Is it too late in the month to say Happy New Year? I’m still catching up on last year’s movies, so as far as I’m concerned, 2022 remains unknown. Instead of my usual five recommendations, I’m sharing my ten favorite 2021 films that are directed by women. I’ve mentioned some of these movies in previous newsletters, so if you missed them the first time around, this is your chance to take a second look.
Over the past year, I’ve watched 43 new releases that were written or directed by women. As usual, it was difficult to find a variety of films made by women, especially ones produced in Hollywood. Still, things are improving. This is my fourth year of prioritizing female filmmakers and I noticed there were an unusual number of debut features made by female directors. It feels like a new generation is beginning to coalesce. I’ve included two debuts on my list, but I want to give a shout-out to El Planeta, Holler, Identifying Features, and Test Pattern.
One last thing: if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, please share it! I’d also love to hear what you think of any of my picks or if there are movies or topics you’d like to hear more about next year. You can comment on this post or find me on Twitter @ThelmaandAlice. I’m also on letterboxd. Thanks for reading!
1. The Power of the Dog
Written & Directed by Jane Campion
Streaming on Netflix
After I saw this on the big screen, a friend texted to ask how it was and my gut reply was “pretty much a perfect movie.” I thought maybe that impression would fade over time, but these characters have kept their hold on my imagination. What I love about this movie—and many of Campion’s films—is the way it evades genre. It has elements of a western, a psychological thriller, and a murder mystery, but overall, it’s quite odd and the oddness gives it a strange realism, because real life doesn’t conform to genre expectations. You’re not sure what you’re watching, exactly, and Campion makes you sit with a mood of dread that doesn’t lift until the final scenes. At the same time, you know you’re in good hands. Campion doesn’t waste a frame: every line of dialogue, every image, every scene, is a piece of the puzzle. When you get to the end, it’s like smoke clearing. I’m being vague because I don’t want to ruin it. Just watch—on a big screen if you can.
2. Bergman Island
Written & Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Streaming on Hulu, VOD $3.99
This movie about movies zooms in on a filmmaking couple, Chris and Tony, (Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth) who attend an artist’s retreat on Fårö, an island off the coast of Gotland, Sweden, where Ingmar Bergman lived and which he often used as a filming location. It’s a movie about filmmaking, marriage, and the relationship that female artists have with the Great Men who have inspired them. I loved it for its playfulness, for its honest grappling with Bergman’s filmography, and for Vicky Krieps’s restless, mischievous portrayal of a female artist trying to break free of her male influences. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
3. Listening to Kenny G
Directed by Penny Lane
Streaming on HBO
Penny Lane’s documentary was a late addition to this list, and an unexpected one. I watched it on a whim with my husband over the holiday break and we couldn’t stop talking about it. Neither of us had ever given much thought to Kenny G; at the same time, we know Kenny G’s melodies because we grew up with them. They were the soundtrack of department stores, waiting rooms, and doctor’s appointments. He's the wall-to-wall carpeting of popular music: you have to learn to live with him even if he offends your sense of authenticity—and Kenny G really does annoy a lot of people, especially jazz critics. One of the things I loved about this documentary was that it was as much about criticism of Kenny G as it was about Kenny G himself, though it certainly doesn't let Mr. G off the hook. Instead, Lane gives us one of those profiles where the subject tells on himself, revealing his best and worst impulses as a performer and musician. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
4. Never Gonna Snow Again
Written & Directed by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert
VOD $4.99
This haunting, meditative movie got under my skin even as I wasn't totally sure what it was trying to say, and sometimes felt that the filmmakers were also unsure. More often than not, scenes seemed to exist to establish a certain mood rather than to advance a story. But I didn't care. The images were strange and beautiful, tinged with magic and sci-fi, and posing questions about life after death, the nature of healing, and climate change. Written and directed by Malgorzata Szumowska and her long-time DP Michal Englert, the film was Poland's 2020 entry for the Oscars for Best Foreign Picture. The story centers on a masseuse, Zhenia (Alec Utgoff), a Ukranian immigrant whose work takes him to a gated suburb on the outskirts of a large city. Zhenia goes from client to client, carrying his folding massage table and getting an intimate look into the houses that all look the same from the outside, but whose occupants each carry their own specific pain. In its simplest telling, it's a story about upper-middle class suburban life, with Zhenia as the all-seeing narrator who draws connections between the families' shared spiritual malaise. But beneath that structure is a darker and more mysterious tale about humanity's relationship to a dying planet. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
5. Spoor
Directed by Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik
Written by Agnieszka Holland and based on the novel by Olga Tokarczuk
Streaming on Criterion and Kanopy, VOD $4.99
Spoor is a Polish crime film with ecological themes in the vein of Woman at War and First Reformed. It premiered to great acclaim in Europe in 2017, but didn’t make it to the U.S. until earlier this year. It’s gotten mixed reviews here and quite honestly, it’s kind of a weird one. I won’t argue for storytelling perfection but instead for its emotional resonance. That is: it spoke to me personally. It centers on Jamina Duszejiko (Agnieszka Mandat), a one-woman crusader against the cruelties of poaching and hunting, which she witnesses on the land surrounding her country home. When her beloved dogs go missing, she suspects they have fallen victim to poachers, too, and wages war against local hunters, reporting their illegal activities to the police. Meanwhile, a number of hunters begin to turn up dead. Duszejiko’s far-out theory is that they are revenge killings by the animals themselves. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
6. Petite Maman
Written & Directed by Céline Sciamma
Coming to theaters February 2022
The simplicity of this movie kind of took my breath away. It’s about a girl who meets her mother as a child, and is able to play with her mother in a kind of magical, timeless space. It’s a slow, spare story with great psychological depth, like a dream that brings you back to your childhood home. It isn’t out in theaters yet, and I was on the fence about whether or not it counts as 2021 movie—for most people, it’s a 2022 release. In the end, I decided to add it so that it wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle next year, and to encourage you to seek it out next month when it arrives in theaters and online. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
7. Zola
Directed by Janicza Bravo
Written by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris, based on tweets by A’Ziah King
Streaming on Showtime, VOD $4.99
This is the first movie I’ve ever seen that was adapted from a Twitter thread. Given the source material, I expected something light and pithy, and while it was definitely entertaining, the story it tells is quite unsettling. It follows Zola (Taylour Paige), an exotic dancer who is drawn into a scheme by another dancer, Stefani (Riley Keough), who promises high-paying stripping gigs if they travel together to Florida. It’s supposed to be just the two of them, but when Stefani picks Zola up, she has two men with her. One of them, Zola quickly realizes, is her pimp. Things get tricky as Zola begins to see just how unstable and dangerous her new companions are; at the same time, she wants to take control of the situation and help Stefani. I don’t know how Janicza Bravo did it, but the tone of this movie is unique as it balances comedy with bleak circumstances. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
8. In the Same Breath
Directed by Nanfu Wang
Streaming on HBO
As we hunker down for another pandemic winter, this is the documentary to watch. Director Nanfu Wang takes viewers back to the earliest days of the pandemic, opening with eerie footage of 2020 New Year’s Eve celebrations in Wuhan, where thousands of revelers, some of them likely already infected with Covid-19, mingled in close quarters, sang, cheered, danced, and generally did everything we’ve been avoiding for the past two years. Wang herself was there, celebrating with her family. On New Year’s Day, a stray news item caught her attention: eight people were punished for “spreading rumors” about a new form of pneumonia that had emerged in local hospitals. This, she later realized, was one of the Chinese government’s earliest responses to the threat of Covid-19. Her film takes a close look at the China’s failure to communicate the dangers of Covid-19 to its citizens and to the world, and compares it with America’s response, three months later, which was dispiritingly similar, with political leaders downplaying the virus until the very last minute. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
9. Shiva Baby
Written & Directed by Emma Seligman
Streaming on HBO and Kanopy
This impeccably written debut comedy by Emma Seligman centers on Danielle (Rachel Sennott), a college senior who moonlights as a sugar baby. When Danielle joins her parents for the shiva of a family friend, she is horrified to realize that her sugar daddy is in attendance—with his wife and baby. Hilarity ensues, sort of. Shiva Baby looks and sounds like a cringe comedy before veering into a claustrophobic horror movie about being in your twenties. It’s short, around 80 minutes, with a surprising vein of emotion. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
10. Through the Night
Directed by Loira Limbal
VOD on Amazon $3.99
I didn’t have much awareness of overnight childcare until I saw this documentary about a 24-hour home daycare run by a married couple, affectionately known as Nunu and PopPop. Their daycare center, Dee’s Tots, provides care to children whose parents are working late-night and early-morning shifts, as well as to parents working 9 - 5 jobs. Director Loira Limbal captures the little moments of kindness and attention that give children a feeling of safety and love, as well as the daily chores of maintenance, cleaning, and gardening that keep the daycare calm, orderly, and beautiful. It’s a quiet, detailed tribute to the transformative work of caregiving, as well as a critique of a society that has turned its back on children and working parents. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER *