Throughout his career, Steven Spielberg has created some of the most popular films of all time, garnering him an enormous amount of respect on both a critical and financial scale. He is considered by many to be the most famous director of all time, given his track record as both director and producer of some of the most recognizable films of the past 50 years. Movie Daddy is a series by Story Screen Editor-in-chief, Mike Burdge, which aims to cover The Beard's directorial filmography in an attempt to present just why Steven Spielberg is very much that hot fire when it comes to being an American filmmaker. In this installment, we’re gonna hit one of the big ones, which arguably solidified Spielberg’s standing as an unmatched talent, and introduced to us one of the most recognizable figures in film, Indiana Jones. That’s right, we’re talkin’ dat' Raiders of the Lost Ark . ==================== “This movie we’re making now is not real life. But at the same time, it is not a send-up, it is not an imitation of anything.” -Spielberg on the intentions of Raiders Raiders of the Lost Ark is a fast film: fast-paced with a cleverly edited, throwback feel. It’s an ode to the nostalgia of the Saturday serials that inspired, in and of themselves, some of the strongest nostalgias we have today. Birthed from the same mind that drew on Flash Gordon to create the seemingly endless world of Star Wars , this new take on the adventures of a dashing and daring explorer only becomes even more impressive as your familiarity with these old school adventures increases. I'm sure the idea of a “love letter to,” within the film genre, sounds like a tired description at this point, but hoo boy, does Raiders beg for, and deserve that moniker. Yet, for all its massive popularity, and its nostalgic tendencies, Raiders of the Lost Ark remains, first and foremost, a masterpiece of filmmaking, and a testament to movie magic. It’s the movie Roger Ebert described as: “an out-of-body experience,” and which Gene Siskel referred to as “tight.” It also happens to be one of the movies totally engraved in my mind: every line, every shot, every moment. It just might be my favorite Spielberg film, purely for the fact that it’s kind of hard to argue against. It’s a flawless film, exceeding at every turn with effortless, dynamic ease. To put it bluntly: It’s a really cool movie. Also, there’s an amazing black and white version that exists, which I highly recommend catching at some point. It’s… insanely cool. But we’re not here to talk about that. Let’s go back: Born from Spielberg confessing that he would love to do a James Bond-esque picture to his brother-from-another-mother, George Lucas, Raiders of the Lost Ark began as an idea Lucas thought would pique Spielberg's interest to a unique level: the story of Indiana Smith (womp womp). Spielberg and Lucas had been good friends for quite some time at this point; they worked together in one form or another on several projects - through the American Zoetrope era, a production company founded by walking sexpot, Francis Ford Coppola. Spielberg had known Lucas for over 10 years before that fateful sandy beach conversation, where Lucas was hiding away during the opening of Star Wars , nervous of how his wacky space adventure would turn out with the general public. They were friends, so when Lucas brought up an idea he had been working on even before he started the script to Journal of the Whills , Spielberg decided to make this movie, for and with his friend. By the time they got started, the names Lucas and Spielberg attached to any movie was guaranteed dynamite, and these two Beard Bros knew it. With a little shot in the arm from noted dreamboat, Lawrence Kasdan, (who presumably gave the movie its pop and soul) they had a script that was ready to destroy the public consciousness of what it meant to make a throwback movie at that time. Then it came down to getting people to actually play these roles, primarily that of our hero, Indiana Jones, and his goddamn partner, Marion Ravenwood. Spielberg and Lucas searched tirelessly for an unknown actor to play Indie, feeling that this level of faux authenticity would allow the movie’s strengths to stand on their own. But eventually, Spielberg saw The Empire Strikes Back and called up Lucas, exclaiming: “He’s been right under our noses!” Lucas said he knew exactly who Spielberg meant right away, and while hesitant at first, (after working with him before) it became the final choice (after teen-heartthrob Tom Sellick fell through) that Harrison Ford would be the perfect fit for the fedora-wearing explorer. Ford was “enthusiastic” about the script, and also about Steven Spielberg. After wrapping on Empire , and moving into a new home, Ford turned down script after script, until a call from George Lucas brought up Spielberg’s next project. At the time, Ford was right in the middle of his launch to stardom. Given Ford's success as Han Solo in the first two Star Wars films, as well as his turn as Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner the following year, his decision to take the role of Indiana Jones is as easy a mark as any to hit as the thing that finally catapulted him. And that’s not even mentioning the “You’re Goddamn Right, Gimmie My Money” one-two of Return of the Jedi and his Oscar-nominated performance in Witness in the following two years. Your dude was killing it. While, yes, Harrison Ford’s rugged good looks and insane comedic presence are both responsible for his rise as a star, as well as the success of Raiders becoming such a behemoth of entertainment, one of the things that really makes Indie sing is actually a result of Ford’s own no-bullshit persona. Throughout the shooting process, Ford really asked a lot of rational questions as far as his character's motivations in scenes, as well as his reactions. Ford being the prickly dude he’s now known to be, really helped the believability of Indie’s reactions and physicality within all the major and smaller moments found throughout Raiders . “What’s to stop me from just pulling the gun?” Ford would ask the stunt coordinator when choreographing the fight scenes in the movie. And while the good ol’ “It happens too quick” would work sometimes, we’ve all heard of the big one where Ford’s barbed point of view changed movie history forever: the infamous Swordsman Fight Scene. As the story goes, Indie was supposed to fight off a large swordsman with his whip, leading to a whole bit with a butcher getting “his work done for him” by the sword-wielding baddie. Ford’s version (the one now plastered in our minds) is funnier, even if it was the believed result of the actor feeling sick. This is inarguable. It’s the film equivalent of letting the bass drop. It hits, and it hits at just the right moment. I’m not going any further in this write-up without gushing, just for a moment, how absolutely out-of-the-park Karen Allen hits her shit as Marion Ravenwood. It is a transcendent experience. This movie is filled to the very brim with spectacle and WOW, that at times, I feel that Allen’s work can easily get lost within the extravaganza, but my good God is she something else in this movie. With practically nothing under her belt at the time of her casting, Allen brings the goods to a seemingly thankless role, something she would do again to equally impressive effect with her roles in 1984’s Starman and 1988’s Scrooged . How this woman didn’t become a superstar herself is frankly embarrassing to the entire human race. When discussing her experience on Raiders , she said this: "You get down into all the layers of all the technical things having to be working all at once. It wasn’t just the acting, it was being aware of what the camera was doing, and being in the right light, being in the right place at the right moment and not getting in each other’s way and all of these sorts of things, I mean it was fascinating." Karen Allen was a motherfucking star who beat the shit out of any scene you threw at her, not just with her insanely impressive presence and delivery, but with the seasoned know-how of a tempered actor who knew what she needed to get done, both when and how. Obligatory John Williams score shoutout!! What do you want me to say about this? Seriously? Pull it up on Spotify or YouTube and just deal with the fact that it’s a bop. It slaps and is easily one of the top five themes EVER. That’s it. GREAT JOB, JOHN! But let’s get into the movie proper, shall we? The beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark is just a miracle; its opening sequence is a pacing and editing marvel, on both a technical and experiential scale. And if we can fast forward, the final big scene of the movie takes place on what is visually (and sort of literally), a movie-set, and is also a psychotic rollercoaster of entertainment and movie magic. Bookending your movie with these jaw-dropping moments is one surefire way to make a classic. Luckily for us, Raiders also has plenty of tasty filling: an impeccable tone, outlandishly enjoyable characters, and heart-racing action that all adds up to the very thing we think about when we imagine what movies can do. Let’s start with what makes the tone of this film so great. While the slapstick, tongue-in-cheek antics are great, they are the resulting leftovers of many cut moments of similar fun fare. Spielberg actively shot loads of funny moments within all points of the films, leaving it until the final stages of the editing room to hone the balance. The comedy within this movie is finely tuned and only released when narratively perfect. Similarly, Indie’s heroic nature (i.e. his badassery) is typically usurped time and time again. When we are first introduced to him, we see him fail and get run out of a jungle, nearly dying, only to escape by the skin of his teeth, and THEN we see he’s a big ol’ wuss around snakes. This narrative tactic of having Indie’s confidence get the better of him not only makes everything more believable but also ties us to the stakes of the moments. We want Indie to make it because, c’mon dude, you got this! The entire plane fight scene is pure magic. The dynamic the audience has with Indie, coupled with the added flair of Speilberg’s mesmerizing blocking, (we’ll get to more of this soon, I swear) creates an absolutely beguiling piece of cinema that is indisputable. And while we’re on the tone train, let’s talk about exposition. There is an amazing exposition dump with some military dudes early on in the movie that gives the audience every facet of information they could need in a purely naturalistic way. THIS is how you do it, baby. The exposition work in this film is just all-around perfection. Something is always happening and is always given just the right amount of attention. There is a keen eye on blocking with editing in mind. Watch the “Bad Dates” scene and tell me this movie isn’t made by a genius. I dare you. We’ve already discussed the two heavy hitters of this movie - Ford and Allen - but the secondary characters in this thing are out of control. Paul Freeman as Belloq is a world-class fuckboi; Ronald Lacey puts in the distinguished work of "That Creepy Guy" as Toht, and you’ve got John Rhys-Davies doing his shudderingly sexy thing as Sallah. And one would be embarrassed to not bring up “Sir” Alfredo Molina in a role that, even though he is only in the first ten minutes, you still think of his face and rubbing-fingers every time you think of Raiders of the Lost Ark . But it is in Denholm Elliot, playing Brody, that the brightest light of the ensemble shines, and while he isn’t given much screen-time in this first installment, he radiates ACTING in his brief scenes. Don’t worry, we’ll get more into Elliot's amazing abilities in the Last Crusade , where he’s utilized so much more, creating one of the greatest sidekick characters of all time. Brody speaks a dozen languages and knows every local custom, don’t ya know? The stunts in this thing are out of control, full stop. Keeping the natural feel and allowing the camera to flow through the scenes required an insane amount of talent and trust by the stunt team, something that I think is felt even while watching the movie as a spectator; you know that’s not Harrison Ford doing that, but it’s still Indiana Jones if that makes sense? It’s insane what the stunt team accomplishes in this movie. The more you pay attention to the stunts as events as opposed to moments, the more the awe sets in. A quick aside: One of the oddest moments in the film is when Indie supposedly rides a submarine to “Nazi Island.” You know the part I’m talking about. How does he survive this? A deleted scene does show him holding onto the periscope of the submerged submarine, seemingly explaining how his survival might have been possible. Does this make sense? No. Is that how submarines work? As someone who has served aboard a submarine, I can tell you: No. No, it is not. Is the mystery better than the deleted explanation? Sure. Great job, everybody. Keep giving me a good movie, thank you. And it is here, dear reader, that we must delve into the mind that brought this awesomeness all together: one Steven Allan Spielberg. This was, in many ways, a big rebound from the failures Spielberg perceived onto himself from 1941 , which created some wounds to the director’s image that he hoped to heal. Spielberg very much wanted to be under-budget and under-schedule, the opposite of the plights that had plagued him in his previous films, whether successful and critically acclaimed or not. I spoke before on George Lucas’ dream of the idea, and Lawrence Kasdan’s injection of thrill into the story, but it is in Mark Dinning’s review from "Empire" that Spielberg is most eloquently placed: “If Lucas is Raiders’ guts and Kasdan its head, then Spielberg is its beating heart.” "The first film I ever saw was The Greatest Show on Earth , by Cecil B. Demille. That was the first experience I ever had in the theater. My father said that he was taking me to a circus movie. But I didn’t register “movie,” I registered “circus.” And I stood in line with him in the cold sleet in New Jersey. And I always imagined a circus took place in a tent, not a brick building, so it didn’t make any sense to me. I expected the curtain to open and I’d see real elephants, a real lion tamer, and the curtain opened and there was big white material, and this flat image came on this white sheet, and it was The Greatest Show on Earth . And my first reaction was that my father had betrayed me. He promised me a circus, and took me to something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but was not satisfying in any way. I couldn’t smell it, I couldn’t climb into it, you know, I couldn’t be afraid of it. And as I’m watching the movie, suddenly I’m smelling it, I’m afraid of it, I’m climbing into it and by the end of the film, I was really jazzed. I remember the spectacle." -Steven Spielberg There’s an outright ludicrous nature to some of the stuff on display in Raiders that is unbelievable, but you still believe it. You buy into it because it all happens naturally within the rules and tone that the movie sets up, mainly within its opening moments. Like, a whip? Whips don’t work like that! Or do they? Who cares? This is cool and fun! It is a transactional adventure. Of the film's escapism Spielberg says, “In Raiders of the Lost Ark , things happen that an audience would believe if they buy the first ten minutes of the movie.” There’s realism to all the moments and the look of the film. Spielberg was notoriously adamant to shoot quickly, perhaps worried he would fall short like his previous films, which went over-budget and over-schedule. His tenacity and vigor make the moments captured feel real and raw, something he would continue to use in the future: his techniques of blocking on the day, rolling with the improvised look and nature. There is a tone here that is meticulously calibrated, allowing the feeling to be natural. All of this is how you make a magical movie. Behind the scenes, we see time after time Spielberg perfecting moments within shots to use for edits in real-time. He’s literally seeing the movie as they make it, and accounting for these needs on the day to produce the exact images and feel he wants. This is what a director should do, and usually does, but ya boi does it very, very well. The technical aspects of making this movie shouldn’t be understated. They made this thing QUICK, finishing eleven days ahead of schedule. Given Spielberg’s track record, that’s very, very good. Spielberg longed for the days of shooting Duel and The Sugarland Express in under sixty days, these quick, intimate productions of verve and technique. Most big-budget, epic movies take many months, if not longer, to fully produce. He wanted to do something bigger than he’d ever done in less time than it had ever taken him to do it. And he did. That’s boss level. "Steve does a great deal of homework when he does a picture. And he’s very organized, and I think one of the main reasons the film is going so well and is ahead of schedule at this point, is because Steve also has gained a great deal of technical knowledge on making movies, he’s made these kinds of movies before, he knows what to anticipate. He knows how to make a production move. " -George Lucas This isn’t to say that there weren’t a number of major obstacles for Spielberg to overcome. There was grueling heat in the desert scenes, with the film notoriously shooting during the hottest time of the year in Tunisia, reaching over 135 degrees Fahrenheit. On a quick fun note: The legend of Spielberg himself being the only member of the cast and crew to not get sick while filming in Tunisia by eating only cans of Spaghetti-O’s is *chef’s kiss.* Spielberg’s display of handling tone and the adventurous exploitation is a wonder, something he would replicate so seemingly effortlessly in the sequels that it becomes something of an enigma that the (ahem) fourth installment in the series would be so generally lacking in the very things that made the series so interesting and exciting. While this is a fun movie to watch, it is apparent that it was a difficult movie to make, but Spielberg’s tactics and techniques work their magic at every turn. On mapping out set pieces to feel natural in editing, and therefore also in viewing, Spielberg says he thought, “Geography makes an audience more secure with the story.” Knowing where our characters are in relation to the world around them helps us understand what they are trying to do, and where they need to go to do it, naturally, allowing us to fall even deeper into the entertainment of it all. It also seems like Spielberg started figuring some things out while on the set of this movie, which is surprising, given how successful many of his previous films were. It’s kind of hard to imagine the director, who notably and obviously created the “Spielberg Look,” saying, “When you don’t really know what the effects are gonna be until you get into post-production, it’s very hard to direct somebody and say, ‘Look frightened, or look overjoyed, or look with awe at something that will not be in for a few months!’” But that’s what The Beard does: he’s a great director, and part of being a great director is both understanding your need, and having the ability to communicate the unseen to those who will need to perform and capture that vision. “Every actor needs a different director for each moment. And I think I have to be a different director for each actor, moment to moment,” he once said in an interview commenting on him working with so many different types of actors in different types of genre roles. Raiders was made for $20.8 million and grossed $363 million. Indiana Jones’ first cinematic adventure would go on to win five Academy Awards in the technical categories (Editing, Sound, Sound Editing, Art Direction, and, of course, Visual Effects), losing the more major awards to Chariots of Fire and Reds . The technical Oscar wins make a lot of sense, especially the sound design by Ben Burtt, who is the John Williams of sound effects in many ways. Much of what makes Raiders so special isn’t just the things we immediately think about, but the entire piece as a whole and how it builds and releases tension, all the while maintaining a feeling of excitement and danger, and much of this is due to the sound design and previously praised editing. Some other final notes of interest include the amazing delivery of Ford’s, “Ha ha ha haaaa-sonuvabitch…” at the taunts of Belloq, as well as the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it splatter of Indie’s blood on the windshield of the truck he’s driving after being shot in the arm. It’s fantastic stuff that high-definition conversion was made for. Speaking of which, a fond memory I have of watching Raiders took place at a screening of its 2K theatrical re-release, I believe for its 35th anniversary, where the screen was so massive and the picture so crisp, that my partner, Diana, and I, noticed a fly crawl into AND OUT OF actor Paul Freeman’s mouth during his ending monologue in the film’s penultimate moments. We lost our minds. Captain Katanga, played briefly by George Harris, never returns in any of the sequels, and this makes me sad. It should also be noted that this movie features one of the best examples of another Spielberg-ism the director is so regularly known for: the Mini Movie, wherein a scene placed perfectly within the movie contains, in itself, a dynamic 3-act structure that really builds character and sets the wanted mood moving forward (the example I speak of is, of course, the Drinking Shots scene, which acts as Marion’s introduction). Your honor, people of the jury… Raiders of the Lost Ark is a good movie, this much is undebatable. But I argue to you, that even in a filmography that contains the birth of the blockbuster, several Academy Award nominations and winners, the perfection of the CGI and practical effect balancing act, and arguably the greatest opening moments of any war movie ever made, Raiders is Spielberg’s most impressive film, if only for the fact that he makes perfection look so effortless that a viewer may be so wrapped up in the experience of it all that they might not even notice the craft and skill on display in every single frame. On the next Movie Daddy , allow me to explain to you why The Terminal is actually quite charming, if not also ridiculously problematic and loooooooooooong. Mike Burdge Editor-in-chief Founder of and programmer for Story Screen. Lover of stories and pizza in the dark. When he isn't watching movies, you can find him reading things about people watching movies. He currently resides in Poughkeepsie, NY, and most assuredly is going through a French Connection phase.

Robby Anderson and Mike Burdge yap about the Mortal Kombat franchise, from its humble arcade beginnings to the recent massive blockbustin' return-to-the-cinema experience. Many adaptations, all with different things in mind, show a varied approach to just how video games can be brought to the big screen. Listen....

That's right friends, you can check out all of our "Best of" and "Favorite Film" lists of 2021 right here, including our "Best of 2021" Story Screen Presents podcast and video edited by Mike Burdge and Robby Anderson. ENJOY! VIDEO: Story Screen's Best of 2021 PODCAST: Story Screen's Best of 2021 From Dune to @zola , with plenty more in between, the Story Screen Fam chats about some of their favorite films from the past year. Mainly spoiler-free for all these new movies, so swing on in and give it a listen to see what we were all about in 2021. Listen on... Lists - Click the images below to read each full article! Mike's Top 20 of 2021 By Mike Burdge Heath’s Top 10 Movies of 2021 By Heath White Diana's Fave Films of 2021 By Diana DiMuro Who You Gonna Be Tonight, 2021? By Scotty Arnold Tell Me A Story: Bern's Favorites in 2021 By Bernadette Gorman-White Jeremy’s Fab Favorites of 2021 By Jeremy Kolodziejski BaeBae's Top 10 of 2021 By Robert Anderson Damian: My Favorite Films of 2021 By Damian Masterson Jack's Favorite Movies of 2021 By Jack Kolodziejski Sophia's Favorite Films of 2021 By Sophia Acquisto

In my efforts to cram in as many films as possible from 2021 in anticipation of creating my list of favorite films from the past year, I watched several documentaries. They started to stack up, to the point that I decided to pull them out of my “Best of 2021” list and give them their due separately, here. The following are just a few of the documentaries that I watched from 2021 - many are available on streaming services - so go on, watch 'em! I think you won’t be disappointed. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (Amazon/Vudu) I love Anthony Bourdain. I’ve been a long-time fan of his writing, his many shows, his narrative way of using food and travel as a gateway for empathy and uniting people. So, I gotta say upfront: this film was a tough watch. Morgan Neville’s documentary comes out three years after Bourdain committed suicide, taking footage of Bourdain during his rise to fame and his subsequent travels around the globe, and inter-splices it with interviews with the people that knew and loved him (chefs David Chang and Éric Ripert and artist David Choe, among several others). But their memories are not all seen through rose-colored glasses. The documentary takes a magnifying lens to some of the aspects I think people most admired about Bourdain - his obsessions, his frankness, his darkness - and shows that he could, at times, be a real asshole. It depicts his girlfriend Asia Argento as being the Yoko to his cadre of cronies and dedicated film crew. But to be fair, Neville admits in interviews that he never asked Argento to participate in this film. The movie definitely attempts to comment on Bourdain’s demons and his continued journey right up to his death. Does this film give its viewers resolution or peace? No. Is it still worth viewing? Definitely. Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (HBOMax) Director Marilyn Agrelo takes us through the conception and early years of one of the most well-known childrens’ programs in history: Sesame Street. It addresses how the creators used the commercial methods of television to make something both educational and entertaining for children, while also breaking ground by integrating the show during a time when TV was often still segregated. The doc showcases the main players and puppeteers behind the characters we have grown to know and love over the years: Kermit, Bert, Ernie, Grover, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Mr. Hooper, Luis, Gordon, Maria, and Bob. It also takes us through the major creators behind the scenes: Joan Ganz Cooney, Jim Henson, and the director-writer-producer Jon Stone. Above everything else, Street Gang does an excellent job of showing how much work it truly took (and continues to take) to create its beloved programming. The Sparks Brothers (Netflix) Edgar Wright has created one of the most fun and compelling music documentaries I have ever seen in The Sparks Brothers, featuring brothers Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks. It takes Wright’s signature editing methods and uses them to take us through the catalog of music and history of the band that never quite received the fame and recognition they deserve. It interviews a huge number of people that were involved, influenced, or affected by Sparks’ work, including Beck, Flea, Thurston Moore, Jane Wiedlin, 'Weird Al,' Mike Myers, Jason Schwartzman, and many more. But the real draw of the film is the music of Sparks itself and how the Mael brothers continued to change and reinvent their sound again and again over the years. If you love Sparks you will love this film. If you’ve never heard of Sparks you will still love this film. Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Hulu) Concert films can really be hit or miss, but Summer of Soul is something truly special. Questlove directs a concert film about the forgotten Harlem Culture festival of 1969. It’s an event that is so epic but completely unacknowledged in the history books. While people still talk about Woodstock, how can so many people have never known about a festival of this magnitude? The Harlem Culture Festival included performances by Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples, and so many more iconic performers. Questlove uses never before seen footage from the festival and interviews musicians and attendees all these years later. He focuses on the people involved that made this cultural phenomenon happen, in particular, producer Tony Lawrence and the then-mayor of New York, John Lindsay. He also uses news footage from the time period throughout the film to comment on civil rights issues, economic inequity, and historical events like the moon landing to help frame the atmosphere and importance of such a festival. Set aside the cultural and political significance of the Harlem Cultural Festival, and you still have an amazing film of never before seen concert footage of some of the greatest performers of all time. The Reason I Jump (Netflix) The Reason I Jump takes Naoki Higashida's book of the same title and uses his first-person account at age 13 of living with autism, giving a voice to the experiences of five non-verbal individuals living with autism in different parts of the world. Director Jerry Rothwell uses Higashida’s writing as a framework to examine the misconceptions held about people with autism (even by members of their own families). Rothwell also shows the ways that these “neurodivergent” people are actually able to communicate and uses Higashida’s words to give insight into how these individuals may be experiencing the world around them. By helping the viewer to experience what they are experiencing, Jump allows us to gain empathy and understanding. Cusp (Showtime) “I never really hang out with people my age. I always hang out with older people.” - Brittney Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt created a documentary that focuses on the lives of three teenage girls in Texas during their summer break. But while the girls spend a lot of time partying, smoking, and drinking with friends, it is not a fun time to watch. The girls - Brittney, Autumn, and Aaloni - are all 15 or 16 years old, but they often act much older. They have all experienced violence, rape, or sexual assault in some form or another. The fact that this has become just a regular part of their lives is what is so crazy. They spend their free time with boys who are 18 or 19 years old but are careful to never be alone with anyone they deem "untrustworthy," acknowledging that rape is a common occurrence among them and their peers. Still, it is their jaded acceptance of these acts that make this film so impactful. Watching how these experiences have shaped and affected the youth of these girls is rough. Even when Brittney seemingly finds love with a caring (yet older) boyfriend, he is controlling. We watch her frantically check her phone for messages asking where she is and when she is coming back. We see her cling to her friends as both a support system and as a means of escape. While this film is heavy to watch, it is also beautifully shot. There are scenes filmed fireside as friends talk and drink, or shot through the filtered rays of sunlight pouring through the windows of claustrophobic teenage bedrooms. Cusp is definitely a rambling, hang-out kind of movie, without any real resolution or catharsis. But it shines a light on the culture of women and girls that continues in America and is often swept under the rug. All Light, Everywhere (Hulu) All Light, Everywhere, is a really interesting documentary that starts out by looking at the human eye and how images are transmitted to our brain. It takes the viewer through the history of photography and filmmaking from man’s attempts to document the sun and solar eclipses. It addresses the inherent biases of how humans physically see and then looks at the creation of police body cameras and camera surveillance and how that technology also has its own biases. In Theo Anthony’s documentary, we see that body cameras are made to “mimic the human eye,” meaning they aren’t infrared or made to see in the dark. The police and creators of the cameras do not want the footage to be used to sway a jury. It’s an interesting way of addressing violence and issues of police brutality by examining the way this footage is used. The film opens the discussion of using surveillance camera footage as a way to protect and oppress citizens by looking at its uses specifically, in the city of Baltimore, shortly after the murder of Freddie Gray. It also addresses the relationship between the creation of motion picture cameras and the dawn of automatic weapons which frankly, is pretty terrifying. The movie itself is a bit all over the place in the way it uses conceptual filmmaking to evoke the ideas of what we can and cannot see. It doesn’t always successfully execute what it is trying to express but I think there are a lot of extremely interesting points made throughout the film that will continue to roll around in your brain long after watching it. The Alpinist (Netflix) For me, The Alpinist filled the voids I felt while watching another recent climbing documentary, Free Solo. Don’t get me wrong, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi shot and directed a beautiful, edge-of-your-seat documentary about Alex Honnold and his first free solo attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan. But part of what makes Alex Honnold such an amazing and successful climber is his extremely competitive nature, even with himself. Sometimes this is to the detriment of those who love him most, as we witness in Free Solo. In The Alpinist, however, we watch only a few documented climbs made by Marc-André Leclerc, someone who, for all intents and purposes, just really loved nature and loved to climb, most of the time, alone. He wasn’t trying to outdo his peers or actively beat other climbers’ records and The Alpinist helps show that. The film also draws you in, most of all, because of Marc-André. He is just really truly lovely. He comes across as incredibly humble, sweet, and goofy - like an oversized teenager. Interviews with his mom and his girlfriend (and fellow climber) Brette Harrington, only add to the full picture of Marc-André as a caring, loving individual, who also happened to push himself to solo climb some of the most intense summits of rock, snow, and ice imaginable. To speak about the film more would be to give away too much, but I promise, The Alpinist will hit you hard. Flee (In theaters) Sometimes animation can be used to convey things that a documentary or narrative film alone might struggle to portray: a feeling, a dream, a memory. These are all things that Jonas Poher Rasmussen is able to share expressively through his animated documentary, Flee. Through animation, Rasmussen is able to tell the tale of his longtime friend, Amin, allowing Amin to remain anonymous while still sharing the details of his childhood as a refugee who fled Afghanistan and now lives in Denmark. The film is bleak at times, but it is also extremely hopeful. This is as much a credit to Amin’s story as it is to Rasmussen’s production. It is pretty rare that an animated feature might be able to contend with the Academy Award nominees for Best Documentary Feature or Best Picture, but Flee can really hold its own. Procession (Netflix) This is a really unique documentary. It brings together a group of six men, united by the experiences of sexual abuse that each suffered as a boy by members of the Catholic Church. Director Robert Greene, along with a drama therapist and the lawyers who helped prosecute their cases, helps these survivors each tell their own story through film. Each man scripts a short scene to film based on what they went through. The entire group is involved in the filmmaking - from scouting locations to acting in the scenes and just generally being there for each other. The process helps them start to deal with those events and reclaim the power of those places where they were once abused. Through the experience of creating and performing in these scenes, they help each other heal. It is a pretty wild method and amazing to watch. Diana DiMuro Associate Editor Besides watching TV and movies, Diana likes plants, the great outdoors, drawing and reading comics, and just generally rocking out. She has a BA in English Literature and is an art school dropout. You can follow her on Instagram @dldimuro and Twitter @DianaDiMuro

Bernadette Gorman-White and Reeya Banerjee talk everything there is to talk about the newest chapter in the Sex and the City phenomenon: And Just Like That... Listen on.... (We had some technical difficulties on this one, y'all. We apologize for the sound quality and variations, but we fixed it up as good as we could cause this convo was fire. Hope you enjoy!)

From Dune to @zola , with plenty more in between, the Story Screen Fam chats about some of their favorite films from the past year. Mainly spoiler free for all these new movies, so swing on in and give it a listen to see what we were all about in 2021. Listen on....

Cutting to the chase: 2021 was a year and movies were released in it and I watched a lot of them. Here are the ones I liked the most. Let’s punch it. 20. Riders of Justice (Retfærdighedens ryttere) The film turns the revenge-action genre into an outright sensation of character, transforming what would normally be a muted and derivative story into something with so much depth you feel as though you could drown in its thoughts at any moment. What’s very cool about Riders of Justice is that while it feels complete in its own story, there is enormous sequel/franchise potential for these characters and the world they operate in, and that’d be something I’d get very excited about. Mads is the widow we all deserve. 19. The Sparks Brothers The rock-doc to end all rock-docs, it’s a blast from start to finish on every single level. Edgar Wright’s tenacity for spectacle is weaponized into a music-documentary style that follows the standards of the genre, while also offering some new and exciting ways to depict the story of one of the most influential and unsung bands of all time. 18. Titane Titane is merciless, cold, sexy, and a real hot mess, but in a good way. While this movie didn’t sit completely right with me the first time I watched it, I couldn’t deny its style. After some discussions with friends, who both loved and hated it, and a good quiet rewatch, everything started to click together to form the real operation of this movie that is just as much machine as it is beating heart. 17. Red Rocket A remarkable installment in the ever-growing legendary career of Sean Baker. While everybody in this movie is fantastic, and Simon Rex is pulling off something so unique and special, my MVP to this lil' slice of Texas life is Bree Elrod, whose many variations of Lexi are simultaneously unbelievable in performance and totally real as a human being. Just as depressing and uplifting as you’d come to expect from a Baker joint, Red Rocket , once again, shows that the director’s ability to generate the appropriate amount of substance to match his very unique and showy style is what really makes his movies sing. The NSYNC Revolution begins now. 16. A Quiet Place Part II A sequel to a horror movie with a high concept hook that successfully substitutes scary suspense for action-based tension, and also has Cillian Murphy? I’ll take two, please. And I did. On first watch, this movie blew me and my small crowd away in the early part of 2021 as movie theaters just started opening back up. It wasn’t my first big-screen experience since the shutdowns, which is mainly due to my good fortune of owning a movie theater and operating a repertory Drive-In during the summer of 2020, but it was the first time I saw a brand spanking new movie on the big screen with a good sized crowd and I was absolutely floored at how well Krasinski pulled everything off. On rewatch just a few weeks ago, my convictions were assured, as it is in welcome company with some of the best action-driven horror sequels, such as Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day . It’s as tight a movie as they come. 15. The Matrix Resurrections The fact that this total body-slam to nostalgia-sploitation came out only DAYS after Spider-Man: No Way Home will forever be one of the craziest whiplashes I've experienced. I’m at a loss for words in trying to describe the brilliance and craft of this thing, from intentionally holding back natural artistic verve, to completely decoding and then recoding our understanding and relationship with one of the greatest movies ever made. It’s not what everyone would want from a long-awaited Matrix sequel, and that is very much intentional, but this is exactly what I didn’t even know I’d love for Lana Wachowski to do with the mighty power she has cultivated over the past 25 years. A true miracle of a movie, and I'm so happy it's now in my life forever. 14. Old Say it with me, everybody: The Beach That Makes You OLD! I’m absolutely loving this new era of Shyamalan when his geeky eccentricities are working in tandem with his bleeding heart semantics on whatever obstacle in his life he’s currently having a tough go at. This is extremely similar to Spielberg’s run of films when he was no longer dealing with the daddy issues he himself had from his own father, but started dealing with ones as he was becoming a father himself. Those stories would change over decades as his children grew. Shyamalan is also discussing this very idea, with a little, “Our children’s future is doomed,” thrown in there for good measure, all with the standard slew of Shyamalan unornamented yet somehow embellished dialogue, set pieces, and characterizations. But it is in the story’s thoughts and meditations on death and time, and more importantly, our relationship to these unavoidable truths, which make us face our own mortality and the mortality of those we love. It’s a purely existential concept, and one I think Shyamalan balances perfectly with his B movie inclinations, silliness and all. There’s also a running bit where Rufus Sewell’s character tries to remember the name of the film, The Missouri Breaks . Chef’s kiss. 13. Minari A wickedly subtle film, Minari was the must-see flick of the 2021 awards season, one of the late releases that entered into the conversation in mid-February after having played all the festivals throughout 2020. Its legacy was firmly in place by the time it was released to general audiences, who most saw it for the first time in the comfort of their own homes through the use of virtual cinemas and A24’s radically different approach to releasing to streaming in tandem with independent theaters, as opposed to major streaming corporations. While this is something I’ll always think of when thinking about Minari , it is far from the most impressive, as the movie itself is packed with beauty in just about every aspect of filmmaking, from the acting to the music, to the score, to the writing, you name it. It’s one of those movies that just stays with you for so long after you watch it, and while that’s a bit of a well-used label that gets tossed on many worthy films, Minari is one that truly does. 12. The Power of the Dog A precise and reckless film. Watching The Power of the Dog is the type of experience you hope you’ll have in all of the moments leading up to watching a new, hyped-up curiosity. Cumberbatch is insane in this movie, and Dunst and Plemons are turning in some real, restrained performances alongside Smit-McPhee’s unfathomably disconcerting presence. But it is she, ya dang majesty Jane Campion, who once again ignites the screen with humanity in even the shortest collection of frames. The film gets extra points for that Campion Peen™, of course. 11. Nine Days Nine days is as much about existence as it is about the power of storytelling and movies, with a cast that’s practically ripping the ceiling right off of every scene. This has got to be one of the most emotional rides I’ve ever experienced from top to bottom in a film. I had a good amount of cries during some movies in 2021 (it’s been a very wild couple of years, and baby needs a nap), but Nine Days was the one I kept coming back to for a variety of reasons that the film made me tear up throughout. From joy to sadness to good ol’ existential crisis over three things simultaneously, I haven’t been as emotionally impacted by the beauty and life of a film since every time I watch Beasts of the Southern Wild . 10. Dune: Part One DUUUUUUUUUUNE!!! The sweet, sweet boy Denis Villeneuve continues to inject arthouse sensibilities into modern IP-driven blockbuster tentpoles, and the mofo is evolving with every entry. Where Arrival was very much an arthouse movie with blockbuster sensibilities, and Blade Runner 2049 was a blockbuster with a MASSIVE amount of arthouse DNA, Dune finds the middle ground between these two highly different approaches to movie making and visual storytelling. Although its patience and contemplations on theme can feel a bit out of line with the massive scope of the thing, I found those shifts in mood highly engaging, letting me be equal parts shocked and awed by the world and effects, while also giving me some good brain food to turn over and over throughout the film. “A cool movie that’s also a very smart film and is made by loads of professionals,” should be a new genre unto its own that only Villeneuve can officially work in. 9. The Souvenir Part II The Souvenir Part II is a deconstructionist approach to how the act of making movies has certain rules, and in turn, comments on how there are rules to watching a movie as an audience, and simultaneously asks of both: Why? It’s a movie that is equally an ode to the healing power and maddening turmoil of creating art, as it is a continuation of a tale of grief, regret, and the seemingly eternal inability to be content. But even more powerfully, Part II continues the dramatized journey of Honor Swinton Byrne’s Julie, as well as the creative journey of director Joanna Hogg and Swinton Byrne herself. Shot in a truly unorthodox manner of practically zero prep or typical pre-production planning, Hogg and her cast and crew create something that at once feels alive and real, yet still artificial in all the ways a movie should feel. 8. The Worst Person in the World The Worst Person in the World creates an insatiable longing for a kind of freedom that just may not have ever existed. Vigorously shot and painfully acted, the movie balances its heightened qualities with the reality of its specifics, creating an unnerving want for everything to work out for everyone while also firmly making the viewer understand that that’s just not going to be possible here. I'm not the first to say it, and it's honestly a bit hyperbolic even for me, but it bears repeating: An Instant Classic. 7. Shiva Baby Emma Saligman does everything right in a movie that is as tense and uncomfortable as it is side-splittingly hilarious. It was another very early 2021 watch, which I was so happy to be able to showcase at Story Screen Beacon Theater, as I was already a fan of Saligman without even knowing it. Only days before finally watching Shiva Baby , I discovered Saligman had directed the short film, Void , which I very, very much dug a few years ago when it was running around the world wide web. The technical craft, subtle to extreme lighting techniques, and ability to build and release tension to a fully Hitchcockian level are as present as ever in Saligman’s debut feature. I cannot wait to see what she, as well as actor, Rachel Sonnet, has coming next, because both of their talents are immediately unique and impossible to forget. 6. Bo Burnham: Inside art /ärt/ noun : the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. Inside is something extremely special for a practically endless amount of reasons, some having to do with the level of creative ingenuity and craft involved with its production and editing, and some having to do with just how royally messed up the whole world was just as it was released. Do you remember in The Princess Bride when Westley says he built up a tolerance to iocane powder, the colorless, odorless, and deadly poison, by drinking a little for two years, therefore becoming seemingly invincible against its fatal effects? That’s what Inside is like in relation to the poison that was the total collapse of civilization for several months. A time where the only relative semblance of normalcy was found in sitting on the couch every night and watching movies, or in the case of Inside , experiencing art in its most textbook definition. 5. The Green Knight The Green Knight is a glorious adventure that both challenges and delights just about any viewer, which is why you’ll see a lot of people who were super psyched about The Snyder Cut saying this movie was boring and confusing because they’re numbskulls who think saturation, monochromatic filtering and a 4:3 aspect ratio for no reason whatsoever are artistic. To those lovely darlings, I say with as much respect as I can: “You’re not supposed to be here. I don’t think this one had your name on it, dawg.” David Lowery has been a fave of mine ever since 2009’s St. Nick , and with later entries like Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story , it has become a standard excitement for me whenever a new project of his is announced. He’s a fun creator to follow as he tends to operate both in indie, arthouse ventures as well as big studio numbers (his next film is the live-action Peter Pan movie, Peter Pan & Wendy ). In The Green Knight , much in the same way Villeneuve perfected an artistic algorithm with Dune , Lowery has included the stunningly dynamic visuals of his larger works with the deliciously atmospheric tone and vibe of his smaller, more internally-driven pieces, and what we are given in the end is nothing short of magical. 4. The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) The Hand of God is a coming-of-age tale, masterfully executed through Paolo Sorrentino's usual flair for amazing characters, both big and small, with the patience of an absolute genius who fully understands the dynamic between cinema and audience. While I wouldn't QUITE place this film craft-wise above my current favorite of the director's, The Great Beauty , it's got way more to offer me in terms of content. I found some of the musings on death, regret, mental illnesses, and the freeing power of cinema (as both art and escape) to be fully overwhelming, an effect I'm sure ya boi Paolo intended. 3. The Novice With elements that recalled (but never imitated) Julia Ducournau’s own trip to college, Raw , The Novice is equally accomplished and shows a level of talent both in front of and behind the camera that should make even the most skeptical critic excited about the next projects from this crew. It is raw, painful, tragic, grueling, and all the more beautiful for these reasons. This was an early one I caught at Tribeca in 2021 and was hands down the one film I caught that really got me excited for a release. After nearly a year of yelling about this movie to anyone who would listen, I gave it another watch to see just where it would land on my list and I am happy to report that the only two movies I couldn’t put it above happen to be the two movies that I just could not believe when I watched them. 2. West Side Story Steven Spielberg has always wanted to do a musical, as far back as his insane run in the 80s, something I’ve noted from time to time in my retrospective article series on the director’s filmography, Movie Daddy (which you can check out on our Exclusive Content blog here ). The Beard’s usual tenacity for dramatic execution, mixed with the incomparable style that he’s honed and evolved with over 50 years of filmmaking, is perfectly suited for the genre’s expected panache. Not only does West Side Story not disappoint, it blows expectations out of the water on just about every front the classic remake had against it. The relocation of certain scenes to different settings, the change in dialogue and remixing of the music, not to mention the absolutely unbelievable new choreography from Justin Peck, all added together with Spielberg’s instinctual talent for capturing motion in a cinematic language everyone can speak, create a monumental experience that I could watch again and again and again. And I will. West Side Story is not only one of the best films of the year, it’s one of the best films Spielberg has ever made. 1. Pig Pig is a movie soaked in tropes from five different genres, yet it’s still completely original in both its theory and (so much more importantly) its execution. It’s a revenge tale that centers around the meaninglessness of all. A friggin’ fat-free fable. The restaurant industry stuff in the film is obviously sublime and very affecting for anyone who has worked in kitchens or has a deep connection with the act of preparing and cooking food for others. I’ve worked in the Back of House industry for many years, from dishwashing to line cooking to managing, and the glamour and shame of the entire process as presented here really connected with me, mainly due to its heightened reality of a world that is pretty dang gnarly. I’ve had unbelievably talented, yet woefully depressed, professionals teach me the basics (and finer ideas) on cooking, and it was a rollercoaster of emotions watching these sentiments be so thoroughly explored and appreciated for the depth they hold. Pig is a film about loss, about wealth, about skill, about love, about life itself, and the meaning we find in the moments we claim to call our own. It’s also about the meaninglessness we can’t help but think looms over everything we do professionally. It’s a tricky and very specific feeling to tap into, and it’s one that most people, regardless of their history of working in the service industry in any capacity, can connect with. We all know what it’s like to fail and fake it til you make it, to have what feels like the entire world against you, and Pig mines this knowledge in its audience to create something wholly bleak yet undeniably beautiful, allowing a route to the soul to contemplate its even heavier, existential ideas. Nicolas Cage gives one of his most poignant performances, containing an irresistible sadness that recalls his Oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas , but also pitted in the same lane of heightened, self-aware genre work that he has become so known for in the past decade. It’s a truly extraordinary piece of acting, and just one of the many, many things about this movie that I love with every fiber of my being. We don’t get a lot of things to really care about, but I very much really care about this movie. There were so many great movies this year that I can’t even bring myself to type an honorable mentions list. That shit would be too long, dude. But if there’s a movie (or movies!) that you enjoyed that you’d like to hear if I loved it, hit the comments and I’ll let ya know!! Big promise. Mike Burdge Editor-in-Chief Founder of and programmer for Story Screen. Lover of stories and pizza in the dark. When he isn't watching movies, you can find him reading things about people watching movies. He currently resides in Poughkeepsie, NY, and most assuredly is going through a French Connection phase.

I watched 23 movies this year. Well, our television can be seen from the computer desk, so a more accurate statement would be: I was in the room while my wife watched 23 movies this year. These are my favorites. 10. The Humans I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the camerawork from this film, such as the lingering closeups of leaky pipes and dirty windows. Bernadette tells me that those shots were a clever way to evoke the set of a stage since this was adapted from a play, but they just gave me: “film student with their first camera” vibes. That said, the cast’s portrayal of family conflict at a less-than-ideal Thanksgiving dinner was gripping. Also, I finally caught a Feebas in Pokémon Shining Pearl while watching this, so it makes the list. 9/8. (tie) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings / Spider-Man: No Way Home (Spoilers!) These two movies are great examples of how much fun the superhero genre can be. While both boasted really exciting and unique fight scenes, the supporting cast members were my favorite parts. As someone who grew up loving the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man, No Way Home’s reunion episode was a real nostalgia bomb. I could watch a whole movie of various human spiders just hanging out, shooting the shit about Spidey stuff. And in Shang-Chi , Katy is the supportive best friend who suddenly finds herself wrapped up in an origin story. While this itself is nothing new, Awkwafina’s hilarious portrayal makes Katy the most relatable character in the MCU. 7. No Time to Die I’m a huge James Bond fan and I especially loved Daniel Craig in the role. High points of No Time to Die include Ana de Armas being a total badass, Bond exploding a henchman’s eye, and Rami Malek being a total weirdo. This was a fitting sendoff. 6. @Zola I was on the couch doing some virtual window shopping for bike parts when Bernadette rewatched @Zola , and I found it hard to focus on anything but the movie. I really enjoyed how Janicza Bravo used non-musical sounds to build suspense, like the ambiguous implications of phone notifications, or some kids passing a basketball to the rhythm of a heartbeat. This tension was often diffused by Zola’s past-tense narration, which provided the perfect amount of comedic relief to the very serious situations she was experiencing. All in all, this movie was quite the trip. 5. The Mitchells vs the Machines Speaking of trips, a zany family saves the world while on a family vacation in The Mitchells vs the Machines . There are some great lessons in this movie about the fakeness of social media, learning to trust, and the sacrifices we make for those we love. The writers/directors, Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe, previously worked on the creative team for Gravity Falls . For fans of the series, it's no surprise their first full-length film was a real banger. Throw in a score by Mark Mothersbaugh and you really can’t go wrong. 4. The Green Knight This ain't yer pappy’s Arthurian legend. David Lowery’s heady interpretation is a slow burn full of suspense. Dev Patel is a treat to watch as Gawain, who finds himself in many “sticky” situations on his quest, all of which challenge him to consider what kind of person he is and what kind of a person he wants to be. 3. The French Dispatch Some people really love Wes Anderson movies and some really don’t. I do, and this is peak Wes Anderson. The French Dispatch is a product of impeccable attention to detail, it seems almost necessary to rewatch just to catch everything that's going on in the background. But even with a single viewing, it was such a delightful movie that I don’t care how much went over my head. 2. Dune I loved Blade Runner 2049, so I’ve been hyped for Dune since it was announced. I didn’t get around to reading the book until after seeing it, and that ended up being for the better. Denis Villeneuve lets the absolutely gorgeous cinematography tell much of the story, setting the mood and scope with epic shots rather than relying so heavily on inner dialogue. He also trusts the audience to notice things and draw their own conclusions. So far, I think Villeneuve is telling the story better than Frank Herbert. 1. Don’t Look Up If Adam McKay leaned into the “reality is stranger than fiction” trope with The Big Short and Vice , he took it to the next level with Don’t Look Up . It’s unreal how this movie got more believable the more absurd it got. It’s also stuck with me longer than any other movie this year; I just can’t stop thinking about it. I mean, why would the general charge for those snacks? Heath White Heath graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2011 with a music education degree he's not currently using. He constantly interrupts Bernadette Gorman-White's consumption of television and film to ask, "Wait, what's going on?". He doesn't use social media, and will not tell you his Reddit username.

In the past, the films that typically end up on my “Best Of” list tend to be the ones that hit me like a gut punch. I am finding, however, that they are also the ones that quietly keep popping up in the back of my mind long after I have finished watching them. Whether happy or sad (or even disturbing), there’s something in them that I keep seeing over and over - a performance, a set-piece, a costume, maybe just one scene or interaction between characters in particular - but there’s always something. It is always difficult for me to whittle down the list of movies I saw in the past year but that’s what I decided to do. Sort of. Call me a cheater, but before we get down to the nitty-gritty of my top 20, let’s go through more than a few honorable mentions. Enjoy, friends. Honorable Mentions for 2021: The Harder They Fall (Available on Netflix) Damnnnnnnnnnnn. Thank you, Jeymes Samuel! Samuel wrote, directed, and curated the soundtrack for this awesome western with an amazing cast. Samuel worked with Baz Luhrmann and Jay Z as the music director on the 2013 film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and I think some of Luhrmann’s style rubbed off on him (in a great way). The Paper Tigers (Available on Netflix) What happens when martial arts prodigies grow up? They get lame jobs and start pulling hamstrings. But when their old master is murdered, they are called back to honor him and investigate what happened. This movie is really really fun. The stunts and fight sequences are super cool. The characters are endearing and hilarious. This is just an all-around good time to watch. Together Together (Available on Hulu) Patti Harrison and Ed Helms have such great chemistry in this film by Nikole Beckwith. I loved that it provided a story that really dealt with a relationship that was not romantic but still just as life-changing and important for both people involved. Saint Maud and In the Earth (Available on Hulu & Amazon Prime) Spooky time. In Saint Maud, Morfydd Clark is Maud, a pious hospice nurse who becomes obsessed with saving the soul of her patient, played by Jennifer Ehle. Written and directed by Rose Glass, this is her first full-length feature and it is a doozy. Maud might be talking to God. She might also be completely losing her mind. You be the judge. It’s terrifying either way. On the flip side, established director Ben Wheatley’s latest, In the Earth , is equally strange and terrifying. It follows a scientist and a park ranger as they search for another missing scientist DURING A PANDEMIC while the world searches for a cure to the virus. Too close to home? Um, yeah. This film takes sound editing to another level and will make you rethink taking that camping trip (at least for a little while). MARVEL for the Win (FYI: CONTAINS SPOILERS) - (Just sign up for Disney+ already) Black Widow Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Spider-Man: No Way Home It’s nuts how “normal” it has become to expect a Marvel movie every year at this point. While Black Widow should have been made BEFORE killing off its main character from the franchise (in my opinion), I still really really enjoyed it. It gave us a chance to see Natasha Romanoff have her own family, one that included Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, and the show-stealing Florence Pugh, as her “sister” Yelena. I knew almost nothing about the comic book character Shang-Chi, but watching that first fight scene on a bus in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings while being back in a movie theater again was all it took to get me hooked. Simu Liu, Awkwafina and Benedict Wong doing karaoke together is a scene for the ages. But then there’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, a film that delivered on so many levels. If you haven’t seen it yet, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? No Way Home delivered as a cap to the Spider-Man “Home” trilogy, but it proved to also be a solid finale to the previous Spider-Man franchises as well. It went full force on the emotional nostalgia-fest in a way that I had no idea that I needed, but it managed to pull off performances and character arcs for almost all of its many cameos. I’ve already seen it a second time and I know it will be one of the Marvel films I will revisit most in the years to come. Mandibles (Available for rent on Amazon Prime) Jean-Gab and Manu are two friends who are not the brightest individuals. When they steal a car for a petty crime job they are flabbergasted when they find a larger-than-life-sized fly alive in the trunk. Manu convinces Jean-Gab that they should feed and train the giant fly. Ya know, so they can use it to help them rob banks and get rich. Quentin Dupieux cast comedians David Marsais and Grégoire Ludig (known in France for their sketch-comedy show “Palmashow”) as Jean-Gab and Manu in this buddy-comedy of errors. What surprised me was how the film ends up being incredibly moving as well. I know it sounds really weird. It is. Just trust me on this one. Watch it. Mass (Available on Amazon Prime) Mass is really a masterclass in acting. Fran Kranz makes his directorial debut in this film featuring two sets of parents meeting long after a horrible school incident. Ann Dowd alone is worth the watch, but Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton are fantastic too. Just when you think the film could end, it doesn’t, which seems much like the experience these parents are going through. No Man of God (Available on Amazon Prime) You would think all of these films with small casts set in mostly one location would be boring but this one is intense. Luke Kirby plays serial killer Ted Bundy, while Elijah Wood portrays Bill Hagmaier, the FBI analyst who spent years interviewing him during his time on death row. Limbo (Available on HBOMax) In another excellent feature-length debut, Ben Sharrock writes and directs a film about a group of refugees waiting to be granted asylum. While they wait, they are given temporary housing on a remote island off of Scotland. Amir El-Masry is Omar, a Syrian refugee who carries an oud (a Middle Eastern stringed instrument) with him wherever he goes but never seems to play it. His flatmates are two brothers, Wasef and Abedi (Ola Orebiyi and Kwabena Ansah), and the charismatic Farhad (Vikash Bhai). Omar spends a significant amount of time in the film essentially being shut off from those around him so when he finally reacts with full emotion in the latter part of the story it is quite jarring. Minari and Nomadland (Minari is available on Amazon Prime; Nomadland available on Hulu) Both Minari and Nomadland made the festival and award show circuits back in 2020, with Yuh-jung Youn winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Minari and Nomadland director Chloé Zhao winning both Best Picture and Best Director (if you have not seen Zhao’s film The Rider yet, go watch that right now). Both films were not widely released, however, until 2021, and they were two of the films that got me through those especially bleak early winter months despite watching them at home vs. in a theater. Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari, tells the tale of a Korean-American family that moves to Arkansas to follow the American dream. It stars (among several other excellent actors) the amazing Steven Yeun ( The Walking Dead, Burning) , and the aforementioned Yuh-jung Youn as a fiery grandma. My own grandma was a card player who liked to drive with a lead foot and yell frequently, so Minari definitely hits home for me. It's also got one of my favorite scores of all of the films I saw in 2020/2021. Bravo, Emile Mosseri. In Nomadland, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van after the death of her husband and the financial collapse of the small Nevada town where she used to live. She takes to the road, working seasonal and temporary jobs as a modern-day nomad. While both films’ stories can be sad, they are also extremely cathartic. Each film deals with themes of loss and a struggle to find a home of one’s own - whether that be on a farm in Arkansas during the 80s, or in a suped-up van riding across America’s highways and byways. In both movies, it turns out that home is more who you are with than any actual specific place, and sometimes we have to experience tremendous loss before we are ready to truly open ourselves up to change. If you missed either of these films, I highly recommend watching them. And if you’ve seen them a while back, I definitely recommend a rewatch. They hold up, and then some. The Father (Available on Starz, Vudu, Amazon Prime) This film also got its wide release in the US in February of 2021, so despite Anthony Hopkins already winning an Oscar in a surprise upset, I am going to plug it again here. This film is GREAT. GREATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. I mean how many more amazeballs performances does Hopkins have left in him? Who knows? But this performance is incredible. My sweet sweet Olivia Colman again truly delivers. She shines as brightly as she can as Anne, a daughter dealing with her father’s dementia while trying to rectify living her own life. The movie is as gripping and disorienting as any psychological thriller, but it is also heartbreaking. I can’t recommend this one enough. Oh yeah, Imogen Poots is pretty great in it too. For more on The Father and a review of a couple of other films in a similar vein, check out my article “ Dealing with Dementia .” I know I took my sweet time getting here. So, let's get on with my top twenty films of 2021: 20) Monday (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) Monday is HOT. Starring Denise Gough and Sebastian Stan (in a decidedly non-superhero role), it centers around the relationship between two people who drunkenly meet one weekend and decide to use each other for a good time. The film could stop there but it doesn’t. It’s a leap of faith that they continue to stay together and take the next steps towards making a life together. Monday shows all of the joys and also all the messiness that comes with that decision. Sebastian Stan is beyond charming as Mickey in this film, but it is Denise Gough as Chloe who really steals the show. She struggles with her choices but she never gives up 19) Slalom / 18) The Novice (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) While these are very different movies, they have a kinship in that their main characters are trying to push themselves to be the best at their respective sports, no matter what the personal tolls. In the French film Slalom , the main character Lyz (Noée Abita) is a 15-year-old competitive skier who has recently been accepted into an elite club headed by the trainer, Fred (Jérémie Renier). Director Charlène Favier herself was a former skier. As Lyz improves and gains recognition among the team, she also gains the recognition of her trainer. The story is not surprising; it’s a familiar one: sexual abuse under the guise of mentorship. The fact that Favier’s film still holds your rapt attention is a testament to her directing and the compelling performances of its lead actors. In particular, it is Abita as Lyz, a girl relishing in the first instance of someone believing in her, and just beginning her own sexual awakening that makes her so complex. It’s a tough watch but it’s worth it. The Novice , by writer, director, and co-editor, Lauren Hadaway, is a different kind of panic attack of a film. Its main character, Alex (Isabelle Fuhrman), pushes herself to her breaking point to make the Varsity crew team. She embodies all of the traits that are so often celebrated in other films about male athletes. She is singular in her drive to succeed as a freshman rower to the point that it isolates her from the few relationships she has. Her counterpart on the team, Jamie (Amy Forsyth), is the more natural athlete, who actually needs an athletic scholarship to stay at their college. Jamie provides the moving target for which Alex is always aiming. While Fuhrman’s performance alone is enough to recommend this film, The Novice is special because of all of the other aspects that Hadaway combines to make this such a tense thriller about, well, rowing. Hadaway was the sound editor on Whiplash, another film about the extent someone is willing to push themselves. Her use of sound makes the film almost horror-like at times while giving the audience surreal sequences to bring us into its main character’s state of mind. 17) Passing (Available on Netflix) I was pretty intrigued by Rebecca Hall’s foray into directing with Passing. Adapted from Nella Larson’s novel and shot in black and white, it stars Tessa Thompson (Irene) and Ruth Negga (Clare) as two old friends who reconnect after years apart. Both now lead very different lives. While Irene has become an activist and well-respected member of the Black community, Clare has been “passing” for White. This is a bit of a slow burn film, but when all of the pressure finally culminates, it explodes. This one definitely kicked around in my brain for a long while after watching it. I highly recommend it. (P.S. André Holland and Bill Camp are pretty awesome in their supporting roles as well). 16) I Carry You With Me (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) Armando Espitia and Christian Vazquez portray the younger versions of the real-life, Iván and Gerardo, in this part narrative, part documentary film about two men who fall in love in Mexico shortly before one leaves to cross the border into the United States and pursue his dream of becoming a chef. There are so many Queer films that are sad and this story is not without loss. But I Carry You With Me does a beautiful job of weaving together memories of love, family, and home with real footage of its actual storytellers. It was unexpected and hopeful. Despite being a film about two Mexican men, it is clearly an American tale. 15) Ema (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) Pablo Larraín’s film, Ema, is a wild ride. It’s full of amazing dance sequences, pyromania, a lot of arguing, and lots and lots of sex. Somewhere amidst all of that action is a story about a mother trying to get back her adoptive son after returning him to the orphanage. The captivating Ema is played by Mariana Di Girólamo. Gael García Bernal plays her much older choreographer husband and damn, he has never looked so awesome. At one point Ema tells one of her lovers, “When you know what I’m doing and why, you will be horrified.” She’s right. 14) Together (Available on Hulu) James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan star in this film about a couple and their son coping during the COVID-19 lockdown in London. Directed by Stephen Daldry ( Billy Elliott, The Hours), the film feels like real life while also maintaining the feeling of watching a story play out. It captures both the ridiculous and the legitimate struggles of being stuck at home with the ones we love, and all of the ways that we treat each other, for better or worse. McAvoy’s performance is incredible. Seeing the performers stripped down to normal clothes, gray hair, and one set, really let them shine. 13) Language Lessons (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) Natalie Morales knocks it out of the park with Language Lessons. (She also directed the hilarious Plan B in 2021, available on Hulu). Language Lessons was shot during the pandemic, starring Morales and Mark Duplass as teacher and student. Despite the physical distance between them in the film, they still have such great chemistry. This movie is sincere and emotional. It deals with grief and loss and trust and friendship. Duplass is fantastic. I loved seeing him give such a sincere performance. I hope he takes on more roles like his character, Adam, in the future. Morales is an adept performer and is proving to be a great writer and director as well. 12) I’m Your Man (Available on Hulu and Amazon Prime) Dan Stevens performs a role that could have been “lifeless,” and does the complete opposite with it. Maren Eggert plays Alma, a researcher participating in a 3-week study with Tom (Stevens), the humanoid robot, tailor-made to make her happy. I expected this German film (that’s right, Dan Stevens in German) to be quirky, funny even, but what I didn’t expect was for it to be so heartfelt and beautiful. Much of that is thanks to Stevens’ performance. Go watch it. 11) Pig (Available on Hulu and Amazon Prime) Have you seen Pig ? Did you expect it to be like John Wick , with Nicolas Cage going after the people that stole his beloved companion? Well, it’s not John Wick. But it is incredible. Cage’s performance is understated, a slow burn that envelopes the likes of Alex Wolff (this kid is making all the right role choices) and Adam Arkin, cooking them alive into a stew of emotions without them even noticing. Pig speaks to the restaurant industry, but also to grief and life as a whole. It is a lesson in how we often compromise our true passions to succeed, and how we celebrate those same individuals, but at what cost? 10) West Side Story (2021) - (In theaters) I grew up watching the 1961 film West Side Story on a regular basis with my mom. It was a little while before I understood that Natalie Wood (Maria) was actually lip-singing. Nevertheless, it was the music of Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim, combined with the story of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet,” that kept me coming back for rewatch after rewatch. I never really loved Natalie Wood's Maria. I was ALWAYS more drawn to Anita (Rita Moreno). She was fiery, beautiful, sassy, and her dancing was AWESOME. I wanted to be her, not Maria. My mom’s family is half Puerto Rican, half Colombian. I have always felt sort of not quite Latina enough, but I have always been intrigued by that part of my culture. My mom loves musicals and grew up loving the ‘61 West Side Story despite its flaws. When I heard Stephen Spielberg was going to direct a reboot, I’ll admit, I had my doubts. As soon as I finished watching Spielberg’s West Side Story, I wanted to watch it again. I fully admit I had no knowledge of the allegations of sexual misconduct against leading actor, Ansel Elgort (playing Tony) when I initially watched the film. That indeed sours the experience after the fact. I want to give validity to the gravity of those accusations, but I also want to express just HOW GOOD EVERYONE ELSE IS IN THE FILM. I hope that Rachel Zegler (Maria), David Alvarez (Bernardo), Mike Faist (Riff), and ESPECIALLY Ariana DeBose (Anita), will go on to have illustrious careers, either in film or on the stage. They were all fantastic. So was seeing a cast of Latinx performers. Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay for Spielberg’s adaptation and it really shows. And Rita Moreno comes back as both an executive producer and performer (Valentina, the replacement for the 1961 character, Doc). Rita Moreno is 90 years old and she still has a great voice! I hope despite the controversy of its lead actor that this film will still be celebrated for how fantastic it is. 9) The Worst Person in the World (Wide release in 2022) Norwegian director Joachim Trier co-wrote a deeply empathetic script with his regular collaborator Eskil Vogt about Julie (Renate Reinsve), a woman on the verge of turning 30 in Oslo, Norway. We watch Julie migrate from medicine to psychology, psychology to photography, etc. each time embracing a new partner in the process. When she finally meets Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie, who is also in 2021’s Bergman Island ), a comic book artist in his mid-forties, he tries to end their relationship prematurely by warning her that they are at different points in their lives. This only entices Julie more. We follow Julie’s trajectory as her relationship with Aksel deepens, they fight, they make up, and they discuss having children. Aksel’s comics gain more notoriety and Julie, feeling lost, meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) by chance at a party she crashes. They spend one long fantastic night getting to know each other but “not cheating,” before they part ways and return to their committed partners. I won’t tell you anything more. Trier and Vogt’s script, as well as the performances by all three main actors, are excellent, in particular, Reinsve, as the messy, indecisive, hilarious Julie. The film is both funny and poignant and its main character is so relatable because of (not in spite of) her flaws. 8) The Green Knight (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) Based on the 14th-century poem: “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” this movie is bonkers. David Lowery pulls from several genres to create an epic quest for a young brash man (Gawain played by the charismatic and hard to dislike Dev Patel). Gawain hopes to prove himself and be made one of King Arthur’s knights of the round table. Contrary to popular belief, this is not really an action tale. It’s a quest tale. There are strange mystical dream sequences, drug sequences, and animals speak (or do they?). Dev Patel does a much better job of getting the audience to like Gawain than most Arthurian legends do; normally, he’s kind of full of himself and not too bright. Visually this movie is stunning: the color palette is used again and again to great effect. This film isn’t resolved with a clear-cut ending. That may make some dislike it but I feel it’s all the better for being left open to interpretation. 7) Bo Burnham’s Inside (Available on Netflix) I debated with myself on whether this was a “film,” but Burnham’s special hit me so hard that I knew I had to include it. Burnham has already directed the very excellent Eighth Grade . It came as no surprise that his own special, crafted at home but not quite as bare-bones as he would have us imagine, (he wrote, scored, directed, and edited it himself) really hit the nail on the head during this crazy time to be alive. My favorite films find ways to make us laugh and yet still have moments of genuine poignancy. Inside will remain a time capsule for the experience of living through the pandemic for years to come, and yet, it speaks to so much more. 6) C’Mon C’Mon (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) “Over the years you will try to make sense of that happy, sad, full, empty, always-shifting life you are in.” -- Star Child by Claire A. Nivola I love writer/director Mike Mills. His bittersweet film, Beginners, is one of my all-time faves. In C’Mon C’Mon Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny, a radio journalist working on interviews of kids in various cities around the United States, asking them about their communities, their lives, and the future. It’s a great framework for the main plotline of the story: Johnny must help his sister, Viv (Gaby Hoffman) care for her 8-year-old son, Jesse, (newcomer Woody Norman) while she helps care for her mentally ill husband. Johnny is a bachelor who no doubt has been around a lot of kids, but never as a full-time primary caregiver. When he needs to proceed with his scheduled interviews he decides to take Jesse along for the ride - first to New York and later to New Orleans - all the while, navigating what it means to be a parent and reconnecting with his estranged sister. The film is shot in black and white which I think contributes to its sometimes dreamy contemplative quality. I think the thing I love most about Mike Mills’ work is that not a ton happens, but a ton happens. His work forces us to focus on the relationships in our lives and how they shape us. 5) Titane (Available on Vudu) Titane is loco in the coco. It’s definitely not for everyone. It is awesome. If you haven’t seen director Julia Ducournau’s previous film, Raw, do yourself a favor and go watch it. Now. Titane starts out as one thing, and just as you start to think you know what is going on, it completely changes. Vincent Lindon is INSANELY GOOD. Agathe Rousselle is just plain insane as Alexia. It has a fantastic dance scene using the song, “Light House,” by Future Islands (one of the highlights of the film by far). I don’t want to go into any more details for fear of spoiling this film. You just need to see it. 4) Nine Days (Available on Vudu and Amazon Prime) In Nine Days, Winston Duke plays Will, a man tasked with interviewing and screening souls for the chance to be born on Earth. If his candidates make it to the very end of the process it will take nine days. Edson Oda writes and directs this film with a stacked cast (Duke, Benedict Wong, Zazie Beetz, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård) and some lesser-known actors who absolutely steal the show at times (I’m looking at you, Arianna Ortiz). 3) The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) - (Available on Netflix) Paolo Sorrentino writes and directs a beautiful film that happens to also take place in very beautiful Italy. It stars Filippo Scotti as Fabietto, a high schooler in Naples who loves his family and is unsure of what he wants to do with his adult life until everything in his world changes. I loved watching the interactions between Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo, who play Fabietto’s parents. Their love was so admirable and their relationship was very real. When Fabietto’s older brother (played by Marlon Joubert) divulges that he doesn’t want to think about the future, he just wants to enjoy his summer, truer words were never spoken. This film is devastating and beautiful, but also extremely hopeful. 2) Drive My Car (Doraibu mai kâ) - (In theaters) Drive My Car is based on a short story by the author Haruki Murakami. Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi takes that short story and turns it into a film that’s almost three hours long. But in all honesty, I was so engrossed in the performances of Hidetoshi Nishijima (Yûsuke Kafuku) and Tôko Miura (Misaki Watari); I didn’t realize it was that long while I was watching it. Yûsuke learns that his wife is cheating on him but decides to ignore it. Shortly after, she dies. Rather than deal with his anger and grief, Yûsuke throws himself into his work, directing a performance of “Uncle Vanya,” in a remote part of Japan. The performance and the people he meets throughout the film slowly force him to deal with the death of his wife and her infidelity. There is real respect and appreciation between Yûsuke and Tôko, the young woman hired to be his driver during his theater residency. While she starts out the film practically silent, by the story’s end she has plenty to say. 1) The Souvenir Part II (Wide release in 2022) * The Souvenir is available on Vudu and Amazon Prime The Souvenir (Part I) was a rough watch. Joanna Hogg’s film centers around Julie, a young film student in the 80s played by Honor Swinton Byrne, who falls in love with Anthony (Tom Burke), an older, complicated, fairly untrustworthy guy. Turns out, he’s a heroin addict. The Souvenir Part II picks up directly where the events of the first film left off. It follows Julie, still reeling, from the events of The Souvenir. Now finishing up her time in film school, she must complete a final project before she graduates. In The Souvenir , Julie was full of promise, celebrated by her advisors and peers. In Part II, she is grieving, lost, and all over the place. She takes the direct events of her life story and funnels them into her graduation film project. Hogg takes us through the ups and downs of the filmmaking process as we go through the ups and downs of Julie’s emotional and mental health. In the process, Julie is trying to learn the truth about the man she loved, while also presenting her own truth of the experience itself. We are enveloped in the story just as much as we are in the process of making it. We watch as Julie literally makes herself sick with the filmmaking process. When we finally get a chance to view her film at the story’s climax, Hogg flips it on us so we can experience Julie’s own catharsis. We watch how film heals her, and us, through the process. Diana DiMuro Associate Editor Besides watching TV and movies, Diana likes plants, the great outdoors, drawing and reading comics, and just generally rocking out. She has a BA in English Literature and is an art school dropout. You can follow her on Instagram @dldimuro and Twitter @DianaDiMuro

Preference feeds identity, so a top ten list can be seen as a sort of flash-autobiography. 2021 has been a gradual, if incomplete, reawakening for the world. We’re all well-rested and more tired than ever. It feels like the year after –after the pandemic hit, after lockdown (jk), after beginning a reckoning about race in this country, after a crazy president (though he did have a wild cameo at the beginning of the sequel). I didn’t have a lot of patience for quiet contemplation last year and I found myself loving the Cruellas and Jungle Cruises of the year. There are movies on this list that helped me escape and reminded me of the adventures that the pandemic put on hold, and others that articulated things I didn’t know about myself. I’m thrilled that 2021 brought me into the Story Screen fam, and very excited to present my first official #topten. TEN: LUCA Screenplay by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, directed by Enrico Casarosa It’s not just that it’s about two boys and their intimate friendship, and it’s not just its resemblance to another film leading to the fantastic nickname Calamari Me By Your Name. What makes Luca a great piece of queer art is the story: hiding differences for fear of prejudice and violence. There are some raw moments of navigating unsafe spaces, or protecting yourself at the expense of others and vice versa, that have powerful truth to them. That other stuff just sweetens the deal. NINE: TICK, TICK… BOOM! Screenplay by Steven Levenson, directed by Lin-Manual Miranda I was a theater kid in the late ‘90s, so Jonathan Larson’s RENT meant a lot to me growing up. Tick, Tick… BOOM! started out as a “solo rock monologue” that Larson would perform around town; it was autobiographical in content and talked about turning 30 while not having achieved the success he was reaching for. After his death, playwright David Auburn reworked the piece into a 3-person Off-Broadway musical using material from the original piece as well as other songs Larson had written. Now, Steven Levenson has done another round of the same thing, to even better results. The film manages to avoid the couple of clunkers in the stage show while working in great songs I’d never heard before. As time passes and the story becomes more and more of a period piece, the new script does a great job of providing context to a wider audience. I seem to be the only one who’s not crazy about Andrew Garfield in this (I think a tried and true musical theater performer would have felt less performative in the role), he does just fine and the story comes through, along with the always welcome message to keep going. EIGHT: RED ROCKET Screenplay by Chris Bergoch and Sean Baker, directed by Sean Baker Sean Baker is a master at lacing a tragedy with humor galore, as he proves again here. Simon Rex, oozing pretty boy confidence that’s hard to resist, is the perfect choice for Mikey, an aging porn actor coming home to rural Texas for a lack of opportunity to do anything else. This, like Baker’s other work, is an amazing opportunity to spend a couple of hours with a group of very real people who many won’t come across in a lifetime. The situations are mostly bleak, but the film finds humor in everything, making watching Red Rocket a bittersweet joy. SEVEN: DRIVE MY CAR Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi Drive My Car is a three-hour meditation on the volume at which people live their lives. Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Yusuke Kafuku, a married actor who lives quietly. Watching him interact with others, challenging them, and finally challenging himself, is painfully beautiful in this exquisite film. A viewer must be ready for a film, and I was not ready for this one. As I said, I haven’t had a lot of patience in the past year for slow-moving films, and so enjoying this one was a bit of a challenge for me, though no fault of the film’s. I hope the fact that the film made this list speaks for itself, and I look forward to encountering it again when I’m more ready for it. SIX: C’MON C’MON Written and directed by Mike Mills I really thought this wasn’t going to be for me in the first fifteen minutes of this film: its narration and cinematography felt pretentious and navel-gazing in ways I couldn’t get past. But the more relentless thing in C’mon C’mon is its heart, embodied by all three of the leads. Full of mistakes and forgiveness and viewed through a kid’s eyes, this movie melted me as it melted its protagonists. Joaquin Phoenix once again excels at presenting an innocent, damaged man who learned how to get older without ever really growing up, and Woody Norman is terrific as a strange, sensitive soul trying to grow through the trauma of family life. FIVE: JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Screenplay by Will Berson and Shaka King, directed by Shaka King This pressure cooker of a movie tells a story that I regret to say I didn’t know, about Black Panther leader Fred Hampton’s rise and William O’Neal’s betrayal of him. Such a heavy story is always in danger of becoming a Very Important Movie and turning into spinach, but Shaka King’s bold direction keeps things moving, interesting, and entertaining. A fantastic ensemble cast led by Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield ground the movie while the writing and direction have fun but never lets up. The biblical lens adds to the mythos of the story in FOUR: CANDYMAN Screenplay by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and Nia DaCosta; directed by Nia DaCosta This legacy sequel gives the Candyman franchise not just more nuanced and explored ideas about race and violence, but also about art, fame, exploitation, and police brutality. Early on, the film makes you wonder if it’s going to be a reboot, but it eventually ties back in with the original films in ways that are smart, insightful, and exciting. It’s also a visual feast, featuring some amazing shadow puppetry to communicate exposition in gorgeous ways. THREE: WEST SIDE STORY Screenplay by Tony Kushner, directed by Steven Spielberg The new West Side Story takes what many point to as the pinnacle of musical theater – the high watermark of combining music, dance, and drama to tell a compelling story – and has the gall to improve upon it. The work that Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg did is truly amazing, going moment by moment through the original play, fleshing out existing scenes, finding essential moments skimmed over in the original, putting songs into new contexts that activate them further, and transforming the archetypes of the original piece into fully dimensional characters. The cast is great across the board, the music sounds fantastic (though one of my few complaints is the overuse of autotune), and the movement! In the original film, you can feel the story code-switch as it goes into storytelling through dance; in the remake, choreographer Justin Peck takes original director/choreographer Jerome Robbins’s moves and integrates them with the everyday movements of the characters, so that when people start snapping, it somehow feels natural as opposed to a high style choice. The ways in which “One Hand, One Heart,” “Gee, Officer Krupke,” and “Cool,” are reframed continue to leave me giddy. Kushner’s context and Spielberg’s visuals take this masterpiece to new heights, and I can’t think of a film adaptation of a musical better than this. TWO: ZOLA Screenplay by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris, directed by Janicza Bravo I missed Aziah "Zola" King’s original Twitter thread when it took the internet by storm in 2015, which meant I had the enviable experience of surprise after surprise in this wild ride of a film. King’s storytelling is stylish, visceral, often hilarious, and totally unique, and Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris take that and run with it to create the most exciting cinematic vocabulary of the year. It’s a young-sexy-people-getting-into-trouble-and-adventure movie, cut from the same cloth as Go , which is a huge compliment in my book. The thing that takes it from good to great, though, is its relentless style, always entertaining while supporting the story. Special shout-out to the score and sound design that keep momentum, suspense, and comedy always marching forward. It’s not too long and full of suspense. ONE: INSIDE Written and directed by Bo Burnham Before Inside, I had a vague impression of Bo Burnham as a clever, if fame-seeking, YouTube musical comic who turned in a great performance in last year’s Promising Young Woman . Whatever judgment someone has about him coming into this movie is immediately neutralized and overshadowed by his own self-hatred, existing right alongside his arrogance and self-awareness. After swearing off performing to prioritize his mental health, Burnham spent the first months of the pandemic writing, directing, and starring in what starts out as a musical comedy special and ends up as an exploration and deconstruction of whiteness, maleness, millennials, consumerists, and so many other things that were put into slow cookers in March of 2020. The movie articulates loneliness, frustration, narcissism, and helplessness that I wasn’t even aware was a part of my pandemic experience. And it dropped when most folks were still in some version of lockdown, marrying the discovery of the piece to the piece itself. Most movies should be seen in a theater; this one is best experienced while being stuck in your house, cripplingly alone. RUNNERS-UP (in alphabetical order): Don’t Look Up, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, In The Heights, Last Night in Soho, Macbeth, Malignant, Pig, A Quiet Place Part II, Raya and the Last Dragon, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Sparks Brothers, Summer of Soul HOTTIE OF THE YEAR: Daniel Durant, CODA Scotty Arnold Musical theater writer, lover of bright colors and chocolate, dog dad to Parmesan. Scotty lives in a cabin in Fishkill spending winters wondering why he ever moved from California and playing in the snow. scottyarnold.com

Bernadette Gorman-White chats it up with guest, Scotty Arnold, about all the things spooky and cool in the first season of the nightmarishly entertaining Showtime original series, Yellowjackets . Listen on....

Another year in pandemic land down, eh? Another year where I'm grateful for movies as a means of escapism. I'm even more grateful for them now, as the film industry landscape continues to change and be impacted by ongoing uncertainty. There were a lot of releases this year that I've been eagerly anticipating for a very long time, and I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to see most of them in a theater. Some of my favorites were reflective of the process of creating and experiencing art in itself. Some of them were about learning to accept reality and live on with failures and hardships. But all of them transported me to another place, made me feel something different, and helped distract me from general pandemic malaise. Here's a list of my ten favorites that hit me the hardest. Honorable mentions: Licorice Pizza, Zola, In the Earth, The Last Duel 10. Bad Trip This was easily the hardest I’ve laughed at a movie all year. Probably the most I’ve laughed at a movie in many years. I’ve been a fan of Eric Andre’s style of crass, bonkers absurdist comedy for a long time, but the challenge of translating something that works at eleven minutes at a time to a feature-length movie is no joke. I think Andre and Kitao Sakurai pulled it off brilliantly with a blend of guerilla stunt work and traditional narrative that created something truly special. Part Jackass, part buddy movie, Bad Trip incorporates incidental real-life people into its story in a way that makes them naturally feel like core characters. There are moments here that are hard to believe happened without a script, but it’s heartwarming and funny to see regular everyday people step up when presented with the outlandish scenarios Andre puts them in. It’s also just a great comedy with fantastic chemistry between Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish. In a year where it felt like good comedies were few and far between, Bad Trip really stood out. 9. Mad God Phil Tippet’s Mad God has been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. The animation master’s personal project has been in development for 30 years, which is clearly evident by the sheer amount of detail on display. Tippet has created a rich tapestry of nightmare imagery dripping with atmosphere and malice. The story is told almost entirely visually, forgoing a traditional narrative in favor of an abstract and interpretive one. Tippet achieves a vision of a hellish landscape that reflects the darkest and most sadistic reflection of humanity. It’s incredibly impressive and novel to see so much creative and inspired hand animation used in a horror film. It feels more like an experience than a movie, one that I can’t wait to relive once it gets a wider release. 8. Drive My Car Drive My Car was the most hauntingly beautiful and meditative movie I saw all year. Murakami is one of my favorite authors, and Drive My Car perfectly captures the most introspective and pensive aspects of his work. It’s a movie that requires a lot of patience, especially with its nearly three-hour run time, but is consequently so rewarding. Despite its impressive length, I felt completely immersed throughout. It’s the kind of film that I needed a long, quiet car journey home from the theater to reflect upon. Which ironically is what this movie is all about. Long drives are often my favorite place to think, and I connected with the way the film uses the automobile as a vessel for self-reflection . Drive My Car is impeccably shot and wonderfully written, and probably the most objectively well-crafted movie on this list. 7. Pig It turns out that revenge might actually be a dish best served with love and an impeccable wine pairing. Nic Cage has been on somewhat of a roll lately, with Mandy taking the number one stop on my list of favorites from 2018. And while I think Cage is fantastic as a manic, drug-addled killer on a rampage for revenge, it’s so refreshing to see him get a chance to take on a more reserved and patient role with Pig . This film subverts the violence typically found on a quest for vengeance with a contemplative journey on what it means to be an artist and a creator. Cage is completely dialed in as a man who has completely retreated from the world of his former career but is dragged back in by events outside of his control. It’s almost like the anti-John Wick. It’s also probably the most I’ve cried during a movie this year, with a couple of stand-out scenes that were so melancholy and beautiful that I could barely keep it together in the theater. 6. Shiva Baby Watching Shiva Baby is a lot like experiencing a second-hand panic attack in real-time. The tight spaces and close talking is reminiscent of the kind of deeply uncomfortable family gathering most people can probably relate to. It’s the kind of social horror that’s so effective in movies like Krisha or Uncut Gems . What made Shiva Baby stand out for me is that it combines this suffocating feeling with a dry sense of humor that prevents the sensation from becoming too overwhelming. Rachel Sennott is a standout lead here and feels instantly familiar as an aimless twenty-something crushed by the weight of her family's expectations. Her parents, played by Polly Draper and Fred Melamed, also deserve a shout-out as equally hilarious supporting characters. It's a movie that twists the knife of anxiety throughout but peppers in just enough comedy and sweetness to keep you hooked. 5. Titane Sometimes in order to truly appreciate nice things we have to endure painful things. Such is the dynamic that makes Titane really stand out. It features some of the most wince-inducing ouchie moments I’ve seen in a while, and more tension than any other horror movie of 2021. But it counters those moments with a story about transformation and acceptance that is deeply warm and moving. Yes, it's infamously a movie about a woman who fucks a car, but it's also one of the most deeply human movies I've seen all year. I think horror is at its absolute best when it leverages unbelievable scenarios to convey complex emotion and strife. Titane is a shining example of that. 4. Riders of Justice This was a latecomer to my list and a total surprise. Mads Mikkelsen always delivers, but I wasn’t expecting much more than a solid revenge thriller. I was delighted to find that it’s actually a heartfelt and genuinely funny movie about finding meaning in chaos and grief. Its cast of misfit characters are dynamically written and have great chemistry together. Each of their individual traumas and complexes adds up to a group that provides the support and kindness each needs to heal. It’s cosmic and grandiose while personal and intimate. It also features some great action that you might expect from a more traditional thriller, with an especially cathartic climax that left me hooting and hollering. 3. Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time Goodbye, all of Evangelion. Hideaki Anno’s long-running anime series finally comes to a conclusion with the fourth and final rebuild movie, arriving almost fifteen years after the first rebuild and a full twenty-six years since the series began in 1996. Evangelion has always largely been a reflection of its creator’s mental state, often dwelling in dark, depressive, and cynical territory. But with this third and supposedly final ending, it feels like Anno has finally found peace. Thrice Upon a Time still features all the high octane mech fights and metaphysical technobabble that made the series unique and exciting, but what makes the finale so impactful is its willingness to slow down and linger in the quiet moments. This is a story about finally moving on and learning to live with hope in the after. Some of my favorite moments revolved around small pockets of humanity finding ways to sustain and thrive after apocalyptic events. Endings are difficult, especially with properties as huge and influential as Evangelion, but Thrice Upon a Time handles it with reverence and grace in a way that left me completely satisfied. 2. The Card Counter Paul Schrader sure does love sad men writing in their diaries, doesn’t he? I guess it turns out I do too. The Card Counter is an outwardly angry, mean movie. It feels like Schrader is trying to reckon with the general public apathy towards war crimes the United States has committed and continues to commit at military “enhanced interrogation” (read: torture) sites, almost rubbing the viewer’s nose in it at times. But it’s also an understated character study with a sweet emotional core that makes the film balanced. I love the use of spaces in this movie: the way casinos are portrayed as flat, bleak places that Oscar Isaac’s character uses as a self-imposed extended prison sentence, “around and around until you work things out.” His relationship with the two supporting characters, Tye Sheridan’s Cirk and Tiffany Haddish’s La Linda, offer him a glimpse of both redemption for his past sins and a sense of warmth and companionship. But the cycles of violence that these crimes perpetuate leave deep scars that span generations. It’s a deeply tragic movie that’s anchored by a fantastic central performance by Isaac. I was admittedly disappointed when Schrader’s last film, First Reformed , didn’t quite hit for me. The Card Counter , on the other hand, completely floored me and is a film I still think about often. 1. The Matrix Resurrections This was inevitable. There’s just no scenario where a new Matrix movie comes out and it’s not one of my favorite movies of the year. What I didn’t expect, or at least was trying to be cautiously optimistic about, was just how good a Matrix sequel 17 years after the previous entry would be. Resurrections is so many things. It’s a reflection of the series through the distinct and clear voice of Lana Wachowski, and a deeply personal meditation on how her original vision has been co-opted and warped in so many ways. It’s a critique of modern filmmaking, and an impressively direct middle finger to parent company Warner Brothers. It’s a reboot that recaptures the mystery and allure of the original film. It’s a sequel that expands on the lore that’s been fleshed out by several multimedia projects. Most importantly, it’s a resolution of the emotional heart and soul of the series: Neo and Trinity’s romance. The Matrix has been a deeply impactful and influential series in my life, and this sequel was my most anticipated movie in years. I had no idea what to expect, but couldn’t wait to see where it went. The original Matrix was at the cutting edge of ideas in the early days of the internet. I couldn't wait to see what impact the last twenty years of technological advancement would have on its themes of identity, control, and choice. As a long-time and die-hard Matrix fan, Resurrections was more than I could have hoped for. Jack Kolodziejski Jack makes drugs for a living, but not necessarily the fun kind. He enjoys international travel and discussing music, movies, and games in excruciating detail.