top films 2021

i watched about a film a week. that’s better than last year.

Long. Over-saturated with aesthetic. Loses focus. But that’s what it was. Frustration. And I couldn’t come up with a better word for this year and the heartfelt tale of the mock James Baldwin narrative.

Exactly what I needed to conclude the year. Mike Mills has a way of making things humanely possible. Here is hope. In children. In black and white. In struggling to define love star-crossed along a map of age, self, and being the bigger people in the lives of others.

I was mostly here for the fits, but was surprised by the psychological drama. Stunning look, color, and feel. It was the mood piece Princess Di needed.

A collection of three stories, but interconnected by the complications of being human. I was struck by the third story. Strange and wonderful, surprising, and even though it was a set contained by two people, I was so moved. It proves that so much can be achieved in simplicity.

Based off a Murakami short story, it has all the magic of that loneliness and mystery that Murakami is so good at capturing. Also, major props to Hamaguchi for putting out two movies this year.