A clever animated comedy and moody gambling drama among the best films of 2021 – Atlanta Journal Constitution

Atlanta release date coming in 2022

If you see one foreign film in 2022 make it this delicate, fairy tale-like film from French director Celine Sciamma about a little girl who has just lost her beloved grandmother and finds solace when she meets a girl her age who lives a short walk through the woods. Sciamma has a gift for rendering the intense relationships between children that can make adults seem almost tangential.

The Lost Daughter

On Netflix Dec. 31

This was a great year for women filmmakers including actress Maggie Gyllenhaals directorial debut working from a novel by Elena Ferrante. Oscar-winner Olivia Colman is a professor vacationing on a Greek island who becomes fascinated by the beautiful young mother (Dakota Johnson) she sees at the beach. The mysterious woman ignites painful memories of early days with her own daughters in this examination of the emotional messiness of motherhood.

The official Japanese entry for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards, "Drive My Car" stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as a stage director mounting a production of Chekov's "Uncle Vanya" in Hiroshima and Toko Miura as the young woman assigned to chauffeur him.Courtesy of The Match Factory

Credit: Handout

The official Japanese entry for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards, "Drive My Car" stars Hidetoshi Nishijima as a stage director mounting a production of Chekov's "Uncle Vanya" in Hiroshima and Toko Miura as the young woman assigned to chauffeur him.Courtesy of The Match Factory

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Drive My Car

Opens Jan. 14 at Atlantas Plaza Theater

A theater director staging a multilingual version of Chekhovs Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima develops a profound relationship with his young female chauffeur in this deeply moving Japanese film about the power of storytelling adapted from a book by Haruki Murakami that is Japans entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

Titane

Available on Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes and more

Some have called this French horror film directed by Julia Ducournau the most shocking film of the year. In a powerhouse film debut, Agathe Rousselle is a showgirl at underground car shows who has an unusually erotic relationship with a vintage Cadillac. There is no way to predict or prepare yourself for the twists and autoerotic turns in this wild ride, but if you are up for something audacious, Titane is for you.

Hive

Streaming now on Kino Marquee

A woman tries to navigate the cruel, patriarchal culture in her tiny village and come to terms with the disappearance of her husband during the war in Kosovo. Based on a true story, this second film from director Blerta Basholli about the long-lasting ripples of war was a big winner at the Sundance Film Festival.

Kodi Smit-McPhee (left) and Benedict Cumberbatch star in "The Power of the Dog."Courtesy of Netflix/ Kirsty Griffin

Credit: KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX

Kodi Smit-McPhee (left) and Benedict Cumberbatch star in "The Power of the Dog."Courtesy of Netflix/ Kirsty Griffin

Credit: KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX

Credit: KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX

The Power of the Dog

Netflix

Jane Campion (The Piano) hasnt made a film in twelve years and her return to form packs a wallop. Her revisionist Western about rival rancher brothers (Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons) in 1920s Montana is an unsettling, tense examination of violence and misogyny tied up in our definition of manhood.

Flee

Atlanta release date coming in 2022

This innovative blend of animation and documentary from Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells the story of Afghan refugee Amin as he recounts his escape from war-torn Afghanistan in the 80s to Russia and then Denmark, and the cruelty and sense of rootlessness he experiences along the way in this powerful rendition of the immigrant experience.

"The Mitchells vs. the Machines" is a clever, slyly subversive animated comedy about a far-from-ordinary American family sticking together amidst a robot apocalypse.Courtesy of Netflix

Credit: Sony Pictures Animation

"The Mitchells vs. the Machines" is a clever, slyly subversive animated comedy about a far-from-ordinary American family sticking together amidst a robot apocalypse.Courtesy of Netflix

Credit: Sony Pictures Animation

Credit: Sony Pictures Animation

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Netflix

Genuinely clever and occasionally subversive, this animated film is about a budding film student Katie grappling with her identity and her strained relationship to the family that has never quite gotten her. But Katie proves unusually resourceful in saving the folks from a legion of demonic robots under the command of a Siri-like iPhone personality in this very funny, fast-paced film that makes a lot of on-point jokes about our dependence on technology and Apples cult of tech.

Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth, premiering in select theaters on December 25 and globally on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.Courtesy of AppleTV+/Alison Rosa

Credit: Alison Rosa

Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth, premiering in select theaters on December 25 and globally on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.Courtesy of AppleTV+/Alison Rosa

Credit: Alison Rosa

Credit: Alison Rosa

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Limited theatrical release Christmas. On Apple TV Jan. 14

Denzel Washington stars in this adaptation of William Shakespeares play about power and its corruptive influence. Director Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men) delivers a stylish, spooky retelling with incredible black and white cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel that has echoes of the best work of Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman and the German Expressionists.

Felicia Feaster is the co-founder of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle and a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association.

Excerpt from:

A clever animated comedy and moody gambling drama among the best films of 2021 - Atlanta Journal Constitution