2021 saw the return to movie theaters across the nation. After the long and harsh lock down people finally had the ability to watch new movies on the big screen, and could still watch from home on streaming services. Let’s take a look back at some of the best pictures 2021 has to offer.
C’mon C’mon
C’mon C’mon stars Joaquin Phoenix as the main protagonist Johnny, a radio journalist who travels the country with his nephew Jesse as they interview children about the world. Johnny is emotionally empty and has a monotone voice throughout the film as if he’s missing a part of himself. Jesse is the only person that can drag any emotion out of him. What separates this movie from anything else this year is the beauty of it visually. It’s a black and white drama set in New York. There’s nothing flashy about it, yet it’s subtle and simplistic approach is a breath of fresh air in an age of over-saturation and CGI . Joaquin Phoenix is one of the best dramatic actors going today and his performance in C’mon C’mon is fantastic, you should absolutely try and watch this.
Pig
July 16th aw the release of the movie Pig starring Nicholas Cage. Cage plays a hermit named Robin who sells truffles to different restaurants in the city with the help of his truffle pig, that he lives with in the woods. After a group of kids beat him and steal his pig, Robin takes it upon himself to find the pig. The movie is a deconstruction of human nature, and how we deal with grief in unhealthy fashions. Nicholas Cage delivered a deliberately monotone performance that heavily relies on his body language and actions rather than his spoken words. It’s the type of performance that makes you forget you’re watching an actor and instead feels like a real person with real emotion. Pig will most likely do very well around Oscar season, and is a movie you should go out of your way to see.
The Suicide Squad
After 2016’s Suicide Squad movie bombed at the box office and was hailed as one of the worst superhero movies ever made, people were skeptical if James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad would be any better. Surprisingly the movie is a lot of fun, with a lot of violence and heart. The film stars David Dastmalchin as The Polka Dot Man, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, John Cena as Peacemaker, and Idris Elba as Bloodsport. Collectively they are known as The Suicide Squad and are sent on a deadly mission to stop project starfish. They also have to fear the possibility of Amanda Waller blowing their heads up using explosives that were placed in every member’s neck, in case they go rouge. This is undoubtedly the best DCEU film to date and James Gunn perfectly adapted this unique team of villains while blending in his darker sense of humor. The best part of the movie s the characters themselves and seeing them develop into a distorted type of family. James Gunn proved he can do superhero movies well with his Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and The Suicide Squad is another big hit from the director.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
The newest installment into the MCU, Spider-Man: No Way Home has finally hit theaters and the reviews have been outstanding. The movie also has the pleasure of being the first movie to have surpassed 1 billion dollars at the box office since the pandemic started. No Way Home is a collection of characters from every Spider-Man movie and weaves in the past generations into the current generation exceptionally well. The narrative acts as a Peter Parker story that touches upon the pain and grief that comes along with being a superhero. Tom Holland gives his best performance as Spidey and Willem Dafoe steals the show as the Green Goblin. With great villains, a unique set up, and big surprises, this movie is an incredibly enjoyable watch. No Way Home is the perfect finale for Spider-Man in the MCU, but it’s also a great beginning at the same time.
With the good comes the bad, and movies this year are no different. There have been plenty of awful reboots, sequels, prequels, soft reboots, re-imaginings and cash grabs. So let’s check those out quickly.
Black Widow
After being delayed from May of 2020 to June of 2021, Marvel finally released a film centered around the MCU’s most iconic female character Black Widow. The self-titled film Hit theaters on June 9th and was available on Disney Plus for those with premium prescriptions. What could of been a more somber and emotional study on sex trafficking and the trauma that comes along with it, was instead an odd couple comedy starring Black Widow, her sister Yelena and Red Guardian. The time for a Black Widow movie had long passed, and by having this come out after Black Widow’s death in Endgame means the movie had no stakes from the beginning. The movie is just unnecessary and having your main villain be a two dimensional representation of a “Harvey Weinstein” type leads to a boring and predictable narrative. Black Widow is an easy pass.
Halloween Kills
After the surprisingly good reviews 2018’s Halloween received, it was obvious that a sequel was on the horizon. Picking up directly where the last film left us, a wounded Laurie Strode is taken away to hospital while a murderous Michael Myers is still at large. The town of Haddonfield takes it upon themselves to bring an end to the incarnation of pure evil, Michael Myers. Halloween Kills is a mix between Halloween and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The plot makes little to no sense and is an excuse for gruesome kills and rehashing of previous installments in the series. Perhaps the worst Halloween movie to date, Halloween Kills is a nonsensical cash grab desperately trying to seem more intelligent than it is. In a recent interview Jamie Lee Curtis compared the people of Haddonfield who were hunting down and trying to kill Michael Myers to BLM protesters, so maybe save yourself the two hours and skip this.
Dear Evan Hansen
What do you get when the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower tries to recapture lightning in a bottle, well you get Dear Evan Hansen. A film so poorly thought out Warner Brothers had to state how disappointed they were with the public’s reception of the film. With a budget of around 27 million dollars the movie made an estimated 18.9 million dollars, which classifies it as a major box office bomb. The problem isn’t necessarily the actors, it’s more the director and the source material that made this movie so poor in quality. Director Stephen Chbosky is known for his coming of age stories, but Dear Evan Hansen comes nowhere near the quality of some of his earlier work. The story itself is Evan Hansen is told by his therapist to write letters to himself as a way to let out his inner feelings. One day Evan breaks his arm and a kid named Conner signs it. Later on Conner find a note Evan had written to himself and three days later Conner commits suicide. Conner’s parents interpret Evan’s letter as Conner’s suicide note and they befriend Evan. Basically Evan takes advantage of a grieving family to get closer with Conner’s sister who he is infatuated with. Awful story, terrible characters, a nonsensical plot, this movie is bad.
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Finally after 35 years the third film in the Ghostbusters’ franchise is here, Ghostbusters afterlife. Starring Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace, and Carrie Coon as our new protagonists; the death of Elon Spengler leads to many secrets being kept locked away until his granddaughter stumbles upon his old ghostbusting equipment. With the help of some friends Phoebe takes it upon herself to stop what her grandfather started decades ago. Ghostbusters afterlife marketed itself as a film in honor of Harold Ramis the actor who co-wrote and played Elon Spengler in the original films. However after watching the movie it becomes obvious it was a cash grab with obnoxiously obvious product placement. “SPOILERS” Yes, they actually added a CGI Elon Spengler in the movie as a ghost at the end. It feels all too exploitative and the third act is a direct copy from the first one. It’s trying to be new but it’s afraid to be different and its constant usage of nostalgia pops is very tacky. A very poor sequel and not a fun viewing experience, don’t watch it.