Nothing beats getting swept away into a strange and wonderful (or horrifying) world.
There are plenty of great fantasy movies out there, but the genre is way too slept on. People probably think of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter when they think fantasy, but fantasy is also Barbie and even the absurdist nightmare Beau Is Afraid.
In celebration of the fantasy genre, Watch With Us has put together a ranked list of our top picks of the best fantasy movies of the 2020s so far.
Read on to see if your faves made the cut.
5. ‘Barbie’ (2023)
In the utopian Barbieworld, all sorts of Barbies roam free and live totally unburdened lives—even though the Barbies literally run the world in a benevolent matriarchy. But when the real-life little girl playing with Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) starts having a crisis, her internal problems externalize in her Barbie, who finds herself having existential thoughts and developing cellulite. Accompanied by her devoted Ken (Ryan Gosling), Barbie travels to the real world to help her human overcome her worries. But while Barbie deals with girl problems, Ken learns about “the patriarchy,” which has unforeseen consequences on Barbieworld.
Despite being an IP movie about a toy, Barbie manages to be a fun, fresh and visually arresting comedy-fantasy with a clever script that balances humor and heart. Director Greta Gerwig does an excellent job bringing Barbieworld to life through meticulous production design, pop-art, pink-soaked color palettes and fantastic comedic performances, making the movie a bit more than just a toy advertisement. “I’m Just Ken” was handily robbed for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, though it was robbed by its own movie — the award went to Barbie’s other great song, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.
4. ‘The Northman’ (2022)
Formidable Viking King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke) returns home from a bloody battle and starts preparing his young son Amleth (Oscar Novak) for his rightful place upon the throne. But when Amleth’s treacherous uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) betrays his own brother, brutally murdering Aurvandill while kidnapping Amleth’s mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), Amleth becomes exiled. Years later, an adult Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) visits a seeress (Björk), who reminds Amleth of the pledge he once made to himself: he will save his mother, he will kill his uncle and he will avenge his father’s death.
The Northman is a sumptuous dark fantasy epic based on the Viking legend of Amleth. Directed by The Witch and Nosferatu filmmaker Robert Eggers, the movie is visually impressive and skillfully crafted, with every aspect of production firing on all cylinders: music, set design, cinematography, acting and a solid screenplay (even if the film’s chief focus is action, viscera and ambitious surreality). The world-building is lavish and deeply immersive, made all the more compelling by performances from a great ensemble cast that also includes Anya Taylor-Joy and Willem Dafoe.
3. ‘Beau is Afraid’ (2023)
Paranoid and suffering from extreme anxiety, Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) lives in a derelict apartment in a crime-infested city. While preparing to visit his mother (Patti LuPone) on the anniversary of his father’s death, he loses his apartment keys and is locked out of his home. But while he struggles to get back inside (and evade the deranged homeless people who kicked him out), Beau’s mother passes away — and on top of that, he is stabbed to near-death by a serial killer. After Beau wakes up recovering in the home of a seemingly normal nuclear family, he embarks on an epic hero’s journey to get to his mother’s home and attend her funeral.
Beau Is Afraid is quite a tonal departure from the austere horror of director Ari Aster‘s previous two films, the critically acclaimed Hereditary and Midsommar. But since horror and comedy have more similarities than many people realize, the film is not that much of a stretch for Aster’s dark, absurdist sensibilities, or the dry sense of humor he would go on to further explore in his fourth movie, Eddington. Beau Is Afraid is a wildly ambitious, exhausting and chaotic surrealist fantasy film that explores Oedipal anxieties in the weirdest and funniest way possible.
2. ‘Undine’ (2020)
In this modern-day reimagining of the myth of Undine (a water nymph of European folklore who turns human when she falls in love with a man, but will die if he is unfaithful to her), Undine Wibeau (Paul Beer) is a historian living in Berlin who is left by her lover, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), with whom she is having an affair. She informs him that if he leaves her, she will have to kill him. After Johannes leaves her, she ends up pursuing a passionate relationship with an industrial diver named Christoph (Franz Rogowski); while not forgetting the macabre promise she made to her former lover.
This German-French fantasy drama crafts a tragic and passionate romance underpinned by magical realism and architectural history. Directed by Christian Petzold, Undine is a modern fairytale at its most enchanting and mature; rich in feeling, atmosphere, arresting imagery and dynamic, natural chemistry between Beer and Rogowski. Move over Splash and The Little Mermaid; Undine is the modern love story for those who like their mermaids dark and mysterious.
1. ‘The Green Knight’ (2021)
On Christmas Day, the Knights of the Round Table receive an unwanted guest: a supernatural figure who calls himself the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson). The Green Knight challenges any of the men to land a blow on him, and the winner will receive his green axe — but they must also accept an equal blow in return the following year. King Arthur’s (Sean Harris) impulsive nephew Gawain (Dev Patel) accepts the challenge and decapitates the knight with Excalibur. But the following Christmas day, Arthur reminds Gawain of the pact he made. Thus, Gawain sets off on an epic quest to find and face the Green Knight.
This decadent and erotic dark fantasy film is a haunting and atmospheric fable, with lush production design, textured cinematography and a compelling take on the classic Arthurian fable. Patel positively owns the screen in his undeniably sexy interpretation of a medieval knight, and he is joined by a terrific cast that includes Barry Keoghan, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton and Sarita Choudhury. Directed by David Lowery, The Green Knight is a ravishing and philosophical deconstruction of heroism, mortality and degradation of the environment.
