Birds of Paradise

The best movie of 2021 wasn’t a boisterous blockbuster that sold out the theaters in seconds. It wasn’t a long awaited sequel or fueled by a star studded cast. The best movie of 2021 wasn’t even a theater release at all; it was Amazon Prime Video’s Birds of Paradise, starring Booksmart’s Diana Silvers and The Society’s Kristine Froseth.

Birds of Paradise follows Kate Sanders, Silvers, as she arrives in a Paris ballet school from Virginia and competes with fellow students for “the prize”: a contract with a ballet company awarded to the best male and female dancers in the class. The basic plot in and of itself makes for a great movie, the moving dance performances and the viserale soundtrack lend themselves to captivating aesthetic. Add to this solid foundation Marine, played by Froseth, as Kate’s competition and roommate. After suffering the loss of her twin brother, the daughter of the Ambassador to France is not going to let scholarship-Kate steal her spot on top. The film follows the two ballerinas as they ally with and betray both their fellow students and each other, all while finding their way in a drug-induced Paris. When you expect the movie to go one way, it always does the opposite. Forget what you thought you knew about rivalry movies. Complete with compelling and powerful dance numbers (performed by Silvers and Froseth themselves after numerous dance lessons) the movie is sure to inspire even those with the most awkward of shuffles to add ballet shoes to their amazon cart. 

This Black Swan meets Center Stage film balances the intense with the profound; this is definitely a movie you’ll sit with long after the credits fade. Through powerful and complex performances from the extremely talented stars, this film definitely deserves a shot at best movie of 2021, and a spot on your watchlist.