BEST MOVIES OF 2021 (Lists)

[oscar jubis]

Another film (that I think was a 2021 release) that I watched recently and would make my Top 10 is NOCHE DE FUEGO aka PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN. This is the first fiction feature of Tatiana Huezo, a documentarian primarily concerned with the experience of violence in Central America and Mexico from a female perspective. It was part of the NYFF last year. But it was seen by a relatively low number of critics compared with other films with recognizable or famous actors and bigger advertising and marketing budgets. All 14 reviews on metacritic are "positive". I think that part of what facilitates a good performance in these lists, generally speaking, is the exposure that the film has had. There are movies that make it into few top 10s because few people have seen them. You can have a sense of a film's exposure by the number of critics' review it receives. In Metacritic, for example. "Prayers for the Stolen" has 14 reviews; a film directed by an Almodovar or a Campion, with stars, gets over 40 reviews and a better chance to get into the lists than films of equal quality that few people get to watch (for many reasons).