My Favorite Movies of 2020
What a year! I know we’re a month into 2021, but January is basically 2020-part deux and the year doesn’t really get kicking until Black History Month. And honestly, with the insurrection, Cicely Tyson passing, and just the general craziness and super fandom around the inauguration, I needed a break. But now I’m back and I wanted to get my list in before the end of February, once Black History month ends the year begins to lurch forward at break neck speed. For my list I’m only including movies I saw in 2020, so some of the trendy art movies I just recently saw aren’t going to be on the list. Which means Regina King’s absolutely incredible One Night in Miami won’t be on the list because I saw it like two days ago. Outside of the top 4 everything else on this list is pretty much interchangeable. While these movies span the gamut in terms of themes and impact I think my top 3 really spoke to this feeling of muddling through life and waiting for just the right moment where you can transcend into something bigger and more beautiful. Sometimes that meant losing yourself in the middle of dance floor, sometimes that meant getting your old ass on a stage to rap in front of an all white audience. No matter the differing context all these movies packed such an emotional punch I felt lighter after seeing them, and more hopeful. Let’s see if 2021 can live up to that hope, Lord knows 2020 tried its best to beat it out of us. As always, I implore you, watch one of these movies (any of them really) you’ll be better for it.
A young Black romance set in 1950’s New York, free of the typical strife but filled to the brim with beauty. This movie is so dazzling and really sturdy. I know sturdy isn’t always the sexiest way to describe a movie but I’m pretty sure this movie has instantly entered into the Black Cinema Classics people will be revisiting for the next 50 years. Outside of its questionable approach to handling gender dynamics and relationship expectations, it’s not trying to do something new it’s a straightforward romance about two young lovers, and the ups and downs that come with love, art and family. I think Tessa Thompson is the standout here, she did not come to play and is taking every role she gets to prove she’s a super star. It doesn’t hurt that it ends in Detroit too.
Watch Sylvie’s Love here
Bad Education follows the real life story of a principal in Long Island who is exposed for a long running embezzlement scheme. Having attended a somewhat notable high school it was so funny to see the lengths adults went to keep the heir of success around the schools reputation. This came out early in the pandemic and I couldn’t help but watch it every time it aired on HBO. There’s something strangely magnetic about the cinematography, with its chunky texture and packed framing that just makes it instantly rewatchable. There’s also Hugh Jackman who feels so slimy and yet charismatic that his performance carries this nice-guy sinister malevolence that is unshakable. The scenes where he’s going off on people or using his soft force to bend people to his will are just impossible to take your eyes off of.
Watch Bad Education here
This isn’t scary (I think I’m incapable of being scared anymore) but man does it surprise and keep you guessing and looking in every corner. The only Invisible Man I used to acknowledge was Hollow Man which tackles some similar themes around the relationship between men and women and the inherent power deficits that create conflict. Where this one exceeds the previous is its focus on one theme; gaslighting. The last sequence in this movie feels so good I wish I could have saw this in a packed theater just so I could lead a standing ovation.
Watch Invisible Man here
This was the last thing I saw in a theater right as things were locking down. It follows two friends in 1800’s Pacific Northwest who are on their way to becoming the regions first food sensations, they just gotta rob a cow on the way. I won’t lie at first I wasn’t impressed, its slow, kind of slight, and very subtle. But it refused to leave my brain. The images and mushy textures are just so indelible its like this movie is a constant soft whisper that won’t leave my ear. While nowhere near as intense it felt like a lower key There Will be Blood, talking about men, the elusive nature of the West, and what capitalism does to this country and its people.
Watch First Cow here
A group of middle aged high school teacher friends decide to try day drinking to bring some excitement to their life, things go well…until their eventually being peeled off the early morning street with hangovers. This movie walks a thin line between showing the excesses of alcohol abuse but also the benefits of a good social lubricant. It’s also heartachingly sincere, and without a doubt one of the best endings ever. I had a glass of wine after watching, it brightened my night.
Watch Another Round here
I watched this movie in two-ish sittings, mostly because the first half is really punishing, but even after seeing the first 30 minutes I knew this movie would end up on this list. It follows a metal drummer and recovering addict who begins to slowly lose his hearing and decides to go to a deaf community to begin his transition into a new way of life. I thought this would be disability porn, where the idea of losing a sense becomes this all encompassing tragedy engulfing our able bodied protagonist. But this movie is a lot more, and digs into how truly ready any of us are for the upheavals life will throw our way.
Watch Sound of Metal here
I’m working on another piece about struggle in film and this movie just hits you in the gut and won’t stop twisting the knife. We follow a family in the UK as the dad takes on the job of what is essentially an Amazon delivery driver. Its all mundane things, but for any person whose had to work to make ends meat you know that your always one mistake, one persons ill will, one fuck up away from calamity. Living life on that edge can make for exploitative cinema but here it’s nothing but empathy, observation, and compassion. Another great yet sad ending.
Watch Sorry We Missed You here
I was afraid this movie would be too woke, trying to hard to be critical, but it hits all the right notes. Radha (write, director, and star) is legitimately funny, and outside of that I think the cinematography and direction here are really top notch and don’t get enough attention. Her escapades as a teacher, rapper, and playwright speak to a question I have a lot these days; will I ever “come of age”? Or will life just keep throwing curve balls that I will marginally improve at hitting. I think after watching this movie Radha would say that the feeling of never quite arriving is just life. The sooner you accept that, and learn to laugh at random white men’s asses, the quicker you’ll achieve happiness.
Watch The Forty-Year-Old Version here
Time has the most conventional setup of any movie, a woman waiting for her man to get out of prison and the long journey of raising a family and yourself alone. However, director Garrett Bradley goes out of her way to construct a piece that feels so elegiac that by the time your sobbing at its end, the films’ arms are firmly wrapped around you comforting you through the pain. Movies like this make me want to write books about editing, and black and white cinematography, and home videos as Black art. There’s something so exciting about the depth we gain from seeing this trove of footage over the years, showing a family changing, struggling, and pushing toward tomorrow. I think we’re on the cusp of a Black revolution in experimental documentaries and while this is more accessible than say Hale County from a few years ago, its no less impactful. If you don’t ugly cry in the last 10 minutes you might need to hang it up.
Watch Time here
I warned you three months ago. This movie has everything 2020 didn’t. Parties, people, crowds, chance encounters, everything I missed. But I think even without all that, the direction, the cinematography, the trust it has in its audience, chefs kiss! As I said in a blog a few months back, Steve McQueen is doing the Lords work. Upon re-watching this movie I was reminded of another filmmaker I love who says a great movie doesn’t just show you some stuff, it buries you alive in an experience. This was that, Lovers Rock buried me alive and I didn’t want to come up for air.
Watch Lovers Rock here, (and when it comes out on Blu-ray I’ll be the first to let you know!)
Below is the complete list along with some other favorites that were right at the edge.
Lover’s Rock
Time
The Forty-Year-Old Version
Sorry We Missed You
Sound of Metal
Another Round
First Cow
Invisible Man
Bad Education
Sylvie’s Love
Honorable Mentions / They Almost Had It!
Dick Johnson is Dead
Bacurau
The King of Staten Island
Soul
The Vast of Night
