#2021films

The Green Knight is too profound – and R-Rated – for young audiences but it’s exactly the kind of formative fantasy adventure you would see as a youth and carry with you for the rest of your life. Visually striking, layered, masterfully conceived by writer/director David Lowery, it knocks you off your feet.

On Christmas Day, the mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) barges into King Arthur’s hall with a game: he will give his enchanted ax to anyone who can land a blow on him but in a year, they must travel to the Green Chapel and receive an equal strike in return. When Gawain (Dev Patel) decapitates the Green Knight, he believes he’s found a loophole - until the eerie stranger picks himself up and tells him they will see each other again.

Based on the 14th-century Arthurian story, this is a faithful adaptation and a revisionist interpretation. It fills the gaps in the original narrative and tweaks the ending to be ambiguous if you’re familiar with the story or deeply mature and self-reflective if you haven’t. The Round Table and its knights evoke images of pure hearts. Gaiwan (he’s no “Sir” yet) is no hero. He's introduced waking up in a brothel next to his lover, Essel (Alicia Vikander). He might love her, but enough to bring her into his world? It's unlikely. When Arthur asks Gaiwan to humor him with a tale of his heroism. He has none to offer. After decapitating the Green Knight, he revels for a year – hardly taking any time to prepare for his quest. He may dress like a knight but we know he isn’t one. He does too.

This is a gorgeous film with striking colors and environments that would inspire the same sort of myths we're seeing. From the sumptuous costumes to the titular Green Knight, there’s so much to look at you kind of want to play the movie at one-tenth the speed so you can drink in every detail - but that would interrupt the story.

The flawed protagonist makes The Green Knight completely unpredictable. You can see who Gaiwan could be if he remembers and learns from the strange encounters along the way to the Green Chapel. In a world where magic is real, it seems possible for him to become a good man. You're unsure. The adult themes with the gore, sex, and disturbing imagery mean unpleasant truths fit right at home in this story.

There’s so much to unpack in The Green Knight. Its themes of legacy and righteousness, the post-credit scene I’m still not sure I understand but only because I’ve only seen the film once, the choice of characters incorporated in the story, the changes that make this feel like it’s the story that inspired the story, the ending, art direction, cast, sets, costumes make it a great film. What takes it to the level are the performances. They aren’t flashy but add so much. Dev Patel is particularly excellent.

It’s not just that I can’t wait to see The Green Knight again; it’s that I need to see it again with others so we can discuss it at length. (January 18, 2021)

Though 2021’s Candyman won't give you nightmares, it makes up for it in unexpected ways. This sequel to the 1992 film expands on the ideas brilliantly. More than that, it makes the film topical and relevant. Stylish, inventive, and completely unpredictable, it’s so much more than a director capitalizing on a property horror fans are nostalgic for.

In the early 1990s, they say a white graduate student named Helen Lyle went on a killing spree in the Cabrini-Green projects. Others claim the real culprit was Candyman, the ghost of a lynching victim who slaughters you with his hook hand if you repeat his name five times while looking in a mirror. Inspired by the urban legend, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) begins painting. When bodies start piling up, he becomes convinced Candyman is responsible.

At the beginning of the film, we hear of Sherman Fields (Michael Hargrove), a one-armed man the police accused of putting razor blades in candy. He was beaten to death years ago. Was he Candyman? He doesn’t have any bee-related motifs but everything else fits, except that he doesn’t look like Tony Todd... Is it just a coincidence? Something else? If Sherman isn’t the Candyman, what’s really going on in the Cabrini-Green projects?

The answers to that question are slowly unraveled, perhaps a bit too slowly for audiences expecting a straightforward supernatural slasher. Just wait. Everything comes together chillingly. Not in a "drops of blood falling from a gory hook" kind of way; writers Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and Nia DaCosta (who directs) imply that the ghosts haunting this place will never go away. Maybe Blacks won’t have to fear the crack of the whip, angry mobs, biased government policies, police officers more interested in taking care of each other than dark-skinned citizens, or narrow-minded trolls on the internet tomorrow but the pain generations felt remains. It won’t be content to sit in a grave waiting to be discovered and you better pray you're not in eyesight when it emerges.

There’s A LOT to unpack in Candyman. On top of that, you also have the tale of an artist whose sanity is eroding that incorporates traditional slasher elements and body horror. Through the use of mirrors (very appropriate), the film makes you question if Anthony has gone off the deep end, if Candyman is possessing him, or if he’s the one guy that can make it all stop.

Candyman would’ve been a better film if it were more frightening and though Nia DaCosta understands that sometimes less is more, more straightforward terror would've been nice. She nonetheless proves herself a promising new face for the genre. Many scenes just make you feel so… off. It’s nothing you can easily pinpoint; it's the way the camera tracks Anthony walking down a seemingly ordinary corridor, the way the light shines on him, the color of the scene, the way the hallway turns... Something's off-kilter. The end credits are also incredible. I was too busy looking at the shadow puppet show that expands on the story we just saw even more to read ANY of the names scrolling by.

2021’s Candyman takes the original as a jumping point and expands upon it, making the mythology infinitely bigger and more fascinating. It’s bold and provocative. (Theatrical version on the big screen, August 28, 2021)

The sequels to Home Alone will seem like evolutionary breakthroughs compared to Home Sweet Home Alone. It captures none of what made the film an instant favorite for kids. With embarrassing attempts at self-deprecating humor will have adults groaning and a lack of laughs, no one could call this a holiday classic… though it did lead me to a slight “eureka” moment.

In the process of selling the home they can no longer afford, Jeff and Pam McKenzie (Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper) suddenly discover they own a grotesque doll worth hundreds of thousands. Unfortunately, it’s gone missing. Believing that Max Mercer (Archie Yates) has stolen it, the parents decide to break into his home to get it back. After all, the Mercer family have all left for a Christmas vacation in Tokyo. There’s no way they’d make the mistake of leaving a 12-year-old home alone…

Everyone remembers the slapstick comedy in 1990’s Home Alone. If you watch it again, you’ll see that the paint buckets on strings, the icy steps, and other makeshift anti-burglary devices only come at the end of the picture. What the film is about first and foremost is growing up. Kevin McCallister is a scared little eight-year-old who learns to overcome his fear of the furnace in the basement and become responsible enough to take care of a household all by himself. In the process, he learns the importance of family. Home Sweet Home Alone skips all of that.

The choice to swap the burglars for people who want what's theirs returned is an immediate misstep. While it makes this a much less scary/threatening scenario for the kiddies, it also makes the injuries suffered unfunny. A simple conversation would've resolved this whole thing. Also, the dimwitted adults seem unsuited to care for their kids…

Many modern-day adjustments make the scenario more relevant and/or plausible. All but one (which has to do with cellphones replacing landlines) are sure to make the picture feel dated immediately. The worst of it concerns every single web search being blocked. It doesn’t make any sense but if Max had the internet, this crazy setup would be over immediately. The talking home assistant gags fare better than the lame winks towards the audience, however. There’s a fun cameo by a Home Alone cast member but director Dan Mazer’s choice to tell us how annoying it is to have beloved classics remade will only prompt you to yell “follow your advice!” at the screen. It’s a shocker to see a name associated with Borat, its sequel, and the Ali G character fumble comedy this badly.

I grew up with Home Alone and was shocked when I saw its 66% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Seeing Home Sweet Home Alone as an adult with no nostalgia towards the new release, I had an epiphany. I now understand how an adult in 1990 could’ve sat down with the John Hughes-written picture and gone “What am I looking at?” Could this mean that this sequel made decades later become a family favorite years down the line? Not a chance. No one would ever recommend this film over the original or even its sequel any time of year. (December 20, 2021)

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 is a near-enough miss that I'm tempted to call it a hit. While it fails to answer some major questions, features a predictable twist, and ends with a whimper, it does tie this trilogy up nicely.

When Deena (Kiana Madeira) bleeds onto the bones of Sarah Fier, she sees the events that led to her execution in 1666. This history lesson is exactly what she, her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), and C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs) need to end the Shadyside curse and save the possessed Sam (Olivia Scott Welch).

1666 makes a major misstep out of the gate by using actors we saw in the previous films to tell Sarah Fier's story. We already have sympathy towards Kiana Madeira’s Deena, Olvia Scott Welch’s Sam, Sadie Sink’s Ziggy, and Benjamin Flores Jr.’s Josh so casting them again is an easy way to ensure an attachment to the new set of characters. It also choreographs what will happen immediately. The series isn’t going to suddenly show us a villainous lesbian when it spent so much time making us hate homophobic characters. This of course tells us what we've previously learned about Sarah Fier will be wrong and dispels any mystery. It's engaging to a point because you get to learn the truth but I was distracted for a moment by an unintentionally hilarious scene. We meet Fier’s father (played by Randy Havens) and your jaw drops. We never actually see the dad in 1994 but is it possible they're played by the same actor off-screen? I have a hard enough time believing the actors playing the kids are related. Related to him? Impossible.

With the truth fully revealed, we jump back to the present (and its glorious nostalgia-fuelled musical choices). It’s the big showdown with the villain and it's time for some payback centuries in the making. The plan is pretty ingenious all things considered but you want that final note to pack more of a punch than it does.

The disappointment we feel isn’t only from the same killers returning once more (300+ year’s worth of monsters, and we only see two new ones?); it's from the un-answered questions. What have Mrs. Lane (Jordana Spiro) and Ms. Berman been doing for 16 years? They haven't solved the mystery or even attempted to leave Shadyside. If you thought it was because a sinister force poisoned their minds and trapped them in the town - as Pennywise did in It - you’re wrong. With the masked killers and psychos showing up on what appears to be a weekly basis and the tragedies ONLY falling upon Shadyside, we still don’t know why people haven’t just up and left the cursed place. They're small gripes but they add up, particularly when the conclusion proves everyone - both heroic and villainous - is dumb as a blood-soaked bag of rocks. If all it takes to turn someone as normal as Tommy Slater into a mass murderer, why didn’t the one responsible for everything just transform Deena, Josh, and Berman’s to get rid of them? It isn’t a plot hole but no one in the movie even acknowledges this as a possibility and when the movie’s not as smart as its audience, it’s frustrating.

I’m coming down harshly upon Fear Street Part Three: 1666 because the good stuff proves it could've been a game-changer like Scream or Cabin in the Woods. Instead, it's merely a reminder of other movies you will revisit before this one. Then again, a post credit scene hints at more to come, so who knows. (July 18, 2021)

Forty years ago, Awake might’ve been original, might’ve been worth seeing. In 2021, it’s tired and derivative, a frustrating movie that serves no purpose and executes its premise so limply you'll question whether anyone could do it right.

After a mysterious power outage, everyone suddenly loses the ability to fall asleep. The longer they stay awake, the more irrational their behavior becomes. As civilization is plunged into chaos, Jill Adams (Gina Rodriguez) realizes her daughter Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) can still fall asleep. She may hold the key to a cure but with the world going mad, is it safer to keep her secret hidden?

When watching a movie, you have to remember that the characters don’t know what kind of story they’re in. If someone wanders into a dark basement, it can be forgiven as long as they take the same kind of precautions you do on an average day. Despite this, movies filled with bad decisions can easily be frustrating. No one wants to cheer for the idiots. The aggravation you feel when someone doesn’t shut a door behind them, goes into a place they’ve got no business exploring, ignores clear instructions, can’t get their head on straight when a life-or-death scenario presents itself are constant in Awake. Worse, they’re compounded by its premise. As humanity becomes increasingly sleep-deprived, everyone's decision-making skills keep getting worse. In theory, it's scary. Someone could turn on you at any moment, the world is becoming more unhinged with each minute. In practice, it’s a movie in which everyone’s IQ and sanity dip the further in you get. The one exception is Matilda, whose ability to sleep means she’s always mentally sharp. Unfortunately, she’s a rather stupid 10-year-old her older brother, Noah (Lucius Hoyos), isn't much better.

If Awake did something interesting, you might forgive its flawed premise. Unfortunately, this is the same movie we’ve seen a thousand times. Everyone now falls into three camps: sacrifice-crazy cultists, murder-happy gangs, or victims for the other two. You’ve witnessed this collapse of civilization too many times to keep track. Director Mark Raso fails to do anything new with this story by Gregory Poirier (whose filmography only contains one good movie as far as I’m concerned: The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride). We’ve all felt the exhaustion that comes from staying up so long you feel like your brains are getting ready to leak out your ears but you never recognize it here.

Awake is a waste of time. You can see it for the price of a subscription (so free, kinda) and from the comfort of your own home, but why bother? You’ll only be reminded of other pictures that did all of this before and/or better. Awake doesn’t have a lot of gore but when it does, it piles it on excessively. The characters are not likeable, the premise is not good, and the conclusion is worse. It may be new but that doesn’t make it worth checking out. (June 10, 2021)

A Quiet Place Part II is at least as good as the original, which says a lot. Tense, tightly written, with strong performances and a story that’s worth telling, the wait's been worth it.

Following the events of the first film, Evelyn (Emily Blunt), and her children Regan (Milicent Simmonds), and Marcus (Noah Jupe) are searching for refuge and a way to care for the new baby. Armed with a new weapon against the blind creatures who've wiped out most of humanity, they hope a former family friend, Emmett (Cylian Murphy), will be willing to help.

This Part II gets things right by asking a simple question: “then what?”. The Abbott family have lost their home and their father but they’ve gained knowledge about the aliens. There’s hope, though the victory they scored at the end of the first movie was small. The next step is to share their discovery with the world but venturing outside means interacting with other people. I know what you’re thinking. This is a post-apocalyptic film. Cue the marauders and scavengers. One of my favorite things about A Quiet Place Part II is that it addresses the fact that when any disaster strikes, we can expect the worst of humanity to come out… but also the best. Regan will not let her father's sacrifice go in vain. She doesn't blame her brother for being afraid or her mother for wanting to take care of what the family has left so she decides to go out on her own. She’s brave, self-sufficient, and tough. So what if she’s unable to hear the monsters as they creep towards her? Her resolve will compensate.

Though the film cannot surprise us the way its predecessor did, the top-notch writing makes up for it. I know it doesn’t sound like much for actions to have consequences and tie into each other but writer/director John Krasinski keeps wowing you. In most movies, you can see what’s coming next simply by keeping track of what the camera highlights. Here, actions create ripples with multiple consequences. An object left behind means the first character won't have it in a way that makes a scene more intense than it could've possibly been otherwise. Then, a second person will pick it up later. You thought you knew where the consequences would end but it was just the beginning. Everything is properly foreshadowed but there’s so much going back to things, and things setting up other things that you don’t see what’s coming next. You’re not waiting for the characters to catch up to you, you’re running alongside them.

A Quiet Place Part II builds upon its world, it enriches your relationship with the characters through flashbacks (this is where John Krasinski gets to reprise his role) and growth. Tension is masterfully generated by separating the family and keeping you wondering what's coming next, revealing a dire situation, then reversing it. You get to breathe just enough for things to begin again - all largely through its visuals and performances rather than dialogue. Even in a non-pandemic year, this would be one of the summer's highlights.   (July 16, 2021)

Seeing Stowaway on a small screen is a shame. Even at home, there’s a sequence that creates such intense vertigo it’ll make your legs wobble. In the cinema? It would've been amazing. This is a smart sci-fi movie that focuses on relevant ideas. It’ll have you wondering what you would do in the characters’ shoes.

After the launch of the MTS-42, commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) discover an unconscious support engineer aboard. What is Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson) doing here? How will they manage the two-year voyage to Mars when there are only enough resources for three people?

At the film's core is a moral dilemma. There are four people. Only three can survive. What do you do? Scramble to find a solution? That costs resources, time, and energy. There's only so much to spare before a call must be made. Once every solution has been exhausted… then what? Draw straws? If only it were that simple. Firstly, why is Michael aboard? To sabotage the mission? Even if he isn’t, who’s to say he won’t freak out when he realizes he’s the expendable stowaway? Once the orders from Earth come in, which members of the MTS-42 will follow?

This conundrum would be easier to solve if the people were one-dimensional, but they’re well-written. You understand everyone’s point of view and the actors are charismatic (particularly Anna Kendrick, who you might not have bought as an astronaut but you do as a medical researcher traveling to space under a captain). Sometimes people make decisions that make you wince but only because it's cranked up the uncertainty. Stowaway is missing a little something to push it up to the next level where someone death would make you burst into tears but it’s solid overall.

The best scene concerns a desperate gambit to ensure everyone’s survival. It’s a blend of the Burj Khalifa scene from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Gravity. One false step and you’re falling into a literal bottomless pit. Losing your grip would mean a horrible, lonely death through oxygen deprivation. You might as well take off your helmet and make it quick. There’s so much riding on that scene you’ll be vibrating with anxiety and excitement. The longer it goes on, the more intense it gets because it’ll be harder for them to go back and the obstacles they notice keep adding up. Even if the movie were just ok, it would be worth seeing just for that.

Writers Ryan Morrison and Joe Penna (who also directs) have made all the right choices with this script. Stowaway resists making things easy by having villains or simple solutions. There's nothing simple about the moral dilemma explored here. Watch it on the biggest screen you can with all the lights turned off. Preferably, with someone else holding your hand so you can feel how tightly they squeeze it when it gets at its most intense. (May 6, 2021)

On paper, The Woman in the Window looks promising initially. You’ve got an all-star cast and the picture knows it’s treading on a well-beaten path with direct references to Rear Window and others. I bet it’s studied these other works to blow our minds!

Child psychologist Anna Fox (Amy Adams) lives alone in her Manhattan apartment and never leaves due to her agoraphobia. When the Russell family moves in across the street, she befriends Jane (Julianne Moore) and her son, Ethan (Fred Hechinger). Shortly after, she sees Jane murdered through her upstairs window. When Anna calls the police, Jane (this time played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) shows up fine. Is Anna’s daily combination of heavy medication and alcohol causing hallucinations, or is Alistair Russell (Gary Oldman) hiding something?

Don’t see this movie for the cast. Well, I should just say “Don’t see this movie” but one of its main draws is the star power. Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Jason Leigh) are so not in the film it’s puzzling to see them in the credits at the end. The rest of the performances are fine but plot-wise, this mystery is a jumble.

The direction by Joe Wright does the uninventive screenplay no favors. When Anna calls the police, detectives Little (Brian Tyree Henry) and Norelli (Jeanine Serralles) answer the call. He’s sympathetic, she’s so abrasive you’ll wonder if she isn’t the murderer. Then, they stand by as Alistair barges in screaming. Isn’t he trespassing? Why is he there? They can't have gone to his place first or the ending makes no sense. You'll see so many illogical decisions you'll be reaching the wine bottle Anna is always clutching to smash it over her head, or yours.

What’s happening with the Jane Russell thing is easily decipherable. Like it thinks we’re stupid easy. The clues along the way are unmissable; as if they were planted not because someone really would lose an earring there or scream so loud they could be heard across the street but so the movie could happen. Her condition may not be her fault but come on. She keeps making dumb mistakes that will allow the killer to get away with it (assuming there even is a killer) AND get herself stabbed (assuming there even is a killer of course).

The one credit I'll give The Woman in the Window is for the conclusion I didn’t see coming. In my defense, it's a ludicrous revelation. Even with the unreliable narrator, there’s no way this would happen the way it does. No matter your goodwill towards the film, you won't buy the lame, conventional wrap-up, complete with a "where'd they go?!" teleport scare.

The Woman in the Window isn’t the worst movie 2021 will offer. The mystery - as easy to figure out as it is - does maintain your interest. Some intrigue comes from bad direction that makes characters seem like suspects when they aren’t intended to be, but I’ll take interesting bad over boring bad any day. My advice? Skip until the very end of the credits, where they tell you what clips of other - better movies - are shown throughout. Watch those instead. (May 30, 2021)