When it comes to the Academy Awards, everybody likes to quote Christopher Hitchens who famously said that it is impossible to have a nourishing conversation about the Oscars once the ceremony is over. True. However, I would have to go even further. Because too often, it is impossible to have a conversation about the actual films once a few months have passed.
So now that we are deep into the second half of the new year, what is there to say about 2021? These are the three films that stick in the memory - for better or for worse.
Spencer (2021)
This film is so over the fucking top that you simply have to admire it. Kristen Stewart plays a tormented, dysfunctional Princess Diana who has to go through the ordeal of Christmas holidays with the royal family. There is nothing else to it, really, as the plot is mostly made up of minimalist jazz and Diana's misery. But it works.
It works because Kristen Stewart gives one hell of a lead performance (tied with the one she gave in Personal Shopper as her overall best). She really is suffering through all these uptight dinners, breakfast dresses and shooting exploits ("I love fast food and I feel sorry for pheasants"). She carries the whole premise on her shoulders, a premise that includes contrived parallels between Princess Diana and Anne Boleyn. She is affectionate with her children and she is contemptuous towards her estranged husband, and she is never anything less than absolutely transfixing.
The film has stayed with me - for many reasons. Timothy Spall's sour face, for instance, and Sally Hawkins's unlikely confession. Mostly, however, for its raving madness that seemed so compelling that at the very end, when Diana and the kids were leaving Norfolk for London, it would have felt natural if the radio had started playing "Summer Smash" by Denim.
Power of the Dog (2021)
Interestingly, this film only makes sense once it is over. Before that, these Western meanderings in 1925 Montana are little more than extended foreplay. Then, however, it all comes together, the puzzle is complete and you experience the kind of psychological orgasm the film was probably aiming for.
The film features another strong lead, and this time it is Benedict Cumberbatch playing a seemingly tough rancher (Phil Burbank) who hates the idea of a marriage between his brother and a widow who goes by the name of Rose Gordon. Even more so because Rose has an effeminate son who makes paper flowers and cannot stand up for himself. The characters are all complex, flawed and strangely intriguing. Phil in particular is all burning jealousy, manly demeanor and sexual understatement. At one point, he is shown castrating animals. At another, he is seen masturbating in the film's most tender and romantic scene.
While you could say there is little going on in the film, you cannot look away. Jane Campion really is a master of intricate drama, and Johnny Greenwood's typically nuanced soundtrack only highlights the experience. I have not forgotten this film. In fact, I still marvel at the symbolism and the execution.
The Green Knight (2021)
I stand by what I felt back in August when I saw this film at The Odesa Film Festival. If there is just one masterpiece allowed for each year (and I firmly believe that is the case), then The Green Knight is that masterpiece for 2021. Quite simply, it has everything I need from the cinema: it is bizarre, unique and totally captivating.
The plot of the 14th century poem which this film is based on is nightmarish in the best sense of the word. It tells of a strange deal proposed to a young man named Gawain (Dev Patel) by a mysterious Green Knight. If Gawain manages to sever his head, the young man will have to come to the Green Chapel the next Christmas and get the same treatment. Insane, is it not? Insane and initially impenetrable, but my advice would be to bear with it. I am not a big fan of medieval fantasies, and yet I was completely engrossed in the otherworldly atmosphere and the resolution that still seems as bone-chilling and magnificent as it did a year ago.
More films should be as idiosyncratic as this. Clever, too, as in its own bizarre way the film says more about dictatorship than any modern documentary. It shows you its nature, the guts of it - and the timing could not have been more devastating.
