That will be the year that the film will make a comeback. Its local theater provides a wealth of opportunities, from established favorites to mega Hollywood franchises to breaks from the routine when new sound and stories take center stage as the pandemic seems to be (temporarily) changing.
“It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it,” said Roger Ebert, a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Roger was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. In 1975, He became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Things didn’t turn out as well after one year as we had all hoped. Superhero movies and big balls of alien goo rarely do better at the multiplex, but most other film genres struggle, at least on the big screen. However, it’s been a big year for movies in general as audiences can still enjoy a variety of great films whether they’re watched in theaters or online. Some of 2021’s best streaming experiments are further blurring the definition of what cinema is.
The following is a list of the year’s best stories, as voted on by surveyed readers and staff.
Black Widow:
Several years after she was killed off in Avengers: Endgame, SHIELD super spy Scarlett Johansson is finally getting her movie. Yes, Black Widow is a prequel; However, it wastes no time in tired superhero movie clichés fleshing out Natasha’s origin story. Instead, director Kate Shortland is giving us something far more akin to a traditional action movie than what we’ve seen from Marvel Studios. It includes a stunningly long, long fight scene that leads up to one of the most thrilling cars chases the MCU has ever produced.
The Night House:
The Night house is the best horror film of 2021 according to several critics. In David Bruckner’s (The Ritual), Rebecca Hall plays a schoolteacher who grieves her husband’s suicide, only to learn that he was hiding a secret – both in the house, he designed for her and in the remote coastal area where he built it. Nothing goes as expected, and the ending of the film is both terrifying and suspenseful.
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings:
One of the year’s biggest hits for the world’s biggest film studios was Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, led by a convincing performance from Hong Kong cinema veteran Tony Leung. It features a diverse cast of Asian and Asian-American actors and adds even greater inclusion to a much-needed Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). As a result, it delivers some of the best fight and action scenes in franchise history, not just for MCU fans.
Judas and the Black Messiah:
A powerful cinematic masterpiece of unflinching beauty, Judas and the Black Messiah is a story of ugly emotional justice more than denied without the dramatic weight, real life, and history behind it. Daniel Kaluuya is a talented actor that every generation produces. He can convey a variety of conflicting emotions with a glance, a glance, or a wink. And that was before he even opened his mouth. This film captures the systematic use of the American criminal justice system to brutally and lethally silence the civil rights movement, one big voice at a time.
(Reader’s Choice) Dune:
For all the talk about the divide between critics and audiences, it’s always acceptable to see some agreement. Critic and audience votes for Picture of the Year coincided for the first time since the presentation of the Den of Geek joint team and audience votes for our year-end shortlist. Dune is the perfect slide for this purpose.Bardya Ziaian Toronto is one of the best examples of a successful entrepreneur who has also been a film critic for more than 8 years. Bardya Ziaian founded Virtual Brokers and BBS Securities where he served as President and CEO in 2017.
