2020 was possibly the strangest year for films in the entire history of cinema. With the entire industry hit hard by COVID-19, many studios fled for greener pastures in 2021 and beyond, while we were left with a wasteland of streaming and VOD options as theaters struggled to reopen. That said, we DID get some quality films this year that are worth talking about! Here are my ten favorite films released in the past fourteen months.
NOTE: This list has been updated to coincide with the Oscars’ eligibility window, and thus considers films released in January and February of 2021. Next year’s list will contain only March forward!
Honorable Mentions: Hamilton, The Last Dance, The Queen’s Gambit
More than any year before, 2020 challenged our notion of what constitutes a “film”. Is a filmed stage musical a film? How about an anthology miniseries consisting of five separate films? Ultimately, I deemed the above titles unworthy of being called “films”, but they are still worth mentioning because they are among the best pieces of media released in 2020. I won’t typically highlight limited series or stage plays on my Top 10 lists, but in a year with such a dearth of quality features it seemed appropriate. Go watch all three of these if you haven’t already – they’re amazing!!
10. Bad Education (Cory Finley)
It’s both hilarious and tragic that this film was announced as direct-to-streaming and essentially written off for Oscar consideration, knowing what we know now about how much streaming movies would dominate the conversation. This absolutely should’ve been seen and talked about by more people, because I thought it was a fantastically well-written crime drama that speaks volumes about not only our education system, but corruption as a whole. Its timing could not have been more perfect, coming in hot off the heels of the college admissions bribery scandal and highlighting the lengths that rich parents will go to ensure their kids have a leg up on the rest of the world. The two primary characters are in many ways repugnant but also made sympathetic to the audience, and they are played brilliantly by Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney. I saw this way back in April and it remains one of my favorite screenplays of the entire year.
9. Saint Maud (Rose Glass)
Very few films come along that make me want to rewatch them immediately, but this is one I couldn’t stop thinking about for days afterwards. It’s a film with a lot of secrets, ones that it gradually uncovers and lets the audience in on bit by bit. Up until the film’s final seconds we aren’t entirely sure if this is really happening, or if it’s all in our young protagonist’s head. And that final shot will be etched in my mind for years to come – a bone-chilling moment that makes everything preceding it worth going through. Morfydd Clark is an actress to watch out for in the future – if you didn’t know who she was before, you surely will after watching this haunting performance. It’s one of the better directorial debuts I’ve seen in a while, and Rose Glass has put the world on notice with this stunning effort.
8. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
It’s hard to believe this came out OVER A YEAR AGO already, and it was the last film I saw in theaters (RIP). But it remains one of the better film experiences I had in 2020, a gripping horror-thriller in its own right while also speaking volumes about domestic abuse and gaslighting. It’s remarkable how Leigh Whannell managed to take this 100+ year old story and update it for the modern day, such that it feels classic and fresh at the same time. The filmmaking is fantastic, borrowing some clever techniques from his prior film Upgrade and incorporating them into the chiller genre to heighten the audience’s sense of fear and anticipation. Elisabeth Moss remains my favorite female performer of the year for her role in the lead, and as usual, it’s a crime that the Academy ignores horror because she should absolutely be at the ceremony this April.
7. Palm Springs (Max Barbakow)
Palm Springs is one of several “accidental quarantine” movies this year – films that couldn’t have possibly known that COVID-19 was coming but somehow feel perfectly suited to the year’s crazy developments. Here we have a story of two people trapped in one location indefinitely (much like we all are now), but one that still manages to have tons of fun despite the restrictions. Who wouldn’t want to live a responsibility-free life in beautiful Palm Springs and spend the days relaxing poolside not worrying about what tomorrow brings? I fell in love with the characters despite their glaring flaws, and the way their backstories are gradually revealed is very clever. It’s also a solid rom-com in its own right, with great chemistry between leads Andy Samberg and Cristin Millioti (plus the always-underrated JK Simmons), and a fun twist on the time-loop genre. But its added social relevance to the present-day elevates this to something more than the sum of its parts.
6. Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
It’s easy to compare this film to last year’s The Farewell as both deal with Asian families and their eccentric grandmas, but in many ways it’s completely the opposite film. Rather than a story about reconnecting with your homeland, this is a thoroughly American tale of a hardworking family leaving their home to find a better life in the Promised Land. It’s not just a story about being Korean – it’s about overcoming adversity and persevering through tough times to achieve the American Dream. A true celebration of immigrants that any American can (and should) connect with, regardless of ethnicity – we are ALL immigrants after all! Beautifully shot and directed by Lee Isaac Chung and well-acted by Steven Yeun & company, this is a film that deserves to be seen and remembered as more than just a “foreign” film.
5. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
Aside from being part of a miniseries and only 70 minutes long, Lovers Rock is the most unique film of 2020. It’s a mood piece, designed for one purpose and one purpose only: building the environment of a party and making the audience feel like we are there. We spend over an hour with these characters whom we don’t know super well, just soaking in the atmosphere. There’s no way McQueen could have known a pandemic was coming while making this film, but in a way his film is the perfect antidote to our endless quarantine…a brief but powerful journey into an environment we all desperately crave right now. Human connection. Touch. Warmth. Body heat. Sweat. Unabashed desire and longing. Not only that, but it perfect fits in with the rest of the Small Axe series by shedding light on a unique subsection of society and familiarizing us with their culture. This also got retroactively better for me once I researched the history of some of the crucial songs played in the film, from Janet Kay’s ‘Silly Games’ to the politically-charged ‘Kunta Kinte Dub’. It’s hard to explain exactly why this simple little flick is so powerful…you just have to experience it for yourself.
4. Collective (Alexander Nanau)
The first of two documentaries in my Top 5, which is surprising given that I normally don’t care for the genre at all. I prefer movies that can entertain me and engage me on an emotional level, while docs tend to lean more towards the informative side. Collective excels on all three levels, giving me a gripping story with characters I was eager to root for (and against) and a story that infuriated me as much as it enlightened me. It’s a celebration of journalism and a reminder of how important free press is for our society, as these men and women investigating corruption in the Romanian government shed some much-needed light on the ways our institutions have failed us. It’s infuriating, cathartic, heart-wrenching, downtrodden and yet hopeful – everything a film ought to be, genre be damned. This is everything I wish Spotlight had been and more.
3. Boys State (Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine)
My favorite film of 2020 was this close to being a documentary, but the fact that Boys State came so near the top should speak volumes anyway. This doc explores the titular Boys State, an annual event held in Texas every year where a thousand teenage boys come together and build a representative government from the ground up. There is so much going on here: you have the dichotomy of aspiring politicians who are still boys who want to goof off, the worrying rise of Trump-like tactics to take down political opponents, the ubiquity of social media as a dangerous tool for mass communication, and the necessity of molding your own beliefs to that of your constituents. But more than all of that, this is also just a gripping drama with strong characters and a central “plot” (the governor race) that had me on the edge of my seat with suspense. Not since Free Solo has a documentary put me through such a roller-coaster of emotions and made me care about its subject(s) so much. That’s hard to find in documentaries, and it’s what makes Boys State so special.
2. Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
I expected to dig this because I’m a huge fan of Whiplash, and while I love both, those two movies couldn’t be more dissimilar. This isn’t a “drumming movie” in the traditional sense – it starts out as one, but morphs into something quieter and more character-focused. It’s a tale of addiction, grief, and acceptance of one’s circumstances. Riz Ahmed (and Paul Raci!) gives one of the best performances of the year as a man who doesn’t know how to slow down, who is always chasing that next fix. The irony of his character is tragic: not only is he a musician who suddenly can’t hear, he is an addict who suddenly doesn’t have a coping mechanism. That makes him unpredictable and dangerous at times, and we are at once horrified but can’t look away as he goes through the five stages of grief and then some. It’s a powerful, heartbreaking drama that made me tear up no less than five separate times, with a subtle but perfect ending that succinctly wraps up the character’s arc in a satisfying way. You can’t ask for much more than that from a movie.
1. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
I saw 89 films in total this year, and I can point to flaws in each of them…except for one. That would be Nomadland, the ferocious third feature from one of my favorite new directors on the planet. Zhao infuses elements of documentary filmmaking into narrative storytelling, crafting something that feels both true-to-life and larger-than. Frances McDormand gives my favorite female performance of the year – a subtle role with no showy elements whatsoever, just a quiet yet impactful portrayal of a complex woman who never reveals all of her layers to us. She’s a necessary anchor in a sea of non-actors, lending relatability and empathy to a unique subculture of Americans sick of the corporate money machine. This would make a great double-feature with Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas – two films that prove foreign-born filmmakers can provide some of the best insights into the beauty of America. I guess you don’t know what you’ve got unless you’ve lived without it.
Conclusion
Thanks for roughing it out with me this year – one of the most frustrating film years of all time! As mentioned above, I hope you’re all staying happy and healthy out there and maintaining your sanity in these trying times. Film isn’t everything…protect yourselves and stay safe as theaters reopen around the world! Hope to see you again soon.
-Austin Daniel
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