My look at some of the 2021's other titles worth writing about, which include blockbusters I didn't hate, art movies that were overpraised or not talked about enough, and a few fascinating trainwrecks.

I estimate having watched around 80 new releases this year. Here's what I liked best.

A reflective look at the joys and flaws of having a personalized system of tallying the time spent with the thing you love….

The synthesizer has played a crucial role in evoking the otherworldly and unnatural in scoring horror movies. But where will new innovations surface? And what will they look like?

The substitution of a put-upon little clay man for the systematically beaten and disenfranchised doesn't lessen the implications of the material. Oh nooooo!!!!

Miguel Llansó's ingenious Afro-Futurist spoof recasts a wealth of genre tropes and motifs into an endlessly inventive political satire.

Tyler Taormina's reimagining of suburban rites of passage is like one long, bipolar dream sequence.

A look at two timely documentary portraits of two very different American cities on sharply diverging trajectories, done by two real masters of the form

An old soul wises up to The Game. Just in time for Christmas.

An appeal to deeper existential thinking that may actually make you dumber

Rethinking the politics behind the motives of Heroes and Villains worked for the Star Wars prequels. Why not here?

Schwing-ing aside, the King Arthur legend is alive and well in Aurora, Illinois, circa 1992.

The most devious and maniacal figure in this Saw-For-Kids classic uses sweets as a cover.