The Road to Mandalay (2016 film, released to North American audiences in 2021 so I’m counting it as a 2021 film)

This tale of two undocumented folk who connect while trying to make it in an unfamiliar place chooses understatement throughout, conveying a dreadful malaise that is occasionally broken up by something that makes one long for a return to boring scenes. Some of this works in its favor—one does come to understand how weary someone placed in this situation would be—but it’s too much for a feature of its length as it browbeats its audience into submission, capped off with an ending that didn’t work for me at all. All involved have a much better film in them.

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