Best First Time Watches in 2021-Part 5

We made it, the final two films, my top two first time watches in 2021. If you've missed any of the previous posts, you can find them here (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). And don't forget to check back tomorrow for the beginning of my top ten countdown of films from 2021.

2. Tenet (2020)

Of all Christopher Nolan's films, Tenet ranks right up there with Inception as the one that messes with your brain the most. With all the time bending films he's made, it's hard to see how he can approach the subject in new ways every time he releases a new film, but somehow he manages to keep things new. We had Memento, the story told backward with the man who has short term memory loss. He took a slight detour to Gotham to give us the Dark Knight trilogy, but managed to drop The Prestige, and Inception amongst those three. Interstellar followed to incorporate space and time, before giving us the Oscar nominated Dunkirk.

It had been three years since Nolan's previous directorial outing and looks to be at least as long before we get another film from him, Oppenheimer in 2023 with an all-star cast that already includes Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey, Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Rami Malek. But what lacks in quantity of output from Nolan is made up by the pure quality. Tenet is nothing short of an extraordinary film that keeps you guessing right up to the end. Nothing is what it seems, from the source of sounds and even physical objects, to the flow of time itself. John David Washington and Robert Pattinson are wonderful in the lead roles while Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh are standouts in the supporting roles.

I know I've said it of many films on this list, but if you haven't checked out Tenet yet, get to it as soon as possible. You won't regret it.

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1. Sound of Metal (2020)

There is no question this is my top first time watch from this year. There are many things working in this film's favor with me. It's about a drummer and I'm a drummer. It stars Riz Ahmed whom I have enjoyed since I first saw him in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But perhaps most importantly, it explores the idea of how a person handles the loss of their hearing, a question I have pondered personally for a long time.

As someone who grew up listening to, playing, and performing music from piano recitals and percussion ensembles to marching band and drum corps, sound is a part of my life and I honestly don't know how I would operate in a world that was silent. That said, during the few times in my life where I do get a few moments of near silence, I try to savor them and let my mind be free of external sound.

Sound of Metal tells the story of Ruben (Ahmed), a heavy metal drummer who performs with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) as they travel the country. One night he struggles to hear his own drum set and the rest of the music during their set and thus sets off on a journey to regain his hearing. He meets up with Joe (Paul Raci), a man who also lost his hearing and runs a shelter for deaf recovering addicts, and Diane (Laura Ridloff), a teacher for young deaf students. My favorite part of these roles is that Ridloff herself is deaf (and also featured as Makkari in Eternals this fall) and Raci is the son of two deaf parents and grew up fluent in American Sign Language. The care that went into telling this story with a spotlight on the deaf community was wonderful to see.

If you have to pick just one film from this list to see this week, make it Sound of Metal. The story, the sound, the characters, all these elements combine to tell an incredible story that will likely stick with you for some time to come.

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