That brings me to the reason you're here. What recommendations have I got, and what things are probably worth a miss?
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Based On A Book
There are a few options here, honourable mentions go to Passing (Netflix), Last Letter From Your Lover, and Fatherhood (Netflix). All very good, and two will make an appearance later, but I was really impressed with one of Netflix's other creations this year.
Taking advantage of R.L. Stine's prolific love of horror, Netflix made a trilogy of the Fear Street novels. Fear Street: Part One - 1994 starts us off in Shadyside where a massacre and a local legend set a group of teens on a quest to lift the curse and save their town. Part Two: 1978 takes us to Camp Nightwing and the history of Sarah Fier's story starts to evolve, with Part Three: 1666 taking us back to where it all began.
I was a little sceptical about the fact these were all individual stories but somehow connected, turns out that I needn't have been. It definitely helped watching them more or less consecutively. There wasn't really enough time to forget something that happened when I watched them over the space of a couple of days. All three films came together well and I thought it was really interesting using the same actors across the three instalments.
Films In A Franchise
I saw just over 30 franchise films, sequels and prequels this year, and the quality varied wildly... but there are three that warrant a special mention.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife was a wonderful mix of old and new. The nostalgia had me bawling, I loved it. And honestly, baby Pufts are some of the cutest things I've seen all year. I would highly recommend checking it out, it's definitely going to be in my permanent collection.
No spoilers, the next one is No Time To Die. I've never really been a fan of Daniel Craig as Bond, I'm a Brosnan girl through and through, so the wait for this wasn't too much of a worry. The 2 hour 43 minute runtime... it probably didn't need to be that long, and I did have some quibbles about things (because of course I did), but it was a great film that made some bold choices. Probably won't top Goldeneye and Skyfall in my rankings, but a very satisfying end to Craig's tenure.
My last mention isn't for positive reasons I'm afraid. I knew all about the Halloween series but had never actually watched any of them, so when they did Halloween in 2018 I had to watch the original for the first time. The new film blew me away and I was excited to see Halloween Kills this year. Having watched every other available film in the franchise (including those Rob Zombie ones that threw any subtlety out the window) I pootled off to the cinema to see it... and came home excessively disappointed. I've got my fingers crossed that Halloween Ends will be a redemption for this latest version, and I would probably suggest holding off watching Kills until the next one is released so that you can watch them all together. This of course is hoping that the third one isn't quite as angry.
London Film Festival 2021
LFF21 was a little daunting. It was absolutely wonderful to be back in the cinema, and seeing so many familiar faces again, but coming out of what basically amounted to hermit status to be around so many people was a little odd.
There were plenty of good films to see, and I don't think any of them left me disappointed. (Confused maybe, but not disappointed.) As is always the way, I couldn't get to all the films I wanted, and in the end, I saw 18 new films without hitting the wall like the first year!
I've got two recommendations for you from everything that I saw, the first is Mass. In the aftermath of a community tragedy, two couples come together to talk about the incident. This may not be for everyone and I'd advise some caution as the incident in question is a school shooting, but if you feel it's something you can watch I would hope you'd find it a moving experience. I'm not sure there's any way for me to truly explain how I felt about Mass. It is an oddly peaceful yet heavy-hitting piece of drama. It doesn't clutter the story at all, and it manages to bring up some very conflicting feelings. Now, although I saw this in October it's actually not released until 2022, and I believe it's coming to Sky on January 20th, if you're feeling up for it then it's worth catching.
As that is not technically a 2021 release, my second pick is Encounter. I couldn't work this into my schedule, but because wanted to see it so badly I brought a ticket to an evening screening to make sure I got in. Encounter follows Malik Khan and his two sons as he tries to protect them from an alien threat. If you aren't a sci-fi fan I beg you not to judge this film by its synopsis. I loved the way Encounter unfolded, and it took me by surprise more than once. You can find it on Prime Video in the UK, and it's worth checking out if you get the chance.
Outstanding Performance
I don't need to go into much detail about the film itself for this as you've just read it above. Outstanding performance this year has to go to Encounter. Riz Ahmed, who I can take or leave in a film, was incredible as Malik. Every scene he was in was stellar and I don't think there was a moment that I could fault him for. But it's not just his performance that stood out.
Child actors can be a challenging watch from time to time, and Encounter's whole plot has Malik's two sons in quite prominent positions throughout. Lucian-River Chauhan (Jay Khan) and Aditya Geddada (Bobby Khan) performed better than some seasoned actors I've seen in films over the years. Considering what their storylines dropped them in... I was flabbergasted. That's the right word, no other would do. Chauhan has done a couple of other things, and this was Geddada's first outing on the big screen, I really hope that we get to see them popping up in other things further down the line.
Why Would You Do That To Me?
This category is saved for the films that devastated me the most. 2021's winner is Last Letter From Your Lover... I sobbed, almost so hard that I was gasping and wailing, not really sure how I managed to keep it together in all honesty. I left the cinema and could barely talk to anyone. It was a great film, and although it's different from the source material, it sounds like the changeup has actually been a successful one. A+, would recommend.
Best Surprises
Luckily there were a few great surprises for me this year, so I'll just give you the highlights very quickly as I'm well aware I've already waffled a lot.
No Time To Die gave me a lot to think about, certainly a preference among the Craig era, as I mentioned above, but also where this leaves the franchise going forward. It's a fun topic of discussion, but I won't have it here because spoilers.
The film Nobody looked like it could be good, I was not disappointed. I was more disappointed in myself that I only rated it 4.5 stars. John Wick if he was a regular(ish) guy, handing out a beating while taking one himself. Bob Odenkirk played his role incredibly well and the supporting cast were top notch. It's a great laid back action film with some light humour thrown in for good measure, check it out if action is your thing.
Nicolas Cage will pop up again in a bit, but I was very pleasantly surprised by Pig. Niche in the bizarrest of ways, and yet somehow managed to leave me thinking much deeper thoughts than I'm used to during a Cage film. I don't know who to recommend this to really, but you should probably all try and tackle it at some point.
Paw Patrol... no, I've not gone insane. I don't care what anyone says... this was a great film. End of story.
The Snap
The Snap is my own Thanos driven purge of things that have disappointed and/or made me scream "MY EYES!!!!!!" throughout the year. Let's make this trauma as painless as possible shall we?
Copshop... so much promise... so few results. It wasn't quite gritty enough to properly be a thriller and it wasn't quite ridiculous enough (and it was pretty ridiculous) to be on the comedy action side of things. Lots of potential, some good actors from the right sorts of genres, but somewhere along the way it couldn't pull it all off.
The Little Things, again, solid idea with a good cast. This sort of film has Denzel written all over it... but somewhere along the way it felt like it gave up. I scored it 2.5 out of 5, but on reflections that may be a little generous.
Zack Snyder's Justice League... I know people asked for it, but it's not like this was the version we would have got if he's been able to finish it before... don't come for me. I enjoyed the first Justice League, was it perfect? No, but I had fun. I'm willing to concede that some of the things that were cut out were a travesty. This version wasn't for me though. If you want to see what my cut of the movie would have been like head over and read my "review"... warning for spoilers though.
You know I love me some mindless violence. Something you might not know is that I really love the last Mortal Kombat film, so a new one was high on my watchlist. This Mortal Kombat wasn't really a film though, it was very much an advert for more films.
Pass The Time Turner
There are films that seem to fly by, I remember worrying about Blade Runner: 2049, but when I checked the time there was barely any of the film left. Then there are others that make me want to go entirely limp in my seat, slide off, lay on the floor and exclaim... how long have I been watching this?!
The winner is definitely the 4 hours and 2 minutes of Zack Snyder’s Justice League... and I watched it twice so that I could compare the two films properly. I'm really pleased with the review I did off the back of it, but I still hate myself a little for doing it.
Honourable mention goes to the first half of Matrix: Resurrections... I genuinely was very bored by most of it, but was pleased that it eventually picked up.
Most Rewatchable
This award goes to my favourite two films this year: Willy's Wonderland and The Mitchells vs the Machines. I love both of these for very different reasons. One is a fantastically manic Nic Cage film, and the other is a fantastically manic family film. You need to watch at least one of them, I'll let you off the other.
Best Shark Film of 2021
Very slim pickings this year for shark films, the ones that were actual shark films were an abomination to the genre. That leaves me with The Suicide Squad starring King Shark. He was the most adorable thing I've ever seen and I would quite happily feed him bad guys as nom noms. A little bit closer to the mark is Aquarium of the Dead, a future classic from The Asylum, it's pure genius and you should definitely check it out.
Favourite Thing Of The Movie Year
It's a close call. The longlist includes King Shark, Yelena's pocket heavy outfit, a meal cooked by Rob from Pig, Nicolas Cage's cleaning skills in Willy's Wonderland. But the outright winner had to Monchi the dog from The Mitchells vs the Machines, he's the clear winner for so many reasons, but I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it.
And that's me for the year. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to my newsletter from my homepage or by clicking here. You'll get a monthly roundup of my movie related mayhem, and special seasonal editions. In the December issue you'll find some of my view stats for this year.
Happy watching, and make sure to let me know what you'd have picked for these categories, in the comments or on Twitter.
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