2021’s Ten Best Films: 6 & 5

People aren't muses. They're producers. Or artists in their own right. Or introverts who prefer to exist on the fringes of the spotlight. Or maybe they see themselves as megaphones? Or maybe they don't know how to be short, with crooked teeth, and reject hierarchy while also demanding respect? Obviously I am navel-gazing here (I mean: blog...I have slowly recognized that writing is my way to simultaneously hide and yell: it is where I feel most comfortable. I wrote a book. It is coming out in 2022.

6. Bergman Island (dir. Mia Hansen-Løve)

It’s slightly hard to write about this multi-layered, elliptical, meta love story that takes place among the remnants and ghosts of auteur Ingmar Bergman’s beloved Fårö Island. The film largely focuses on a series of relationships between people. First, there is Chris (Vicky Krieps) a filmmaker, wife and mother, and Tony (Tim Roth) Chris’ partner who is also a filmmaker but heavy with fame. The second couple are fictional characters in Chris’ latest screenplay/production, characters trying to come to terms with their star-crossed history. Chris is balancing her roles as mother, muse and maker, looking for her creative vision while reconciling with the other ways in which her life is pulled apart; can one write their own role in life or is much of it written by another?  

 

 

5. El Planeta (dir. Amalia Ulman)

A designer zebra suit and expensive tastes are the only things left that resemble wealth in the life of Leo (played by director Amalia Ulman), a young fashion school student whose parents’ divorce took away a lifestyle her and her mother had become accustomed to. Part class comment, part coming of age comedy, the universe of El Planeta feels both barren and flush: an understated black & white where sometimes the scenes transition like a school video project from the 90s, and sound moves to create a sense of intimate space or a jarring interjection. Leo looks for love, money and recognition while her mother revels in the common grift; their relationship is one of cutting love. The film feels like what happens when the signifiers are at odds with the sign which is an even bigger conflict in a time when image is often a stand-in for self.