Yes, we should be entirely way done with 2021, but permit us to close the books on this difficult year with one last belated feature whose title is not meant to be a backhanded compliment to the films, nor scolding and yes, generally relative as many people did see them, but not most (and yes, there will be some overlap with our Best of 2021 coverage, though it’s minor)

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While most of us remain inside with far too many streaming options dangled in front of our eyes,  it doesn’t appear general audiences will be returning to theaters for movies that contain anything less than three Peter Parkers uniting on screen anytime soon.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 You Didn’t See at The Playlist.

2021 was one of the best years for books about film in recent memory, a statement I make with no self-interest whatsoever. As noted in our holiday gift guide, the year yielded must-have explorations of genre cinema, behind-the-scenes exposés, and book-length celebrations of filmmakers like David Fincher, Spike Lee, and Gus Van Sant; if you’re paying any attention at all, your to-read stack (or your Wishlist) is piled high already.

Continue reading The Most Anticipated Film Books Of 2022 at The Playlist.

Here we are again — another year that somehow felt both five seconds and twelve eons long has come to a close. For me, a big highlight was definitely getting to see movies in theaters again (post-vaccination and with a mask on, of course). My first venture back was for “A Quiet Place Part II,” and soon after that I got to live my high school theater kid dream by seeing “In the Heights” on the big screen.

Continue reading Lena Wilson’s Top 10 Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

As we look towards the final hours of 2021 and hope beyond all logic that 2022 will bring forth nothing but good fortune for everyone around the world, it’s time to vent the last bit of frustration we have about the past 365 days in a new episode of The Playlist Podcast focusing on the Most Disappointing Films of the year. 

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No, we’re not talking about the absolute worst films in the year.

Continue reading The Most Disappointing Films Of 2021 [The Playlist Podcast] at The Playlist.

With more films finally hitting theaters (despite COVID concerns) and streaming services releasing record numbers of films and TV series this year, we’re seeing so many projects fall between the cracks. It used to be that film/TV fans could cherry-pick what to watch and somewhat keep up with all the new releases. But 2021 has shown that unless you are a robot who doesn’t require sleep, food, bathroom breaks, and/or human connection, it’s just impossible to watch everything thrown your way.

Continue reading Charles Barfield’s Best Of 2021 Highlights Films/TV Series You Might Have Overlooked at The Playlist.

It was supposed to be the start of a roaring ’20s for a new century. A rollout of vaccines in the first half of 2021 would help crush the COVID-19 pandemic and return the world to as close to “normal” as possible. And for a month or two, it was idyllic. People partied, visited family members they hadn’t seen in over a year, and traveled overseas for some much-needed R&R. That was until the Delta Variant swept through most of the United States thanks to a swath of Americans who refused to get vaccinated.

Continue reading The Biggest Entertainment Stories Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Over the past year, The Playlist has covered hundreds of prestige films and TV series. We’ve even gone ahead and broke them down and ranked them in our various Best of 2021 lists. This year, we’ve absolutely adored the works of filmmakers like Jane Campion, Pedro Almodovar, Rebecca Hall, Paul Thomas Anderson, and many, many more.  But, let’s be real, in our second pandemic-filled year, sometimes you have to watch some garbage from time to time.

Continue reading The Playlist’s Guilty Pleasures Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Great acting was everywhere in 2021. While we received the usual assortment of great performances in festival standouts and end-of-year awards contenders, we also found inspired performances in big-budget multiplex movies and no-budget horror.

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We cast a wide net for our list of the Best Film Performances of 2021. Every list has its omissions – no doubt some of your favorite roles just missed appearing on here – but if you wanted to see the full range of modern cinematic acting, you could do a lot worse than starting with the actors we’ve assembled.

Continue reading The Best Film Performances Of 2021 at The Playlist.

After another year of being inside, the documentaries of 2021 have provided us with plenty of adventure. They have inspired a sense of looking all around you, or of going back into history to understand how we got to wherever the hell we are now. With filmmaking that continues to redefine what makes a documentary, these features have given us a sense of what’s on our minds, whether it’s immediate issues like journalism, the refugee crisis, policing, the ongoing pandemic, or less immediate but timeless issues, like the chords of a band that will always inspire.

Continue reading The Best Documentaries Of 2021 at The Playlist.

It’s been a tradition for years now and it continues in 2021—former President of the United States, Barack Obama, has released his top films of the year. And as with previous years, it’s a healthy mix of high-profile gems and things that may have fallen under the radar that he clearly wants to put some extra shine on. 

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One thing you have to understand is that Obama never ranks the movies, he just presents a list of his “favorite” films.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Films Of 2021 List Includes ‘Drive My Car,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Card Counter’ & More at The Playlist.

“The movies are back, baby!” went the refrain this summer, up to, during, and continuously after the heavenly 10-day stretch around June where everything looked like it might really go back to normal, actual normal and not “new” normal; “new” normal is in no way preferable to “normal” normal, just like “new recipe” Butterfingers are trash compared to the genuine article. Be that as it may, enough folks insisted on the pandemic’s subsiding that the movies did indeed come back, and they brought with them another detail missing and longed-for in the sacred big-screen experience: Soundtracks.

Continue reading The Best Scores & Soundtracks of 2021 at The Playlist.

We celebrate the movies at this time of year, and in the wild rush to praise directors and actors for all that nifty directing and acting they did over the last 365 days, we all tend to forget that cinema is about more than just two sets of people. Just read Twitter. Who’s naming anyone other than auteurs and stars? How many times has Steven Spielberg’s name come up? How many times has Janusz Kamiński’s?

Continue reading The Best Cinematography Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Let it be known that this was a particularly fascinating year for horror. As always, we saw our fair share of low-budget and arthouse horror titles, but 2021 was also a year where horror went mainstream in several unexpected places. Slashers and monster movies bled into the mainstream to a degree we don’t often see, and several big-budget studio titles held their own against the auteurs of the genre world.

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Warner Bros.

Continue reading The 15 Best Horror Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

For us, TV is a blessing and a curse. For years, we were mainly a film website, having evolved beyond the original remit of just doing film-related soundtracks (too small of a thing, ultimately). And while yes, people like David Lynch did TV in the ’90s (“Twin Peaks“) and various filmmakers dabbled in the medium throughout the years, it wasn’t until the early 2010s and the advent of streaming that filmmakers started heavily working in television and really up-ended the game.

Continue reading The 25 Best TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2021 at The Playlist.

We certainly have not resumed full normalcy as we continue to battle this pandemic, but at least we have movies—even more than last year. With certain reservations about how they were premiered, released, and distributed, this year in film brought back more festival favorites like Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” more massive franchise golden geese like Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “No Time to Die,” more awards-friendly fare that had been held over, like Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Do you hear that? Can you feel it underneath your seat? 2021 finally gave us the chance to return to cinemas, that rare gift where a handful of carefully curated trailers whets our appetites for the year ahead—without having to desperately refresh browser windows with a looming sense of dread with no end in sight. 

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That’s not to say we’re completely out of the woods, but it’s certainly offered a new sense of gratitude for the very best trailers of the year as we’ve been able to appreciate them the way they should be: big, loud, full of hope and optimism for the wondrous selection of movies this year and the next will have to offer us—wherever we watch them. 

“Licorice Pizza”
The first glimpse of Paul Thomas Anderson’s blissful valentine to the San Fernando Valley was teased in a small handful of cinemas around the world, building anticipation and then crashing into focus all at once—as the revered filmmaker has always done with his work.

Continue reading The Best Movie Trailers Of 2021 at The Playlist.

In our annual aggregation of some of the most respected Best Films of the Year lists, we like to highlight folks that offer unique opinions regarding cinema. We’ve already seen John Waters offer up a pretty offbeat Top 10 this year. And now, The New Yorker offers its Top 35 Best Films of 2021, with a healthy number of picks that will likely surprise people.

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Sure, The New Yorker lists plenty of high-profile films in the Top 35.

Continue reading The New Yorker’s Best Films Of 2021 Include ‘Zola,’ ‘Passing’ & Quite A Few Docs at The Playlist.

Spotting and scrutinizing movie posters this year has felt brand new – like seeing the world with fresh eyes as we rush back into cinemas and can once again place faith in the pictures we see, knowing we will, finally, slowly, be able to bookmark these promises with a trip to the cinemas once more. That’s not to say we’re totally out of the woods yet – rather that there is simply more hope and excitement rather than just longing and loneliness as there was when we made this list this time last year. 

Right now, we celebrate – the colors, the emotion, the unexpected thrills and bold statements filmmakers are once more making with the first images we see of the movies we will so soon fall in love with.

Continue reading The Best Film Posters Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Every year, we like to highlight some of the Top 10 lists from filmmakers who are known for not picking the run-of-the-mill awards-season contenders. And each year, we always like to spotlight the Best Films of the Year list from director John Waters, a subversive filmmaker who isn’t afraid to have an unpopular opinion or stray away from what the Film Twitter mob would like you to believe. And his best films of 2021 Top 10 list is no different.

Continue reading John Waters’ Best Films Of 2021 Includes ‘Annette,’ ‘Mandibles’ & The Latest From ‘The Human Centipede’ Director at The Playlist.

Each and every year, French outlet Cahiers du Cinema gives us their top 10 earlier than almost everybody and often put some baffling or head-scratching choices in their based on their whims (they throw in TV too any time they deign it necessary. Even if it’s an uneven list, it’s always a fascinating one. As always, their 2021 list gives us a window into seeing what European critics are thinking (sometimes the most arty-farty Ones) and what may end up on other best films of the year list or could end up heading towards the awards races.

Continue reading Cahiers Du Cinema’s Best Films Of 2021 Includes ‘Annette,’ ‘The French Dispatch,’ ‘Benedetta’ & More at The Playlist.

Pandemic life may have been horror enough for most, and no, this isn’t some comment on Inauguration Day, but those of us who find comfort in giving ourselves the creeps have been in a bit of a drought. Last year saw the displacement of some massive upcoming titles, like “A Quiet Place Part II,” Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele’s “Candyman” sequel, and the next David Gordon Green “Halloween” installment, “Halloween Kills.” Those movies are all set to finally premiere this year, and they – along with a few other holdovers and some new features – are among our most anticipated horror films of 2021.

Continue reading The 25 Most Anticipated Horror Movies Of 2021 at The Playlist.

Every year is a good year to stan female directors, but 2021 has cooked us up a real feast. Acting veterans like Rebecca Hall, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, and Halle Berry are finally claiming their director’s chairs on feature films, while arthouse icon Jane Campion is returning to hers after 12 years. Foreign language directors like Lucile Hadžihalilović and Ildikó Enyedi are making their English-language debuts, and French juggernaut Mélanie Laurent is working on two releases back to back.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2021 at The Playlist.

The deck for 2021 film releases was shuffled yet again late last year, adding yet another wrinkle to what has undoubtedly been one of, if not the most tumultuous yearlong period for domestic film distribution in history. Obviously, some of 2021’s bigger blockbusters still have (tentative) release dates (see our massive 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 feature): we’re thinking of Denis Villeneuve’s hotly-anticipated “Dune” adaptation, which was supposed to be in theaters last December, and also Adam Wingard’s long-delayed “Godzilla Vs.

Continue reading The 25 Best Films Of 2021 We’ve Already Seen at The Playlist.

Another year comes to a close, another overlong, ahem, thorough most anticipated list from your friends at The Playlist. This time, we’re talking television and yes, there’s a lot of TV to deal with. Frankly, however, with the explosion of streaming, the second age of PeakTV, now known as the Streaming Age, we’re somewhat surprised this list isn’t over 100 picks long. Disney+ and Apple TV+ may have launched in late 2019, but 2020 really brought us the full breadth of both those streaming services wares.

Continue reading The 65 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2021 at The Playlist.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Aside from the election result, Trashfire 2020™ was a shitty year. And a weird and disorienting year thanks to COVID-19 and having to shelter-in-place, quarantine, and social distance from one another blah, blah, blah coronavirus f*cked us hard. Movies certainly took it in the teeth this year, and especially the theatrical industrial complex, which feels like it’s on its last legs. But regardless of what happens next for theaters, people are going to continue making and releasing movies.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.