Ranking the Films of 2021: Part One

What a weird year for film!

With the Oscars in late April and movie theaters not back in full-ish swing until late May, followed by months of uncertainty as the Delta and then Omicron variants pushed long-delayed major titles back once (and sometimes twice) more, the release calendar again felt not quite like its pre-pandemic self.

Perhaps the topsy-turvy nature of recent cinema accounts for my log of 185 new releases being down 41 from last year, but plenty of other excuses remain. While I consider them legit films, I’m not counting such superb, episodic documentaries as The Beatles: Get Back, Hemingway, or Pretend It’s a City (all of which would probably be in my Top 10), or masterful but difficulty to classify oddities like Bo Burnham: Inside (ditto). And though streaming services and physical media distributors offered plenty of home-viewing options to keep my numbers up, a final look over the year that was served as a reminder of the heaps of (perceived) long-shelved crap and uninspired sequels that I chose to avoid.

As noted on last year’s comprehensive rundown, you also won’t find Judas and the Black Messiah and other “technically 2021 releases” here if their awards campaigns were for the previous year, but films that became available in Q1 with an eye toward the 2022 FYC season are present and accounted for.

The survivors are split into four groups, sorted numerically from worst to best, and will be rolled out one installment per day this week until we reach #1. Let the hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth begin!

185. Space Jam: A New Legacy

184. Spirit Untamed

183. Zack Snyder’s Justice League

182. Don’t Breathe 2

181. Infinite

180. Tom & Jerry

179. Free Guy

178. Reminiscence

177. Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard

176. Joe Bell

175. Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

174. Shiva Baby

173. Saint Maud

172. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

171. Malignant

170. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions

169. Dear Evan Hansen

168. Cry Macho

167. Red Notice

166. Thunder Force

165. Halloween Kills

164. Chaos Walking

163. In Front of Your Face

162. Werewolves Within

Werewolves Within (IFC Films)

161. Sing 2

160. The Tender Bar

159. Army of the Dead

158. Land

157. Crisis

156. Best Sellers

155. Malcolm & Marie

154. Those Who Wish Me Dead

153. The Lost Daughter

152. Red Rocket

151. Outside the Wire

(Photo: Warner Bros.)