The Department of Culture continues to sum up the results of the year. In this article, film critic Pavel Voronkov talks (in alphabetical order) about his favorite films of 2021. Almost all of the paintings on the list can be viewed at home right now.

Belfast, Kenneth Branagh

Alphabetical order removes the burden of internal movie ranking, but there is some particular fairness in listing begins with Belfast. A comedy drama about growing up in Ireland at the end of the 60s, at the dawn of the Troubles, which will drag on for almost 30 more years, is a warming valentine for an abandoned homeland. The movie is amazingly filmed (tactile b / w, Haris Zambarlukos takes incredible plans, breath quickens from the mise-en-scènes) and brilliantly played (an incomparable ensemble with the participation of Judy Dench and Jamie Dornan; however, the main ones here are Katrina Balfe and baby Jude Hill in the main role). At first it was thought that it would be the Irish "Roma", but in reality it is the Irish "Jojo Rabbit". Although "Roma", of course, too: a nagging ode to sparkling innocence, which seems to be doomed to always remain in childhood. Belfast is the best picture of 2021, the most heartbreaking, funniest, most touching, cutest and most magical.

"Shadow in the Cloud", Rosanna Liang

One of the most battered films of the year is Rosanna Liang's reckless action horror about a mother who can do anything. Dogfight is excellent entertainment, almost flawlessly calibrated: fifty minutes of a sealed thriller with a close-up of Chloe Grace Moretz's face and radio dialogues, then half an hour of armor-piercing trash, where everything crashes into hell. The last act also contains one of the best action scenes in the history of cinema, and then show it to grandchildren later, so it's better not to include a trailer in advance.

"Promising Young Woman", Emirald Fennell

Sinister comedy fem-thriller about a girl who punishes men for the rape and death of her best friend. A sophisticated script (with an Oscar in the appropriate category) that explores the boundaries of the excusable and the unforgivable, the epic performances of Carey Mulligan and Beau Burnham - and the great Toxic cover by Britney Spears.

"Dune", Denis Villeneuve

Luxurious in all respects, blockbuster, from a visual point of view, seems to be the most grandiose since the fourth "Mad Max". Denis Villeneuve brings his sci-fi gigantomania to the point of absurdity (worms!), Hans Zimmer writes down his loudest "boom-boom-boom", Zendaya recognizes with his blue eyes - to complain that we were shown only half of the film, after that I don't want to at all, and as if this is exactly what the film adaptation of the landmark novel by Frank Herbert should look like.

"Nightmares" ("Come True"), Anthony Scott Burns

"Nightmares" - a kind of "Endless Night" in 2021, a mystical Sloberian safay with a VHS tube crunch through which Lovecraftian cosmic horror cuts through. The tape by Anthony Scott Burns captivates with a witty concept, a shaky atmosphere and mesmerizing visuals, and most importantly, by the fact that each frame shows how little money was invested in all this and how much effort was invested (the latter, of course, neutralizes everything).

"Cruella", Craig Gillespie

Stylish tale that continues the noble Disney mission to rehabilitate villains and transform them into traumatized anti-heroines, begun with "Maleficent" ". "The Devil Wears Prada" meets "Joker" (more precisely - "Birds of Prey"), "Ocean's Eleven" and "Tonya Against All" in London 60s to the music of The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Animals and whoever, and Emma Stone marries the original cartoon Cruella caricature with a voluminous and complex personality about which you want to watch another million sequels.

"Where are you going, Aida?" ("Quo vadis, Aida?"), Yasmila Zbanic

A deafening war drama about a UN translator who is trying to get her family out of the heat of the Srebrenica massacre and hopes for the help of peacekeepers. Of course, in vain: Yasmila Zhbanich's tape, rapidly heating up to a burning thriller, conveys this idea with crystal transparency - noble representatives of the "free world" will never help anyone.

The Green Knight, David Lowry

An acid-psychedelic adaptation of the English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an inventive deconstruction of deconstruction (original novel and plowed chivalrous literature on its own), which introduces into the thorny courtesy funny experiences on the basis of the impostor syndrome and environmentalist overtones. In general, it is an immensely beautiful movie that has built an amazing fantasy world where you want to get lost.

"Petite maman", Celine Syamma

Quiet, gentle and gentle film with a neat time-travel and touching game of mothers and daughters. In "Portrait of a Girl on Fire" Celine Syamma demonstrated a masterful handling of baroque expression, and with "Little Mother" she goes in the opposite direction (intonationally, the picture is closer to "Tomboy") - and as a result produces the same indelible effect.

"Masha", Anastasia Palchikova

A piercing drama about growing up, which at first glance fits into a number of Russian-language debuts about the 90s, but only at the first: Anastasia Palchikova's material is radically transforms, and through the optics of a woman's gaze it becomes clear that all this time we have lived with a huge - and completely unreflected in the cinema baggage.

"Father", Florian Zeller

A screen version of Florian Zeller's play (performed by him) about a daughter who is trying to find a caregiver for her father with dementia. A devastating, scary tape that uses a new medium for this story to the fullest (accusations of "excessive theatricality" sound very strange) and allows - as far as possible - to find yourself in the shoes of a person whose mind is gradually dissolving into a fog. We'll all be there, but how the hell is it creepy.

"The Last Duel", Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott's outstanding anti-knightly meth-drama things: one rape story, three chapters, three points of view, one only true. But what is most frightening and fascinating in "The Last Duel" is not even the horror of this truthful interpretation of events, but how the other two (male) versions differ from it, even in seemingly insignificant details.

"Last Night in Soho", Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright's nostalgic nightmare about London "swinging 60s" - a seductive tale with a dreamlike logic, Cruella's evil twin. It is both an instruction for the critical perception of art and a dude formalist exercise with which the director seems to move from the post space to the meta system.

"Spencer", Pablo Larrain

"Spencer" - by his own definition, "a fairy tale based on a real tragedy", but rather an anti-fairy tale: "they lived a long time and happily "here is not the final point, but the starting point that has long since drifted beyond the horizon, and, in general, Princess Diana did not live long or happily. Pablo Larrain alters the sedate biopic to psychodrama with an admixture of magical realism and largely copies Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood: leaves the most tragic part of the story behind the scenes and suggests leaving in memory not footage from the scene of an accident, but a relieved smile on Kristen Stewart's face (after we still demand "Oscar").

Spider-Man: No Way Home, John Watts

Best Marvel Picture This Year and Seems to be the Best Part " spider "trilogy with Tom Holland - a shameless fountain of fan service, which is impossible to resist and which, apparently, will really save the pandemic rental. But in the current top "No Way Home" for a different reason: it is a film with a surprisingly warm, human intonation, a warming movie about second chances and closed gestalts. At the end of the year (and the list) - that's it.

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