(CNN Spanish) -
In a year in which we once again depended on
streaming
as a safe source of entertainment due to covid-19, it was quite a coincidence that six of my ten favorite films of 2021 were distributed or produced by one of these platforms.
Be careful, I could enjoy all of them on a giant screen and in fact it would be difficult for me to see them on my cell phone or even a television screen, as I usually watch series on that same platform.
See here the # OjoCríticoTop10 from previous years
With that said, here are my top 10 of 2021:
# 10 Tick, Tick… boom!
We started with a genre that in 2021 had a strong presence on the card, although that did not translate into big profits.
Number ten is 'Tick Tick ... Boom!', By the same creator of that other musical premiered last June 'In the Heights', but here Lin-Manuel Miranda preferred to act as director ... debuting in that chair with this movie starring Andrew Garfield.
So what does this musical have to make it my favorite of the year?
For some reason, the one that was done with less pretensions than the others and that even their transitions between spoken and sung felt more organic.
The film talks about the creative process of the late Broadway playwright Jonathan Larson, a highly regarded figure in the New York theater circle who made it possible for many of his legends to participate in precisely this musical number.
# 9 The Lost Daughter
Another who has just debuted as a director is the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who also wrote the script for number nine, an adaptation of the Italian novel "The Dark Daughter."
The star role went to Olivia Colman, playing a lonely woman on vacation whose interaction with a young woman on the beach will put an end to her break and unleash a personal crisis.
Gyllenhaal also chose for his cast an unrecognizable Dakota Johnson - not by physique but by register - to make a perfect counterweight to his main protagonist.
The style and rhythm used by Gyllenhall make 'The Lost Daughter', his English title, an exquisite tale of great psychological and emotional tension.
# 8 Don't Look Up
Political, social satire is something that director Adam McKay has left his personal stamp on in recent years.
And in number eight, he again lashes out at several, call each other deniers, ultra-conservative forces or the
light
press
.
'Don't Look Up' is also another film where Leonardo DiCaprio renews our confidence in him as an actor of great caliber and where he is also accompanied by an equally stellar cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, his old partner Jonah Hill and the always gorgeous Cate Blanchett, to name just a few.
The imminent impact of a comet that threatens to destroy the earth will thus be the trigger for this absurd, fatalistic, but even relevant story.
Eye!
You have to stay tuned until the end of the credits.
# 7 Night of fire
The Mexican filmmakers brought us in the last year the crudest and most emotional stories of Ibero-American cinema.
One of my favorites was number seven, by the documentary filmmaker Tatiana Huezo, but with 'Noche de fuego' she launched herself to direct her first fiction feature film.
In the story we will meet three little girls, whose growth we will witness thanks to the dedication of the creative team.
Her town, located in a mountain range of impressive beauty, subsists thanks to the cultivation of poppies but that condition will also determine the freedom and dreams of the protagonists.
Huezo draws a precise and meaningful portrait of what the news never shows, but which is the catalyst for so many today feel forced to emigrate.
# 6 Titane
Since winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes festival last July, number six was projected as the international film that was sure to shine on Oscar night.
Although France chose her as their representative for these awards, the Hollywood Academy did not include her among the semifinalists and today her name has been diluted, although not in my top ten.
Titane, by director Julia Ducournau, is perhaps the most disturbing film that many have seen in recent months, but beyond that strange obsession of a girl with cars, leading her as an adult to get pregnant with one of these machines - yes You read that right — the soul of this story is woven by its two protagonists for whom the void of love can be filled with the most unlikely of fantasies.
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# 5 Belfast
Number five has little fantasy, only the one that lives through games and protects its little protagonist from the socio-political chaos of the late sixties in Northern Ireland.
'Belfast' is the love letter that director Kenneth Branagh wrote to his hometown, making it one of the most endearing family stories in cinema in the last year (expect number three too).
Here we return to reflect on the conditions that force many to emigrate.
Situation that - again - is not usually explained and therefore the lack of empathy of those who have not gone through it.
Luckily, we had more than one movie that in the last year he wanted to show us.
# 4 Flee
And that forced displacement is something that is also addressed in 'Flee', the animated documentary that for Denmark did manage to enter the semifinals in the race for an Oscar nomination in 2022, and not only in the documentary category but also in that of international film as the official candidate of that Nordic country.
The protagonist of this documentary, which uses a minimal number of archival images but is still less forceful with the animation, is an Afghan refugee whose marriage plans in Denmark force him to make peace with his past: the ordeal of years ago lived by him and his family.
In 2008, another film in my top ten: "Waltz with Bashir" had the same impact on me as today: number four of 2021.
# 3 It was the hand of God
One who returns to this count of my favorite films of the last twelve months is Paolo Sorrentino, from whom I was expecting a new frenzied story like
Dolce Vita
but who in its first minutes captivated me for being a fun and somewhat eccentric family story that for half of it took a more dramatic turn, breaking then with an exclusive classification of comedy or drama
Sorrentino understands that life is made up of both and that in between —if we want to— we can take a break, think and determine the next step on the road.
'Fue la mano de Dios' is his title in Spanish and represents a new introspection of those characters of hers larger than life itself, but that here, with that very personal element, elevate it even more.
# 2 Licorice Pizza
Only once have I been let down by Paul Thomas Anderson (you already know he's my favorite contemporary director).
But I am not here to talk about that occasion, but about his latest production, which today occupies the second position of this count and where the filmmaker returns to the microcosm that represents the San Fernando Valley in Lois Ángeles.
This time he does not do it with extravagant or unconventional characters, but simply with a couple made up of a teenage boy and the older girl he has noticed, but who does not feel the slightest interest in him, more than perhaps him. to kill time orchestrating an entire business adventure.
'Licorice Pizza' contains a purity and naivety that the work of this director had never transmitted to me before.
Which just made me happy when I left the cinema and not with that unsettling feeling to which I was accustomed.
# 1 The Power of the Dog
And finally number one did surprise me.
It was the return after more than ten years of the director Jane Campion, but the one that did not convince me at the beginning because it is a cowboy story, which is not usually one of my favorite genres.
If this has also discouraged you from seeing it, imagine then that it is a modern story about the relationship of two brothers who live isolated in the vastness of the countryside and that when one of them decides to marry, his wife and her son will unleash a whole tension psychological that will threaten your stability.
Although the film may be dense at the beginning, I was filled with patience - and I have let those who do not finish it know that way - and then feel fully satisfied with an outcome that has made it one of the most talked about endings of the year .
Check out the Top 10 2021 Critical Eye movies also on YouTube:
#OjoCriticoTop10