PJ Knapke’s Top 10 Films of 2021

Another year has passed us all by, far too quickly for my tastes. In my preamble to my list chronicling the top films of last year, I noted how the year marked a “new reality of everything being bad all the time in every way.” Unfortunately for all of us, not only does this remain true, but everything around us continues to get worse. A shame. 

Thankfully, however, we have the power of cinema to hold us over until it all comes crashing down. And, on the bright side, this past year has actually been an exceptional year in the medium, and a marked improvement on the dip in overall quality we saw in 2020 (for obvious reasons). The 110 new releases from 2021 that I had the pleasure of watching this past year were full of highs and lows like any other year, yet the cream of the crop has undoubtedly risen above and beyond, providing me with some truly profound and deeply impactful experiences that I won’t soon forget. My full list of rankings can be found here. 

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Review: ‘Belfast’ Crafts an Emotionally Powerful Story Despite Unspectacular Filmmaking

Kenneth Branagh’s newest film, Belfast, is first and foremost a deeply personal film, if not an almost entirely auto-biographical one. Set in the eponymous Irish city in the north during the tumultuous late 60s and early 70s, one might immediately imagine a darker political drama centered directly around the events of the Troubles. Films like Paul Greengrass’s Bloody Sunday or Steve McQueen’s Hunger, set during the same general time period, focus directly on tangible events within the political violence of colonialism at the time, like the Bogside Massacre and the hunger strikers at Long Kesh. This stark history provides these films with the background to craft stories with darker and more incendiary tones. On this note, Branagh’s film makes a significant departure.

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PJ Knapke’s Top 10 Films of 2020

In the introduction to my top 10 list from last year, I was brimming with enthusiasm about the year’s cinematic haul. I had an endless supply of motivation to see everything I could from that year, and as a result I had the luck of finding many films that I will surely remember as longtime favorites. This article was published in January of 2020, and just about 2 months later, our new reality of everything being bad all of the time in just about every way began. Continue reading “PJ Knapke’s Top 10 Films of 2020” →

Retrospective: ‘Ocean’s Twelve’: The Most Fun a Movie’s Ever Been

Everyone and their mother loves Ocean’s Eleven. It stands tall to this day, almost two decades after its initial release, as one of the great heist movies in the history of cinema, and is essentially universally regarded as such. Held together by one of the most astoundingly talented ensemble casts in all of modern cinema, the chemistry and wit of the famous Eleven launches the film toward stratospheric levels of fun, paired with an extremely clever and engaging heist narrative. Continue reading “Retrospective: ‘Ocean’s Twelve’: The Most Fun a Movie’s Ever Been” →

Review: ‘Vitalina Varela’ is the Best and Most Challenging Film of the Year So Far

Vitalina Varela is playing online at Northwest Film Forum from March 27th to April 10th.

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Art-house cinema has its fair share of auteurs who prefer to pace their films with great patience, be it Bela Tarr, or Terrence Malick, or Andrei Tarkovsky, or any other of the long list of names of who fit this particular bill. It is a facet that can allow such a director to delve deeper into whatever it is they have honed their focus upon, or even further activate the subconscious throughout the viewing, that is if the audience has the patience themselves. Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa — director of new film Vitalina Varela — is undoubtedly one of these directors. Continue reading “Review: ‘Vitalina Varela’ is the Best and Most Challenging Film of the Year So Far” →

PJ Knapke’s Top Ten Films of 2019

As I have gained more and more experience as a cinema lover over the last few years, one thing that has become abundantly clear to me is that if you think it was a bad year for movies, you probably didn’t see enough of them. 2017 was the first year I really dove deep into the world of cinema, and each ensuing year since then has resulted in more movies watched and more brilliant hidden gems that I will treasure forever discovered. The 130+ 2019 releases I had the pleasure (most of the time) watching in the past year have provided a startling amount of highs, and as a result whittling down the list to just 10 was an excruciating process by all means, resulting in numerous honorable mentions that might’ve made the list in any other year. My full list of rankings can be found here.

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Review: ‘A Hidden Life’ is a Masterful Cinematic Prayer

Spirituality has defined many of Terrence Malick’s most universally lauded films throughout his career, from his foremost masterpiece The Tree of Life to some of his more polarizing films like Knight of Cups and more. Even when his films are not explicitly spiritual on the forefront, many seem to have a grander focus on portraying some sort of paradise being lost and the resulting internal journey. His newest film, A Hidden Life, is the film in his long career that perhaps exemplifies both of these aspects best. The film tells the true story of Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl), an Austrian farmer turned conscientious objector during the Second World War who is executed in 1943 after being called up into service and refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler.

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Review: ‘In My Room’ is A New Take on the Disappearance of Humanity

In My Room is playing at Northwest Film Forum at 7pm on November 29th, 7pm on November 30th, and 7pm on December 1st.

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The apocalypse is something that has captivated the screen for a large part of the history of cinema. From massive natural disasters, to the zombie apocalypse, to unrelenting viral diseases that sweep the globe, many films have attempted to grab a quick buck from the inherent action, suspense, and tension that such events would undoubtedly carry with them. Most of the time, they are intentionally loud and dumb, pumped with inflated budgets in hopes of making a quick buck off some unwitting moviegoers, yet a select few have shown a preference for contemplation and precision that allows the sub-genre to remain interesting through which to view the human experience.

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Review: The Poignant and Bittersweet Self-Reflection of Almodóvar’s ‘Pain and Glory’

Legendary Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film — Dolor y Gloria — opens with the camera slowly encroaching upon a man floating at the bottom of a pool, motionless, seemingly relishing in the release of all physical tension for the few moments that his breathlessness will allow. The film then cuts to a group of women and a young boy on the side of a river, the women washing clothes by hand and singing harmoniously as the wind blows through the reeds and the sun shines warmly. Thus begins Almodóvar’s most personal story of his career, a very rich and moving narrative that interweaves history, memory, creativity, and desire into a deep reflection upon the man’s seven decades of life and four decades in film.

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Review: ‘The Lighthouse’ is a 19th Century Maritime Masterpiece by Way of H.P. Lovecraft and Béla Tarr

In 2015, director Robert Eggers released his feature debut with The Witch (also known as The VVitch). A hyper-stylized period horror film about a family of isolated 17th century settlers in New England, the film went on to be a smash hit, snatching up over $40 million in box office revenue despite a relatively meager budget of $4 million. It garnered decent critical success upon its initial release, and since then, the film has only grown in stature, and is now recognized as one of the best horror films (if not of any genre) of the decade. It was as a result of this success that allowed Eggers to actualize a project he had in the works for years before the release of his feature debut The Lighthouse.

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