Awards – My Top 15 Films of 2021

TL;DR – 2021 was a great year in film, and here are our favourites

So far in our awards, we have looked at Action, Animation, Best of Australia, Cinematography, Costumes, Emotion, Fun, Music, Tension, and Worldbuilding.

However, in this last entry into our Best of 2021 awards, we crown our winner of the Best Film of 2021.

All films are subjective, so our list might look completely different from yours. Also, we didn’t get to see every movie this year, which means we will be only drawing our Top 15 from the 69 films we did get to see, which you can see a list of HERE. You can also click on the titles to go to the full review.

It was also a very odd year for cinema, with many films being postponed or released in non-traditional means. There were also many staggered releases, so we may have films here that were released in 2020 for you but 2021 for us, and there may be some omissions here because we won’t get those films until 2022.

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s dive into the first entry in our list of Best Films of 2021.

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The Films from 2021 That Put Some Fun Into Our Lives

We looked at the films that hit us in the feels with emotions in our last awards. Now it is time to hard pivot to the other side of the spectrum with a look at the films that were a riot of fun. So today, I take a moment to champion those films that brought the joy, whether through upbeat action, one laugh after another, or that silliness that brings a smile to your face.

I planned to keep all my lists to five entries. However, I just could not keep that number down with this category.

So without further ado, these films brought the fun in 2021. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead for the films in question. Also, you can click on the banners for the full review.

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The Films from 2021 That Showed Off the Wonderful Glory of Animation

Animation is a form of filmmaking that is often related to second-tier status, something just for kids. This is by both the organisations giving out the awards and the guilds that are meant to promote their member’s work. However, they are not second-tier films, and in many ways, it is the animated films that push the frontiers of filmmaking and what is possible, and they should be championed for the work they do.     

Animated films can be hand-drawn, stop/clay motion, computer-generated, it does not matter, but all of them show unique techniques of hundreds of artists that bring the work to life.

So without further ado, these are the animated films that showed us the glory of animation in 2021. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead for the films in question. Also, click on the banners/titles to go to the full reviews of each of the films 

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The Mitchells vs. The Machines – Movie Review

TL;DR – A blast from start to finish

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene, but like a lot of work went into the credits, and there are some snippets of stuff here and there.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix subscription that viewed this movie info here

The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Image Credit: Netflix.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines Review

For the longest time, Sony Animation was this studio that shows immense potential, but they always seemed to be chasing trends, which never led them to make anything that stood out. The Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs showed they had potential, but then Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out of nowhere and exploded onto the screen. Now, Sony Animation was setting the trends, and it made me wonder where can they go next. Well, today, we get to see that with the charmingly odd The Mitchells vs. The Machines.

So to set the scene, the Mitchells are your standard quirky/dysfunctional family heading towards their first major crisis. As time has gone on, father Rick (Danny McBride) and daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) have become equally frustrated with each other, and no amount of work from mum Linda (Maya Rudolph) and brother Aaron (Mike Rianda) can fix this divide. However, Katie is about to go across the country to college, and if she leaves while the relationship is still broken, well, that could be irreparable damage. Well then, the family decides to make one last-ditch effort to fix the unfixable by going on a long road trip to drop Katie off at college, on the same week that techbro Mark Browman (Eric Andre) of PAL Labs inadvertently starts a robot invasion after upsetting his AI PAL (Olivia Colman).   

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