Fave Movies of 2021

Please bear with me as I attend to the vestiges of the #AMonthofFaves blog event, by finally getting to this topic.

FRI | Dec. 24 – #AMonthofFaves – On the Screen or in Your Ear (shows, movies, audiobooks, podcasts faves, etc.)⁠

GirlXOXO

It turns out I only gave one movie five stars on Letterboxd, and that was…

. . . Spider-Man: No Way Home. My (brief) review:

This is my favorite (non-animated) Spider-Man movie, and one of the best Marvel movies I have seen. The balance of humor and gravitas was perfect, and when I tell you they were ~acting~ in this movie.

Runners up with four and a half stars were The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix), which I have talked about at length here already; Judas and the Black Messiah, which I apparently did not blog about, so have included my review below; and Encanto, which I watched on Christmas, so, you know, that review is below also.

Judas and the Black Messiah (HBOMax)

I thought all of the actors were outstanding (truly), but I really do wish they had cast actual young adults to play the roles of Bill and Fred (okay all of the roles) AND had emphasized their actual ages throughout.

There’s a big difference between a 17-year-old kid scared out of his mind being convinced (manipulated) to be an informant and a 30-year-old man experiencing the same.

Bill was 17, and Fred was 21. If the audience had constantly been reminded of that, it would change the whole viewing experience of the movie.

Encanto (Disney+)

Loved the theme, music, characters (esp the sisters) and just had a really good time watching this movie. I wish I had seen it at the actual theater.

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My four-star movies were 8-Bit Christmas (HBOMax), Thunder Force (Netflix), Lorelei (Amazon Prime), and Black Widow (Disney+). Any movie on this list is definitely worth a watch.

Out of the 24 movies I watched, I only gave one a one-star review (House of Gucci). Here’s hoping to no one-star movies in 2022!