Best Discoveries 2021

A few "first views" that stuck with me in 2021: two early films from Ozu that are as good as any Ozu I've ever seen; one film from Chloe Zhao that shows how unbelievable she is with non-actors--she's definitely the only director to make my "Best Discoveries" list (The Rider), my "Best Films" list (Nomadland), and my "Not For Me" list (The Eternals) this year; Tarzan and his Mate is the pre-code find of the year, and more entertaining than you can possibly imagine; Mickey Reece is the true independent discovery of the year, and while I also enjoyed Strike Dear Mistress, and Cure His Heart, the other two films listed here stuck with me more; the stone-cold masterpieces that I'm just catching up with this year are as follows--Varda's The Gleaner's and I, Joseph von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress, Barbara Kopple's Harlan County USA, and George Sluizer's The Vanishing(88)--if you've been sleeping on any of these, as I have, don't hesitate to put them on your short list. Thanks to Michael LeVan for steering me back to Jia Zhang Ke, a filmmaker who had never really hit with me until I saw Still Life. And thanks again goes out to my friend and author David Cochran for tossing a couple of incredible cult classics my way recently: Ivan Dixon's The Spook Who Sat By the Door and Rene Daalder's inexplicable Massacre at Central High. Also listed below you'll find a few other director's who are nothing to sneeze at: Fellini, Pasolini, Teshigahara, Russell, Fuller, and a whole bunch more.

Keep discovering new films in 2022! And remember to keep me posted on what you're watching!

Here are my favorite discoveries of 2021:

Takeshis'  Takeshi Kitano, 2005

World of Glory  Roy Andersson, 1991 (short)

Khrustalyov, My Car!  Aleksey German, 1998

The Rider  Chloe Zhao, 2017

Passing Fancy  Yasujiro Ozu, 1933

The Only Son  Yasujiro Ozu, 1936

Tarzan and His Mate  Cedric Gibbons, 1934

Still Life  Jia Zhang Ke, 2006

The Gleaners and I  Agnès Varda, 2000

The Spook Who Sat by the Door  Ivan Dixon, 1973

Night and Day  Hong Sang-soo, 2008

Right Now, Wrong Then  Hong Sang-soo, 2015

The Scarlet Empress  Joseph von Sternberg, 1934

Teorema  Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968

The Lair of the White Worm  Ken Russell, 1988

Nothing But a Man  Michael Roemer, 1964

Il Bidone  Fededrico Fellini, 1955

Film  Samuel Beckett, 1965

NOTFILM  Ross Lipman, 2015

Hardcore Henry  Ilya Naishuller

The Crimson Kimono  Samuel Fuller, 1959

T-Rex  Mickey Reece, 2014

Suedehead  Mickey Reece, 2015

Harlan County, USA  Barbara Kopple, 1976

Mauvais Sang  Leos Carax, 1986

The Face of Another  Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966

The Vanishing  George Sluizer, 1988

The Best of the Terrible:

(these are in a class all their own)

Sextette Ken Hughs (from the play by Mae West), 1977

Massacre at Central High  Rene Daalder, 1976

Llamageddon  Howie Dewin, 2015