NEWS

Reverse Shot, the Museum’s house publication for criticism and writing on film and other modes of moving image media, announced its list of the ten best films of 2021 today, with Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Colombian production Memoria, Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, and The Souvenir Part II, British director Joanna Hogg's acclaimed sequel, taking the top three spots.

The entire list reflects a remarkable variety of international cinema, encompassing nine countries.

The complete Reverse Shot Best of 2021 is as follows:

1. Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Colombia)
2. Drive My Car(Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
3. The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg, United Kingdom)
4. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, New Zealand)
5. Annette (Leos Carax, France)
6. West Side Story(Steven Spielberg, United States)
7. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude, Romania)
8. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
9. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?(Alexandre Koberidze, Georgia)
10. El Planeta (Amalia Ulman, Spain/U.S.)

Read the full article here, which includes a capsule on each film, plus a description of how the poll was conducted.

The list was first revealed in a sneak preview yesterday evening on a special episode of the Reverse Shot Happy Hour featuring Koresky, Reichert, filmmaker and longtime RS contributor Farihah Zaman, and critics Juan Barquin, Chloe Lizotte, Beatrice Loayza, and Eric Hynes (MoMI's Curator of Film). The Museum's Reverse Shot Happy Hour began in May 2020 as a weekly meeting space for cinephiles during the pandemic before going on hiatus in early 2021. The recording will be posted to MoMI’s YouTube channel, where earlier sessions may also be viewed.

The year in review will continue next week with Reverse Shot’s annual “Two Cents” column, which allows contributors to sound off about whatever didn’t make the top ten, for better or for worse, as well as selections of some of the year’s best films that might have been overlooked.