2021 Recap – The Top 100 of the Year
by Sara Michelle Fetters - December 31st, 2021 - Features
TOP 100
I again tracked everything I watched in 2021, compiling a master list of my favorite films and placing them in a rough order of preference. As of the publication of this feature, I’d watched 410 features for the first time, 169 of which could be considered domestic new releases in the United States. With that in mind, here were the Top 100 films of 2021 as I saw them.
Please note, unlike on previous pages, documentaries and 2020 releases shuffled to 2021 to qualify for the Academy Awards have not been sorted out. It’s all one giant glorious bundle. Enjoy!
1. Shiva Baby (Dir: Emma Seligman)
2. Pig (Dir: Michael Sarnoski)
3. Titane (Dir: Julia Ducournau)
4. Bergman Island (Dir: Mia Hansen-Løve)
5. The Mitchells vs the Machines (Dir: Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe)
6. Parallel Mothers (Dir: Pedro Almodóvar)
7. The Matrix Resurrections (Dir: Lana Wachowski)
8. Drive My Car (Dir: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
9. Judas and the Black Messiah (Dir: Shaka King)
10. The Power of the Dog (Dir: Jane Campion)
11. Werewolves Within (Dir: Josh Ruben) [Interview with Josh Ruben]
12. The Green Knight (Dir: David Lowery)
13. Passing (Dir: Rebecca Hall)
14. Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Dir: Ahmir-Khalib Thompson)
15. Raging Fire (Dir: Benny Chan)
16. The Tragedy of Macbeth (Dir: Joel Coen)
17. I’m Your Man (Dir: Maria Schrader)
18. Wife of a Spy (Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
19. FLEE (Dir: Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
20. Lucky (Dir: Natasha Kermani)
21. C’mon C’mon (Dir: Mike Mills)
22. West Side Story (Dir: Steven Spielberg)
23. The Night House (Dir: David Bruckner)
24. The Rescue (Dir: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin)
25. Belfast (Dir: Kenneth Branagh)
26. King Richard (Dir: Reinaldo Marcus Green)
27. Jakob’s Wife (Dir: Travis Stevens)
28. Never Gonna Snow Again (Dir: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert)
29. The Sparks Brothers (Dir: Edgar Wright)
30. Limbo (Dir: Ben Sharrock) [Interview with Ben Sharrock]
31. Candyman (Dir: Nia DaCosta)
32. Spencer (Dir: Pablo Larraín)
33. The French Dispatch (Dir: Wes Anderson)
34. Wrong Turn (Dir: Mike P. Nelson) [Interview with Mike P. Nelson]
35. Fear Street Part One: 1994 (Dir: Leigh Janiak) [Interview with Phil Graziadei]
36. No Time to Die (Dir: Cary Joji Fukunaga)
37. Licorice Pizza (Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson)
38. Raya and the Last Dragon (Dir: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada)
39. Cyrano (Dir: Joe Wright)
40. The Vigil (Dir: Keith Thomas)
41. Encanto (Dir: Byron Howard, Jared Bush)
42. The Courier (Dir: Dominic Cooke)
43. A Quiet Place Part II (Dir: John Krasinski)
44. Luca (Dir: Enrico Casarosa)
45. Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (Dir: Leigh Janiak)
46. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Dir: Jonathan Butterell) [Interview with Jonathan Butterell]
47. Antlers (Dir: Scott Cooper)
48. Zola (Dir: Janicza Bravo)
49. tick, tick…BOOM! (Dir: Lin-Manuel Miranda)
50. The Feast (Dir: Lee Haven Jones) [Interview with Lee Haven Jones]
51. Vivo (Dir: Kirk DeMicco)
52. Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It (Dir: Mariem Pérez Riera)
53. V/H/S/94 (Dir: Simon Barrett, Timo Tjahjanto, Steven Kostanski, Jennifer Reeder, Chloe Okuno, Ryan Prows)
54. Old (Dir: M. Night Shyamalan)
55. Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (Dir: Leigh Janiak)
56. The Paper Tigers (Dir: Quoc Bao Tran)
57. Eternals (Dir: Chloé Zhao)
58. Martyrs Lane (Dir: Ruth Platt) [Interview with Ruth Platt]
59. Nobody (Dir: Ilya Naishuller)
60. Dean Martin: King of Cool (Dir: Tom Donahue)
61. Cruella (Dir: Craig Gillespie)
62. Copshop (Dir: Joe Carnahan)
63. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Dir: Jon Watts)
64. A Castle for Christmas (Dir: Mary Lambert)
65. The Old Ways (Dir: Christopher Alender)
66. Free Guy (Dir: Shawn Levy)
67. Bloodthirsty (Dir: Amelia Moses)
68. The Night (Dir: Kourosh Ahari)
69. Lamb (Dir: Valdimar Jóhannsson)
70. Settlers (Dir: Wyatt Rockefeller) [Interview with Wyatt Rockefeller]
71. In the Heights (Dir: Jon M. Chu) [Interview with director Jon M. Chu]
72. Censor (Dir: Prano Bailey-Bond)
73. Godzilla vs. Kong (Dir: Adam Wingard)
74. Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Dir: Josh Greenbaum)
75. Malignant (Dir: James Wan)
76. The Forever Purge (Dir: Everardo Gout)
77. The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star (Dir: Mike Rohl)
78. Those Who Wish Me Dead (Dir: Taylor Sheridan)
79. The Dry (Dir: Robert Connolly)
80. The Beta Test (Dir: Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe)
81. The Advent Calendar (Dir: Patrick Ridremont)
82. House of Gucci (Dir: Ridley Scott)
83. The Harder They Fall (Dir: Jeymes Samuel)
84. The Protégé (Dir: Martin Campbell)
85. Slaxx (Dir: Elza Kephart)
86. Halloween Kills (Dir: David Gordon Green)
87. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Dir: Andy Serkis)
88. Kate (Dir: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan)
89. Boys from County Hell (Dir: Chris Baugh)
90. Black Widow (Dir: Cate Shortland)
91. Cryptozoo (Dir: Dash Shaw)
92. Pixie (Dir: Barnaby Thompson)
93. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Dir: Destin Daniel Cretton)
94. Séance (Dir: Simon Barrett)
95. Night Teeth (Dir: Adam Randall)
96. Don’t Look Up (Dir: Adam McKay)
97. Blood Red Sky (Dir: Peter Thorwarth)
98. Little Fish (Dir: Chad Hartigan)
99. The Suicide Squad (Dir: James Gunn)
100. Skyfire (Dir: Simon West)
