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.

16 of 25 photo by Janus Film

90 Drive My Car

(#8) Japan's official Oscar entry this year is one of two 2021 releases from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The other, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, is also a favorite with critics (it ranks at #23 on this list), but Drive My Car is one of the standouts from any director in 2021, judging from the frequency with which it is landing on year-end top 10 lists. And critic groups in both New York and Los Angeles have also named it 2021's best overall film. Somehow turning a Haruki Murakami short story into a three-hour film, Car follows a director (played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) as he processes the grief he carries over his wife’s sudden death with the help of a new companion (Toko Miura) who is assigned to be his driver at a theater festival where he is mounting a production of Uncle Vanya.

“What it is can be summed up in a word that’s often used loosely but fits the case here—a masterpiece, a mysteriously enthralling creation that keeps you guessing about where it’s going, then reveals its essence with astonishing clarity.” —Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

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