Recommendations: The Best of 2021

Perhaps it’s too late to be doing this near the end of January, but here’s a quick wrap-up of some of my posts, views and recommendations of 2021...

I wrote very little meta this year, with one being The Craft and the Craft Legacy, which I wasn’t particularly happy with. It’s too long and a bit repetitive, and I’m not even sure I got my point across – but hey, it was fun returning to one of my favourite witchy films and its misbegotten sequel.

If that one was too long, then The Problem With Witches was too short, and barely scratched the surface of my theory: that fictional depictions of witches – whether old or modern – share a deep consternation about the idea of a woman with hard power, and do everything they can to alleviate the perceived threat. Perhaps I’ll return to this subject at a later date with more examples to flesh out the argument.

I did have a lot of fun working through the first season of The Legend of the Seeker, and even though I couldn’t find the time to post on the season finale, it’s on its way. And then my first ever watch of season two will begin! I’m so excited about this, especially since I’ve been delaying it for over a decade!

Other than that, I managed only three in-depth reviews this year: for Raya and the Last Dragon, the first season of Shadow and Bone, and the three Irish-inspired films of Cartoon Saloon studios.

As for the best of this year’s watching and reading material...

Suki Alone by Faith Erin Hicks

The graphic novels for Avatar: The Last Airbender are rather contentious, but this one works beautifully as a “fill in the gaps” story for one of its most popular secondary characters, giving us insight into Suki’s childhood, training as a Kyoshi Warrior, and stint in Boiling Rock Prison.

5 Worlds by Mark and Alexis Siegel

I’ve seen this graphic novel series described as Star Wars meets Avatar: The Last Airbender, and yeah... that’s fair enough (though the aesthetic is more She-Ra than anything else). Three youngsters are tasked with an interplanetary quest to light semi-mystical beacons across five culturally/geographically distinctive worlds and save the galaxy from both tyranny and climate change. So far the series is comprised of The Sand Warrior, The Cobalt Prince, The Red Maze and The Amber Anthem, with The Emerald Gate out later this year (I’ve had it on hold since October!)

I recommended the first one to a young boy at the library, he went off to have a peruse, and then returned a few minutes later with it clasped to his chest to tell me: “I love it.”

Delilah Dirk by by Tony Cliff

Currently comprised of three graphic novels: Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling and Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of Hercules are essentially Indiana Jones stories if Indy was a tall Amazonian Greek noble-born lady who lived by her own rules and was more interested in adventure than archaeology. It’s the artwork that really elevates these stories, capturing the beauty and mystery of the Middle East: its architecture, culture and history.  

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki

Over ten years in the making and the inspiration of the film that put Studio Ghibli on the map, Hayao Miyazaki’s magnum opus is a must-read, if not just to appreciate the myriad of other stories that it inspired. So many of our dystopian adventures, female protagonists and environmentalist fantasy-fiction can be traced back to Nausicaä, and Miyazaki’s manga far outstrips the identically-named film in scope and content – in fact, I’m not entirely sure that most people even realize that the 1984 anime only contains a fraction of the story in its entirety, which spans over seven volumes altogether.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

One of those books I’ve been meaning to read for ages, and one that takes most people by surprise – even if you know the gist of the plot, it’s the way in which it’s told that sets it apart from your standard ghost story: it’s not the house but rather the protagonist that’s haunted. Psychologically or paranormally? We never really find out, but Jackson’s unsettling prose keeps you off-guard for the duration of the page-count.

The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle

Possibly the last of the great seventies/eighties fantasies that completely passed me by as a younger reader, so it felt good to finally put it on the shelf next to The Neverending Story and The Chronicles of Prydain. Like all the best fantasies, it’s laden with hidden meaning and multiple interpretations, as well as some poetic-prose that truly makes you feel you’ve wandered into a fairy tale kingdom. It vibes well with The Princess Bride, but is softer, kinder, and ultimately more bittersweet.

Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge

Every time I mentioned Frances Hardinge it’s to beg people to read her. At the library where I work there is constant confusion over whether her books should be in the Children’s or Young Adults’ area, though the truth is that anyone can read them at any age. Her plots! Her prose! Her characterization! She's impeccable.

Gullstruck Island is set on a jungle-strewn, volcano-laden tropical island, whose original inhabitants are treated with suspicion and contempt by the more recent colonizers. When individuals known as the Lost (people who can astral project in order to send messages and maintain communication lines) all die under mysterious circumstances, the finger is pointed at the Lace tribe, who now possess the only living Lost on the island. It’s up to Hathin to lead her older sister to safety across the volcanic landscape to safety, discovering the far-reaching roots of a conspiracy along the way.

Dreamhunter and Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

New Zealand author Elizabeth Knox vibes well with Frances Hardinge in that both are masters at crafting a puzzle-box plot with fantastical elements that unfolds with the finesse of an Agatha Christie mystery. In this case, the vast and complex rules of “dream-catching” make up the underlying plot of this duology, in which a select group of people are able to move through what seems like a parallel dimension to catch dreams and share them with other people in great auditoriums. There are splendid dreams to be experienced, but also nightmares – one in particular that our heroine is tasked with catching...

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

Horror for the kids! I enjoyed this take on rustic folk-horror for a younger audience, in which a young girl is given all the tools she needs to defeat an ancient fey-creature who has come to collect on a metaphysical contract, and set loose in the creepy environment of autumnal farmlands in a bid to outwit her opponent. Think Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, but with a distinctive atmosphere and some clever twists in how “the smiling man” is eventually defeated.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Grotesquery at its finest: two feuding sisters are trapped in a dilapidated Hollywood mansion, their glory days behind them and their rivalry growing ever-more lethal. Knowing that there was on-set tension between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis only adds to the Grand Guignol vibe as the two Hollywood royals all but physically struggle over who gets the spotlight at any given moment. It’s not anyone’s finest hour, but damn it’s entertaining.

Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964)

The spiritual successor to Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? was meant to reunite Crawford and Davis in a role-reversal of their prior characterizations, only for the aforementioned feud to end with Crawford dropping out of the project. We get Olivia de Havilland in her place, who brings her own precedent to the project: a chance to act profoundly against type. An unsolved murder, a southern mansion, a visiting cousin, a possible ghost... what’s not to like? Also directed by Robert Aldritch, he captures what was so fun about the prior movie without simply repeating it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

It’s been twenty years, that’s reason enough to revisit Peter Jackson’s masterpiece – and it was with profound relief that I discovered it all held up beautifully: the CGI and the costuming, the performances and the score... it was like revisiting an old friend.

As ever, it’s a miracle that it works as well as it does. When you take into account the density and length of Tolkien’s books, this adaptation manages to be fast-paced but not hurried, detailed without getting bogged down in mythology, full of striking character moments despite the fact there are at least three dozen actors vying for screentime. How’d they pull it off? Cos a few years later The Hobbit was completely incapable of managing the same feat.

Not for the first time, I’m profoundly grateful that we got this trilogy when we did. Given the growing reliance on CGI, the echo-chamber of demanding fans, the studios’ reliance on stretching everything out indefinitely... there’s just no way we would have gotten a film this good – restrained, imaginative, passionate – by today’s filmmaking standards.

Strings (2004)

This joint Danish-Swedish-Norwegian-British venture is by necessity a slow-moving film: all the actors are marionettes, and every move they make is painstakingly performed.

With a Hamlet-like plot involving a callow young prince who must defeat his wicked uncle and learn more about how to rule a kingdom, the story’s most fascinating detail is that the characters know on some level that they’re puppets. They speak of their head-strings, they commit suicide by cutting said string, and life is granted by strings miraculously descending from the skies. Whatever else you may think of this film, I can promise you’ve never seen anything else like it.

Cartoon Saloon’s Irish triptych: The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers (2009, 2014, 2020)

Every time I mention these films, it comes with an explicit plea to watch them. Beautiful animation, beautiful stories, beautiful voice-work... just watch them. Look, here are some screencaps to entice you:

Fear Street trilogy (2021)

I’ve raved about this in at least three different posts prior to this one, and I still have a much longer write-up to get through... so hurry up watch and this before I completely spoil everything that takes place.

The Green Knight (2021)

Though this didn’t end up being a straightforward retelling of the anonymous poet’s Gawaine and the Green Knight, it was a fascinating delve into the text and its myriad of meaning and symbolism. Starring an untested and deeply tarnished knight of King Arthur’s court, Gawaine seizes the chance to accept the Green Knight’s challenge and finds himself due to get his own head cut off one year hence. There’s a lot to parse through, and frankly not a lot of it makes sense, but it’s a moody and mysterious piece of filmmaking that unfolds at its own pace and isn’t too concerned with satisfying its audience with a straightforward quest narrative. Hey, I’d rather watch something that takes a big swing than simply regurgitates the same-old formula.

Come to think of it, if you liked this you might also want to check out 2020’s Gretel and Hansel starring Sophia Lilias and Alice Krige. They're surprisingly similar in their deconstruction of an existing (and ancient) story.

Covington Cross (1992)

What a throwback! It ran for only one season in the mid-nineties, but my vague childhood memories told me this was something worth revisiting, and it was. Single father Sir Thomas Grey tries to run his estate, raise his five adolescent children, woo neighbouring Lady Elizabeth, and thwart the fiendish plans of nemesis John Mullens, often all at once. It has no interest in historical accuracy, and more than often the plots could be transposed into a modern setting with very little tweaking, but there’s something charming about this unruly family and their messy affection for each other. It’s a shame it didn’t last longer.

Medici (2016 – 2019)

Historical/biographical series like this one have a tendency to see their protagonists through rose-coloured glasses, though the three seasons of Medici (spanning five generations worth of family) is even-handed in its depiction of the powerful banking clan. Centred largely on Cosimo and Lorenzo and covering their patronage of the arts, the Pazzi conspiracy, the family’s political wrangling, and their various personal tribulations, the series works best when exploring the sheer scope of the influence this family had on their culture and society; influence that lasts to this day.

Perry Mason: Season 1 (2020)

I was not expecting much from this limited series (which is apparently getting a season two) and had no idea who Perry Mason was, but the whole thing was riveting from start to finish. Focusing on a harrowing case involving a murdered child, watching the process of Mason putting together his team and pooling their resources is immensely rewarding, and the stakes feel all the higher when one takes into account the sheer vulnerability of his people – whether it’s a Black cop or a closeted lesbian, you can never forget the danger everyone is in for chasing their collective goal of attaining justice for a grieving mother.

Lost in Space (2018 – 2021)

I’m pretty sure I was the only one watching this reboot of the sixties sci-fi television show, but it was high-quality stuff. The production values alone made the three-season story worth watching, along with great female characters, an interesting twist on the famous robot, and a commitment to intelligence being a key feature of the characterization (though not when the gender-flipped Doctor Smith is involved). A stacked cast elevated the material exponentially, and the writing never lost sight of the family dynamic.

Midnight Mass (2021)

Moody and thought-provoking, this is horror mingled with a genuine interest in theological mysteries and the presence of religion in our lives. The location is superb as well: an isolated island with a dwindling population and a dangerous hidden predator. The character dynamics help build a vivid picture of this little community, and though the first few episodes take their time in building up the suspense, it’s all in service of a slam-dunk of a penultimate episode/grand finale. If you can endure the surplus of monologues, this is a great binge watch.

Robin Robin (2021)

The perfect Christmas present: a short stop-motion film about a foundling bird who desperately wants to be more like her mouse family, only to discover that her perpetual clumsiness is an obstacle she just can’t surmount. Aardman never fails to produce beautiful, quirky, heart-warming material and this is no exception. This screenshot just ends me: