By: Henry J. Fromage and Movieboozer Staff & Contributors
2020 clearly wasn’t your average year, but the amount of great films, as few as actually played on big screens, was no fewer than years prior, and perhaps even above average taken as a whole. Here’s what we thought were the cream of the crop:
Alex Phuong
10. The Sound of Metal
9. The Father
8. The Trial of the Chicago 7
7. Nomadland
6. Judas and the Black Messiah
5. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
4. Da 5 Bloods
3. Promising Young Woman
2. Soul
1. Minari
10. Palm Springs: Long live the rom-com! Long live the rom-com! Long live the rom-com! Long live… you get it.
9. The King of Staten Island: Tattoo me surprised! This semi-autobiographical comedy-drama starring Pete Davidson and directed by Judd Apatow is funny, sweet, and pretty great.
8. Relic: 2020 was a huge year for horror and Relic kicked things off. Beautifully creepy and devastatingly emotional.
7. Nomadland: This is one of those films that if you allow yourself to get lost in, transports you on a journey. And why wouldn’t you want to take a journey with Frances McDormand? The good part is, you can press pause and use your own bathroom when you need to.
6. Uncle Peckerhead: With the exception of my #1 pick, this was the most fun I’ve had watching a movie this year. It’s loud, gory, and surprisingly heart-warming. Sequel please!
5. Host: There were several movies filmed during lockdown, but this one is the OG. And the best. More clever and effective at scares than most big-budget horror films.
4. Promising Young Woman: I had the big “twist” spoiled and put this one off because I knew it would be a tough watch. It was, but it had to be. It is balanced by some darkly funny moments. Can’t wait to see more from Emerald Fennell.
3. Sound of Metal: An immersive and moving experience. If you haven’t checked this one out yet, do it now!
2. Judas and the Black Messiah: Every year, there’s one movie that is so stunning, I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut for hours after. This is the one for 2020.
1. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: This was the movie we needed in 2020. Thank you, Sacha Baron, for this wonderful surprise and for introducing the world to Maria Bakalova.
10. Lovers Rock
10. Da 5 Bloods: Not in Spike’s top 5 all time, but that is a tall order. Ambitious and grand in scale, yet small on a character study level. Still a worthy entry into Spike’s canon. Also boasting a career best from Delroy Lindo.
9. Another Round: On the face this is a fun comedy of 4 middle aged co-workers who participate in an experiment to see if humans should operate with a BAC of .05. Once you get into the film, it’s a much deeper film about addiction, depression, and grief. Probably my favorite ending of the year.
8. Minari: A beautiful film about an immigrant family trying to make it in 1980s Alabama. A semi-autobiographical film from writer/director Lee Isaac Chung. A quiet film with a lot of heart and a beautiful message about accepting help.
7. First Cow: I am a season ticket holder for Kelly Reichardt, and her 2020 film did not disappoint. A quiet Western about friendship and a beautiful relationship with a cow. It’s a quiet and mood-driven film like all Reichardt films and it’s fantastic.
6. Relic: Genuinely terrifying. It follows a mother, grandmother, and daughter that are haunted by a manifestation of Dementia. It is a first time film from filmmaker Natalie Erika James and I cannot wait to see what she does next.
5. Possessor: From the mind of Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg, this is Effed up with a capital F, in the best way. If there wasn’t an aversion to Horror within the academy this would be up for Production Design, Screenplay, and Cinematography.
4. Judas and the Black Messiah: Thank you Shaka King for telling a story about a man that a lot of people don’t know and we should know. Daniel Kaluuya delivers a stunning performance as Fred Hampton. If he doesn’t sweep every award this season we need to blow up the system.
3. Nomadland: Another small, quiet, yet beautiful film. This comes from Chloe Zhao who had made The Rider a few years prior. Again she uses mostly non-actors aside from the great Francis McDormand and David Strathairn. Pulling great performances all around, this film will hit you emotionally a few times.
2. Promising Young Woman: Another first time filmmaker appears on my list. Emerald Fennell has written and directed the singularly incendiary film of 2020. Forcing everyone to have uncomfortable conversations that need to happen, it’s equal parts strangely fun and a struggle to watch.
1. Mank: David Fincher’s latest film written by his father. It tells the story of Herman Mankowitz writing Citizen Kane. It’s not for everyone; it feels very much for Cinephiles/Film historians. Even still it is a brilliant film. Made in expert detail the only way David Fincher knows how.
Mrs. Henry J. Fromage
First off, another year of marriage, another Best Of list from my wife. The pandemic hasn’t dulled our cinematic taste, I think.
10. The United States vs. Billie Holliday
9. Happy Cleaners
8. Tenet
7. Let Him Go
6. News of the World
5. I Care A Lot
4. Promising Young Woman
3. The Trial of the Chicago 7
2. The Father
1. Nomadland
Henry J. Fromage
And now for mine:
10. The Twentieth Century: This Canadian oddity purportedly tells the story of nebbish Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in the strangest, art deco-infused, Monty Python-style absurdity-drenched, boldy and buffoonishly Canadian manner imaginable. It’s truly unique.
9. True History of the Kelly Gang: Australian director Justin Kurzel returns to the forefront of exciting directors by returning to his roots- this time the quintessentially Australian folktale of Ned Kelly in his homemade armor robbing banks and facing down squadrons of police. George MacKay is once more a force of nature, as is a resurgent Russell Crowe, vicious in their own ways Essie Davis and Nicolas Hoult, and Kurzel and his rock star directorial flourishes.
8. Beasts Clawing at Straws: Putting a Korean film in my top 10 is nearly always a must, and while this doesn’t have the slick political implications of Parasite, I wager that rookie director Kim Yong-hoon does a better job at the thriller part in this multi-tentacled crime story with a cast of ringers and some of the boldest direction you’ll have seen in some time.
7. Shirley: Josephine Decker has made a lifelong devotee of me with this beautifully directed and acted (Elisabeth Moss is titanic as always) story about the abrasive The Lottery writer Shirley Jackson and her fucked up relationship with her much less successful husband (Michael Stuhlbarg… well, titanic as always).
6. Vitalina Varela: This is the first Pedro Costa joint I’ve gotten around to watching, and now I see what all the fuss is about. His and DP Leonardo Simoes’ dark-drenched frames are jaw-dropping, each and every one worthy of putting up in a museum, and yet it’s non-professional actress Vitalina Varela who commands the screen in her mourning and fortitude.
5. The Wild Goose Lake: What I said about Korean film seems to doubly apply to Chinese film as of late- this wasn’t as good a year for it as last year, but this neon-lit Chengdu-set gangster story riffs on noir film convention while creating an incredibly stylish film language that feels all its own. Just damn cool filmmaking.
4. Relic: Heritage seems to have sparked something in indie horror filmmakers, and while nothing quite touches that masterpiece, Natalie Erika James’s story of three generations of women dealing with the evils of dementia and years of things left unsaid rendered into something dark and oily and nefarious comes closest. Man, that ending…
3. Kajillionaire: Miranda July also made a lifelong fan of me with this delightfully strange story of a family of con people and the radiant young woman who up-ends their rule-based existence. In examining the strange upbringing of Old Dolio by her purposefully cold parents, July locates a beautiful humanity that was only eclipsed by one film this year in my book.
2. I Care a Lot: Rosamund Pike’s Amy Dunne in Gone Girl was one of the most deliciously villainous characters in recent memory, but she surpasses herself here as a state guardian who picks the wrong old lady to fuck with. Dianne Wiest and Peter Dinklage are her formidable and no less villainous foes, and any combination of them on the screen was the best time I had in a movie last year.
1. Nomadland: Ever since last year’s film festivals that did occur, it was clear that this was a film that was unlike all the others- one that struck a chord with every audience it played for. It’s also likely to capture Best Picture on Sunday, and rarely has a favorite so eminently deserved the honors it’s been getting. Chloe Zhao and Frances McDormand have created an ode to people on the margins living life deliberately, a film that is documentary as much as it is fiction. Bravo.
