Best films of 2021

These are the best films I watched that were released in the UK in 2021. There are some films that were technically out in 2020 but didn’t get a UK release until this year.

This list will also be in no particular order as I can’t make up my mind as to what the literal best film I watched last year was.

My Top Films of 2021

Undine directed by Christian Petzold

Perhaps my biggest film discovery of 2021 was the work of Christian Petzold, an arthouse director from Germany. I was utterly blown away by Undine which had its UK premiere in 2021 on Mubi (I swear I talk about this platform too much but it’s literally the best!). Alongside the film, they have a collection of his work called Phantoms Among Us: The Films of Christian Petzold and it was amazing to go through nearly all of the films he’s made, from short art pieces to full-blown masterpieces.

Undine is magical and has fast become one of my all-time faves due to its intoxicating mix of myth, architecture and romance. Sublime. Read my full review for Undine here.

Dune directed by Denis Villeneuve

I have mixed feelings about Dune. I enjoyed the book but it was a struggle to get through in places and in a similar way I found the movie enjoyable but also a little tough to get into. Sometimes it felt too big and hollow as personally, we didn’t get enough time to build up a connection with the characters, in this respect, a mammoth-like Dune would work better as a tv series, think 8 or 10 1 hour episodes. I also found that while the film is beautifully shot the colour palette was a little boring and later on in the movies in the scenes where the film flicks between broad daylight (dream) and darkness (reality), it really hurt my eyes.

Everything else was wonderful. I loved the casting. I will watch anything with Oscar Isaac in and Rebecca Ferguson played Jessica amazingly. Zendaya was in the film for the briefest moments but she was enchanting as Chani and Timothee Chalamet was the perfect choice for Paul. My only gripe with performances was that Dave Bautista was a bit too over the top but I can live with it.

The soundtrack was A+ ( I mean Hans Zimmer is always a winner) and the movie has made me want to continue reading the series so I guess that’s good too. I think I overhyped the movie because I love Villeneuve‘s work especially his Sci-fi stuff but I have to say I think a re-watch will make me love the movie more.

Spencer directed by Pablo Larrain

Like the ghost of Anne Boleyn haunts Diana in the movie this film is going to haunt my mind for a while. I was blown away by how emotionally raw it was and the fact that Kristen Stewart disappeared into the role perfectly, I suspect an Oscar might be on the horizon. The cinematography was perfection and the fuzziness of the film stock and colour palette felt dreamy and almost a little haunting in itself.

Don’t Look Up directed by Adam McKay

Satire at its best. The comet is obviously a metaphor for the climate crisis and it works really well. I can’t believe that the absurdity of this film is so close to reality but it most definitely is, and that’s quite scary. Probably the best comedy I watched in 2021. And finally, I would totally become unhinged if this happened in real life.

The Matrix: Resurrections directed by Lana Wachowski

Lana Wachowski, I love your mind. This was a brilliant sequel that was technically not needed and could have been a blatant studio cash in on 90’s nostalgia and the popularity of movie franchises - maybe it still is and maybe I’m one of the only people that really enjoyed this film, but tbh I don’t care. What Lana made Resurrections into was actually really beautiful. Born out of losing her parents (and the fear of the studio doing a sequel with or without her) she resurrected Neo and Trinity and she created a film all about love and the power it can have as a force of good.

I also loved how the film comments on the real world, especially through Neo aka Thomas Anderson being dosed up on blue pills to make him a ‘functioning’ member of society and the fact that Trinity aka Tiffany was made into a mother, perhaps out of expectation rather than a real desire to become one. There’s also a scene in an elevator where everyone is staring at a screen except for Anderson, people are willfully enslaved to tech and the Matrix has weaponised everything. Even memories are bent into ‘fiction’ to keep people oblivious. Genius.

If you’ve ever watched the sensational tv series Sense8 which was also created by Lana then you’ll also be delighted to see many familiar faces appearing in the movie. And thematically there’s a cross over too. Togetherness and love are weapons for good and in the 60 years after the events of the original trilogy, some machines and humans are working together, there is no us vs them anymore. and really Neo was never really ‘The One’, he was made whole by Trinity, so really together they are The One, and that’s just fucking beautiful.

Another Round directed by Thomas Vinterberg

Thomas Vintergberg and Mads Mikkelesen are a cinematic force to be reckoned with, The Hunt (<- click to read the review) is one of the best films I’ve ever seen and their 2nd collaboration is just as electric. I will watch anything Mads Mikkelesen is in, I have watched some absolute shit because he’s in it and tbh I will also watch anything Vinterberg makes because he’s a brilliant director, even that weird sci-fi film he made after Festen…I will watch it!

Another Round is funny, earnest and heartbreaking and looks at life in a very beautiful way and I think it’s the kind of film we all needed in 2021 because shit has been super dark these past 2 years. Also that final scene is a revelation and instantly iconic…what a life!!!

Passing directed by Rebecca Hall

Rebecca Hall’s first film as director, Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in lead roles, beautiful black and white cinematography and a tinkling jazz motif. This film was amazing, and so dark and complex. Every cinematographic choice made is deliberate and works to function as a riff on the idea of passing and how limiting and restrictive society can be. I have as a result of watching Passing bought the book it was based on by Nella Larson because I just have to delve more into it.

The Green Knight directed by David Lowery

Yikes, this was a depressing film, but it was an absolute piece of art. Taking one of the most famous 14th-century chivalric romances and turning it into a dizzying cinematic journey of operatic proportions is just genius. This is the kind of film that only comes around every so often and it is something to behold, unfortunately in the UK we didn’t really get much of a cinematic release so I had to watch it at home, and I literally ended up watching it on new years eve as I was putting it off for a while out of annoyance. Also, on a side note, the fox was really cute and I would never have volunteered to face the Green Knight because I’m an absolute coward.

Did I cry? Yes, quite a few times actually. I don’t really know why but I think it’s because I’ve been feeling quite emotional recently and I’ve also been feeling really unwell all over the Christmas period and there’s also been a return to death-related panic attacks that I wrote about last year here.

Shiva Baby directed by Emma Seligman

Stressful to watch and sometimes feels like a horror movie, Shiva Baby has to be one of the most fascinating and darkly amusing films of 2021. The concept hooked me and Seligman certainly delivered. It’s funny, awkward and in parts rather unsettling, especially in certain moments when the cinematography creates an air of immense claustrophobia and the soundtrack becomes overpowering and completely discordant.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Was Shang-Chi kinda just the usual father-son conflict plot? For the most part yes, but was it infinitely better because the legend that is Tony Leung Chiu-wai played Shang-Chi’s father? Absolutely! I do kind of feel like Leung overshadowed Simu Liu’s main character slightly but it’s hard not to when he is such a compelling actor. I am still in awe of that dance-like fight between Xu Wenwu and Yi Ling! But I must admit the bus fight scene was epic too.

Most Disappointing film

The Eternals

While Eternals wasn’t the worst film I watched last year it was certainly the one that disappointed me the most which is perhaps my own fault for overhyping it!

Was the film beautiful to look at? Yes, Chloé Zhao shoots some of this film like its arthouse, especially the natural landscapes and I loved that. Was the cast ground-breaking? Yes, I loved the diversity of the characters on display, there are different races and cultures, and also the first gay and deaf superheroes in the MCU. Why didn’t I like it that much then? The plot. I didn’t feel like we had enough time with these characters, if anything maybe a mini-series would have served them better, or perhaps its on me and perhaps I should have read some of their comics before to get a taste for the characters.

There were characters I liked, for example the bond between Angelina Jolie’s Thena and Ma Dong-seok’s Gilgamesh (why did he have to die!) was beautiful and I loved how he stayed by her side through the centuries and protected her, I also loved Makkari, I thought she was a brilliant character and her relationship with Druig was endearing…in fact I think every other character was more interesting than Sersi and Ikaris - who are supposed to be the main anchors of the film! Even Kingo and his valet had more chemistry with each other! Also, half the film was exposition and I did find it hard to hear what Arishem was saying because I have tinnitus!

I think I will watch it again when It arrives on Disney+ just to see if I was being too harsh and that maybe I was just in a weird mood as when I watched the trailer I felt like the film was going to be one of my faves in the MCU and it just didn’t hit me the way I thought it would!

However, I am super excited for Kit Harrington’s Black Knight because we got a voice cameo from none other than Blade!!! I loved the Wesley Snipes movies as a kid and I think Mahershala Ali is absolutely going to kill the role

Transit Film Review

Transit is a film of many layers, it’s about immigration, fascism, the transience of time and the nightmare of bureaucracy. It is Petzold’s final film in his unofficial ‘love in the time of oppression’ trilogy (Barbara and Phoenix being the other two). Transit stars Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer as spectral immigrants trying to flee France before it is overtaken by Fascism.

Petzold fascinatingly uses Anna Seghers novel of the same name but transposes it to the modern-day rather than the ’40s, creating an anachronistic film that belongs simultaneously in the past and the present, like ghosts if you will. The novel is very symbolic for the director as he was introduced to it many years ago by his friend, mentor and collaborator Harun Farocki and while I haven’t read the novel just yet (I will for sure after seeing the movie twice!) I can tell that his interpretation of the novel is respectful.

“Wer vergisst schneller? Der Verlassene oder die, die ihn verlassen hat?“

"Who forgets faster? The abandoned or the one who left him?”

Many of Petzold’s films deal with transit, he has his characters often on physical journeys that lead them to moments of self-discovery, but perhaps Transit is his most literal and obvious mediation on the idea. Characters are stuck between freedom and certain destruction and as such, they drift around the port city of Marseille like spectres and perhaps non more so than Paula Beer’s Marie Weidel.

She is a woman searching for her writer husband that she abandoned, but out of guilt (and to get a ticket out of there!), she starts looking for him. She rushes around the city always wearing the same coat and very similar clothes almost as if she herself is haunting the place, that she is already beyond the realm of the living. Rogowski’s Georg encounters her several times, often because she has mistaken him as her husband, which is ironic because he has stolen her husband’s identity after the writer committed suicide. What occurs is a cycle of guilt for both characters and they slowly grow closer over the three weeks they are stuck in limbo at Marseille, but there is always a barrier between them.

I watched the film twice in close succession and I definitely found I preferred it on the re-watch, everything including subtext and symbolism sunk in just that little bit more on the second time around. I wonder if it will get even better with the third watch…

August Wrap Up: Books & Movies

So I watched more than 30 movies in August, in my defence some were short films so… but tbh I had a blast so I don’t really need to excuse myself. Cinema is one of my biggest passions and from time to time I’ll get completely consumed by it and thats kind of what happened this past month.

Find out what films and books I read in August:

Undine: Architecture and Myth in Berlin

Undine is an exquisite and hypnotic reimagining of the Undine myth set in modern-day Berlin.

The German romantic drama film is by one of the countries most celebrated directors, Christian Petzold and stars critically acclaimed actors Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski as lovers, Undine and Christoph. Undine had its premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was shown in competition for the coveted Gold Bear Award. The film ultimately secured Beer with the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her mesmerising performance as a reluctant water nymph.

In Undine, Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski are reunited with their Transit director, and let me say this trio is magical. The chemistry between Beer and Rogowski is electric here, and I found myself completely enamoured by Undine and Christoph’s courtship. They may have a semi unbelievable first encounter where a fish tank shatters, but it certainly is an enchanting one, and that’s down to the way Petzold shoots the moment. It’s a moment full of whimsy, but it juxtaposes nicely with the rather unfortunate breakup Undine suffers at the beginning of the film. 

Petzold himself said in an interview with Indiewire, “As the water pours over them, they’re lying next to each other like on a beach. They open their eyes like a rebirthing scene, wet with mud and old fish. They look at each other, and the first thing they see are the eyes of the other. That’s a good start for a love story.”

I also like the fact that their courting after this almost magical first encounter takes place in ordinary and unremarkable places, which Petzold does deliberately. In a talk with fellow German director Heinz Emigholz and NYFF program director Dennis Lim, he said he didn’t want to film the love story in romantic locations. Petzold instead opted to use ordinary spaces so that the romance can ‘bewitch’ these places and transform them from something banal to something other. He also refers to a line from a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff that inspired him ‘Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen’ (A song sleeps in all things), which I think is a rather beautiful sentiment. You can certainly see this idea has been considered throughout the movie (and in his other films too). 

The other striking thing about the use of place in the film is the links to architecture and Berlin itself. Undine is a historian who gives talks about urban development, which on its own is pretty cool. But when she talks about the city’s origin, she mentions the etymology of Berlin’s name; it means ‘swamp’ or ‘dry place in the swamp’. Therefore the city like Undine has a connection to water that has been severed, and she has, in a way like Berlin, been urbanised, transformed and separated from her elemental origin. Later in the film, she rehearses a talk in front of an enraptured Christoph (such a beautiful moment!). There she talks about the Humboldt Forum, a 21st-century museum in the centre of Berlin that was modelled on an 18th-century building that once stood in the exact same place and an architectural theory that suggests that progress is impossible. A neat bit of foreboding, which is mirrored in Petzold’s cyclical direction which features recurring motifs of mysterious Catfish sightings (more on him in a minute!) and characters returning to the same locations in search of evidence of events taking place. 

Another of my favourite moments in the film is where the shot of Undine looking over Christoph’s shoulder for the poster originates. It’s simple; we follow the two as they wander along in each other’s arms, as if completely smitten and unable to be separate from one another’s embrace for any length of time. The music and the atmosphere is beautiful until Undine sees Johannes, her previous boyfriend, with another woman. The camera then sweeps around to follow them walk past, and Undine peers over Christoph’s shoulder. This signifies a turning point in the film and that despite her growing bond with Christoph, her fate is catching up to her.

“Du kannst nicht gehen. Wenn du mich verlässt, muss ich dich töten”

“You can’t go. If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you“

So let’s talk about Gunther the catfish. He’s named after a character from the Nibelungenlied an Old Germanic text, very much like The Prose Edda and other mythological/legendary tales from medieval times. This little literary reference adds another texture of myth and mystery to the setting of the water, which as a dam is a natural place that has been industrialised. It’s an archaic place that has been transformed and acts as an intersection between the modern world and the world of mysticism, note that both Undine and Gunther reside there. This also connects back to the original romantic story by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, the river is so imposing in the novella that it strands characters for a period of time, however here in the modern age man has tamed the river. Petzold said in an interview that people are becoming distant from the myths and legends of the earlier years and this setting most definitely suggests that and offers us the chance to reflect on this fact.

In conclusion, I think I have found a new favourite in Undine. I love unusual romances that are sprinkled with magical realism and a sobering dash of doom. I love the performances by Beer and Rogowski, and I think Petzold has crafted such a beautiful film with so many textured layers to unpack. On the first watch, it is a whimsical love story; on the second watch, it's a meditation on time, place and autonomy…I can only wonder what a third watch will have in store for me. But ultimately, it's the intertwining of love, architecture, poetic doom and mysticism that makes Undine a film that will keep me coming back re-watch after re-watch.

Undine is currently showing on Mubi in 🇬🇧🇮🇪🇩🇪🇮🇹

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