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aion-rsa · 3 years

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10 Best Movies of 2021 (So Far)

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Can you ever really go home? Millions of cinephiles are likely asking themselves this as summer 2021 winds down with doubt again lingering over their favorite movie houses. For a time, theaters were once again open for big business in the U.S. and UK, and remain so in at least one of those venues. But box office reports paint an ambiguous future, and many casual moviegoers clearly remain reluctant about returning to the cinema.

Nonetheless, it’s still good to be back in those old familiar places, as well as to have an ever expanding list of options to discover on streaming. Compared to last year, 2021 feels like a sunny balm, particularly now that the heaviest hitters and biggest surprises of July and the dog days of summer have landed.

It’s why we typically save our “mid-year” ranking for that deep breath between the end of summer escapism and the awards season push that begins in September. There have been some real treats on the 2021 calendar, so whether you’ve seen the entire list below or are looking for something you missed, sit back and enjoy a collection of the best movies of 2021. So far.

10. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote and star in this bizarre, brightly colored, and utterly joyful comedy that defies expectations throughout. The two are middle-aged best friends who take their very first vacation to Florida together to visit the idyllic Vista del Mar.

But it’s not all cocktails and banana boats. Behind the scenes, super villain Sharon Fisherman (also played by Wiig) has an evil plan for the resort. With shades of the best of Austin Powers (though far more sincere) Barb and Star is a good natured friendship comedy through a surrealist lens, which could scratch an itch for anyone missing a bit of beach time this year.

9. Psycho Goreman

Unexpected gem of the year surely goes to this utterly bonkers grue-filled cosmic horror B-movie which is also really funny and kind of sweet at the same time. It follows annoying little shit Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) who bullies her brother Luke (Owen Myre) mercilessly. After defeating him in a game of “crazy ball,” Luke’s punishment is to dig his own grave (!) but instead the pair discover an artifact which turns out to be the key to controlling a universal evil imprisoned on earth for trying to destroy the galaxy.

So of course Mimi names him Psycho Goreman and forces him to hang out with her family and friends despite his insistence that he will bathe in their blood the moment he is freed. From Steven Kostanski, the director of 2016’s The Void, Psycho Goreman is a spot-on blend of brutal slaying and hardcore gore, a cosmic plotline involving an alien council and a wholesome family comedy. An unexpected delight.

8. Cruella

Emma Stone is a punk rock designer in the mold of Vivienne Westwood in this vibrant London-set comedy, which is on paper a prequel to 101 Dalmatians. But in reality, take it as a standalone and you’ll have way more fun.

Up and coming fashionista Estella manages to impress one of the leading designers The Baroness (Emma Thompson) and secures a coveted job at her world famous fashion house. But when Estella discovers a dark secret relating to her own past, she takes on the outrageous alter-ego Cruella to destroy The Baroness by out-fashioning her at every opportunity.

Packed with banging tunes and great dresses, Cruella is a high energy spectacle but it’s the sparring of the two Emmas that brings the real electricity. Forget any future she might have as a puppy killer, in her own film, Cruella is a legend.

7. In the Heights

The sunniest film to hit theaters this season, Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights was as sugary sweet as the frozen Piragua Lin-Manuel Miranda hocks around this movie’s block. Based on the Hamilton composer’s earlier Tony winning musical, the picture was the rare thing: a Broadway adaptation that actually soars as high as its stage production and (rarer still) the first Hollywood blockbuster with an all-Latinx cast.

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How Cruella Got That Crazy Expensive Soundtrack

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The film came under fair criticism on social media for not being as inclusive as it could be, but that shouldn’t be the last word on such a big-hearted achievement. From the buoyant performances which have already opened doors for Anthony Ramos and Leslie Grace’s immense charisma, to the Latin, salsa, and hip-hop infused melodies which celebrate a culture long left out of the Hollywood image of American life, In the Heights is a jubilant celebration. There really hasn’t been a giddier time at the multiplex this year. Plus, those “96,000” and “Carnaval del Barrio” sequences really are fire.

6. Zola

Based on a “true” story which was told via a series of tweets posted back in 2015 (and the subsequent Rolling Stone article that brought the tale to prominence), Zola is a stranger-than-fiction saga seen through the lens of social media. An ultra contemporary, experimental, low budget comedy-thriller with a backdrop of abuse and sex trafficking, the film is as willfully uncomfortable to watch as it is massively entertaining.

From the jump, Zola (Taylour Paige) is a Detroit waitress and part time exotic dancer who meets a customer named Stefani (Riley Keough) and agrees to take a trip with her to Florida to hit up strip clubs where Stefani promises they’ll make a lot of money. With them are Stefani’s feckless boyfriend (Succession’s Nicholas Braun) and her obviously dodgy roommate. Sometimes told through spoken tweets with switches in perspective, this marks director Janicza Bravo as a compelling new voice, and her cast of leads as nothing short of captivating.

How much of what you’re watching actually happened? Well, that’s the elusive quality of social media…

5. Judas and the Black Messiah

Fred Hampton was murdered with the consent and planning of law enforcement at both federal and local jurisdiction levels. That Judas and the Black Messiah made this common knowledge would be reason enough for consideration. Yet that director Shaka King tells Hampton’s story so thrillingly here elevates his film into one of the most compelling crime dramas in years—only with the FBI’s illegal COINTELPRO program being the primary criminal element.

Told from the perspective of the man who spied on the Black Panthers and eventually facilitated the raid that took Hampton’s life, Judas radiates a despairing quality which somehow can still feel electrifying whenever Daniel Kaluuya’s powerhouse performance takes center stage. Which is pretty much any time the Black Panther chairman takes the microphone. Kaluuya deserved his Oscar, but LaKeith Stanfield’s paranoid turn as Bill O’Neal, the poor bastard coerced into being a snitch while still a kid, is what gets under your skin and walks beside you after the credits roll.

4. Pig

Are there really folks out there who wandered into a screening of Pig and assumed they’d get the Nicolas Cage knockoff of John Wick? I like to think so, just as I love to imagine what they said to each other afterward. To be sure, Michael Sarnoski’s Pig sounds on paper like something in that ballpark: Cage plays a hermit living in self-exile from his past life when ruffians steal his beloved… truffle pig. In response, he comes down from the mountain, ready to reengage with the old ways.

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Judas and the Black Messiah Remembers Fred Hampton Was a Man of His Words

By Tony Sokol

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Yet when you realize those old ways involve being the greatest chef in his state—and reengagement means partaking in a fight club that’s far more pitiful than it sounds and simply cooking gourmet meals—the more apparent it is that this is a sophisticated, nuanced allegory about grief and self-identity. Anchored by Cage’s best performance in a long, long time, Pig is a gentle and revelatory experience that slowly unpacks its brilliance piece by piece, vignette by vignette. For those coming in wanting fast food, this probably will be a disappointment. For all others, it’s a resplendent five course meal.

3. The Suicide Squad

For once the marketing wasn’t kidding. Writer-director James Gunn does have a horribly beautiful mind, and we at last get to see it fully unleashed on a superhero property. Yes, the filmmaker made many cry over a CGI tree and talking raccoon in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, but perhaps not since Logan has a storyteller seen such free rein over valuable studio IP. Gunn didn’t waste it.

The Suicide Squad plays very much like the men and women on a mission ‘60s capers its director grew up on, but that structure is channelled here through a filthy and deranged sensibility. How else can you describe a picture that makes you want to cuddle a land shark who just swallowed a bystander whole? The Suicide Squad does that and more while providing a showcase for sure things like Margot Robbie’s irresistible Harley Quinn, as well as the dregs and rejects of DC Comics who ultimately steal the movie: David Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man and Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2, namely. Box office be damned, this is one of the best superhero films ever made and will be a classic in the years to come.

2. The Green Knight

When you hear the name “King Arthur,” certain elements spring to mind. It’s one of those classic properties which have been adapted, exploited, and parodied with killer rabbits ad nauseam. Even so, it’s safe to say you’ve never seen the lore become as foreboding and startling as this. Reimagined through the gaze of writer-director David Lowery, the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at last takes on a trippy and witchy connotation. An interpretation that pulls as much from medieval paganism as it does obsessions with chivalry and Christian virtue, The Green Knight successfully reinvents its Arthurian quest into a journey toward certain doom.

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The Green Knight: Why David Lowery and Dev Patel Reimagined Arthurian Legend

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As the central figure on that mission, Dev Patel reveals superstar charisma and the ability to completely command the screen. His version of Gawain, the wayward nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris), is vain, cowardly, selfish, and somehow wholly sympathetic as he searches for Ralph Ineson’s Green Knight: a godlike creature who has promised to behead Gawain when they meet again. Through it all, Lowery and company craft a sumptuous world that in every shot looks like the most transportive Dungeons and Dragons cover you’ve ever seen. The atmosphere is oppressively brooding, and it will not appeal to everyone. Yet like the very best films released by indie distributor A24, there is a touch of mad genius at work here that demands to be seen and then seen again.

1. Inside

As arguably the best piece of art to come out of 2020’s torments, Bo Burnham’s Inside was not marketed or even conceived of as a film. Nevertheless, it slowly transformed into one throughout its months-long production process, which forewent mere sketch humor to reveal an undeniably cinematic, experimental, and ultimately bleak heart. In other words, it’s a perfect distillation of how all mediums are blurring into that loathsome word: content.

Through heavily edited, conceived, and revised set-pieces, the film’s director, star, writer, and composer lays his insecurities and vanities bare. Filmed inside Burnham’s home studio space, Inside is the result of the young filmmaker behind Eighth Grade becoming acutely aware he’s regressed to his early resources as a teenage YouTube star: a camera, a music keyboard, some synth programs, and hours of idle boredom.

Within those numbing hours, Burnham built something both reflective and suspicious about technology, the internet culture which gave him his career, and even his own self-image. With a catchy songbook of synthesized bangers, many of which echo ’80s pop ballads, Burnham crystallizes better than any typical three-act film the anxieties and delirium of a year spent mostly at home. He also provides a scathing critique of how our concepts of communication and identity have been co-opted and undermined by tech companies whose products incite division for profit—all while still releasing his film on the biggest streaming platform in the world. It’s a challenging, self-loathing, and haunted piece of work that will invariably become a time capsule for its moment in history.

Runner ups that almost made the cut: Annette, Black Widow, Coda, Mr. Soul, No Sudden Move, Raya and the Last Dragon, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, The Sparks Brothers, Val.

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nothisis-ridiculous · 7 years

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Proxy Cosmos

(An alternate reality where Alec Ryder lived, and both twins were awake during the events of Andromeda.)

Chapter Four:

"If you're trying to hide, I don't think you're doing a great job."

Scott looked up at the Turian, regarding her with a soft smile. He remembered meeting Vetra, but had little time to get to her know her in the whirl of events since boarding the Tempest. Most of the drama had been utterly the fault of his family. Scott wished that he was more surprised.

"Yeah, I'm trying the broody act," Scott felt a smile curl a corner of his lip, "but I gave up halfway there."

"I don't know, seems pretty broody to me."

He chuckled. But now came the silence, he didn't want it, but it permeated the space between them. It wasn't for any particular kind of company, and certainly not for the physical kind of attention. He just craved the basic kind of affection from another being that was not a part of his family. Or someone not involved in that craziness. He wasn't open like Elsee, or gruff enough to prefer his own company like his Dad.

Vetra's mandibles vibrated, and as if sensing his need she sat down beside him. Long arms hanging over her knees. For several minutes they sat silently, breathing syncing together slowly.

"Isn't family a pain in the ass, sometimes?" Vetra spoke softly.

"Literally," Scott smirked, leaning his head against the metal wall, "do you have any family of your own?"

"Yeah, a little sister...Sid. Brought her with me."

"She a pain in the ass?"

"Major pain in the ass," Vetra smirked.

"I always wished I could be the older sibling; you get so much crap being the youngest. I watched you pick your nose; I watched you shake a turd out of your pants camping one year."

Vetra chuckled, "the whining is not worth it. I'm hungry; I had an accident. I'm bored. And oh, the crying. All the crying."

Scott's laughter fell a little short, his attention returning to the darkened window of the med clinic. Dad was fine; he would recover with sufficient meds and rest, but that didn't make it any easier. Or perhaps it was everything, this entire shitty mess, starting to collapse on him. Now that the fires had stopped popping up, the calm allowed him to think rather than to simply react. It weighed on him, weighed on everyone on the Pathfinder's team heavily.

"How did you hear of the Andromeda Initiative?" simple questions might keep her there longer.

"Short answer? Kesh," the turian's rumbling voice recalled the memory with pride, "She was looking for some experimental ship mods, and I knew how to track them down. I thought it was a one time deal, but she came back. Once, twice... eventually I figured out something was going on. Something big, with creds behind it," Vetra paused, looking out into the hallway like it had been just moments ago, "I asked, and she told me about the initiative. New galaxy, new home- couldn't pass that up."

"Wow, that's some laser will."

"Yeah? Was it too much? Some people get intimidated," Vetra purred.

"We need that sort of drive," Scott kept it cool, "I just hope I can keep up."

"You'll keep up. And I promise I won't tell if you don't," the Turian got up from the floor.

"If you didn't just big sister me," Scott teased.

She huffed, offering out her claw, "Come on, 'little' Scott. I know something that might cheer you up."

======

Kallo pushed against Suvi, who in turn tried not to crowd Cora who waited in the doorway of the crew quarters. Gil, Liam, Vetra and Scott waited in the corridor, just out of reach of the sensor that would open the kitchen door. Lexi pretended not to be involved in the scene quietly happening outside her door, but she was just as interested. Even Alec's attention turned to the gathering groups.

"It smells sooo good," Suvi whined with a growl of her stomach.

"I want to eat it, even if it would kill me," Vetra agreed.

"You will not eat the human food, Vetra!" Lexi warned.

Gil smirked, "I'm going to savor it slowly for you Vetra."

"Who brought spices with them to Andromeda?" Cora asked, pretending to be focused on anything other than the smell of food.

"That would be Elsee," Scott snickered.

"The things I could get from that collection," Vetra murmured.

"Vetra, you can't. This smell, I cannot forget it," Kallo added in an appalled tone, "ever."

"Hopefully it's as good as it-"

"Ooof!" Elsee squeaked, suddenly running into the crowds gathering just outside the galley. She had shooed away a curious hand or two, but not the entire crew.

They grinned, each with differing amounts of guilt. Cora stumbled forward as one of the two behind her pushed. Elsee twirled, keeping the covered pot safely from crashing.

"Well," Elsee started slowly, gaining a smile, "we can all eat upstairs together. If, if you guys would like to."

"I'm up for it!" Gil volunteered first. The rest agreed with him.

Elsee beamed, "Good, Cora if you would grab the large silver pan in the oven. Watch it; it's hot. Vetra if you wouldn't mind the small silver pan also in the oven. Suvi, if you'd grab the white one, also in the oven." Her first commands came sheepishly, but her confidence grew as each member agreed to their task, "Kallo, if you would be a dear and get the plates at the top of the cupboard. Gil and Scott, can you manage silverware? Including two spatulas, and two serving spoons. Liam, something to drink? Oh, Lexi, if you would grab the pan still on the element."

Scott and Gil battled over how many pieces were needed, and who would carry what. Much to nobody's surprise it ended in a duel of cutlery to the upper meeting room. Kallo remarked about how useful his height was, and the females took to their task with little shenanigans between them. Vetra seemed to be off put but wasn't going to ruin the fun.

Elsee barely made it out ahead of Liam who was juggling the drinks.

The team had arranged the meal around the different displays on the central round table. They waited patiently for Elsee to set down the bulky container before they dared to think about approaching the food.

"Alright, guys," Elsee cleared her throat, "the menu for tonight is Chicken flavored with my special, secret seasoning," which sounded horribly dirty, "a buttered pea and lettuce bake, and garlic mashed potatoes. Vetra, dextro-friendly food is in the smaller pans, turian-chicken, and appropriate vegetables."

Vetra pepped up immediately.

"And on behalf of the good doctor, I must remind you all to eat a healthy portion of veggies, without just focusing on the potatoes. And also for the rest of us to avoid Vetra's portions," Elsee's glibness earning a smile from the doctor.

Cora started the line, muscling her way passed the rest of the rowdy crowd- Suvi who stayed on her coat tails was next. Gil, Liam, Lexi, then Scott made it up front next. Kallo urged Elsee to go before him, and Vetra unworried about getting enough food was fine with filling in last. After each got a plate they sat on the couch, with some taking the floor so that they did not need to be far from the rest of the group.

Elsee parked herself in the middle of the floor, waiting for everyone else's reactions.

"What is in your super secret seasoning?" The engineer asked with a raised eyebrow, double entrada fully intended.

Elsee made a face at Gil, "None of your beeswax."

"Not even a hint?" Suvi prodded.

"Fine, basil and rosemary are two ingredients of the blend," she answered with a smirk.

"Where did you learn to cook, and flavor dextro foods?" Vetra commandeered the conversation after a few moments of silence.

"We had a few Quarians on pilgrimage at one of our dig sites, and a Turian from time to time. I even bought food neutralizers so I could test the recipes out myself."

"Nerd," her brother accused.

"Careful, Scott, tormenting the cook still trumps annoying the doctor," threatened the asari with a point of her fork.

"Where does the pilot fit in that list?"

"Oh come one, how about the engineer?"

"You'd all having nothing without the requestion officer!"

Any debate in the room ended as the boss entered the meeting lounge, all attention immediately turned to him. Waiting to see if he disapproved of an unauthorized use of the meeting area. Alec's eyes wandered the room, his jaw clenching. The Ryder twins jumped to their feet, Elsee taking the lead. But before her mouth opened his hand waved to dispel the words, taking up the last plate. The twins returned to their seat, but the conversation did not.

Alec leaned against the consoles, brown eyes focusing on his daughter, "So what happened on Eos?"

"N-nothing that I didn't report," Elsee stammered.

"I mean," the man sighed, "how was it? How was activating the vault?"

"It was great, scary, but great," she was fumbling, grasping at something to discuss, "I just wonder why they would program a death cloud to chase the person trying to fix the planet."

"That is curious if they had meant to inhabit the world I wonder why they would secure it in a way that required running away from the vault on activation."

"Unless they were that worried about having someone to protect if from, perhaps someone... or something had tried to use their technology against them?" More answers at this point would be helpful, but it all came with more questions.

"That is a good point, the Milky Way can't be the only place where the locals like to fight each other," Alec's smile crept across his face, relaxing the rest of the crew into eating.

"I'm just surprised we haven't found anyone else, other than the machines after all Eos was at least survivable with the right protection from radiation," she mused, "the flora and fauna still seemed to be active enough."

"Or perhaps we came after an extinction event."

"You think the Nexus will let us borrow a drill?"

"Leave that to the colonists," Alec countered with a full smile. Enjoying his first taste of food. His daughter had learned well from her mother; it was just painful to mention. The familiar dish leaving him feeling less empty than he thought. Had that been the last time they had all enjoyed a meal together? "Just for now, we can be curious once we are completely established."

"To escaping a death bubble!" Vetra began.

"To not dying," Liam added.

"To excellent food," cheered Lexi.

The rest agreed with the doctor, with one notable person simply raising a glass.

"I think Elsee here should be designated cook," Gil looked over the empty pans, "this puts my best dish to shame."

"I'm sure I can find more contraband spices," Vetra hummed.

"I have some nice Salarian dishes I think the crew would enjoy."

"Not if it involves bug, Kallo," Cora teased, "I don't think she could even make that taste good."

"That's very r-"

Suvi cut off the Salarian, "say you can bake too?"

"I think it needs less baking soda," Scott's words drew an eye roll from his sister and a bemused smirk from Alec.

"Har, har, Scott," Her eyes wandered to Liam, who still said nothing. She glanced away, pretending not to make awkward eye contact with the Turian that sat next to him.

The crew returned to conversation in various groups between themselves. Alec mostly questioned Elsee who was at ease answering his questions and sharing theories with him. Scott urged himself to look away, and focus on his plate. Still not finding his place in this group. He didn't want to end the rare bonding between Father and Daughter as they discussed the potential of their discoveries on the Heleus cluster. They would never see it, but they shared a fair amount in common. When they weren't busy egging each other on about something asinine.

Vetra leaned into Liam, "Say something nice, stupid."

"Just like mum's cooking," Liam blurted into a crowd that had long since changed subjects, Vetra pinched him for good measure, "thank you for the meal, El."

The crew regarded him curiously, and Elsee colored. Scott glanced between the two, and Alec glared fiercely at the man.

"I'll, uh, I'll gather plates and start cleaning up then," Liam bound from his seat, yanking the empty plate away from Vetra.

#alec ryder #ryder twins #mass effect andromeda #au #mass effect fanfiction #procos

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