Best Films Worth Watching in the 2020s

Must-Watch Movies: A List That Survives the 2020s

In 2024, someone shot a silent, black-and-white slapstick film for $150,000. According to one participant, the first ten minutes of Hundreds of Beavers seem like a waste of time; eventually, the viewer enters its logic and witnesses a mold-breaking exercise. This reflects many answers given when people ask which films from the 2020s are worth watching.

The issue has two sides. Part of the thread asks if anything released since 2020 can compare to Goodfellas, Kelly's Heroes, The Shawshank Redemption, or Brubaker. The other part offers a list ranging from a Japanese kaiju to a besieged apartment block in Seoul.

Godzilla Minus One and Genre Cinema Reclaiming Its Pulse

The Japanese monster movie appears repeatedly as the decade's top candidate. It is described with a sixties spirit, almost a samurai tale—with echoes of Toshiro Mifune—where the creature is secondary. What hooks you is the tone: both fatalistic and combative, like someone who knows they will lose the battle but fights anyway. According to a comment in the thread, by the time of that discussion, the film had already reached Japanese platforms, and a participant pointed out the Spanish dubbing as its main hurdle.

War cinema completes the list with Greyhound, depicting the acompañante of an Atlantic convoy. Liberty ships are portrayed as what they were: floating coffins at the mercy of German submarines. The final scene, with the crew cheering the destroyer's performance, is cited as one of those moments that give you goosebumps.

Das Boot and the Old Question of Which Side Tells War Stories

The German submarine classic reappears as a reference for war cinema made from within. Some argue it realistically shows life on board and the anguish of a trapped crew; others debate whether the film truly adopts the German perspective or settles for a more conventional gaze. The thread assumes that shooting something equivalent today would be difficult.

Alongside it, the decade has delivered unapologetic action. The John Wick saga, the third installment of The Equalizer, Sisu, The Specialist, and The Northman form a block defended without apology. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One also appears among the proposals. In The Northman, something more than violence is highlighted: the mythical thinking and initiation rituals of the barbarian world, very well achieved for anyone with minimal context.

Art House Cinema Isn't Dead: From Tarkovsky to a Single Take

Against the noise, another group champions cinema understood as art, the kind some dismissively call "slow." Béla Tarr's Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies rank at the top. From Tarkovsky, Stalker and Solaris are rescued, while The Sacrifice is dismissed as beautiful but heavy, and Nostalghia is abandoned after forty minutes. One participant puts it this way: there are slow and boring movies, and there are slow and memorable movies, and those who confuse them have remained in an earlier stage.

In that same vein, Victoria is mentioned, filmed in a single continuous take, with a tension sustained by the camera without cuts, even though the story has credibility flaws. Pavor and the weird also have space: Vivarium is remembered as unsettling enough to leave a bad taste, and Happiness as a sinister and dark proposal.

Concrete Utopia, Soylent Green, and Dystopia as a Thermometer

The Korean Concrete Utopia is noted as the most liked of recent viewings. An earthquake triggered by a meteor shower devastates Seoul except for one apartment building, whose residents barricade themselves inside while survivors arrive seeking shelter. The film quickly abandons the disaster aspect and focuses on that building and its neighbors' refusal to let anyone in.

Added to the list is Soylent Green, from 1973, which sets its action in 2022, with a New York of 40 million inhabitants and synthetic food as the only sustenance for the masses. The film is cited as prophetic. Triangle of Sadness and Alex Garland's Civil War complete the bouquet of proposals considered very good.

Disillusionment with the Industry and Pre-2020 Cinema

One current of the conversation rejects much of current cinema due to what it considers imposed ideological content, asking to retreat into filmographies prior to 2020.

The opposite complaint also appears: when the ending doesn't measure up, the entire film collapses. The case of a thriller is described where the start and tension are magnificent, but the resolution leaves the impression of having been cheated, the same effect as a series forced to tie up loose ends in a hurry.

Is Cinema from This Decade Worth Watching?

The emerging answer has less to do with the release year than with ambition. The list of titles that survive includes Japanese genre cinema, war films, pure action, Korean dystopia, Hungarian art house, and even a low-budget silent comedy. What does not appear is any agreement.

And there is a figure that orders the chaos: the only movie in the whole discussion with a declared budget is the one shot with $150,000. The decade, so far, defends itself from the extremes.