The CBC's Eli Glasner picks the 21 best films of 2021

2021 was the year movies came back. After theatres reopened, long-delayed franchises shook off the dust and shared their stories. There was a desert epic, a final Bond film starring Daniel Craig and a host of fairy tales, real and imagined, to enjoy. Here are 21 excellent films to check out. 

The Guardian called Summer of Soul the best concert film ever, and it is certainly a contender. Captured in pristine quality, Questlove's documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival — which, like Woodstock, took place in 1969 — uncovers a powerful moment of healing for Black Americans, featuring funktastic performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and more. 

In the woods, an eight-year-old girl makes a new friend — her mother at a younger age. Existing somewhere between a ghost story and time travel, Petite Maman is a quiet rumination on youth and who we become from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. 

Olivia Colman is an actor with an endless range and yet her unsettling performance in The Lost Daughter may surprise longtime fans. Maggie Gyllenhaal's directoral debut starts slowly, with Colman as an author on vacation, but what develops is an unflinching look at motherhood.    

James Bond, family man? Daniel Craig's final outing as 007 offered up the usual buffet of boffo action and exquisite scenery, but this capstone of Craig's run was surprisingly sentimental, with a finale certain to leave fans shaken and stirred. 

From drug cartels in Mexico to migrant workers in Quebec, director Ivan Grbovic explores the all-too-human cost of globalization in this lush look at the people caught in the middle. 

The best animated movie of the year is a documentary about escaping Afghanistan. Putting a personal lens on the refugee experience, Flee finds Amin Nawabi recounting his harrowing journey from his homeland to Denmark. It's about what you leave behind and the burdens you carry. 

A bit of a cheat because this opens in Canada in January, but ever since I watched Jockey at TIFF, the film starring Clifton Collins Jr. has been rattling around in my head. This quiet character study about a rider afraid of being put out to pasture is the kind of independent film that's becoming a rarity. 

Night Raiders does for the Indigenous sci-fi genre what Black Panther did for Afrofuturism, with a thrilling story that reframes Canada's legacy of residential schools to powerful effect.  

All hail director Mike Mills who continues to delight with quiet cinematic miracles. Featuring the talents of Joaquin Phoenix as a radio journalist forced to become an instant parent, C'Mon C'Mon is a film about joy, sadness and learning to listen.

A thought experiment about motherhood using the world's most famous woman as a starting point, Spencer is daring, beautiful and brave as Kristen Stewart flings herself into a heartbreaking version of the People's Princess. 

Danielle is having a very bad day, trapped at a mourning gathering with her parents, extended family and her sugar daddy. A hilarious setup from exciting new writer/director Emma Seligman.

A documentary about trans cultural icon and jazz musician Billy Tipton, No Ordinary Man is remarkable not only for the life story it chronicles but its storytelling method — utilizing a range of musicians to reflect the spectrum of the trans experience. 

First, it stuns you with beauty, the camera craning over a rapidly changing city. Then it surprises you with its relevance. Energized and inspired, director Steven Spielberg serves up a new vision of West Side Story with authenticity and attitude.