The 50 Best Movies of 2021

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – January 5, 2022

Here is Metacritic's final list of the 50 best-reviewed movies of 2021, ranked by Metascore. This list only includes films receiving at least 7 reviews from professional critics.

All films released between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021 in at least one U.S. theater or directly to streaming or VOD/digital services were eligible for inclusion. Short films and reissues are excluded, and so are any eight-hour Beatles movies that were screened as a TV miniseries. Titles are ranked by Metascore (a weighted average of scores from top professional critics) prior to rounding based on scores as of January 3, 2022.

Additional content by Keith Kimbell.

15 of 25 photo by Netflix

90 Procession

(#9) Recently shortlisted for the documentary feature Oscar, Robert Greene's follow-up to Kate Plays Christine and Bisbee '17 is another highly unconventional film exploring reenactment as a means for discovering (and recovering from) the past. Procession centers on six older Midwestern men who are all survivors of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests. The film follows the men as they engage in a unique form of therapy (under the guidance of a trained therapist, not the director) that asks them to write, produce, and perform scenes based on their traumatic experiences.

Watch it on Netflix

“What could have been a disaster in the hands of a less sensitive film-maker ends up an extraordinary feat of care, collaboration and creativity.” —Simran Hans, The Observer

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