The Best Movies of 2020
I feel like 2020 was the year for catch up when it came to movies, its why all the award shows are late and why I am just getting around to making this list! I'm not even sure what the definition of movies are anymore, as we watch most things from the comfort of our own home. i feel like "tv shows" also don’t make sense anymore, the only real difference is they are purposefully episodic. The Tv channels such as Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix have also been promoting to most artistic freedom to filmmakers, so the lines are even further blurred. With three and four hour movies becoming the norm and 4 to 6 part miniseries being better than some of the movies even released last year (The Queen's Gambit in particular) I may have to rethink this list next year or even make another list after this of best TV shows....since we are still separating them for some reason.
Honorable Mention:
The Nest – A very interesting take on what it means to raise a family a family. It is one thing to try and be a fake personality at your job but something very different to lie to your significant other, I feel like The Nest displayed some great acting but also hope in the modern family dynamic. Jude Law and especially Carrie Coons are superb in their roles.
The Invisible Man – It’s a bold move to take the title of one of the best horror films of the 1930’s and make something that is NOT a remake of it, but carries the spirit of it. What Leigh Whannel did with this material is amazing though, updating the content with a variation of what the story would look like almost one hundred years later and focusing on the wife (Elisabeth Moss) rather than the man. The man in question is abusive and horrible and haunts her even after death, but is he really dead is the question?
Irresistible – this movie by Daily Show former host Jon Stewart really surprised me at the end and I did not see it coming. IT dares to make a stance on politics in general that cuts to the bone of what it means to actually run a successful campaign, and how social media skews our visions of what is right, wrong, bad, good, and just plain stupid. A great cast too with plenty of veteran actors, the title of the movie makes a lot more sense in retrospect.
The Assistant – The Assistant is actually a very modest, independently made movie where not a lot happens but its point is driven home and its cast is amazing. It is timely coming at the tail end of the ME TOO movement but really it works on all levels on the fragility of life's expectations versus how the world really works. I knew this of course from watching Ozark, but Julia Gaynor is a force to be reckoned with and one of the breakout acting talents of the last ten years.
Sorry We Missed You – This one was a hard watch, as in Europe what’s known as the “gig economy” is better represented in the USA as Amazon workers, delivery drivers, and other kinds of quick access goods to serve the needs we are all used to. Yes we can get things in 2 days if we order them and subscribe to a service, but at the cost of people (usually ourselves or people we know) being exploited. Ken Loach, veteran English director who tells tales of the working class, has made of one of his best movies here. It tells the story of a father who is just trying to get ahead in life and his family who often suffers for it, but who is to blame?
15. The Forty-Year-Old Version
A gem of a movie shot in stark black and white, it basically tells the tale of a woman (Radha Blank) who decides to go for a rap career even though she has never really tried before and she considers herself over-the-hill. It is a true to life movie, showing how sometimes the little victories out way the big ones we aspire to dream of as people. There are some classic scenes of high school, teenage angst since Radha is a drama teacher, though the very same students come to her aid an unforgettable scene where she bombs in a live stage performance. Also a stand out is the man who chooses to cut her record and sets up the music behind it (Oswin Benjamin), who has a different side to show then he lets most people see. It’s a great movie full of hopeful, but not too fantastical, aims for an artistic life.
14. The Hunt
I'm not sure about the political message that seems to be the topic of all reviews of this movie as to me it's much more of a class (upper vs lower) story that seems to be in style at these times. But combine a great premise (hunting people for the thrill of it) with a great cast (led by excellent Betty Gilpin in a star making movie role) and a ton of well done visceral action scenes and what we are left with is a very fun movie. Every time we think the movie following a character BOOM they are dead and we start all over.
A great story about a lone warrior against a system that is persecuting them it also a Kill Bill style action martial-arts passionate final fight. The movie has an ending leaving us feeling empty, like "what was this all for?" Ironic too, that a movie slated for a theatrical 2019 release was delayed because of fears of violence at the time by the President (??), and then how WELL The Hunt fits in with the mindset we all had in 2020. The paranoid delusions turned reality concept is something society at large went through during this year. Funny how life works out sometimes.
13. Kajilionaire
Miranda July graces us with a movie every 8 years or so, and each one is a delightful experience going deep into the psyche of someone who sees the world through different eyes. On the surface, this film is about a family of thieves and con artists but it gets weirder and more disturbing as it goes, showing how selfish and conniving people can really be. It reminded me of Matchstick Men (2003) but with the absurdities of the Coen Bros mixed in. The are reoccurring images of pink foam dripping from walls, strange walking behaviors that the characters do for rent-dodging reasons, and though everything is thoroughly explained I think the point is everybody's version of normal is weird to somebody else. Your parents are who birthed you, but your family should be those that treat you right and accept you for who you are. The cast is literally only 5 roles deep, and though they are all great (including Deborah Winger who hasn't been in a movie for how long ??) newcomer Gina Rodriguez steals the show whenever she graces the screen with her magnetic presence.
12. Tenet
Tenet came out too soon to movie theaters last summer due to Covid-19 restrictions and the backlash it received as a movie was affected by that action, there is no doubt about it. Weirdly, I think my fav thing about Tenet is how unlike Christopher Nolan it is. Sure, it can be seen as a continuation of Inception (2010) style motifs meets a James Bond style story, but it is also sloppy, straightforward, and unkempt all around which is different for Nolan who usually has a perfectionist type sheen on everything. Some criticism can be labeled against it- too confusing, kinda basic plot, characters are not deep; however anything like this said has to be countered by the obvious pluses it offers – it is daring in its scope and ambition; it looks amazing and the special effects while having everything “inverted” and backwards are mind blowing.
Tenet holds your attention after multiple viewings. The acting is well done too, with John D Washington leading the movie as The Protagonist he is just deadpan enough for his part and Robert Pattinson continuing to spruce up his resume with yet another against type performance as a caring sidekick (or just who is he really?). Supporting cast is the chewing scenery of villain Kenneth Branagh (So underrated in everything he creates) and Elizabeth Debicki who shows off her fiercer side as well. Even smaller roles succeed as Dimple Kampadia, Martin Donovan, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson have more understated but important roles. People (we the audience) have very high expectations of Nolan's movies at this point, and each new film tries for these almost unattainable goals. The point is this: if Nolan's goal is to further push what is possible in action movies and keeping everything a thrilling puzzle along the way, in my eyes he still succeeded. Each movie this director makes is an event and he still constantly surprises us. I can count on one hand the living directors today I could say that about.
#11. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Sometimes things only make sense in retrospect, and some movies or books need to be read twice to be truly understood. The works of Charlie Kaufmann (Eternal Sunshine, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Synecdoche New York) fall into this, as the first time I saw this movie by the end I had NO IDEA what I had seen. But the second viewing made so much more sense, as pieces that were enjoyable as mere entertainment or relationship quirks feel into place as fragments of the protagonist Jake (Jessie Plemons) hope and desires as he looks back on his life. For some stories it doesn’t matter if you know how it turns out and honestly that’s how most great films work too. I mean, you see a movie once and you get the basic plot. Its only the truly great movies that get better and better with each viewing, and this movie is like that. It is not to confounding or hard to get into, even if you don’t get all the poetry, author, and film critic references; but its also not as accessible as the first movies that Kauffman made. As he ages like fine wine, so do his stories, as he is a writer first and filmmaker second. Or maybe just maybe….he is the perfect meeting of these two important worlds as we imagine it?
#10. Soul
The movies of Pixar animation are getting more and more like Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki- on the surface they look like they are made for children, but the themes and actions are actually creating perfect movies for adults that dream like children. The main character in Soul Joe (voiced by actor Jamie Foxx ) keeps saying, “I could die happy if I just could make my dream of playing music with my idols come true.” So then he dies in a freak accident, before the credits of the movie even come up? And Trent Reznor did the score to this movie which features a newly acquired Bob Dylan song or two since those can be in movies now and director Kemp Powers pushes for things like authentic barbershop scenes and the whole film is about getting into the zone of psychedelic trance feelings of perfect musical performances WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY SMOKING OVER THERE AT DISNEY THESE DAYS??
So yes, Soul is a weird freaking movie, with many different things to say. A lot of it takes places in the afterlife where 2d shapes try to have 3d features and little calculators obsess about numbers being perfect and then some of the movie is about a body swap with a talking cat! Somehow its all very meaningful though, you gotta love a movie that appeals not only to all ages but to different types of people. Creative types may like Soul the best, but then again it might just be a lot of fun for teenagers due to some of the sillier jokes. Whatever it is, the musician in me loved it. I loved that it equates having a “soul” to having “soul” in how you approach life. It was not too obvious or contrived, it just is a beautiful big budget piece of movie making that makes you think and encourages abstract concepts. Pixar could just keep cranking out sequels to Cars or Frozen or remake older Disney movies with updated animation or live action (Mulan 2020!) and that’s fine if they do…as long as they leave us little gems like this every couple of years or so.
#9. Nomadland
Director Chloe Zhao brings a peaceful, solemn look at the northwest American landscape in this tribute to nomadic lifestyle and culture. Using real life nomadic types, trailer park dwellers, Amazon factory workers, she shows how everyone in the human race is on the run from something. Her directorial styles seems to always be to let us finish the thought, as each scene is chopped short and each motion of the landscape flies by as a wordless, meaningful form of solitude.
But if this movie had just been about a certain sect of frontier life, it would have beena clone of her previous film, The Rider (2017). Instead it gives us two great performances by the best character actors of our time, one from Frances Mcdormand and one from David Stratharin. After the Oscars last night we know McDormand has become the female actor with the most lead acting awards at 3 of all time, and her performance is the center of this movie. We see each wandering nomad should through her eyes we feel the past she tries so hard to hide and never talks about. She wants a new relationship, but has been hurt so much she can't fathom giving herself the tiniest bit of happiness. Stratharin too, always criminally overlooked by award shows and the like, gives us a portrayal of a man who has a son he is not close to and a past that he has hidden from, and when he asks Fern to stay with him "I'd like you to stay...if that's what you would want..." It may just be the hardest thing he has ever had to say. This movie is all about nuance, and I couldn't be happier these award show accolades fell on it because so rarely is a movie that just kind of "drifts along like the wind" ever given credit for anything. I hope Zhao keeps creating slices of the natural feel like this, and I hope people keep paying attention to movies that are more humble. They are always out there, waiting to be discovered.
#8. Small Axe: Red, White and Blue
Of all the 5 Small Axe movies, this one affected me the most. To See John Boyega as Leroy Logan struggle to change the system from within is a journey not everyone would want to go on, especially his father who suffered during his tenure and strongly advised against it. The 1980s are as tumultuous as today, perhaps even more so for people whose only goal is to make positive change. Logan finds he must turn against friendly people in his own community, he struggles with letting anyone off easy. He is taunted and mentally tortured at work, but he keeps going. It's all he can do, it's the reason he fights for his own identity as a black man in England.
Small Axe is an odd little project, but most of the 5 films within exceed an hour so I have to view it less like a miniseries and more akin to something like Kieslowski's Decalogue series of films. A lot of people preferred Mangrove (which is a courtroom drama that runs 2 hours long) or Lovers Rock (a dance party set in real time that runs in and out of the teenage life set to the popular Ska and Reggae movement of the time), but something about Red White and Blue spoke to me. The way Steve McQueen gets angry about contemporary issues is channeled through Boyega’s Golden Globe winning performance and it is magical to watch. Much like the lead character struggles against racial prejudice in society and gets fed up with not being accepted and treated right, look at how McQueen keeps making challenging but thought provoking movies: Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Widows and now Small Axe….who knows what projects he has in store for us next. All I know is I can’t wait to see it, and it is destined to be misunderstood.
#7. Black Bear
The trio of Aubrey Plaza, Chris Abbott and Sarah Gadon create their own stories within the frame of Black Bear. It's a movie about the making of a movie by the director of the actual movie showing each new tale form a fresh perspective. It will be written off by a lot of people as pretentious for sure but I found it really thought provoking and engaging, the summer cabin they vacation to providing the perfect setting for the jealousy and suspicions that ensue.
Plaza especially deserves some kind of credit for her brave role and her ability to inhabit emotions bursting to get out but creating unfathomable tension as she thinks she "sees" what her fiancé is doing. But, is it actually the fiancé or just another way to work out the story in her mind? How does a filmmaker create- do they need to be inspired by failure or does that failure to act ordinary cripple them? In a way, Black Bear is about the process of creation itself, in love and being in love with filmmaking. Its a brave, bold movie worth seeking out.
#6 Twentieth Century
There is so much to admire about this movie, the most entertaining experimental movie of 2020. It is a film about a man who thinks he talks to God and knows he is destined to be Prime Minister of Canada but of course that is just the premise for the insanity that follows. The movie is hardly a movie at all, just a canvas for the strange comedy to thrive on. It is silly, blasphemous, Guy Maddin inspired and totally insane. You can't really talk about The 20th Century (no, its not a remake of the 1930s movie if that's what you are thinking!) because it defies categorization. Its a satire of a satire. Its ridiculous but also kind of touching. It needs to be seen by everyone, but it really made for cinephiles. It is destined to win no awards, but in the 22nd century might be the only movie worth talking about at all.
#5. Sound of Metal
The Sound of Metal starts off as at movie about a metal rock band, but becomes something else very quickly. We all take for granted that we can hear and see and are our version of normal, but how would we act if one of our senses suddenly went away? We could not walk, or see, or smell, or in the case of this movie, cannot hear anymore. As a musician, it could easily drive you crazy as now you suddenly need to learn a way to communicate and phone calls and modern ways of traveling and living become alien to you. The metal the movie describes is a new kid of hearing, like a sudden metallic clang in your head that never goes away even though the surgery is supposed to fix everything.
Riz Ahmed gives another masterclass performance at the center of this movie, worthy of an Academy Award for sure. We feel his struggle and everything he does makes sense to us, he even handles this loss of hearing better than I would that's for sure. The supporting players are superb as well especially deaf teacher Paul Raci who is always projecting an air of calm, even when his heart is broken. The choice to go on with life even though it is not the life you had or even though you are now handicapped, well, this movie makes the argument that life is worth living anyways. Accepting our limitations and our personal struggles with pain is what life is all about, a divine test or maybe a divine comedy.
#4. Da 5 Bloods
Spike Lee's fun (?) adventure action movie, involving 4 men who have been friends since Vietnam has enough plot in it for three different movies, which is exactly the kind of stuff I love from him. Lee wears his influences on his sleeve for this adventure, a dash of Apocalypse Now here and a sprinkle of Treasure of the Sierra Madre there, but of course with all African American leads. The real treat is the acting turn by Delroy Lindo, brought out of semi-retirement and ready to channel Humphrey Bogart, fronting a Maga-hat and having a cavalier approach to going back into the Vietnam jungle for his buried treasure. There are many developments along the journey, even a final treasure of acting by Chadwick Boseman as a lost friend from the war and a reuniting with the son her never knew so well.
It is hard to say why this movie exudes such an effortless charm; it is serious and funny at the same time. It is long at two and a half hours, but doesn't really have the traumatic heft that so many war movies get lost in. It is tragic at times and inevitable at others, people fall victim to old habits and greed but somehow everything works. Lee's previous attempt at this kind of movie, the 2008 WW2 drama Miracle at St. Anna, remains underrated and there are some similarities between the two movies, but this one is more successful at balancing the humor with the pathos. Spike Lee can make a crowd pleaser like Blackkklansman two years ago and now this eccentric slice of classic movie styles...he may just be our greatest living director. We never know what he will throw at us next.
#3. One Night in Miami
This is an example of a stage play put to film well, in the modern tradition of Glengarry Glenross (1992), Carnage (2011), or Fences (2016). In a year where there were many attempts to film a meaningful saga about the Black experience in America, this one came out far and above the others because it dares to dig deep. The directing by Regina King is subtle and perfectly paced, while the icons portrayed like Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are genuine even though the actual conversations between these legends are imagined and idealized.
It's hard to have a movie taking place in the past and hoping for a future where many things have come to pass but many things still need to change. It is a story that has a lot to do with music and what it means to be famous in any realm, and the portrayal by all four main cast members is one for the ages especially Leslie Odom Jr as the compassionate Sam Cooke, stuck being a role model for every type of person even ones he didn't ever think about. King has been on rise recently as an actor to watch, but now she bravely jumps into the directors chair and it is a completely galvanizing debut for a director.
#2. Palm Springs
Palm Springs definitely knows what kind of movie it is, echoes of Groundhogs Day are obvious and all over while the doomed romance comedy is also an often traveled troupe. But somehow, as with the best films, everything seems new and fresh again. Credit should go to Andy Sandburg and Cristin Milioti for taking the premise of living the same day over and over again and making it so charming. J.K. Simmons pops up as another sort of guru role, he really is one if the best supporting actors ever.
As fun as the story can be at times, underneath it is this dark undercurrent that imprints such a strong mark on our psyches. Both of these people have done something horrible, one in the past and on in the ....future (possible futures)? Maybe the act of messing up is human nature, and we would all want a chance to start again from scratch. No movie has gotten the Sci fi romance genre as great since Eternal Sunshine, or maybe even Groundhog's Day itself. It's relatable, enjoyable, and underappreciated for sure in the year of 2020.
#1. Another Round
What an amazing experience this movie turned out to be, perhaps the ultimate expression of European Cinema in the 2020’s so far. Actor Mads Mikkelsen and Writer / director Thomas Vinterburg really hone in on what it feels like to be alive, surveying the experience of modern day Denmark and the influence alcohol has on its current society. Four best friends who are teachers set out to be just a little bit buzzed each day since they decided that based on an old philosophy, being a little drunk all the time means you are truly alive. Drinking is not an escape per se, but the way we are meant to live at all times. By the end of the movie, we have seen that any kind of simple pleasure can lead to addiction, can give you a new perspective, can lead you to appreciate your life and your job that much more. The key factor is each of the four friends are well developed, each has their own experience with this new lifestyle, and not everything goes as planned.
Vinterburg has made a career of making experimental films in practice, but the tone of his movies are always humane and delve into the human psyche. The world is such a normal place with family you can trust, friends that understand, but what are the rules of the world and how can you shake them up? The director did it in one of my favorite movies from the 2010’s, The Hunt (2012), where Mikkelsen again stars and plays a school teacher wrongly accused of a crime and it shows how society turns against him. Also, before when he and Lars Von Trier founded the Dogma 95 film movement (using only natural light to film their movies among other rules to get back to the basics of humanity and the heart of “real cinema”) and he directed The Celebration (1998), a movie that looks at family secrets and pressures often kept from one another.
Another Round feels like a summation of his work, and it’s a bold statement. The movie leaves its mark not my how the camera can show off the feeling of being drunk, but in its complex knowledge of human existence and how unpredictable, horrifying and wonderful life can be. To say he stuck the landing with the ending is a bit of an understatement; this movie has one of the most perfect endings since 1959’s Some Like It Hot uttered the closing line “well, nobody’s perfect.” The glimmer of hope a minor distraction offers is all alcohol turns out to be, the real meaning of life was staring these characters in the face all along. The background information about the filming of this movie and the fact that Vinterberg lost his 19-year-old daughter during production (heartbreaking of course), threatens to overwhelm the importance of this movie. But in another way, perhaps it merely emphasizes the fact that despite tragedy, life goes on. We have to enjoy it, and we have to find meaning in the small things to truly feel alive.