30 January 2021

The * of 2020

 

Let's just put an asterisk after every entry of 2020. We don't need to belabor the point.

Herein we celebrate the best films of the past year. As usual, it takes us a few extra weeks out in flyover country to catch up to the straggling titles. These past months it was actually easier to keep up with the scattershot slate of releases, because we could stream them on demand, with a few exceptions (more asterisks). 

The experiment that was the start of the third decade of the millennium (asterisk for the sticklers, you know who you are) mixed the good with the bad. On the one hand, a bunch of high-profile titles got pushed back to 2021. On the other hand, the ones that did get released were often immediately available, for a price, online. On the third hand (asterisk), we couldn't view them on the big screen in the company of others in a shared experience. It was what it was.

But as usual, there are only two or three films that could be considered truly great and which will stand the test of time (asterisk: I can't predict the future), followed on our list by some very good ones. We're going to be generous this time and make the list a fat 15, weighing it down with titles but lightening the load by including some sweet (if at times bittersweet) and uplifting minor-key movies that normally would have had a tougher time piercing our defenses. A little positivity couldn't hurt. (Asterisk.)

This year, it'll be a simpler list, with fewer categories and titles. Even before the asterisks started flying, we've made a conscious effort to downsize this forum and streamline what is now an eight-year relationship online. But you all out there still need images to stream, and below you'll find a couple of weeks worth of entertainment.

While it was easy to get cynical and jaded as a veteran moviegoer who feels like we've seen it all, we instead tried to get a little more discerning. And we were rewarded by seeing a lot of new talent and first-time filmmakers who made the list. We denote four of them below -- with an asterisk.

THE TOP 15

  1. We Are Little Zombies* - Easily the year's best director, Makoto Nagahisa, who splashes with this dark but heartwarming tale of four orphans banding together through post-millennial uber-angst. Never has nihilism been so colorful and groovy.

  2. Someone Somewhere - From France, the ache of loneliness, even when that certain someone is within reach, if only you knew.

  3. Never Rarely Sometimes Always - As raw as cinema gets, Eliza Hittman ("It Felt Like Love") gets back on her game in this jarring documentary-like traipse through the abortion system.

  4. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Viola Davis (best actor) is like a cat with a bird in its mouth, big-footing around this August Wilson play like she owned the damn recording studio in 1927.

  5. The Forty-Year-Old Version* - Another fresh voice, Radha Blank, a complex exploration of both race relations and the imminent approach of middle age, and how both of those factors help or hinder the making of art. (Best screenplay.)

  6. Beanpole - Visually striking and heart-wrenching -- how we somehow manage to get by psychologically in the wake of war.

  7. Corpus Christi - A gripping tale of a doomed young man vainly seeking redemption.

  8. Epicentro - One of two documentaries on the elite list, this one a gorgeous, meandering dive into one aspect of Cuban culture.

  9. The Climb - A novel take on the classic buddy film involving love triangles and the shifting power dynamics between two grown men. Both funny and unpredictable, with a smart visual sense.

10. Driveways - A mom, a son and the codger next door. The subsidiary culture clash takes a backseat to old-fashioned sweetness and light, giving hope to outsiders.

11. I Am Greta* - Remarkably intimate, this one succeeds not on its politics but rather on its sociological and psychological insights of one teenager trying to make a difference. From Nathan Grossman.

12. The Wolf of Snow Hollow - Jim Cummings' sophomore effort gets a little silly at times, but there's no one like him tearing up the screen with wild ranges of emotions mixed with acrid comedy.

13. First Cow - Another buddy film, this Kelly Reichardt period piece takes its sweet time to charm you.

14. The Life Ahead - Similar to "Driveways," this Italian mood piece presents an odd couple -- Sophia Loren's Holocaust survivor and a rebellious street kid -- and tugs at the heart in just the right ways.

15. Shithouse* - Another debut film, this one about a young man (writer-director-star Cooper Raiff) putting his vulnerabilities out there as he struggles through his first year of college. 

JUST MISSED THE LIST

  • I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Wonderfully bizarre, until Charlie Kaufman goes completely off the rails in the final 20 minutes.
  • Banana Split - Two girls bro it up as they bond over a shared boy toy.
  • The Trip to Greece - We just can't quit these two clever Brits fictionalizing themselves in the hands of Michael Winterbottom.
  • The devastating documentary about Romania's health care system, "Collective." 
  • From Iceland, the full simmer of "A White, White Day."
  • The beautiful black-and-white Soviet period piece "Dear Comrades."

TOP DOCS

THE LEFTOVERS

  The 2019 films we caught up with:

  • The elegant, fascinating love story "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" would have made our top five last year.
  • The invigorating documentary about a family of rogue EMTs in Mexico City, "Midnight Family"
  • From Serbia, the somber '90s war story "The Load."

COMING ATTRACTIONS

As noted above, releases were a little scrambled in 2020. You'll see "Nomadland," from Chloe Zhao ("The Rider") on some lists, and it did appear briefly online late in the year, but it won't get an official release until 2021. Same for "Gunda," the wordless documentary about farm life, which comes out next month. 

We're curious about Steve McQueen's "Small Axe" anthology (especially "Lovers Rock" and "Red, White and Blue"), but it's an Amazon exclusive. And Sofia Coppola's "On the Rocks" belongs to Apple TV. Finally, we doubt "Martin Eden" would crack our Top 15, but it's coming out on disc next week, so we'll find out soon.

Stay tuned for reviews of those titles and more as we re-emerge in 2021, hopefully in a dark, confined space at some point.


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