The best movie scenes of 2021
Some of the year's best movie moments came from No Time To Die, Shang-Chi, and Licorice Pizza
Film Lists Noel Murray
Next week, The A.V. Club unveils its list of the best movies of 2021. Today, we’re getting a little more granular on this rapidly elapsing, pandemic-shaped year for the cinema by looking at the movies within the movies: those unforgettable moments that served to either fortify the greatness of the films that contained them or offer a silver lining for the less-than-great ones they momentarily improved. These were the best scenes of the year, and they hailed from blockbusters and indies, musicals and action flicks, our absolute favorite films of the year and a few that just made us laugh or wince or cheer for a couple blissful minutes. Note, as always, that there will of course be spoilers—especially towards the end, where we’ve stuck the most climactic scenes chosen by our 11 contributors. And with that caveat out of the way, let’s take a page from one of our selections and ask: So may we start?
82 Comments
I would have added in the sweeping landscape dance scene between Dunst and Plemons in Power of the Dog(can a movie have 2?), it just captured the happiness she envisioned for her future so well, while we knew the terror waiting for her at the marriage house.Also the scene in Spencer where Stewart is gorging herself in the pantry with that spy butler watching her was amazing and truly spooky/infuriating. let the poor woman eat!
the james bond and zola scenes are also forever in my mind as great scenes. Good year for movies in my opinion!
“Nobody” was some of the best fun I’ve had at the movies this year.
Oh for sure. I loved the hacker girl who figured out what Odenkirk was and just said “here you go…see ya!”
Or Christopher Lloyd having the most fun he’s had on a film set since being a romantic lead in BTTF Part III.
“You brought a lot of guns”“…you brought a lot of Russians”
Your bus love not withstanding I didn’t like either . Shang’s looked silly and put me to sleep . Nobody’s while good lacked justification .
Gabriel!
Love that little piece of shit. Great picture.
Nothing from Dune? I would have nominated the Sandcrawler scene.This slideshow really show me how few “new” movies I’ve watched the past two years. It’s just been Archer, Bojack, and Suits on repeat, with breaks for Luca, Dune, and Wonder Woman 1984 (watched it late) this year. Probably going to rent NTTD here soon.
In The Earth is such a great, unexpected film and Reece Shearsmith is so good at being terrifying and weird.
Saying “Cool” is one of “the least beloved numbers” in West Side Story is one of the dumber things I’ve read. It’s an iconic song that has been studied and analyzed in courses and literature on music and songwriting. And it is a decisively fun, complex, and engaging tune. If you’re gonna take shots at WSS, there are far better targets.
“todaaaay , the world was just an address , a place for me to be in..
Not taking a shot at it at all. I’d more say that the song score of WSS is so full of bangers that “Cool,” by comparison to “America” or “Tonight” or “Somewhere,” feels like it inspires less popular devotion, and is less strictly necessary on a narrative level. Even among the less emotional numbers, my sense is that “Gee Officer Krupke” and “I Feel Pretty” are a bit more beloved—but maybe that’s just because those melodies stuck with me nonstop from childhood.
I didn’t read it as a shot but I’d agree with the poster that it’s much more popular than you make it sound. It’s definitely in the zeitgeist – you can tell by just how much it’s been parodied and referenced. Of the non-ballads, the average person is much more likely to know “Cool” than they are “Gee, Officer Krupke.” I’d also agree that if you’re talking about music or theater nerds, historians, or musicologists, this song is dissected pretty heavily, arguably moreso than other songs in the show. I even wonder if the specific phrase “Play it cool” was popular before the show or if the show popularized it (the slang “cool” was certainly popular before then, just wondering about that particular iteration).
Well, “Cool” is certainly one of my least favorites, and I agree that Spielberg improved it greatly. Same with “Gee Officer Krupke” which is a total blast now
“Gee, Officer Krupke” never sat right with me in the original: this guy could (and would) thump their skulls for all this sarcasm, so why did he just take the song with a smile and a chuck on the arm? Take Krupke out of the room and make a mock Krupke, and up the madcap stuff, and it becomes awesome.
Yea, it’s such a simple change, but it does wonders to the logic of the song. So much so, that’s its crazy nobody thought of it before
I think it’s a song fans of the movie(s) know and very much love, so perhaps calling it “least beloved” is probably a stretch. But it’s a song that is important almost entirely within the framework of the story, so if the point is that it’s not a song people would otherwise seek out to listen to then I get where you’re coming from. But lord knows the dancing is iconic.
All I know is that any song which inspires this has clearly got something behind it.
The best scene is Annette is clearly “We Love Each Other So Much”
Adam Driver pausing cunnilingus so he can sing his lines is one of the funniest things I’ve seen.
Man, I cannot wait until the discourse on The Last Duel moves beyond “massive bomb” and “Ridley Scott hates teenagers”, because god DAMN does that movie rule.
It really was quite (unexpectedly) good. I’d say it takes a little bit until you start to understand who everyone is, since the interactions between lords, squires, and knights isn’t exactly common knowledge, but I really enjoyed seeing the same story told from three different points of view. And the duel did not disappoint.
I hated those one-sided helmets. ^^”
But the three-parts structure and the acting was tremendous (haven’t seen Ben Affleck have that much fun since forever, and Matt Damon was, in my opinion, surprisingly good at convening different subtle variations in his actions/dialogue depending on which character POV was considered).
And the actual duel was really tense (even if I knew from the get go how it ended ^^), and well shot.
I really wish Scott would give up on the “cold blue-hued” atmosphere for medieval Europe though. The French Middle-Ages were notoriously more colourful than that ! ^^”
I’ve only heard of 5-6 of these, and I’ve only seen one of those.
What if this was an article and not a slideshow though?
But then Kinjavclub would have a tangible improvement that might make the site more useable, and we can’t have that.
That would be thousands of less clicks. Spanfeller has to log those clicks so we can be inundated with massively obtrusive ads.
I loved the Japanese restaurant scene from “Kate” where Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character goes to town on the Yakuza. Great tension, funny lines, crazy action.
“Jane Campion’s latest film is a Western of sorts, featuring plenty of guns”Uhh…what guns? I don’t think there was a single moment where anyone fired a gun.
There weren’t any rootin’ neither, and barely any tootin’!
Goldarnit!
No love for my two favorites this year, “Passing” and “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.” The early scene with Alexander Skarsgard is pretty fantastic, as is the whirlwind finale. Barb and Star has so many it’s hard to choose but I’d pick their back-to-back secretive dates. Zola was really good but surprised that’s the scene picked. The Instagram-style sex montage was a great microcosm of the movie at its best – hilarious, shocking, creatively filmed, using the visual language of social media to satirize how it bleeds into everyday life and is an escape from it. Some of those images are burned into my brain.
The bathroom scene in Candyman should also be on this list.
The final scene in Annette deserves a shout out as well. I kept trying to figure out what the movie was going for, and that final scene wraps it up nicely. Plus, the little girl in that scene is shockingly good.
They’re moments rather than scenes but the quick shot of Annette giving her monkey CPR and the stadium announcer declaring “Please be patient with her, baby Annette is a baby after all” (followed by “What is this little fucking bitch’s problem?”) are two of my favourite film bits from the year.
From Dune, the rainy midnight visit of the Bene Gesserit and the tense what’s in-the-box test sequence has to be up there among the most memorable scenes I saw this year. Just an incredible combination of score, imagery, and sinister ambience.
I found it dubious that not one scene from Dune made it into this list, and that is a good one. Any scenes with one of those ornithopters in flight would have made my list too.
It’s hard to pick one scene from Dune. That movie and its visuals were nothing short of awe-inspiring.
I dunno, Dune seems to be a polarizing film and I didn’t personally find any particular scenes that moved the needle. I didn’t think it was bad, it wasn’t uninteresting, it was just kind of long and then it ended. Even hardcore fans of the book missed several things that were omitted while time that could have been spent on those subplots was instead spent on slow motion padding. Everything looks big and impressive, but nothing is amazing or fun.
My choices:Opening of In the Heights
“Sunday” and “Why” from tick, tick… BOOM!“So May We Start” from Annette
Sound mixing studio in MemoriaFortress ambush in DuneUncle Vanya finale from Drive My Car
And the greatest scene of the year: the long-take aural memory exchange in the jungle cabin that climaxes Memoria. Utterly transcendent.
Fuck me I envy your movie time!
Terrific alt-list, and yeah, those two numbers from Tick, Tick… Boom and that opener from In the Heights. Honestly, I can’t even get my head around a “Best Scene” from Dune, it was so visually stunning.
The mining operation rescue springs to mind for Dune. I mean if I had to pick one scene and only one scene, that’s probably it.
I was disappointed Drive My Car didn’t get on the list but happy to see it on this one. There’s so many great scenes in that movie. I’d personally pick either the car scene with Takatsuki or the scene at Misaki’s home in the snow.
Definitely the bus scene in Shang-Chi. That might be one of Marvel’s greatest fight scenes, not including the last one in Endgame. Not sure how you top that. But I would say it’s a solid #2.Heh heh heh.
Loved the bus fight. And the BUS BOY gag that set up the Macao fight!
I had a new appreciation for bus fights in general after watching this:
That was great!
Excellent. Thanks!
Pig’s is a great choice, probably the key scene of the movie. I can’t argue with Titane’s pick, but I’d have picked something else from French Dispatch (the chosen scene felt a little secondhand Tati to me), maybe the scene depicting what Jeffrey Wright’s character cut from his story.
The only other movie that would definitely be on my list of scenes would be The Green Knight, which has several candidates – there’s a good case for the initial challenge scene and the final sequence, but I might go for Alicia Vikander’s monologue about the color green.
Very good call on Bond, I was scared you were going to include that end scene. Cuba was the only redeeming part of that movie that actually gave me the joyful, violent delights and character chemistry of a Bond film and not…whatever that Scandinavian bleak family crime drama thing they were doing through most of it.
The Cuba scene is very good, but I think No time to Die has a couple of better ones, including a pretty thrilling opening at the cabin, and the one that would have been my pick: The tension of being surrounded in that bulletproof car
Oh man, to each his own of course but I fuckin’ hated that opener! I felt like I was watching one of any of the dozens of “icy-locale-killer-series” I’ve seen in the past decade. If you showed me that whole opening and said “this is a scene from Hanna” I’d be like, “Yup, that checks out.”Same with the forest chase, it had good tension, but it missed that Bond Zing that makes Bond movies Bond movies. It felt like a Taken installment. I’ve just been really disappointed with the trajectory of the Craig-era Bonds, there is a certain amount of silliness and pageantry that I require of the Bond cinematic experience…Cuba really brought it back to that.
Ha, fair enough! As much as I liked the ice lake and everything, I’m still trying to wrap my head around how age works in this film. The Craig era has been hit or miss for me too, but I’m just glad this was in improvement over Spectre.
I wish I could submit something fancy, too, but to hell with it. I’m going with Bloodsport and Peacemaker one-upping each other in The Suicide SquadWhile I’m at it, the Mortal Kombat reboot has an opening scene that fooled me into thinking this movie might actually be a great adaptation.
Great call on Suicide Squad. That movie was exactly what an R-rated superhero movie should be.
Quite a few choices between that scene and anything with King Shark
I think the biggest question for me is whether Nobody or Malignant had the best chair throw of 2021.It’s honestly a very tough choice.The Malignant scene below starts at 3:00. The Nobody scene above you just have to witness the timing of yourself.
Glad you put Maligant on the list as I actually freaked the fuck out as I usually can smell what the twist is in any horror movie but holy shit that came out of nowwhere and was awesome.I would like to add another bus scene, The Suicide Squad part where Ratcatcher 2 tells them about her father and her interaction with Bloodsport made me tear up as it was so well written, shot and fucking acted.
Oh and if you are gonna add fight scenes how the fuck did you not list any of the fight in Godzilla vs. Kong was the 1st bit of normal alot of us had!
SPOILERS I thought the first fight was a bit underwhelming – for me the film didn’t really pick up steam until the Hollow Earth stuff – but by the final showdown they’re using a futuristic hovership as a defibrillator on Kong so he can tag team against Mechagodzilla and that was great.
I really enjoyed the 1st fight as it showed Kong would be no match in the water and then yes the last fight with them having to fight a mechanical monster was easily the best of the movie.
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How can you post this when Matrix hasn’t even come out?
I personally haven’t seen Matrix 4 yet, but other people have — it screened for some critics last week and others, I believe, are seeing it RIGHT as I type this! It’s possible that it wasn’t widely seen enough to gather any kind of consensus, but most 2021 movies have, at this point, been seen by at least some critics.
Makes sense. I will also own up to the fact that I totally misread the headline as “best action scenes” because of Nobody as the main image, with Shang-Chi and Bond being in the subheadline — a lot less baffling when it’s just movie scenes.
That Pig scene holds up as the best of the lot. Nothing flashy, straightforward dialog and editing, but with two very focused performances.
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That Shang-Chi bus scene basically saved Marvel in cinemas.
If not for that film, starting with that amazing stunt work, they would be busy offering RDJ a Disney Park just to return to the Marvel films asap.
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“[E]xploding head syndrome”.I believe David Cronenberg made a documentary about this condition:
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I only saw Shang Chi and Nobody on this list. I also saw Black Widow, Space Sweepers, Evangelion Thrice Upon A Time, but I can’t really say there were scenes in any of those that made me want to revisit them, while I definitely watched both bus scenes several times. Haven’t been to the actual theater since 2019.
Some of my favourite individual scenes in movies ever came out this year, and you captured most of them!The two bus fights are terrific, Nobody in particular. But the action scene of the year has the be in No Time To Die, even if it isn’t the action specifically that set it apart, rather the joy that radiates from Ana de Armas’ Paloma.Annette simply has one of the great musical openings. Ron Mael is an underrated genius at the best of times and he helps knock it out the park here. I also really appreciate how you can pick out the actors’ voices distinctly in the mix, too. The film itself is great, although by necessity none of it is as fun as “May We Start”.A lot of the songs are well staged in West Side Story. I’ve always liked “Gee Officer Krupke” more than most, so I’d give that the nod.In The Heights I simply didn’t know before the film, but 96,000 was certainly the stand-out for me.I know it’s not an original observation, but the well that Pig kept going to every time you might expect an action scene kept yielding beautiful results.Titane is just an experience. I could hear the woman near me cringing and several different points and I swear I could feel the guy sat behind me just sort of tightening up every so often.The Power of The Dog scene is a wonderful example of what’s known here as shit-housing.Paul Thomas Anderson is perhaps my favourite working director but unfortunately we don’t get his new one until Boxing Day, so I’ve had skipped that entry for now. Similarly presumably the entirety of Scott Adkins’ One Shot would make the cut for me if I had been able to track it down already.I’d also add a scene from Spider-Man: No Way Home but obviously I’m not going to say what here.
I don’t remember seeing many guns in The Power of the Dog
If you’re choosing a scene from The Power of the Dog, I can’t see how the final scene with Peter and Phil wouldn’t be the one. It’s stunningly well acted and reveals so much about both characters.
I see Odenkirk finally caught the guy that’s been stealing his newspapers.
No mention of the Green Knight- I would nominate the 360 pan of Gawain’s capture, the dive into the pool full of stars, the witches’ ritual to summon the Knight, probably more. Most beautiful movie hands-down aside from possibly the French Dispatch.
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