Staff Picks: Inauguration Edition 2021
It’s almost the end of the first month of 2021, and just over a week since the U.S. saw a new president take office. In light of the occasion, some of us highlighted our favorite political films below!

Examines the sea horse, the only fish that swims upright. We watch it use its prehensile tail to wrap around plants and other sea horses. A frontal bulge houses organs including an air ballast. Three fins propel this fish. We see a female place her eggs in a male's pouch where they are fertilized and nurtured until birth in violent contractions. Inside the pouch are nurturing blood vessels. We then follow the growth of an embryo, greatly magnified: we examine its heart beating and its dorsal fin moving. Young sea horses attach themselves to each other. The film ends with images of many sea horses moving on the ocean floor, superimposed on a horse race.
It’s almost the end of the first month of 2021, and just over a week since the U.S. saw a new president take office. In light of the occasion, some of us highlighted our favorite political films below!
Summit Station, the longest running lesbian bar in Ohio, was one of the places that made lesbian community possible.
"Driveways" is a nuanced portrait of an Asian American family, touching on themes of loss, growth, and belonging.
Bigg County Restorations is a zany new pilot from comedians Joe Bell and Mikaela Watkins. In a spot-on parody of History Channel shows like American Restoration and Pawn Stars, Paul Bigg (John Jezior) works to restore kitschy decor for celebrities while his good-for-nothing adult children, Britney (Mikaela Watkins) and Junior (Joe Bell) go on wacky adventures while slacking off on the menial tasks they’ve been assigned. In the pilot, Britney and Mikaela’s day goes off the rails pretty fast.
Few movies deal with aging (particularly aging women) with as much compassion as Relic does. Yet it’s not sickly sweet and not a soapbox rant against ageism. Relic simply is, allowing the horror to seep in quietly and carefully.
Netflix’s new mystery thriller, The Marked Woman (released originally as La Desconocida), is confusing. More critically, though, it commits the worst mistake a movie can make: it’s boring. From Spanish director Gabe Ibáñez, the film squanders its premise at every turn, fills the story with unlikeable characters, and lacks emotional payoff.