This year has still been a difficult one for cinemas, with the movie market still recovering the the brunt of the pandemic. And yet, when you look back and review everything that has come to movie theatres and homes these past twelve months, you cannot help but sit back and admire it all.
The past year has really stuck out not only for the quality of the films that have been released, but the fact that many of them have made their way into our homes long before they find a place in cinemas. The best picture winner from the Oscars this year was released in the UK on Disney+. Black Widow, along with many other major blockbusters, was released both in cinemas and on demand at the same time. With cinemas now open more widely, audiences have been treated to a backlog of big releases that have backed up over time, with several more still to come.
Our contributors have selected the top 20 films of the past twelve months that have really stuck out for them. How did we do it? Each writer voted for their top ten movies, which were then scored accordingly. Altogether, 78 different films received votes. Adding up all the results gave us our below list. There are some surprising omissions. Anthony Hopkins might have garnered acclaim and awards for his emotional turn in The Father, but there is no room for Florian Zeller’s drama on our list. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Belfast, and The Harder They Fall made a splash at this year’s London Film Festival, but none of them make the cut either. In a blow to cultured kaiju fans everywhere, neither Godzilla vs. Kong or Clifford the Big Red Dog have romped into the top 20 either (okay, their chances weren’t great). Lastly, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel hasn’t found a place on our list, perhaps because most of our team are inert, apathetic millennials.
The 20 films we have picked however, reflect what an awe-inspiring, eclectic year that cinema has managed to enjoy despite all the odds being stacked against it. Whether everything is going smoothly or you need a bit of respite from real life, there really is nothing like the movies.
#20: Censor
Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond
Prano Bailey-Bond is a name that’s currently on everyone’s lips. Her debut feature film Censor, set at the peak of the Video Nasties controversy in Britain in the 1980s, has helped to successfully ignite a female-directed horror renaissance. Starring the brilliant Niamh Algar in the central role, Censor is a visceral look into film classification and the exploitation industry that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The film blends a range of film formats to create a true sense of grit, using 35mm film, Super8 and VHS footage to emerge its audience into the film’s era as well as emphasising protagonist Enid’s increasing levels of stress and trauma. With stunning cinematography that blurs the line of dream and reality, Censor places itself as one of the best films of the year and promises more gripping work from Bailey-Bond in the future.
Read our review here
Words by Katie Evans
#19: Minari
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung
Minari is about promises. Keeping promises, breaking promises, developing new promises and pursuing the promise of a new life. Set in an Eden-like Arkansas, the Yi family led by Jacob (Steven Yeun) attempt to harness the potential of the soil to build a prosperous life for themselves in America.
A minari plant, after which the film is named, can grow anywhere like weeds. It is nature’s take on the egalitarian dream. The family learns, throughout the film, that we rarely have enough control over our bodies, our land, our movements, our lives. Indeed, like minari, we must grow wherever we end up. The philosophy of the film is sobering, although it also highlights that what is important is what we choose to be close to. The film finds a sense of eternity within the precarity, and a divinity within the dirt. It is simply stunning.
Watch the trailer here
Words by Ben Thomas
#18: Summer of Soul
Directed by Questlove
Nearly 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival during the summer of 1969. Over six weeks, they saw a star-studded array of black singers and musicians perform at Mount Morris Park in a spectacular celebration of African-American culture. Half a century later however, the event has ostensibly been erased from the annals of music history, leaving over four hours of concert footage unwanted and unpublished in a television producer’s basement.
Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson rescues and restores this archival footage, interweaving it with contemporary newsreels, political commentary and insightful interviews from those who performed and attended. The result is a kaleidoscopic screenshot of 1960s black America that is as informative on the nuances of racial inequality as it is on music. The performances are utterly sublime. But what really elevates Summer of Soul is that it truly understands why these performances matter, and it compels you to understand too.
Watch the trailer here
Words by Will Jones
#17: A Quiet Place Pt. II
Directed by John Krasinski
After the success of John Krasinski’s 2018 horror hit, A Quiet Place Pt. II is that rarest of things among the bloated cinema landscape nowadays; a note-worthy sequel that is equal to its predecessor. Picking straight up where A Quiet Place left off, writer-director Krasinski doubles down on the original’s simplicity as Emily Blunt’s Evelyn and her children continue to navigate and survive amongst a terrifying post-apocalyptic world.
The introduction of Cillian Murphy’s Emmett is a welcome addition to the cast, while deaf actress Millicent Simmonds as Regan provides one of 2021’s best performances, with more attention directed towards her character. Crucially to the success of A Quiet Place Pt. II is its tremendous sound design. Every slight noise is heightened for an extremely tense viewing experience. From a bear trap snapping to a nail-biting train sequence, Krasinski’s sequel delivers as one of the year’s best horror films.
Read our review here
Words by Theo Smith
#16: Nomadland
Directed by Chloé Zhao
Nomadland is a beautifully intimate portrait of surviving the harshness of modern society from Chloé Zhao. Set in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, focusing on the casualties of capitalism the rest of society too easily forgets. They work all their lives and as soon as they stop working, they’re disregarded. While the whole film is about those left behind by a capitalist society, Nomadland anchors itself in humanity through Frances McDormand’s understated lead performance as Fern, who flawlessly captures life as a modern nomad.
At it’s heart, Nomadland is a deep character study about a woman who has lost everything trying to find peace, happiness, and herself in the years following the loss of her husband. Zhao’s film is also an incredibly human story that is a criticism of capitalism but beneath that, is a moving, personal narrative about loneliness, loss, and grief.
Read our review here
Words by Lewis Royle
#15: Spencer
Directed by Pablo Larraín
As a royal motorcade pulls into Sandringham Estate in the opening moments of Spencer, Pablo Larraín’s ethereal biopic of Princess Diana, our perspective is aligned with a dead bird. Procession driving overhead with cold disregard, the audience is all too aware that this is the fate that awaits the Princess Of Wales. We cut to Lady Di, having momentarily escaped her security detail, driving her sportscar through empty roads. She is yet to have her wings clipped, but for the moment finds herself hopelessly lost. Lost both in the country lanes she endlessly drives through and in the media maelstrom following Charles’s infamous public affair.
Kristen Stewart is electric as Diana, emerging as an early awards season frontrunner for her introspective and deeply moving portrait of the late People’s Princess. Underscoring her attempts to escape her ever-shrinking cage is Johnny Greenwood’s nail-bitingly tense Jazz score, which draws out a hallucinatory strain in Larraín’s far from conventional biopic.
Read our review here
Words by Jake Abatan
#14: In The Heights
Directed by Jon M. Chu
In a summer cinema slate still desperately short of a feel-good family blockbuster (sorry Godzilla vs. Kong), In The Heights emerged as a toe-tapping cure-all for the post-lockdown blues. At once delightfully fresh and unafraid to lean into musical theatre convention, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway debut proves just as vibrant on the big screen as on the stage.
Jon M. Chu’s direction injects every song with a fantastically cinematic quality reticent of the golden age of the Hollywood musical, bringing Washington Heights to life with blistering heat and an energy which can’t fail to melt the iciest of hearts. Rounding it all off with some wonderfully indulgent set pieces—a dance up the side of an apartment block, and a massive, synchronised ensemble piece at a local swimming pool—it even has the time to take on gentrification and the importance of community. It’s big-hearted, summer-in-a-can stuff… just what the doctor ordered.
Read our review here
Words by James Harvey
#13: No Time To Die
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
In Daniel Craig’s final turn as 007, No Time To Die offers many of the over-the-top thrills and spills offered by the zaniest Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan Bond films. That being said, it also has plenty of heart and style to boot, with action choreography and aesthetics that deliberately try to go beyond any of the recent James Bond adventures. It is all rounded off by an ending that many fans will feel brings down the curtain on Craig’s era in spectacular, heart wrenching style.
The performances are all great to watch—particularly Craig, who ironically enough now feels irreplaceable as the world’s most famous spy. No Time To Die is also handled with patience, wit and flair by director Cary Joji Fukunaga, juggling the weight and influence of all four of Craig’s previous outings with ease. In doing so, he has delivered one of the most satisfying Bond finales in decades.
Read our review here
Words by James Hanton
#12: Promising Young Woman
Directed by Emerald Fennell
Finally making its way to the UK a full year after its world premiere, there have been few releases in 2021 as exhilarating and relevant as Emerald Fennel’s provocative debut. Carey Mulligan’s casting came under some unfair criticism from certain quarters but her performance as Cassie, a medical dropout now spending her nights terrorising would-be ‘nice guys’, is filled with nuance. Whether it’s delivering threatening monologues through an unhinged smile or playing the role of a comatose party girl, Mulligan manages to imbue Cassie with an unspoken sadness which becomes the driving force behind Promising Young Woman’s narrative.
As tonally discordant as the strings cover of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ that it features, Fennel’s Oscar-winning screenplay is a timely subversion of the rape-revenge genre which asks serious questions of the social structures which allow gender-based abuse to take place.
Read our review here
Words by Jake Abatan
#11: The Suicide Squad
Directed by James Gunn
After a muddy first attempt to bring DC’s lovable supervillain misfits to the big screen in 2016, the titular Suicide Squad deserved a second spot in the limelight. DC enlisted the maverick talents of writer/director James Gunn, who brought his signature style of filmmaking to a bonkers story befitting of his bizarre brand of comedy.
The Suicide Squad sees familiar faces return and new favourites joining its ever-expanding roster. Margot Robbie continues to stand out with her pitch perfect portrayal of fan-favourite character Harley Quinn, with newbies such as Idris Elba, John Cena, David Dastmalchian and Daniela Melchior all nailing their debuts. The film is delightfully off-the-rails, containing gleeful levels of comic violence, ridiculous set pieces, and a surprisingly warm heart. If you think you could never be moved by the emotional journeys of a massive alien starfish, and a half-human, half-shark hybrid voiced by Sylvester Stallone, think again.
Read our review here
Words by Cameron Blackshaw
#10: Titane
Directed by Julia Ducournau
Julia Ducournau’s latest film is one of the most bizarre films of the year. Not for the faint of heart, Titane isn’t quite a horror film, but it does lean fully into body-horror. One of the songs in the film contains the lyric “I’ve seen the way bodies lie and bodies tend to break”, which sums up Ducournau’s feverish nightmare perfectly.
Alexia (Agatha Rouselle) is pushed to the absolute edge of physical horror. The main takeaway from Titane is how truly insane it is, and many will see it as only that. However, lurking beneath the frightening visuals is an incredibly heartfelt story of familial love and loss, as well as an exploration of body dysmorphia. The central relationship between Vincent Lindon and Rouselle’s characters is touching. As baffling as it is, Ducournau has crafted something horrifying, demented, and yet beautifully human at the same time.
Read our review here
Words by Lewis Royle
#9: The French Dispatch
Directed by Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson has come to bless the cinema screens once again with The French Dispatch. Branded as “a love letter to journalists,” the film is divided into three stories presented as the fictional newspaper’s greatest articles in its final issue. Within this anthology, each tale boasts an all-star cast including the likes of Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand. With an eccentric structure and combined with Anderson’s signature symmetrical style, it amalgamates into one of the quirkiest and liveliest films that 2021 had to offer.
Every story exhibits two crucial elements, a theme, and a very entertaining course of events. All of them recount the narratives in diverse ways, to collectively establish the film’s overall atmosphere. Drenching itself into a 1950’s France setting, a bygone era is wonderfully depicted through a nostalgic and idiosyncratic lens, constructing a vibrant tribute to journalism.
Read our review here
Words by Ethan Soffe
#8: Shiva Baby
Directed by Emma Seligman
Shiva Baby is the scariest and most hilarious film of the year. The film combines hilarity with the strangulating subjectivity of the very best psychological horror film. Its beauty is in how it teeters between claustrophobia and coming-of-age, transcending them both in the process.
Shiva Baby makes a habit of defying words commonly thrown at indie movies; quirky, off-beat, eccentric. It is too daring to be quirky, too rhythmic to be off-beat, and speaks too much sense to be eccentric. Adapted from Emma Seligman’s short film, Shiva Baby carries forward its best qualities in the stripped-back storyline, the minimal locations, and the condensed run time. The film is a masterpiece of chaos and conviction, stumbling around themes of contemporary comparison, family imposition and personal performance. All this underpinned by a score so stress-inducing that you don’t know whether it is really strings or hairs that are being plucked.
Read our review here
Words by Ben Thomas
#7: The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Directed by Mike Rianda
Following the success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures Animation continued a winning streak with The Mitchells vs. The Machines. The film centres on 18-year-old budding filmmaker Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) as she gets ready to head for college. Unfortunately, her dad (Danny McBride) has decided to cancel her flight and make the journey there a family road trip. Even more unfortunate, is the robot uprising that decides to take place the same weekend.
This film is larger than life, brilliantly blending 2D and 3D animation to generate a distinctive, wonderful style. However, in the midst of the madness are simple human themes such as connecting with families who don’t understand us, and how to use technology in healthy ways. It’s a film with buckets of heart, a zinger a minute, and characters that you can’t help but love. Also, the funniest use of Furbies in cinema history.
Read our Film Editor James Hanton’s review here
Words by Rehana Nurmahi
#6: Palm Springs
Directed by Max Barbakow
“What if we get sick of each other?” “We’re already sick of each other, it’s the best.” This exchange from the climax of Palm Springs is not only the height of romance, it’s also a pretty good representation of the film itself. Despite the time-loop narrative being so common in films that it could make audiences sick of it, Palm Springs manages to make us fall in love with it again.
Subverting the trope by having two people stuck in the loop together, the film’s nihilistic tone is ultimately undercut by the message that life has meaning when you have someone to share it with. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti have such a tangible chemistry that’s a joy to watch, as well as the pair being outrageously funny. The film breathes life into both the time-loop and the romantic comedy genres, on account of its originality, warmth, and sheer ridiculousness.
Read our review here
Words by Rehana Nurmahi
#5: Last Night In Soho
Directed by Edgar Wright
2021 was a phenomenal year for influential directors to shine, including Edgar Wright. However, unlike his past efforts, Wright ventures into new territory with Last Night In Soho, a terrifying psychological horror. The premise sees an aspiring fashion designer, Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) who unexpectedly finds herself transporting to 1960’s London, where the glamorous world begins to peel away in a most sinister fashion. What Eloise fantasies slowly crumbles into its true ominous form.
This is one of the most frightening films of this year. Wright proves more than capable in delivering an experience that unites his signature style together with a disturbing subject matter. It represents a critique of 1960’s London by highlighting the artificiality of the decade with deeply unnerving visuals and gradual tension building. Including several unexpected twists and turns throughout, Last Night In Soho is yet another winner for Edgar Wright and a truly unique horror.
Read our review here
Words by Ethan Soffe
#4: Judas & The Black Messiah
Directed by Shaka King
This year brought us Shaka King’s biographical drama film Judas and the Black Messiah, a compelling and tear-jerking insight into Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton’s (Daniel Kaluuya) activism and life. The film offers brilliant performances and sharp writing, following former criminal-turned-FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) as he successfully infiltrates an Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Intense monologues bring power from the screen to reality in King’s captivating feature film, encouraging the audience to feel the terror experienced by individuals in the late 1960s as well as relating this to modern politics. Judas and the Black Messiah is a passionate look into relationships and societal fear, drawing upon real-life events to create a biopic that proves to be as scintillating as is powerful, making itself a strong case as one of the top films of the year.
Read our review here
Words by Katie Evans
#3: The Green Knight
Directed by David Lowery
There aren’t many filmmakers who could turn a 14th century poem into one of the best films of 2021, but David Lowery, it seems, is one of them. His mushroom-fuelled decent into Arthurian folklore is as beautiful as it is utterly mad, as a perfectly cast Dev Patel stumbles between bandits and fungal hallucinogens in his quest to offer a moss-covered Ralph Ineson his head.
Despite its fantastical subject matter, the film never stumbles into self-parody. It glides along like a half-remembered dream, never sitting still long enough to be easily defined but utterly convincing in the world it creates. Special mention, too, must go to Andrew Droz Palermo’s gorgeous cinematography, which finds bright oranges and greens in the drab Irish countryside. The Green Knight composes itself with the elegance and beauty of, well, poetry. It’s the best Christmas film since Die Hard.
Read our review here
Words by James Harvey
#2: Another Round
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
Mads Mikkelsen likes to jump, dance, and clumsily stumble around in Thomas Vinterberg’s boozy tragicomedy Another Round. Mikkelsen shines as Martin, a weary high school teacher whose youthful promise has evaporated in the stale sunshine of marriage, work and middle age. To remedy this, he and three fellow staff members embark on a liquid solution: they will keep their blood alcohol level at 0.05% at all times, thus providing them with the courage to reignite their lust for life.
What could appear as a somewhat silly, light-hearted premise is rigorously executed by Vinterberg with a darkly humorous cynicism that constantly interrogates the ambiguous role alcohol plays in our lives. In one of the most poignant and profound final shots of the year, Vinterberg leaves us wondering whether Martin has truly resolved his inner existential turmoil, or if he’s simply stuck between the pain and the hangover. Absolutely incredible.
Read our review here
Words by Will Jones
#1: Dune
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
After an honourable film failure by David Lynch and a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited take on Frank Herbert’s influential novel Dune is a spectacular and much deserved adaptation for readers and newcomer alike. Splitting the book into two films with Dune covering the first two-thirds, Jon Spaihts, Villeneuve and Eric Roth’s screenplay layers the groundwork of Herbert’s complex world in a manner that feels intuitive but not exposition heavy as we follow House Atreides’ venture onto the desert planet Arrakis.
The combination of Patrice Vermette’s incredible production design, Hans Zimmer’s thumping score and some astonishing visual effects makes Villeneuve’s vision feel alive and tactile. Outstanding performances from Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson lead a starry cast in fully realising this science fiction epic. It demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and with part two commissioned for 2023, the spice will continue to flow until then.
Read our review here
Words by Theo Smith
Honourable mentions (films that received votes but missed out on the top 20):
- The Father
- Pig
- Luca
- Sound of Metal
- Annette
- Godzilla vs. Kong
- The Power of the Dog
- P.S. Burn This Letter Please
- Supernova
- Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
Introductory words by James Hanton
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