2021 Top Ten (Categories).- #1

 1. Behold! Cinema!

Thank you, Katie Mitchell (of THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES) for the perfect title for my top category. These movies, for me, transcend the notion of "lists" and "best of"s. If the other categories are the colors of the rainbow, these are the eighth color -- what Pratchett would call Octarine, or the color of Magic. Sound cheesy? I don't care. These movies all rocked my face clean off. They are all gigantic swings from at least two directors who are known for wild swings (and I'd argue the third has been making them for at least his two most recent films, but he's still a bit defined by his previous work). All of these movies have made me rethink what movies even are, and they are far and away my favorites of the year.

(All of these movies are currently available to rent on streaming services and will be avaiable to own digitally or on physical media over the next few weeks.)

Ladies and gentlemen, we now ask for your complete attention. If you want to sing, laugh, clap, cry, yawn, boo or fart, please, do it in your head, only in your head. You are now kindly requested to keep silent and to hold your breath until the very end of the show. Breathing will not be tolerated during the show. So, please take a deep, last breath right now. Thank you.

An insult comic and an opera singer fall in love and have a puppet baby, and then things get *really* weird. French director Leos Carax and the American band Sparks have different sensibilities, but they're compatible sensibilities and the marriage between them makes for something really special. The opening sequence, the fourth-wall-breaking "So May We Start," charmed me so thoroughly that I was ready for anything this movie had in store for me. And everyone in that scene seems so game for what they're about to show us, it's impossible not to be excited. What's in store might not be what you expect or might not be your cup of tea, but I don't think you could say that everyone here wasn't making exactly the movie they wanted to make -- they all "understood the assignment," as the internet loves to say.

There are so many incredible scenes -- many of which I included in my little collage above. The aforementioned opening number. Simon Helberg's conducting number. The storm and its aftermath. Annette's first performance. The incredible final sequence. Even the much snickered over love scenes are beautifully done and don't feel tawdry or merely expository. And it's all woven together by a bunch of original Sparks songs (and a couple of throwbacks), all of which feel very much like their music and not like they're trying to fit them into someone else's story -- this IS their story. I'm so happy that, after previous disappointments trying to collaborate on other movies, Ron and Russell Mael have finally gotten their chance. And I'm even happier that the result is so striking and rich. [Original review here.] 

***

This is London. Someone has died in every room in every building and on every street corner in the city.

For as long as I can remember, there has been immense nostalgia for the 1960s -- the fashion, the music, the films, the activism. It was a huge turning point in the 20th century and loads of people still look back on that time as the good old days. Director Edgar Wright is no exception, even though the 60s was a bit before his time (not unlike his film's protagonist, Ellie), and in many ways this movie is a love letter to 1960s London. A love letter that is ripped apart and thrown into a fire over the course of the movie's runtime. When 60s-obsessed Ellie discovers she can somehow travel back to that time and experience it vicariously through would-be singer Sandie, she has an absolute ball and Sandie's life seems nothing but exciting possibilities. But each successive time she goes back, things get worse and more nightmarish. The 60s, it turns out, were not so great for everyone, especially women -- most especially women who came to the big city with big dreams and dared to think they could make them come true.

This is not a movie that is interested in a tightly wound plot where everything fits neatly together and makes perfect sense. That is not a criticism; quite the opposite. This movie is all about the experience and atmosphere. There is all the technical skill and visually arresting filmmaking that you'd expect from an Edgar Wright movie, but it's the way he uses it that is striking here. The movie has the vibrancy of a Technicolor musical but the seediness of an early slasher (early like, say, PEEPING TOM). And I love that this is a horror movie about women where the boogeymen are ... men. Creepy, putrid men who feel entitled to women's time, attention and even their bodies. Subtle it might not be, but when it comes to this subject matter, frankly, screw subtlety. You'd never expect a movie like this from the guy who made SHAUN OF THE DEAD (another movie I adore, but which couldn't be more different than this), and that may be what I find most exciting about it. He's a filmmaker who has an artist's sensibility but also values what's fun and entertaining. Whatever he's up to next, I'm here for it. [Original review here.] 

***

I don’t care who you are. You will always be my son.

I watched the trailer for this movie and read a bit about it, mainly what had been publicly released about the premise, and one of my favorite things about this movie is that all I knew about it was covered in the first third of the movie before it took a hard left into something I truly did not expect. And when the movie starts as buck wild as this one does -- where a woman has sex with a car and then becomes a serial killer -- you'd think hard left means it gets even wilder, but no. We go from mechanophilia to murder and arson to -- BAM -- compelling personal drama that explores identity, gender, and family. With a good dose of body horror because the movie never quite forgets its bonkers first act and the things it sets up that still need to be resolved. There are some truly cringy body horror moments in this -- from a nipple ring detangling to Alexia trying to break her own nose to basically every time we see that baby bump (to say nothing of the birth).

Famed French actor Vincent Lindon is the star of this show, even if he's arguably not the main character, and he's certainly the heart of this movie. But obviously Agathe Rousselle, in her feature film debut, makes a hell of an impression as Alexia/Adrien. Many people will point to the car show sequence (top right photo in collage) as the highlight of her performance and one of the highlights of the film. And it's certainly ... something. I like the dancing firemen myself. Every frame of this movie is gorgeous, even the cringy stuff, and this was an incredible follow-up to Ducournau's previous film, RAW, which was in my top 5 of 2016. I'm fascinated by her choices and what she values as a filmmaker and I hope she has a long and wild-ass career. If her first two films are anything to go on, I think that's a safe bet.