Adam discusses twenty-ish films that were the best of 2020 aka the dumpster fire year.
We can all agree that 2020 was a terrible dumpster fire of a year that we couldn’t escape from even if we tried?
2020 in Film… I think this is where I would disagree with many of the other Critics. I found some of the most unexpected of films during the year. This year was more akin to a film year before the great Comic Book/IP book of the Late 10s. It was a year of smaller and more intelligent fair.
I’m not going to say anymore. I’m going to let the list speak for itself. So, without further ado, I bring to you my best of 2020.
NOTE: I have placed 20 – 6 in alphabetical order.
Honorable Mentions:
Vast of Night
Sylvie’s Love
Lucky Grandma
The Whistlers
Zappa
She Dies Tomorrow
Now, onto the Top 20
You Cannot Kill David Arquette (dir. David Darg & Price James)
What a better way to start off than with one of the most unexpected films of the year. You Cannot Kill David Arquette is many things all at once. What it is most of all is David Arquette’s redemption. Not for anyone else but himself. Against all the odds Arquette pushing himself to become the best version of himself, A Professional Wrestler. The Documentary is as heartfelt and sincere as they come. Filmmakers David Darg and Price James give their subject
Wildand (dir. Janette Nordhal)
Sandra Guldberg Kampp’s debut performance is a showstopper. The Danish crime film moves in unexpected ways with Ida (Kamp) being put into the care of her Aunt Bodil (Sidse Babett Knudsen) after tragedy strikes. What unfolds is more truthful and upsetting than your average Crime film. Kamp only 18 at the time shows the maturity and power of actors twice her age.
Time to Hunt (dir. Sung-hyun Yoon)
Set in Korea in the not too distant future where a virus has plagued the world and put Korea into an economic crisis… sound familiar (note: it was filmed before COVID was apart of our vocabulary). Jun Soek (Lee Jehoon) recently released from Prison is expecting the earning from the job he did years prior. The problem is the money is useless. Without hope, he and his friends plan a daring heist. Which goes without a hitch. That’s where the problems start. Sung-Hyun’s film delights in the unexpected. Add the film has some of the tauntest action set pieces in recent memory make this one of the underrated and underseen of the year. Bonus points for the film for this reviewer’s favorite troupes; the intelligent unstoppable villain. The fact that the world has become a shade of this film only makes it resonant harder.
B-Movie Podcast Episode on the Film
Tenet (dir. Christopher Nolan)
I still don’t fully understand what “inversion” is. I’m not sure I ever will. Even with that said, Tenet is still an amazingly huge film. It demands to be seen on the big screen. Unfortunately, in the midst of this Pandemic 90% of us, including me did not.
Spontaneous (dir. Brian Duffield)
Let’s be honest. High School films suck. Well, most of them do. We love them but realistically only about the top 5% really matter. Spontaneous is one of those top 5%. When a mysterious virus begins to make New Jersey High School Seniors explode the government, scientists, and media all converge to poke and prod them. The Brian Duffield film relishes in bucking the conventions of the YA genre as much as he does leaning into it. An R-Rating ensures that Mara (Katherine Langford) and her fellow students react appropriately to everything. As good as the film is, and it’s very good, it’s Katherine Langford’s star-making performance that is the showstopper here.
Sound of Metal (dir. Darius Marder)
Riz Ahmed has become the GOAT. See this film. That is all.
Sheep without a Shepard (dir. Sam Quah)
I can see it now. They’ve already bought the remake rights. Invariably they will remake this one in English. It will lose all of its power. Why? Because they’ll have missed the point. Sheep without a Shepard proposes the question; what would you do for your family? An in the hands of director Quah (who adapted the film from a popular Indian film) it becomes about not just the hurt inflicted by a moment of violence but what it takes to heal. Sheep Without a Shepard is a masterful piece of tension that is made all the more special by the level of emotional truth in its final twenty minutes.
The Paper Tigers (dir. Quoc Bao Tran)
Sometimes a film hits you in the sweet spot for a film fan. How the film comes together in its third act is what separates this from just your run of the mill action comedy to something elevated. It never takes itself too seriously but knows when it needs to make an impact. The Paper Tigers by its end has earned its place in our hearts and minds not just because it kicks ass, but it manages to do so with a bit of heart and a lot of genuine laughs. Like the Three Dragons, the film definitely lives up to the hype but in the most unexpected ways.
Palm Springs (dir. Max Barbakow)
Comedy is hard. High Concept Comedy is even harder. High Concept Comedy that’s hilarious, intelligent, and emotionally resonant… almost impossible. Almost. The Lonely Island Gents (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer) have been working at being secretly one of the best Comedy trio since Hot Rod. They’ve only gotten better and better with time. Palm Springs is their best yet.
Nine Days (dir. Edson Oda)
I feel like once Nine Days is released to a wider audience and people begin to find it they’re going to fall in love hard. Hard in the way that people love things like Shawkshank. It’s that kind of film that speaks to the human condition. Anchored by a truly larger than life performance by Winston Duke and equally passionate supporting work by Zazie Beetz and Benedict Wong, the film is too difficult to describe in a simple plot synopsis. Rather, I will say that the film manages to converge into a heady brew of theological, science fiction, and emotionality that only a Powell and Pressberger film this reviewer has ever seen attempted. Having seen it twice, I am looking forward to a third, fourth and fifth viewing.
Mank (dir. David Fincher)
There is perfection in imperfections. Mank only reaffirms that David Fincher is a perfectionist that frustratingly has come to terms with the imperfections of film. The way that the film lovingly homages the film of the golden era with photography, soundscape, cigarette burns, editing, performance, and just about every single piece of the entire production. Many will speak to its technical merits with Film Bro gusto. Few will discuss just how warm and loving a film it is. As much as this is a love letter to a bygone era it is also a final word in a three-decade-long back and forth between David and his father Jack (who wrote the script). With some distance, many will find the charms, grace, and intentional imperfections of one of Fincher’s finest moments.
The Invisible Man (dir. Leigh Whannell)
There is only one film that’s a more visceral experience. Everything that you’d expect from this remake of the HG Welles story doesn’t happen. Whannell’s adroit script zigs when you expect it to zag. It’s a fascinating slow burn with Elizabeth Moss front and center. When the film does unleash itself onto an audience it’s never plays fair and strips you of any safety net.
Hunted (dir. Vincent Paronnaud)
I’m still haunted by the imagery in this darkly violent and oftentimes brutally hilarious film. The setup is simple. One night a woman (Lucie Debay) goes out to a bar. She is picked up by two men. Things turn ugly quickly as they begin to hunt her. The tables quickly turn as the woman begins to hunt them. There is a clinical distance in the entire film that thankfully never invokes Stanley Kubrick (like many a distanced filmmaker has a tendency to do). Rather director Paronnaud makes a film that provokes you to see the absurdity of it all and dares you to laugh as this woman gives her predators their just deserts.
First Cow (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
Kelly Reichardt’s frontier drama is as dirtily sumptuous as a film that’s ever been filmed. A perfect complement to McCabe and Mrs. Miller. A simple story of friendship, bovines, and sweet biscuits (not the English version of the word to be clear). Reichardt’s film is beautifully constructed in every way from its digital photography (that looks as warmly shot as anything done with Super 16 this filmmaker has seen), editing, score, and performance (with amazing work by John Magaro and Orion Lee). The gentle and harsh of the Oregon of the late 1800s has never been so delicately and beautifully rendered.
Bring Me Home (dir. Seung-woo Kim)
No film kept me on the edge of my seat than Lee Young-ae’s return to the big screen. What a hell of a film to come roaring back with. This thriller about a missing child should come with a trigger warning about the mistreatment of children. That said… To say more about how everything unfolds in Bring Me Home would be to ruin one of the best thrillers of recent memory. This is the real deal. If this is the kind of material that Lee Young-ae was waiting for. Let us hope, she does not have to wait another fifteen years. Though, we will gladly wait if that’s what it takes. Bring Me Home is that good.
76 Days (dir. Hao Wu and Weixi Chen)
This should be required viewing for all. The most unfortunate part is that I’m afraid even if this harrowing verité style documentary will just wash over those that need to see it the most. Set at Ground Zero for the COVID-19 outbreak this film manages to give us an up close and personal look at the front-line medical professionals that in the first 76 days of this outbreak. What we see is an intimate, upsetting, oftentimes surprisingly hopeful look at the patience, diligence, and courage that the people in the medical field must face day in and day out. Regardless of wins or losses during Award Season this film is a truly important one. One that documents one of the darker times in our recent World History and shows us what true strength is.
5. Da 5 Bloods (dir. Spike Lee)
The most wonderful part of the second half of Lee’s career is his heavy push into genre material without losing any of the bite of his social commentary. Moving from the Police Procedural (Blackkklansman) to the War Film in Da 5 Bloods. Epic in scope, themes, and length the film is a beautiful amalgamation of not just the War Film but Adventure, Treasure Hunting, and PTSD Psychological Dram. Lee’s most important achievement with his latest? Giving Delroy Lindo the stage he’s rightfully deserved for decades and has never been afforded. The results are a haunting and powerful performance that brims with anger and sadness.
4. One Night in Miami (dir. Regina King)
I cannot say much about King’s feature debut which premieres in a few weeks BUT what I can say is that it’s on this list for a reason. I cannot wait to share my full thoughts on this passionately told tale of a night that finds legends Cassius Clay (right before he became Muhammad Ali), Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke “celebrating” Clay’s win against Sonny Liston.
3. The Painter and the Thief (dir. Benjamin Reee)
What begins as a crime thriller documentary evolves into more. The ways that The Painter and the Thief surprises could only be brought to life in a non-fiction film. The story of artist Barbora Kysilkova and criminal Karl Bertil-Nordland are more complex than the stereotypes of the title. To say more would be to rob this wonderful film of its emotional power. The greatest of documentaries show us life at its most unpredictably complex. Life paints in shades of happiness, sadness, laughter, fear, and so much more. The power of the non-fiction format is in its ability to show life or a subject in those complex shades. Allowing an audience to connect with the life or subject. In a time where we strive to connect with anyone or anything, The Painter and the Thief gives us the hope that this is possible.
2. Possessor (dir. Brendan Cronenberg)
Possessor is not for everyone. Cinema should never be for everyone. If it is then that’s a movie… junk food for mass consumption. Nothing wrong with that. But Possessor is not that. It’s a full-on cuisine made by a burgeoning Master. For those that are attuned with Brendan Cronenberg’s specific wavelength, it is a spectacular singular vision. Possessor is a masterpiece of style, tone, and visuals. A truly haunting and cynical view of where our world is headed. One where Corporations deal in murder to cede power the same way governments do. Though, themes aside, it is Possessor’s haunting final moments that will etch it into the Patheon of great dystopian science fiction and horror. Its final moments as harsh an indictment of our circle of violence as anything of recent memory. Possessor is designed to shock and provoke. That’s its power.
1. Small Axe (dir. Steve McQueen)
The best working writer/director working in cinema today makes not just one important, vibrant, upsetting, angry, brilliant collection of films. No. He makes 5 of them. The Small Axe series consists Mangrove, Lover’s Rock, Red White and Blue, Alex Wheatle, and Education. These are not just polemic films but cinema that’s alive, clear-eyed, and direct. McQueen working with co-screenwriters Alastair Siddon and Courrtia Newland they create five films that are distinctly unique but thematically linked by race. Mangrove the centerpiece is a piece of filmmaking that should make any angered in this era of Police brutality. Lover’s Rock a film of music, dance, movement, and a moment of freedom from oppression. Red White and Blue tells the true story of Leroy Leon a Black Police Officer attempting to change things from the inside. Alex Wheatle is the true story of a Young Adult author who fell through the cracks in the system. Education tells the tale of a family dealing with their son’s school problems. They are more than just their plots.
Each film is packed with amazing performances. Shaun Parkes the owner of Mangrove restaurant that sparks a revolution. Amarah Jae St. Aubyn as a young woman sneaking out of her strict home to attend a block party. John Boyega as a man who decides to change the Police Department from the inside. Sheyi Cole as a child abused by the social welfare system. Kenyah Sandy as a 12-year-old who is pushed into a “special school”. There are so many more that one could spend hours discussing them.
Apart they each are the best film of the year. Together they form a collection of films that show a Master Filmmaker at the peak of his prowess and powers in his medium.