2021 Top Film Recommendations

Like last year, here are my top film recommendations out of the (feature) films I watched during 2021. In total I watched 144 (143 being ‘new’ i.e. one’s I have not previously watched, with 1 rewatch: Richard Linklater’s ‘A Scanner Darkly’ [of course]), down from 219 in 2020 (the pandemic gave me a lot more film watching time)!

These are listed in order of which they were watched, earliest being first. There was no way I would try and order them into my favourites- that would be an impossible task!

The title of the film is in bold, followed by the name of the director(s) and then the date which it was made in brackets.

Please enjoy and let me know any recommendations of what to watch this year in the comments.

1. Sylvie’s Love, Ashe, Eugene (2020)
2. Josep, Aurel (2020)
3. Beginning, Kulumbegashvili, Dea (2020)
4. Involuntary, Ostlund, Ruben (2008)
5. Mogul Mowgli, Tariq, Bassam (2020)
6. System Crasher, Fingscheidt, Nora (2019)
7. Shell, Graham, Scott (2012)
8. Maborosi, Koreeda, Hirokazu (1995)

9. Your Name., Shinkai, Makoto (2016)
10. XXY, Puenzo, Lucia (2007)
11. Dead Pigs, Yan, Cathy (2018)
12. Fantastic Planet, Laloux, Rene (1973)
13. Dheepan, Audiard, Jaques (2015)
14. The Chambermaid, Aviles, Lila (2018)
15. Me Without You, Goldbacher, Sandra (2001)
16. A Colony, Dulude-De Celles, Geneviève (2018)
17. Sonita, Ghaemmaghami, Rokhsareh (2015)
18. Outside In, Shelton, Lynn (2017)
19. Two-Lane Blacktop, Hellman, Monte (1971)
20. Damnation, Tarr, Bela (1988)
21. Ray & Liz, Billingham, Richard (2018)
22. The Mitchells vs the Machines, Rianda, Michael; Rowe, Jeff (2021)
23. County Lines, Blake, Henry (2019)
24. Exhibition, Hogg, Joanna (2013)
25. The Watermelon Woman, Dunye, Cheryl (1996)
26. Babylon, Rosso, Franco (1980)
27. And Then We Danced, Akin, Levan (2019)
28. Cocoon, Krippendorff, Leonie (2020)
29. Shirkers, Tan, Sandi (2018)
30. Straight Outta Compton, Gray, Gary (2015)
31. Shiva Baby, Seligman, Emma (2020)
32. Rosie, Breathnach, Paddy (2018)
33. Chris the Swiss, Kofmel, Anja (2018)
34. Phantom Boy, Felicioli, Jean-Loup; Gagnol, Alain (2015)
35. Mickey and the Bear, Attanasio, Annabelle (2019)
36. Sweat, Von Horn, Magnus (2020)
37. Nomadland, Zhao, Chloe (2020)
38. Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Questlove (2021)
39. First Cow, Reichardt, Kelly (2019)
40. I Care A Lot, Blakeson, J. (2020)
41. Black Bear, Levine, Lawrence Michael (2020)

42. Cryptozoo, Shaw, Dash (2021)

43. Absolute Denial, Braund, Ryan (2021)

44. Flee, Rasmussen, Jonas Poher (2021)

45. Sound of Metal, Marder, Darius (2019)

46. The Summit of the Gods, Imbert, Patrick (2021)

47. Drowning in Potential, Flame, Dax; Haver, Joel (2021)