An Anticapitalist Guide to the Best Films of 2021
Aside from the record-breaking audience for the new Spiderman movie, not many people went to movie theaters this year, adding new urgency to questions about the future of movie theaters, and of film. There will always be money, and a path to profit, for the big blockbusters. What is always in danger is funding and distribution for films that challenge systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and capitalism. For those who are seeking out these stories, I hope this extended list helps you find some recent films that thrill and inspire you. And I hope the future still holds room for films with challenging storylines and ideas, and ways to see them collectively.
Below are the films of 2021 that excited me about what is possible from movies, usually by challenging systems of oppression (but sometimes just because they were exciting diversions).
First, the best documentaries that didn’t make my top ten list:
Made before he created the TV show Reservation Dogs, but after many years of indie filmmaking, Sterlin Harjo’s Love and Fury uplifts a wide variety of Native artists, demonstrating that there is no single Native identity, form of art, politics or way of living. Huge gratitude to Ava DuVernay’s Array for distributing this important film, and allowing more of the world to see it.
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee is a moving animated documentary about a queer refugee’s journey. Stanley Nelson’s Attica is a devastating film about one of the most important moments in the history of US resistance, the 1971 uprising of prisoners at Attica state prison. To continue learning about Attica, I also recommend Cinda Firestone’s 1974 documentary of the same name. White working class queer stories from the south are usually missing from Hollywood. Socks on Fire, by Bo McGuire, is a poetic blend of fiction and documentary.
TV shows like Euphoria, Betty, and Genera+ion focus mostly on the children of wealthy parents in New York and LA, so the documentary Cusp, directed by Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill, deserves points for focusing on working class kids in Texas, and for its honest portrait of young girls growing up among toxic masculinity. Framing Britney Spears is a feature-length New York Times documentary directed by Samantha Stark that explores the barely hidden subtext of patriarchal abuse, slut shaming, and scapegoating that shaped public reaction to Britney. Director Todd Haynes, who helped birth a new era of queer cinema in the early 90’s, is not really interested in relaying facts with his documentary, The Velvet Underground. It’s more about powerfully conveying the feeling of a moment and a scene. Stunningly beautiful cinematography by director Jessica Beshir marks Faya Dayi, a meditation on life in one region of Ethiopia.
There were a couple of films based around comic performances that also stood out this year. I always forget how much I like Tig Notaro’s work, so I was unprepared for how much I’d be laughing at her new animated special, Tig Notaro: Drawn, directed by Greg Franklin. Bo Burnham: Inside is a claustrophobic and often hilarious and moving covid-era performance film. Burnham single-handedly writes and directs and stars in the film, all in his home, with no crew and seemingly no input from the outside world.
Among the powerful fiction films that didn’t make my list:
The life story of Venus and Serena Williams, as well as their parent’s vision and struggle, is exciting and inspiring. Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard contains important critiques of sports parents, the sports industrial complex, and racism within the business of tennis. There’s a lot of quiet tension, beautiful cinematography, and sublimated desire in Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion. Historical trauma meets modern melodrama in the quietly moving Parallel Mothers, the latest from Pedro Almodóvar. Another, more naturalistic, form of melodrama appears in A Hero, directed by Asghar Farhadi (Interestingly, Farhadi recently also made the Spain-set film Everybody Knows starring Almodovar-regular Penelope Cruz). There are too few filmmakers making movies by and for adults. Films that show people struggling against the weight of systems: poverty, prison, social expectations, and Farhadi’s Iran-set films explore the tensions and injustices of his own society, and all of ours. Memoria, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and starring Tilda Swinton, is more of a meditation than a film, and definitely not for everyone. But for those who stick with it, it’s a unique cinematic journey.
Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World captures that feeling of being in your twenties and thinking you know what you want, but you don’t. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, by Romanian director Radu Jude, is like a more sexually explicit update to the 70’s work by French surrealist director Luis Buñuel, crossed with today’s fights around “critical race theory” and school curriculums. Similarly graphic is Swedish writer-director Ninja Thyberg’ Pleasure, which casts many porn actors, directors and agents playing versions of themselves in its story of a newcomer in the LA porn industry.
There were two very good films this year that centered around a crazy Nicholas Cage performance. Michael Sarnoski’s Pig is a thoughtful and tense drama, always on the edge of an explosion. Sion Sono’s Prisoners of the Ghostland is explosive from the first moments, taking place in a strange action-packed dream world, leaving all logic behind.
Reminiscence, a science fiction noir directed by Lisa Joy, is not exactly good, but it contains a lot of interesting ideas, especially around the look of a post-climate change future. It’s Waterworld meets Chinatown meets an episode of Black Mirror, though not as good as that sounds. Many of the problems of this film would be solved if Thandiwe Newton, who plays a secondary character in the film, was the star. Anthony Scott Burns’ Come True is a creepy and visually creative horror film about the boundary between dreams and reality that reminds me of the feeling of seeing The Ring. Nia DaCosta’s Candyman is sometimes clunky in the delivery of its anti-gentrification message, but it’s a scary and creepy movie with a great cast.
The performances are excellent in Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye, where religious hypocrisy meets campy 70s and 80s fashion. Vincent D’Onofrio is especially great as a menacing and imposing Jerry Falwell. Josh Greenbaum’s Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar is a cute dumb comedy with charming performances by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, and sometimes that’s what we needed in 2021.
The 15 Best Films of 2021
15) Shaka King said that in his film Judas and the Black Messiah, he decided not to depict some of the most shocking and cruel actions of FBI informant William O’Neal, to keep him sympathetic (for example, O’Neal built a homemade electric chair to use to torture panthers he would falsely accuse of being informants). Despite my limited patience with this film’s sympathetic portrayal of O’Neal, the story of Fred Hampton is one that needs to be told, and I am grateful that this film tells at least some aspect of it, and that they brought in organizer Rosa Clemente and Hampton’s fiance Akua Njeri as advisors on the film.
14) Made on a limited budget without a famous cast, director/writer/star Kelley Kali’s I’m Fine (Thanks For Asking) is a smart film about a working class woman trying to get by with everything stacked against her.
13) The Neutral Ground evokes The Daily Show style of filmmaking, with a self-deprecating and slyly satirical correspondent leading us through the taking down of confederate monuments. But this smart film also has a heart underneath the snark. Some of the best parts feature filmmaker CJ Hunt’s father, who is hilarious and absolutely correct in his vocal cynicism and passionate advocacy against white supremacy.
12) Nikole Beckwith’s Together Together is a romcom without the romance (a friendcom?). Patti Harrison, as always, is wonderful in the lead role. The rest of the cast, especially Julio Torres and Sufe Bradshaw, is also excellent.
11) In Our Mothers’ Gardens is a loving, quirky, moving, funny, and self-assured debut by Shantrelle P. Lewis, who is also an art curator, business owner, author, and community builder. Diving deep into subjects from New Orleans cooking to religious ceremonies to generational trauma, this is a revelatory film. (And one of several great films this year distributed by Ava DuVernay’s Array)
10) Some of my favorite films are those that mix documentary and fiction, explore adult ideas, relationships and emotions, and avoid narrative cliches. 90’s hipster designer and music video filmmaker-turned indie filmmaker Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon is not the best of this genre, but it does feature all of these elements, and on top of all that, New Orleans poet Sunni Patterson in a small but key role.
9) There are far too few movies about women facing child welfare bureaucracies, and too many about hero cops. The Justice of Bunny King is a feminist working class drama from New Zealand that beautifully and subtly shows the strength of solidarity and the dysfunction of state systems of oppression. First-time director (and former cameraperson) Gaysorn Thavat calls it a social justice action film about motherhood. Essie Davis, who played the mom in The Babadook, is excellent in the lead.
8) In Ramin Bahrani’s White Tiger, capitalism, democracy, and criminal justice are all rigged. This is a film about class struggle, and caste struggle, that makes it clear that hard work or playing by the rules are meaningless in this system. An important, angry, passionate, cynical, and spectacular film, with a powerful soundtrack.
7) It’s not surprising that actor-turned-director Rebecca Hall would bring out deep performances from stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, but Passing moves beyond the performances. Every shot is framed perfectly, the cinematography making you want to hold onto each moment.
6) Mayday is a sweet fantasy about young women living on an island, luring men to their deaths. Reviewers called this a “feminist Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland for misandrists”, and “like a slumber party with psychopaths.” Director Karen Cinorre also designed sets and costumes for Isabella Rossellini’s brilliant and strange “Green Porno” video series — if you’ve seen it, you know where she’s coming from.
5) Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up has been compared to Dr. Strangelove, though I think it’s more like Network in it’s deconstruction of power and the role of media. Either way, it’s a funny and smart satire, which is rare for Hollywood. Leads Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep have gotten the most attention, but Jonah Hill really steals the film.
4) With Ma Belle, My Beauty, their first feature, director Marion Hill demonstrates an ability to get moving and relatable performances from actors, beautiful visuals, and probably the best film about queer and polyamorous relationships I’ve seen.
3) In over thirty films (plus a fewTV projects), Steven Soderbergh is never less than entertaining, and at his best he is thrilling. His films (like Traffic, The Informant!, and Erin Brockovich) often feature systemic critiques of power. No Sudden Move is one of his better films, not just for the pacing and script, but also for the sharp critique about corporate corruption at the core of this heist-gone-wrong picture.
2) CODA tells a fairly conventional story — a high school misfit finds her voice, rising above pressures from family and school. But it is brilliantly done, and the details of her life (CODA stands for Child Of Deaf Adults) are rarely seen onscreen. Director Siân Heder and a delightful cast that includes Emilia Jones in the lead, hit all the right notes of funny and sweet and moving.
1) Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is, no exaggeration, the best concert film ever made. It avoids every cliche of concert films, and rewrites how films approach history. It is a filmmaking crutch to summarize a political moment through a musical montage, but from the beginning, Summer of Soul perfectly uses the music of the Harlem Cultural Festival as soundtrack and cultural commentary and tour guide. Every choice that Questlove makes as a director, from which songs and performances to use, to which interviews to show, is original and exactly right. A joyful, inspiring, revolutionary film.
For the best revolutionary films from previous years, see my lists for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and earlier. Also, see this list of the best revolutionary films of all time, and all of my articles on Medium here.
