John Waters' Best Films Of 2021 Includes 'Annette,' 'Mandibles' & The Latest From 'The Human Centipede' Director

Every year, we like to highlight some of the Top 10 lists from filmmakers who are known for not picking the run-of-the-mill awards-season contenders. And each year, we always like to spotlight the Best Films of the Year list from director John Waters, a subversive filmmaker who isn’t afraid to have an unpopular opinion or stray away from what the Film Twitter mob would like you to believe. And his best films of 2021 Top 10 list is no different.

READ MORE: John Waters’ Best of 2020 List Includes ‘Mangrove,’ ‘Swallow’ & Also, ‘Butt Boy’

Topping his list (via Art Forum) for the very best film of 2021 is Leos Carax’s wild musical “Annette,” starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. Describing his love of “Annette,” Waters wrote, “The best movie of the year is an insane, over-the-top, and thankfully self-indulgent Sparks Brothers musical about an angry macho performance artist, his opera-diva girlfriend, and their daughter, who is somehow born a puppet. See it by yourself so no one you know can possibly ruin this nutcase masterpiece. Oh yeah—it’s really long.”

Perhaps one of the more shocking additions to his Top 10 is “Mandibles,” a film that we have highlighted on the website previously but has largely been left out of the year-end conversations. But Waters raved about Quentin Dupieux’s offbeat comedy and wrote, “The stupidest art film of the year, directed by a Gallic auteur who specializes in one-joke dumbbell comedies, about a giant fly and two French stooges, is also one of the funniest and most charming.”

I take it back, the most surprising addition is something Waters also agrees will upset most people—Tom Six’sThe Onania Club.” The filmmaker said he replaced Pedro Almodovar’sParallel Mothers” with this film, which he describes as a “loathsome unreleased feature everybody will probably hate.” He added, “All I can say is that the movie sure as hell delivers. You will probably never be able to see it. Maybe that’s a good thing…”

So, as you can see, Waters is always good for a Best Films list that will leave some people scratching their heads while others raise their fists triumphantly. 

Here’s his full Top 10 list (you can read his full writeups on Art Forum):

  1. Annette (Leos Carax)
  2. Summer of Soul (Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson)
  3. Vortex (Gaspar Noe)
  4. France (Bruno Dumont)
  5. The Most Beautiful Boy in the World (Kristina Lindström, Kristian Petri)
  6. Mandibles (Quentin Dupieux)
  7. Red Rocket (Sean Baker)
  8. The Tragedy Of Macbeth (Joel Coen)
  9. Saint-Narcisse (Bruce LaBruce)
  10. The Onania Club (Tom Six)