10 Best Movies Of The 2020s (So Far), According To Letterboxd

One of the defining traits of the 2020s cinema scene is how much the website Letterboxd has come to dominate all things movies. Though technically existing since 2011, Letterboxd didn't even have two million users in 2020. Six years later, Letterboxd now has 28+ million users and is a centerpiece of the indie film landscape. Even the CEOs of major studios like Columbia Pictures are waxing poetic on Letterboxd's virtues.

With Letterboxd now a cultural behemoth, it's worth examining what movies in the 2020s have resonated the most with its user base. The highest-rated movies of the 2020s so far per Letterboxd's average user ratings speak to which films have struck an especially profound chord with audiences in this still unfolding decade. These 10 features (ranked below from "lowest" to highest user ratings) hail from around the world, exemplifying Letterboxd's global user base.

Best of all, the endless variety in aesthetics, scope, and thematic ambitions excitingly reflect the kinds of sublime cinema being made in the modern world. With their endlessly compelling layers, Letterboxd's 10 highest rated 2020s movies so far are on their way to becoming modern classics. 

Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley have quietly become go-to purveyors of deeply poignant, richly human indie films brought to life with remarkable visual precision. So far, their collaborations include 2021's "Jockey," the 2025 Oscar darling "Train Dreams," and the magnificent "Sing Sing." The latter was penned by the duo while Kwedar sat in the director's chair. Like the works of Roberto Rossellini and Abbas Kiarostami, "Sing Sing" blurs the lines between fiction and reality with its story of Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison inmates who work in the institution's theater program. Many of the figures on-screen are former Sing Sing inmates, like Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin and Sean "Dino" Johnson, playing versions of themselves. 

Colman Domingo, a rare professional actor in the cast, portrays protagonist John "Divine G" Whitfield, who lives and breathes the Sing Sing theatrical program while holding out hope for his exoneration. "Sing Sing" is a tremendous feat brought to life with a tender touch and outstanding 16mm imagery filtered through a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Kwedar and Bentley linger on tiny moments between characters, like rehearsing lines while doing laundry, that accentuate their deep humanity.

It's impossible to watch scenes like the incarcerated performers closing their eyes and imagining their dream destination without getting misty-eyed. Profoundly poignant, "Sing Sing" encapsulates why art and human connections are so vital, as testified by its 4.3 rating on Letterboxd.

In Radu Jude's "Kontinental '25," a conversation between two characters on a bench involves an extended reference to "Perfect Days." Given that "Kontinental '25" premiered less than two years after "Perfect Days" debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, it's tremendous that the Wim Wenders directorial effort has already left such an impact, reflected on Letterboxd with a 4.3 average rating. This Japan-set movie penned by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki follows Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) working as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. 

Much of the film focuses on him listening to his cassette tape while carrying out duties and encounters with strangers that range from face-to-face conversations to tic-tac-toe matches with unknown individuals. There's an audacious refusal to commit to standard narrative impulses throughout "Perfect Days." Instead, Wenders focuses on ordinary reality and the quiet moments that make existence so fulfilling. Then there's Kōji Yakusho, who is masterful in his portrayl of an understated yet absorbing everyman. 

As if the warm imagery and performances aren't enough to entrance, the variety of tunes from legends like Nina Simone and Otis Redding will certainly do the trick. In a cinematic landscape so often dominated by hollow excess, "Perfect Days" implores viewers to gaze upon lives they might otherwise brush past, to deeply moving results. 

While Letterboxd's current top 10 favorites of 2026 feature artsy titles from around the world, let it not be said that this site's roster doesn't make room for top-tier popcorn entertainment. After all, there's an art to making these kinds of movies as well. The many things wrong with "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu," for instance, demonstrates how oodles of money and explosions can't automatically make a movie a winner. There's a finesse to producing crowdpleasers, as demonstrated by the artistic accomplishments of "Project Hail Mary." 

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and company knocked it out of the park with this saga of a reluctant astronaut, Grace (Ryan Gosling), and alien Rocky (James Ortiz) working together to save their respective homes. The latter is especially well realized thanks to Ortiz's outstanding vocal and puppetry performance. Rocky truly looks otherworldly, yet he captures your heart the moment he scuttles on screen. Meanwhile, the dazzling imagery and Daniel Pemberton's transportive score truly make "Project Hail Mary" a towering creation. The spectacle leaves you awestruck, while the rich characters keep you invested.

That tremendous balance between heart and resplendent visuals make "Project Hail Mary" a stellar achievement worth celebrating. It's obvious why "Project Hail Mary" blew everyone away at the box office considering its immense artistic feats that impressed both general audiences and the Letterboxd crowd, who granted it a 4.3 rating average.

In its North American box office run, "Monster" only grossed $434,585. While the film won a pair of prestigious awards at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, it didn't feature heavily in the 2023-2024 award season even on a nomination basis. Though it slipped through the cracks in its initial theatrical release, this Hirokazu Kore-eda directorial effort clearly took off on Letterboxd with its 4.3 average rating from users. Kore-eda's works, including "Shoplifters," "Still Walking," and "Like Father, Like Son," are shatteringly aching without disrupting their down-to-earth, understated aesthetics.

Those talents were masterfully deployed in "Monster," which uses its narrative to continuously unveil new layers to its adolescent protagonist Minato Mugino (Sōya Kurokawa). With each new perspective and subplot, screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto uncovers new depth that make for a gut-wrenching experience. "Monster" is insightful in its depiction of the harrowing ups and downs of childhood, where a friend can become a bully in the blink of an eye. The prison that is classical masculinity and its impacts on youth is vividly depicted throughout.

Such material is realized with remarkable mastery. The enduring quality of "Monster" in the years since is a testament to Kore-eda's filmmaking style and artistry.

Brazilian Letterboxd users are a passionate bunch. Many classics hailing from the country sport high ratings, with the beloved comedy "A Dog's Will" even being among the site's 10 highest rated films at one point. Few countries stand toe-to-toe with the magnificent output of Brazil's greatest auteurs. Thus, it's no surprise that this country produced one of the decade's highest rated movies on Letterboxd with 2024's "I'm Still Here" sporting a 4.3 rating average. 

This Walter Salles directorial effort tells the gripping saga of Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), whose husband is suddenly disappeared by Brazil's military dictatorship in 1970. From there, she and her family are ceaseless in pursuing the truth of what happened. "I'm Still Here," based on a memoir of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, is tremendous from top to bottom, including its deeply precise camerawork. Torres' commanding lead performance exudes immense conviction even when just sitting or exhibiting a subdued expression. 

Fascism keeps Eunice Paiva from being super externalized in her desires, but Torres keeps her hunger for truth palpable. "I'm Still Here" is a masterwork, even before its aching depiction of fascism's long-term ripple effects kick in. 

The saddest movies of all time have the power to reduce viewers to inconsolable puddles of tears. Writer/director Pat Boonnitipat's "How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies" (which was co-penned by Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn) certainly delivers on that. However, it also contrasts those poignant bursts with earlier comical sequences. When the previously aloof M (Putthipong "Billkin" Assaratanakul), initially begins caring for his grandmother Mengju (Usha "Taew" Seamkhum) in the hopes of getting some of her inheritance, the elderly woman initially puts him through immense turmoil.

Rather than being an old pushover, Mengju sends M on baffling tasks that leave the cash-strapped twenty-something constantly scratching his head. Contrasting M's scheming with the reality of taking care of Mengju is good for hearty laughs, while making their relationship more engrossing. They start out jaggedly messy, which ensures their eventual bond resonates even more. "How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies" is a powerful film rooted in believable characters, not manipulative sentimentality. 

Given its phenomenal success in Thailand and other territories, it's no surprise "How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies" also became a hit on Letterboxd with a 4.3 rating average. Masterfully moving movies like this are rare and deserve treasuring.

While some fans are worried about the creative trajectory of "Chainsaw Man," generally, this anime has cultivated a loyal following. Its sizable fanbase mirrors how much Letterboxd users adore anime as a whole. Five percent of the site's current 100 highest rated films are anime productions hailing from an eclectic assortment of filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon. Combine that with the enduring appeal of "Chainsaw Man" and it's no surprise that 2025's "Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc" scored a magnificent 4.4-star rating average on Letterboxd.

This isn't just a case, though, of die-hard fans applauding whatever characters and story points remind them of media they already love. "Reze Arc" also scored tremendously positive reviews from critics, who, like Letterboxd's users, were enchanted by its endlessly imaginative animation and boldly paradoxical tone. "Reze Arc" was a film fusing genuine pathos with some of the most extreme blood-soaked violence that's hit the silver screen. Other movies would've collapsed trying to embrace those seemingly contrasting ingredients.

In the hands of director Tatsuya Yoshihara and company, though, cinema magic was made instead. This potently maximalist endeavor didn't just score highly with Letterboxd devotees, it also reaffirmed the joys of anime storytelling to audiences everywhere. 

With the "Dune" movies, director Denis Villeneuve had adapted Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel of the same name with a level of grandeur that echoes David Lean rather than modern blockbuster cinema helmers. His scope and creative chutzpah got even grander with 2024's "Dune: Part Two," which adapts the second half of the "Dune" book. Everything "Dune: Part Two" got wrong in adapting the book was utterly superfluous in the eyes of audiences, as can be seen by its 4.4 Letterbox rating. 

The more propulsive plot of this section of "Dune" informed a movie that was much more spry and theatrical than its sometimes dry predecessor. Watching Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) succumb to his worst impulses as he becomes a messiah figure is tremendously engrossing. That's not to mention the bevy of committed performances from a murderer's row of talented actors, the groundbreaking makeup work, and Hans Zimmer's magnificently transportive score, among countless other virtues. Every artistic department was firing on all cylinders with this immense project.

"Dune: Part Two," like the great motion picture epics, provides viewers with so much movie magic to gorge on. So many modern blockbusters simply remind audiences of green-screen stages and sequel setups. "Dune: Part Two," meanwhile, reaffirms all the possibilities of staggering big screen spectacle.

Typically, especially in mainstream American works, movies are seen as a vessel for escapism. However, other artists have shown cinema's power to preserve important historical events and lives that would otherwise be erased. Carrying on the legacy of Claude Lanzmann, Xanthra Phillippa MacKay, and Barbara Kaplan is Kaouther Ben Hania's 2025 feature "The Voice of Hind Rajab." The film chronicles Red Crescent volunteers like Omar A. Alqam (Motaz Malhees) and Rana (Saja Kilani) trying to aid Palestinian citizens trapped in the 2023 Palestinian genocide.

However, their lives are forever upended when 5-year-old Hind Rajab calls begging for help while she's trapped in a car inside a warzone. Ben Hania uses actual audio of Rajab in this dramatization, which is shattering to say the least. Accentuating this gut-wrenching deployment of reality is Ben Hania's screenplay emphasizing the countless loopholes needed to jump through (including getting permission to help from the Israeli soldiers firing on Rajab and other Palestinians) to even hope to aid Rajab.

Bureaucratic banality and caked-in colonialism inform the harrowing tension of "The Voice of Hind Rajab," as do heartbreaking performances from Malhees and especially Kilani. Appropriately excruciating to watch, "The Voice of Hind Rajab," which holds a 4.4 rating average on Letterboxd, exemplifies cinema's most vital potential.

This widely eclectic collection of films is topped by a mainstream animated American movie. It may seem disappointing that something more esoteric or in need of an awareness push didn't get that slot. However, it's similarly understandable why Letterboxd users would gravitate towards it, considering we're talking about "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

The animated Spider-Man movies have clearly struck a chord with Letterboxd users. However, delivering an improvement on 2018's outstanding "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" reflects the brilliance of "Across the Spider-Verse." This is a film that leans fully into all the heightened possibilities of animation, delivering dazzling images audiences have never seen before. Meanwhile, the rapid-fire storytelling and expansive scope never capsize its emotional core. On the contrary, sequences like Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) "coming out" as a superhero to her father are incredibly moving in every respect. 

The bevy of gifted artists brought on to breathe life into this feature are superb in nailing both the intimate and sprawling, as are the excellent voice performances, particularly Daniel Kaluuya's remarkable work as Spider-Punk. With a 4.4 rating average on the site, moving "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" from the top of Letterboxd's highest rated movies of the 2020s is going to be a tall task.