The Best Movies of 2021 (So Far)

Idris Elba and “Stranger Things” actor Caleb McLaughlin provide a window into a world most folks knew nothing about: urban cowboys who’ve adapted a timeless American tradition to the inner city, raising and riding horses on the streets. After director Ricky Staub discovered North Philly’s Fletcher Street Stables, he and co-writer Dan Walser went looking for a story that would spotlight the community, using G. Neri’s novel “Ghetto Cowboy” as the basis for an inspirational story about a troubled teen sent to live with his father. Cleaning stalls builds character as the young man meets these unlikely equestrians, many of whom play loosely fictionalized versions of themselves. — Peter Debruge
Where to See It: Netflix

It sounded even deadlier than another live-action remake of a Disney animated classic: a live-action prequel to a Disney animated classic, one that would tell the origin story of Cruella de Vil, the puppy-hating aristo villain of “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” The miracle is that director Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya”), working from a script by Tony McNamara (“The Favourite”) and Dana Fox, created a punk-camp fashionista rock-opera mystery that stands thrillingly on its own. Emma Stone, in her most vibrant performance since “La La Land,” plays the young Estella — a kind of Dickensian urchin meets Vivienne Westwood — with a hard-knock vivacity that gives the film a center of empathy, and Emma Thompson, as the London design diva who becomes her mentor-dictator, tosses off lines with such impeccable psycho hauteur that you don’t know whether to cower or applaud. The result is the rare kiddie franchise movie in which every moment is animated…from within. — Owen Gleiberman
Where to See It: Disney Plus

It’s adapted from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first musical, a work approximately one-thousandth as famous as “Hamilton,” and it has a cast with no stars, so it’s neither a shock nor a scandal that it didn’t break the bank. Yet Miranda’s Latin Manhattan odyssey is a crowd-pleaser in the greatest sense: a pulsating, exuberantly sensual slice-of-life musical that does for Washington Heights what “Do the Right Thing” did for Bed-Stuy. Miranda’s songs are a blend of electrifying hip-hop and salsa and Broadway lyricism, and director Jon M. Chu stages it all with a bravura playfulness, whether he’s setting a production number about upscale dreams in a public swimming pool or letting two lovers loose on the side of a building. “In the Heights” shows us the neighborhood from literally every angle, capturing the lives of people caught up in a delirious, at times heartbreaking dance between the land of their ancestors and the America they’ve made their own. — OG
Where to See It: HBO Max

In this Sundance Film Festival discovery, David (Clayne Crawford) and Niki (Sepideh Moafi) got hitched just out of high school and had four kids. But something has soured in the relationship, and now they’re navigating a trial separation, one in which they’re allowed to see other people. Niki takes that option, while David seems to be lost in a downward spiral of jealousy and resentment. There’s nothing melodramatic about this low-key character study — except perhaps the opening scene, when David breaks into Niki’s bedroom with a gun — though writer-director Robert Machoian’s rigorous stylistic restraint serves to focus our attention on how a grown man learns to deal with choices beyond his control. — PD
Where to See It: On demand and digital

A little like “Nomadland” without the nomads, Robin Wright’s directorial debut tells of a woman who decides to cut herself off from society and retreat to a cabin in the woods — a voluntary version of the seclusion many of us were forced to endure this past year. Wright plays her cards close to the vest, creating greater room for audiences to relate. Without understanding her motivations until quite late in the film, we feel her pain, and yet “Land” focuses more on the immediate fight for survival, plus the reconnection to others through Demián Bichir’s empathetic supporting role, both of which bring her slowly back to society. — PD
Where to See It: On demand

The best of the films made in quarantine to be released so far — but also one of the most uncomfortable — Sam Levinson’s lacerating look at a creative couple imagines a film director (John David Washington) and his girlfriend (Zendaya) returning from the premiere of a movie loosely based on her life experiences. His ego has swollen to near-unbearable proportions, though it barely masks his many glaring insecurities as the pair pick at one another’s weak spots. The movie was misunderstood by many, who couldn’t get past what an egocentric jerk Washington’s character is (and which they assumed Levinson must be, by extension), but that’s the point in this postmortem of how way male artists so often take their muses for granted. — PD
Where to See It: Netflix

Bumped from theatrical release to Netflix, where it seems to be connecting with audiences in a big way, this mile-a-minute animated robopocalypse comedy from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” producers Lord and Miller represents a significant upgrade to what CG toons can accomplish. The story could have been live-action — as a misfit family hits the road just as a bajillion Apple-like personal assistants turn on their human “masters” — but the execution takes full advantage of the medium, mixing gonzo action scenes with genuine insights into father-daughter relationships, all rendered in a totally unique style. It’s as if the creative team took the Pixar formula and plussed it, leaving likable “Luca” looking downright old-fashioned by comparison. — PD
Where to See It: Netflix

Mads Mikkelsen follows up his turn in the Oscar-winning “Another Round” with an even more demanding performance in this darker-than-dark satire from the mind of uniquely twisted Danish writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen (“Men & Chicken”). Mikkelsen plays Markus, whose wife dies in a gnarly train crash, which he becomes convinced was the work of a far-right extremist group. And so he transforms into a Liam Neeson-like vigilante, using his military training to take on an organization few would defend. But what if he’s wrong, and this is all just an elaborate way of avoiding the emotional work that needs to be done? Teetering on the brink of bad taste, this outrageous comedy-thriller drills into the lunacy of our times, with unpredictably rowdy results. — PD
Where to See It: In theaters and on demand

For half a century, the extraordinary series of concerts known as the Harlem Cultural Festival were an event forgotten by everyone but those who had been there. Yet in the summer of 1969, these performances by an astounding array of funk, soul, blues, gospel, and pop artists were filmed as compellingly as anything at Woodstock or Monterey, and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, making his debut as a director, has assembled the footage with a craft and devotion that elevates it into an exhilarating epiphany. As a record of musical history, the film is mesmerizing, from the kinetic swoon of the Fifth Dimension to the badass force of Sly and the Family Stone to the ominous majesty of Nina Simone. Yet this is also a concert movie profoundly greater than the sum of its parts. Watching “Summer of Soul,” what you hear is the sound of freedom reverberating across the decades.  — OG
Where to See It: In theaters and on Hulu

In the late ’60s, Tiny Tim, that towering geek with a ukulele singing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” in a fluttery falsetto, was an angelic hippie weirdo, a walking punchline, and the ultimate talk-show novelty act. For a while, though, he was also the biggest star on the planet (yes, he was), and Johan von Sydow’s revelatory documentary shows you why. It tells Tiny Tim’s story from the ground up and reveals that beneath the alien strangeness, he was a performer with a vision: a desire to mesmerize the world by singing in the voice that God gave him. He was like a character from a circus freak show dreamed up by Andy Warhol, exuberantly crossing lines of irony, gender, and good taste. The film captures his story as a one-of-a-kind media odyssey, hypnotic, absurd, and heartbreaking.  — OG
Where to See It: Stream via Eventive

It’s four hours long, I reveled in every minute of it, and I’m not even a Zack Snyder person. But in his majestic director’s cut of the DC Comics movie that Warner Bros. bowdlerized in 2017, Snyder shows you what blockbuster filmmaking can be when it’s splayed across a vast canvas, and when a gifted filmmaker uses it to push past grandiosity and achieve true grandeur. The shock of “Snyder’s Justice League” is how splendidly sincere it is. With the snark trimmed out, the backstories enhanced and entwined, it becomes an epic that echoes that of the Avengers but in a more sinister high-stakes way, with battles that outdo “The Lord of the Rings,” a villain who’s a glittery spectacle unto himself, and heroes you do more than root for. You feel their glory and pain.  — OG
Where to See It: HBO Max

A star filmmaker is born. Directing a movie based on a true tweetstorm, Janicza Bravo works with the virtuoso danger and excitement we associate with vintage Scorsese or the Paul Thomas Anderson of “Boogie Nights.” At the center of this startling ride of a drama is Zola (Taylour Paige), who works part-time in the sex industry, and who agrees to accompany Stefani (Riley Keough) down to Florida to work in a strip club for a couple of nights. But as soon as Zola climbs into the van and meets the man (Colman Domingo) running the show, who acts a lot like Stefani’s pimp, all bets are off. Keough’s outrageous performance as a treacherous dim bulb whose entire personality is a kind of hip-hip minstrel show cues us to the film’s theme: that social-media fakery and financial desperation have combined to turn our entire culture into a walking mirage. It’s Paige’s Zola, the eye of sanity at the center of a storm of sleaze, who turns her artifice into sly survival.  — OG
Where to See It: In theaters