Staying Fit
(Left to right) Regina King in "The Harder They Fall," Bradley Cooper in "Nightmare Alley" and Nicole Kidman in "Being the Ricardos."
David Lee/Netflix; Kerry Hayes/20th Century Studios; Glen Wilson/Amazon Content Services
It’s been a surprisingly rich year for movies considering that we as a nation (and the film industry specifically) have struggled against the dire limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a flurry of top-flight films hitting the big screen late in the year, our critics have seen them all and are now here with their picks for best of the best since 01/01/21. Did your faves make the list? How many have you seen? How many do you plan to watch over Christmas vacation? Rev up your streaming platforms, buy tickets if you feel safe doing so, and make your plan to catch our picks for the Top 20 Movies of 2021.
Being the Ricardos
In West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin’s brilliantly talky biopic, Nicole Kidman is terrific as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as her faithless husband with some ’splainin’ to do during one crisis-filled week backstage on the 1950s I Love Lucy show.
Watch it: Being the Ricardos, in theaters and Dec. 21 on Amazon Prime Video
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Belfast
Kenneth Branagh’s semiautobiographical masterpiece about a sensitive kid (Jude Hill) playing war with a wooden sword and a trash-can-lid shield as grownup Protestants and Catholics battle in the streets for real. Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench are radiant as the hero’s warmly waggish grandparents. It evokes a time and place through a child’s eyes, and makes you feel part of the torn town and the unbreakable family.
Watch it: Belfast, in theaters
C’mon C’mon
Charming, shambolic bachelor radio journalist Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) takes his 8-year-old nephew (uncutesy child actor Woody Norman) on the road, as he interviews (real) kids about the future. Their bond grows, as does Johnny, like Hugh Grant in About a Boy, only better. An intergenerational classic.
Watch it: C’mon C’mon, in theaters
CODA
The irresistible coming-of-age tale of a CODA, a Child Of Deaf Adults (Emilia Jones) and rising star of her school glee club. Her irascibly devoted, hearing-impaired mom (Marlee Matlin) can’t hear her sing, but she (and we) can feel the good vibrations.
Watch it: CODA, on Apple TV+
Cyrano
In a whirligig of a musical, Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage, an increasingly towering figure in Hollywood, plays the classic hero. He lends his vocal gifts to a tongue-tied friend who’s wooing a beauty (who’s the object of Cyrano’s unconfessed affection). This Cyrano’s nose is fine, but he fears his height is a love buzzkill. Dinklage’s real-life wife, Erica Schmidt, wrote the script.
Watch it: Cyrano, in theaters
The Duke
Jim Broadbent plays a retired guy who pulls off the only heist in the history of London’s National Gallery, stealing a duke’s priceless portrait to force the government to fund elder care. Helen Mirren dazzles as his dowdy, doting (yet appalled) wife. (True story!)
Watch it: The Duke, in extremely limited theaters in December, opening nationally in March 2022
Dune
In an utterly spectacular epic, a Luke Skywalker-ish youngster (Timothée Chalamet) joins with a freedom fighter (Javier Bardem) to battle a sandworm-infested desert planet’s cruel ruler Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård).
Watch it: Dune, in theaters
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