Films of 2020

This is my annual post about the new movies I watched in 2020. It is not a comprehensive list of every film I saw -- just the ones that were released this year. There is some slight overlap with last year's list because a couple of the 2019 Traverse City Film Festival films I saw were not commercially released until 2020. 

Needless to say, I saw nearly all of these films at home rather than at my local multiplex. I think the last movie I saw in the cinema was Little Women in December 2019. On Long Island. I vividly recall the experience and miss it dearly. 

The top tier list:

Never Rarely Sometimes Always
First Cow

Sound of Metal
Saint Frances **

The Assistant

Palm Springs

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Shirley

I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Emma

I'm not sure how many of these movies are Best Picture Oscar-worthy, which means I'm not sure what the Academy Awards are going to be like after this extraordinary year. Some of these films and the acting performances are definitely award-worthy, but if feels weird to be making assessments without the clear end-of-year Oscar-bait movies (and ad campaigns). Nomadland, which I have not seen, may be in that category. And I read that the Academy will make films released through February 2021 eligible for 2020 Oscars.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is fantastic, though sometimes a difficult film to watch. It is a realistic movie about a teenager's efforts to terminate her unwanted pregnancy. She has to depart small town Pennsylvania for New York City with her cousin to make this happen.

First Cow was a strange but interesting film. It's worth your time, though it tells an unusual story and sometimes moves at a slow pace. The film provides somewhat subtle commentary about economic inequality, arguably, and mostly focuses on the ingenuity of ordinarily people (including a cook-for-hire and an immigrant). 

As a side note, my spouse and I watched another very good Kelly Reichardt film this year, Night Moves, about eco-terrorism. Previously, I'd seen Meek's Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy. She might be nominated for Best Director, which is too rare for female filmmakers.

I didn't have high expectations for Sounds of Metal, partly because I'm not a fan of that musical genre. However, the film is excellent, focusing on a drummer's unexpected loss of hearing -- and his struggle to regain control of his life. 

My wife and I caught Saint Frances at the 2019 Traverse City Film Festival and it was a highlight. The acting was first rate and the story was compelling. 

The Assistant is another film that is difficult to watch at times, but it reveals a good deal about the world in covering just one day in the life of a young female assistant to a prominent individual in the entertainment world. 

I'm a sucker for the Groundhog Day plot (it is one of my favorite films) and Palm Springs does a very good job with that conceit. It's genuinely funny and entertaining. Feel free to watch it on repeat.

Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis are outstanding in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The film was apparently based on a play and it often seemed like a filmed play to me. Like The Assistant, it primarily focuses on a series of workplace interactions on a single day in the arts world. This may be the best Netflix original film I've seen over the years. 

Elisabeth Moss's performance in Shirley is almost over-the-top, but the script is relatively strong and the other acting is top notch. I've seen Moss several times this year (I watched last year's Her Smell early in the year in addition to The Invisible Man) and she can get under my skin in a lead role. Her characters are often unlikeable, even when they are supposed to be more sympathetic (such as the heroine in The Invisible Man). This may be my fault. 

Most of these are genre films

Blow the Man Down

Sometimes Always Never

Vast of Night

Lovers Rock

The Trip to Greece

Invisible Man

Da 5 Bloods

Extra Ordinary **

Standing Up, Falling Down

Frances Ferguson
Love Birds

Happiest Season
Troop Zero **

Both Blow the Man Down and Sometimes Always Never are humorous, but also feature serious storylines that make the films unique. Both have elements of the thriller genre. 

Vast of Night is sci-fi and not for everyone. The first half of the film proceeds at a very slow pace -- my spouse stopped watching, in fact. The second half of the film zooms by and the payoff made watching the entire film worthwhile to me. It is set decades ago in a remote western US town. The main characters are producing a radio program that takes an unexpected turn even as most of the town is focused on a high school basketball game.

Lovers Rock is another film about a single day in an artistic setting -- this one centers upon a house party in West London in 1980. Much of the film seems like a series of music videos as the story about the first and second generation West Indian immigrants is a bit thin and very few of the characters receive extended time on screen. The atmospheric effort is very short for a feature film and is apparently part of a series of interrelated movies from Steve McQueen. This was entertaining and interesting, but a bit more plot could readily have sent it to the first tier above. 

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have now released 4  "trip" films and there is a fair amount of redundancy. But they are also funny men and the food and scenery are spectacular to see. In a year with no personal travel since February, it was a timely choice. In this film, filmmaker Michael Winterbottom plays around with ideas about comedy and tragedy, especially as reflected in the retracing of Odysseus's epic journey from Troy to Ithaca. There are overt references to the Sirens, for example, and other figures, locations, and plotpoints. 

I'm not sure why "Invisible Man" was marketed as horror. It's really more of a sci-fi thriller, with a focus on the gender and power dynamics in a personal relationship. Without context, many of the special effects seem like standard tropes from horror, but if you realize there's an invisible person opening doors or making noises (or attacking people), then that's not my view of horror. 

Da 5 Bloods earned a lot of great reviews, but it didn't resonate with me nearly as much as most Spike Lee films do. I know it referenced a number of other Vietnam films, but that didn't help all that much. Platoon and Apocalypse Now are worthy of Lee's nods, but there's too much Rambo here. 

Most of the remainder of the films are worth viewing, though they are mostly lightweight films with comedic intent. 

Docs

Crip Camp

Dick Johnson is Dead

These were both excellent and worth your time. Either could compete for an Academy Award.


**I saw these films at the 2019 Traverse City film festival, but they actually had a 2020 release date.


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