by Duane Porter
So may we start. Looking back on 2021. A remarkable year for cinema. A year like no other. Cinema can take us places we have not been. Away from what we have been told is true. Toward a reality of which we were not aware. Transformation, juxtaposition, rearrangement, overlapping layers of bodies, light, and sound. Adam Driver’s Henry McHenry impending on Honor Swinton Byrne’s Julie, Virginie Efira’s Benedetta Carlini merging with Agathe Rousselle’s Alexia, Cooper Hoffman’s Gary Valentine running with Alana Haim’s Alana Kane, Tilda Swinton’s Jessica Holland subsiding into Joséphine Sanz’ Nelly, Léa Seydoux’s France de Meurs in sympathy with Hidetoshi Nishijima’s Yusuke Kafuku, or Renate Reinsve’s Julie running through the streets of Oslo. Looking at performance, listening to performance, bringing together different spaces, a shift in attention, an altered emphasis, and a previously unknown presence begins to emerge. To become aware of perception, to experience duration as structure, to see movement as essence, to encounter sound as discontinuity. To watch closely, attending to detail, going deeper, deeper into one’s self, to find new things there. It could be different but it is like this. The truth of things. This is a kind of truth I’m looking for.
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I. Annette directed by Leos Carax
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2. The Souvenir: Part II directed by Joanna Hogg
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3. Benedetta directed by Paul Verhoeven
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4. Titane directed by Julia Ducournau
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5. Licorice Pizza directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
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6. Memoria directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
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7. Petite Maman directed by Céline Sciamma
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8. France directed by Bruno Dumont
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9. Drive My Car directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
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10. The Worst Person in the World directed by Joachim Trier
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Ten Runners-up listed in alphabetical order:
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn directed by Radu Jude
Benediction directed by Terence Davies
Bergman Island directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
The Card Counter directed by Paul Schrader
The French Dispatch directed by Wes Anderson
In Front of Your Face directed by Hong Sang-soo
Parallel Mothers directed by Pedro Almodóvar
West Side Story directed by Steven Spielberg
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? directed by Alexandre Koberidze
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Duane, once again you have graced these pages with masterly cinemac discourse, and have again shown what a champion you are of the medium through the prism of art. I have seen all in your top ten with the off exception of the Verhoeven (I need to remedy that!) and BENEDICTION is counting for me as a 2022 release, though I respect your going with 21 because of festival openings that year. Either way, it is a staggering masterpiece. Your Number 1 film made me smile as I too hold in in glorious, lofty regard, and in addition to the aforementioned BENEDICTION (Honorable Mention) your Number 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are also to my eyes, masterworks! In your equally impressive runner-up list, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? was my favorite film of 2021, and thrilled to see it here. You have redefined the idiom “haste makes waste” here my friend. We are so honored!
Thank you, Sam, for being so generous in your appreciation. I know several of my choices have been divisive and can be difficult to love. Perhaps that’s why I love them. Art should take us places we haven’t been and maybe don’t want to go. I’m pleased that we are on the same page with Annette as well as the others you mention. The important thing is to encourage a love of art and cinema, that which you do everyday both here at WitD and on Facebook.
This is a fantastic list. I am also one who can’t do a list until many months after the year ends. I have gotten to see some of these, but the ones I have not seen, I will use this round-up as a reference. I never got to see Annette, but I believe it is online, and I will watch it soon.
Thank you, Ricky. Yes always so many things to see and so little time to see them. Annette is always available at Amazon Prime. Hope you like it.
Wondeful work, Duane!
Thanks, Jim.