The year that was 2020 is one almost all of us would like to forget. But, the year in cinema 2020, I’d like to think, played a small role in helping us get through this deadly once-a-century pandemic where most of us have been stuck inside doing what we can to stay sane, upbeat, and above all else, still loving souls. To some degree, Hollywood answered that call and provided us with a bevy of options across the genre board to entertain us, insight us, enlighten us and also just let us forget about the world outside for two hours. Of those hundreds of films that played out over the year that was, The Movie Mensch has narrowed them down to a top 20 of 2020.
It is a varied list, filled with flicks from a myriad of milieus. For this writer, it was impressive how the artform has almost tailor fitted the mood and landscape of the year. Need a reminder of the potential greatness of America, then check out Minari and how its message of the American dream being as piercing as anything that exists and you have one resonant story. There is also a brilliant bounty of stories that reflect the divide in America over race that dominated headlines this year. How each handles that important, and timely of subject matters is a tribute to the African-American experience and the minefield that has been their journey through the supposed miracle that is the United States of America.
Need a film that reminds us about the fragility of life, the power of that entity, and the gift that it represents, despite the perilous pratfalls that come our way? Well, in many ways, that is what fills out this best of 2020! It also must be noted, an ever-increasing number of these films were directed by women. Merely just a few years ago, that was a pipe dream. Let’s do more.
Soul is a perfect example of that. Pixar has done it again, but this time provided us with a more adult look at life that is still fitting for kids of a certain age. One cannot experience 2020 and witness Soul and not be altered in some way. That’s the beauty of moviemaking and proof of that prolific nature is here with TMM’s Top 20 of 2020… and happy New Year, my friends. May 2020 be in the rearview and eventually, may 2021 be populated with nothing but joy, love, friends, family, and above all else—unconditional love and health!
20. Minari
They say write what you know. That could not have been truer than with what writer-director Lee Isaac Chang achieved with the charming Minari. The true story follows what happened when the storyteller moved to Arkansas as a young boy while his father Jacob (Steven Yeung, of Walking Dead fame) followed a dream to start a farm to grow Korean vegetables for the budding community that is building across the Midwest during the 80s. His mother Monica (Yeri Han) is less than thrilled with the move from Korea to California and then to Arkansas. Things change a little better when her mother Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung) comes from the Korean Peninsula to be a part of this immigrant family and help as she can as both parents work a day job at a chickenry.
The film is a slice of life of one family at one point in time who are striving to make it work and follow their own American dream. Struggles ensue, personality disputes permeate, and above all else—Minari proves that in the end, nothing is more important than family. Along the way, Yeung delivers a movie star establishing performance, but it is Yuh-jung who steals the show, and don’t be surprised if she hears her name as a nominee for Best Supporting Actress for the most delightful of turns.
19. Nomadland
I’d watch Frances McDormand read a phone book. She gets to do a lot more than that in Nomadland, where she embodies a legion of our population that due to choice or economic reality, are living in their altered vans. They’re not necessarily homeless, a point McDormand and her pals reinforce repeatedly, but each is heart-poundingly living on the edge. Each is one auto mechanical issue away from living on the streets.
Nomadland is a tome for our times, especially now with the Coronavirus wiping out savings and forcing landlords to evict longtime tenants who simply cannot pay. It puts the spotlight on a segment of the population that would be easy to forget. Heck, other than a simple story here and there, that aspect of the pandemic has been grossly under-covered. Thanks to writer-director Chloé Zhao (adapted from Jessica Bruder’s book), she paints a picture that is surprisingly pretty, given the reality of these “vehicle nomads.” The cinematography and the score intertwine to create a tapestry of colors, both seen and heard. It is a mesmerizing piece of American moviemaking that illustrates that sometimes the simplest stories can mean the most.
18. The Invisible Man
Who would have thought that a stalwart Universal classic monster, The Invisible Man, would get a redo that would not only be one of 2020’s best heart-racing thrillers but land on the list of one of 2020’s best films? Elizabeth Moss puts on a clinic as a woman who escapes from an abusive relationship with the help of her two friends, James Lanier (Aldis Hodge, in his second film to make this list this year!) & Emily Kass (Harriet Dyer). Then, her ex-boyfriend kills himself. Moss’ Cecilia doesn’t buy it.
That bears fruit when she starts being harassed psychologically. Cecilia—to the outside eye—appears to be losing her mind. In fact, the audience knows otherwise. Her ex has mastered the scientific requirements to make himself disappear. Now, he haunts her with every ounce of his invisible fiber. Filmmaker Leigh Whannell (who also co-wrote the script) has done it again. He has crafted a thriller that will have you gasping for air as much as gripping the sides of your seat. Toss in the hurricane that is Moss and a premise that practically scares us alone and the entire The Invisible Woman experience is everything that reminds us why we love the art of cinema.
17. Emma.
Why remake the Gwyneth Paltrow beloved 1996 Emma? Well, it’s a Jane Austen book and those get made into something every other week—which is fine because her prose is beyond divine. But when any remake has a fresh angle and new things to offer that have never before been seen in the material, then why not? Thankfully, filmmaker Autumn de Wilde didn’t listen to naysayers and gave us the Ana Taylor-Joy starring Emma.
Taylor-Joy is a revelation and delivers an Emma that is worlds different than the one that Paltrow inhabited. She is spritely, spirited, and capable of the most fiercely astounding insight into the landscape of the day and every soul who inhabits it. Every frame of this film is fresh, filled with breezes of life that are liberating, wholeheartedly entertaining and above all else—one that would make Austen smile from ear to ear.
16. Fisherman’s Friends
There are rare cinematic joys that were as joyous in 2020 as what was experienced with the dramedy with music known as Fisherman’s Friends. The true story of the titular shanty singing group of, well… fishermen, who work and live in a tiny English seaside village where their families seemed to have lived for generations. For fun, they sing, and when they happened to be at the right place (home) and the right time (when a music industry hotshot was stranded in their village by his prank-loving pals), amazing things happen.
Fisherman’s Friends is an inspiring story, yes, but it also is just an all-out charming blast. The music is fantastic, sure, but there is something about the relationships between the leads and the supporting players that will warm the heart more than a hot toddy. The little you know about this film heading in, the better. But one thing is for sure, prepare to be tapping your toes and singing this film’s praises to everyone you know.
15. One Night in Miami
Regina King makes her narrative directorial debut in bringing the stage play One Night in Miami by Kemp Powers (who adapted the screenplay for the film) and loses none of the theatrical power of four black icons gathered to celebrate one of their own’s success. Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay), Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown are in the Floridian slice of paradise. It’s the early 60s and the Civil Rights movement is in its infancy and exactly how to proceed with progress is the subject of discussion with this fab four, even as they also talk family, fame, music, and just the simple things that four good friends chat about.
King’s even hand lets her actors—Kingsley Ben Adir (Malcolm X), Eli Goree (Clay), Aldis Hodge (Brown), and Leslie Odom Jr. (Cooke)—bring their supreme talents to four roles that could not be more recognizable figures in the movement and pop culture in general. Yet each brings their own personality into these personas and it all comes together wonderfully. Being a fly on the wall with this historical night, when four diverse figures with a common bond get together and dramatically, create lightning in a bottle.
14. Sound of Metal
There are revolutionary moments in moviemaking that people will talk about for years. One of those arrived in 2020 (thankfully, didn’t we need the distraction?) with Sound of Metal. Rarely has the process of someone’s failing health been so empathically captured with all the bells and whistles that the cinema provides as is the case with Ruben’s (Riz Ahmed) loss of hearing. He is a drummer in a hardcore heavy metal band and productive ears are right at the top of the list of things required to be successful. One morning, he awakes, and everything is garbled at best and silent at its worst.
How writer-director Darius Marder represents this “tragedy” is by putting the viewer into the head of Ruben is downright revolutionary on many levels. The sound design, effects, and editing are inspiringly awesome and deserve some major Academy love. The gripping performance by Ahmed runs the gamut of the human emotional machine. He does so, and as such, all the stages of tragedy are represented in the most organic of ways that add up to the viewer finding new hope where only lay despair. Look for Ahmed to score an Oscar nod as well, and we hope that Paul Raci’s Joe also gets a Supporting Actor nomination. He plays an addiction counselor at a facility for deaf addicts where Ruben winds up at—despite his firm objections. His girlfriend/bandmate Lou (Olivia Cooke) convinces him that the loss of his hearing could easily spark a relapse. Will it? How will Ruben deal with sudden deafness (that even includes veiled hope that a “medical miracle,” surgery could bring his hearing back), coupled with an unending desire to numb the pain that could not be more piercing?
13. News of the World
Tom Hanks tackles his first western, and surprise (!), it’s one of the best films of the year. Paul Greengrass (Bourne movies, Captain Phillips) is the perfect vessel to bring Paulette Jiles’ book to life that chronicles a newsreader who traipses across the American West after the Civil War reading the News of the World. Who better than Hanks to play that guy. Right?! Along the way to his next town, he comes across an attacked carriage. All are dead, but a rustling in the nearby shrubbery proves to be a young girl, lost, confused, traumatized, and above all else—appearing European, yet speaking the Native American language of the Kiowa people. Her papers say her name is Johanna (Helena Zengel, making a talent announcement that could not be louder—even if her character couldn’t be quieter), but it appears she has been raised by the Kiowa and her ways are more native than European.
Hanks must take her to the only family she has, an aunt and uncle that lives near San Antonio—which also is his home, a site he hasn’t visited in half a decade. Along the way, their road is dangerous, rattled with former Civil War southerners bitter by the war loss and refusing to accept defeat. Even though Hanks is one of their own, it’s chaos out there. This road to find a home, takes twists and turns one never sees coming and finds its way through horror, despair, tragedy, and violence to attempt to define what “home” means, and more importantly, “hope.”
12. Mank
David Fincher tells a sensational story in black-and-white, that is a true tale spotlighting the writer, Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman). He’s the scriptwriter behind Citizen Kane and everything that went into creating that cinematic masterpiece that many consider the best movie ever made. There is lots of Hollywood Meta moments throughout, but that isn’t remotely the headline here. It is a study in ego, talent, politics, and power that will leave you breathless with its ability to run the gamut of human emotions in a story that many will feel going in, that they are keenly aware. You don’t know the half of it.
Fincher is the most deliberate of filmmakers, notorious for putting his actors through hundreds of takes for one single scene. The proof is in the pudding as there isn’t a wasted shot. The ensemble gives off an electricity that explodes off the screen. Fincher gets Amanda Seyfried to give the performance of her career as the starlet who was William Randolph Heart’s girlfriend and confidant for many, many years. The entire cast is sublime, led by an Oldman turn that is as Oscar-worthy as the one that he won for portraying Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Fascinated by the movie-making processes of the past, Hearst, Orson Wells, and a bevy of other Hollywood heavies from that era, and how they all intertwined while a masterpiece was crafted that would define cinema to this day? Then… Mank is your man.
11. Soul
Soul is by far Pixar’s most “adult” animated features. Sure, kids of a certain age will enjoy it, but a majority of its messages about life, purpose, and sparks that make our existence on this blue round ball worth it all will go over younger children’s collective heads. Jamie Foxx makes his Pixar debut in the most triumphant of ways as Joe Gardner, a jazz pianist whose dreams have always involved playing on stages and not what he is doing currently—teaching middle school band. Success knocks when a former student who is drumming for a sax superstar, reports that their keyboardist just quit. They need someone tonight at a club in downtown NYC—where our story takes place.
Moments after the big news, Joe falls into a hole and dies. He goes to the Great Beyond, but refuses, believing it’s a mistake. He then lands in the “pre” birth part of this landscape and meets 23 (Tina Fey, delightful) who has for 1,000s of years has resisted going to earth. Together, they go on a journey that will have you looking inward, outward, and generally leave you with the feeling that when this pandemic is over… hugs for everyone. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Finch’s soundtrack is pitch-perfect and is my favorite to win Best Original Score. Oh, then there’s the jazz musical element, which elevates the story to an improvisational point where the viewer has no idea where the narrative will zig and zag next. One thing is for sure: You won’t be quite the same after discovering your Soul.
10. Wander Darkly
Wander Darkly destroyed me, in the best of ways. I was a sobbing mess as the film concludes, who could barely pick himself off the ground. It is a filmmaking miracle that captures the fragility of life in the most profound and emotively explosive ways. Sienna Miller and Diego Luna are a couple who have recently welcomed a baby girl. Money is tight, their relationship is strained—for more reasons than simply finances. Finally taking the time to have a date night, tragedy strikes, and a horrid car accident sends both to the hospital. It is at that point that writer-director Tara Miele channels what really happened to her and her husband and fictionalizes it. There are movies that pull your heartstrings and there is Wander Darkly, which rips your heart out and breaks it into a million pieces—but follows it with a message about hope in the institution that is life that could not be more profound.
Luna is always a gift, but it is Miller who deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for the tour-de-force she delivers as a woman who is convinced that she’s dead and needs her husband to work with her to get her to think otherwise. That just scratches the surface of what the story is about. By its coda, Wander Darkly will celebrate all the little things that make a life the most glorious gift that can be given, all while illustrating that the speed bumps that get in our way are meant to challenge us and not defeat us.
9. The Trial of the Chicago 7
Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, The Social Network) directs his second feature (after Molly’s Game) and illustrates that not only has he not lose a step in profound prose, but his command of film-centric storytelling is as strong as can be achieved. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is the true story of a rag-tag septuplet who is charged with inciting a riot that was the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The filmmaker weaves his web in the most powerful way and showcases in the process of how the system tried to get rid of dissent during a time when cities across America were burning. Freedom of speech quiets nobody and although the federal government may have tried by putting these seven individuals—many didn’t even know each other—in a conspiracy trial illustrates the extent to which our liberties are always hanging by a thread. The cast is sublime, especially Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, and Frank Langella as the judge who is overseeing this political and legal circus.
8. John Lewis: Good Trouble
John Lewis, what can be said? How can such a life be summarized, captured, and revealed to the world that can possibly portray what the Civil Rights pioneer, legislator, and all-around awesome human being brought to this country we call home? Filmmaker extraordinaire Dawn Porter scores the first of two films on my top ten with John Lewis: Good Trouble because the documentarian depicts an icon of a man who changed the world locally and globally and she does so in a manner that is wildly thought-provoking and above all else—yes, entertaining as all get-up.
The film’s beginning chronicles the congressman as he crosses the country in a successful effort to get out the vote and help the Democrats take back the U.S. of Representatives in 2018. Of course, his biggest message and the film’s largest takeaway is that all of the efforts to suppress the vote that has been employed over the last several decades are still hard at work and sadly, some are not to be revealed until a voter gets to the polls and discovers they cannot vote. It is a profound study in the American body politic, race relations in America, systematic racism, and how we have come far, but still have miles upon miles to go. Above all us, it celebrates a man that is one in a billion… a true gift to the human race.
7. I’m Your Woman
Filmmaker Julia Hart grew up watching 70s movies, such as Mean Streets, The Godfather, and many more. What struck her the most was the cost on the lives of the families left behind when the camera followed the men out into their dangerous landscape. In her stellar Amazon airing, I’m Your Woman, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan (who also served as a producer) stars as such a wife in 1970s New York suburbia. One day her man comes home with a baby with no details as to where it emanated. Days later, a strange man Cal (Arinzé Kene) shows up and tells her to grab the baby because her husband has done something to the boss and a platoon of goons are heading this way to wipe her and the child off the face of the earth.
Brosnahan loses herself in the role so deeply you’ll have to keep reminding yourself this is your favorite fictional fifties comedienne from Mrs. Maisel. The supporting cast of Kane and his onscreen wife Marsha Stephanie Blake’s Teri is there to help, in many different ways. It all adds up to a powder keg of raw emotions, violence that is at times arm’s length (adding to the utter terror Brosnahan’s Jean feels to her core), and other times is front and center. I’m Your Woman is the modern mob movie told from a female point of view that never loses an ounce of mettle. One could argue that it packs much more of a punch than any mob movie has in years.
6. The Way I See It
Rarely do documentaries have access to a U.S. presidency such as was achieved in The Way I See It. That is precisely due to the fact that its subject served as lead official White House Photographer for both Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, Pete Souza. A stellar doc also is helped immensely when its subject is as fascinating, enlightening, and emotive-producing as the photog is in the film that shares a moniker with his book.
Through his photographs, interviews with his subjects and fellow residents of the White House in the 80s and 2008 through 2016, an insight is given not only into Souza but especially the job that is being President of the United States and all that it entails and demands. Without hitting you over the head, filmmaker Porter and Souza come together to reveal not only what is missing in the current White House, but what defines a leader and what we as a country of proud individuals deserve.
5. Da 5 Bloods
Spike Lee followed up his Oscar-winning Black KkKlansman with another look at racial politics, but this time, he channels a fictional narrative about a group of African American Vietnam veterans who reunite five decades later in that Southeast Asian country to pay tribute to a fallen friend and leader (played by the late Chadwick Boseman) and in the process, claim a treasure they buried there before leaving the war behind.
Along the way, we flashback between the war and today and in the process get to see how life as a black man has affected or influenced the professional projections of each member of this crew. Standing out is Delroy Lindo’s Paul. He commands in the most visceral of ways and in any other year, that Oscar Best Actor trophy would be his. Lee’s command over storytelling ever-increases (if that is even possible) as this engrossing tale has its hands on your pulse from opening shot to closing credits.
4. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
August Wilson’s brilliant stage play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a searing portrait of one day in a 1927 Chicago recording studio. The titular chanteuse is recording an album with her band and the oscillating conversation between various members of the ensemble all adds up to an explosive, emotionally-charged, and once-in-a-lifetime stage to screen effort by George C. Wolfe. It is about as moving as the artform can achieve.
Viola Davis is Ma, the vocally gifted singer who leads a band that includes a trumpet player, who could lead his own bad with his innate talents—Boseman’s Levee. The contentious recording session will make musical magic (and movie magic), all while touching on issues of the quartet’s experience as black men in the so-called Roaring Twenties. The standout is Boseman, who gives a performance that deserves an Oscar, not out of the memory of his body of work that will have to stand for all we get from him after he passed from cancer earlier this year. Boseman warrants the 2021 Oscar for Best Actor for an explosion of titanic thespian power that is utterly blinding. Davis is electric as well, as is the entire ensemble in a film that packs a punch, makes you tap your toes, and will leave you thinking about the plight of African Americans not just in the 20s, but throughout American history.
3. The Midnight Sky
To borrow and paraphrase a quote from a George Clooney Ocean’s castmate, Matt Damon, from his own space-centric film—The Martian—Clooney directed “the shit” out of his seventh feature film, The Midnight Sky. Set in the near future, the planet is not doing so well. A space mission is returning from a newly discovered moon, K-23, of Jupiter, that lucky for us… is habitable. Sadly, it’s too late. The population of our current home has become all but decimated while Clooney’s Augustine sits alone in the Arctic, desperately trying to communicate with the ship—the Æther—to warn them about the death sentence that is returning to Earth. So far, that has not been going well.
There are two constantly moving parts in the film that couldn’t be more distinct. Each is “handled” with the storytelling precision that’s profound. Up in space, the Æther has not spoken with Ground Control in three weeks. They are inhabited by an international crew (led by Felicity Jones, Demián Bichir, David Oyelowo, and Kyle Chandler) who have been away from their families for an unknown amount of time and each has their own unique issues with current events. Then, there’s Augustine, who technically is not alone. As shown in The Midnight Sky trailer, accompanying him in the frozen tundra is a young girl, who he calls Iris (Caoilinn Springall). He is desperate to get to a remote radio facility across the perilous tundra where he knows his failed efforts at communication will have the best chance at success.
There is an immediacy to The Midnight Sky that is surprising, given its scope that reaches from the North Pole to just beyond Jupiter. Clooney has compiled a chilling look at desperation and how that does different things to different people. The cast is sublime. The cinematography, score, and production design dazzle. The entire Midnight Sky journey from takeoff to landing is the rarest of gifts. It’s another that reminds us of the precariousness of life and to treasure every moment we have before they disappear.
2. Promising Young Woman
When a film such as Promising Young Woman hits as hard as this riveting revenge tale on steroids does, its success can result from a myriad of sources. In this case, it firmly comes from two equally important souls—star Carey Mulligan and writer-director Emerald Fennell. The former delivers the performance of her career and the latter has crafted a timely and stunning portrayal of the long-term effects of sexual assault on not just the victim, but anyone who cares about them.
What’s so wickedly incredible is how Mulligan pulls us in as Cassandra. As we sit mesmerized by her grab you by the lapels turn as the BFF of someone who committed suicide after justice was not served, something else remarkable occurs. It feels odd to write this, given the subject matter, but Promising Young Woman is wholeheartedly entertaining in that it is a total and utter blast. Oh, did I forget to mention that it is entirely unpredictable with twists and turns coming at us from the most unexpected places.
Sometimes that is the best way to get across a message. Draw folks in with a story that commands amuses and does not hit them over the head. Then, deliver a message (or messages) that is unmistakable, incredibly important, and long overdue. Will PYM lead to vast societal change? That cannot be measured. But I would bet on it.
1. Antebellum
As race and our country’s sad history of dealing with that garnered headlines since George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, the Janelle Monáe starring Antebellum arrived to push that the conversation further towards the goal line. As painted by the rookie writer-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, they masterfully made an entire movement’s point without addressing it overtly. Antebellum is mesmerizing and captivates from its first moments. It is one of those films that will stick to you indefinitely. The movie also has the potential, one can hope, to change the hearts and minds of folks who still do not see why we need a group like Black Lives Matter.
Monáe gives an acting masterclass within the most complex of storytelling environments for an actress to operate her craft. She has always been outstanding, but there is something about what she achieves under the guise of this weighty narrative that is nothing short of a miracle. The story is original. The plot turns are wickedly fresh and above all else, Antebellum stuck with me longer and fiercer than any other movie this year. In this year of tragedy, death, disease, and horror, it is fitting that a film that has the most pointed of messages about us as a human race elevates to the top of the 2020 movie heap.
Honorable mentions: Fatman, Jungleland, Kajillionaire, Palm Springs, The Assistant, The Way Back, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Beastie Boys Story, Enola Holmes, Eurovision: Song Contest,and The Father (which I saw in 2020 but won’t be released until in 2021 and will absolutely be in my top 5 of that year!).