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Cinema · 2021 Ranked

Best Films of 2021, Ranked by IQ Score

The year auteur cinema rediscovered theatrical scale (Dune) alongside personal-memoir prestige. Ranked.

2021 is the year auteur cinema rediscovered theatrical scale. Dune (Villeneuve), the canonical contemporary sci-fi epic. The Power of the Dog (Campion, Best Director). Drive My Car (Hamaguchi, Best International Feature). Licorice Pizza (PTA). CODA (Heder, Best Picture).

20 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Belfast poster, IQ Score 167/200, Masterclass tier

    Belfast

    Masterclass biography, comedy, drama

    A boy navigates growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Educational about the conflict and childhood trauma. Cognitive engagement from the period detail and the perspective. Entertainment from the coming-of-a…

    167/200
  2. 2
    Drive My Car poster, IQ Score 166/200, Masterclass tier

    Drive My Car

    Masterclass drama

    A theater director and a widow form a bond while rehearsing Chekhov. Educational about theater and grief. Cognitive engagement from the slow-burn narrative. Entertainment from the character intimacy.

    166/200
  3. 3
    Dune poster, IQ Score 165/200, Masterclass tier

    Dune

    Masterclass sci-fi, adventure, drama

    A desert planet with valuable spice becomes a geopolitical battleground. Educational elements about ecology, feudalism, and religious fundamentalism. Cognitive engagement from the political intrigue and the protagonist's…

    165/200
  4. 4
    The Power of the Dog poster, IQ Score 165/200, Masterclass tier

    The Power of the Dog

    Masterclass drama, western

    A rancher psychologically manipulates a widow and her son. Educational about toxic masculinity and repression. Cognitive engagement from the unreliable perspective. Entertainment from the psychological thriller.

    165/200
  5. 5
    Memoria poster, IQ Score 165/200, Masterclass tier

    Memoria

    Masterclass drama, international, experimental

    Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2021 Cannes Jury Prize-winning film, his first English-language work, anchored by Tilda Swinton as a Scottish woman in Colombia hearing a mysterious sound. The structural commitment to letting…

    165/200
  6. 6
    tick, tick... BOOM! poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    tick, tick... BOOM!

    Masterclass drama, musical, biography

    Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2021 directorial debut anchored by Andrew Garfield (Oscar-nominated) as Jonathan Larson, the future Rent composer in his pre-Rent struggling-musical-theater-composer period. The structural commitment…

    164/200
  7. 7
    The Tragedy of Macbeth poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    The Tragedy of Macbeth

    Masterclass drama, shakespeare

    Joel Coen's 2021 Shakespeare adaptation anchored by Denzel Washington (Oscar-nominated) and Frances McDormand. The structural commitment to letting Bruno Delbonnel's black-and-white expressionist cinematography render ca…

    164/200
  8. 8
    C'mon C'mon poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    C'mon C'mon

    Masterclass drama, coming-of-age, indie

    Mike Mills's 2021 black-and-white film, in which Joaquin Phoenix plays a radio journalist who takes care of his nine-year-old nephew. Mills intercuts documentary interviews with American children into the narrative, blur…

    164/200
  9. 9
    Parallel Mothers poster, IQ Score 163/200, Masterclass tier

    Parallel Mothers

    Masterclass drama, mystery, historical

    Almodóvar's 2021 Penélope Cruz vehicle whose dual structural premise, two women giving birth in adjacent hospital beds while a parallel historical investigation unearths Civil War-era mass graves, is the catalog's most-t…

    163/200
  10. 10
    The Lost Daughter poster, IQ Score 163/200, Masterclass tier

    The Lost Daughter

    Masterclass drama

    Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 directorial debut anchored by Olivia Colman (Oscar-nominated). The structural commitment to letting motherhood-regret cognitive material be the actual subject, at register the genre typically sof…

    163/200
  11. 11
    After Yang poster, IQ Score 162/200, Masterclass tier

    After Yang

    Masterclass drama, sci-fi, philosophical

    Kogonada's 2021 A24 science-fiction-meditation film anchored by Colin Farrell as a father trying to repair a malfunctioning android sibling-companion (the title character Yang) his daughter has been raised alongside. The…

    162/200
  12. 12
    The French Dispatch poster, IQ Score 161/200, Masterclass tier

    The French Dispatch

    Masterclass comedy, drama, anthology

    Wes Anderson's 2021 New Yorker-coded anthology film set in fictional Ennui-sur-Blasé. The structural commitment, four short-story segments framed by a fictional magazine's contents, is the catalog's most-disciplined form…

    161/200
  13. 13
    Annette poster, IQ Score 159/200, Stimulating tier

    Annette

    Stimulating drama, musical

    Leos Carax's 2021 Sparks-songbook musical anchored by Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. The structural commitment to letting the entire film be sung, and the canonical wooden-baby-Annette puppet, is the catalog's most-fo…

    159/200
  14. 14
    Licorice Pizza poster, IQ Score 145/200, Stimulating tier

    Licorice Pizza

    Stimulating comedy, drama

    Positions 1970s San Fernando Valley childhood romance across episodic encounters, requiring viewers to feel temporal scale and character development.

    145/200
  15. 15
    West Side Story poster, IQ Score 145/200, Stimulating tier

    West Side Story

    Stimulating drama, musical, romance

    Reimagines musical form across Puerto Rican gang narrative in 1950s Manhattan, demanding viewers process period authenticity and contemporary resonance.

    145/200
  16. 16
    Spencer poster, IQ Score 138/200, Stimulating tier

    Spencer

    Stimulating drama, history

    A weekend at Sandringham as Princess Diana decides to end her marriage. Pablo Larrain's follow-up to Jackie, formally similar approach with Kristen Stewart's transformative performance. Educational about the Royal Family…

    138/200
  17. 17
    The Worst Person in the World poster, IQ Score 131/200, Stimulating tier

    The Worst Person in the World

    Stimulating comedy, drama

    Follows a woman's romantic and professional indecision across Oslo, examining how self-sabotage and ambivalence persist despite privilege and charm.

    131/200
  18. 18
    CODA poster, IQ Score 131/200, Stimulating tier

    CODA

    Stimulating comedy, drama, family

    Centers deaf parents within hearing family narrative, using musical integration and performance as metaphor for code-switching and identity between worlds.

    131/200
  19. 19
    Spider-Man: No Way Home poster, IQ Score 128/200, Competent tier

    Spider-Man: No Way Home

    Competent action, adventure, sci-fi

    Jon Watts's multiverse crossover simultaneously indulges nostalgia through villains and predecessors while examining consequences and responsibility through portal paradox. The exploration of legacy, responsibility, and…

    128/200
  20. 20
    No Time to Die poster, IQ Score 108/200, Competent tier

    No Time to Die

    Competent action, thriller, adventure

    Cary Joji Fukunaga closes the Craig era by letting Bond love, father a child, and die, an ending the franchise never risked before. The craft peaks: Linus Sandgren's Matera cold-open, the Norway forest chase, and the one…

    108/200
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Questions about this ranking

What is the best film of 2021?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, The Power of the Dog (Campion, Best Director) and Drive My Car (Hamaguchi, Best International Feature) anchor the year. Dune, Licorice Pizza, CODA (Best Picture), and Memoria round out the canonical Masterclass-tier entries.

Was 2021 a strong year despite COVID?

Yes, 2021 saw the strongest auteur-cinema slate since 2018. Villeneuve's Dune reset theatrical-scale sci-fi. Campion won Best Director (her first), Hamaguchi won Best International Feature (Japan's first since 2008), and PTA released Licorice Pizza. Multi-tradition convergence year.

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