FilmFisher Undefended Lists of 2021

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One final catalogue of the top-five lists I contributed to a monthly FilmFisher feature called “Undefended.” Click on the list titles to see the original articles with the other contributors’ lists.

Cities and Towns (January 2021)

  1. Hadleyville in High Noon (1952)

  2. New York City in Oliver and Company (1988)

  3. Koriko in Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

  4. JFK Airport in The Terminal (2004)

  5. Radiator Springs in Cars (2006)

Faith on Film (March 2021)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Faith in action:

  • Amazing Grace (2006, dir. Michael Apted)

  • A Hidden Life (2019, dir. Terrence Malick)

  • Star Wars (1977, dir. George Lucas)

Faith amidst doubt:

  • The Tree of Life (2011, dir. Terrence Malick)

  • The Polar Express (2004, dir. Robert Zemeckis)

Bonus: When I read the prompt, I was almost immediately reminded of two recent big loud blockbusters involving time travel in which heroes take action against the forces of nihilism in the confidence that the arc of history really does, somehow, bend toward justice: Avengers: Endgame and Tenet. 

“Everything’s going to work out exactly the way it’s supposed to.”

“What’s happened, happened. Which is an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.”

Against Type (April 2021)

  1. Dick Van Dyke as Cecil in Night at the Museum (2006)

  2. Matt Damon as La Boeuf in True Grit (2010)

  3. Liam Neeson as Good Cop in The LEGO Movie (2014)

  4. Daniel Craig as Joe Bang in Logan Lucky (2017)

  5. Keira Knightley as Sugar Plum in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

Animation (May 2021)

Rats-atouille! This is what I get for not creating and sending my list immediately. I will avoid duplicating others’ choices and instead go with close runners-up in five categories.

  1. Classic Disney: Instead of Sleeping Beauty… Bambi (1942, dir. Algar, Armstrong, and Hand)

  2. Contemporary Disney: The only first pick no one beat me to… The Emperor’s New Groove (2000, dir. Dindal)

  3. Pixar: Instead of Ratatouille… Up (2009, dir. Docter and Peterson)

  4. Studio Ghibli: Instead of The Wind Rises… The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013, dir. Takahata)

  5. Wild Card: Instead of Fantastic Mr. Fox… The Lego Batman Movie (2017, dir. McKay)

Honora-Bear Mentions: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Brother Bear, and Kung Fu Panda 2.

Westerns (June 2021)

  1. High Noon (1952, dir. Fred Zinnemann)

  2. The Magnificent Seven (1960, dir. John Sturges)

  3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, dir. John Ford)

  4. The Shootist (1976, dir. Don Siegel)

  5. True Grit (2010, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)

P.S. No list of favorite Westerns would be complete without mentioning the 1991 Winnie the Pooh episode, “The Good, the Bad and the Tigger.”

Needle Drops (May 2021)

  1. The Sandlot (1993): The boys playing baseball under a shower of July 4th fireworks is set to the Ray Charles rendition of “America the Beautiful”

  2. Jingle All the Way (1996): The Johnny Mathis rendition of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” underscores the irony of a mob of Christmas Eve shoppers fighting over lottery balls in the Mall of America.

  3. Spider-Man 2 (2004): The B. J. Thomas “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” montage.

  4. The Tree of Life (2011): Zbigniew Preisner’s “Lacrimosa” accompanies the creation sequence.

  5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013): This is only half cheating. “Space Oddity” begins diegetically, sung by Kristen Wiig’s character, but gives way to the David Bowie song playing non-diegetically.

Christmas (December 2021)

I’m going to play it safe and go with obvious Christmas titles:

  1. In place of It’s a Wonderful Life, another Jimmy Stewart classic with a third act set at Christmastime: The Shop Around the Corner (1940, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)

  2. White Christmas (1954, dir. Michael Curtiz)

  3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966, dir. Chuck Jones and Ben Washam) (Boris Karloff > Jim Carrey)  

  4. In place of A Charlie Brown Christmas, another animated holiday special about competing visions for the ideal Christmas pageant: VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas (2002, dir. Tim Hodge)

  5. The Polar Express (2004, dir. Robert Zemeckis)

Best of 2021 (December 2021)

To date I’ve only seen ten 2021 releases, and of those I’d only pick three, in alphabetical order:

  1. Dune (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

  2. Pig (dir. Michael Sarnoski)

  3. West Side Story (dir. Steven Spielberg)

To round out the list, I recommend the following two 2020 releases I (and probably many others) didn’t see until 2021, also listed alphabetically:

  1. Minari (dir. Lee Isaac Chung)

  2. Wonder Woman 1984 (dir. Patty Jenkins)