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.

13 of 25 photo by Sundance Film Festival

89 Dick Johnson Is Dead

(#11) Widely acclaimed at its Sundance premiere a year ago, Kirsten Johnson’s unconventional new documentary follows her excellent 2016 film Cameraperson. Dead, which picked up a special jury award for "innovation in non-fiction storytelling" at the festival, is a moving, playful, and celebratory examination of her own 86-year-old father's waning days as he begins to succumb to Alzheimer's disease. Dick Johnson was a willing partner in the film, and the results—which find the director staging multiple deaths for her father—are much more lighthearted than you might expect from the subject matter.

Watch it at Netflix

“Through its personal approach and creative structure, Dick Johnson Is Dead manages to make reckoning with a loved one’s mortality not just entertaining, but oddly uplifting. The empathy and humanity it applies to death make it, above all else, life-affirming.” —Vince Mancini, Uproxx

Where To Buy