FIlm & Documentary

December 31, 2021 • View in browser

The Best of 2021: Our Top 10 Films

Amidst another tumultuous year for cinema, Hyperallergic’s favorites include an unconventional musical, experimental meditations on solitude, and documentaries about coffee farmers and a forgotten concert.

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A Strange Hallucination Plagues Tilda Swinton in Memoria

The newest feature from Thai director Apichatong Weerasethakul is a masterpiece of magical realism, and Hyperallergic’s #1 film of 2021. | Dan Schindel

The Gleeful Blasphemy and Queer Nun Romance of Benedetta

Beneath the explicit sex and violence of the latest film from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven are thoughtful challenges about gender roles and institutional religion. | Veronica Baker

Bruno Dumont’s France Is a Cogent, if Convoluted, Critique of Celebrity Culture

This may not be a great film, but its narrative and tonal weaknesses throw into relief just how strong Léa Seydoux is as its thumping heart. | Eileen G'Sell

Yugoslavian Monuments Deliver a Message from Two Billion Years in the Future

The only film directed by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson before his death in 2018, Last and First Men is an eerie combination of sci-fi and documentary. | Dan Schindel

Denzel Washington Stars in a New Black-and-White Macbeth

Working for the first time without his brother Ethan, Coen’s film adaptation, featuring Denzel Washington as Macbeth, embraces the text with unusual faithfulness. | Forrest Cardamenis

The New West Side Story Brings the Show’s Father Issues to the Fore

Director Steven Spielberg, long fixated on absent dads, interrogates this theme and other issues of patriarchy and gender roles in his cinematic take on the classic show. | Kyle Turner

Exploring the Baffling Popularity of Kenny G

Penny Lane’s Listening to Kenny G finds fascinating layers to the cult of the smooth jazz icon. | Dan Schindel