Cinema 2020: Best of the Year

Below are the ten most satisfying and memorable films I saw in 2020:

10. Portrait of a Lady on Fire A-  

This one is technically a 2019 film, having had a limited, Oscar-qualifying release in L.A. and New York last December, but who cares! 2020 has been all about throwing certain rules and norms of yesteryear out the window, right? Well, except that it still only got local release here in Seattle (and most of the rest of the country, in fact) in February, which means I likely would have included it in my 2020 top ten movies regardless. And why? Because it's such a uniquely beautiful and memorable, achingly romantic love story, it easily transcends the fact that it happens to be between two women, a portraitist and the young woman she's hired to paint. This is the kind of movie that seeps into you slowly, so it can take a while before you quite realize its true greatness, but this period piece from 18th-century France will stay with you for ages afterward. What I said then: In the midst of watching this film, I occasionally wondered what all the critical fuss has been about. Now that some time has allowed it to sink in, I find myself wondering if maybe it’s a masterpiece. 9. Small Axe: Mangrove A-   The first of three films in this "series of five films" by Steve McQueen that were actually released like a television series on Prime Video, but which McQueen regards as films and therefore so do I, even though most of them are not even standard feature length—escept for Mangrove, the first of them, which has a run time of 2 hours and 7 minutes. The entire presentation here blurs the line between "film" and "television," but the series in the aggregate makes for one of the most memorably great visual storytelling of the year, and three of them are great enough on their own merits to qualify for inclusion in my top ten movies of the year. The one thing all five of them have in common is that they examine the Black experience in Britain through modern history, focusing on West Indian or Caribbean immigrants and their descendants. Most, including Mangrove, are based on historical events, this one focusing on the trial of the "Mangrove Nine," the first court case to acknowledge anti-Black bias among British police forces. Mangrove is essentially split onto two parts, the first half focusing on the many unprovoked raids by police on the West Indian-run Mangrove restaurant and the resulting protests and riots, and the second half on the trial after nine key protesters were charged with inciting a riot. This is the movie Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago Seven wished it could be, a gritty look at seldom-examined history but without the self-consciously snappy dialogue. What I said then: This is the kind of movie that illustrates what a long road it’s been and how far we still have to go, and as such commands attention. 8. David Byrne's American Utopia A-   For me, this was one of the biggest surprises, and delights, of the year: a planned theatrical release pivoted to HBO Max, Spike Lee directed this live performance of David Byrne's celebrated show on Broadway that began its limited run just last year. The set list is mostly Talking Heads songs, and I never owned any Talking Heads music, thus recognizing only one or two of the famous singles. And still, I was completely enraptured by this film, a true feast for the senses, an unforgettable treat for anyone who loves musical performance. Byrne is 67 years old in this performance, and his talent and showmanship are incredible. The show features just two professional dancers, also amazing, and a stunning band backing him up, all of them coalescing into a show unlike any other you've ever seen. What I said then: This show is a pure delight, from beginning to end—and I say that as someone who never much paid attention to The Talking Heads or David Byrne’s music. I can only imagine how delighted true, longtime fans would be, because this presentation is nearly flawless. 7. Small Axe: Education A-   Education is one of the three Small Axe "films" that clock in at only about an hour, but the most impressive thing about it is how concise Steve McQueen's filmmaking is: it ends, and you don't think too much about what might have been missing from the story. And this is a doozy of a story, with a young Black student in the London school system being among those targeted for being placed into an alternative, so-called "special" school for kids reported to be of low IQ, even though there is no real evidence of any lack of intelligence. It doesn't feel like an episode of television, and even at its short run time, it still feels like a film, in both content and presentation. McQueen is practically working miracles here, saying as much as any other skilled director could but in half the time. This is a story that will haunt you, considering the lost opportunities of so many kids like young Kingsley—but in Kingsley's case, at least, McQueen ends the story (and the entire Small Axe series, as this is the last of the five) with a real sense of hope, What I said then: Thankfully, McQueen (who co-wrote the script) doesn’t take the story in the expected direction, and things begin to turn around. It’s how that is done that makes this story compelling. Making maxium use of unusually little time, McQueen packs in a lot of information, especially about the racial biases of the British, who make wild assumptions about Black people’s, and especially West Indian people’s, intelligence. 6. Kajillionaire A-   Miranda July is a director who is not for everyone, the kind of filmmaker with a history of films written self-consciously with "quirky" characters. Her earlier films are memorable in their own way, but Kajilliomaire is both a departure and in a class of its own. The characters, a family of con artists consisting of Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, and Evan Rachel Wood playing their young adult daughter (all of them excellent), are still odd—but they are also fully realized, multidimensional personalities. With a neatly constructed script, Kajillionaire offers both hilarity and moving sentiment, none of it contrived or corny. This is a film that is somehow both on its own plane of existence, and easily accessible. It did not get nearly the amount of attention it deserved. What I said then: Perhaps what I love most about Kajillionaire is how everything circles around and reveals itself to have a purpose, even the seemingly quirky stuff at the start. This movie starts off by fooling you into thinking it’s just like all the other self-consciously odd indie movies, and then stealthily reveals itself to be something with so much heart, it almost blindsides you with how moving it is. 5. Small Axe: Red, White and Blue A   Most critics seemed to feel Mangrove, the first of the Small Axe series, was the best of them. I don't deny it was excellent, but my personal favorite is Red, White and Blue—which runs about 80 minutes in length—Steve McQueen's telling of the story of Leroy Logan (John Boyega), the Black man who joined the London police force in an attempt to change its racist practices from the inside. This one features excellent performances and memorable cinematography, as Logan endures nonstop attempts by white cops to sabotage his efforts. Mangrove is the third in the five of these movies, all of which are good, but thematically, I felt this one did the best job of anchoring the entire series as a cohesive whole, even though they are still five distinctly different stories. What I said then: Leroy clearly doesn’t think of himself as a trailblazer per se, nor does this film call attention to that, but it’s what he is. He makes little headway in making the changes he set out to do in London policing, but his very existence makes it easier for another to come along after him and push things a little further along. This context is not discussed or presented at all in the film, in fact, but I sure thought about it. We watch his spirit getting slowly broken, but it’s on his shoulders on which those who follow him will be standing. Or did stand: this is based on a true story, after all. 4. Soul A   If you're looking for some spectacular escapist entertainment—but also with brains, though it never challenges—then this right here is the cream of the crop. Any film from 2020 that I rank higher than this, has some heavy shit in it—the kind of heavy shit people looking for a movie to watch often actively avoid. And even keeping in mind that Soul deals, at least in part, with death, this is still the movie for those people. It is Pixar at its finest—not to mention its most diverse—with the top-level writing, animation, humor and storytelling you come to expect from the studio. They've been around long enough now (25 years) to have a few offerings of comparative mediocrity, but this film is offering the best from everyone involved. What I said then: I have no critical notes on Soul. Only praise: this is among the most inventive, imaginative, clever works in the entire Pixar Animation canon, one of the best movies of the year, a crowd-pleaser if there ever was one but with so much depth and layered intention of meaning that it will almost certainly reap new rewards upon rewatching. I can’t wait to watch it again. 3. Sound of Metal A   Another one that deserves far more attention than it seems to have gotten, Sound of Metal impresses as much on a technical level as it does on a narrative level, the two meeting together in a way films rarely manage. When punk-metal band drummer Ruben (Riz Ahmed) suddenly loses his hearing, the sound editing instantly immerses us into his experience, offering a sound experience surprisingly similar to much of the action in the 2013 film Gravity—which is to say, where there is literally no sound (in this case, inside Ruben's head), there is also no sound on the film, just silence. Also confusion and obstinance, with Ruben moving first to a group home for deaf addicts—a particularly compelling bit of intersectionality examined by the movie—to his obsession with getting a "corrective" surgery he doesn't quite realize won't be the magic fix he's imagining. Packed with supporting actors who are actually deaf, Sound of Metal proves that inclusive casting is truly an asset to making a film great. What I said then: Films usually use music to tell their stories, often in manipulative ways. By contrast, in this movie, you hear a score, and a subtle one at that, maybe three percent of the time. What Marder does is use sound to tell his story, and if this film does not get an Oscar nomination for Sound Editing it will be a travesty. 2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always A   Okay, so some might feel a movie about a terrified teenager having to travel in secret across state lines in order to get an abortion is a bit of a downer. especially in the middle of a year as big of a downer as 2020. I wish it were easier to convince people to watch this movie, as it is so worth the time. This is probably the "smallest" movie on my list this year, written and directed with sensitivity and precision by Eliza Hittman, it's also quite justifiably one of the year's most critically acclaimed. This is a film that takes a politically polarizing topic and tells the story of someone directly affected by it, imbuing it with so much humanity and empathy, you might just think about it in a new way. What I said then: It’s strictly matter-of-fact from start to finish, which is the source of its greatness: this is the way of the world for many young girls with an unwanted pregnancy, and this is just one story of how that world must be navigated. A lot of it is very uncomfortable for the viewer, sometimes heartbreaking (particularly the scene to which the tile refers). 1. Time A+   This is the second year in a row I've topped my list with a documentary, and indeed, as much as I truly, dearly love all the other titles in my top ten list, if you could choose just one of the year's films that I would recommend, I beg of you, choose Time. This film is similar to Never Rarely Sometimes Always in one key way, which is its very human look at a polarizing issue—in this case, mass incarceration, and the disproportionate incarceration of Black people. But this is a story about tenacity, with Fox Rich, having been convicted of the same crime as her husband, is let out of prison far earlier, and she spends the next decade working on his release from a preposterous sixty-year sentence for bank robbery. Fox has many years' worth of home video footage of herself and her children as they are growing up without their father, which director Garrett Bradley seamlessly edits into the narrative, giving the film a visual consistency with black and white cinematography. Time is a truly rare documentary film that doubles as timeless art, making it one of the best films I have ever seen. What I said then: And yet, for a movie that could be truly, deeply depressing, the overall tone of Time is one of great uplift. It’s a work of art, and it ends in triumph. Its entire construction is a triumph.
. . . This is normally the place where I list the five worst films I saw this year, but having reviewed only half the usual number of movies I go to see in a typical year, I just didn't see movies that were all that bad. The worst grade I gave any movies—seven of them, in fact—was a C+ this year, and there just doesn't seem much point in highlighting those as part of a "worst-of" list, so I'm just going to skip that part this year.
Complete 2020 film review log: 1. 1/1 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker B (2nd viewing)
2. 1/7 Knives Out B+ (2nd viewing)
3. 1/9 1917 A-
4. 1/12 Varda by Agnès B-
5. 1/17 Just Mercy B
6. 1/18 Les Misérables B+
7. 1/20 Bad Boys for Life C+
8. 1/26 Little Joe C+
9. 1/31 2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animation B
10. 2/1 2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Live Action B+
11. 2/2 2020 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Documentary B+
12. 2/8 Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn C+
13. 2/13 Gretel & Hansel B
14. 2/16 Downhill B+
15. 2/21 Portrait of a Lady on Fire A-
16. 2/22 The Assistant B+
17. 2/23 The Photograph B+
18. 4/11 Onward B *
19. 9/5 I'm Thinking of Ending Things B *
20. 9/6 First Cow B+ *
21. 9/12 Never Rarely Sometimes Always A *
22. 9/17 The Way I See It B */**
23. 9/19 Devil All the Time B-
24. 9/25 Kajillionaire A- */**
25. 10/3 Dick Johnson Is Dead B+ *
26. 10/16 The Trial of the Chicago 7 B+ *
27. 10/17 Totally Under Control B+ *
28. 10/18 David Byrne's American Utopia A- *
29. 10/19 Time A+ *
30. 10/21 Rebecca C+ *
31. 10/22 The Witches B- *
32. 10/25 On the Rocks B *
33. 10/29 Greyhound B *
34. 11/5 Let Him Go B+ */**
35. 11/9 Come Away B- */**
36. 11/19 Uncle Frank B- */**
37. 11/20 Mangrove A- *
38. 11/21 The Personal History of David Copperfield B- *
39. 11/22 Run B+ *
40. 11/25 Happiest Season B+ *
41. 11/27 Lovers Rock B *
42. 11/29 The Nest B *
43. 12/2 Half Brothers C+ *
44. 12/3 Sound of Metal A *
45. 12/4 Red, White and Blue A *
46. 12/6 Mank A- *
47. 12/9 Bacurau B- *
48. 12/12 Alex Wheatle B *
49. 12/13 The Prom C+ *
50. 12/14 Let Them All Talk B+ *
51. 12/16 The Last Blockbuster B+ *
52. 12/18 Education A- *
53. 12/20 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom B+ *
54. 12/23 The Midnight Sky C+ *
55. 12/25 Wonder Woman 1984 B *
56. 12/26 Soul A * * Viewed streaming at home during COVID-19 lockdown
** Advanced screening