My Top Ten 2021 Movies

Here are my Top 10 Movies of 2021. Note that I'm including a few streaming "series" as movies with the caveat that they were one-offs, standing alone and were, essentially, long-form movies broken up into episodes. So, without further ado, here's what I really appreciated in 2021:

*WEST SIDE STORY. One of my all-time favorite movies is the original 1961 version. I first saw it as a little boy, alone in the State Theater (a glorious former vaudeville palace) in East Liverpool, Ohio. It left me in tears that extended to my time standing outside among snowflakes falling, waiting for my mom to pick me up. The new version was just as moving, but added layers of depth and characterization the original simply didn't have. No one was more shocked than I that I actually preferred it to the original film.

* THE POWER OF THE DOG. Lyrical, deliberate, and darkly poetic, Jane Campion's take on westerns is one that will haunt me for a long time to come. Magic.

* SWAN SONG. Filmed near where I grew up in Ohio, this comic and ultimately poignant story of an elderly drag queen making good on a promise to do the makeup for his nemesis for her funeral demonstrates how we can hate someone and also love them fiercely, showing how life is filled with disturbing and delightful contradictions. 

* BELFAST. A black and white homage to the troubled Ireland of the early 1960s, Kenneth Branagh's nod to his own boyhood becomes a lens in which we view the historical through the personal. It crossed time and frame of reference barriers to resonate with me personally, as all good art does.

* DON'T LOOK UP. Wow. Biting satire and social commentary so on the mark that the laughter was undercut by nausea because it was so reflective of our current times. Great performances all around.

* TICK, TICK, BOOM. I am one of those folks who absolutely adores Jonathan Larson's RENT. I've seen it multiple times on stage (skip the movie version, please). TICK, TICK, BOOK shows the genesis of the show and its creator's passion and, lurking in the shadows, his all-too-soon demise, under the masterful direction of Lin-Manuel Miranda.

* TIME. This prison drama, hyper realistic, is on Britbox and appears in three episodes. Everything from the writing to the directing, to the acting, is a masterclass in realism. The film is about hope beneath the darkest of circumstances and will stay with you long after the final credits roll.

* THE GUILTY. A showcase and nearly a one-man show for star Jake Gyllenhall, this super intense story of a few hours in an LA 911 response center, is not for the faint of heart. Powerful, moving, dark, and ultimately redemptive, this is one that's getting far too little buzz in my opinion (streams on Netflix).

* WHITE LOTUS. An HBO Max miniseries from the brilliantly-quirky mind of Mike White, this series gripped me from its opening to its closing. Featuring a career-best from the always wonderful Jennifer Coolidge.

* MARE OF EASTTOWN. Both a meditation on small-town life and an intricate murder mystery, this was some of the best television I've ever seen. And Kate Winslet and Jean Smart, as mother and daughter, demonstrate how transformative good acting can be.

Honorable mentions: Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu), Dopesick (Hulu), It's a Sin (HBO Max), Queen's Gambit and Midnight Max (Netflix).

What were your favorites?

2021 Year In Writing

2021 was my year to color outside the lines.

From a raw and poignant portrayal of a pivotal night in a small-town gay bar, to a tale of a tortured--and addicted--ghost in Chicago, to a story of ultimate sacrifice for love, to my depiction of a serial killer's reign of terror in Chicago, the year proved to me that good stories need not be hindered by genre restrictions. 

On deck for 2022: a romantic thriller called TOXIC and a magical realism novel that explores domestic abuse in a unique way, SEASPRAY.  

Hope you had a happy reading and/or writing year!

THE Q

Step out for a Saturday night at The Q—the small town gay bar in Appalachia where the locals congregate. Whose secret love is revealed? What long-term relationship comes to a crossroad? What revelations come to light? The DJ mixes a soundtrack to inspire dancing, drinking, singing, and falling in (or out) of love.

This pivotal Saturday night at The Q is one its regulars will never forget. Lives irrevocably change. Laugh, shed a tear, and root for folks you’ll come to love and remember long after the last page.

Buy from Amazon.

WOUNDED AIR

Rick and Ernie found the perfect apartment on Chicago’s West Side. Before they’re settled, Rick begins having all-too-real disturbing “dreams.” Each time, an emaciated young man with sad brown eyes appears, terrifying and obsessing him.

From their next-door neighbor, Paula, Rick learns about Karl and Tommy, who lived there before them. Tommy’s mysterious disappearance pains her. When she shares a photo of her with Tommy and Karl, Rick is shocked and troubled. Tommy is the man who appears to him in his dreams.

The ghostly visitations compel Rick to uncover the truth about Tommy’s disappearance. It’s a quest that will lead him to Karl, Tommy’s lover, who may know more about Tommy’s disappearance than he’s telling, and a confrontation with a restless spirit who wants only to—finally—rest in peace.

Buy from Amazon.

IMMORTAL THINGS

By day, Elise draws and paints, spilling out the horrific visions of her tortured mind. By night, she walks the streets, selling her body to the highest bidder.

And then they come into her life: a trio of impossibly beautiful vampires: Terence, Maria, and Edward. When they encounter Elise, they set an explosive triangle in motion

Terence wants to drain her blood. Maria wants Elise . . . as lover and partner through eternity. And Edward, the most recently converted, wants to prevent her from making the same mistake he made as a young abstract expressionist artist in 1950s Greenwich Village: sacrificing his artistic vision for immortal life. He is the only one of them still human enough to realize what an unholy trade this is.

Immortal Things will grip you in a vise of suspense that won’t let go until the very last moment…when a shocking turn of events changes everything and demonstrates—truly—what love and sacrifice are all about.

Buy from Amazon.

OBSESSED

I kill, therefore I am ...

Voices slam through the corridor of his wounded mind. The words of his dead sister cry out. His parents' taunts fill the silent room where he sits and waits -- waits for the murderous rage, filling him with strength, driving him to kill, to touch the cold flesh, taste the warm blood -- to feel alive again ...

A witness has seen him, but his killing only turns her on and now she wants to protect him. His wife suspects him, but the private detective she hired cannot stop him. Joe MacAree fears nothing -- except that he may no longer be human. The thirst that drives him is relentless, moving deeper and deeper into his own shattering, private realm, where each murder is a delicious new gift of life, where revulsion is beauty, and the obsession will never let him go.

"A harrowing ride through cutting-edge psychological horror, this one's got a vicious bite. Rick R. Reed's Obsessed is a twisted nightmare." -- Douglas Clegg, bestselling author

Buy from Amazon.