The Best Movies category awards the best-reviewed film regardless of their release, whether they went straight to streaming or swung onto the silver screen. Spider-Man: No Way Home became the mega-cultural event that would entice moviegoers back into theaters, and it lived up to the hype for critics, as well. It was a music-filled year with In the Heights, West Side Story, and Summer of Soul. On the heavy side, some big tomatoes for Pig and a career-best Nicolas Cage, Jane Campion’s first-in-11-years The Power of the Dog, and A Quiet Place Part II, everyone’s collective exhalation through horror. Meanwhile, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Mitchells vs the Machines, and Coda brought representative, progressive ingredients to family storytelling.
The order reflects Tomatometer scores (as of December 31, 2021) after adjustment from our ranking formula, which compensates for variation in the number of reviews when comparing movies or TV shows.