The Movies, Films and Flix 2021 Movie List: Celebrating a Fun Year for Movies.

2021 was an excellent year for cinema, and we here at MFF wanted to share the movies we enjoyed the most. I (Mark) asked fellow MFF website/podcast contributors to send me their 2021 lists, and we’ve come up with a fun selection. Enjoy, and let us know which 2021 movies you loved the most.

Quick Links

1. The 2021 Mid-Year Random Awards
2. The 2021 Mid-Year Random Awards Podcast Episode
3. The MFF Horror List Podcast Episode
4. The 2021 Random Awards
5. The 2021 Random Awards Podcast Episode

Mark Hofmeyer (@Mhofmeyer on Twitter)

1. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar – Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is wonderful. It’s inventive, daring and beautifully odd. Writers/stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo have created a cult classic that hopefully will amass a large following. Also, I really hope that it somehow, someway, gets nominated for about 40 Academy Awards (they can make up the awards, it’s cool). It deserves it.
2. Malignant – Malignant is insane. James Wan has created one of the oddest horror films I’ve ever seen, and I love it.
3. Pig –  Pig is a beautiful film that will definitely be included in my year end “best of” lists. I can’t think of the last time I was so engrossed in a movie. Also, Nicolas Cage is excellent, and between Pig, Joe, Mandy, and Color Out of Space, he’s been putting in some great work in movies that place him in a wooded area.
4. Undine – Undine puts a sensitive and thoughtful spin on Undine mythology. Director Christian Petzold (Phoenix – watch it) has crafted another solid film that features an award winning performance from Paula Beer (Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival).
5. The Suicide Squad – The James Gunn directed The Suicide Squad is pure delight. If you are looking for a bloody, brutal and hilarious superhero movie, it doesn’t get any better.
6. The Worst Person in the World – If you are looking for a film that puts a brilliant spin on the romantic comedy, you need to watch The Worst Person in the World.
7. Petit Maman – Absolutely delightful. Director Celine Sciamma has done it again. 
8. Dune – I’ve never said “whoa” more times in my life while watching a movie. Dune is big, beautiful, and bold.
9. Bergman Island – Give Mia Wasikowska an Oscar. She’s great. 
10. Benedetta – Benedetta is what happens when Paul Verhoeven is given complete creative control. It’s funny, incendiary, dramatic and totally committed to achieving a singular vision. The cast is game, and you can tell they trusted Verhoeven to make something unique and memorable.

David Cross (@ItsMeDavidCross on Twitter)

1. Pig
2. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
3. Dune
4. Shadow in the Cloud
5. Godzilla vs Kong

Megan Hofmeyer 

1. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
2. Petite Maman
3. Bergman Island
4. Cyrano
5. The Sparks Brothers

John Leavengood (@MFFHorrorCorner on Twitter)

1. The Suicide Squad–I had such an unexpectedly fun time yelling at the screen in glee and with such high frequency. When you are shouting at your screen alone in your living room, you know the movie is hitting the right mark for you.
2. Pig--Such a beautiful yet tortured, emotionally brutal story; and yet so incredibly tactful. The quiet patience of this film will cast a loud strike upon a heartstring that will deafen the once quiet room in your mind.
3. Dune–I was reminded again and again of all the things I love about Gladiator (2000) and Star Wars. Operatic scores that transcend mood, a truly magnificent sense of scale, and a brutally political world were good struggles to keep its place at the Darwinian table.
4. Nobody–Of all the attempts to recreate John Wick or Taken in a new skin, this felt the most successfully different while retaining its grip on relentless, jaw-dropping violence.
5. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings–Just. Plain. Fun. I think I was smiling for two straight hours between the scintillating colors dancing on the screen; the creatures of Chinese mythology I recognized from my Dungeons & Dragons books; and the grounded, heartfelt characters. This is the visually captivating and light-hearted “feel good” iteration of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) for our generation.
6. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard--Not as good as the first, but still overflowing with loud laughs from R-rated humor and holy crap’ly unexpected violence.
7. Free Guy--After a slower than expected start in delivering the out loud laughter we expect from Reynolds, this movie served an inspiring dose of warmth that I never saw coming. Come for the silly humor and wild action, stay for all the warm fuzzies that juuuust might water your eyes for a moment when you think of your own special someone out there…. whether they know it or not.
8. F9–Was this good for a FF movie? Not necessarily. But did I still love it? Yeah, I still love it even if less than FF5-8. I wonder if in F10 they’ll face off against The Avengers or The Deviants.
9. Godzilla vs Kong–Giant monsters fighting giant monsters and even fighting giant robot monsters…? If you know me, you know I loved this. Even if the writing was a bit comicbook-wonky with a heaping dose of childish Journey to the Center of the Earth, it’s still so much fun.
10. Malignant--Wild. This was wild. And I watch so much wild stuff that wild things seldom feel wild to me at all! You start out watching one kind of movie, and finish in a completely different aisle of Blockbuster Video. “Wow, what a difference!”

Honorable mentions go out to the surprisingly sentimental The Tomorrow War, thrashingly violent Wrath of Man, as well as Candyman, King Richard, The Green Knight, The Harder They Fall, and Werewolves Within.

Zanandi Botes (@ZaNandi on Twitter)

1. Riders of Justice
2. Werewolves Within
3. Pig
4. The Harder They Fall
5. The Night House
6. The Suicide Squad
7. Barb and Star
8. Dune
9. Willy’s Wonderland
10. The Matrix Resurrections

Nick Rehak (@TheRehak on Twitter)

1. Dune
2. Inside
3. Summer of Soul
4. Judas and the Black Messiah
5. Pig

Jonny Numb (@JonnyNumb on Twitter – Be on the lookout for his 2021 horror list)

1. Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
2. Pig
3. The Suicide Squad
4. Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
5. Bad Girls

Lisa Leaheey (LisaPas220 on Twitter)

1. The Green Knight tops the list because it’s brilliant – visuals, narrative, acting… the whole thing is divine.
2. Ghostbusters: Afterlife comes next because of sentimental reasons (I cried through the whole darn thing) and because it’s just so enjoyable in general.
3. Judas and the Black Messiah has two of the top performances of 2021 in Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield.
4. Saint Maud also boasts a phenomenal performance from Morfydd Clark. Holy hell is she incredible. A24 knows what they’re doing in horror. I have yet to be disappointed.
5. Candyman is one of the very few remakes I adore, let alone like!  Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele are sharp with this update. Can’t wait to see what they’ve got coming next.
6. Free Guy was my summer movie – super fun, lots of laughs and little Easter eggs for gamers and non-gamers alike. Ryan Reynolds’ charm shines in everything he does, but darn it – missed opportunity for not casting Blake Lively as the blonde in the bank!
7. Profile slipped into, then out of the theaters far too silently. I love this “on the computer” found-footage format, and the story was really interesting to me. It’s not an earth-shattering game-changer by any means, and it definitely has perception problems, but for a horror/psychological thriller fan, it’s worth a watch.
8. The Night House was also pretty underseen this year; lovely to look at, incredible performance by Rebecca Hall, and solid writing.
9. Yes, Mortal Kombat is in my top ten. I stand by it. Come at me. 🤓😂 Without a doubt, the most fun I had in movie-watching this year. 
10. Val broke my heart – not only is it fascinating to journey into the past with Kilmer’s home movies, his spirit permeates the documentary despite his medical struggles with throat cancer. The fact that he’s LIVING so much more than many healthy people is staggering. He was a big favorite of mine in the 90s, and this movie just brought all of that admiration back to the forefront.