10 Movies From the 2020s That Are Absolutely Destined To Be Classics
All things considered, and at least as far as the quality of the films released during the period is concerned, the 2020s have been pretty kind to movie fans. The past five years have seen the production of some of the greatest, most memorable films of the 21st century so far, from huge Hollywood blockbusters to foreign animated gems.
But while not every great film has a particularly good shot at becoming a classic in the future, plenty of the 2020s’ best movies definitely stand a chance. What’s more, the decade’s biggest cinematic treasures are guaranteed to become classics pretty soon, the way movies like Gladiator and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy are already classics despite not being even three decades old. Similarly, once it’s 2045, we might look back at these movies as modern landmarks of their genre.
10
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022)
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
The original Top Gun is one of the most iconic cult classics of the 1980s. Though it’s not a particularly high-quality film, there’s an overwhelmingly eighties-y charm about it that can’t be resisted. As such, a legacy sequel released nearly four decades after the original was a concept that nobody expected, and no one had any idea how it would turn out. People certainly didn’t expect Top Gun: Maverick to become one of the most important blockbusters of the decade so far.
A shocking box office hit, a delightfully meta study of the evolution of the blockbuster landscape in Hollywood and the nature of aging movie stars, and a blast of fun from start to finish, Maverick is one of the most entertaining action flicks of the last five years. Seeing as it’s superior to its predecessor in every conceivable way, there’s no way it won’t become an even bigger classic.
9
‘Hundreds of Beavers’ (2022)
Directed by Mike Cheslik
The indie hit Hundreds of Beavers is what you’d get if you get drunk and concoct a potion with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Looney Tunes as your ingredients. This silent comedy is a passion project that had been in development since 2019 but only received a wide release last year. It’s wild, creative, and an awful lot of fun.
Hundreds of Beavers is a Sisyphean Metroidvania of a film that all those who love having a good laugh while watching a film are guaranteed to love. All the ingredients for a new staple of the midnight screening circuit are right there: an indie tone, infinite rewatchability, silly jokes, and plenty of chances for the audience to chime in with a quip. There’s next to zero way Hundreds of Beavers won’t become a cult classic in just a few years.
8
‘Aftersun’ (2022)
Directed by Charlotte Wells
Charlotte Wells made her feature directing debut with A24’s Aftersun, which may just be one of the most depressing movies of the 21st century thus far. It’s a perfect father-daughter arthouse drama that’s consistently poignant without ever being saccharine, anchored by a pair of powerhouse performances by Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal, the latter of whom received an Oscar nomination for his performance.
The film is already being praised as one of the strongest movies of the 2020s so far, as well as one of the most underappreciated by the mainstream. The emotional foundations that it’s built on top of are full of the kind of sincerity that makes an assured classic, with an ending that ties it all up together in a ribbon that’s enough to make the coldest of hearts shed a tear. That’s the kind of stuff that never fails to remain timeless.
7
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (2022)
Directed by James Cameron
James Cameron has always been a visionary, and the vast majority of his filmography could reasonably be called a “classic.” Though some would make a case against it, this arguably includes Avatar. Although it’s typically agreed to be a not-particularly-great movie, it is the highest-grossing of all time, which has to count for something. The third highest-grossing is its first sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, an even better movie all around, which has to count even more.
One of the live-action films with the longest production time, The Way of Water was a passion project that Cameron spent way more time on than your average filmmaker would spend on any one movie, but it definitely paid off. The movie is visually striking, technically faultless, and anchored by a solid story with a strong emotional core. Such tremendous box office achievements always end up joining the “classics” club, and this likely won’t be an exception.
6
‘The Boy and the Heron’ (2023)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki, master of anime filmmaking and one of Japan’s greatest movie directors ever, is another artist who has a body of work where most outings are already classics. As such, it will be no surprise when the same title starts being applied to The Boy and the Heron, his latest movie and the second foreign film to ever win the Best Animated Feature Oscar (after Miyazaki’s own Spirited Away).
With jaw-dropping animation, a gorgeously complex and moving story, and some of Studio Ghibli’s best characters, The Boy and the Heron is one of the studio’s best movies, which is saying a lot. Ghibli is such a prestige brand that its movies (the ones that are actually good, at least) always become classics, and this one very likely will, too. It might be too slow-paced, elusive, and cerebral for many, but that’s largely why The Boy and the Heron is so special.
5
‘Babylon’ (2022)
Directed by Damien Chazelle
Damien Chazelle‘s period epic Babylon won’t be the first poorly rated film of the 2020s to become a cult classic, and it certainly won’t be the last. This twisted, depravity-filled ode to the darkest, most excess-laden corners of old Hollywood (its silent period, to be exact) is often not at all easy to stomach, but it’s very much worth the effort.
Babylon is bound to become a classic precisely because of how divisive it is.
The performances are incredible, the visuals are lavish and elegant, the story is riveting, and Justin Hurtwitz‘s score is one of the best of the past decade. Babylon is bound to become a classic precisely because of how divisive it is. Those who hate sicko cinema will continue to dislike it forever, but those who love a marvelously made film full of all kinds of delightfully bizarre moments will ensure that this love letter to cinema remains popular for many years.
4
‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan is easily and by far one of the most important and influential filmmakers working in Hollywood today. His latest work, the Best Picture Oscar-winning biopic Oppenheimer, may just be his best movie since the 2000 psychological thriller Memento. Sprawling in its scope but intimate in its focus, it’s a character piece that proves why Nolan is such a beloved director.
Oppenheimer is one of the best biopics of the past 50 years, a masterpiece boosted by Cillian Murphy‘s powerhouse lead performance and all the exceptional supporting actors. Marvelously written and directed to perfection, it’s a war film as gut-wrenching as it is intellectually stimulating. Thematically rich and with a faultless structure that shifts up traditional biopic genre tropes in all sorts of interesting ways, it’s perhaps Nolan’s magnum opus.
3
‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (2022)
Directed by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan
Another Best Picture winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the most thematically and artistically ambitious movies of the 21st century. On paper, all signs would have led any reasonable person to believe that this existentialist sci-fi action tale about generational trauma, cultural differences, and mother-daughter relationships would fall flat on its face. And yet, directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan made it work beautifully.
The movie is as mind-blowing as it is hilarious, as entertaining as it is moving, and as creative as it is profoundly enamored with the genres it twists and parodies. One of the funniest action films of the century, Everything Everywhere All at Once is the kind of unforgettable cinematic achievement that fans will surely love to constantly revisit and new cinephiles will discover for many decades to come.
2
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ (2023)
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
The superhero movie genre really only saw its tremendous boom in popularity in the 2000s. Since then, there have been many films that are likely to join the ranks of Superman and Batman as the genre’s greatest classics. This includes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its arguably superior sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
For one, Across might be the most stunningly animated film ever made. As if that weren’t enough of a reason to guarantee its future classic status, it’s also one of the highest-rated movies of the 2020s on IMDb, a modern gem loved by everyone across the board — animation fans, Marvel fans, Spider-Man fans, and pretty much anyone else who enjoys incredibly fun movies.
1
‘Dune’ (2021) and ‘Dune: Part Two’ (2024)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Every generation has their gargantuan sci-fi and/or fantasy epic to call one of the greatest of all time. The ’80s had The Empire Strikes Back; the 2000s had the Lord of the Rings movies. This generation will likely forever think of Denis Villeneuve‘s adaptation of Frank Herbert‘s Dune — particularly the masterful Dune: Part Two — as the sci-fi genre’s greatest achievement of the 2020s.
Two of the best sci-fi films of the last three decades, the Dune duology is a flooring expansion of the highly complex and imaginative world that Herbert crafted on the page. Villeneuve proved that no one could have possibly been a better choice than him to do the source material justice on the big screen. Grand, epic, exciting, and masterfully made in every sense (from writing to music to visuals), Dune and Dune: Part Two are the likeliest films from the 2020s to become classics in a remarkably short time.
