The Best Six Movies of the First Half of 2021

Getting back to theaters feels great, people.

With my childhood best friend (and vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association) Tim Grierson, I host a weekly movie podcast, called Grierson & Leitch. (Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!) Tim and I grew up in Central Illinois obsessed with “Siskel & Ebert,” and the podcast is meant to be just like that show: Two Midwestern dopes who see way too many movies and love nothing more than to talk about them with each other.

Ever since 1991 — when I was 16 years old — we, at the end of the movie year, announce our Top 10 Movies of the Year to each other, a podcast tradition that is now known as “Dorkfest.” But at the midway point of the year, which, as you might have noticed, just passed, we give our six best films of the first six months. It’s a way to point out movies that people might have missed, and make sure we don’t forget them when the movie year ends.

We did this show two weeks ago, right before Grierson left for the Cannes Film Festival. (He saw some great movies there: Here’s his ranking of every movie he screened.) It occurred to me that, other than that podcast, I had not actually listed my six best films of the year so far anywhere. So this seems like the right place for it.