Top 5: Endings Of 2021
Every film has to have an ending, some are just better than others. These are our five favorite endings out of the films we managed to see. Naturally, there’ll be spoilers, so proceed at your own risk. Be sure to let us know what your favorite endings were by leaving us a comment!
Anyone who follows the career of Paul Schrader knows he has a hardon for Robert Bresson. Specifically, Pickpocket. Schrader lifted the ending tableau from Bresson’s flick as the ending for 1980’s American Gigolo. It’s something he keeps returning to throughout his career, and The Card Counter is his most striking and affecting iteration yet. It’s just two fingers, extended and reaching out for for one another, separated by a pane of glass, but it carries a lot of weight and significance. It’s an arrestingly deft way to symbolize human connection, and it’s an ending that tells us that maybe Oscar Isaac’s William Tell will finally stop punishing himself.
4: Red Rocket
Just as Sean Baker did in The Florida Project, he takes a sudden dive into fantasy to close out his gritty, yet charming dark comedy Red Rocket. It’s the filmmaker’s most jarring ending to date, and it might leave you feeling dirty and disturbed. After Simon Rex’s Mikey is run out of town with meager possessions, he walks all night to get to Strawberry’s house. Since Mikey is at his lowest, you fully expect him to be rejected by Strawberry, but Baker doesn’t kick this dog when he’s down. No, in is final moments, Red Rocket puts us squarely into Mikey’s head as Baker wags a fresh bone at a dirty old dog who isn’t deserving of any scraps. It this real life, or only fantasy?! You be the judge.
There’s a lot to savor in Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, from its rich narrative to its performances, but the beauty of this psychologically menacing gem — and also the devil, as they say — lies in the details. The way the minute, trivial-seeming details are built up to be monumentally vital is seriously impressive. Campion’s careful weaving of details pays off big, delivering the catharsis of a revenge thriller undercut with an underlying sadness for Phil’s demise since we’ve grown to understand why he is the way he is. Its ending packs a satisfying wallop that makes you feel as though you’ve just finished a good book.
More often than not, Rom-Coms are too sappy or saccharine that offer cookie-cutter thrills and bubblegum happily-ever-afters. It’s rare to find one that firmly anchors itself to reality and is still able to fill your heart up with whimsy and romance, but Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World manages to do both marvelously. Like other, more realistically-minded Rom-Com favorites La La Land and Roman Holiday, The Worst Person In The World aims for a bittersweet ending in a romantic sense, but it also delivers an inspirational self-love angle that feels so authentic it makes the Rom-Com feel brand new. It will capture your heart and fill your sails!
You can’t outrun what you have coming to you in Guillermo del Toro’s sinful and seductive dark noir, Nightmare Alley. Del Toro frames his fatalistic tale around a mysterious drifter, Stan Carlisle, who charms and schemes his way out from under the big top and into the big time. His rise is built of Icarus wings though, and it’s only a matter of time before Stan burns up and crashes down, but it’s in how del Toro works his themes that makes Nightmare Alley’s ending into a perfect landing. We know from having seen Stan’s carnival onboarding that there are fates worse than death: you could be the carnival geek. As the story moves toward its logical conclusion, everything comes full circle, leaving you with a final moment that encompasses an array of feeling: it’s darkly funny, deeply sad, a bit unnerving, and totally fitting. It’s an absolutely perfect close to an exquisitely crafted film, which is why it’s our favorite.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!