Notice the link that says “Best Movies of 2021” on the right side of your screen. That’ll likely stay there for the duration of the year and be updated accordingly, hopefully regularly, for the next few months. It’s a little experiment I’m doing, based on reader suggestions, to have a virtually followed list this year.
I’m going by movies with a 2021 release date. There are plenty of titles that merit to be on this list that sadly don’t have a planned release yet. Regardless, I’m starting to wonder if noteworthy titles such as Abdelatif Kechiche’s “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” and Gaspar Noe’s “Lux Aeterna” will ever be released stateside. Maybe those will eventually be included on here.
No point to rank them just yet but I have counted 27 films that were above-average so far in 2021.
One from Berlin:
Petite Maman (Celine Sciamma)
Four from Venice:
The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)
Sundown (Michel Franco)
Happening (Audrey Diwan)
The Last Duel (Ridley Scott)
Nine from Cannes:
Red Rocket (Sean Baker)
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Love)
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
France (Bruno Dumont)
Titane (Julia Ducournau)
Vortex (Gaspar Noe)
Nitram (Justin Kurzel)
The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg)
A Hero (Asghar Farhadi)
Eight from Sundance:
The Killing of Two Lovers (Robert Machoian)
Passing (Rebecca Hall)
Pleasure (Ninja Thyberg)
Human Factors (Ronny Trocker)
Luzzu (Alex Camilleri)
In The Same Breath (Nanfu Wang)
Try Harder! (Debbie Lum)
Coming Home in the Dark (James Ashcroft)
Seven Miscellaneous:
Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
Quo Vadis Aida (Jasmila Žbanić)
White Lie (Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas)
PVT Chat (Ben Hozie)
Bad Trip (Kitao Sakurai)
Rocks (Sarah Gavron)
The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)
Marvel's X-Men reboot keeps stacking bodies. Asa Germann — familiar to anyone who watched “Gen V” or sat through “Scream 7 “— is reportedly closing a deal to play Warren Worthington III, better known as Angel.