The Author's Best Films of 2021 (ranked)

 

1. Drive My Car (Japan)
2.  I’m Your Man (Germany)
3. Ballad of a White Cow (Iran)
4. Memoria (Colombia/Thailand)
5.  Nowhere Special (UK)
6. The Other Tom (Mexico)
7. True Mothers (Japan)
8.  A Cop Movie (Mexico)
9. The Hand of God (Italy)
10. Spencer (UK)
11.  Social Hygiene (Canada)
12. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Japan)
13. The Power of the Dog (New Zealand)
14. Compartment no.6 (Finland/Russia)
15. Limbo (UK)
16. The Worst Person in the World (Norway)
17.  CODA (USA)
18. The Lost Daughter (USA)
19. Parallel Mothers (Spain)
20. Petite Maman (France)
21. In Front of Your Face (South Korea)
22. France (France)
23. The Story of My Wife (Hungary)
24. Ahed's Knee (Israel)
25. Commitment Hasan (Turkey)
26. Nobody Has to Know (UK/Belgium)

Notes:

• Many of the films on this list deal with parent-child relationships, some directly, some indirectly.
• Click on the colored titles above to access reviews on this blog. More reviews will be uploaded.
• Two of the films have major characters called Tom: I'am Your Man and The Other Tom. Tom has a significance that would be lost on viewers unfamiliar with the Bible. Tom is derived from Thomas, the doubting Apostle of Christ who refused to accept the resurrection of the crucified and dead Jesus Christ until he could insert his finger in the hole in the palm of the crucified Christ, which he was able to do. That Thomas travelled to present day states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India in the 1st century AD to establish a small and vibrant Christian community to which the author belongs.
• Films that were viewed but did not make the cut: A Hero (iran) Belfast (UK), Lamb (Iceland), Annette (France), The Card Counter (USA), Benedetta (France/Belgium), Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Romania), Pig (USA), La Civil (Mexico), The French Dispatch (USA), Red Rocket (USA), Nitram (Australia), Titane (France/Belgium) and The Last Forest (Brazil).