For this list of the best films of 2021, we’re rounding up the finest feature films released this calendar year, including theatrical films and titles that went directly to streaming and home media across all genres. To be clear: these are all outstanding films we recommend highly. In ascending order, here is our ranking of the best movies of 2021. We’ve even included some honorable mentions.
Best movies of 2021
25. The Humans
Autumn in New York is the backdrop of Stephen Karam‘s ensemble drama (which he adapted from his own, Tony-winning play) about a Thanksgiving gathering of three generations affected by the kind of stuff that affects a lot of families (money, addiction, religion, resentment); they’re also personally haunted by memories of 9/11. This is a surprisingly cinematic adaptation with immersive direction and ingenious sound design. Richard Jenkins is award-worthy in a layered role. Steven Yeun, Beanie Feldstein and Amy Schumer co-star.
24. Passing
Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut is a quiet knockout. Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga star in a drama based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel about two childhood friends who share a mutual obsession after a reunion in adulthood. Like its source material, Passing is an uncommonly adroit examination of race, gender and sexuality. The lead performers are superb.
23. King Richard
Will Smith is truly operating in full command of his powers in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic of Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena. The Hollywood icon is currently favored to win his first Oscar for the touching film. King Richard was a box-office bomb, but is bound to be rediscovered by audiences of all ages at home.
22. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Long-delayed Black Widow underwhelmed with an uneasy blend of strong performances and character work—and loud, bland, weightlessly bombastic action sequences. Shang-Chi brought the MCU back full-blast as director Destin Daniel Cretton seamlessly leaps from small-scale dramatic work (Short Term 12 and Just Mercy) to heartfelt martial-arts epic. The second half gives way to some CGI schlock (oh-so-common in this genre), but it’s a rousing crowd-pleaser overall.
21. CODA
Apple paid an all-time Sundance Film Festival record for Sian Heder’s vibrant heart-warmer starring Emilia Jones as a CODA (child of deaf adults), in a remake of French film La Famille Bélier. CODA is a brilliantly humane, uplifting film full of fine performances—and it’s a leap forward for the representation of people with disabilities on film.
20. In the Heights
Lin Manuel-Miranda‘s long-awaited big-screen spin on his pre-Hamilton Broadway smash (from Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu) delivers the summer’s most rocking big-screen block party. Semi-autobiographical tale of big dreams romance in Washington Heights puts all-singing all-dancing phenom Anthony Ramos front-and-center. He’s one of the year’s great breakthroughs, invaluable to the movie’s success.
19. House of Gucci
Some critics say the camp factor is a detriment. Hardly. Ridley Scott’s obscenely entertaining true crime film is the kind of movie that doesn’t get made very much anymore; a big-budget, unapologetically showy standalone drama for grownups. Lady Gaga rips through the whole enterprise like it’s tissue paper. This is obviously merely the nascence of one hell of a film career. She’s a force of nature.
18. Framing Britney Spears
This was the year #FreeBritney finally happened, to the delight of millions of fans—and pretty much everyone. Samantha Stark and The New York Times’ sobering doc was in the middle of all of it… and is by all accounts an illuminating, even essential look at a disturbing human rights violation.
17. Being the Ricardos
Let it be known throughout the land: Never underestimate Nicole Kidman. Aaron Sorkin’s hectic biopic is occasionally clunky and heavy-handed (it’s often brilliant, too), but Kidman fully embodies Lucille Ball alongside a uniformly excellent cast including Javier Bardem, Nina Arianda, J.K. Simmons and Alia Shawkat.
16. Belfast
Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film about a working-class Irish family was an early frontrunner for Oscar glory. It’s a period crowd-pleaser and a warm, finely acted and overall wonderful film. Finally free of laughable Fifty Shades scripts, Jamie Dornan had a great year, flexing considerable acting chops here—and scene-stealing in the wonderfully wacky Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.
15. Nightmare Alley
Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to craft the most bloody brilliant pure film noir in ages. It’s kind of a travesty that Bradley Cooper hasn’t won an Academy Award yet, but i’s fairly likely he’ll get another Best Actor nod for his work here as a master manipulator matched by a sultry psychologist (Cate Blanchett). Nightmare Alley is lurid and pulpy—with no intention of transcending its genre. That’s probably a strength.
14. Tick, Tick… Boom!
All we can say is wow. This is one of 2021’s most staggering movie surprises, from any genre. Andrew Garfield has, very recently, shot up in the ranks of Best Actor Oscar predictions for a career-best turn in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film based on Rent creator Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical. This is maybe the most invigorating snapshot of the all-consuming struggle of a creative since Brad Bird’s layered masterpiece Ratatouille, or the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis.
13. Flee
The year’s greatest animated film is also one of the year’s best docs. Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s gripping drama follows Amin, a queer Afghan refugee finally unearthing his haunted past. Flee is the kind of movie that breaks your heart, then builds it back a little. A must for consideration in multiple Oscar categories, including an immersive sound design.
12. The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as writer/director is a top-shelf psychological drama based on Elena Ferrante’s novel. Olivia Colman is—as always—dynamite, playing a woman who becomes obsessed with another woman and her daughter while on holiday. Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard round out a stellar cast.
11. Benedetta
Incomparable exploitation savant Paul Verhoeven—who’s clearly the master of whatever we call the place where highbow meets lowbrow—fires on all cylinders with this queer period romance that’s also a genre-bending horror movie, a prestige drama and a farce. It’s never boring and surprisingly powerful.
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, already two of the most celebrated actors of our time, deliver career-highlight performances in Joel Coen’s ethereal take on the Bard. Composer Carter Burwell deserves his first Oscar nod for an entrancing score in this remarkable vision of Shakespeare gone film noir.
9. Licorice Pizza
Some debatably queasy elements aside, Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic bildungsroman is euphoric, an instant classic. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman give star-making turns—and Bradley Cooper nearly walks away with the whole enterprise. Licorice Pizza is nostalgic but thoroughly fresh, a movie to get lost in.
8. Summer of Soul
Questlove‘s jaw-dropping music film is an early frontrunner for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. The musician-turned-director presents a rocking account of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King and more. This is an instant classic concert film worthy of mentioning in the same breath as Gimme Shelter, Amazing Graceand The Last Waltz.
7. West Side Story
Steven Spielberg’s hotly anticipated remake generated considerable awards-season hype in the wake of its premiere. It turns out, this is the movie surprise of the year. It isn’t flawless— but the same could probably be said of the original. It’s mostly just exhilarating, with star-making, buzzy performances from Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose. It’s also Spielberg’s best movie since Minority Report two full decades ago. There isn’t a weak performance in the shimmering cast, but perhaps the most powerful standout is Mike Faist as Riff. Phenomenal.
6. Spencer
Pablo Larraín’s masterful Spencer is one of the most assured, idiosyncratic and wholly satisfying biopics in memory. Kristen Stewart mesmerizes as Diana, Princess of Wales in a snapshot tone poem set at the British royal family‘s Sandringham estate over Christmas 1991, as tabloid rumors of infidelity and unrest swirled around them—a year before Diana and Prince Charles announced their separation to the world.
5. Drive My Car
A dark horse Best Picture contender and a lock for a Best Foreign Film nod, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s intimate epic drama is about a friendship between a widowed actor and his young chaffeur. Worth the three-hour time investment and emotionally rich, it’s hard to see how this lost the Palme d’Or to pretentious, technically impressive Titane.
4. Pig
Certain cyber circles were quick to label Michael Sarnoski’s Pig as “John Wick with a pig.” As tantalizing as that is, it’s not true. Pig is part mystery, but it’s mostly a drama, frankly evoking Pixar’s struggling chef drama Ratatouille as much as the Keanu Reeves actioner. It’s also a triumph of low-budget sensory filmmaking and an emotional powder keg. Nicolas Cage’s funny, devastating, understated (there is exactly one moment of “Cage rage” in Pig, and it’s perfect) tour de force feels like it will become iconic.
3. Mass
Few films in memory hit you right in the gut quite like this one. Cabin in the Woods star Franz Kranz’s low-fi, magnificent directorial debut stars awards-worthy (especially for SAG’s ensemble prize) Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney as grieving parents in a nightmare-scenario mediation. Sometimes people say a new film is “the movie we need right now.” An unforgettable, searing film about grace and forgiveness in the most hopeless of circumstances, Mass is the kind of movie we need always.
2. Dune (aka Dune: Part One)
Denis Villeneuve’s grand stunner is an instant science fiction benchmark. It’s visionary and futuristic, and it’s the kind of classic Hollywood epic that doesn’t get made very much anymore: with enormous sets, over 2,000 costumes, deft juggling of many characters—their motivations, secrets and ideals. Co-written with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, the script skillfully carves a modern blockbuster from dense material—and it’s hard to overstate the accomplishment of the world-building here, in all technical departments and throughout the diverse ensemble cast.
1. The Power of the Dog
If movies like Nomadland and The Rider reinvigorated the American Western, Jane Campion’s thunderous drama guts it to astonishing effect. Benedict Cumberbatch gives a career-high performance (and deserves a lock for Oscar attention) as a violently cruel rancher faced with the unexpected. Multiple Oscar nods are also likely for the supporting cast, including Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirsten Dunst, while Campion fully deserves to become the third woman to win the Oscar for Best Director for one of the most provocative, artistically complex dissections of toxic masculinity since Vertigo. This is a film for the ages.
Honorable mentions: No Time to Die, The Worst Person in the World, Parallel Mothers, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Red Rocket, Bergman Island, The Card Counter, The Matrix Resurrections
Next, The 101 Best Science Fiction Movies of All Time, Ranked
title: “Best Movies Of 2021 2021 S Top Ranked Movies” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-25” author: “Tony Whisnant”
For this list of the best films of 2021, we’re rounding up the finest feature films released this calendar year, including theatrical films and titles that went directly to streaming and home media across all genres. To be clear: these are all outstanding films we recommend highly. In ascending order, here is our ranking of the best movies of 2021. We’ve even included some honorable mentions.
Best movies of 2021
25. The Humans
Autumn in New York is the backdrop of Stephen Karam‘s ensemble drama (which he adapted from his own, Tony-winning play) about a Thanksgiving gathering of three generations affected by the kind of stuff that affects a lot of families (money, addiction, religion, resentment); they’re also personally haunted by memories of 9/11. This is a surprisingly cinematic adaptation with immersive direction and ingenious sound design. Richard Jenkins is award-worthy in a layered role. Steven Yeun, Beanie Feldstein and Amy Schumer co-star.
24. Passing
Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut is a quiet knockout. Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga star in a drama based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel about two childhood friends who share a mutual obsession after a reunion in adulthood. Like its source material, Passing is an uncommonly adroit examination of race, gender and sexuality. The lead performers are superb.
23. King Richard
Will Smith is truly operating in full command of his powers in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic of Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena. The Hollywood icon is currently favored to win his first Oscar for the touching film. King Richard was a box-office bomb, but is bound to be rediscovered by audiences of all ages at home.
22. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Long-delayed Black Widow underwhelmed with an uneasy blend of strong performances and character work—and loud, bland, weightlessly bombastic action sequences. Shang-Chi brought the MCU back full-blast as director Destin Daniel Cretton seamlessly leaps from small-scale dramatic work (Short Term 12 and Just Mercy) to heartfelt martial-arts epic. The second half gives way to some CGI schlock (oh-so-common in this genre), but it’s a rousing crowd-pleaser overall.
21. CODA
Apple paid an all-time Sundance Film Festival record for Sian Heder’s vibrant heart-warmer starring Emilia Jones as a CODA (child of deaf adults), in a remake of French film La Famille Bélier. CODA is a brilliantly humane, uplifting film full of fine performances—and it’s a leap forward for the representation of people with disabilities on film.
20. In the Heights
Lin Manuel-Miranda‘s long-awaited big-screen spin on his pre-Hamilton Broadway smash (from Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu) delivers the summer’s most rocking big-screen block party. Semi-autobiographical tale of big dreams romance in Washington Heights puts all-singing all-dancing phenom Anthony Ramos front-and-center. He’s one of the year’s great breakthroughs, invaluable to the movie’s success.
19. House of Gucci
Some critics say the camp factor is a detriment. Hardly. Ridley Scott’s obscenely entertaining true crime film is the kind of movie that doesn’t get made very much anymore; a big-budget, unapologetically showy standalone drama for grownups. Lady Gaga rips through the whole enterprise like it’s tissue paper. This is obviously merely the nascence of one hell of a film career. She’s a force of nature.
18. Framing Britney Spears
This was the year #FreeBritney finally happened, to the delight of millions of fans—and pretty much everyone. Samantha Stark and The New York Times’ sobering doc was in the middle of all of it… and is by all accounts an illuminating, even essential look at a disturbing human rights violation.
17. Being the Ricardos
Let it be known throughout the land: Never underestimate Nicole Kidman. Aaron Sorkin’s hectic biopic is occasionally clunky and heavy-handed (it’s often brilliant, too), but Kidman fully embodies Lucille Ball alongside a uniformly excellent cast including Javier Bardem, Nina Arianda, J.K. Simmons and Alia Shawkat.
16. Belfast
Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film about a working-class Irish family was an early frontrunner for Oscar glory. It’s a period crowd-pleaser and a warm, finely acted and overall wonderful film. Finally free of laughable Fifty Shades scripts, Jamie Dornan had a great year, flexing considerable acting chops here—and scene-stealing in the wonderfully wacky Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.
15. Nightmare Alley
Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to craft the most bloody brilliant pure film noir in ages. It’s kind of a travesty that Bradley Cooper hasn’t won an Academy Award yet, but i’s fairly likely he’ll get another Best Actor nod for his work here as a master manipulator matched by a sultry psychologist (Cate Blanchett). Nightmare Alley is lurid and pulpy—with no intention of transcending its genre. That’s probably a strength.
14. Tick, Tick… Boom!
All we can say is wow. This is one of 2021’s most staggering movie surprises, from any genre. Andrew Garfield has, very recently, shot up in the ranks of Best Actor Oscar predictions for a career-best turn in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film based on Rent creator Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical. This is maybe the most invigorating snapshot of the all-consuming struggle of a creative since Brad Bird’s layered masterpiece Ratatouille, or the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis.
13. Flee
The year’s greatest animated film is also one of the year’s best docs. Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s gripping drama follows Amin, a queer Afghan refugee finally unearthing his haunted past. Flee is the kind of movie that breaks your heart, then builds it back a little. A must for consideration in multiple Oscar categories, including an immersive sound design.
12. The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as writer/director is a top-shelf psychological drama based on Elena Ferrante’s novel. Olivia Colman is—as always—dynamite, playing a woman who becomes obsessed with another woman and her daughter while on holiday. Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard round out a stellar cast.
11. Benedetta
Incomparable exploitation savant Paul Verhoeven—who’s clearly the master of whatever we call the place where highbow meets lowbrow—fires on all cylinders with this queer period romance that’s also a genre-bending horror movie, a prestige drama and a farce. It’s never boring and surprisingly powerful.
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, already two of the most celebrated actors of our time, deliver career-highlight performances in Joel Coen’s ethereal take on the Bard. Composer Carter Burwell deserves his first Oscar nod for an entrancing score in this remarkable vision of Shakespeare gone film noir.
9. Licorice Pizza
Some debatably queasy elements aside, Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic bildungsroman is euphoric, an instant classic. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman give star-making turns—and Bradley Cooper nearly walks away with the whole enterprise. Licorice Pizza is nostalgic but thoroughly fresh, a movie to get lost in.
8. Summer of Soul
Questlove‘s jaw-dropping music film is an early frontrunner for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. The musician-turned-director presents a rocking account of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King and more. This is an instant classic concert film worthy of mentioning in the same breath as Gimme Shelter, Amazing Graceand The Last Waltz.
7. West Side Story
Steven Spielberg’s hotly anticipated remake generated considerable awards-season hype in the wake of its premiere. It turns out, this is the movie surprise of the year. It isn’t flawless— but the same could probably be said of the original. It’s mostly just exhilarating, with star-making, buzzy performances from Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose. It’s also Spielberg’s best movie since Minority Report two full decades ago. There isn’t a weak performance in the shimmering cast, but perhaps the most powerful standout is Mike Faist as Riff. Phenomenal.
6. Spencer
Pablo Larraín’s masterful Spencer is one of the most assured, idiosyncratic and wholly satisfying biopics in memory. Kristen Stewart mesmerizes as Diana, Princess of Wales in a snapshot tone poem set at the British royal family‘s Sandringham estate over Christmas 1991, as tabloid rumors of infidelity and unrest swirled around them—a year before Diana and Prince Charles announced their separation to the world.
5. Drive My Car
A dark horse Best Picture contender and a lock for a Best Foreign Film nod, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s intimate epic drama is about a friendship between a widowed actor and his young chaffeur. Worth the three-hour time investment and emotionally rich, it’s hard to see how this lost the Palme d’Or to pretentious, technically impressive Titane.
4. Pig
Certain cyber circles were quick to label Michael Sarnoski’s Pig as “John Wick with a pig.” As tantalizing as that is, it’s not true. Pig is part mystery, but it’s mostly a drama, frankly evoking Pixar’s struggling chef drama Ratatouille as much as the Keanu Reeves actioner. It’s also a triumph of low-budget sensory filmmaking and an emotional powder keg. Nicolas Cage’s funny, devastating, understated (there is exactly one moment of “Cage rage” in Pig, and it’s perfect) tour de force feels like it will become iconic.
3. Mass
Few films in memory hit you right in the gut quite like this one. Cabin in the Woods star Franz Kranz’s low-fi, magnificent directorial debut stars awards-worthy (especially for SAG’s ensemble prize) Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney as grieving parents in a nightmare-scenario mediation. Sometimes people say a new film is “the movie we need right now.” An unforgettable, searing film about grace and forgiveness in the most hopeless of circumstances, Mass is the kind of movie we need always.
2. Dune (aka Dune: Part One)
Denis Villeneuve’s grand stunner is an instant science fiction benchmark. It’s visionary and futuristic, and it’s the kind of classic Hollywood epic that doesn’t get made very much anymore: with enormous sets, over 2,000 costumes, deft juggling of many characters—their motivations, secrets and ideals. Co-written with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, the script skillfully carves a modern blockbuster from dense material—and it’s hard to overstate the accomplishment of the world-building here, in all technical departments and throughout the diverse ensemble cast.
1. The Power of the Dog
If movies like Nomadland and The Rider reinvigorated the American Western, Jane Campion’s thunderous drama guts it to astonishing effect. Benedict Cumberbatch gives a career-high performance (and deserves a lock for Oscar attention) as a violently cruel rancher faced with the unexpected. Multiple Oscar nods are also likely for the supporting cast, including Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirsten Dunst, while Campion fully deserves to become the third woman to win the Oscar for Best Director for one of the most provocative, artistically complex dissections of toxic masculinity since Vertigo. This is a film for the ages.
Honorable mentions: No Time to Die, The Worst Person in the World, Parallel Mothers, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Red Rocket, Bergman Island, The Card Counter, The Matrix Resurrections
Next, The 101 Best Science Fiction Movies of All Time, Ranked
