The Top 10 Best Films Of 2021

It’s New Year’s Eve, so with just 12 hours to go until the start of the 2022, it’s time to look back at the past year in cinema and select the top 10 best films of 2021.

Before getting started, let me lay out some criteria and explanation about my selection process.

First and foremost, the movies had to have their initial release in 2021. There are some films that released in 2020 at festivals in order to secure award eligibility, but which had their actual theatrical release in 2021. Those films, however, are still 2020 releases — The Father, for example, didn’t really hit theaters until 2021, but it was nominated at the previous Academy Awards and started making rounds at festivals in early 2020, so it’s a 2020 film in my book.

Likewise, this is my own list, not someone else’s, so the selections here are my own artistic assessment and tastes. You can dislike and disagree all you want, but just know that no matter how much you insist your personal preferences are objective facts, or how much you insist that anyone who likes a film you dislike is wrong (and, according to some social media reactions from far too many entertainment journalists lately, apparently evil and lacking understanding of what film and art even are), that’s not how reality or art work.

There are films I have yet to see, because they received theatrical-only releases and didn’t offer streaming options in time for me to see them, and in most cases didn’t provide the option of an at-home screener. Therefore, since I’m not risking my health and life or the health and lives of other people to see a movie, a few films that possibly or probably would’ve made my list are absent, but they might show up later among my predictions for the Best Picture nominees. A few such films include The Lost Daughter, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Drive My Car, and West Side Story.

I also wasn’t able to see a lot of foreign films that look tremendous but which, due to release schedule and availability, as well as some personal and family issues that came up during the year, I’ll have to try to see in the next several weeks and months.

For now, though, this list is my own selection of films I’d personally nominate for Best Picture as of this moment, from the films I’ve seen. There are several of my favorite films of 2021 which aren’t 0n this list, because while I might actually enjoy them more than some of these ranked films, that doesn’t mean I think they are Best Picture level. They might, however, deserve nominations for other categories such as cinematography, visual effects, film and/or sound editing, and even some acting categories, and I’ll mention a few of these movies at the end of the article.

Now, without further ado, here are my picks for the top 10 finest films of 2021! These are generally in no particular order, except to say I did generally place the best movies in the top three or so (although even then, I’m still not sure of the ranking order yet).

• PASSING
• THE POWER OF THE DOG
• THE HARDER THEY FALL
• THE GREEN KNIGHT
• NO SUDDEN MOVE
• KING RICHARD
• THE LAST DUEL
• BELFAST
• CODA
• DON’T LOOK UP

And there you have it, dear readers, my choices for 2021’s best films!

As promised, here (in no particular order) are seven honorable mentions from my favorite films of the year. I loved all of these movies, and if there are any you haven’t seen then I recommend seeing them soon…

• CANDYMAN
• ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE
• THE SUICIDE SQUAD
• SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS
• SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
• PIG
• WRATH OF MAN

That’s it for me for the year 2021. I hope you all have a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!