Here we go, approaching another year into the pandemic. And honestly, the previous year has been a pretty awful one, especially if you’re living in the Philippines, but thanks to the gift of cinema for making it a little bearable.
So here’s a rundown of my favorite titles from 2021. It’s actually my first time doing this, and hopefully I can commit to this writing tradition. And yes, I’m combining film and TV in a single list, because why not?
It’s also way easier to track the titles I’ve seen last year, since I’ve finally created a Letterboxd account in late 2020, and according to my log, I saw 246 titles in the entirety of 2021, but I know that count doesn’t include the 14 short films and the 53 seasons of 24 TV shows I’ve consumed that aren’t available on the platform yet.
Now my top 15 films and TV shows of 2021, ranked in order of preference:
1. ‘Drive My Car’ (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi) / ‘The Worst Person in the World’ (dir. Joachim Trier)
I refuse to choose between these two therapeutic masterworks, so here’s a well-deserved tie. Both films, in a nutshell, portray an emotional landscape that translates beyond the screen and really stays with you, so it’s a grave injustice to reduce these films to the Best International Feature Film category.
2. ‘Flee’ (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
A sublime miracle of a piece.
3. ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ (dir. Shaka King)
Knife-sharp! Best film about Black America in recent memory. Revolution is indeed the only solution.
4. ‘Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy’ (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Wow, Hamaguchi and the blessing that he is! To think of this film as too simple and too mundane would be a horribly shallow reading. If you don’t trust me, well, just see for yourself.
5. ‘Memoria’ (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
This film confirms my penchant for slow cinema. It’s certainly weird, but this is my kind of weird.
6. ‘On the Job: The Missing 8’ (dir. Erik Matti)
I don’t think I will ever be comfortable watching any work of this kind, but I totally understand the bleakness. This is the story of our sad republic.
7. ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ (dir. Lin-Manuel Miranda)
This film legit hit me so hard as a struggling writer/artist, if I can even call myself that. Andrew Garfield for Best Actor!
8. ‘Succession’ Season 3 (HBO; dirs. various)
Wild, sick, messy and hilarious. Still going gaga over this dysfunctional family drama. Maybe television does rule.
9. ‘Kun Maupay Man It Panahon’ (dir. Carlo Francisco Manatad)
One of the two films that I saw in an actual cinema, and in the words of the terrific Emil Hofileña, “this is the kind of film that makes you want to defend Philippine cinema with your life.”
10. ‘The French Dispatch’ (dir. Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson has clearly out Wes Andersoned himself in this visual spectacle of a film.
11. ‘Petite Maman’ (dir. Céline Sciamma)
One of those pieces that gives so much in so little. Disarmingly well-written!
12. ‘Titane’ (dir. Julia Ducournau)
It doesn’t make sense, but I think that’s exactly the point. It’s exhilarating because it subverts our perceptions of cinema. That’s the thing about art: it doesn’t always offer concrete answers.
13. ‘Pig’ (dir. Michael Sarnoski)
Who would have thought that a story about a kidnapped pig could convey such emotional depth?
14. ‘Red Rocket’ (dir. Sean Baker)
I hate to break it to you, Joachim Trier, but Mikey Saber is the worst person in the world. I’m not getting anywhere near this guy.
15. ‘The Humans’ (dir. Stephen Karam)
One with a discerning eye for detail knows that the writing is so good when the writer manages to create something propulsive and pleasurable out of a confined environment. Yes, I completely envy you, Stephen!
Here are the rest of 2021 titles that I would gladly recommend, in alphabetical order:
‘Big Night’ (dir. Jun Lana)
‘Bo Burnham: Inside’ (dir. Bo Burnham)
‘CODA’ (dir. Sian Heder)
‘Dune’ (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
‘Euphoria: F*ck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob’ (dir. Sam Levinson)
‘In the Heights’ (dir. Jon M. Chu)
‘Luca’ (dir. Enrico Casarosa)
‘Mare of Easttown’ (HBO; dir. Craig Zobel)
‘Modern Love’ Season 2 (Amazon Prime Video; dirs. various)
‘Money Heist’ Season 5 (Netflix; dirs. various)
‘On the Job’ (HBO; dir. Erik Matti)
‘Parallel Mothers’ (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
‘Pose’ Season 3 (FX/Netflix; dirs. various)
‘Romeo & Juliet’ (dir. Simon Godwin)
‘Sex Education’ Season 3 (Netflix; dirs. Ben Taylor & Runyararo Mapfumo)
‘Special’ Season 2 (Netflix; dirs. Anna Dokoza & Craig Johnson)
‘Spencer’ (dir. Pablo Larraín)
‘The Green Knight’ (dir. David Lowery)
‘The Hand of God’ (dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
‘The Man with the Answers’ (dir. Stelios Kammitsis)
‘The Power of the Dog’ (dir. Jane Campion)
‘The Rescue’ (dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin)
‘The Witcher’ Season 2 (Netflix; dirs. various)
‘Young Royals’ Season 1 (Netflix; dirs. Rojda Sekersöz & Erika Calmeyer)
My favorite performances of the year are any of these *40* whose works left an indelible impression on me, listed alphabetically:
John Arcilla (‘On the Job: The Missing 8’)
Christian Bables (‘Big Night’)
Nicolas Cage (‘Pig’)
Henry Cavill (‘The Witcher’ Season 2)
Anya Chalotra (‘The Witcher’ Season 2)
Penélope Cruz (‘Parallel Mothers’)
Lotlot De Leon (‘On the Job: The Missing 8’)
Kirsten Dunst (‘The Power of the Dog’)
Andrew Garfield (‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’)
Emilia Jones (‘CODA’)
Daniel Kaluuya (‘Judas and the Black Messiah’)
Troy Kotsur (‘CODA’)
Anders Danielsen Lie (‘The Worst Person in the World’; ‘Bergman Island’)
Vincent Lindon (‘Titane’)
Toko Miura (‘Drive My Car’)
Ruth Negga (‘Passing’)
Hidetoshi Nishijima (‘Drive My Car’)
Masaki Okada (‘Drive My Car’)
Dev Patel (‘The Green Knight’)
Daniel Padilla (‘Kun Maupay Man It Panahon’)
Jesse Plemons (‘Judas and the Black Messiah’)
Renate Reinsve (‘The Worst Person in the World’)
Simon Rex (‘Red Rocket’)
Rans Rifol (‘Kun Maupay Man It Panahon’)
Agathe Rousselle (‘Titane’)
Charo Santos-Concio (‘Kun Maupay Man It Panahon’)
Filippo Scotti (‘The Hand of God’)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (‘The Power of the Dog’)
Lakeith Stanfield (‘Judas and the Black Messiah’)
Kristen Stewart (‘Spencer’)
Tilda Swinton (‘Memoria’)
Dennis Trillo (‘On the Job: The Missing 8’)
Mia Wasikowska (‘Bergman Island’)
Alex Wolff (‘Pig’)
And the ensembles of:
‘In the Heights’
‘Mare of Easttown’
‘Pose’ Season 3
‘Succession’ Season 3
‘The Humans’
Thanks to Letterboxd for making life easier for me. Here are my 50 favorite non-2021 titles that I’ve seen for the first time in 2021, all good for five stars, ranked in order of preference:
1. ‘Mirror’ (1975; dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
2. ‘Oslo, August 31st’ (2011; dir. Joachim Trier)
3. ‘Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan’ (2013; dir. Lav Diaz)
4. ‘Tokyo Story’ (1953; dir. Yasujirō Ozu)
5. ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948; dir. Vittorio De Sica)
6. ‘The Cranes Are Flying’ (1957; dir. Mikhail Kalatozov)
7. ‘The Ascent’ (1977; dir. Larisa Shepitko)
8. ‘Andrei Rublev’ (1966; dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
9. ‘Shoeshine’ (1946; dir. Vittorio De Sica)
10. ‘Ballad of a Soldier’ (1959; dir. Grigoriy Chukhray)
11. ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ (1999; dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
12. ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ (2013; dirs. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
13. ‘Central Station’ (1998; dir. Walter Salles)
14. ‘The 400 Blows’ (1959; dir. François Truffaut)
15. ‘Au Revoir les Enfants’ (1987; dir. Louis Malle)
16. ‘Batang West Side’ (2001; dir. Lav Diaz)
17. ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946; dir. Frank Capra)
18. ‘Cleaners’ (2019; dir. Glenn Barit)
19. ‘La Jetée’ (1962; dir. Chris Marker)
20. ‘Manila by Night’ (1980; dir. Ishmael Bernal)
21. ‘Rome, Open City’ (1945; dir. Roberto Rossellini)
22. ‘Make Way for Tomorrow’ (1937; dir. Leo McCarey)
23. ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
24. ‘La Vie en Rose’ (2007; dir. Olivier Dahan)
25. ‘Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino’ (2004; dir. Lav Diaz)
26. ‘Letter Never Sent’ (1960; dir. Mikhail Kalatozov)
27. ‘Himala’ (1982; dir. Ishmael Bernal)
28. ‘Cold War’ (2018; dir. Paweł Pawlikowski)
29. ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ (2001; dir. Wes Anderson)
30. ‘Requiem for a Dream’ (2000; dir. Darren Aronofsky)
31. ‘Z’ (1969; dir. Costa-Gavras)
32. ‘Modern Times’ (1936; dir. Charlie Chaplin)
33. ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ (1959; dir. Alain Resnais)
34. ‘Battleship Potemkin’ (1925; dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
35. ‘Night and Fog’ (1956; dir. Alain Resnais)
36. ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003; dir. Bong Joon-ho)
37. ‘The Man Who Sleeps’ (1974; dir. Bernard Queysanne)
38. ‘Manchester by the Sea’ (2016; dir. Kenneth Lonergan)
39. ‘Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon’ (2014; dir. Lav Diaz)
40. ‘Sorry We Missed You’ (2019; dir. Ken Loach)
41. ‘Oda sa Wala’ (2018; dir. Dwein Baltazar)
42. ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (2016; dir. Ken Loach)
43. ‘First Cow’ (2019; dir. Kelly Reichardt)
44. ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ (2020; dir. Eliza Hittman)
45. ‘Nomadland’ (2020; dir. Chloé Zhao)
46. ‘Misteryo sa Tuwa’ (1984; dir. Abbo Dela Cruz)
47. ‘Yi Yi’ (2000; dir. Edward Yang)
48. ‘I May Destroy You’ (2020; BBC/HBO; dirs. Sam Miller & Michaela Coel)
49. ‘So Long, My Son’ (2019; dir. Wang Xiaoshuai)
50. ‘Cléo from 5 to 7’ (1962; dir. Agnès Varda)
Here’s the other half to make 100:
51. ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ (2019; dir. Céline Sciamma)
52. ‘Close-Up’ (1990; dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
53. ‘Umberto D.’ (1952; dir. Vittorio De Sica)
54. ‘Magnolia’ (1999; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
55. ‘Sans Soleil’ (1983; dir. Chris Marker)
56. ‘The Pianist’ (2002; dir. Roman Polanski)
57. ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
58. ‘Minari’ (2020; dir. Lee Isaac Chung)
59. ‘Leave No Trace’ (2018; dir. Debra Granik)
60. ‘We Are Who We Are’ (2020; HBO/Sky Atlantic; dir. Luca Guadagnino)
61. ‘Sound of Metal’ (2019; dir. Darius Marder)
62. ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ (2001; dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
63. ‘Insiang’ (1976; dir. Lino Brocka)
64. ‘Moonlight’ (2016; dir. Barry Jenkins)
65. ‘Watchmen’ (2019; HBO; dirs. various)
66. ‘Shithouse’ (2020; dir. Cooper Raiff)
67. ‘Spontaneous’ (2020; dir. Brian Duffield)
68. ‘One Cut of the Dead’ (2017; dir. Shinichiro Ueda)
69. ‘Corpus Christi’ (2019; dir. Jan Komasa)
70. ‘Sa Ngalan ng Tubo’ (2005; dir. Onin Tagaro)
71. ‘A Summer’s Tale’ (1996; dir. Éric Rohmer)
72. ‘Where Is My Friend’s House?’ (1987; dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
73. ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (2014; dir. Wes Anderson)
74. ‘The Godfather’ (1972; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
75. ‘Driveways’ (2019; dir. Andrew Ahn)
76. ‘Transit’ (2018; dir. Christian Petzold)
77. ‘Welcome to Chechnya’ (2020; dir. David France)
78. ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (2002; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
79. ‘1985’ (2018; dir. Yen Tan)
80. ‘Poetry’ (2010; dir. Lee Chang-dong)
81. ‘Saint Frances’ (2019; dir. Alex Thompson)
82. ‘By the Grace of God’ (2018; dir. François Ozon)
83. ‘Certified Copy’ (2010; dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
84. ‘Signos’ (1984; dir. Mike de Leon)
85. ‘Edward’ (2019; dir. Thop Nazareno)
86. ‘On the Job’ (2013; dir. Erik Matti)
87. ‘Respeto’ (2017; dir. Alberto Monteras II)
88. ’45 Years’ (2015; dir. Andrew Haigh)
89. ‘Moulin Rouge!’ (2001; dir. Baz Luhrmann)
90. ‘Batch ‘81’ (1982; dir. Mike de Leon)
91. ‘Oliver’ (1983; dir. Nick Deocampo)
92. ‘The Wailing’ (2016; dir. Na Hong-jin)
93. ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ (2020; Netflix; dir. Scott Frank)
94. ‘Honor Thy Father’ (2015; dir. Erik Matti)
95. ‘Billie and Emma’ (2018; dir. Samantha Lee)
96. ‘Himala: Isang Diyalektika ng Ating Panahon’ (2020; dir. Lav Diaz)
97. ‘Sunday Beauty Queen’ (2016; dir. Baby Ruth Villarama)
98. ‘Transit’ (2013; dir. Hannah Espia)
99. ‘Overseas’ (2019; dir. Sung-a Yoon)
100. ‘Chernobyl’ (2019; HBO; dir. Johan Renck)
