OVP: Previously, in 2021

 2021: A Look Back

Wow-we are starting out our 20th Oscar Viewing Project retrospective after finishing up 2002 this past weekend.  The last one was one of our longest runs in a while, as I took a bit of a break from the series this fall to get other aspects of my life in order, but I'm liking the pace we've set the past month, and I am hopeful that 2021 will be a relatively quick rollout.  We'll have officially done not just twenty seasons, but twenty consecutive seasons when this is done.  My gut says that will continue for at least a little while longer, though it's possible by end of year we'll officially enter a phase where we pop around as I like that idea for the future to keep things jumping.

That's enough behind-the-scenes.  Now I want you to sit back, relax, and transport yourself to a world where Joe Biden had brought some normalcy to the world of politics, we were all on Team Pfizer or Moderna, and everyone was playing red light/green light on Squid Game.  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Box Office

This is what the Top 10 at the (Domestic) Box Office looked like:

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

3. Venom: Let There Be Carnage

4. Black Widow

5. F9: The Fast Saga

6. Eternals

7. Sing 2

8. No Time to Die

9. A Quiet Place Part II

10. Ghosbusters: Afterlife

This is bleak, isn't it?  I had kind of blocked out precisely how blockbuster-oriented the annual Top 10 was in 2021, as theaters were largely unopened in the spring, and as a result we had five backlogged Marvel movies clogging up four of the top six slots, with the only non-comic book film being the ninth movie in a franchise (not counting the spinoffs).  No film on this movie is an original film (Free Guy at #11 was the first film to take that distinction).  Of these, I've seen seven of the ten.  Venom isn't a franchise I've really been attracted to (should I...would I like it?), and the Sing movies aren't my jam either.  I've only seen one Fast & the Furious movie (Tokyo Drift), and I do think at some point I should probably give this saga a shot (maybe when the next one comes out?), but I haven't yet.

There were 14 $100 million movies, a very low number, and the remainder of the four (Free Guy, Jungle Cruise, Dune, and Godzilla vs. Kong) I saw, and actually saw in theaters.  After 2020 & being stuck in my house, in fact, I saw a lot of movies in theaters as I was desperate to get back into my safe space.  2021 stands as the year I've seen the most total movies for the year (351), though not all of them were 2021 releases.

The Films I Missed

While I've seen all of the Oscar nominees, I haven't seen every film in 2021.  In addition to the films I mentioned above, I also missed Annette, Compartment No. 6, My Sunny Maad, and After Love which were cited for major precursor awards.  I definitely would like to see After Love, as it won Best Actress in an upset at the BAFTA Awards, but it's impossible to stream in the US (readers-if you know of a way, let me know in the comments).  Otherwise, unless you think I'm missing something with the other films I said I missed (again, the comments!), I feel like I did 2021 well last year and don't really feel like I'm missing much here, and don't have much to catch up on.  We'll commence celebrating 2021 by heading into Best Makeup & Hairstyling in the next couple of days!