Best Films of 2021

Below, find the annual list produced by Metacritic that reflects an aggregation of over 300 "Top 10" film critic lists for the year. Every year, I note this list to keep track of what I've seen and to provide my own tiered rankings of the films. I might add some comments especially if I've updated my rankings from my prior post on new films that I managed to see in 2021. 

Generally, I post this list in February (just to be sure the rankings are final) and I'll have typically seen about half of them -- thanks partly to a concerted effort in the new year to see them. 

FILMS MENTIONED ON MOST CRITIC TOP 10 LISTS - 2021

Movie and Metascore		# 1st Place	# 2nd Place	# Other	Points
1	89 The Power of the Dog	31	23	118.5	257.5
2	91 Drive My Car	23	23	89.5	204.5
3	90 Licorice Pizza	20	21	86	188
4	74 Dune	12	12	67.5	127.5
5	85 West Side Story	10	7	66	110
6	85 The Green Knight	7	11	66.5	109.5
7	96 Summer of Soul	10	5	61.5	101.5
8	90 The Worst Person in the World	8	12	51.5	99.5
9	82 Pig	7	5	57.5	88.5
10	94 Petite Maman	8	6	44	80
11	91 Memoria	11	7	29	76
12	75 Titane	6	3	49	73
13	74 The French Dispatch	3	4	47.5	64.5
14	86 The Lost Daughter	6	2	39.5	61.5
15	75 Red Rocket	2	3	43.5	55.5
16	90 The Souvenir Part II	2	5	37.5	53.5
17	75 CODA	5	3	31	52
18	75 Belfast	9	2	20.5	51.5
19	77 The Card Counter	0	6	38.5	50.5
	76 Spencer	3	1	39.5	50.5
21	82 C'mon C'mon	2	3	38	50
22	81 The Mitchells vs. The Machines	4	3	31	49
23	86 Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy	5	3	27.5	48.5
24	91 Flee	2	2	33	43
25	67 Annette	3	2	28	41
26	88 Parallel Mothers	1	2	33	40
27	85 Passing	0	0	39.5	39.5
28	74 tick, tick...BOOM!	0	5	29	39
29	74 Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn	3	4	20	37
30	87 The Tragedy of Macbeth	3	0	24.5	33.5

Because we include some foreign publications, it is possible for a few titles to repeat from last year's list due to differences in USA and overseas release dates. 

I have seen a few of these films to-date, but have plenty to go (22 of 30 listed). As I watch them, I'll highlight changes. 

Tier 1 These are top-notch Oscar-worthy films.

Belfast

The Worst Person in the World 
The Power of the Dog

Summer of Soul

Licorice Pizza

Passing

Obviously, I would have selected Belfast over CODA for Best Picture. Summer of Soul was really entertaining and Licorice Pizza was fun. See The Worst Person in the World. 

Tier 2 These are very good films, but with some flaws. Some of them have received Oscar nominations. 

C'mon C'mon 

Red Rocket 

The French Dispatch

The Lost Daughter

CODA

The Card Counter

Pig (Hulu)

Dune (HBO Max)

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Netflix)

Flee (Hulu)

Spencer

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Drive My Car 

C'mon C'mon features a terrific kid actor and a solid performance by Joaquin Phoenix. And a Gaby Hoffman sighting. 

Red Rocket director Sean Baker makes really good films -- this one is about someone from the Boogie Nights porn scene returning to Texas in unexplained poverty. Bad decisions prevail, but character choices are limited by their context. 

The Card Counter turned out to be an Iraq film, which I didn't realize before viewing it. It's difficult to watch at times. Viewers likely expect to see a gambler succeeding (or failing) with life-altering consequences. Here, you get that, but also Abu Ghraib flashbacks. 

Frankly, the order of the first 6 of these Tier 2 films could be altered on any given day. 

Tier 3 These are likely good films, but with more flaws.

The Souvenir Part II

The Green Knight

None so far.

I typically don't need lower tiers for this list because it is comprised of the very best movies of the year -- at least according to film critics. 

Here's the alphabetical list of the 22 films that I have not yet seen (with some streaming info added):

Annette 

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

Memoria

Parallel Mothers

Petite Maman

tick, tick..BOOM! (Netflix)

Titane

West Side Story 

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

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Spring course: Global Politics Through Film

I am again teaching Global Politics Through Film, but this time it is targeted to a 300-level undergraduate audience (POLS 360). It meets Tuesday-Thursday at 4 pm until 5:15. I've taught it previously as a 500-level course open to advanced undergrads and master's students, as a version of the senior capstone seminar for the department, and as an Honors seminar.

The first session was Tuesday and the class is mostly constituted by sophomores and juniors in Political Science, though it also includes at least one student from the Film Studies minor.  A couple of the students clearly have a good deal of experience thinking about film, which should be helpful to the rest of us. There are currently only 11 students so I would like to attract a few more this week before enrollments close on Friday. 

In mid-December, enrollment was closer to 15, so I fear that the omicron variant has pushed students online. If anyone is on the fence about spring courses, the classroom is very large and there is plenty of room for social distancing.

On Tuesday, we basically covered the syllabus, which can be found here. Mostly, we're studying films and covering topics that previous versions of the course have trod -- though the course content has improved significantly over the years. In 2006, in retrospect, I really didn't know much about what I was doing. 

I have adopted three new films: Green Zone, to discuss the selling of the Iraq war, Wonder Woman, to study gender themes in IR, and Eye in the Sky, to address the ongoing "drone war" in American Foreign Policy. 

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Spring Course: Intro to IR (POLS 330)

For the first time since 1996, I'll be teaching a section of the department's Introduction to International Relations (POLS 330). Since then, the unit made this a required class for certain tracks in the major. I've taught the graduate version of the class for decades, so it was really a matter of deciding what to teach to undergraduates -- and what to assign for readings/exams/papers.

I'm adding a link to my new (still draft) syllabus in case any students want to check it out. Class begins next Tuesday, January 11. There are no required textbooks -- all the readings will be available via Blackboard. 

Comments about topics or readings from fellow academics are welcome. I decided not to cover constructivism overtly though some ideas will sneak in various topics. 

Right now, only 14 students are enrolled, but the classroom could easily accommodate double that number without major concerns about physical distancing. I think students benefit in small sections, but it will remain relatively small even if it ends up with 25 students.

Online sections of department classes are mostly full, so I suspect the pandemic is having an effect on in-person enrollments. While a couple of students in my classes last semester reported positive tests, there were no outbreaks and I hope everyone generally felt safe. With masking required and distancing made possible by a large classroom -- plus a 90%+ rate of campus vaccination, I did not feel especially threatened. 

Update: Because of omicron, I'm not going to count attendance as part of the course grade. 

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