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| JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. ➤ Give a tax-deductible donation The Jewish films you had to see in 2021 By Irene Katz Connelly and PJ Grisar This week, we're reviewing the best 2021 had to offer. Today, the films that made us feel connected to the world in an isolating time.
The cinematic year of 2021 felt like a time warp.
Let's put it this way. In March, the Grammys awarded Billie Eilish Best Song Written for Visual Media for the title track of the James Bond flick "No Time to Die," a film that wouldn't even be released until October. The releases of highly anticipated films like Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" and Scarlett Johansson's MCU swan song, "Black Widow," faced long delays while the world waited for it to be safe to return to cinemas.
The good news is, many of these films were well worth the wait, and, since many festivals hosted their offerings online, some were more accessible than ever. We've compiled a few of our favorites from this year, ranging from understated Israeli dramas to bombastic musical period pieces and a meditation on the artistic merits of Kenny G.
Here are the films we loved and where to watch them.
Six of our favorites are below. Read the full list of nine here. "Licorice Pizza" In theaters. Among the central questions of Paul Thomas Anderson's latest: what makes a Jew Jewish? There's a Shabbat dinner sequence involving Alana Haim's character, Alana Kane, a talent agent who comments on Alana's "fashionable" Jewish nose and more. With Haim, Anderson revels in one of his greatest gifts as a director: casting. The auteur who once saw nervy dramatic power in Adam Sandler has once again struck gold with Haim. Read the review ➤ "Minyan" Streaming on Amazon Prime. Set on the moody gray boardwalk of 1980s Brighton Beach, “Minyan” follows David, a closeted gay teenager, as he attempts to navigate a hardscrabble Russian Jewish community hostile to boys like him. David takes refuge in his grandfather’s old-folks home, where he endears himself by showing up for Shabbat minyan and befriends Herschel and Itzik, an elderly gay couple whom the neighbors choose to consider roommates. Read the review ➤ "The French Dispatch" Rent on Amazon Prime. Wes Anderson's homage to in-depth literary reportage from The New Yorker gives us is a director at the top of his game. He and his co-writers channel the gleefully finicky — if sometimes soaring — prose pioneered by Harold Ross and William Shawn. In “The French Dispatch” he’s delivered a whole magazine. Read the review ➤ "Pig" Streaming on Amazon Prime. A treyf title, but a kosher cast with Adam Arkin and Alex Wolff. Nicolas Cage plays an ex-celebrity chef who left the spotlight to live in the woods. When his companion — a truffle pig — is stolen, he reenters society on a rescue mission. It’s a refreshing reminder that Nicolas Cage is a very strong actor when he chooses to be. "Asia" Rent on Amazon Prime. Watch this when you want to cry. The title character struggles to make ends meet as a nurse in Jerusalem while caring for her daughter, Vika, who is dying of a degenerative disease. Director Ruthy Pribar makes the film a powerful meditation on caring for others. It asks questions without pretending to have the answers. Read the interview ➤ "Listening to Kenny G." Streaming on HBO Max. Penny Lane's documentary is a miracle of dispassionate filmmaking, examining not just the titular springy-haired saxophonist but the intersections of art and subjectivity. Speaking to G, his fans, his critics and his mentor, Lane arrives at a simple, but worthwhile conclusion: people like what they like and hate what they hate. Read the review ➤
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