The Bat Cave

My TOP TEN Movies of 2021

1. Dune
2. Shiva Baby (HBO Max)
3. Little Fish (Hulu)
4. Spider-Man: No Way Home
5. CODA (Apple TV+)
6. Titane
7. Pig (Hulu)
8. Judas and the Black Messiah (HBO Max)
9. The Last Duel
10. A Quiet Place Part II

The rest of my top 25: https://boxd.it/b3zMq

Notable 2021 films I haven’t seen yet: Licorice Pizza, C’mon C’mon, Belfast, The Worst Person in the World, Mass, West Side Story, Red Rocket, The Lost Daughter, The Card Counter, Spencer, The French Dispatch, King Richard, In The Heights, Nightmare Alley, No Time to Die, Swan Song

My TOP FIVE Documentaries/Docu-Series of 2021

1. The Alpinist (Netflix)
2. Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (Apple TV+)
3. Summer of Soul (Hulu)
4. Val (Amazon Prime)
5. Allen v. Farrow (HBO Max)

Notable 2021 Documentaries I haven’t seen: The Beatles: Get Back, Flee, The Rescue, Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street, Tina, Tiger, The History of the Atlanta Falcons, The Velvet Underground, The Sparks Brothers

2021 Movie Stats

Films watched: 244 (including shorts and eligible T.V. series (i.e. Loki, Mare of Easttown, etc.)

Average per month: 20.3

Average per week: 4.7

Most movies watched in one week: 13

Movies I watched twice: Halloween Kills, Minari, The Father, Shiva Baby, Promising Young Woman, Dick Johnson is Dead

Most watched genres: Drama (101 films), Horror (61), Thriller (61), Comedy (46), Action (34)

2021 releases: 29.5% Older: 70.5%

First-time watches: 74.6% Re-watches: 25.4%

10/10 Ratings: Halloween, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Jurassic Park, 12 Years a Slave

2021 – Most Watched Actors:

6 films: Corey Feldman (Friday the 13th franchise), Samuel L. Jackson (random)

5 films: Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween franchise), Benedict Cumberbatch (random), Jesse Plemons (random), Carrie-Anne Moss (Matrix franchise), Bill Camp (random)

4 films: Robert De Niro (Scorsese), Keanu Reeves (Matrix), David Dastmalchian (random), Nick Castle (Halloween), Virginia Madsen (random), Benedict Wong (Marvel), Melora Walters (Paul Thomas Anderson), Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th), P.J. Soles (Halloween), Charles Scorsese (Scorsese), Darrell Britt-Gibson (Fear Street), Fred Hechinger (Fear Street), Olivia Scott Welch (Fear Street)

2021 – Most Watched Directors:

4 films: Martin Scorsese, Lana Wachowski

3 films: Paul Thomas Anderson, Leigh Janiak, Destin Daniel Cretton, Wes Anderson, Ridley Scott

2 films: Steve Miner, Sergio Leone, David Gordon Green, Garrett Bradley, Spike Lee, James Cameron, Chloe Zhao, Adam Wingard, Rob Zombie, Steve McQueen, David Lynch, Chris Palmer

All-Time – Most Watched Actors:

1. Samuel L. Jackson (44 films) [previously ranked 1]
2. Brad Pitt (36) [2]
3. Robert De Niro (35) [2]
4. Tom Hanks (33) [5]
5. Matt Damon (32) [6]
6. Morgan Freeman (31) [8]
7. John Goodman (31) [4]
8. Bruce Willis (29) [6]
9. Johnny Depp (28) [9]
10. Tom Cruise (27) [13]
11. Robert Downey Jr. (27) [13]
12. Woody Harrelson (27) [10]
13. Jonah Hill (27) [12]
14. Jack Black (27) [9]
15. J.K. Simmons (27) [13]
16. Arnold Schwarzenegger (26) [13]
17. Ben Affleck (26) [13]
18. Willem Dafoe (26) [unranked]
19. Phillip Seymour Hoffman (25) [unranked]
20. Bill Murray (25) [13]

Dropped out: Laurence Fishburne, Jon Favreau

All-Time – Most Watched Directors:

1. Steve Spielberg (21 films) [previously ranked 1]
2. Martin Scorsese (20) [2]
3. Ridley Scott (16) [4]
4. Tim Burton (14) [3]
5. Sam Raimi (12) [5]
6. Ron Howard (12) [5]
7. Quentin Tarantino (12) [5]
8. Ivan Reitman (11) [8]
9. David Fincher (11) [8]
10. Christopher Nolan (11) [8]
11. Joel Coen (11) [8]
12. Michael Bay (10) [12]
13. Robert Rodriguez (10) [12]
14. Steven Soderbergh (10) [12]
15. Jon Turteltaub (9) [15]
16. Stephen Herek (9) [15]
17. Wes Craven (9) [15]
18. Joel Schumacher (9) [unranked]
19. Peter Farrelly (9) [15]
20. Jay Roach (9) [15]
21. James Mangold (9) [15]
22. Robert Zemeckis (9) [15]
23. Richard Donner (9) [15]

Notes: Basically no movement here. I have multiple directors I’m focusing on right now, but Scorsese is the only one I watched more than three films from and only one of those wasn’t a re-watch. Ridley Scott is the only director in my all-time top 20 that I saw more than one new film from last year.

Every Movie I watched in November & December

Notes: This is the time of year I really start digging into the 2021 movies with Oscar chances, but this past month was kind of weird because of snow. I ended up cancelling multiple movie theater trips because we only have one 4WD vehicle and Dina was using it to go to work. Also, the vast majority of my film-watching is a solo adventure, but over the last ten days of 2021 Dina and I watched 14 movies together! She let me pick out two of them. Needless to say, my focused watchlist is now overflowing with 2021 movies I still need to see. The good news is I will have almost three full months to catch up on everything before the Oscars air on March 27th. Plenty of time!

Masterpieces – 10

Amazing – 9

• The Matrix (1999, re-watch, HBO Max)
• Boogie Nights (1997, re-watch, Showtime)

Great/Must Sees – 8

• Titane (2021, iTunes rental)
• The Last Duel (2021, Vudu)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021, theater)
• The Alpinist (2021, Netflix)
• Avengers: Endgame (2021, re-watch, Disney+)
• Black Swan (2010, re-watch, Hulu)
• Goodfellas (1990, re-watch, HBO Max)

Highly Enjoyable – 7

• Last Night in Soho (2021, theater)
• The Master (2012, Netflix)
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003, re-watch, HBO Max)
• Best in Show (2000, re-watch, HBO Max)
• Bottle Rocket (1996, iTunes rental)
• Hard Eight (1996, Amazon Prime)
• Home Alone (1990, re-watch, personal collection)
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, re-watch, personal collection)
• The Color of Money (1986, re-watch, iTunes rental)
• Tampopo (1985, HBO Max)

Light Recommendations – 6

• Don’t Look Up (2021, Netflix)
• House of Gucci (2021, theater)
• Passing (2021, Netflix)
• The Power of the Dog (2021, Netflix)
• Raya and the Last Dragon (2021, Netflix)
• Slumber Party Massacre (2021, iTunes rental)
• Stillwater (2021, Netflix disc rental)
• Fan Girl (2020, Netflix)
• Friday the 13th (2009, re-watch, HBO Max)
• In the Line of Fire (1993, Netflix)
• Witness (1985, HBO Max)

Decent – 5

• Censor (2021, Hulu)
• Eternals (2021, theater)
• tick, tick… BOOM! (2021, Netflix)
• The Matrix Resurrections (2021, HBO Max)
• I, Robot (2004, re-watch, HBO Max)

Forgettable – 4

• The Matrix Revolutions (2003, re-watch, HBO Max)

Bad – 3

Horrible – 2

• Slumber Party Massacre II (1987, tubi)

2021 Best Feature Films: My top 25 of 2021 through December 2021
2020 Best Feature Films: My top 25 of 2020 through December 2021
2021 Best Documentaries/Docu-Series: My top documentary style films of the year
Focused Watchlist: A list of 30+ movies that are at the top of my watchlist with a breakdown of how I formulate my picks
January 2022 – New to Theaters and Streaming: Ranking new and old movies I want to see coming to streaming or theaters this month

I also went crazy and made a best films of the year list for every year from 2020 to 1982, the year I was born. I ranked 25 films for 2000 and later and 10 films for 1999 to 1982. I started fizzling out on my lists in the early 90s as I just haven’t seen most of the important films from those early years when I was a kid. I have all the lists on my blog here. Enjoy!

T.V. Shows (Ratings out of 5)

Finished:

• Succession season 3 (2021, HBO) – 4/5
• Curb Your Enthusiasm season 11 (2021, HBO) – 3.5/5
• Better Call Saul season 5 (2020, FX) – 3.5/5
• The Sex Lives of College Girls season 1 (2021, HBO) – 4/5

Actively watching:

• Dexter: New Blood season 1 (2021, Showtime)
• The Sopranos season 2 (2000, HBO, re-watch)

Started but on indefinite pause:

• Chucky season 1 (2021, USA/SyFy)
• What We Do in the Shadows season 3 (2021, Hulu)
• Big Shots season 1 (2021, Disney+)
• Loki season 1 (2021, Disney+)
• Rick & Morty season 5 (2021, Adult Swim)