Movies of the Year and Best of Streaming

With kids stuck at home until August, Luis saw a lot more than 10 movies 2021

This was an incredibly strange year for movies. With the pandemic still ravaging parts of the country, most movies were released on streaming services. As Spring turned to Summer, the movie studios pivoted and released some of the larger tentpoles to theaters. Almost every movie on the list below is available via streaming, save for one, which is my favorite.

1. Spider-Man No Way Home

The best Spider-Man movie to date, and quite possibly the best Marvel film ever. I’ll resist the urge to include a spoilery by simply stating it’s a visual masterpiece that is so deeply emotional and actionpacked at the same time. Tom Holland is the heart and soul of the new MCU.

2. In The Heights

Having never seen the stage version, I wasn’t sure what to expect besides great music and choreography. I did not expect to instantly be transported to Washington Heights in a peek at what was eerily reminiscent to my upbringing. I was absolutely blown away.

3. Encanto

The rare Disney film with no main villain, Encanto follows the Madrigal family through the eyes of Mirabel, the lone non-magical member of the family. In lieu of a main antagonist, the film finds each of the major characters struggling with their inner demons and self-doubt to rescue themselves, their family, and their neighborhood. That plus the original music from Lin-Manuel is phenomenal.

4. Black Widow

Released simultaneously on streaming and in theaters (making its $183 million box office even more impressive) this release put a perfect bow on Scarlett Johansson’s time as Natasha Romanoff. The introduction of Florence Pugh’s Yelena imbued the entire franchise with a jolt of energy that I feel Marvel will benefit from for years to come. Also, the version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” during the opening credits was pure perfection. Great take on that Nirvana classic.

5. The Micthells vs. the Machines

The best non-Disney animated film since Into The Spiderverse (also by the same team) follows a family that is seemingly drifting apart while on a road-trip when they all have to work together to defeat a global robot takeover. Hilarious and full of heart, one of the best family films of 2021.

6. Luca

This gorgeous, coming of age, literal fi sh-out-of-water story was another homerun by the team at Pixar. You will feel like you are transported to the Italian Riviera watching the exploits of Luca and his best friend Alberto.

7. Judas and the Black Messiah

My favorite drama of the year starred Daniel Kaluuya as charismatic Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and his betrayal by LaKeith Stanfi eld’s Bill O’Neal. Very powerful, I wish we had gotten to see more of Fred’s life, as Kaluuya’s performance was my favorite of the year.

8. Shang-Chi

The charismatic Simu Liu burst into the MCU in this origin story. While the story included more fantasy elements than I expected, the movie paid homage to the great Chinese fantasy epics of the early 21st century. I was not very familiar with the character before this movie, but I want to see more of Simu and Awkwafi na in the Marvel Universe.

9. The Suicide Squad

James Gunn took this DC franchise and gave it the Guardians of the Galaxy treatment. An off-beat team of villains and castoffs, they band together to defeat the Kaiju-style starfi sh Starro. Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Idris Elba (Bloodsport), John Cena (Peacemaker) and Sylvester Stallone (King Shark) are all perfectly cast and shine with Gunn’s quirky dialogue and characterizations.

10. 8-Bit Christmas

A sweet, fun holiday movie starring Neil Patrick Harris as he recounts the tale of his journey to acquire a Nintendo video game console in the mid-80’s. I didn’t expect to like this movie as much as I did, but as a gaming obsessed dad, it hit me right in the sweet spot.

Best of Streaming

New technology expanded so Luis ranks services

As the pandemic raged on and the Delta variant begat Omicron it became another year that meant if you wanted new content, you had to subscribe to streaming services. For most that meant subscribing to multiple services. The streaming services shell out more money for top creators and content, which means network TV has fallen way behind in producing quality content. Just about every Emmy award winner this year came from a streaming platform or premium cable (which now mostly have their own streaming platforms as well).

DISNEY+ was by far the most viewed platform this year for us. The MCU television series were all huge hits. Premiering Black Widow to a streaming audience worldwide also proved to be a smart business decision. While it was a quiet year for live action Star Wars (both animated series that launched were critically well-received), they look to end the year strong with the Book of Boba premiering on the final Wednesday of the year. Raya and the Last Dragon as well as Encanto quickly came to Disney+ as well after short stays in the theater. If this is their future model, I don’t see any service knocking off Disney+ soon.

APPLETV+ proved to be a nice welcome addition (yay, to a free year-long subscription). The brilliant Ted Lasso and Schmigadoon made for a nice one-two punch. With other sci-fi titles, I can’t wait to take a larger bite of the apple.

HULU was my third favorite streamer of the year. With great original content that skewed more comedic (pen15, Shrill, Only Murders in the Building) it became our go-to when we wanted to look for something to make us laugh. This is another streamer that I need to dive into more as they have an expanding partnership with FX. (I really want to see What We Do In The Shadows and Reservation Dogs.)

NETFLIX was fourth on my list of streaming platforms. The OG didn’t pump out a lot of original content I was interested in watching this year. Besides Lupin and Cobra Kai, I can’t think of another big original thing I watched on the platform in 2021. It did prove essential in re-watching some of the shows I had seen in the past (Breaking Bad, Narcos, Daredevil, etc.)

HBO MAX is hard to rank as a streaming service. While being a great landing spot for all of HBO’s regular content and original series, they started to release a series of their own original titles. One of which was very own series of the year, Hacks. HBO Max benefi tted from having all of the WB movie releases simultaneously released on the service at the same time. I can’t imagine that will continue in 2022.

The least watched service here has to be AMAZON PRIME. Besides Boys and Invincible, I can’t think of a single other thing I watch regularly. With the Lord of the Rings on the horizon that should change, but unless they announce a third season of Fleabag, I can’t imagine coming back to this service regularly.