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.

9 of 25 photo by TIFF

88 Attica

(#15) Documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, who previously tackled topics ranging from the Black Panthers to Jonestown, turns his attention to the largest prison uprising in American history: a 1971 revolt at New York's Attica Correctional Facility that spanned five days and ultimately left 43 people dead after a violent police response. (Yes, that's what Al Pacino is shouting about in Dog Day Afternoon.) But why did the uprising start in the first place? Nelson traces the myriad reasons and, forgoing a narrator, uses the voices of those involved on all sides and archival footage from prison cameras to show the shocking events as they happened.

Watch it on Showtime

“A harrowing piece of filmmaking, and a fitting, powerful remembrance of those who fought for their humanity.” —Robert Daniels, IndieWire

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