“Those Who Wish Me Dead”
With the western all but disappearing from Hollywood, the burden of keeping an American cinematic tradition alive seems to fall primarily on the shoulders of filmmaker Taylor Sheridan. In films like “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River” – and let’s not forget The Playlist favorite “Yellowstone” – Sheridan continues to find new ways to reconstitute elements of the western mythos for a failing capitalist society. Wherever a boundary still exists between the rural and the modern, he’s there to make it sing onscreen. This is why a movie like “Those Who Wish Me Dead” can be both a lesser Sheridan and a fascinating continuation of his cinematic themes. Even if you don’t care about Angelina Jolie’s Hannah and her emotional arc, there are many smaller threads worth tugging in the film. Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult are inspired as a pair of weary corporate bagmen; Medina Senghore and Jon Bernthal also offer a compelling frontier love story. Sheridan may struggle to turn these pieces into a powerful whole, but even for its failings, “Those Who Wish Me Dead” will still be one of the 2021 releases I revisit the most. –Matthew Monagle
“The Circle”
As much of the world spent at least part of 2021 in some level of lockdown, Netflix‘s “The Circle” became surprisingly addictive and relatable. The rest of us struggled to find ways to keep up with relationships through various screens. But contestants on “The Circle” craved that opportunity. They could be whoever they wanted on the show, allowing us to live vicariously through them. They could forge new relationships in a way that we necessarily couldn’t. “The Circle” was a guilty pleasure from Season 1, but it managed to better find its footing in Seasons 2 and 3, which were both released in 2021. The twists were more outrageous and fun to watch — especially Season 3’s cloned profile storyline. “The Circle” Season 3 also managed to strike a better balance of romantic and platonic friendships, making it the perfect mix of trashy and sweet. It’s easy, mindless fun and we’re secretly counting down the days until Season 4 is released. –Brynne Ramella
“Siesta Key”
MTV’s reality productions have never been known for their subtlety, and the sun-soaked bourgeois drama of “Siesta Key” certainly can scoop out a sandcastle’s worth of cringe on an episodic basis. This season, billionaire Sam brought all of the “Siesta Key” players to some sort of vacation party island, replete with the kind of theatrics that made this the trashy version of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Swimsuit line wars, mischievous mermaid paintings, awkward baby showers, a dopey OnlyFans model, and the slap heard ‘round the world were just a few of the storylines that popped up on this isle-bound season, reaffirming this as MTV’s ode to the blissfully ignorant, botheringly wealthy Floridian twentysomething. Though, we’ll affirm that it’s obvious to be Team Kelsey, one of the only seemingly normal people on this show, through all of the fracases between her and Juliette. The very fact I’m willing to take that public stance should show what an unexpected delight this very, very guilty pleasure reality show is. It’s everything you didn’t know you wanted from the Sunshine State’s most annoyingly watchable gaggle of rich kids. It’s like “Succession” meets “Jersey Shore.” –Cory Woodroof
“FBoy Island”
Taking the conceits of reality TV dating to their extreme, “FBoy Island” was the perfect antidote to “Bachelor”-bloat (there have been an ungodly four seasons of “Bachelor” content this year). Elan Gale — a veteran producer of “Bachelor” and random co-writer on a single episode of “Midnight Mass” — took all the ridiculousness of that show and made it meta. Hosted by Nikki Glaser, “FBoy Islands’” incredibly complicated premise sees three female leads — self-confident CJ, chaotic Sarah, and seemingly normal Nakia — and 24 men who either identify as nice guys or FBoys. They’re all competing for a prize at the end. But, here’s the thing, the show doesn’t make any sense. How someone wins money isn’t explained until the final episode. It doesn’t matter! Gale even blows up the entire format of the show, in the end, making one wonder if this show was actually meant to be a series — it got renewed for a second season and god help them in figuring out how to replicate such insanity. As a “Bachelor” fan, it’s refreshing to find a dating show that’s self-knowing enough to know it’s absolutely absurd to try to find love on TV. “FBoy Island” was the perfect quarantine show, addictive and forgettable. Also, can someone remind me who Sarah ended up with again? –Christian Gallichio
“Seance”
In my defense, I must confess that I did not watch a substantial number of new releases this year. Apart from discovering micro-budget gems (most notably, Elijahwan Butler’s “Perfect”) and suffering through disposable mainstream outings, I spent most of the year discovering my previously unexplored affinity for oddball movies from the 2000s (shout out to Brittany Murphy and “The Ramen Girl”). Consequently, Simon Barrett’s directorial debut “Seance,” a self-described “cozy slasher” counts itself as one of the more memorable movies I viewed in 2021, despite its substantive flaws and continual lapses into genre tropes. To be honest, I can’t explain why this movie hasn’t fully left my mind since I watched it, but there’s something undeniably endearing about this old-fashioned ode to genre films of a bygone era. Admittedly, there’s nothing intrinsically inventive about “Seance”; the movie hovers somewhere between a hangout movie and a supernatural whodunit, but its sedated pacing successfully induces an ambient comfortability uncommon to most horror movies, or wide-release movies in general. Equipped with quaint twists, Sicker Man’s emotive synth-based score, and charming performances—Suki Waterhouse, Ella Rae-Smith and Madisen Beaty sparkle with wit and self-aware charisma—“Seance” fits perfectly alongside slashers like “Soul Survivors” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” films that seem to exist purely for the sake of rainy days and post-midnight streaming service surfing. –Jonathan Christian
“Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer”
The first memorable thing I learned in 2021 was that William Friedkin had a Twitter account. After he co-signed “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer” as “the best Police procedural [he’d] ever seen,” I sought it out on Netflix with some reluctance. The true-crime boom has spawned a few terrific projects, but it has also flooded the market with a lot of trash docuseries that exploit the victims of horrendous crimes without even having the decency to be any fun. Lo and behold, “Night Stalker” achieves a miraculous balance between respecting the victims of Richard Ramirez and luxuriating in the gory details of their demise. The story around Ramirez’s infamous killing spree has largely gone untold on film and TV, perhaps because it played out so dramatically (and publicly) in real life. Recounting it from the investigators’ point of view adds a thrilling layer of narrative coherence to an otherwise arbitrary jumble of tragedy and confusion. “Mindhunter,” eat your heart out. –Jake Sweltz
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