The 50 Best Movies of 2020

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – January 6, 2021

Here is Metacritic's final list of the 50 best-reviewed movies of 2020, ranked by Metascore. This list only includes films receiving at least 7 reviews from professional critics.

All films released between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 in at least one U.S. theater or directly to streaming or VOD/digital services were eligible for inclusion. Titles are ranked by Metascore (a weighted average of scores from top professional critics) prior to rounding based on scores as of January 3, 2021.

11 of 25 photo by Sundance Film Festival

88 Minari

(#13) Though the pandemic has deprived it of some of the attention it deserves, Lee Isaac Chung's semi-autobiographical drama has been one of 2020's best films since sweeping the top two awards at the Sundance Film Festival nearly a full year ago. Minari follows a Korean-American family (led by Steven Yeun) that moves from California to Arkansas in the 1980s to try their luck at farming. Co-star Youn Yuh-jung has already been collecting honors on the awards circuit, and the film could crack the Oscar best picture race, though Golden Globes organizers have (rather controversially) excluded it from best picture contention there because the very American production is a "foreign-language" film.

Note that Minari is currently unavailable to see, though it did have a very limited set of virtual screenings last month to qualify for awards. As of now, A24 is expected to give the film some sort of theatrical release beginning February 12.

“Thoughtfully directed, vividly written, and beautifully acted, it’s a hopeful film, universally appealing despite—or perhaps because of—just how very Korean American it is.” —Karen Han, Slate

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