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.

8 of 25 photo by Amazon Studios/Will Robson-Scott

87 Education

(#16) The first of three (!) Steve McQueen-directed films in our top 20—with a fourth also landing in the top 50—Education is part of McQueen's five-film Small Axe anthology now streaming on Prime Video. Each film in the series looks at the lives of West Indian immigrants in 1960s and '70s London, and this particular entry follows Kingsley (Kenyah Sandy), a 12-year-old boy whose wrongful transfer to a "special needs" school tips parents off to systemic racial discrimination in their school system.

Stream it at Prime Video

“The brilliance of this particular episode is how it allows us to see ourselves in Kingsley and to consider the many unseen forces at play in our own socialization. For Black audiences, it confirms many of those invisible barriers. For white ones, it may lead them to question whether the myth of their “success” owes in part to keeping others back.” —Peter Debruge, Variety

Where To Buy