Thursday, March 28, 2024

List: Top 10 Films I Saw On Criterion in 2021

It’s finally time to run down my favorite films of 2021, but not for studio films (that’s for Belfast). There were movies a-plenty coming in and out of the Criterion Channel, some at first watch, others a rewatch and re-evaluate. A lot of internal debate, a lot of struggling to plug which film deserves its proper ranking. I’m no professional at this, just a traditional cinephile, this is my list. We don’t need another deep debate like the NBA75 list earlier this year, but yes, 1980s NBA All-Star Alex English was robbed again of that spot; have some respect for your elders! I thought about 100 films, then 50 as I did last time with, I’ll just leave to The Top 10 films from the CC of 2021.

  1. Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)
  2. After Life (1998)
  3. Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt (1989)
  4. The Asphalt Jungle (1952)
  5. When We Were Kings (1996)
  6. Christ Stopped At Eboli (1979)
  7. Thief (1981)
  8. Moonstruck (1987)
  9. The House Is Black (1962)
  10. The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Four of my films are documentaries and three of those fill the top five. Dawson City is just one of these movies that hypnotize you into learning the life of a film reel, passed coast to coast, until it reached this outpost in Alaska. Director Bill Morrison tells the unbelievable story of hundreds of nitrate film prints that were found buried and preserved in the 1970s. In parallel to the life of these prints is the story of Dawson City and how this gold rush town became the final home to these lost movies. It is one of the best documentaries about movies that I have ever seen. Alongside that is the life stories told of five families who have dealt with loss due to AIDS in Common Threads, with behind-the-scenes footage and commentary of the globe-shaking fight in When We Were Kings, and a short documentary from Iran that gives a humanistic portrait of leper colonies in the 1960s, The House Is Black.

In the dramatic narrative, Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters) gives a moving portrait of memories forever in our hearts and the creative preparations to make them for the deceased. It’s an interesting purgatory, one only a film director could create, and it does not pass judgment on who comes in. This stands in contrast to John Huston’s gritty noir about a planned jewelry heist with the femme fatale, the corrupt cop, and a plan to make it straight after this one last scores More notably, this was Marilyn Monore’s breakthrough film in which Huston said of Monroe, “one of the few actresses who could make an entrance by leaving the room.” Michael Mann’s Thief, his debut feature, is a classic of the neo-noir genre, full of visuals and the Chicago realism which would make Mann a bigger name in his later works.

Meanwhile, Francesco Rosi moved on from the political neorealism his films were known for to adapting Carlo Levi’s memoir about being exiled in fascist Italy to an isolated section of the country where the poor are left derelict. Levi was from the wealthy north and his anti-fascist views have put him somewhere he had no idea existed, but he had to survive by living amongst them and helping them in their plight. The four-part miniseries is about discovery and finding a new way to see the world. Staying with the subject of Italy is the heavy Italian-American love story that is one of the best romantic comedies of all time, Moonstruck. It is a film I never totally got until a proper viewing charmed me with Nicholas Cage as the passionate baker with the faux hand and Cher as the widowed, yet love-bound Loretta, all bound to the operas of Puccini. Finally, there is Marlene Dietrich as Catherine the Great, who outwits the men to become the leader in The Scarlet Empress. It is Josef von Sternberg’s best film and the crown jewel in his collaboration with Dietrich, a dark portrayal of power and seduction for the top seat in Imperial Russia.  

The rest of my list can be found here – https://boxd.it/aEZEW – as I have surpassed 200 films for the year. This includes multiple films a day sometimes for my viewing pleasure and to even write this article. And, as always, there are more yet to be seen and they consistently remove and add films every month to the Channel. If you haven’t signed up, give it a try. You can start with a free two-week period before deciding to sign on for it every month. Join the club. Criterionize your cinematic tastes. 

Follow me on Twitter: @brian_cine (Cine-A-Man)

 

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