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Best and Worst Films from May 2021

Best Films from May 2021:

3. Great Expectations

David Lean’s Great Expectations certainly has style to spare. The cinematography and the score are terrific and the costumes and sets are uniformly superb. The atmosphere is well conveyed and the more eerie scenes were the highlights. However, the characters and the overall plot left a lot to be desired, and this particular novel has never been a great fit for the big screen treatment.

2. Oxygen

Somewhat predictable in twists and overly complicated in plot, Oxygen is still very intense and stupendously acted by its very capable leading lady. This is one of the best recent Netflix movies that I have seen, and it’s great to see the streaming service going into these one-location SF movies. I can’t wait to see more.

1. The Thief of Bagdad

Easily the best movie I saw during this month was this incredible 1940 epic fantasy feature that won some technical Oscars deservedly so. It looks astonishing with impressive VFX for its time, amazing costumes, great score and superb sets. However, it is also genuinely terrific and adventurous in terms of storytelling and strong in characterization. It’s a perfect remake that isn’t quite as incredible as the silent original, but still it came quite close.

Worst Films from May 2021:

3. Our Town

Our Town is very well acted and somewhat charming, but this is by far the most dated of the 1940 Best Picture nominees and one that has no story to it whatsoever. It might be appealing to slice-of-life enthusiasts, but to me it was boring and overly stagey.

2. The Great Budapest Hotel

I hate Wes Anderson, so this movie was no different than all of his other disasters for me personally. It is a style over substance situation as it looks great, but it is cluttered and there is no point to all of this world building and a vast number of characters. It’s strange for the sake of being stake and just plain annoying.

1. Top Gun

Top Gun is my number one pick for the worst this month. I’d expected it would be bad, and it did not disappoint. Yes, the soundtrack is iconic, but everything else is bad. It is weakly written and Tom Cruise is so punchable as the horrendously off-putting protagonist.