“I’ve experienced 2021 as the worst year for movies in quite a few decades. Perhaps if I seriously combed through the 1980s I might find some that were worse, but I nonetheless felt seriously unrewarded for all the hours I put in watching films that simply didn’t rise to the occasion, including some that found significant critical favor with others.” — from Todd McCarthy’s “It Was The Worst Of Times Off And Onscreen In 2021,” Deadline-posted on 12.30.21.

Criticstop10.com has posted a comprehensive list of the most favored 2021 films according to critics**.

Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog — subtly rendered, expertly crafted, relentlessly downish — is the leader, having appeared on 243 lists and listed as #1 on 40 of them.

The runners-up (second through fifth place) are Drive My Car (sensitive three-hour grief monkey film), Licorice Pizza (amiable, meandering), Dune (sand in my lungs) and West Side Story (alive and pulsing). The next five are The Green Knight (pure moisture torture), Summer of Soul (found footage), Pig (quite grim but soulfully so), Titane (metallically perverse) and The French Dispatch (exquisitely composed but infuriating)…good God!

Leos Carax‘s Annette, easily the most hateful film of 2021 and one of the most agonizing sits of my entire life, appeared on 76 Best of the Year critics lists, and was listed as #1 on 7 of them. Think about that.

Hollywood Elsewhere has a certain handicap in this regard. Unlike many critics***, I tend to favor absorbing, well-contoured films about recognizable human beings that reflect (am I allowed to say this?) some aspect of the actual human experience as most of us live it on the planet earth, and so I ended up with the following top 15: King Richard, Parallel Mothers, West Side Story, Spider-Man: No Way Home (because of the final hour), The Worst Person in the World, A Hero, Riders of Justice, No Time To Die, The Beatles: Get Back, Zola, Cyrano, Licorice Pizza, The Card Counter (willfully ignoring the Tiffany Haddish diminishment factor), In The Heights and The Last Duel.

1 The Power of the Dog 243 40 3.98 48% 11%
2 Drive My Car 189 33 3.95 38% 9%
3 Licorice Pizza 184 29 4.18 37% 8%
4 Dune 164 14 5.08 33% 4%
5 West Side Story 134 8 4.74 27% 2%
6 The Green Knight 124 10 5.34 25% 3%
7 Summer of Soul 103 8 5.42 21% 2%
8 Pig 96 11 5.50 19% 3%
9 Titane 93 7 5.05 19% 2%
10 The French Dispatch 87 7 5.21 17% 2%
11 Memoria 83 13 3.95 17% 4%
12 The Worst Person in the World 81 5 5.13 16% 1%
13 The Souvenir, Part II 81 4 4.79 16% 1%
14 Annette 76 7 5.00 15% 2%
15 Belfast 73 13 3.47 15% 4%
16 CODA 73 3 5.33 15% 1%
17 The Card Counter 71 1 6.47 14% 0%
18 Petite Maman 65 5 5.27 13% 1%
19 Tick… Tick… Boom!

** Thanks to World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy.
*** total suckers for style and style alone.