[imagesource: Cate Cameron/AP]

They’re here.

I’m talking about Christmas carols, which I heard for the first time in a mall this past weekend.

Another familiar end of the year feature is the ‘best of’ lists that come at you thick and fast, but why bother waiting until December for those, either?

Thrillist, a website devoted to covering food, drink, travel, and entertainment, has already put together a ‘Best Movies of 2021’ list.

What’s more, it’s ranked, which means you can moan about how wrong the choices are.

Starting in fifth, we have Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar:

Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar took us by surprise like a benevolent water spirit, a reference you’ll get if you watch this truly zany comedy from the minds of Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who also star as the titular Barb and Star, best friends who decide to leave their little Nebraska town for a vacation in the fictional Floridian paradise of Vista Del Mar.

Wiig’s career has definitely been hit and miss since Bridesmaids (more miss, really), so it’s good to see her getting some critical acclaim:

Fouth goes to Saint Maud, starring Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Knight, and Lily Frazer:

Haunted by a horrific incident in her past, Maud, a young woman who works as a palliative care nurse for the elderly and infirm, has converted to Roman Catholicism and believes that she hears the voice of God coursing through her whenever she’s done something she feels He’s pleased with.

Let’s not give too much away with the write-up. The trailer can handle it from here:

Number three on Thrillist’s list comes from left field, and is perhaps one of the year’s stranger films.

We’re talking Annette, a rock musical with the wonderfully weird Adam Driver:

[The film is] about an opera star (Marion Cotillard) who falls in love with and marries a stand-up comedian (Adam Driver). Driver’s character is named Henry McHenry, and that’s just the start of where things get weird.

When the film screened at Cannes, audiences gave it such a long-lasting standing ovation that Driver decided to light up a smoke.

Every time I look at Driver, I just think of that ‘more’ meme.

Zola, an entire film based on a famous Twitter thread, comes in second:

From the opening voiceover, which introduces the movie’s central relationship and draws directly from the thread itself, Zola (Taylour Paige) has you hooked. She meets Stefani (Riley Keough) at the cheesy restaurant she works at and the two share a connection, immediately texting back and forth about a trip Stefani wants to make to Florida with the purpose of making cash stripping.

Fans of Succession will be chuffed to know that Nicholas Braun stars as Stefani’s boyfriend.

I genuinely fear a time when we see movies based on what’s trending on TikTok. That time is coming.

For now, though, let’s embrace number one on the list, starring Nicolas Cage alongside Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin, and Nina Belforte.

Enter Pig:

In a small cabin, somewhere in the austere wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, lives a shaggy-haired monosyllabic man (Nicolas Cage) and his smush-faced, red-furred truffle hunter pig (Brandy, understudy Cora). He talks to his pig, he cooks meals for his pig, and he forages with his pig for truffles…

One evening, the man’s pig is stolen by a violent gang, and he vows to do everything he can to bring her back.

You never, ever steal a man’s pig.

Get them, Nicolas.

I find these sorts of lists handy, in that, I will flick through them watching trailers and checking the IMDb ratings for each.

Maybe you’re left with three or four that you haven’t seen and you’re good to go.

See the full list of all 29 movies here.

[source:thrillist]