My Favorite Movies Of 2021: One Cinephile’s Best Of The Year List

Emerging from a dark 2020 that was plagued by disease and an incredibly stressful and polarizing election, 2021 saw the pandemic continue on but with vaccines available to battle it and American politics shifting from the soap opera drama of the Trump administration to the debates surrounding the policy goals and foreign policy actions of the Biden administration. Sports returned to filled stadiums with some images we’re used to like Tom Brady winning another Super Bowl or the Tampa Bay Lightning winning another Stanley Cup, but unusual images like the Milwaukee Bucks emerging as NBA champions and an Atlanta Braves team actually not choking away a 3-1 series lead in the World Series. Pro-wrestling saw fans return to attendance with massive firings in WWE amidst cratering ratings and the return of CM Punk to the ring in AEW after years of bated breath for it. Gaming saw new titles for major franchises like Resident Evil, Metroid, and Halo but the game that ended up winning Game of the Year and caught fire was a dual gameplay based title about couple’s therapy. The music world saw Adele’s return, Taylor Swift continue to light up the charts, Olivia Rodrigo emerge as a force, and unfortunately for us all, more Kanye drama. The television landscape was rocked by a South Korean Netflix show about a battle to the death competition that became the most watched series globally, and a comedy about a football coach coaching soccer abroad swept the television awards. Theme park businesses and tourism saw the slow but sure return of travel and industry allowing for Disney World to begin celebrating its 50th anniversary and for cruises to set sail again albeit with strict vaccine mandates involved.

And then there was film in 2021. A year that followed one that had seen smaller movies dominate the release schedule, theatres closed, blockbusters delayed, and the worst rated Oscars ceremony in history when it was time to recognize the best from 2020. Talking to many non-cinephile friends of mine you would think no movies came out in 2020 even though I personally watched a ton of them that year, and word was many industry insiders treated it like a lost year themselves. I think its unfair to treat 2020 that way, given that we got some great movies such as Palm Springs or Another Round or Bacurau or The Vast Of Night among others. But looking back at that year even I sensed a season that lacked bigger films and felt sort of incomplete.

So even though the pandemic remained a very real reality, the theatres took time to fully re-open, and streaming services stole away potential cinema goers, the return of major titles to the release schedule in 2021 made many announce with joy, “The movies are back!”. And there were plenty major films this year. Titles that were delayed for a year finally had their time out of the can, studios pumped out major franchise hits and popcorn flicks, and the backlog of would be awards contending dramas spilled into a very busy film festival season that has created a heated Oscars race. International cinema had a big year with more than a few films from overseas finding fans in the states, and arthouse cinema saw a growth in the specialty box office. We got a plethora of superhero movies and musicals as well as plenty of animated features. But we also saw the growing gap in niche audiences and what draws large crowds. If you weren’t a major blockbuster spectacle or a film with Lady Gaga in it, the box office wasn’t going to see much noise from you. Older crowds stayed indoors and younger crowds were more interested in lighter superhero fare than the newest stuff from the directors taking shots at those subgenre of films. Some movies critics hailed as masterpieces saw audiences reject them, and some movies critics roughed up as disasters saw audiences embrace them. In a year where sequels and spinoffs once again dominated the box office, the highest grossing original film in the states was a CGI filled romp about a video game that itself had IP references.

As someone who at one point last year watched a Marvel film and then turned around and watched an Oscars contending small British film in the same week, I’ve always considered myself a pretty receptive movie fan. These days it seems like you’re either only watching the popcorn flicks, stubbornly sticking to arthouse movies, or only catching what’s in awards contention. That leads to many “best of” lists that seem to either be so mainstream it feels like everyone saw those movies anyways, feels like a prediction for the Oscars rather than a personal favorites list, or is so niche in only highlighting smaller films that most “normies” won’t recognize one title listed. At the risk of sounding arrogant I think my personal favorites list does none of that, merely being what its supposed to be: one guy’s opinion on what his favorite films of the year were. And thus I think it ends up a pretty well rounded list of all types of fare.

2021 was a great year to be a movie fan in my opinion. While 2020 offered a plethora of great stuff, 2021 only doubled up thanks mostly in part to practically having two years squeezed into one. This is a great thing when you’re catching the latest movies on a weekly basis, but it leads to a massive headache when creating a best of list like this one. Unlike others who do a Top 10, I do a Top 15 as I believe the modern film schedule offers just too much compared to even the releases that came out when I was a kid, and thus ten is too limiting for me. And yet even with those extra five slots there will be films I don’t get to recognize that would have gotten in were it not for having two years squeezed into one.

It really was a very tough year to come up with 15 movies to highlight as my absolute favorites out of the over two hundred and seventy I saw this year. But I still put a list together made up of the films that I think will stick with me the most and get the most re-watches in future years. Remember this is but one film fan’s list and no “best of” list will include the same films; perhaps this website will even publish another one or two of these from other folks with their own top films from the year. So take these as just one guy’s recommendations for those looking to binge new material. Also a reminder, I am only basing this on narrative projects, so great non-fiction documentary films that I highly recommend like Becoming Cousteau, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents Betrayal & Greed, The Real Charlie Chaplin, Flee, Julia, Misha And The Wolves, Summer Of Soul, The Loneliest Whale: The Search For 52, The Lost Leonardo, The Rescue, Procession, or Val will not be eligible. There are also some 2021 awards season films I’ve seen make other lists like  A Hero, Belle, Cyrano, or the The Worst Person In The World that will not be available for me to watch until later in 2022 so they weren’t eligible for my own personal list.

 

Special Mention: Nomadland
One of the many reasons its become difficult to compile a best of list for cinema in 2021 is that we actually had not one but two awards seasons for the first time since the early thirties. The previous seasons’ Oscars eligible window lasted until the end of February into the following year and some 2020 fall festival movies came out then instead of later the year prior. This meant we got great films like Judas And The Black Messiah, Minari, The Father, or The White Tiger during the start of a year those films wouldn’t even be recognized under by the Academy. Those movies also got their recognition in plenty “best of” lists from 2020 given some critics groups and film organizations caught screenings of those movies before the end of the year. Therefore I felt uncomfortable ranking any of these movies alongside other more proper 2021 releases even though they were 2021 films for me as someone who didn’t have access to them in 2020.

That said, there was one among them that I felt I just had to make mention of, especially given that it would be on this list in other circumstances, and it just so happens to be the film that beat out all those others for Best Picture. That movie is Chloe Zhao’s exceptional Nomadland, a beautiful semi-fictional and semi-documentary film about a woman who finds herself living a nomadic lifestyle following her husband’s death and the great recession taking her livelihood away from her. Frances McDormand’s performance as our fictional protagonist, Fern, earned her an incredible third Best Actress Oscar statue; and she earned it traveling to non-fiction real-world locations across the country and meeting other real-life nomads. The journey is worth seeing and I was pleasantly surprised to find the movie was more re-watchable than I figured it would be while revisiting it, even with some jarring scenes such as watching McDormand having to use the bathroom in a bucket while in her van. The cinematography is gorgeous and the characters are fascinating, probably mainly because a good chunk of them are actual real people, including Bob Wells who has an incredible and emotional scene in which he tells a true life story in how he dealt with the grief of his son’s passing. Some have complained it was too slow and boring for them, but of the 2020 movies that spilled into 2021, I couldn’t help but make sure to make mention of this awards winner that stayed with me much more than basically every other film from earlier in the year.

 

#15. Drive My Car (Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
2021 was such a solid year for international cinema that some cinephiles I’ve talked to have made the case that films from overseas had a stronger slate than some of the major awards contenders from the states. Having watched as many of these foreign films as I’ve had access to there were two that stood out to me enough to make my best of the year list. In a year with such haunting fare from non-English speaking countries like Mexico’s Identifying Features or Bosnia’s Quo Vadis, Aida?, Japan’s Drive My Car was among those two foreign films that were among my absolute overall favorites. It’s a long film running at three hours long and doesn’t apologize for its slow pace by delivering a literal forty-one minute prologue before the title screen hits. This is a film about a director attempting to put together a play that mirrors the tribulations he’s dealing with in his own life, coming to terms with everything from grief, forgiveness, and connecting with others who have had their own troubles. The performances are amazing, the conflict is wonderfully executed even though it’s all introspective rather than anything outward, and the movie sucked me in to the point I didn’t feel the runtime. This is the kind of movie you can put on and just absorb and almost meditate to and I can see why as I write this it’s the early frontrunner to win Best International Film at the upcoming Oscars.

 

#14. Petite Maman (Dir. Celine Sciamma)
International cinema wasn’t just willing to be introspective and haunting last year, but it was willing to get supernatural and strange as well, whether it be films like Iceland’s ballsy Lamb about a couple adopting a half-human and half-lamb child or France’s audacious Titane about a serial killer getting impregnated by a car. But the second foreign film that ended up among my absolute favorites in 2021 was the most innocent among these supernatural stories and that’s France’s Petite Maman. From the same Director behind 2019’s much beloved Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Celine Sciama, this short and sweet movie about a young girl meeting her mother as a child during a small stay at her late grandmother’s house gets in and gets out in just a little over an hour. The bond that develops between the two young girls and the fact the film just allows it to happen without any unneeded plot twist and contrived turns in the script makes it a fun watch and perhaps a great entry to start with if you’re trying to get younger audiences into checking out foreign cinema. As one cinephile told me this is a “magical little film,” and I think France would still be in the Oscars race for International Film had they submitted this one over the movie involving car sex.

 

#13. Nine Days (Dir. Edson Oda; Sony Classics)
Arthouse cinema was able to grab plenty passionate support in 2021 and several smaller films are making many best of the year lists I’ve seen. Whether it be a twist on the bio-pic with Spencer or watching a more subdued and incredible performance from Nicolas Cage in Pig or the powerful film about grieving a tragedy in Mass or the horror film where overbearing relatives and lying sugar daddies are the monsters to avoid in Shiva Baby, I saw a lot of good smaller fare in 2021. Those films and other arthouse movies would have likely made this list were it not for how strong a year it was. But one of those smaller movies that did end up among my absolute favorites was Nine Days. Exploring the concept of souls applying to live a life on Earth, this movie is anchored by a much underrated performance from Winston Duke as a former Earth dweller who has to make the choice within nine days for which of those souls goes to Earth. This film could have been lazy and made you root for a certain soul over the others, but each of them seem worthy and the reasons for their elimination from the process stir up philosophical and theological debate about life’s purpose. This was a very small movie that barely got much of a theatrical run and little to no marketing from Sony Classics, but I’m glad I caught it because it was easily my MVP among arthouse cinema for the season.

 

#12. Last Night In Soho (Dir. Edgar Wright)
This might be the first year I could put an Edgar Wright film in my personal favorites list for a year in film. As much as I’ve liked the director’s previous work, none of them really blew me away. That was until I saw Last Night In Soho last year, a movie I fittingly watched on Halloween morning with the wife at my local theatre. This is a supernatural ghost story about a young woman with a psychic gift traveling to London for fashion school and ending up caught up in the mystery of the disappearance of a sixties singer who was swept up in the world of sex trafficking. Its a “Me Too” horror tale but one thing I appreciated about it more so than last year’s own type of similar film in Promising Young Woman was that it didn’t make out all the male characters to be negatives in a desperate attempt to beat you over the head with its messaging and it has a ballsy twist that seemed to turn off a chunk of critics, but actually made the whole movie for me. I initially gave this movie a B+ review but as the year churned on its stuck with me and a re-watch solidified it as my favorite horror film of the year regardless of the divisive reception it got in some circles. This is a film I can see myself revisiting almost every Halloween season from here on.

 

#11. Passing (Dir. Rebecca Hall)
Another movie I initially gave a B+ review only for it to keep sticking with me and win me over as the year went on was actress Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut in Passing. Shot in black and white with amazing performances by both Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, this is an adaptation of the novel in which one black woman who can pass for white but doesn’t in 1920s New York re-connects with another black woman who chooses to pass for white and even has a racist white husband. The movie’s third act seems to be where it loses some as the story takes a turn and it could come off cold for others, but on a second viewing and knowing where it heads the turmoil between these two women’s friendship and the 1920s aesthetic that I’m always a sucker for just won me over so that this slow burn tragedy ended up one of my absolute favorites from 2021.

 

#10. The Power Of The Dog (Dir. Jane Campion)
It’s been twelve years since Jane Campion’s last film and in a first for her the latest film from the pioneering female director is her first male-centered story. The Power Of The Dog is an adaptation of the novel set in the 1920’s U.S west in which one cattle rancher mentally tortures the wife of his brother only to develop a bond with her son. The film hits on themes of accepting one’s self, “toxic masculinity”, and how the most dangerous or strongest of people around us could actually be the quietest and less “macho”. The movie features my absolute favorite film score of all 2021 movies, beautiful cinematography, and great Oscars-caliber performances that might just lead to a win or two or maybe even three. It also has one of my favorite scenes of the year in film in which real-life couple Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst play the role of movie couple George and Rose having a quiet picnic on the side of a mountain. The movie is a slow burn which is why I think this critics darling has suffered some mediocre audience reception, but it worked for me as the movie picks up steam in the second half and gives us an ending film school students will forever be debating and discussing in the decades to come. I personally criticized on social media Director Campions’ shot at superhero films in an interview she did from earlier in the year, but I have to admit she shot one of my favorite films of the year and it might even win Best Picture in March.

 

#9. The Tragedy Of Macbeth (Dir. Joel Coen)
A film that will be featured later on this list has gotten all the plaudits from critics and audiences as the technical achievement of 2021 cinema, but for me this film was it. The Tragedy Of Macbeth is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s infamous play featuring slimmed down and simplified production design, incredible cinematography, amazing lead performances, and a diverse cast that proves you can deliver medieval tales without limiting the color of your performers. While it does have that difficult for some to follow Shakespeare dialogue and it does cut out some parts of the play for brevity’s sake, the movie is a marvel to behold and will make a great watch for students studying the play. I was so taken aback by how pretty this movie was to look at I watched it twice in a span of just a couple days. In a year where The Green Knight got my respect but not my love as it did for many others and The Last Duel blew seemingly everyone but me away, The Tragedy Of Macbeth hit all the right spots for me as my favorite technical achievement of the year and when it comes out to Apple TV Plus in mid-January I highly recommend you check it out if you didn’t catch this one’s theatrical screenings.

 

#8. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Dir. Jon Watts)
A lot of cinephiles and Film Twitter folk jump to the defense of legacy and arthouse film directors who find themselves in hot water with superhero movie stans after they’ve taken shots at that subgenre of film. Their excuse is the media shouldn’t be asking them about those, and while I agree with that, it’s not the media that opens up their mouths for them to take the shots that they do. Is it jealousy because these movies make a ton more money now than their films do or the fact some of the superhero fare will grow larger audiences in the decades to come than their films likely will? Is it legitimate concern that there’s obviously been inadvertent damage to cinema as regular movie goers who claim to want “original stuff” from Hollywood still come out in droves for the franchise sequels and spinoffs but not the smaller films? I think its a little bit of all that and I personally find both the defense and criticisms of these movies to have their legitimate points.

As for me, I enjoy these movies but its been years since one of them ended up blowing me away to the point that I’d put them in a best of the year list. This year from Marvel we got a decent but playing it safe film in Black Widow, a really fun but for me still too formulaic movie in Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, and the first MCU flick to get a rotten score but develop defenders of it for breaking the formula (I included among them) in Eternals. But the MCU movie that ended up sticking with me the most to the point it made it onto my best of the year list was Spider-Man: No Way Home which followed up two Spider-Man entries I liked but didn’t love with its own Avengers: Endgame style story that featured various Spider-Man characters from previous entries in the franchises coming together in one movie for a fun romp that I enjoyed with an audience that was losing their minds at my screening with every Easter egg and character reveal. All topped off by an emotional ending that leaves the series in a cliffhanger status for its future in the MCU. It features some really non-formulaic and consequential moments as well for a cinematic universe that has been criticized by some for playing it safe one time too many.

This is a film that has ended up as of this writing with a bonkers 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and with an outstanding 4.2 average rating on Letterboxd, a website where superhero films get tons of pushback from its cinephile base. It also ended up the first pandemic-era billion dollar grosser. I don’t think the movie will get a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars but unlike certain gatekeepers out there who claim such a well received movie is “beneath a nomination,” this is one superhero film that I objectively believe DESERVES that nomination and the Academy eventually snubbing it will be yet another reminder how out of touch they are with the regular guy or gal giving their hard earned dollars to escapist cinema. A lot of smarmy comments were out there among certain types of movie fans about how they “couldn’t wait to stop hearing about this movie” when trailers were coming out, but this film will be talked about for some time to come.

 

#7. Godzilla VS Kong (Dir. Adam Wingard)
While the pandemic and slow pace of theatres to fully reopen caused a lot of asterisks for what we could consider a major box office hit this year, Godzilla VS Kong was the first real major commercial hit of the season. The event film from the Monsterverse that had pitted these two icons on a collision course with one another followed up 2019’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters which was slammed as a disaster by critics but received pretty well by audiences even if the film did underperform at the box office. This time around critics were more receptive to this first event film of the year and audiences gave this the highest scores any Monsterverse film had received from them on Rotten Tomatoes or on Cinemascore. It made about half a billion worldwide even with day one availability on HBO Max and HD pirated copies out there, and was the first major sign audiences would return to the big screen for escapist cinema if given the chance. As a big champion for the Monsterverse, a massive fan of the kaiju subgenre of film in general, and someone who learned to love cinema by growing up on Godzilla films, it was an absolute treat to watch these titans battle it out on the big screen. The film had the typical amazing visual effects and cinematography we’ve come to expect from this franchise that could land it an historic first Oscar nomination for a Godzilla-involved film. It also featured an actual definitive winner to the battle, and the introduction of a Godzilla fan favorite as the third act’s villain. More impressively to me it had Godzilla playing the heel through most of it in a callback to his original intended characterization and we got to follow the story through Kong’s eyes in a way that made us connect with him perhaps more so than any other film the iconic creature has been a part of. This was an excellent addition to both monsters’ library of films and I’ve already re-watched this several times since March.

 

#6. Luca (Dir. Enrico Casarosa)
Its been such a solid year for animated films this year that there’s even a major documentary in the medium’s field of 2021 movies with Flee. Netflix and Sony blew many away with The Mitchells VS The Machines and then delivered a tug at the heartstrings with Vivo; and Disney delivered two films from their proper animation studio in Raya And The Last Dragon and Encanto with the latter arguably being the early frontrunner to win the Oscar. But Pixar had one film release earlier in the year that has gained a passionate fanbase as 2021 progressed in Luca. Boasting a unique animation style and aesthetic, a great film score, and a heartwarming comfort film about the friendship of two fish creatures that figure out they can hide as humans on the surface world and try to see the world on a Vespa. The movie has so many scenes that will inflict a smile on you and an ending that will get you emotionally as Pixar tends to be good at doing. Its also got a great cast of supporting characters that will leave an impression, and best of all the movie doesn’t overstay its welcome with a brisk 95 minute runtime. With all due respect to the other animated movies we got in 2021, this was the one that stood out to me as my absolute favorite animated feature of the year.

 

#5. Dune (Dir. Denis Villenueve)
A cinematic masterpiece, a technical achievement, the greatest film of the year, the “next Star Wars and Lord of the Rings” are among some of the hyperbolic comments that have been made about Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the first half of the classic sci-fic novel that is Dune. I wouldn’t quite go that far and to be fair I have talked to some folks who didn’t click with the movie as they felt it was detached, left them cold, and seemed incomplete with its sudden ending. But that aside I loved this movie and it’s only one of five films to finish off the year with an A+ grade from me. It truly is a technical marvel in practically every aspect of movie making and will likely enjoy a tech sweep at the Oscars. The cast is as impressive as they come, boasting of great performances that make you buy into characters with names such as “Duncan Idaho”. It is but the first part of a two part epic Villeneuve has in mind (Though he has talked about perhaps adapting other books in the series) and I can’t wait to see the back-half to this story told on screen in 2023. Save for my top film of the year this one has the most potential to only rise in my rankings among 2021 films depending on how that second part is executed.

 

#4. The Suicide Squad (Dir. James Gunn)
If you would have told me that in a year where superhero fare featured four MCU films that a DCEU film wouldn’t just be my favorite superhero film of 2021, but even amongst my top five of the year overall, I would have told you to check the record I have with DC films of late. I am not a “Snyderverse” guy and even the non-Snyder DC films that have received higher praise from others were average at best in my eyes. So this semi-reboot to one of the worst superhero movies ever made in 2016’s Suicide Squad from Director James Gunn wasn’t something I was particular hyped for. If anything I thought this was a nuisance holding up his efforts to get Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 shot. But leave it Gunn to not only direct my pick for the best MCU film ever but the best DCEU film ever as well. The Suicide Squad has ended up an eccentric comfort film for me, featuring gory and at times salacious R-rated humor, “heroes” with plenty shades of grey to justify their time behind bars, and taking chances even the least formulaic MCU movie wouldn’t take, such as a body count among both the antagonists and protagonists. It’s almost like a look into what a Quentin Tarantino superhero movie would look like. But what makes this film the most for me is Gunn’s ability to write a script with a big cast of characters and still give each of them their own arcs and definable personalities in a way that most other team-up movies still struggle to pull off. This is one of the best superhero inspired pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen and only more proof James Gunn is underrated as a master director and storyteller.

 

#3. Licorice Pizza (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
There are only two directors whose entire bodies of work I’ve seen that I’ve never given less than an A grade review to their films – Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson. This year Anderson gave us his latest in Licorice Pizza, a seventies set quasi-romance film about mid-twenties Alana Kane and her complicated relationship with a hustling fifteen year old in Gary Valentine. Both played by newcomers to the film world in musician Alana Haim and Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper Hoffman. Their journey takes them from selling waterbeds, trying to make it into the movies, the gas crisis, and even a mayoral campaign amongst many adventures. It’s a comedic film that grabs plenty of laughs even as it has its dramatic and even sad moments here or there. It had me smiling from ear to ear through most of its runtime. It’s nuts to think that Anderson could shoot something as dark and thoughtful as There Will Be Blood and yet turn in lighter stuff like this as well. There’s been a lot of discourse from those the movie didn’t work with in regard to the age gap between the two protagonists and some jokes about one character’s racism that felt like they didn’t hit the way Anderson was going for, but for me and many others the movie is a showcase on how one pulls off a “hang-out” type of movie. This film may have even placed Anderson over Tarantino for my personal pick of favorite modern living director.

 

#2. Belfast (Dir. Kenneth Branagh)
From a director that never seems to miss to one with a very spotty record in Sir Kenneth Branagh. The man shot one of the worst movies I saw in 2020 in Artemis Fowl but he also has a track record that includes good to great Shakespearian adaptations and even fun popcorn flicks like the first Thor and the 2015 Disney live action Cinderella. This year Branagh finally released a project that has supposedly been on his mind for decades in Belfast, a coming of age story about a boy growing up in the middle of the troubles as they started in 1969 Northern Ireland. Told through the eyes of our protagonist Buddy (played excellently by newcomer Jude Hill), the film also boasts a great ensemble that are all up for potential Oscar nominations such as Catriona Balfe as Ma, Jamie Dornan as Pa, Cirian Hinds as Pop, and Judi Dench as Granny. Its not a comedy but its not a full blown drama either. Throughout the film Buddy’s growing love for cinema and stage is shown with color being used for those against the black and white cinematography of the film as symbolism for his imagination coming to life when he watches the movies and the plays. The film is the definition of a “crowd pleaser” and has swept up audience award after audience award at film festivals to become arguably the early frontrunner to win Best Picture in March. There’s been pushback among some cinephiles and Film Twitter that the movie is too safe and airy, but in a year with so many  great “crowd pleasers” making others’ lists such as C’mon C’mon, CODA, or King Richard this was a movie that made feel like I had just seen something sweet, innocent, and magical. It’s as if we get to see what a 2021 Frank Capra film would look like. If this is the movie that finally gets Branagh an Oscar, I wouldn’t complain one bit.

#1. In The Heights (Dir. John M Chu)
There was never a contest for what my number one would be, was there? This musical has been my favorite from the year since I saw it on a Thursday night preview screening and mid-way through the 96,000 song number I realized it may just be my favorite film of all time now, not just of 2021. I wrote about what this film meant for me earlier in the year for this website, in how it gave me everything I loved about cinema with characters that I can see myself in and how it affected me as someone who always struggled with coming to terms with my Latino roots. I watched this film eighteen times in just its first month out and bought its Blu-ray on day one of its release. It’s an infectious film with incredible musical numbers, relatable characters and plots, tearjerker scenes, and when the credits hit you’ll have a smile on your face. In a year filled with plenty movie musicals that are scattered throughout others’ best of the year lists from Annette, Tick, Tick…Boom!, or West Side Story among others, it was this one that stood out for me and it is this film’s songs and story of community and Latin heritage that will play constantly at my home for the rest of my life and be passed down from me to future family members. In 2021 I got to see some great films, but absolutely none of them will stick with me or mean as much as this one has. I’ll be lucky if just one 2022 movie hits me half as hard as this one did.