Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I meant to write this a while ago so apologies for my lateness but I do want to hear about the movies you liked best this year. Here's mine.
10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi has a lot of weak points before it devolves into some CG non-sense in the last act but the first act is pretty dang strong with a lot being owed to Awkwafina and a killer fight in a bus. If only the rest of the movie was more like that, as it is a delight. Hopefully, we’ll get a bit more of that in the sequel.
9. Black Widow
Phase IV has proven to be a bit rockier up until that Spider-Man movie people like but what Black Widow does well it does quite well. The action is a little more generic but the character stuff is actually quite strong and it’s got a pretty great cast, including Florence Pugh and David Harbour bring both humour and pathos to their characters. Plus, the villain is the living embodiment of the patriarchy and it’s nice to see him get fucked up.
8. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
This film feels like a throwback to the 90s SNL films, which sounds like a put down. It isn’t. This is if those movies took all the right lessons and double down on the weirder, more idiosyncratic elements that is always the better aspects of those films. Like, remember how the first Austin Powers has some amazing jokes but society seemed to glom onto the lazier ones until the later films doubled down on the worst stuff? This is the opposite of that. Yes, it goes to the old comedy standby of middle aged women from the Midwest but here’s the deal: 1) it’s very funny 2) we outlandish at the title characters are, they are loveable and they love each other. And there is a message that you can grow and change doesn’t need to threaten a relationship, it can grow it, even if some of the growth begins outside of it.
7. Encanto
Encanto is the film I wanted to be my niece’s first film in the theatre but rising covid cases put the kabosh on that. And it’s a shame, because I really think she would have liked this film. Encanto is a film with no villain, just the frustration of expectations. And though Mirabel has the tragedy of being born without a “miracle”, she learns some of her family members are secretly being crushed under the weight of expectations. The songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda are as good as you might expect (“Surface Pressure” feels like the one that can get the most play) and am curious to revisit it and it’s fun cast of characters sometime.
6. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
I always like watching a coming-of-age teen anime romance and it feels like there’s a fairly good one every year. But I also tend to miss them if someone doesn’t point me their way. But I happened to note this one on Netflix while it isn’t a Your Name. level of tear-jerking, it is nice to see a low stakes and genuinely sweet romantic tale about two teens falling for each other while searching for an old record. It’s also extremely 80s/early 90s, despite taking place in the modern day, a day-glo film set in a mall and it’s nice to see a film about two kids insecure about themselves learning to accept the stuff they feel shy about. Is it slight? Yes, but it’s also a delight. AND THAT RHYMES!
5. In the Heights
In the doldrums of COVID, there are no shortage of pick me ups among my list. So a big budget musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, based on his break out play, should be a slam dunk. And it sort of is, for its faults. In terms of the actual story, it’s pretty formulaic “play” stuff. A story set on a hot day, various threads that connect through big shared events, a sudden black out in the third act. But it’s all good, because while the movie doesn’t have much in the way of complexity or depth, it more than makes up for in sincere passion and joy and some amazing looking musical numbers. John M Chu cut his teeth on the Step Up movies, feel-good movies similarly known for a level of cheese mixed with a level of joy at the art of dance, so it’s no surprise that this fun eye-popper feels like the kind of comfort food that isn’t too hard to revisit.
4. Dune
I’ve never had a big emotional connection to Dune. I’ve seen the David Lynch movie and the mini-series but I never connected strongly beyond “cool ideas”. Denis Villeneuve is probably the best science fiction director around because while there are many great directors of science fiction movie today, Denis has mastered a sense of scale and wonder in a field where characters seem a need for ironic detachment (including me, based on my #3 pick). Dune is far away from the modern blockbuster in a lot of ways, a sincere realization of a classic novel while managing to emphasize the Shakespearian tragedy that marks the first film. It threatens like many movies this ambitious to get lost in its own dense mythos but somehow taking all of this with a straight face (an expertly deployed Jason Mamoa aside, who is never comic relief but is a still more or less Aquaman) works completely in its favor. I loved Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival and Dune (part 1) cements Denis in my mind as one of those directors I am always going to be jazzed about seeing his movies.
3. The Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad was the only film I got to see in the theatre this year. I saw it during a lull in the pandemic right before a huge surge and I’m glad I got the opportunity. There are movies, like Dune, that are probably more impressive on the big screen but The Suicide Squad is fun and funny. I feel like the recent Marvel movies I’ve seen are struggling to find their new identity and while producing some fun movies (I have yet to see the Eternals and No Way Home, which had garnered what I would call different reactions), The Suicide Squad is what I want in a superhero movie. It’s also what I kind of want a DC-shared universe film to be. It isn’t apologizing that comic book mythology is ridiculous, it is diving in head-first and thoroughly takes place in a world where guys like the Polka-Dot Man are not anomalies. Of course, I don’t want all of them to be cynical deathfests but The Suicide Squad is that in the best way: cynical about America’s place in the world and it’s “heroes” and while there are gory deaths played for laughs, it really wants us to care about the Squad’s main characters, even if a lot of them are not good people. Just because they are bad, doesn’t mean we can’t care about them. By the end of the film, I care about people named Ratcatcher II and Polka-Dot Man. And I even care feel bad for Starro the Conqueror, even though he is responsible for hundreds of deaths. Because as ridiculous and grotesque James Gunn’s movies can get, he always imbues them with a love for his character.
Also, I want to give a special shout-out for Margot Robbie, not only for a wonderful performance but apparently her insistence on a role in the film that Harley is not DEFINITELY not the lead and is more of a b-plot in a way that somehow enhances the film and let’s her stand on her own and still allowing the rest of the ensemble to shine. I think Margot is doing so much good in this role that I almost want to see the more reviled Suicide Squad film just for her.
2. The French Dispatch
The French Dispatch might be Wes Anderson’s 8 ½, a film very much about himself and his feelings towards making his art. The funny thing is while I’ll accept 8 ½ is a brilliant, important film, I was never that interested in Fellini talking about himself but Wes talks about his feelings towards his art in this one through four delightful stories. The first is about the nature of structure and artifice. I mean, they all are but that’s the one the most nakedly so. It’s a comedy about outline and structure and sets up the fictional city of Ennui for us. Then we have a story about critical reaction and having to sell art and the idea that an artist might toil on the same thing forever is someone lets him but many of the people buying it, though capable of acknowledging beauty, also needs art that CAN be sold and the push and pull (neither the artist nor the salesman seem entirely good and are both sort of selfish and still sort of likable). In the third, I think it’s about the passion of a new artist and the discipline of the old and yet another push and pull to find the right way to do it. And in the end, in my favourite story, is one I’ll readily admit I don’t know how it fits into my theory, save that I agree with Bill Murray; the final line is definitely the heart of the piece. The film is about the joy and passion of artifice and has some of Anderson’s most controlled shot compositions that remind me structurally of comic artist Chris Ware (it doesn’t hurt that the New Yorker-inspired art is definitely comparable to his). While some people have been critical of some of his films, I’ve never had much of an issue with Anderson’s films but find the French Dispatch his most ambitious. It’s also very fun (especially the last tale).
Luca
I won’t lie, it’s a lot easier for me to go off on the ambitions and ideas of The French Dispatch and it was a movie that gave me joy but in this time of fear and transition, I’m not surprised I gravitated towards the feel-good this year. And it’s easy to see Luca isn’t in the top tier of Pixar films (I’d put it at an 8 and a half to Up/Wall-E/Toy Story 3’s solid 10s) but it’s still very very good and has character I love. And while the title character is great, it’s his friend Alberto, the tough “bad influence” who is the heart of the film. He’s a less measured and insecure and masks it with overconfidence but I am so glad the film ended with him getting Massimo as his best of all possible worlds dad. But as someone who really wants comfort right now, the world of Portorosso is a place I could spend forever in and I will definitely revisit this movie multiple times. This might be on my list of comfort food movies for when I have a hard day.
10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi has a lot of weak points before it devolves into some CG non-sense in the last act but the first act is pretty dang strong with a lot being owed to Awkwafina and a killer fight in a bus. If only the rest of the movie was more like that, as it is a delight. Hopefully, we’ll get a bit more of that in the sequel.
9. Black Widow
Phase IV has proven to be a bit rockier up until that Spider-Man movie people like but what Black Widow does well it does quite well. The action is a little more generic but the character stuff is actually quite strong and it’s got a pretty great cast, including Florence Pugh and David Harbour bring both humour and pathos to their characters. Plus, the villain is the living embodiment of the patriarchy and it’s nice to see him get fucked up.
8. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
This film feels like a throwback to the 90s SNL films, which sounds like a put down. It isn’t. This is if those movies took all the right lessons and double down on the weirder, more idiosyncratic elements that is always the better aspects of those films. Like, remember how the first Austin Powers has some amazing jokes but society seemed to glom onto the lazier ones until the later films doubled down on the worst stuff? This is the opposite of that. Yes, it goes to the old comedy standby of middle aged women from the Midwest but here’s the deal: 1) it’s very funny 2) we outlandish at the title characters are, they are loveable and they love each other. And there is a message that you can grow and change doesn’t need to threaten a relationship, it can grow it, even if some of the growth begins outside of it.
7. Encanto
Encanto is the film I wanted to be my niece’s first film in the theatre but rising covid cases put the kabosh on that. And it’s a shame, because I really think she would have liked this film. Encanto is a film with no villain, just the frustration of expectations. And though Mirabel has the tragedy of being born without a “miracle”, she learns some of her family members are secretly being crushed under the weight of expectations. The songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda are as good as you might expect (“Surface Pressure” feels like the one that can get the most play) and am curious to revisit it and it’s fun cast of characters sometime.
6. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
I always like watching a coming-of-age teen anime romance and it feels like there’s a fairly good one every year. But I also tend to miss them if someone doesn’t point me their way. But I happened to note this one on Netflix while it isn’t a Your Name. level of tear-jerking, it is nice to see a low stakes and genuinely sweet romantic tale about two teens falling for each other while searching for an old record. It’s also extremely 80s/early 90s, despite taking place in the modern day, a day-glo film set in a mall and it’s nice to see a film about two kids insecure about themselves learning to accept the stuff they feel shy about. Is it slight? Yes, but it’s also a delight. AND THAT RHYMES!
5. In the Heights
In the doldrums of COVID, there are no shortage of pick me ups among my list. So a big budget musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, based on his break out play, should be a slam dunk. And it sort of is, for its faults. In terms of the actual story, it’s pretty formulaic “play” stuff. A story set on a hot day, various threads that connect through big shared events, a sudden black out in the third act. But it’s all good, because while the movie doesn’t have much in the way of complexity or depth, it more than makes up for in sincere passion and joy and some amazing looking musical numbers. John M Chu cut his teeth on the Step Up movies, feel-good movies similarly known for a level of cheese mixed with a level of joy at the art of dance, so it’s no surprise that this fun eye-popper feels like the kind of comfort food that isn’t too hard to revisit.
4. Dune
I’ve never had a big emotional connection to Dune. I’ve seen the David Lynch movie and the mini-series but I never connected strongly beyond “cool ideas”. Denis Villeneuve is probably the best science fiction director around because while there are many great directors of science fiction movie today, Denis has mastered a sense of scale and wonder in a field where characters seem a need for ironic detachment (including me, based on my #3 pick). Dune is far away from the modern blockbuster in a lot of ways, a sincere realization of a classic novel while managing to emphasize the Shakespearian tragedy that marks the first film. It threatens like many movies this ambitious to get lost in its own dense mythos but somehow taking all of this with a straight face (an expertly deployed Jason Mamoa aside, who is never comic relief but is a still more or less Aquaman) works completely in its favor. I loved Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival and Dune (part 1) cements Denis in my mind as one of those directors I am always going to be jazzed about seeing his movies.
3. The Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad was the only film I got to see in the theatre this year. I saw it during a lull in the pandemic right before a huge surge and I’m glad I got the opportunity. There are movies, like Dune, that are probably more impressive on the big screen but The Suicide Squad is fun and funny. I feel like the recent Marvel movies I’ve seen are struggling to find their new identity and while producing some fun movies (I have yet to see the Eternals and No Way Home, which had garnered what I would call different reactions), The Suicide Squad is what I want in a superhero movie. It’s also what I kind of want a DC-shared universe film to be. It isn’t apologizing that comic book mythology is ridiculous, it is diving in head-first and thoroughly takes place in a world where guys like the Polka-Dot Man are not anomalies. Of course, I don’t want all of them to be cynical deathfests but The Suicide Squad is that in the best way: cynical about America’s place in the world and it’s “heroes” and while there are gory deaths played for laughs, it really wants us to care about the Squad’s main characters, even if a lot of them are not good people. Just because they are bad, doesn’t mean we can’t care about them. By the end of the film, I care about people named Ratcatcher II and Polka-Dot Man. And I even care feel bad for Starro the Conqueror, even though he is responsible for hundreds of deaths. Because as ridiculous and grotesque James Gunn’s movies can get, he always imbues them with a love for his character.
Also, I want to give a special shout-out for Margot Robbie, not only for a wonderful performance but apparently her insistence on a role in the film that Harley is not DEFINITELY not the lead and is more of a b-plot in a way that somehow enhances the film and let’s her stand on her own and still allowing the rest of the ensemble to shine. I think Margot is doing so much good in this role that I almost want to see the more reviled Suicide Squad film just for her.
2. The French Dispatch
The French Dispatch might be Wes Anderson’s 8 ½, a film very much about himself and his feelings towards making his art. The funny thing is while I’ll accept 8 ½ is a brilliant, important film, I was never that interested in Fellini talking about himself but Wes talks about his feelings towards his art in this one through four delightful stories. The first is about the nature of structure and artifice. I mean, they all are but that’s the one the most nakedly so. It’s a comedy about outline and structure and sets up the fictional city of Ennui for us. Then we have a story about critical reaction and having to sell art and the idea that an artist might toil on the same thing forever is someone lets him but many of the people buying it, though capable of acknowledging beauty, also needs art that CAN be sold and the push and pull (neither the artist nor the salesman seem entirely good and are both sort of selfish and still sort of likable). In the third, I think it’s about the passion of a new artist and the discipline of the old and yet another push and pull to find the right way to do it. And in the end, in my favourite story, is one I’ll readily admit I don’t know how it fits into my theory, save that I agree with Bill Murray; the final line is definitely the heart of the piece. The film is about the joy and passion of artifice and has some of Anderson’s most controlled shot compositions that remind me structurally of comic artist Chris Ware (it doesn’t hurt that the New Yorker-inspired art is definitely comparable to his). While some people have been critical of some of his films, I’ve never had much of an issue with Anderson’s films but find the French Dispatch his most ambitious. It’s also very fun (especially the last tale).
Luca
I won’t lie, it’s a lot easier for me to go off on the ambitions and ideas of The French Dispatch and it was a movie that gave me joy but in this time of fear and transition, I’m not surprised I gravitated towards the feel-good this year. And it’s easy to see Luca isn’t in the top tier of Pixar films (I’d put it at an 8 and a half to Up/Wall-E/Toy Story 3’s solid 10s) but it’s still very very good and has character I love. And while the title character is great, it’s his friend Alberto, the tough “bad influence” who is the heart of the film. He’s a less measured and insecure and masks it with overconfidence but I am so glad the film ended with him getting Massimo as his best of all possible worlds dad. But as someone who really wants comfort right now, the world of Portorosso is a place I could spend forever in and I will definitely revisit this movie multiple times. This might be on my list of comfort food movies for when I have a hard day.
