By Luca Newton
There were certain films last year that certainly exceeded my expectations in a big enough way to be a huge surprise for me..
My last list highlighted the absolute worst films of last year, and so I've decided to focus on the good side of this year. Opting to still wait a little longer for my overall favourites until I've seen a few more films, but I definitely have a definitive list of films that I'd say were the biggest surprises of the last year.
I typically define a surprise here as a film I expected to be bad or just good and ended up being great or more to me. I will be talking about 6 films today, so let's not waste any more time...
#6 - Zack Snyder's Justice League
To start this list, let's get the comic book movie out of the way. In 2017, a Justice League movie released and was critically PANNED, and rightfully so. It was a mess, and generally one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Credited was Zack Snyder; however, after a very personal family tragedy took place in the Snyder family, and he lost his daughter, he left the project, leaving Joss Whedon to finish the film. Now, after the final result was such a big disaster, fans of Snyder started pushing for the cut made fully by Zack Snyder, as they knew that would be the film that's truly great. Twitter was plagued with thousands of tweets with the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. In 2020, it was confirmed that the Snyder cut would be released on HBO Max in all of its glory, which made fans happy.
The thing is, I'm not a fan of Zack Snyder's filmography. As you know, I really hated Army of the Dead, and his other DCEU films in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman weren't great either. The spamming of the hashtag was irritating for me because I didn't believe it would happen and I wasn't convinced an extended cut would magically make a movie THAT bad suddenly good. So going into Zack Snyder's Justice League, I expected to dislike it but like it more than the original. I mean the fact it was 4 hours was the most daunting part as I struggled to sit through 2.5 hours of Army of the Dead..
Oh boy, was I surprised. It's not perfect by any means, but it is truly great. What I loved was that it was perfectly paced in a way that a 4 hour film didn't really feel that long. Zack Snyder's Justice League is just a pure epic to the very bone, and it is incredibly crafted with Snyder's own vision. The first half of the movie was my favourite part because it really let itself breathe. We really get time to establish all 6 members of the league. We see them in their lives and on their own, and we see their motivations and we get a lot of general work on their characters. I really dug how the film focused on each one. It really makes that second half land all the more. There's a certain grandeur that is on display, Snyder's love for mythology really comes through here and makes the film feel like it's building to this war among gods, which is part of what DC's characters are in some ways. In particular, I was a fan of Ray Fisher's Cyborg. He's easily the most fleshed out character here and is truly the heart of the film, it's a shame WB completely screwed him over, and continue to do so.
I had issues with Barry, he had an incredible scene in here but his character still isn't my favourite. I also thought that whenever Steppenwolf was on screen it ended up being a CGI schlockfest that I couldn't care less about. The through line is that I loved Zack Snyder's Justice League, after expecting to loathe it. Definitely one of the biggest surprises of 2021.
#5 - tick... tick....BOOM! (dir. Lin Manuel Miranda)
Lin Manuel Miranda has been a force of nature for quite a few years now since he wrote songs and starred in Hamilton, an extremely popular musical. Since then, he has gone on to write songs for many musicals, specifically some Disney animated musicals such as Moana in 2016, and recently Encanto. Last year, he made his directorial debut as he directed a film called Tick, Tick Boom, an adaptation of a musical of the same name that was a biography of Jonathan Larson's life, a legendary musical songwriter responsible for the broadway musical, Rent. I've never really considered myself a fan of musicals, and this was just a Netflix original musical, so it didn't strike me as something to look out for. The fact that Andrew Garfield was starring in it was the main reason I even knew about it.
When it came out, the reviews were so overwhelmingly positive, I actually decided to watch it when it came out instead of waiting. I went in with low expectations. I didn't expect it to be bad, I actually expected to enjoy it to a degree, however, I didn't expect to love it, and I did. The film had a significant amount of weight to it that exceeded my expectations. It's genuinely sad in the end, but it also can be a lot of fun at other times. The core drama of the film kept me invested with how personal and relatable it was. Andrew Garfield's performance was phenomenal and totally worthy of all the Oscar buzz he's been getting. But surprisingly, even the side cast such as Robin de Jesus was brilliant. The direction is great, the performances were great. It felt like a drama movie with music in it. It really surprised me.
#4 - Pig (dir. Michael Sarnoski)
Near to the beginning of 2021, there was a trailer for a film called Pig, starring Nicholas Cage. When I first heard about it, I laughed at the concept of it. A film starring Nick Cage where he wants to find his pig as his main motivation sounded absurd to me. I didn't look at the trailers specifically due to the fact that I wanted to go in blind, so I half-expected it to be an action movie like John Wick but with a pig. I was interested in it on principle though.
What I got was this touching tale on grief and loss and moving on. Nick Cage plays Robin Feld, secluded in a forest hut. We see him trade truffle with money to give to another party, Alex Wolff's character. However, when his pig is stolen, he is determined to find it and get it back through the help of Alex Wolff's character Amir. Part of the story is a fish-out-of-water story because Robin was a famous chef, however, after the death of his wife, he went missing. So in this film he has a really rough and dirty look to him as he lives in the woods. The other part of the film is the grief and the unwillingness to move on. In many ways, the pig proves to be a cover for the underlying grief of Robin. What seemed like an absurd John Wick spin-off, was actually a powerful arthouse film about grief and loss. And on top of that, it's director Michael Sarnoski's first directorial endeavour. Incredibly impressive, so profound and one of my favourites of the year. Absolutely one of the biggest surprises of the year. Check it out if you haven't had the chance, it's a FEAST in more ways than one. Depth mixed with style.
#3 - King Richard (dir. Reinaldo Marcus Green)
As part of the plethora of films within Warner Bros' 2021 film lineup, one of the films I cared the least about was King Richard. I was always going to watch it, but it being a biopic about a person I knew vaguely about it, it barely interested me beyond the Will Smith leading role. On top of that, the trailers that played every single time I attended a cinema were very very unremarkable, it looked generic and overly sappy in true biopic fashion. Still, I went into it with an open mind.
It's not as good as something like Pig, King Richard was really great in my opinion, and it really surprised me. It has a few of the pitfalls of a biopic, but they don't stick out much. The sappy and uplifting tone of the trailers that seemed off-putting, worked perfectly in the actual movie. It ended up really uplifting me, I had a smile on my face the whole time. Will Smith's performance was remarkable, and young actress Saniyya Sidney who was a star, and hopefully gets more work in her future. It's a surprisingly delightful film and one I could very well have slept on if I didn't give it a chance.
#2 - West Side Story (dir. Steven Spielberg)
More will be said about this film in a future major list this most certainly will show up in, but despite the legendary status of Steven Spielberg as one of greatest directors of all time, I honestly wasn't interested in West Side Story. I mean, it was first and foremost, a musical in the classic sense, which I still didn't know if I was overly fond of given the drama focus of Tick Tick Boom. Add to that this was a remake of an older film. I don't know why, but I just had no anticipation for this film. I'm very happy to report I was very wrong, as it blew me away and was absolutely outstanding and one of the bests of the year.
Spielberg did it again and came in with an absolute homerun. In terms of quality, this is arguably the best of the year? It's absolutely in that conversation and it's no surprise that it's up for so many awards. I choose to keep a lot of my thoughts for a later list, but let me just say Rachel Zegler absolutely deserves her incoming stardom, and Ariana DeBose is absolutely magnetic. Let's forget Ansel Elgort is in this and just enjoy the absolute banger "America".
#1 - CODA (Dir. Sian Heder)
Again, I'm going to keep this one brief. CODA is the biggest surprise of the year. CODA is an Apple TV+ original film directed by Sian Heder following a child of deaf adults, and so she is the only person within her family that can hear. Ironically, she wants to sing, which ultimately clashes with her obligations to her family. The film didn't initially interest me more than a mild interest to watch it when it came to Apple TV+, as I could easily do so. It blew me away more than I could have ever expected. It is easily the biggest surprise of 2021.
For me, CODA may not be the most well made movie of 2021, but it's absolutely one of the best. I am really glad it's getting attention and buzz in the many awards shows. I don't want to go too in detail here due to this film popping up in a future list, but it's something truly special and an absolute must-watch. It deserves to be watched by more people. I wasn't expecting to adore it as much as I did but I'm so glad that I do. Even after rewatching with my family earlier this year, I loved it even more. It's the most pleasant surprise of the year, and one of the most pleasant films I've seen.
That's it for my biggest surprises of 2021. I apologise for being so brief on a few of these, but I still managed to get my point across. What were the biggest surprises last year for you? Next, I will unfortunately be going back to more negative lists with my biggest disappointments of last year..
Thanks for reading.
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