Ten of Carlo's Favorite Movies of 2021
In 2021 I gave roughly one hundred movies a five star rating on Letterboxd. Needless to say: I’ve lost it. What that specifically means, though, is that for the first time I’ve dipped my whole ass in the wide world of classic Hollywood cinema and you know what? Dang ol’ Tinseltown used to make a good ol’ movie picture I tell ya what.
There’s not a ton of that in this list because I feel like a lot of what needs to be said about “established” cinema has already been said. So rather than talk about Barbara Stanwyck again, I decided to focus on the outliers, and the ones I haven’t extensively talked about on Cream of the Crud already. Enjoy!
The Divine Enforcer (1992, dir. Robert Rundle)
If you ever wanted to see a guy talk to a skull while he's eating corn flakes out of a mug carved from a different skull, but also be watching a different movie about a kung fu vigilante priest with the shining, then run, don't walk to… The Divine Enforcer. Wildly varying energy from Don Stroud acting his ass off to Erik Estrada & Jan-Michael Vincent just being hired for an afternoon to shoot some scenes at a breakfast table.
You will like this if you like: shot-on-video bullshit
Inserts (1975, dir. John Byrum)
I often wonder what happened to Richard Dreyfuss, but then you see him shine in these movies that are basically stage plays and you understand that he was the type of actor who lost his place when Hollywood moved on.
Inserts is a movie about directing porn in the ‘30s and an absolute showcase of razor sharp dialogue and acting with a capital A, delivered by people at the top of their game. Everyone absolutely kills it, but Veronica Cartwright's performance here is some transcendently good shit.
You will like this if you like: Neil Simon-esque comedies
Fine, Totally Fine (2008, dir. Yosuke Fujita)
If a comedy has at least five moments that make me laugh out loud like a complete idiot, that's an easy five star movie. Storywise, Fine, Totally Fine is basically about three socially awkward people who try to find their purpose in life. But Yosuke Fujita's absurd sense of humor hits a real fine line of quirk with zero smug, and he's also pretty damn good at dodging tired, corny tropes. Truly hope Fujita makes more movies, because between this and his follow-up, Fuku-chan of Fuku-Fuku Flats, I am smitten.
You will like this if you like: absurd but humble comedy
Bye, Bye Birdie (1963, dir. George Sidney)
I feel like musicals are already baseline insane, but I did not expect this to be so OTT camp. It's obviously not meant to be taken seriously but somewhere along the way someone started fucking with the exposure levels so Bye, Bye Birdie ends up just short of being a parody on musicals, like Cry-Baby.
Obviously Ann-Margret is the main attraction and (in every sense of the word) an insane performer, and we are blessed she was caught on camera many a times doing what she does. But I gotta say, for a movie that's supposed to be about fake Elvis getting a smooch from a pretty girl before being drafted I don't see enough people talking about the fact that Dick Van Dyke invents what is essentially speed in this? Like I said, baseline insane.
You will like this if you like: celluloid insanity
Black Sunday (1977, dir. John Frankenheimer)
Nail-bitingly tense and horrific on an emotional level, but there's so much going on politically just underneath as well. Black Sunday, is a movie about PTSD/a terrorist-attack on the Superbowl, that exposes war as this chain reaction of misery that keeps feeding itself until it's the size of a blimp that (at best) can only be dealt with in terms of damage control. We've got an idiom in Dutch which I'm not sure has an English equivalent, "mopping with the faucet running.” I'm sure I don't have to explain.
You will like this if you like: grit between your teeth 70s thrillers
Watermelon Man (1970, dir. Melvin Van Peebles)
The seven stages of acceptance about a bigoted white man (played brilliantly by Godfrey Cambridge), coming to terms with waking up black one day. A lot of time is spent on the denial part and has Cambridge basically blaming his sun lamp for the entire thing and soaking in a bath filled with milk to restore his whiteness.
Watermelon Man is a genuine talkie if I’ve ever seen one. Back to front filled with sharp, funny dialogue, peppered with all these “show-don't-tell” quirks – like his daily routine of racing a bus to work every day – which instantly becomes suspicious behavior to everyone in town when he does it as a black man.
You will like this if you like: Neil Simon-esque comedies about bigger things than your own neurosis
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967, dir. David Swift)
Robert Morse as the conman who works his way up the corporate ladder using a guide called… “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”. Don't know why his isn't referenced more as one of the all-time great comedic performances, though I'll admit I had no idea Bert Cooper from Mad Men had it in him either. My partner isn't a fan of musicals, and I am with the caveat that I don't blindly love them, but we both adored this. How To Succeed… is proportionately 60% a satire on corporations, and 40% a musical with Bob Fosse at the helm which made it pretty dang hard to deny.
You will like this if you like: Mad Men as a musical
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016, dir. Bill Morrison)
An incredible document of lost history. When 75% of all silent films were lost, Dawson City up in the Yukon was the end of the road for most of them. Either they went up in flames (and took entire buildings down with em) because film used to be made from combustible material, or somebody would just chuck em in the river.
Dawson City: Frozen Time is the story of a fraction of those films that were found in Dawson City, almost cryogenically frozen for 50 some odd years. There's maybe ten minutes worth of dialogue in this documentary, but I was transfixed from start to finish and felt privileged just getting a glimpse at these films, and learning about their one-in-a-million journey to preservation. If you love cinema you need to see this, there is no excuse.
You will like this if you like: movie history
C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud (1989, dir. David Irving)
I still can't believe some podcast guy who's never seen any of these movies decided one day "chud" should be a slur for people who storm the capitol. C.H.U.D. II is the Classic “turn the sequel into a comedy” thing that people continue to sleep on / assume is bad because the jokes are either too understated or low brow. Soft Jim Wynorski-adjacent vibes, but think something non-pervy like Transylvania Twist (but funnier) where no one's sure who the target audience is other than young kids and people who've seen it all and are in on every reference.
Every time Gerrit Graham (the titular Bud) saw a dog, said "meat,” and chased its puffy tail, this went up a star. Needless to say this happened somewhere between four and six times (citation needed).
You will like this if you like: stupid shit
The People Under the Stairs (1991, dir. Wes Craven)
You know I feel a little embarrassed admitting this, but I used to complain about this one being tonally uneven and weirdly structured. Let it be proof that there’s growth in all of us, because I’ve done such a 180 on this movie. I now consider it a rare case of horror that manages to perfectly juggle tension and humor, at the same time, showcasing an undercurrent of cultural significance. In fact, the “horror” of this horror movie maybe lies more in the fact that gentrification has only gotten worse. So in that sense I can only hope to one day rewatch People Under the Stairs and find it outdated and unrelatable… but still bask in the glory that is Wendy Robie and Everett McGill’s glorious, glorious scenery chewing.
You will like this if you like: movies that are kinda all over the place in a good way
Click here for a more extensive look back on what I watched in 2021, or catch up on some Cream of the Crud!
