My Top 10 Movies of 2021

Here it goes, somewhat in order of most favorite on top:

• No Time to Die
• Dune
• Spider-man: No Way Home
• The Worst Person in the World
• C'mon C'mon
• The Beatles: Get Back
• Flee
• Licorice Pizza
• The Hand of God
• Swan Song

Worst movie of the year: The Matrix Resurrections 

The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske) (2021)

Director: Joachim Trier. Cast: Stars Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum. 128 min. Drama.

• Through a prologue, twelve chapters, and an epilogue, we are shown the life and lifetime situations of a 30-year-old female (who could be from any country), and watch her in her complex and extremely familiar position: she cannot and does not want to live up to what is expected of her (what job to choose, whom to marry, when to have kids, etc), mainly because she’s not sure what she should do in these situations (and are any of us ever?). So she either gives in and follows the mainstream to (in her own words) become a "supporting character in her own life", or … goes against the flow, the feeling of guilt making her the worst person of the world. Tell me how this movie will not resonate with any individual who possesses even the smallest amount of self-reflection. Nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Screenplay Oscars, this is one of the best movies of the year.  
• Movie highlight: the heroine imagines herself spending 24 hours with the person she thinks she should've ended up with, while the entire world comes to a standstill. No one around to judge her.
• Spoiler Alert: I have a theory, that the protagonist’s relationship with one of the supporting characters (the one who's shown to have a family at the end) is predominantly happening in her own imagination. Just a theory.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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Flee (Flugt) (2021)

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen. 89 min. Documentary/Animation.

• Nominated for a unique combination of Oscars (Best International Feature, and simultaneously, Best Documentary and Best Animation), this animated film with recorded interview voiceovers interspersed with actual documentary footage, told in 5 languages (Danish, English, Dari/Afghani, Russian, and Swedish), is based on the true story of an Afghan who fled his country via Russia to Europe. Maybe such an eccentric approach is what it takes for one to so closely sympathize with a refugee, no matter from which country. The animation-documentary combo technique had previously been used in another powerful film, Waltz with Bashir (2008), but not to this extent. Watch this movie: you will never again judge a person who flees their homeland in search of shelter, and will forever laugh at the infinite impotency of social media "like"s and "heart"s and emojis and forwards, when it comes to helping people.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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The Batman (2022)

Director: Matt Reeves. Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis,  Peter Sarsgaard. 176 min. Action/Crime.

• An entirely different superhero movie from any other superhero movie experience you've had … ever: 
• Except for Batman himself, all the other larger than life comic book characters (Penguin, Catwoman, Riddler) look like regular people. 
• Except for its jet propulsion, the Bat-mobile looks just like any other cool-looking car. 
• The film is a detective/crime story, a toned down version of the movie Se7en - with Paul Dano beautifully recreating the Kevin Spacey character in this one. 
• The movie is 3 hours long, and shot almost entirely in night or very dark settings (go in with an empty bladder to avoid bathroom breaks and missing the mesmerizing dark cinematography). 
• Even the usual superhero movie post-credits scene is different ... in that it's definitely not worth waiting for.
• See what I mean? Different movie. Both in terms of mood and character development, this would've been a great tie-in to the 2019 Joker, similar to how Marvel constructed an Avengers universe. But hints at the end suggest this will not be the case. 
• Nevertheless, the pandemic era postponement of good movies has 2022 starting out with one of the best films of the year.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas) (2021)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar. Cast: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde. 123 min. Drama.

• The usual Almodóvar themes of mistaken/switched identities (or occasionally genders), with his usual colorful costumes and backgrounds (prominently red and orange), and his usual ultra-photogenic muse Penelope Cruz in the starring role - but this time with a more political slant.
• The storyline is predictable, even by the movie's title: two mothers deliver their babies at the same time, and if you've seen some Almodóvar, you know the babies will get switched by mistake, and the drama about the mothers grappling with the aftermaths. But there's an underlying subplot, with Cruz looking to exhume from a mass grave the bodies of her ancestors who were murdered during the Franco regime. And thereby the director is asking us a question: should we go back to correct intentional or unintentional mistakes of the past … or let go and live with what we have?  
• Since I was accustomed to the style, I was planning on giving this a 6 out of 10. Then suddenly, the very beautiful and surreal last shot, involving "people we know" lying in a mass grave, elevated it to a 7.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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Death on the Nile (2022)

Director Kenneth Branagh. Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Emma Mackey, Annette Bening, Letitia Wright, Russell Brand, Sophie Okonedo. 127 min. Mystery/Crime.

• Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express and his performance as Hercules Poirot made the movie one of my top 10 of 2017, and his recent movie Belfast proves that regardless of a few misses in his directing profile, the man has recently been on a role - because Death on the Nile, Branagh’s second attempt at an Agatha Christie novel revival, is another highlight in his career.
• While Orient Express was more fun to watch and supplemented with a significantly deeper ending, considering the first murder in this one happens halfway into the movie, Nile is still able to engage the viewer considerably. The tone is (intentionally?) darker, sprinkled with a few moments of contemplative silence throughout, and again, we have a stellar cast of actors making a colorful Christie mystery even more colorful. The pitfall is that Branagh comes up short of the kind of thought-provoking content he delivered in Orient Express.  
• Nevertheless, I hope Kenneth Branagh keeps on making Poirot movies. The first one happened on a train, the second on a ship at sea. So the third one: on an airplane? I mean, Agatha Christie does have a Poirot mystery, “Death in the Clouds” …

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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Cyrano (2021)

Director Joe Wright. Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Ben Mendelsohn. 123 min. Romance/Musical.

• A curiously effective trick at work here: the original 1897 "Cyrano de Bergerac" play (the most memorable movie version of which had Gerard Depardieu in the lead) was about the escapades of a man with a large nose, and how that nose, despite all his other capabilities, puts him at a disadvantage in love life. This remake casts that superb actor, Peter Dinklage, in the same role - this time around a short stature being the hero's shortcoming. And Dinklage portrays the updated character so well, I dare say … you don’t even notice he’s short; which is what makes other creative choices (casting a Black actor for an originally White supporting role), commonplace. Some songs and attractive set designs make for a pleasing movie to watch, but at the end, this is political correctness done right.

MoGo's rating: 6/10

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Director: Michael Showalter. Cast: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio. 126 min. Biography.

• Yes, Jessica Chastain (again and again and again ...) kills it by proving her acting prowess, but biography movies have come a long way since the days you could merely find the equivalent of a movie life story in books, or the newspaper, or in today's case ... Wikipedia. Two hours go by, and save for an opening scene where Tammy refuses to entirely remove her make-up (suggesting she's not telling us the whole story), you see almost nothing from the director or screenwriter's perspective on who Jim Bakker or Tammy Faye were and what they think the couple were all about. We're just watching a biography - not thinking about it. 

MoGo's rating: 5/10

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The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) (2021)

Director: Paolo Sorrentino. Cast: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo. 130 min. Drama.

• I see Sorrentino's newest and most personal beautiful meditation on life itself (after The Great Beauty and Youth) as the Italian version of Licorice Pizza, a coming-of-age comedy with few dramatic moments - this one happening in the 80's Naples, Italy. The Walkman, videotapes (namely of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America), and of course, Maradona and his famous 1986 World Cup "hand of God" goal, which is both the movie's namesake and the savior of one movie character's life. There are moments where the lovable characters can't keep from laughing at what's happening around them (such as when they see an old Prince Charming using an electrolarynx to speak), considered politically-incorrect by today's standards but nicely reminding us of how we used to behave not too long ago.
• And since it's from Italy, the Fellini references are quite obvious: from the opening traffic jam scene reminiscent of 8 1/2, to the voluptuous women, to a bold mid-movie scene between the young protagonist and an old baroness right out of Amarcord - which this movie will probably be remembered for. Auditions for Fellini movies are taking place in the story, while Sorrentino accompanies and updates these movie references with his own interesting characters, dazzling panoramic views of Naples, and trance-like vision on life. Toni Servillo as the father repeats his all-knowing, cynical but laughing-at-life's-hardships persona from The Great Beauty, but the central character is the modern day version of many youngsters throughout Italian cinema. Not necessarily much to discuss - just a vignette to watch and enjoy.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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Licorice Pizza (2021)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson. Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits, Maya Rudolph, Benny Safdie, John C. Reilly. 133 min. Drama/Comedy.

• This is a movie entirely about 70s vibes. It almost has no story, but you'll find yourself watching these characters for more than two hours, smiling, mesmerizing about pinball machines, the stripes on the knee-high white socks, the waterbed craze, and that rotary phone on the kitchen wall that used to be in every single home. You'll chuckle at Sean Penn's celebrity emptiness, laugh out loud at Bradley Cooper's insanity, and experience a very tense scene towards the end about a gay couple being exposed. There's even a blink-and-you'll miss-it moment with John C. Reilly as Herman Munster. To top it all off, our heroes are two sweet newcomers which exude the innocence of the 70s, in (of all places) San Fernando Valley. What is there not to love? What is there not to love in a P.T. Anderson movie? One of the best of 2021.
• Cool trivia: Cooper Hoffman, the male lead, is the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, the star of some of P.T. Anderson's best cinematic moments (in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, The Master), the most hilarious being this one.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

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