2020 sucked. There’s no point in trying to sugar-coat its awfulness. For me, watching movies, new and old, was one of the only activities that made life feel bearable. I covered my best first-watches of pre-2020 movies in a previous post, and now I’m finally ready to share the best new movies of the year from hell. Here are my top twenty movies of 2020 –– my top ten are ranked, and the next ten are not.
1. Small Axe
The most ambitious cinematic project of 2020 isn’t one movie, it’s five. 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen creates a vivid tapestry of London’s West Indian immigrant community throughout the middle of the 20th century, tackling a plethora of topics and genres that all fit together phenomenally. A group of Black protesters face off against racist police in the thrilling courtroom drama Mangrove, while Red, White and Blue stars John Boyega as a new member of the city’s police force who struggles to change the institution from the inside out, and Alex Wheatle explores the early life of the titular musician-turned-novelist, who served a brutal prison stint in after the 1981 Brixton uprising. Education highlights the racism in the British school system through the lens of a family drama.
The fifth piece, Lovers Rock, finds respite from the brutal city in a phenomenal house party. McQueen combines loose plot, unbelievably beautiful lighting, and elegant handheld camerawork to conjure an undeniable feeling, an energy that shifts from warm to hot to literally steaming, and then juxtaposes this transcendent magnetism with the harsh coldness of the world outside the party. This excellent review by Angelica Jade Bastién does a much better job explaining its artistry than I’m equipped to. The euphoria of Lovers Rock emphasizes why Small Axe is so much more than another exceptionally-executed vision of Black trauma –– it’s a gorgeous encapsulation of the beauty and the struggles of West Indian life in London. Not every installment is perfect, but the entire anthology is greater than the sum of its parts. Every piece establishes the importance of dedicated space for the strength of a community, and each chapter still maintains a certain amount of hope amid the constant conflict. Its breadth and nuanced specificity make it a moving tribute to a fascinating, endlessly multifaceted community.
My reviews of each Small Axe film: Mangrove, Lovers Rock, Red, White and Blue, Alex Wheatle, Education
Small Axe is available on Amazon Prime Video.
2. Kajillionaire
Miranda July’s strange nature-versus-nurture film revolves around a bizarre family unit that’s desperate for cash, but too countercultural and self-destructive to settle for regular jobs — so, naturally, they run micro-heists and laughably tiny cons to make their way. Their oddball version of the grifting lifestyle isn’t compatible with a warm parenting model, so they’ve raised their daughter as a co-conspirator instead of a human child. Everything goes bananas when they invite a more straight-laced woman into their latest operation. The family’s various eccentricities are so offbeat that numerous scenes veer into surrealism, with only Gina Rodriguez’s Melanie anchoring them in reality.
The whole thing hinges on Evan Rachel Wood, who gives one of the oddest, most unique performances I’ve ever seen as Old Dolio, the central unloved daughter: she’s so detached from typical human behavior that her movements and interactions are almost animalistic, yet her nervously expressive face radiates a childlike innocence and a deeply sympathetic yearning for connection. July and cinematographer Sebastian Winterø excel at evoking a subliminal feeling with simple imagery. I loved every second of it. Read more here.
Kajillionaire is available for rental at any digital retailer.
3. Da 5 Bloods
Spike Lee’s brilliant war film is a perfect display of his trademarks and strengths — there’s a magnificent cast of wildly unique characters, expertly-placed real-world footage, stellar soundtrack integration (with special attention to Marvin Gaye), a near-dance sequence, and the signature dolly shot. The gut-wrenching film blurs the lines between cause and effect, because its director understands that events don’t just occur in logical, distinct sequences — instead, everything bleeds together in chaotic, irreversibly tangled cycles. We see that PTSD is an effect of trauma, but it also is trauma, just as the aftermath of war is a war itself.
Da 5 Bloods’ vision of the war in Vietnam is an embellished memory, as our aged heroes look exactly the same in the “flashbacks” to their tours. This isn’t the war exactly as they experienced it, but as it lives in their consciousness forty-odd years later. Chadwick Boseman is ideally cast for this unique depiction of remembered wartime — he built his career portraying legendary historical figures and a prominent superhero, so his overly-theatrical monologues and heroic, larger-than-life persona fit the film’s romanticized, almost nostalgic wartime sequences. But war in this movie is a gaping wound as much as it is scar tissue, because itt hasn’t ended for the Black American veterans, and it hasn’t ended for many Vietnamese people, either. War’s endlessness manifests physically, mentally, and emotionally, as injustice, poverty, and illness persist in the lives of so many that are forced into the conflict. Read more here.
Da 5 Bloods is available on Netflix.
4. Sound of Metal
Immensely empathetic and triumphantly bittersweet, Darius Marder’s film follows a drummer as he struggles with hearing loss. It’s one of the best movies of 2020, but also one of the best movies for 2020 because it perfectly distills the overwhelming anxiety of a cataclysmic life shift, as well as the gratification of coming to terms with the new normal and appreciating the smallest simplicities. Riz Ahmed gives an enormously emotional performance as Ruben with a minuscule amount of dialogue, using his endlessly expressive eyes to perfect effect. In a role that could easily drift into predictable explosiveness in its biggest scenes, Ahmed only has one major outburst, then spends the rest of the film quietly mourning his character’s loss. There’s never a moment in which you feel like he’s pretending not to hear — he thoroughly convinces you that he cannot in every single scene.
He’s backed up by a wonderful Olivia Cooke, who movingly embodies the concern of a loved one who wants the best for their partner, but doesn’t know how to fit into the new equation. The remainder of the cast, which includes numerous hearing-impaired actors, gives earnestly natural performances, with Paul Raci as a clear standout — he’s a steady beacon of hope in the film’s darkest moments. And the other major star of the film is its sound design, which makes it easy to temporarily understand fragments of Ruben’s experience because it echoes his own limited hearing, giving a strong sense of the chilling loneliness created by muffled silence. It’s a phenomenal effect that further enhances a movie that’s already so full of loneliness, conflict, and hope. Read more here.
Sound of Metal is available on Amazon Prime Video.
5. Soul
Pete Docter’s latest animated masterpiece is an affirming testament to the beautiful minutiae of everyday life and to the power of music. After the most hopeless year in recent history, Soul provides a much-needed assertion that the tiniest pleasures (and annoyances!) of embodied existence makes our time on this planet worthwhile. There’s no better place to set a movie full of tiny everyday details than New York — the hustle and bustle of such a compact city necessitates a ton of microinteractions with strangers.
The movie draws perfect parallels between the loose, freewheeling, collaborative spirit of jazz and our shared experience of improvising the details of life. Everyone’s doing their own thing at the same time, and it all fits together somehow. It uses Pixar’s most creative and distinct animation to date, with a variety of unique styles and techniques unlike anything the studio’s done before, and the music from Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross instantly joins the upper echelon of Pixar soundtracks. The montage near the climax is my favorite movie moment of 2020. Read more here.
Soul is available on Disney Plus.
6. Palm Springs
One of the year’s most hopeful movies takes the Groundhog Day time-loop formula and applies it to a more straightforward romantic comedy. The movie hinges on its lead couple — all its enjoyment and excitement stems from seeing Cristin Milioti’s Sarah and Andy Samberg’s Nyles traverse their ridiculous predicament together, and from witnessing how it can build and destroy their relationship. Both have fulfilling individual arcs, but the heart of Palm Springs is their growth as a duo. The actors have perfect chemistry and effortlessly shift between playful goofiness and serious drama.
Andy Siara’s screenplay steals the show here. It’s pleasantly familiar without ever seeming derivative, thanks to several clever new time-travel rules and consistently hilarious dialogue. Like Sound of Metal and Soul, it’s a movie that affirms the value of life, but Palm Springs is unique in its emphasis on relationships as the most vital force in the world. Read more here.
Palm Springs is available on Hulu.
7. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
In 18th-century France, an artist (Noémie Merlant) is hired to paint a portrait of a sheltered, stubborn young woman (Adèle Haenel) who refuses to pose for such a piece. While it sounds very simple, the conflict enriches and evolves as the film progresses, and it ingeniously complicates the relationship between the two women — as artist and muse, as friends, and as lovers. It does a great job of building tension and an even better job releasing it. Buoyed by two astonishing lead performances, the drama of Portrait plays out on the faces of its two main actresses. The subtleties and nuances of their facial expressions communicate worlds of wonder and longing: Haenel struggles to contain her smiles as Merlant steals glances at her visage (research for her painting, of course). It’s immensely clear to any audience that their love is heartbreakingly honest and intensely passionate, despite the highly limited nature of both their dialogue and their physical intimacy.
Céline Sciamma and her team make elegant use of their gorgeous seaside location and period setting to create stunning compositions for nearly every frame of the movie. Yet the dialogue may be even prettier than the visuals — each word feels carefully selected by Sciamma, who also wrote the film, to maximize poignancy and emotional resonance. There’s more memorable one-liners in Portrait than nearly any film of the last several years. This movie is a dream for art lovers and hopeless romantics, as it often feels more like a painting, a poem, or a symphony than a film. It’s a celebration of art, passion, and love.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire was the last movie I reviewed with the Horizon at Westmont –– read the full review here.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is available on Hulu.
8. The Vast of Night
A gripping low-budget thriller with incredible camerawork and a very clever script, this 1950s-set movie is at once a love letter to old-fashioned radio plays, sci-fi TV, and a bygone era of retrofuturist optimism. The vision and execution are both incredibly simple and low-key — almost the entire movie plays out in dialogue, and the thrills come exclusively from impressive performances that evoke the best parts of hearing a spooky campfire story. There’s at least three very long uncut takes that highlight remarkable acting and demonstrate shockingly strong directorial confidence.
I don’t want to wreck any part of the story, but it evokes a creepier version of the gee-whiz energy that makes Stranger Things and The Iron Giant so entertaining. It miraculously harnesses the best elements of old-school science fiction adventure tropes and repurposes them to create a fascinating modern thriller. I can’t wait to see what director Andrew Patterson does next. Read more here.
The Vast of Night is available on Amazon Prime Video.
9. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Sacha Baron Cohen is the Tom Cruise of comedy — he’s absolutely fearless in his commitment to his craft, and I’d be deeply saddened but entirely unsurprised to learn that he died while filming one of his outrageous stunts. SBC’s unparalleled audacity made the original Borat a unique piece in the pop cultural landscape, as his willingness to go anywhere and say anything to anyone provided ample opportunities for real-world humor rooted in disturbing prejudicial realities.
Fourteen years later, Baron Cohen has successfully recaptured the hilarity of his original movie in Subsequent Moviefilm, with decidedly clearer focus. The first Borat was a broad trek through the most bizarre pockets of American culture that consisted of loosely-connected segments; the sequel utilizes a stronger narrative through-line that emphasizes fatherhood, truth, and a consistent skewering of Trumpism. Maria Bakalova’s Tutar serves as the heart of the movie — she propels its narrative and also provides some of its funniest moments. Bakalova’s comedic talent and boldness both rival those of her on-screen father, and her position as a complete unknown allows her to partake in numerous situations that Baron Cohen cannot. Her presence here is the key to the film’s success — she makes the project feel like a distinct, original, and entirely worthwhile movie instead of a disappointingly repetitive sequel. I’m not sure it will age well, but this movie’s timeliness makes it an undeniably accurate encapsulation of the Trump era. Read more here.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is available on Amazon Prime Video.
10. Wolfwalkers
Irish animation house Cartoon Saloon’s beautiful new movie adds a folklorish twist to the werewolf mythos, making the concept simultaneously more kid-friendly and more ethereal: the wolves emerge as spirits from sleeping humans who can only awaken once the wolves return. This ridiculously high-concept premise becomes even more complicated when the filmmakers throw a hunter into the mix as the protagonist’s father, creating a tense dynamic that brilliantly captures the anxieties of kids and parents becoming each other’s worst nightmares.
This concept alone makes Wolfwalkers a riveting watch, and the gorgeous hand-drawn animation makes it even better. The creative team uses an elegantly rough aesthetic to make the movie look like a moving tapestry, especially in its vibrant woodland sequences. The animators also selectively employ split screens and narrow framing to heighten visual drama in key moments. It’s hard to top hand-drawn animation. Read more here.
Wolfwalkers is available on Apple TV Plus.
Here’s ten more 2020 movies that didn’t quite crack my top ten, but are great watches nonetheless.
Bacurau
This Brazilian movie is a riveting genre-bender that firmly asserts rural collectivism’s moral superiority to individualism and colonialism, while also establishing a world in which a tight-knit community can maintain power and autonomy when invaders arrive. It begins as a relatively straightforward drama, then shifts into an anti-imperialist sci-fi satire, and eventually settles on a deliciously bloody Western. The titular town is vibrant and full of odd characters, which makes it incredibly easy to root for its inhabitants as they fight for their community. It’s ridiculously satisfying to see asymmetrical warfare bend in the opposite direction from what we’d expect. Read more here.
Bacurau is available for rental at any digital retailer.
Bad Education
Cory Finley’s Thoroughbreds was a fascinating, tonally-unique movie, and Bad Education demonstrates that his flexible manipulation of everyday tension wasn’t a one-off. The film tells a fictionalized version of a real-life story about shocking administrative corruption at a public school in New York state. Hugh Jackman gives one of his greatest performances as a superbly complex character who brilliantly toes the line between protagonist and antagonist. The film wonderfully grapples with the nuances of rationalization and compromise in the face of ethical violations. Read more here.
Bad Education is available on HBO Max.
Dick Johnson is Dead
Kirsten Johnson attempts to immortalize her fast-fading father in this unique documentary, which punctuates tender family footage with meditations on mortality and hilariously-staged death sequences that give her titular dad several cinematic sendoffs. This is a fascinating piece of art therapy — it allows its director to process her father’s imminent passing while encouraging the audience to confront the discomforts of death that American culture is so adept at avoiding. The concept is so strong that the 90 minute runtime feels more like 30, and Dick has such a warm on-screen presence that every second is a treat.
Dick Johnson is Dead is available on Netflix.
First Cow
Kelly Reichardt’s slow-burning film, which chronicles a small baking business on the Oregon frontier, is a simple little parable about the beauty of friendship and the tempting perils of the American dream. Movies rarely show that, because of capitalism’s insistence on growth and individualism, even the smallest businesses have the capacity to bite off more than they can chew, which subsequently estranges the businessmen from their community. No character in First Cow ever seems satisfied with their position, which makes sense, as Kelly Reichardt makes the frontier look cold and uninviting despite its natural beauty. The only advantage that the lead duo has is also the only force keeping them alive: their quiet camaraderie. Read more here.
First Cow is available for rental at any digital retailer.
His House
A haunting horror movie that mines an immigrant story for its inherent terror. The film depicts a South Sudanese couple seeking asylum in the U.K., only to find a terrifying spirit in their shoddy assigned housing. First-time feature director Remi Weekes pumps this full of disturbing, memorable images and a constant sense of dread. It’s a chilling story of personal change prompted by desperation, and works equally well as a horror movie and an immigrant narrative. Read more here.
HIs House is available on Netflix.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Charlie Kaufman’s latest film is somehow incredibly dense and oddly sparse at the same time. It feels like he’s mercilessly critiquing his own brain with verbose, pretentious characters that seem like parodies of his previous work. The film frames its lonely central characters as products of their environment — their personalities form around the art they engage with, from poetry to musical theatre to film criticism, and they’re held back by the apparently-suffocating grip of their aging parents. I cannot pretend to fully understand a lot of what Kaufman includes here, but I think it’s safe to view this movie as a meditation on the intersections between untapped potential and existentialism. It presents a labyrinthine patchwork of a human life where everything melts together in a haze of memory and anxiety, almost like a surreal stage production of It’s a Wonderful Life without any of the sweetness or optimism of Capra’s film. Through offputtingly atypical editing techniques and bizarre performances, Kaufman maintains a constant sense of dreamlike confusion that makes every scene so painful and fascinating to witness. Read more here.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things is available on Netflix.
The Invisible Man
Conceptually brilliant and technically satisfying, this movie weaponizes the horror of abusive relationships for maximal cinematic tension. By turning the lowest-budget monster in the Universal pantheon into a haunting symbol of abusers’ constant unseen influence, Leigh Whennell creates accessible, effective supernatural horror rooted in chillingly real traumas like gaslighting and manipulation. At its best, the film’s titular villain allows Whannell to craft tense scenarios with nothing but an empty room and a pitch-perfect Elisabeth Moss. And that’s not to say the movie is visually uninteresting — the director finds fascinating ways to frame and move around his sinisterly empty spaces, and when the antagonist becomes a little more visible, Whannell takes the opportunity to shoot one of the best action sequences of the year. Read more here.
The Invisible Man is available on HBO Max.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Eliza Hittman’s teen abortion odyssey is a terrifying look at the perils of being a young woman in the United States. The director bleakly inverts the male gaze that we’re so used to seeing in movies — we see numerous shots from a man’s point of view, and all of them feel threatening thanks to very obvious context and the constant discomfort of actresses Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder. Almost every man in this movie sexualizes these young women, yet Hittman’s gentle touch assures that the film itself doesn’t make the same mistake. She provides an unceasingly empathetic avenue for the two main debut performances — she captures Flanigan’s overwhelmed naturalism with several astoundingly long takes, while Ryder provides impressively subdued support. The former is the star of the show, but it wouldn’t work without the latter. Read more here.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is available on HBO Max.
The Photograph
This quiet romance from Stella Meghie is one of the calmest studio movies in recent memory, and is bolstered by an excellent soundtrack. Full of relatively simple but unwaveringly charming characters, The Photograph is a solid portrait of family and romance across time and space. Most of the conflict stems from communication breakdowns and distance between characters — nobody intentionally wrongs anybody else throughout the entire movie. Every character is on a trajectory of self-improvement, and the drama comes from well-intentioned people’s priorities not lining up. The filmmakers succeed in portraying the strengths and weaknesses we unintentionally inherit from our parents — stubbornness, passion, drive, seclusion, and many more. Issa Rae makes a fantastic romantic lead, and has great chemistry with the always-likable Laketih Stanfield. Read more here.
The Photograph is available on HBO Max.
Tenet
The time-travel espionage epic from Christopher Nolan is a tangled web of paradoxes — messy yet precise, vague yet specific, pointless yet thought-provoking. Its chaotic explosion of too much information in not enough time is so uninviting that it allows the audience to check out from its meticulous mechanics and instead just ride the wave of insane spectacle, practically begging you to stop getting hung up on logistics. Divorced from any sense of meaning or context, the action imagery is among the best the filmmaker has ever created, and the dialogue is by far his funniest writing yet. Each scene works so well in its own bizarre way that the importance of the connections between them fades into oblivion — yet the overall movie still maintains a relentlessly thrilling pace. And the broad narrative strokes are genuinely satisfying — Kenneth Branagh’s villainous motivations make enough sense as an existentialist Bond homage, and the way that Nolan closes various time loops is like the best part of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban expanded into an entire movie. It’s a gorgeous cinematic machine that makes little sense but feels very right. Read more here.
Tenet is available for rental at any digital retailer.
A great read. Thank you! Adding to my ‘to watch’ list!