Another year and a week has passed, so I have decided to publish the list of movies I saw over the past year. There was a noticeable decline in the total number of movies I saw this year over last year (113 in 2021 vs 129 in 2020), but it was less of a decline than I would have expected, considering how much less time I spent in my home starting in May.
I finally got back to seeing movies in theaters this summer, and I really missed the movie-going experience. This effect may have impacted my opinions of a number of the movies I saw. Out of the 10 films I saw in theaters, only Eternals gets less than ***.
In reviewing this list, one of the things that stands out to me is how many good animated films were released recently, with many of the best coming from studios other than Disney or Pixar.
The other big trend I have noticed is the relative lack of genre diversity in the new movies I saw. This says more about me than the state of the industry as a whole, except that there really was almost no films released theatrically that were (non-Superhero or action) comedies. In an effort to have the coldest take ever, I believe that TV has replaced the wide-release theatrical comedy over the past few years.
Now, on to the lists.
My list of new films includes all the movies that I saw that were released in 2021 or 2020. I have indicated which movies were seen outside of a theater by prefixing it with an *asterisk. If the movie was released in 2020, that is indicated in parentheses after the film's title. Finally, I have included my rating on a scale of [zero] to ****, with four stars being the best.
The specific order of the movies on the list was based on their relative ranking at the time of seeing the movie, but if I was in a different mood, the specific placement of many of these movies could probably change.
So, off to the list:
New Movies
Spider-Man: No Way Home ****
*Vivo ****
Free Guy ****
*An American Pickle (2020) ****
Dune: Part One ****
*The Willoughbys (2020) ****
*The Mitchells vs the Machines ****
*Hamilton (2020) ****
Encanto ***1/2
No Time to Die ***1/2
*Luca ***1/2
The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard ***1/2
The King's Man ***1/2
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ***
*Father Christmas is Back ***
*Ron's Gone Wrong ***
Black Widow ***
*Over the Moon (2020) ***
*Raya and the Last Dragon ***
*Home Sweet Home Alone ***
*Cruella ***
Eternals **1/2
*He's All That **
*The Boss Baby: Family Business **
*Jungle Cruise *1/2
*Halloween Kills *1/2
I also have kept a list of all the older movies I saw in 2021.
Of the **** movies, the one that surprised me the most was Coneheads (1993), which I found to be shockingly relevant and much smarter than I had been expecting. If you've never seen it, but thought it looks terrible, I think it might surprise you.
I also spent a fair portion of the year trying to see as many of the Alfred Hitchcock films as I could. I read Hitchcock/Truffaut and really enjoyed pairing the comments in the book to each of the movies. It was a really good experience that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in the subject.
Older Movies
Captains Courageous (1937) ****
It Started With Eve (1941) ****
ParaNorman (2012) ****
Almost Famous (2000) ****
Being John Malkovich (1999) ****
On Moonlight Bay (1951) ****
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) ****
The Awful Truth (1937) ****
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) ****
Coneheads (1993) ****
Love Me or Leave Me (1955) ****
Christmas in Connecticut (1945) ****
Compulsion (1959) ****
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) ****
I'll See You in My Dreams (1951) ***1/2
Death on the Nile (1978) ***1/2
Evil Under the Sun (1982) ***1/2
Love Actually (2003) ***1/2
The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) ***1/2
The Band Wagon (1953) ***1/2
Titanic (1997) ***1/2
Casino Royale (2006) ***1/2
Into the Woods (2014) ***1/2
Third Man on the Mountain (1959) ***1/2
Patton (1970) ***1/2
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) ***1/2
The West Point Story (1950) ***1/2
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) ***1/2
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) ***1/2
Murder by Death (1976) ***1/2
Being There (1979) ***1/2
The 'Burbs (1989) ***1/2
BlacKkKlansman (2018) ***1/2
The Trouble with Harry (1955) ***1/2
Easy A (2010) ***1/2
Peeper (1975) ***1/2
Scent of a Woman (1992) ***1/2
Halloween (1978) ***1/2
Marnie (1964) ***1/2
Big Business (1988) ***1/2
White Christmas (1954) ***1/2
The Searchers (1956) ***1/2
Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) ***
Romance on the High Seas (1948) ***
Boom Town (1940) ***
Blow Out (1981) ***
MacGruber (2010) ***
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) ***
Von Ryan's Express (1965) ***
Notting Hill (1999) ***
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) ***
The Great Train Robbery (1978) ***
Smokey and the Bandit (1977) ***
Rope (1948) ***
Halloween (2018) ***
Monsters University (2013) ***
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018) ***
Why Him? (2016) ***
American Pie 2 (2001) ***
The Thin Man (1934) ***
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) ***1/2
My Fair Lady (1964) ***
American Pie (1999) ***
Flying Down to Rio (1933) ***
The Tunnel of Love (1958) ***
Please Don't Eat the Daisies 1960) ***
Anchors Aweigh (1945) ***
Death Becomes Her (1992) ***
April in Paris (1952) **1/2
The Cat from Outer Space (1978) **1/2
Invitation to the Dance (1956) **1/2
Tea for Two (1950) **1/2
The Incident (1967) **1/2
Torn Curtain (1966) **1/2
All the King's Men (1949) **
Beethoven (1992) **
Jingle All the Way (1996) **
Oh, God! (1977) **
A Bridge Too Far (1977) **
Battleship Potemkin (1925) **
High Anxiety (1977) **
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) **
Little Monsters (1989) *
The Life of Brian (1979), 1/2
The Honeymoon Machine (1961) *1/2
Lucky Me (1954) *
