2021 has mercifully ended, which means it’s that time of the year again when the Flixist staff gathers around for our 2021 Golden Cages! Every year we honor the best, and worst, that cinema has to offer, and with cinemas opening up again, we had many films to consider for each category! So read on dear reader, to see what the correct answers are to which movies were truly stand-out films last year!
Calling something the worst is hyperbolic. What does it even mean? If you locked all of the writers in Flixist in a room and asked us all what we thought the worst movie of 2021 was, we would all have a different answer. To truly decide what is the worst movie of the year, it comes down to consensus. Maybe it’s not the worst movie for everyone, but we can all come together and agree that it is a bad movie. Consensus is key and out of all of the movies we saw in 2021, virtually none of us had anything positive to say about House of Gucci.
Consider for a moment that I was slightly positive towards the movie and that I’m not putting up a fight with House of Gucci receiving this award. When examined under a microscope, all of the components of the film are varying flavors of bad. Sure, you had Lady Gaga’s performance, which was probably the best part of the film, but she had to star opposite Jared Leto in a performance that no one even wants to try and justify. You have a detailed look at the fall of the Gucci dynasty, but it’s wrapped in an over two-hour slog that thinks it’s Scorsese when it’s not even a pale imitator.
The visual language of the film is bland and boring, not generating any excitement. It dispassionately tells its story but does so with enough gravitas to make you think it’s more complex, and better, than it actually is. This is your stereotypical Oscar bait that tried to fool audiences into thinking that it was going to be some monumental film when in reality it was as cheap and poorly constructed as a knock-off Gucci bag. And again, this is coming from someone who was lukewarm towards the film! Imagine what someone who truly loathed the film had to say.
Seriously, what was up with Jared Leto here? Is the man alright in the head? I mean, he clearly isn’t, but who in their right mind would think saying that he snorted lines of arrabbiata sauce would convince people to see his garbage performance? Who, I ask you? Who?
Compared to prior winners, House of Gucci isn’t some disasterpiece that will be talked about for years to come. It isn’t even shovelware fodder released to fill out a release schedule. This was a project that took too many wrong turns and was released in a state that underwhelms on nearly all accords. There is a gem of a good idea somewhere in House of Gucci, but when push comes to shove, the consensus was clear here at Flixist: House of Gucci wins the 2021 Golden Cage for Worst Movie.
