncle Patrick.

Like I said, Rowley knows how to handle grief: with humor, with grace, and with sympathy. Patrick’s relationship with his niece and nephew unspools naturally and gracefully. The humor is fresh and not overdone, and the life Rowley paints of Patrick’s life in Palm Springs is recognizable but not cliche. If there’s one misstep at all, it was with the young, potential romantic interest, Emory, that pops up occasionally throughout the book that seemed more of a plot checkbox than a character that we needed. But it’s a minor quibble, and as a Guncle myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

Honor#6 – Honor by Thrity Umrigar (2002) – Accomplished writer, Thrity Umrigar returns with a heart-wrenching, dramatic novel, Honor. Smita, A journalist covering hard-hitting, international, humanitarian stories returns to her home city of Mumbai after years of avoidance, when she she receives a call from a close colleague who needs her. To her surprise, her colleague doesn’t need her for emotional support or assistance after a difficult surgery, but summoned her to finish a story she was covering about Meena, a Hindu village woman, who married a Muslim man to tragic consequences. Meena’s brothers, old-fashioned and conservative are outraged that their sister has married a Muslim, and burn their home down with the two of them inside. Meena is horribly disfigured, nearly dying, and her husband is killed.

From the start, we sense that Smita is very reluctant to be home, and it soon becomes clear that something in her past, some traumatic event, sent her and her family to America, never expecting to return. This event links Smita and Meena in ways that the journalist never expected, and powers the momentum of this finely written, hard-hitting novel. The one stumble comes nearly at the end, when the introduction of an unnecessary, and poorly executed romance weakens the impact of the story. There was a much better path to Smita’s story resolution built into this powerful story that would have had a far great impact and resonated more strongly with the overall story, but it’s it’s a small complaint in the larger context of this powerful novel.

Michael’s Books Read in 2021

I feel good about the amount of reading I did in 2021. It has still been a strange year, with a pandemic still raging, but we did head back to working on site in June, and that meant commuting again. I managed to squeeze one last book in by finishing it today, so my total is 33 books for the year. That doesn’t match my golden days of reading, but it’s a great improvement over the last several years. I will certainly try to keep up that pace.

For today’s post, I’m just going to list all the books I read in 2021 in alphabetical order. Then starting tomorrow, I will list my favorites. And just in case you’re wondering, the book pictured is one that I liked, but that didn’t make the final list.

The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller came in at #18

Architects of Memory (2020) by Karen Osborne

Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Rock Star (2013) by Tracey Thorn

The Bird King (2019) by G. Willow Wilson

The Blade Between (2020) by Sam J. Miller

The Guncle (2021) by Steven Rowley

Harlem Shuffle (2021) by Colson Whitehead

The Healing Power of Singing (2021) by Emm Gryner

Hidden Palace (2021) by Helene Wecker

Honor (2022) by Thrity Umrigar

How to Be an Antiracist (2019) by Ibram X. Kendi

Hummingbird Salamander (2021) by Jeff VanDerMeer

If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Aging and Power in Failure (2020) by Jann Arden

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 2: Edge of Everything (2020) by G. Willow Wilson

Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 3: In Other Worlds (2021) by G. Willow Wilson

Kill Me Now (2018) by Timmy Reed

Kindred (1979) by Octavia Butler

Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album (2012) by Ken Caillat with Steven Steifel

Master of the Revels (2021) by Nicole Galland

Memorial (2020) by Bryan Washington

The Next Queen of Heaven (2009) by Gregory Maguire

Night Came With Many Stars (2021) by Simon Van Booy

The Odd Sea (1998) by Frederick Reiken

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) by Becky Chambers

Rachel to the Rescue (2021) by Elinor Lipman

Real Life (2020) by Brandon Taylor

Scardown (2005) by Elisabeth Bear

The Seventh Perfection (2020) by Daniel Polansky

Sex with Strangers (2021) by Michael Lowenthal

A Star is Bored (2020) by Byron Lane

The Stone Sky (2017) by N.K. Jemisen

Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac (2007) by Carol Ann Harris

Stumptown: The Case of the King of Clubs (2015) by Greg Rucka

Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (2013) by Christopher Durang