As the heat dome descended over the Pacific Northwest, a few of your friendly neighborhood SunBreak team reflected on the first half of 2021 to identify some of our favorite movies in this odd, but slowly-returning-to-normal year of film. For the sake of freshness, we tried to confine our favorites to films that became widely available after the last Oscar eligibility period (sorry Judas; apologies Minari).
When all was said and done, two films ended up on multiple lists; so let’s get this roundup started with those (as a bonus: both are currently in wide release if you’re looking for a reason to go back to your local cineplex).
Zola
Chase (CH): A film based on the greatest Twitter story of all time, Zola is an absolutely outstanding odyssey that is equal parts about betrayal as it is about trying to survive as oneself. Expertly directed by Janicza Bravo, the film has a delicately constructed magical quality that is frequently counterbalanced by the horrors of our own world, making for a suspenseful journey about the human condition.
Josh (JB): I typically run screaming from a tweetstorm (we have blogs for that!), but am thankful that so many others couldn’t look away when A’ziah (Zola) King answered a question (“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out????????”) with a 147-tweet thread detailing a bizarre and terrifying road trip with a new friend to make money stripping in Tampa (protip: never go to Florida if you can help it). Director Janicza Bravo and co-writer Jeremy O. Harris based the screenplay on the ensuing Rolling Stone article, but wisely brought Zola herself onboard early as an executive producer to assure that the film captured the authenticity of her unique voice and immediacy of her social media storytelling. The result is a gripping adaptation that brings a textured, if heightened, reality to the Florida setting: infinity mirror cutaways, grimy motels, lurid strip clubs, luxury hotels, alike. Outstanding casting finds Nicholas Braun providing perfectly pathetic comic relief, Colman Domingo brings unpredictable menace as their guide, Riley Keough throws herself entirely into sweetly manipulative Stefani and her bonkers white girl “jive” accent, and as Zola Taylour Paige’s proficiency on the pole and ability to convey uncommon composure in an ongoing crisis makes her the calm yet incandescent center in this hurricane of horrors.
[In theaters]
In the Heights [review]
Morgen (MS): Admittedly I let the release weekend of In the Heights pass me by even though I’d been anticipating its availability on HBOMax for over a month. I’m not sure if I wanted to hold off until I could really sit down and enjoy it knowing I could rely on its entertainment value, or if I just needed to be in the right headspace. I’ve never seen the show performed live and only tangentially knew the plot so it was all a delightful surprise last week when I finally managed to see it. While the beats were predictable after seeing/hearing Hamilton so many times, I loved the story and the acting was stellar (from a fantastic cast that hadn’t escaped my notice in other great performances like Orange is the New Black and Brooklyn 99). All around a great way to spend an evening, especially if you’re keen on visually stunning dance numbers.
Josh: I have a lot of quibbles with many of the adaptation choices — a sappy and unnecessary framing device, diminishing drama by restructuring the flow of several revelations, so much polishing of Nina’s story into non-offensive niceness that it barely makes sense — but goddamn, the big dance numbers looked dazzling as they filled every corner of the frame with explosions of color, dazzling movement, and exceptional choreography. Most of the time, give me a filmed play rather than a stagey performance on film, but kudos to Jon Chu for using every cinematic tool at his disposal, including an exceptional fusion of practical and visual effects to cast a joyful (and occasionally melancholy) spell of magic realism over Lin Manuel Miranda’s recollections, hopes, and dreams of life in Washington Heights. Bolts of fabric unfurl from the sky, a community pool turns Busby Berkeley, gossip is so hot at a hair salon that even the mannequins lean in to listen, and gravity bends to the thrums of young love. You could watch this at home until June 10th, but I highly recommend saving it for the next hot day when you need some air conditioning to cool off with a couple hours of big screen movie magic — JB
[In theaters and on HBOmax (through June 10)]
Memorable Documentaries
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
The standout documentary from Sundance not only lives up to the hype, it suprassses it. Saving footage of the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival from being lost to time, director Questlove has created a breathing historical document that must be experienced for both its music as well as its historical relevance. — CH
[Streaming on Hulu]
All Light Everywhere
This supremely weird yet engrossing experimental documentary is concerned with our modern surveillance society — by way of the dark intertwined history of overreaching and frequently discriminatory attempts to scientific advances to criminology — has stuck with me like almost nothing else from Sundance (Flee would’ve easily made my list, but Neon hasn’t yet given it a wide release). I think of the contradictions of observation — who’s watching, who’s being watched, and which are privileged — whenever the twenty-four hour news cycle has too-frequent occasion to show body-mounted camera footage of police altercations with civilians vs. civilian filmed interactions of overreaching law enforcement. Theo Anthony’s perspective is wide-ranging, his methods are kaleidoscopic, and the result is an unshakeable reordering of the viewer’s worldview. — JB
[In limited theatrical release]
Challenging and Rewarding Dramas
Les nôtres (Our Own)
This is the least “fun” of the year for me, though it is no less of a standout. An incisive look at a seemingly benign Canadian town that is built upon a simmering ugliness, Les nôtres follows a young girl who becomes pregnant and the horrifying realities beyond what happened. It left me sick to my stomach at many moments, though only because of how bravely unflinching it was. — CH
[Available to rent on various platforms]
Quo Vadis, Aida?
This is kind of a cheat, since Jasmila Zbanic’s breathtaking and heartbreaking account of a UN translator’s increasingly desperate attempts to save her family as Srebrenica’s alleged NATO “safe zone” on the verge of collapse into massacre competed in the Best International Feature category at this spring’s long-delayed Academy Awards (where it lost to Another Round — Mads Mikkelsen is hard to beat). As Aida Selmanagić, Jasna Đuričić’s magnetic performance makes this an incredible indictment, a gut punch of a reckoning, and a heartbreakingly assured piece of filmmaking that’s impossible to ignore. — JB
[Streaming on Hulu].
Censor
Another Sundance standout for me, Censor is both homage and reimagining of the era of the video nasties horror craze that would become a moral panic. Both deeply unsettling and extraordinarily well crafted, it marks director Prano Bailey-Bond as one to watch. — CH
[Available to rent on various platforms]
Funny Business
Together Together
I caught this film at the tail end of SIFF 2021 and while it got a little love, it didn’t catch fire as an indie hit like I thought it would. Basically heading straight to VOD in May this sweet, goofy, and sometimes heart-squeezing story deserved a lot more attention. What really hooked me was the writer’s adamant desire to kill all romantic notions between two protagonists and build on the platonic love that grew between them. A woman doesn’t need a romantic relationship to complete her life and a man doesn’t have to be in a loving relationship to want to be a dad. But we do need people to support us, cheer us on and just be there. I feel this one in my bones. — MS
[Available to rent on various platforms]
Werewolves Within
When I first reviewed Werewolves Within, I wrote about how much I had an urge to see it again for a second time. Having recently done just that, the horror-comedy about a group of townspeople who get snowed in and must determine who among them is a werewolf has only further solidified its place as being one of the best of the year. — CH
[Available to rent on various platforms]
Outstanding Animation
Raya and the Last Dragon
I’d been really looking forward to this one and a little bit of Disney happy to bookend the crazy-crappy year. Happily they’ve started making an effort to avoid whitewashing the histories and cultures of the non-white stories they’re telling these days and it makes a big difference. Oddly, for the first time ever, I thought Awkwafina’s voice was too cheery for the part of the dragon; but generally I was excited to see such an authentic and star-studded cast of voice actors. Another boon, the story itself built upon the strength and courage of a woman left to her own devices (without the help of a man, hooray!) Highly entertaining and very fun. — MS
[Streaming on Disney+]
Wish Dragon
I was skeptical about another dragon-themed animated film, especially one coming out of Netflix (despite my previous gushing statements about another of their animated releases) versus one from the “more legitimate” Disney. The storyline felt all too familiar since Raya had been available to stream on Disney+ for two months already. While the dragons in both films strongly resembled each other, that’s basically where the similarities end. Both were stacked with stellar voices and nary a white actor in the bunch thankfully, but Netflix’s release is focused on wealth, greed and self-esteem where Disney’s focused on tradition, trust and working together. With a lot more giggles and sweetness Wish has a more playful vibe, but both are worth a watch especially if you have a little one at home that is hungry for new entertainment. — MS
[Streaming on Netflix]
The Mitchells Versus the Machines
An unexpected delight one weekend evening, I was absolutely enchanted by The Michells Versus the Machines. As a Netflix release, I definitely expected a good time, but I wasn’t prepared for how absolutely well-written and acted it would be. It could have been released as a Pixar film and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised (except the artistic style isn’t quite the same of course). It had just a bit of drama to create a good story, relatable characters and an off-the-wall storyline that still seemed slightly plausible enough to imagine your own family going through it all. I’d say that this was definitely the best animated film I’ve seen this year if not the best film all around. Don’t sleep on this film just because its a streaming release; it’ll make your week … heck your month! — MS
[Streaming on Netflix]
Luca
I think adults often over-estimate the depth of Pixar features, giving the studio a glow of extra credit for the regularity with which their animators can move us to tears with laser-focused bursts aimed straight at our well-weathered grown-up emotional centers. They’re a nice reminder that our cold hearts aren’t completely withered and I’m not immune to a good cry, but sometimes find myself exhausted by the manic chases and heightened stakes that surround these precise nostalgia-extraction-devices. Maybe that’s why Luca and its more whimsical, less photorealistic animation felt so special and a blissfully different. Sure, there’s a requisite chase scene, but instead of a run for their lives, it’s a funny local triathlon that involves a rainy bicycle race up a hill and through a charming town, a slow swim out into the bay, and a pasta-eating contest, all for a small cash prize that could barely cover the costs of a broken down Vespa. Buoyed by a plucky Dan Romer soundtrack, set in an amalgamated version of the Cinque Terre on Italy’s Ligurian coast, this seaside coming-of-age tale of tweenage sea-monsters grappling with friendship, family, identity, and the scope of their dreams may be small in scale, but perfectly large of heart. — JB
[Streaming on Disney+]