My 14 Favourite 2020 Releases
I’ve put off publishing my favourite movies of 2020 because, despite it being near the end of the first quarter of 2021, everyone tacitly understands that the “movie year” isn’t over because certain prestigious titles have not been released (and therefore have not been seen by me). After reflecting on it being sort of odd that certain movies’ Oscar campaigns determine when the year “really ends,” and that those movies could not honestly be called 2020 movies except in the context of Oscar campaigns, I’ve decided to give up waiting and just post my stupid list. So here it is, and take note that I have not seen a lot of movies that might be on this list if I did see them, including Minari and Nomadland.
A searing image from the powerful Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
14. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (directed by Jason Woliner)
Not a lot that’s very intelligent to say about this one. It’s mostly very funny and Maria Bakalova deserves all of the praise and award nominations she’s received for her wild performance. Hopefully this won’t be a flash in the pan for Bakalova and she’ll be able to carve out a permanent position in mainstream cinema, since this movie proves she can do pretty much anything.
13. Promising Young Woman (directed by Emerald Fennell)
Some major story issues ultimately don’t hold this back from being a fairly galvanizing gut-punch of a movie, and that’s saying a lot because the story issues are a problem. Carey Mulligan deserves most if not all of the credit for making this movie work; she forces psychological reality onto uneven material through sheer quality of acting.
12. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (directed by Aaron Sorkin)
Total Hollywood schmaltz, but fairly sharp and entertaining schmaltz, although I did think it was a bit much when Abbie Hoffman applauds Lyndon Johnson’s attorney general. Sacha Baron Cohen has gotten all the praise and seems to be on track for an Oscar nomination, but I think the real standouts are Mark Rylance and Frank Langella (and isn’t it a bit of an insult to the guy who founded the “Youth International Party” to cast him with someone who’s pushing 50?).
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
11. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (directed by Charlie Kaufman)
Just a little too cerebral to be totally effective, I think, but the genius-level creativity of the storytelling here is nonpareil.
10. Saint Maud (directed by Rose Glass)
Excellent cinematography, editing, sound editing and acting.
His House
9. His House (directed by Remi Weekes)
Maybe the most underseen movie on this list. It’s a horror story about two South Sudanese refugees who escape to the UK, only to experience a haunting of mysterious provenance. It should be said right away: this movie is actually scary. Certain moments reminded me of the scariest movie experience of my life: watching The Sixth Sense for the first time (I was 10). As is the case with all socially conscious genre films, the social message wouldn’t have an impact if the genre thrills weren’t taken seriously and delivered – and they are. In a perfect world, Wunmi Musako would be a frontrunner for best actress, she has a line here that is particularly devastating and nicely sums up the ethos of the film.
8. The Assistant (directed by Kitty Green)
Another kind of horror movie, and equally successful. This movie does a lot that you would expect given its subject matter, but its best quality, to me, is the success with which it evokes a particular time and place. Watching it, you feel a winter chill creep through your bones. Given how little it matters these days where most movies take place, I consider this alone to be a great accomplishment.
7. Cuties (directed by Maïmouna Docouré)
Yes, the initial poster was a pointless, self-defeating act of provocation by Netflix, but if you watch this movie and come away thinking Doucouré is making content for pedophiles, you’re… well, you’re not very good at judging films, to say the least. This list has a lot of debut films on it and I think, of all of them, this is the most impressive. Docouré is dealing with explosive subject matter and she never loses control in telling a highly nuanced and ambivalent story.
She Dies Tomorrow
6. She Dies Tomorrow (directed by Amy Seimetz)
Feels like a throwback to a time when indie films expressed an independence of sensibility, as in, they felt like they sprang from an independent mind and not a PR department in search of a well-trod lane. An impressive tonal balance in that the feeling of gathering dread is never undercut by the humour, and vice versa. Jane Adams is the standout of a great ensemble cast.
5. On the Rocks (directed by Sofia Coppola)
Not Coppola’s best movie by a long shot, but probably her funniest, and a very easygoing time spent with two extremely likable people. Rashida Jones and Bill Murray each get to play against type in a very subtle way which I don’t think has been justly acknowledged. I’ve known for a long time that no one does pathos as well as Murray, and this is one of his very best performances, but I was caught off guard by Rashida Jones. Her performance is so careful and so accurate; I didn’t realize she possessed this level of skill and it shows how actors can be so limited by the material they’re given.
Shirley
4. Shirley (directed by Josephine Decker)
Perhaps the only artist-biopic that feels like it’s a creation of its subject, and yet this film would be totally valid if there never was a Shirley Jackson. Decker adapts her cinematic virtuosity to a story that could have been way, way, way stuffier in the hands of someone like, I don’t know, Stephen Daldry. But the characters here are spontaneous in a way you almost never see with biopics or period films. That Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg won’t get anywhere close to an Oscar nomination for their performances here is proof movie awards are a sham (Odessa Young is brilliant as well). Stuhlbarg’s delivery of the word “derivative” was probably the funniest movie moment in 2020.
3. Tenet (directed by Christopher Nolan)
In a year with a better range of films this probably wouldn’t rank so high. It took a while to grow on me and I’d still not rank it with the director’s best, but the unprecedented creativity and innovation of the action sequences here can’t be diminished or denied. This movie is like a visitation from a parallel world where large-budget cinematic innovation is occurring outside of a software’s ability to render photorealistic laser blasts. It’s a lot of fun and gets better with every viewing.
2. Mank (directed by David Fincher)
This movie got dumped on by a lot of critics because, if I have it right, it was (gasp!) historically inaccurate and (oh no!) provides an iconoclastic depiction of Orson Welles. The blasé reception of this luxuriously intricate and endlessly nuanced piece of filmmaking is, to me, some evidence that maybe critics have been dulled a bit by the shoddy state of current filmmaking. Of course, artistic tastes are subjective etc, but can they really be that subjective about a movie this good? Anyway, a fine movie about a man who discovers there’s a limit to his cynicism.
Kajillionaire
1. Kajillionaire (directed by Miranda July)
I have to admit I was a little nervous when I saw the trailer for this film. I’m a pretty huge fan of July’s work (Me & You & Everyone We Know is one of my favourite movies) but Evan Rachel Wood’s performance appeared to give a whiff of that forced mid-2000s “quirk” which I think people unjustly associate with July but which is, nonetheless, a thing, and a bit of a death kiss to any comedy. Well, put simply, my expectations were exceeded profoundly. Not only is Wood’s performance consistent, dimensional, and, most surprising of all, somehow natural, but so are the performances of every actor in this movie, despite nearly all of them playing one-of-a-kind characters unlike anyone else you’re likely to meet at the movies. July tells a story here that really doesn’t telegraph where it’s going; the narrative in broad strokes is unpredictable but so is every scene. There are many human moments that do what movies almost never do these days: surprise you. I think, more than anything else, that should communicate this film’s greatness: as someone fairly desensitized to the formulas undergirding most movie plots and characters, I most long to be surprised, and experience the hopeful expectation that attends an original story. This movie provides that experience, and exceeds that expectation. This is probably July’s best movie so far, and will hopefully open the door for her to make another one before another ten years have passed. Oh, and I can’t end this blog without praising Richard Jenkins and especially Gina Rodriguez; Jenkins finds the rare note he hasn’t yet played, and Rodriguez reminds you why people use words like “electrifying” to describe great acting.