6:45 pm Update: Forget Oscar handicapping, including my own. Forget the always reasonable and perceptive award-season handicapping by THR‘s Scott Feinberg. And extra-double-triple forget the Gold Derby whores and the bizarre insular world of Clayton “Variety ass-smooch” Davis. For here, on the basis of quality alone, are the best films of ’21 so far. Plus the middle rankers and stinkers. What am I forgetting?
TOP OF THE POPS (13 — in descending order))
King Richard — the only serious grand-slam homer + wowser crowd-pleaser of the year
Parallel Mothers
Cyrano
The Last Duel
Power of the Dog (impossible to remember)
Dear Comrades
New Order
Riders of Justice
Attica
No Time To Die
Zola
Quo Vadis Aida
A Hero
VERY GOOD (6)
Pig
Stillwater
No Sudden Move
The Dig
In The Heights
The Card Counter (except for Tiffany Haddish)
NOT BAD (12)
Licorice Pizza
Bergman Island
House of Gucci
CODA
Candyman
Free Guy
The Little Things
Summer of Soul
Titane
St. Maud
The Woman in the Window
Those Who Wish Me Dead (except for the stupid ending)
RESPECTABLE FILM BUT WAY TOO SCUZZY: Red Rocket
HAVEN’T SEEN ‘EM: Drive My Car, Passing, Benedetta, Mass, The Lost Daughter (five demerits because Maggie Gyllenhaal wore violet bell bottoms to San Vicente Bungalows tastemakers screening) + Michel Franco‘s Sundown.
STINKERS (11)
Jungle Cruise
Annette
Dune
French Dispatch (very well made but infuriating)
The Green Knight
Black Widow
Old
Lamb
Nobody
Godzilla vs. Kong
The Tomorrow War