Maya Douglas's Top Ten Fave Movies of 2021 + One
About Maya:
no one likes writing bios about themselves, so i asked my boyfriend to write mine:
“Believe me when I say that Maya watches movies better than ANYONE. She can’t get enough of ‘em. In fact, she hates them! But in spite of this, or maybe perhaps because of it, she was able to exceed her goal of 365 movies within 365 days and finish the year off with a WHOPPING 366!
She is tucked comfortably in the corner of the Fast and the Furious fandom and knows a great film when she sees one. She truly has a great taste in films and she’ll passionately tell all about it in late night instagram DMs. Read her opinions on these movies and then go watch them and see how right she was. Then please reach out to her and convince her to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit with me. Please. Cheers.”
anyway, follow me on letterboxd if you want : mayadotwav
11. BOILING POINT, dir. Philip Barantini
normally i find things like “one shot movies” to be a gimmick at best or a hindrance at worst, but this is functionally important to this film. anyone who has ever worked food service knows this is exactly how claustrophobic and stressful it feels to work in a kitchen environment.
BOILING POINT follows a professional chef (stephen graham) on a busy night in a fancy upscale british eatery sometime around christmas. as you can imagine, he’s about to reach his boiling point.
this movie does a great job of giving you lots of little details and storylines without over-explaining or slapping you in the face with it which, as a viewer, i can really appreciate. treat me like an adult! i can understand subtext! while some storylines were a little out of left field, it’s hard to fault the film for that. people really are just that crazy irl.
one of my favorite scenes is when a different chef - all of whom are stressed out of their minds of course - yells at a waitress because a racist customer complained that his food was undercooked when that ISN’T how lamb is supposed to be prepared. been there, done that!
10. EL PLANETA, dir. Amalia Ulman
i saw this by chance on a one-off tinder date at this sweet local theater that plays underrated gems, cult classics, and etc foreign films. not only did this totally blow my mind, but it made me laugh! multiple times! i notoriously hate comedy films, but this one worked.
genuinely and frequently absurd, the film follows leonor jimenez (director amalia ulman herself) as she navigates being poor with expensive taste, meeting sleazy men, and dealing with her shoplifting mom (ale ulman, her actual mother). it’s shot with documentary-like authenticity, which makes it feel all the more full of heart.
in an opening scene, our protagonist wonders if sucking dick is worth the 19.99 book she was willing to suck dick for. later, she gets wasted on a date with someone she may or may not actually like only to find out he has a girlfriend and kid back home. all of these moments have hilarious deadpan snark. it’s hard not to empathize with our slightly spoiled protagonist.
9. The M4TRIX RESURRECTIONS, dir. Lana Wachowski
a movie i can confidently say most fans didn’t want, but thoroughly enjoyed nonetheless. lana wachowski’s hands were tied and that’s a fact she openly makes fun of early on in this fourth installment. since it was getting made with or without her, she may as well have had as much fun as possible while making it abundantly, aggressively clear, that no! this is not up for interpretation.
keanu reeves is back in action, but this time he’s a depressed video game creator. ah, the soul crushing success of being a millionaire with a flimsy grasp on reality. he goes to therapy, he goes to repetitive work meetings, he runs on a treadmill - but he can’t stop thinking about this trinity-look-a-like at the local coffee shop he feels like he knows.
MATRIX 4 is FULL of some of the most stunning action sequences of 2021, the same slow-mo gun fire you have come to know and love from the series, and plenty of social commentary. come for the nostalgia, stay because it’s just so good.
8. OLD, dir. M. Night Shyamalan
the king of spooky movies with one big, strange twist is back and better than ever. originally convinced i was going to detest this, i ended up having a really great time watching this one.
the dialogue is frequently hokey and over-explanatory to a comical degree, but OLD definitely hits some emotionally strong moments once it’s all in place. getting old is terrifying, especially when it’s happening over the course of 24 hours and there’s nothing you can do about it. kara’s storyline is especially harrowing, as she deals with some very traumatic things all at once. this film creeps you out. you are witnessing pure existential dread for the entire run time.
easily m. night shyamalan’s best film in a long time, with also my favorite of his cameos, this is technically sound and pretty skin crawling. the ending is a little lame, but the rest was so fun it’s easy to forgive.
7. NOBODY, dir. Ilya Naishuller
hell yeah, bob odenkirk kicks some serious ass john wick style. i will never stop eating at the trough of slop that is 90 minute lean, guns akimbo, stylish action films. literally just keep them coming.
6. CENSOR, dir. Prano Bailey-Bond
CENSOR follows a film censor named enid (niamh algar) who spends her work days carefully watching and combing through violent, gory movies for the good of the public. while working on a new film, she starts to realize her sister’s disappearance is more than what it may seem.
eerie and slow burning, with beautiful use of colors and a great score, this directorial debut from prano bailey-bond had me fully entranced. this is someone who fully loves and revels in the horror genre and that affection shows through brightly here. it’s not often i can’t peel my eyes off the screen to scroll twitter, but this had me sucked in.
niamh pulls off a very nuanced deterioration of a woman on the edge of sanity and i’m excited to see what she does next.
5. PIG, dir. Michael Sarnoski
nicolas cage gets the respect he deserves as a seasoned actor in PIG. playing an off the grid truffle hunter, robin, living in a hut with his treasured porker friend, most people are probably coming into this expecting an unhinged meltdown a la MANDY. but nic cage is actually more restrained than that here.
while on a quest for vengeance to hunt down his stolen pig, he meets up with numerous old pals from his time as a famous chef in the city. he also has a bratty young adult named amir (alex wolff) following him around. one of my favorite scenes is when the two of them go to confront a fellow chef and what follows is equally hilarious and heartbreaking.
this isn’t violent vengeance, this is quiet. it will sit with you and it will hit you in the gut.
4. F9, dir. Justin Lin
FAMILY!!!!!!! AM I RIGHT, Y’ALL!!!! YOU ARE ABOUT TO NOTICE A TREND IN MY TOP MOVIES OF 2021. I’M OBSESSED WITH IDEAS OF CHOSEN FAMILY, FINDING YOUR PEOPLE, AND SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH LOVED ONES WHO CHOOSE YOU NOT OUT OF OBLIGATION. NOTHING DOES THAT BETTER THAN THE FAST AND FURIOUS FRANCHISE.
i am biased because fast and furious is my favorite franchise of all time. vin diesel is just so lovable and charming. the action is off the wall. what other action series has the climax of a movie just stealing an entire bank vault and driving away with it? what other series has car-jumping from building to building?! or vehicles being literally dropped from a plane? i just live for this stuff, seriously. i don’t feel the need to expand on this, but if you love action movies i can’t imagine you wouldn’t enjoy the things this one gets into.
they go to space in this one, and that’s not a bit.
3. TITANE, dir. Julia Ducournau
apparently billed as the “most shocking film you’ll see all year!!!” and becoming instantly famous for the fact that within the first half hour our main character has sex with a car, i do find it hard to recommend TITANE. even for someone like myself, who welcomes gratuitous violence/gore/blood/guts, i found the first half hour or so relentlessly brutal. while watching this in theaters, the only other couple got up and left after yelling, “no thanks!” but if you can stomach your way through this, i do think it’s worthwhile.
the violence enacted on and to bodies and especially alexia’s (agathe rousselle) in TITANE is necessary. it’s necessary because it’s the only way you can sympathize with such an unlikeable, emotionally detached protagonist. at the end of the day, we are all only flesh and blood who experience pain and she is certainly no stranger to it. after a childhood incident leaves her implanted with a steel plate in her head, she is a scarred little weirdo who sexily dances on cars for money.
then she decides to assume the identity of a missing kid so she can escape the police. then she finds sanctuary with an aging firefighter (vincent lindon) who’s determined to believe she is his son, even if it ruins his life. all any of us wants is to love and be loved, to have a family to call home, and to be cared for by another person. it’s a matter of what you’re willing to do or choose to believe about people in order to keep loving them.
and this is also a film about feeling trapped within the limitations of your own shitty, aging body, and feeling trapped by your own shitty body doing things out of your control. you can fight tooth and nail to escape your physical form and still not feel okay. you can try desperately to be accepted by your blood family only to be held at arm’s length. or you can find someone who welcomes you to the dinner table.
2. THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, dir. Joachim Trier
whew, this movie kicked my ass. i spent most of the runtime - a lengthy 128 minutes split into 12 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue - wondering if i had been living my own life to its fullest extent or simply making a bunch of callous mistakes only a drifting millennial could make.
julie (renate reinsve) is at a crossroads in her life. and again. and again. every decision she makes, she goes into guns blazing, convinced this time this is The Thing To Commit To only to think “but what if i did this instead?” truly, immensely relatable to a recently turned 29 yr old like myself, with seemingly no direction in life other than following my gut and hoping for the best.
she sees a man from her short-lived photography career, almost immediately leaves him for an older man whom she moves in with, only to later have an intimate and chance encounter with yet another man who could be The One. this film asks the important questions like, are you settling? are you ACTUALLY doing your best? when do you stop searching for something more?
the worst person in the world is not, by far, julie, even if she thinks so because of some of her reckless decisions. this is a tender, sweet film with such a lovely, genuine performance from our lead. we love julie!
and man, that freeze frame running-through-the-city moment was so charming and fun.
1. MALIGNANT, dir. James Wan
james wan presumably loves to direct horror (the conjuring, insidious, this), but where he REALLY shines is in directing action (furious 7 is easily one of the best in the series) and that’s what makes MALIGNANT so much fun. what starts as a run of the mill, haunted house type beat, moves forward into something even better: action thriller goodness, with a hilariously bonkers twist.
in MALIGNANT, madison (annabelle wallis) is a pregnant woman married to an asshole. after a semi scary house chase and getting knocked out, she wakes up to neither husband nor baby. here we fuuuucking go.without spoiling too much, this movie twist was my favorite movie-going experience of the last year by a long shot. stuff like this just doesn’t get MADE.
do i think this could’ve been cut down in length? absolutely, but i’m a firm believer that most movies don’t need to be longer than 90 minutes ever. is the dialogue frequently uninspired? sure. but you don’t go into a wan film expecting oscar-worthy drama. this movie excels in not taking itself too seriously, having an absolutely killer (heh) action reveal sequence, and a literal contortionist (marina mazepa) playing a mysterious murderer.
this movie rules. go in blind, have fun, and choose a god to pray to that we are lucky enough to get more sick films like this. (also big ups to kent “four kents” tong for suggesting this movie.) MOVIE OF THE YEAR, BABY.
OTHER 2021 MOVIES I ENJOYED:
Bad Girls, Benedetta, Lamb, The Last Duel, Hell Hath No Fury
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2021:
Spencer, Licorice Pizza, The Forever Purge, The Lost Daughter
FAVE MOVIES WATCHED IN 2021, BUT NOT RELEASED IN 2021:
Revenge (2018), Undine (2020), Triangle (2009), The Descent (2005), Possessor (2020), Ema (2019), Beast (2017), Columbus (2017), Perfect Blue (1997)
