Ethan Anderton's Top 10 Movies Of 2021

The year 2021 was one of the worst of my adult life. On top of all the fresh hell that the world offered every single day, from insurrection to a pandemic that got worse (again), my incredible dad died unexpectedly at the end of January, and the entire year was filled with my family recovering in the aftermath. But others have had it far worse, and I've been fortunate enough to have at least some reprieve from the passing of 24 frames per second. Films, movies, cinema, whatever you want to call it, they've been there for me every step of the way, even at my lowest point. The darkness of the multiplex, the majesty of the arthouse, and the glow of my home theater kept me from losing my mind. Lifting me up with thrills and laughs, blowing my mind with mesmerizing action, captivating my eyeballs with stunning visuals, warming my heart and soul with love, and even thrusting me head-on into confronting my grief and sadness. The movies were there. They always have been, and even though the landscape for the theatrical experience is changing, they always will be. 

Since I'm limited to writing about only the top 10 movies that I loved unconditionally this year, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least tip my hat to some of those movies that didn't make the cut. There's the surprisingly profound and subdued "Pig" starring Nicolas Cage, the tragedy of Benedict Cumberbatch in Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog," the inspiring sweetness of "CODA," the chilling revenge of "The Card Counter," the delightful short stories of Wes Anderson's "The French Dispatch," the bone-crunching, blood-splattering fun of "Nobody," the high concept tearjearker "Swan Song," and the heartwarming holiday zaniness of "8-Bit Christmas," which packed an emotional gut punch that hit me harder than almost any other movie this year, as strange as that may sound. 

If you need anymore cinema love, make sure you check out the equally passionate top 10 lists of movies from our chief film critic Chris Evangelista, and fellow editors Hoai-Tran Bui and Ben Pearson.

All right, as my father would say, that's enough him-hawing around. Here are my Top 10 Movies of 2021.

This wasn't exactly the best year for Marvel Studios, largely thanks to the underperformance of "Black Widow" and "Eternals" at the box office. But honestly, Marvel's box office failures are still quite successful, and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" helped offset that disappointment. However, it's our friendly neighborhood webslinger that closed out 2021 with a bang and is still raking in the dough into 2022. That's because "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is one of the most thrilling big screen experiences of the year, bringing awe-inspiring action and plenty of surprises, including a masterfully emotional and resonant third act that celebrates the legacy of Spider-Man.

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" is Marvel's best use of the recently introduced multiverse concept yet. When Peter Parker asks Doctor Strange to cast a spell that makes (almost) everyone in the world forget the reveal of his secret identity, thanks to J. Jonah Jameson and Mysterio, he inadvertently creates magical mayhem. The complex spell gone wrong rips open the multiverse and suddenly an assembly of supervillains from other universes who learned the secret identity of Spider-Man have entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the likes of Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) from Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" franchise and Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Electro (Jamie Foxx) from "The Amazing Spider-Man" films. Even with the help of Doctor Strange, it just might be too much to handle for Spider-Man.

However, it's the twists and turns of "No Way Home" that make this a thoroughly entertaining blockbuster. From the arrival of Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire as the respective Spider-Men from their own franchise, to the conflict that arises between the MCU's Peter Parker and Doctor Strange when they can't agree on best way to handle this dangerous situation, the story goes in unexpected directions. But it's the emotional beats that come from the story that make this "Spider-Man" sequel swing spectacularly. When the other versions of Peter Parker enter the story, it's not just a gimmick, it comes with the emotional weight of their own universes, creating an immediate bond between the wall-crawling superheroes. It's blockbuster spectacle and masterful storytelling all at once, and that's when Marvel movies are at their best. 

Remakes may immediately cause endless eye-rolling among cinephiles, but when director Guillermo del Toro is remaking a classic film noir with Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, and David Strathairn, you better damn well pay attention.

"Nightmare Alley" tells a classic morality tale that wouldn't be out of place among the best episode of "The Twilight Zone." Though the marketing campaign presented the movie as some kind of creature feature in the seedy world of a traveling carnival, what unfolds is a lesson in humility, faith and trust. Thankfully, del Toro still basks in the darkness of the morally questionable carnival before embarking on a mysterious drifter's rise from rags to riches as a mystifying mentalist. This seedy tale of success in deceptive trickery takes plenty of dark turns, packing ample amounts of suspense and tension.

Aside from Guillermo del Toro's masterful film noir sensibilities, the ensemble cast ignites what's on the page. Bradley Cooper makes for the perfect desperate man, always looking for an angle to get a leg up, never more than one step away from being back in the gutter. Willem Dafoe is the perfect madman responsible for the carnival's most disturbing sideshow, which becomes the backbone of the entire film. But it's the sizzling and sultry Cate Blanchett as Dr. Lilith Ritter who lights up the screen with a single piercing gaze. She's a smokeshow, and if the performance was only her voice, you'd still be hypnotized by her presence. Because of all this and more, "Nightmare Alley" is a twisted cinematic dream.

Even though there's been a lot of backlash surrounding the ever-present popularity of "Hamilton" creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, his directorial debut with the adaptation of Jonathan Larson's autobiographical stage musical of the same name proves that we need to keep him around, as long as it counts out the rapping every now and then.

"tick, tick...BOOM!" follows Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, the creator of what would become the Broadway sensation known as "RENT." But this isn't about how he crafted the revolutionary musical about the AIDS/HIV epidemic. This is about Larson grinding away at a musical called "Superbia" that he's been working on for nearly a decade, and it's one of the most exhilarating and touching films about following your dreams without compromise. It's auto-biographical, filled with self-reflective humor and observations peppered throughout in the form of a recreation of the "tick, tick...BOOM!" stage show that frames the entire story, but it's elevated to something special thanks to the impeccable musical numbers throughout the city streets, rehearsal studios, and both dismal and upscale apartments of New York City, not to mention the iconic Moondance diner as a prominent location.

With Miranda's direction, this musical soars, but it's Garfield who makes it sing, literally and figuratively. Not only does he have an amazing voice, but the energy he brings to "tick, tick...BOOM!" goes from tremendously joyous to heartbreakingly forlorn. From the opening musical number "30/90" with Garfield banging away on the piano to the emotional powerhouse performance of "Why," Garfield is astounding, and the songs are brilliant too. I'll take this over a traditional biopic any day of the week and twice on Tuesday.

Honestly, I can't believe that awards season hasn't latched on to the emotionally charged directorial debut of Fran Kranz. "Mass" debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, telling the story of four parents meeting in a small church community room to hash out unresolved details and feelings in the wake of a school shooting involving both of their kids. One of their kids was a victim in the tragedy, the other was the shooter. The tension is palpable, thanks to four emotionally charged performances by Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, and Reed Birney and a sharp script, also written by Fran Kranz.

You might think that "Mass" is an agenda-driven film simply because of the subject matter. But this is a character-driven movie that focuses on the turmoil that a school shooting has brought upon these parents. The few movies that have focused on such a horrific event often portray the obvious tragedy of it all, but "Mass" digs into the aftermath like no other movie has. Without ever being sympathetic to the shooter, the film reveals a new perspective on the trauma by showing how the parents of the shooter are impacted. It's heart-breaking in a completely different way, as Dowd and Birney express the difficulty of reconciling the love for their son with his horrific actions. On the other end, you have Isaacs and Plimpton, who want retribution and go from having no regard for their pain to crying and embracing with them. 

"Mass" unfolds almost entirely at a table with all four parents talking through the nearly two-hour runtime. But the movie flies by as they run through the gamut of human emotion, anger, joy, sadness, regret, fear, shame, and everything in between. It's deceptively simple, and it's quite a harrowing cinematic experience. It's just a shame that we're living in a time when people aren't exactly champing at the bit for such a tragic drama.

Who would have thought that a dysfunctional family fighting in a robot apocalypse could double as a love letter to cinema, but here we are with the exuberant, colorful explosion that is "The Mitchells vs. The Machines."

Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is an aspiring filmmaker anxious to get out of Michigan and start marching her way through film school. For years she's been clashing with her father (Danny McBride), who doesn't understand her obsession with the technology of making movies on her computer with her adorably goofy dog Doug the Pug and dinosaur-obsessed brother Aaron. But her entire family must work through their differences when an army of artificially intelligent robots start rising up against humanity, resulting in a cross country apocalyptic adventure that's entirely framed within the cinema-loving mind and artistic style of our main character.

Taking a cue from "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," director Michael Rianda uses an animation aesthetic that combines the texture of colorful sketches with stylized computer animation to make for another unique visual feast that stands out from the typical Pixar and DreamWorks fare families have come to expect. From the amusing and eye-popping Katie-Vision to the warped character designs, this movie is full of life in every corner of the frame. But it also packs a hefty heart with a not-so-veiled metaphor for parents accepting their kids, no matter how different they might be. "The Mitchells vs. The Machines" doesn't give us a perfect, fairytale family, but rather a dysfunctional family who doesn't always have to get along to love and respect each other. In a year when many of us were forced to spend much more time at home with our families than we're used to, I don't think you could ask for a better message.