The Best Movie Moments Of 2021

There's something undeniably reassuring about movies. Despite whatever is going on in the world, you can always count on movies to be there. Whether at the cinema, the drive-in, or at home on your laptop or television, their warm, welcoming glow possesses the amazing ability to make you feel better about your troubles.

There's no denying 2021 has been a tricky year, as a certain nagging pandemic from 2020 has held over and continues to wreak havoc and complicate things for people worldwide. Still, cinema has persevered, and theaters are open and chock-full of excellent offerings. In many ways, it feels like 2021 was determined to make up for the lack of new releases of the previous year, and there are a ridiculous amount of movies to choose from.

In order to celebrate the very best in cinema this year, we've compiled a list of the best movie moments of 2021. The films encompass a wide variety of genres, including big-time blockbusters as well as small indie films you may have missed. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our list of the best movie moments of 2021.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead!

When it gets to the end of the year, it's hard to avoid conversations about heavy, prestige films that often feel made specifically to try and win Oscars. Then, every once in a while, a miraculous, hysterical film comes out that stays with you for the entire year. In 2021, that film is Josh Greenbaum's "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar." Writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (who wrote "Bridesmaids" together) also star in the film as the titular Barb (Mumolo) and Star (Wiig). Barb and Star are best friends who live together and work together at a home store in Soft Rock, Nebraska. When they both lose their jobs, they decide to take things into their own hands and finally go on holiday – to the glorious Floridian paradise, Vista Del Mar.

While there, they meet Edgar (Jamie Dornan), a henchman who is sent to execute a sinister plan but is overwhelmed by love. It's Edgar who steals the show in a film stuffed with hilarious scenes like "Edgar's Prayer," a glorious musical number in which he sings of his passionate love. It's simultaneously a send-up of the musical genre while being a genuinely excellent performance in its own right. Dornan shows off some truly impressive moves, including twirling so intensely that his entire body goes underneath the sandy beach. It's a hilarious scene that has all the benchmarks of "Barb and Star" — hilarious, clever, silly, and completely unexpected.

Sparks has been an important part of the music industry for decades, and 2021 was a banner year for the duo. Indeed, they recently got their very own documentary courtesy of "Last Night in Soho" director Edgar Wright, and their dreams of finally making their own film musical came true with Leos Carax's "Annette" (they wrote with Carax and also wrote all the songs).

The film's energetic, spontaneous, and electric opening sets viewers up for a thrilling experience. While the opening credits roll, an announcer states, "Ladies and gentlemen, we now ask for your complete attention. If you want to sing, laugh, clap, cry, yawn, boo, or fart, please, do it in your head. Only in your head." The film then comes alive with music feedback before turning into a recording studio as we see instruments get set up.

Director Carax appears in the film, asking, "So ... may we start?" This turns into the film's first glorious musical number, shot primarily in an excellent long take. The Sparks brothers and their band are seen as they begin the song "So May We Start" before walking through city streets where the rest of the cast joins them, including leads Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, and Simon Helberg. The number begins "Annette" with a glorious punch that helps sustain this glorious musical. You've never seen anything quite like it.

Director Paul Verhoeven is no stranger to a bit of controversy. This is, after all, the man who directed films like "Robocop," "Elle," and "Showgirls." It should be no surprise, then, that Verhoeven's latest, "Benedetta," aims its sights at the Catholic Church, delivering an epic feat in nunsploitation. The film is full of dramatics, theatrics, laughs, and a whole lot of eroticism, including a healthy dose of lesbian nun sex — a balance that only wildcards like Verhoeven can pull off.

The film's most memorable scene comes in a heated moment between Benedetta (Virginie Efira) and Bartolomea (Daphné Patakia), a peasant girl. The two share an undeniable chemistry, and despite going directly against the teachings of the Catholic Church, find themselves romantically entwined with one another. In peak exploitation fashion, Verhoeven engineers a scene where Bartolomea gives Benedetta a gift — a statue of the Virgin Mary that has been carved into a precise shape of a dildo. That's not all, of course — the pair use it for sexual gratification. Nobody seems to be having more fun here than Verhoeven himself, who chooses a specific shot to make it very clear how the special "gift" is being used. The scene is emblematic of the film itself: bonkers, offensive, glorious, and unforgettable.

Things are not going well for Danielle (Rachel Sennott), but who could be having a good time when you run into your sugar daddy at a local shiva? Shiva is an extended period of mourning for Jewish families, and it's the location for virtually all of Emma Seligman's astonishing debut "Shiva Baby." The film is a brief 77 minutes, and there isn't a moment that isn't laced with tension.

As if seeing your parents lovingly interact with your sugar baby couldn't be any more agonizing, Danielle has also misplaced her phone, which is filled with evidence of her secret. Things come to a head when she realizes that her ex, Maya (Molly Gordon), finds her phone and discovers the truth. The scene turns into a nightmare for Danielle, and everything gets darker and sweatier. Shooting everything in intense closeups, Seligman creates a particularly intense sequence that is elevated by the klezmer score of Ariel Marx, brutally inclining the drama until it all gets to be too much for Danielle. Everything weighing on her — the discomfort, the fear of being found out, the overwhelming expectations of family, the touching — comes to a fever pitch, and her explosive shout of "Stop, stop, stop, let go!" shocks everyone around her. It's a fantastic moment in one of the year's best and most underappreciated films.

Far from a traditional biopic, Pablo Larrain's "Spencer" is more of a slow-burning nightmare, or, as the film itself puts it, a "fable from a true tragedy." Most of the film takes place around Christmas at the Sandringham family estate, and it's very clear from the outset that Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) would rather be anywhere but there. The strict rules of royal living clearly take a negative toll on Diana, and being in Sandringham only seems to escalate all of her anxieties.

At dinner on the first night, tensions are extremely high. Everyone waits for the queen to start eating, and once she does, everyone else can begin. With the haunting Johnny Greenwood score's dissonant chords in full swing, we see Diana — clad in a beautiful green dress and elegant pearls — visibly uncomfortable in her surroundings. She grabs at her neck and, in a shocking move, tears off her pearl necklace, with many of the pearls falling into the soup. Then, she proceeds to eat the soup, struggling to consume the enormous pearls. It's a shocking, deeply upsetting moment that showcases a tremendous performance by Stewart. Moments later, however, Diana is seen with a full necklace of pearls, making audiences wonder whether everything going on is in her head.

Edgar Wright's twisty thriller "Last Night in Soho" is full of great music and remarkable attention to detail, and it simply oozes style. That's no surprise, as the film takes place on the streets of central London and focuses on the life of a fashion student. In the standout scene, Eloise (Thomasin Mackenzie) is struggling to fit in. She leaves her student residence for a room in Soho, and when she goes to sleep, her dreams transport her back to London in the 1960s.

Awaking into a black void, Eloise walks through a dark alley, stepping out into the light to find that the '60s she is so obsessed with are right in front of her. But that's not at all — when Eloise enters the Cafe de Paris, she discovers in the mirror that she's taken on the identity of a mysterious and beautiful girl named Sandy (Anya-Taylor Joy), who has dreams of being a bigtime star and wants to carve out a career as a singer. It's a glorious sequence filled with stunning costuming, beautiful music, brilliant camerawork, and rich period details.

Few documentaries capture the overwhelming power of music than "Summer of Soul." Directed by Ahmir Thompson (better known as "Questlove"), the documentary is an exquisite concert film set in the summer of 1969, showcasing the glorious Harlem Cultural Festival that celebrates the Black history, culture, style, and — above all — music. The film has received massive critical acclaim and currently holds an extremely impressive score of 96 on Metacritic.

It's nearly impossible to pick a standout moment from the film, as it's chock-full of stunning musical performances. Still, we have to hand it to Nina Simone, who received an outstanding response from the audience with her perfect performances of "Backlash Blues" and "To Be Young, Gifted and Black." As a talking head tells us in the film, "You'd walk on water to see Nina Simone ... her fearlessness, her control as a woman, a black woman, is awesome. She was sending a message." The message is clear: Nina Simone is one of the greatest artists in history, and having the opportunity to see her perform live is an unforgettable gift.

For months leading up to the release of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," fans put together a wish list of things they were hoping to see. We knew from the first trailers that the film would feature the return of various villains from across Spider-Man's movie history, but many eager moviegoers were also hoping that it would include the return of two particular Spider-heroes. When the film's marketing didn't feature either Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield as their respective versions of Peter Parker, and Garfield himself repeatedly denied involvement while promoting other films, fans still held out hope, suspecting a studio secret that would eventually be revealed.

Then, at last, we all got our wish. In the middle of "No Way Home," as Holland's Peter Parker reckons with a tremendous loss, his friends Ned and MJ accidentally summon two other Peters, and Garfield and Maguire come walking through portals — older, wiser, and ready for one more adventure. Watching Garfield take off his mask to reveal his Peter's impossibly tall hair, and watching Maguire quietly walk into the frame, fans burst into spontaneous applause, longtime Spider-Man fans got goosebumps, and a cinematic meet-up years in the making was born. It's not the flashiest moment in "No Way Home," but it is the most memorable.