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)

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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.