In the interest of putting my recap of the best new movies I’ve watched and music I’ve listened to in 2021 out into the world in the last 24 hours before the year’s end, the following are reviews of my top films and albums released in 2021, all written within one sentence.
Best New Film
1) Drive My Car
This intimate emotional epic about a grieving theater director who is assigned a driver with a similarly troubled past slowly unravels a story that explores topics of grief, forgiveness, human connection, and the nature of the human condition itself.
2) Summer of Soul
Much more than a concert film, in this documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival the musical performances become an expression of Black struggle, unity, and creativity that resonates as much today as it did at the end of sixties.
3) Zola
Like the viral Twitter thread it’s based on, this film about a stripper who gets pulled into a fraught and dangerous journey somehow manages to create a funny, poignant, and culturally relevant story out of a dark topic and (mostly) make it work.
4) The Power of the Dog
In an unlikely twist on the western genre, this film presents a subtle tale probing the pitfalls of toxic masculinity and repressed desires, leaving you to put the pieces together in the tragic aftermath.
5) Homeroom
A year in the life of high school seniors as they navigate the onset of a global pandemic and the unrest following the murder of George Floyd is a fascinating subject for a film, but this documentary does something more, capturing the resilience of the students and their capacity to create change collectively in spite of it all.
Best New Album
1) Collapsed In Sunbeams by Arlo Parks
In her vibrant and poet debut album, Parks presents a series of stories and confessional narratives that tap into deep pain, while somehow remaining overall uplifting and affirming of the comfort we can take knowing we have others to support us.
2) Solar Power by Lorde
In the pop artist’s most singularly focused effort yet, Lorde explores the tribulations of being young in the age of climate change and consumerism, and finds transcendence in the purity of the natural world.
3) Things Take Time, Take Time by Courtney Barnett
The Australian indie rock artist pulls back from the spryness and bite of her previous releases to craft a more tender and intimate cycle of songs that focuses on a desire to find patience amid imperfect relationships and life more broadly.
4) Pressure Machine by The Killers
Though The Killers have been crafting songs about life in small town America for years, the band finally went all in on a revealing and spiritually probing concept album based on the lives of people in lead singer Brandon Flowers' childhood home of Nephi, Utah.
5) SOUR by Olivia Rodrigo
Living up to its hype, the teenage singer-songwriter’s hit album is pitch-perfect in its expression of young heartache, and includes some of the year’s catchiest and most iconic songs.