The 2021 Andy Awards
For the 3rd year running, Andy Carr breaks down the past year in film with his eponymous awards-style recap.
Top 10s and “Best of the Year” lists are standard practice for most regular film journalists, and with good reason; it’s fun to look back on a year’s worth of watching and stack your favorites against each other. But personally, I've always found these lists to be more frustrating than satisfying as a mode of reflecting on the year’s best offerings. I wind up failing to recognize movies I want to, simply because they didn’t make some arbitrary numerical cut. It’s just too limiting for me.
Instead, I’ve found a way to summarize my year at the movies that might be more fulfilling for me, and perhaps more distinctive and entertaining for you! (That being said, if you really want a list, you can find my wishy-washy and totally arbitrary ranking of all 85+ 2021 releases I watched right here.)
But for a formal write-up, I think I've found my alternative:
Welcome to the 3rd Annual Andy Awards! Let’s get started!
The 3rd Annual Andy Awards
(or “Triple A’s”)
Intro
2021 has been an interesting year at the cinema—far more normal than 2020, but still unusual by comparison to most. Studios shelving all their big titles last year meant that 2021 became the new dumping ground, leading to strange and surprising new strategies of distribution. Shorter theatrical windows prior to streaming, or even day-and-date releases—like WB’s HBO Max strategy for their 2021 slate—became far more prominent, giving more people easier access to big releases while public health is still far below optimal.
Meanwhile, third- and fourth-quarter weekends became more heavily stacked than usual, with blockbusters clawing over one another for the audience’s attention as people get more comfortable returning to theaters. And then there’s all those poor formerly-Fox releases getting dumped out by Disney, woefully close behind the releases of their latest main-label stuff.
And yet, somehow, the final results feel fairly typical. After all, it’s not like most big releases originally intended for 2021 have held onto their release dates; most were shoved off into 2022 to make room for 2020’s unreleased wares. Looking back, for the most part, 2021 has a fairly standard slate of blockbusters and awards hopefuls. And some great smaller films.
Me personally? I think I really found my groove in terms of my movie coverage this year. I wrote fewer reviews, recorded a lot more podcasts, and focused more on seeing movies that actually interested me. Don’t get me wrong—I saw plenty of bullshit. I always will. But I managed to trim down the number of movies I hated this year, as well as the number of reviews I wrote of mediocre films—all while still increasing my total “watched” list from 2020, by a smidge.
As for 2022 resolutions, I hope to write more non-review articles. Commentaries, retrospectives, weird takes about stuff only nerds like me would find interesting. I struggle coming up with ideas for those, but it’s a goal to chase after—and that’s really all a New Year’s Rez needs to be. If I only do a handful of proper, full-length reviews next year, but maintain the total number of written and recorded pieces I did this year, that’d be pretty swell. (Don’t worry, I’ll still post dumb Letterboxd blurbs for everything I watch.)
But let’s not get carried away into the future. We’re not done discussing 2021 yet! Well, I’m not, anyway. There’s so much good this year worth recognizing, so let’s get to it.
I’ve organized my year-in-review like an awards show: 13 categories, all of which I either made up or borrowed from other awards groups. Each category has several “nominees,” one runner-up, and one winner. Since there was no committee and no actual nominating done to determine these, think of the “nominees” as finalists, or examples I thought were worth recognizing, but weren’t the absolute best of the best in their field. The nominees are kinda-sorta listed in ascending order of quality, ish.
First up:
Best Lead Performance
The most engaging, convincing, affecting, and/or impressive performances, in a lead role, from 2021.
Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, Spencer
Lakeith Stanfield as Bill O’Neal, Judas and the Black Messiah
Adam Driver as Henry McHenry, Annette
Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, Judas and the Black Messiah
Colin Firth as Sam, Supernova
Stanley Tucci as Tusker, Supernova
Mads Mikkelsen as Markus, Riders of Justice
Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges, The Last Duel
Agathe Rousselle as Alexia / Adrien, Titane
Hidetoshi Nishijima as Yusuke Kufuku, Drive My Car
Libe Barer as Jane, Disfluency
Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, CODA
Runner-Up: Nicolas Cage as Chef Robin Feld, Pig
WINNER: Simon Rex as Mikey Saber, Red Rocket
The most deplorable main character of 2021 was brought to life with manic intensity by Simon Rex, previously most-known for roles in low-brow parody films and comedy shorts. This is, in part, inspired casting, as Rex’s penchant for sketchy pretty-boys fits the role of Mikey perfectly, having played scuzz before but never with such richly repulsive material as Sean Baker’s script. Whether it’s his frantic, repetitive bleating of Mikey’s accomplishments in the adult film industry, or the eye-twitching ease with which he gaslights every character Mikey encounters, Rex finds the perfectly charming, skin-crawling tone necessary for the scene. It’s full, physical embodiment of a character, and it’s awesome.
Best Supporting Performance
The most engaging, convincing, affecting, and/or impressive performances, in a supporting role, from 2021.
Special all-rounder: Willem Dafoe, The Card Counter, The French Dispatch, Nightmare Alley, Spider-Man: No Way Home
Ben Affleck as Pierre d’Alençon, The Last Duel
Ariana DeBose as Anita, West Side Story
Rita Moreno as Valentina, West Side Story
Woody Norman as Jesse, C’mon C’mon
Jane Houdyshell as Deirdre, The Humans
Richard Jenkins as Erik, The Humans
Runner-Up: Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi, CODA
WINNER: Vincent Lindon as Vincent, Titane
Speaking of physical embodiment—yeeesh. Lindon’s (quite literally) muscular performance as a father in need of a son is as horrifying as it is heartwrenching. Watching Vincent watch himself flex in the mirror, after juicing himself up with a needle in the ass, is a painful but somehow strangely relatable experience. This performance could have just as easily been for a horror movie villain, if not for Lindon’s keen perception for empathy.
Best Ensemble
The most engaging, convincing, and/or impressive performances from an entire main cast this year. Alternatively, outstanding use of ensemble-style acting—that is, lacking clear standout roles, but instead relying on the interplay of several equally-prominent performances.
The French Dispatch
Riders of Justice
Judas and the Black Messiah
CODA
The Green Knight
The Last Duel
The Harder They Fall
Runner-Up: The Humans
WINNER: Mass
A stunning four-hander. Honestly, it’s no competition. This simple, difficult film is held together by four brilliantly dialed-in performances from Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, and Reed Birney. Each of these parents are here for closure, for answers, for something that they think might give them peace in the face of such incredible grief. That very personal, vulnerable need is internalized by this quartet so well that the performances practically melt away; suddenly, you’re in a church meeting room with these four hurting people, begging for them to to find whatever it is they need from this experience.
Best Vocal / Motion Capture Performance
The most engaging, convincing, affecting, and/or impressive voice-acting or motion-capture performances of 2021.
Herman Tømmeraas, Ninjababy
Jack Dylan Grazer, Luca
Jacob Tremblay, Luca
Abbi Jacobson, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Olivia Colman, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Danny McBride, The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Runner-Up: Ralph Ineson, The Green Knight
WINNER: Tom Hardy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage
I don’t particularly care for the Venom movies. But there’s something lovable about the Eddie-Venom relationship in them. That’s due, in part, to Tom Hardy’s on-screen performance as Eddie, which is full-bodied, physical, neurotic, and hilarious. But what’s almost more entertaining is his vocal performance as the monstrous symbiote—an alien who pretends to be driven only by hunger and the cold need to kill, but rather poorly hides his secret need for emotional companionship and support. They’re both losers, but together, they’re a winner. Hardy’s ragged, modulated vocal quality, combined with his snappy delivery of silly dialogue creates a strangely adorable monster who is far more likable than the movie surrounding him.
The Character Award
For the creation of a thoroughly entertaining memorable, and/or original on-screen character—the culmination of screenwriting, directing, and acting to create a fascinating figure.
Pierre d’Alencon, The Last Duel
The Green Knight, The Green Knight
Paloma, No Time to Die
King Shark, The Suicide Squad
Hathaway Noa, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway
Eddie Brock & Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Shinji Ikari, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
Sir Gawain, The Green Knight
Chef Robin Feld, Pig
Runner-Up: Mikey Saber, Red Rocket
WINNER: Peter Parker (wink), Spider-Man: No Way Home
Yeah, maybe this seems like an easy or lazy choice. There are a lot of wonderful, more original characters created or reinvented onscreen this year. But I have to give my love to No Way Home for how perfectly it realizes the iconic character of Peter Parker. It understands and communicates the inherent, entwined tragedy and hope of the character better than, maybe, any previous Spider-Man film. That’s probably a bold claim to most, and even offensive to some, but I stand by it. It helps that the character has multiple vessels through which to be further developed.
Those who’ve seen the film will also understand why I used this particular image (low-res as it is), which is edited from the original film to hide its secrets, as it helps me to communicate why this is the most Spider-Man movie of all time, in a real, meaningful way. Not simply because of the fan-service and callbacks to previous films, but because of how it makes use of all that to capture why Peter Parker is such an important character to so many people.
Best Aesthetic Design
Exceptional visual storytelling and beauty, by way of cinematography, production design, costuming, and overall art direction.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway
The Humans
Red Rocket
Titane
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
In the Heights
West Side Story
No Time to Die
Candyman
Runner-Up: Dune
WINNER: The Tragedy of Macbeth
A surreal and fantastical combination of stark set design, engrossing camera movements and editing, and well-hidden visual effects make this film a marvel to behold. The smooth fortress walls of Dunsinane loom over its tenants, and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel’s keen eye for composition and sharp light and shadow lend an eerie, otherwordly quality to this adaptation of the story. It may not be as expensive or bombastic as something like Dune or In the Heights, but its imagery and atmosphere stick with me far more vividly.
The Gut-buster Award
These are the funniest films of the year. Not necessarily “the best films that happen to fit within in the comedy genre," but rather those that I personally found to be the funniest, whether that was intended or not. Watch these films for a good laugh.
Note: I didn’t see a lot of comedies this year. At least not a lot of good ones. So most of my crop wound up being movies of other genres that happened to have a lot of humor, or managed to be hilarious by accident. I’m bummed I never got around to Bad Trip.
Old
Annette
Halloween Kills
CODA
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Nobody
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Licorice Pizza
Red Rocket
Runner-Up: The Mitchells vs. The Machines
WINNER: The Suicide Squad
Peacemaker. King Shark. Polka Dot Man. Harley Quinn. All the countless losers who were killed off in the film’s opening minutes. There are so many sources of comedy in this film that its laugh count might be higher than its incredibly bloody kill count. James Gunn brings his trademark edgy wit that he formed in Slither and Super and then made popular in Guardians of the Galaxy, and makes it all the more grim and cynical—fitting for an R-rated supervillain flick, which also might actually be the most incisive, anti-establishment comment on the American military in a superhero blockbuster, ever.
The Tear-jerker Award
These films all made me cry at least once, broke my heart, and/or left a heavy cloud of melancholy over me after leaving the theater.
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Drive My Car
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
Supernova
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Flee
Runner-Up: Disfluency
WINNER: CODA
It’s almost cheating to use Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” as an integral part of this story about a girl trying to make her own path for herself, coming from such a unique family that depends on her for support. But every tear this movie evokes is earned, even if its narrative is pretty conventional. Frank feeling his daughter’s singing voice for the first time. Ruby auditioning for Berklee with some last-minute help from her choir teacher. It’s all there, and it’s all built from treating these characters like real, fully fleshed-out individuals, each with their own needs and hopes.
The Head-scratcher Award
Regardless of quality, these films each beg the question, “How did this get greenlit?” For better or worse, these movies are perplexing anomalies of cinema. This is not a measure of quality, but of absurdity.
The Green Knight
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Mainstream
Lamb
Titane
Benedetta
Runner-Up: Old
WINNER: Annette
It’s a full-on modern opera about a stand-up comedian named Henry McHenry and his passionate but doomed relationship with his wife, an internationally renowned singer, and their mysteriously talented daughter. The music, by Sparks, is electric and eccentric, and heightens the absurd, acid-trip narrative. Annette herself is played by a literal puppet. Adam Driver performs oral sex, and looks like a Greek god while doing so. ‘Nuff said.
Most Worthless Film
A film that displays an all-around lack of competence, moral or cultural regression, and/or concepts that are not worth subjecting viewers to. These films may or may not also promote ideas and filmmaking practices that hurt the integrity of the industry and media on the whole. Many of these are probably close to the worst of the year, but this is not necessarily a “worst” award.
Ron’s Gone Wrong
Mainstream
The Little Things
Tom & Jerry
Runner-Up: A Classic Horror Story
WINNER: Don’t Look Up
Y'know when you're in a group conversation about a heated topic, and one person starts ranting really angrily and being all condescending and smug, all the while using really tired, surface-level talking points—which sucks because you actually kind of agree with the core of what they’re saying, but they're just being soooo annoying and hypocritical that all you can think is “shut up, shut the f**k up, SHUT UP” while they cram their half-baked, hashtag-ideology down the throats of everyone in the room as if they're espousing some kind of revelatory way of thinking that no one else has thought of yet?
That's Don't Look Up.
It’s Adam McKay at his most pompous and least insightful. Skip it. It’s bad for your health.
Best Director
These are the directors that most impressed me with their filmmaking craftsmanship, style, and storytelling efficacy. They made these films theirs, full-stop.
Anders Thomas Jensen, Riders of Justice
Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall
Siân Heder, CODA
Joel Coen, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Michael Sarnoski, Pig
Julia Ducournau, Titane
David Lowery, The Green Knight
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Sean Baker, Red Rocket
Runner-Up: Fran Kranz, Mass
WINNER: Stephen Karam, The Humans
It certainly helps that he’s adapting his own play to the screen, but (having not seen the play myself) I’d say he’s done so impeccably. Considering it’s his film directorial debut, it’s astounding how masterful a grip he has on pacing, editing, spatial awareness, and the geography of a scene. The claustrophobic discomfort—horror, even—of not only a cramped New York apartment when you have 9/11 trauma, but also of a family gathering gone wrong, is palpable in almost every frame of this film, and it’s to Karam’s credit as a storyteller onscreen. I desperately hope this is the beginning of a new chapter in his career, and not a one-off self-adaptation, because the man knocked it out of the park on his first try. I really need to see the play now. I’m sure it’s great. But I’m also struggling to imagine, with as much detail as was put into the visual and aural detail of the film, how the story plays on a stage.
Best Film
These are my picks for the best of the year. Or maybe they’re my favorites—or somewhere in between. Let’s put it this way: if I nominated it, that means I loved it and highly recommend it.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway
Procession
The Suicide Squad
Supernova
Riders of Justice
CODA
The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Red Rocket
Pig
Mass
Runner-Up: Drive My Car
WINNER: The Humans
A masterful encapsulation of family and social anxiety—how we fail one another and worry that we aren’t enough—while also, in a very strange way, being a warm and beating homage to those social and emotional nets that we rely on. It’s a picture that floats between genres, at times nearly tipping into psychological horror in shocking and hard-hitting ways. It’s got laughs, heartbreak, and terror in equal measure, organically blended together into a visually beautiful and naturalistic slice-of-life story.
And that’s a wrap! I had other category ideas I could’ve included, but the more specific I got, the less I felt qualified to be determining awards for very particular aspects of filmmaking that I have no personal experience with. So we’ll stick with this. I do, however, have a few more thoughts to share about this year’s stuff:
Non-feature-length-film stuff I loved
I don’t tend to watch a lot of TV series, comedy specials, short films, or really anything that isn’t an actual feature film—I guess I’ve made my priorities—but this year, there were a whopping four seasons of television set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so of course I watched those. They were mostly very good, especially Loki and Hawkeye! (But not you, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.) Plus, my favorite comedian released a transgressive music film/comedy special/existential meditation… and I want to talk about that!
STRAIGHT-UP THE BEST THING I WATCHED THIS YEAR:
Bo Burnham: INSIDE
What was originally conceived as another live comedy special became a strange and meticulously crafted art piece made in the confines of a tiny apartment, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a coming-to-grips with one’s insecurities, wrapped in the existential dread at the direction of media and corporate control. It’s a series of gorgeously lit and edited music videos, backed by catchy-as-hell tunes, and interspersed with depressing, rambly monologues and meltdowns.
It so perfectly captures the uniquely terrible psychological climate of the pandemic in a way that no other “COVID art” has been able to—but beyond that, it will stand the test of time as an expression of one person’s internal battle between self-loathing and self-aggrandizement in the Information Age. It’s something everyone can connect with on a deep, perhaps embarrassing level, even if we aren’t all cis-white millionaires who conveniently have a guest house to pretend to be trapped in on camera for dramatic effect. Mental health and social struggles are far bigger than that, and Burnham has found that thread that we can all connect to and made brilliant, crushing use of it.
My Personal Ranking
As I said at the top, this list changes all the time, and probably always will. It's completely subjective and based entirely on my personal preferences. Think of it more like “my favorites of 2021” than my claim to the definitive “best of 2021.”
CLICK HERE TO READ FULL 2021 RANKINGS
Note: When you follow the link to my full ranking, you can navigate to the upper-righthand corner of the list, and click the orange “Read Notes” button. This will display the list vertically, allowing you to see my star ratings for each.
Your reviews are always a good read! Helps me decide if I want to see them.