BEST/FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2021: VIEWING EXPERIENCES

THE LOST DAUGHTER (2021)

 

Written & Directed By: Maggie Gyllenhaal Based on the book By: Elena Ferrante  Cinematography: Helene Louvart  Editor: Alfonso Concalves 

Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Dominczyk 

A woman's beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past.

NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN (2013)

 

Written & Directed By: Katrin Gebbe Cinematography: Moritz Schultbieb Editor: Heike Gnida 

Cast: Julius Feldmeier, Sascha Alexander Gersak, Annika Kuhl, Gro Swantje Kohljof, Daniel Michael

The young Tore seeks in Hamburg a new life among the religious group called The Jesus Freaks. When he by accident meets a family and helps them to repair their car, he believes that a heavenly wonder has helped him. He starts a friendship with the father of the family, Benno. Soon he moves in with them at their garden plot, not knowing what cruelty is there to come. True to his religious belief he stays with them although the increasing violence by Benno is torturing him. Tore is fighting the torment with his own weapons. So a dangerous struggle between libidinous actions and altruism begins. Inspired by true events.

LOVE, LIZA (2002)

 

Directed By: Todd Louiso Written By: Gordy Hoffman  Cinematography: Lisa Rinzler  Editor: Katz & Anne Stein 

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Jack Kehler, Stephen Tobolowsky, Erika Alexander, Sarah Koskoff, Kelli Garner 

Following the unexplained suicide of his wife Liza, a web designer turns to gasoline fumes and remote-control airplanes while avoiding an inevitable conflict with his mother-in-law.

ODDS & ENDS: MISCELLANEOUS FAVORITES OF 2021 (PART 2 of 3)

CENSOR

BLACK BEAR (2020)

 

Written & Directed By: Laurence Michael Levine Cinematography: Robert Leitzell Editor: Matthew L. Weiss 

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon, Paola Lozaro, Grantham Coleman, Jennifer Kim, Lindsay Burge, Lou Gonzalez, Shannon O’Neill, Alexander Koch

At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously convoluted their lives will soon become in the filmmaker's pursuit of a work of art, which blurs the boundaries between autobiography and invention.

JEFF OF THE CINEFILES & UNFINISHED BUSINESS: HALL OF FAME - FILE #0068 - FEAR, ANXIETY & DEPRESSION (1989)

 

Written & Directed By: Todd Solondz  Cinematography: Stefan Czapsky  Editor: Peter Austin, Emily Paine & Barry Rubinow

Cast: Todd Solondz, Max Cantor, Alexandra Gersten, Jane Hamper, Stanley Tucci, Anne De Salvo, Jill Wisoff, Kathleen Gati

Ira is a nervous playwright waiting and hoping to succeed with his art, which he takes it very seriously. But following his dreams and ambitions isn't something easy to do, especially when he has to consider the points of view his family, his artist friends and his girlfriend will provide to him whenever he exposes his incomprehensible works of art.

SWEET LIBERTY (1986)

 

Written & Directed By: Alan Alda Cinematography: Frank Tidy Editor: Michael Economou

Cast: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Saul Rubinek, Lise Hilboldt, Lillian Gish, Lois Chiles, John C. McGinley, Lynne Thigpen 

Michael has written a scholarly book on the revolutionary war. He has sold the movie rights. The arrival of the film crew seriously disrupts him as actors want to change their characters, directors want to re-stage battles, and he becomes very infatuated with Faith, who will play the female lead in the movie. At the same time, he is fighting with his crazy mother who thinks the Devil lives in her kitchen, and his girlfriend who is talking about commitment.

ODDS & ENDS: FAVORITES OF 2021 (PART 1 of 3)

THE HAND OF GOD (2021)

 

Written & Directed By: Pablo Sorrentino  Cinematography: Daria D’Antonio  Editor: Cristiano Travaglioli 

Cast: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponagelo, Luisa Ranieli, Marlon Joubert, Renato Carpentier, Massimiliano Gallo, Betty Pedrazzi 

Fabietto Schisa is a boy in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s. The Hand of God is a story full of unexpected joys, such as the arrival of football legend Diego Maradona, and an equally unexpected tragedy. Fate plays its part, joy and tragedy intertwine, and Fabietto's future is set in motion.

SONG TO SONG (2017)

 

Written & Directed By: Terrence Malick  Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki Editor: Hank Corwin, Keith Frase & Rehman Nizarali 

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Val Kilmer, Berniece Marlohe 

Two intersecting love triangles. Obsession and betrayal set against the music scene in Austin, Texas.

TALK TO HER (2002)

 

Written & Directed By: Pedro Almodovar  Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe Editor: Jose Salcedo

Cast: Javier Camara, David Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores, Mariola Fuentes, Geraldine Chaplin

After a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY (aka CHACUN CHERCHE SON CHA) (1996)

Written & Directed By: Cedric Klapisch  Cinematography: Benoit Delhomme  Editor: Francine Sandberg 

Cast: Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem, Olivier Py, Renee Le Calm, Simon Abkarian 

Chloe, a young woman, is going on holidays. She entrusts her beloved cat to Madame Renée's care. But one day Madame Renée (an old lady of the neighborhood) can not find the cat. Chloe starts searching the neighborhood... This is the pretext for the exploration of a quarter of Paris and his inhabitants.

OLD (2021)

Written for the screen & Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan Based on the graphic Novel “SANDCASTLE” By Pierre-Oscar Levy & Fredrik Peters Cinematography: Michael Gioulakis Editor: Brett M. Reed 

Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krepis, Rufus Sewell, Abbey Lee, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Eliza Scanlen, Embeth Daviditz, Aaron Pierre 

A vacationing family discovers that the secluded beach where they're relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day. 

THE TRIP (2021)

 

Directed By: Tommy Wirkola Written By: Tommy Wirkola, Nick Ball & John Niven Cinematography: Matthew Weston Editor: Patrick Larsgaard

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Aksel Hennie, Atle Antonsen, Christian Rubeck, Andre Eriksen, Nils Ole Oftebro, Stig Frode Henriksen

A dysfunctional couple head to a remote cabin to reconnect, but each has intentions to kill the other. Before they can carry out their plans, unexpected visitors arrive and they face a greater danger.

AND SOON THE DARKNESS (2010)

 

Directed By: Marcus Efron Written By: Marcus Efron & Jennifer Derwingson Based on the original screenplay by: Brian Clemens & Terry Nation  Cinematography: Gabriel Beristain  Editor: Todd E. Miller 

Cast: Amber Heard, Karl Urban, Odette Annabale, Adriana Barraza, Gia Mantegna

 When two American girls on a bike trip in a remote part of Argentina split up and one of them goes missing, the other must find her before her worst fears are realized.