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Chien! Good to see you around these parts again pal. Haven't seen most of your list on account of them not being released in the US yet, but The Last Duel was also very high on my list. Seeing people discover it over the past month since it hit VOD/HBO Max has been a great consolation prize following its poor box office run.

The Last Duel is definitely the best American film I've seen last year, by far. In fact I hadn't realized this is actually the only American film in my Top 9.
Card Counter and Licorice were the only other two that came close.

While this thread is active again, I might as well post my current list. Still need to check out some streaming titles (The Hand of God, The Tender Bar), smaller indie films I missed in the fall (Mass, Lamb, Blue Bayou), non-English titles that either just opened or are about to open in my area (Parallel Mothers, The Worst Person in the World, Flee) and stuff that I might regret watching (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Encanto, A Journal for Jordan).

1.Judas and the Black Messiah
2.The Suicide Squad
3.Bad Trip
4.Nobody
5.The Harder They Fall
6.Godzilla vs. Kong
7.Shiva Baby
8.King Richard
9.Red Rocket
10.Malcolm & Marie
11.Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
12.A Quiet Place Part II
13.The Last Duel
14.Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
15.No Time to Die
16.The Night House
17.The Matrix Resurrections
18.Wrath of Man
19.Malignant
20.Riders of Justice

Honorable Mentions:
The Power of the Dog
Licorice Pizza
Eternals
Don't Look Up
Zola

Was there a 2021 film you didn't like?

I know you're aiming to criticize me some more, so here's the ammo you're requesting in the form of a detailed breakdown of how I felt about the 137 2021 films that I've seen so far (It was a very solid year to me! Not a ton of stuff on the extreme ends of excellence and failure, but there was a very steady stream of B+ to A- level films all year long)
39 were great to incredible
26 were good to very good
41 were above average to decent
25 were below average to average
6 were varying degrees of notably bad (these films were Chaos Walking, The Lost Daughter, Jolt, The Marksman, Awake and Don't Tell a Soul)

If you want to get upset over even more of my takes, here's the link to the film section of my RateYourMusic page: https://rateyourmusic.com/film_collecti ... 21/recent/

Wait, you just watched Bio-Dome for the first time? Aren't you the same guy who gave me shit for watching The Woman In Black 2?

Guilty as charged And my logic for watching Bio-Dome is certainly a zillion times more absurd than yours for watching The Woman in Black 2! One of my best friends to this day mentioned that he loved that movie back when we were about 14 or 15 and me being the idiot that I am, found this fact to be exceptionally funny and declared that I needed to experience Pauly Shore's seminal piece of work myself someday. So fast forward to earlier this month when I discovered that Bio-Dome was leaving HBO Max on the 31st and I promised myself that I would watch it before it did. It was definitely bad, but I'm glad that I was able to pay off a bit 15-16 years later.

It sounds like we were both seeking closure, which is a powerful human motivator.

It is indeed, especially when it comes to viewing 2 essential pieces of cinema.

Ah it wouldn't be one of Chien's best of year list without half the films being virtually unknown!

My updated Top 20


Petite Maman
Shiva Baby
Pig
The Worst Person in the World
The Power of the Dog
Titane
Lamb
The Innocents
The Green Knight
A Hero

Gagarine
Licorice Pizza
I'm Your Man
Dune
Plan B
Summer of Soul
Red Rocket
The Lost Daughter
Playground
Passing

The Lost Daughter might be the most divisive film here, being on both best and worst lists. I didn't like it personally but I saw worse.

numbersix wrote: ↑

January 30th, 2022, 12:31 pm

Ah it wouldn't be one of Chien's best of year list without half the films being virtually unknown!

I'm sure you've heard of most of them. But it's true it's a year without much interesting American films for me so most of the films are French and Asian.
But I totally forgot I saw The Innocents in a festival and it is brilliant indeed, it could be my number 10.

I watched The Last Duel yesterday, and while it had its moments, the heavy handed #MeToo messaging was way too on-the-nose, and I could never get past having two of Boston's favourite sons playing Middle Ages Frenchmen with English accents. I hope the recent call for more authentic casting in movies brings an end to these kinds of casting decisions in Hollywood.

Unfortunately, Hollywood's inability to develop good modern actors (can you name any American actor not named Adam Driver who is consistently in major, non-tentpole films?) will likely just keep them doing the same thing they've been doing in the past few years.

And as Affleck and Damon co-wrote the script, it was inevitable that they would get cast as well.

I didn't see The Last Duel. Scott already did this film as The Duellists and did we really need a religious version of the same film he did in the 70's? Please retire, Ridley.