My Favorite Films of 2020
and more!
A note on eligibility (skip this paragraph if you don’t care about film-critic inside baseball)
On Twitter last month there was heated debate around the appropriate eligibility criteria for end-of-year movie lists. A vocal majority held that any movies that premiered at film festivals in 2020 but did not have public releases within the same year should be omitted. A number of critics pointed out that this was an unduly America-centric stipulation (Canadian critics, for example, often have access to movies that Americans don’t because of differences in release dates). Others argued that using these lists to highlight films with uncertain distribution is an essential way of helping others discover said films, and possibly therefore even securing their distribution. As a rule of thumb I normally wait until a movie has been distributed in the U.S. before I consider it in my end of year lists, but because this was a year of unusually more festival films than I would have been able to see otherwise, and because so many of those movies were among my favorites this year, I was torn on what to do. So, taking the advice of the side of film Twitter that was crying “think of your readers!” I polled my social media followers; overwhelmingly, folks said I should go ahead and include the festival films in my list—so I did.
My Favorite Films of 2020
10. Red Moon Tide (directed by Lois Patiño)
A sulking work of myth-making that dances with shipwrecks, magic, and monsters. Like sitting in a kiln as it steadily heats up to a blaze; when it is (presumably) released more widely this year, we’ll see if this 84-minute marvel has any wider appeal or if it’s just another one of those art films that only Tim would like.
9. The Nest (directed by Sean Durkin)
A familiar cautionary tale of social strivers is made alluringly macabre by its texturally unsettling sound design and cinematography. Carrie Coon memorably wallows in her black-label tragedy while Jude Law whimpers along in parallel in a farce of his own.
8. Martin Eden (directed by Pietro Marcello)
This loose Italian adaptation of the novel by Jack London looks straightforward on paper: an illiterate sailor dreams of becoming a writer, romances the bourgeoisie, takes up the mantle of socialist revolutionary but ends up a fascist with terrible hair. It does all that and more, surprising at every turn with a script that’s intelligent but not sneering and some inspired filmmaking garnishes—Italian pop music, splices of historical documentary films, misleadingly gritty cinematography. A period piece at first glance, Martin Eden would more accurately be described as stranded in the nebulous sea of the past.
7. Bacurau (directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)
An alien invasion movie where the aliens are the agents of neoliberalism and imperialism and that features the most memorable use of a machete by a drag queen since The Act of Killing. One of John Carpenter’s unused film scores finds a perfect home here, whether merely as an homage or also as an act of subaltern vengeance, I’m in no position to figure out.
6. Red, White and Blue (directed by Steve McQueen)
For quality this year, one need look no further than Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology. I think highly of all five of these films, but Red, White and Blue, his adaptation of the story of Leroy Logan, an idealist who thought he could change a racist police force from within, is in my opinion the pinnacle of the set. John Boyega as Logan and Steve Toussaint as his cop-loathing father suffer their indignities from opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, gradually inching closer to the point where they finally, exhaustedly meet.
5. Fourteen (directed by Dan Sallitt)
One of the most illuminating stories about friendship I’ve seen in a while, and also one of the most devastating depictions of time’s impact on bonds both loose and thick. A movie that believably depicts, among other things, the painful moment of realizing you can no longer rescue someone you love from their repeated bad behaviors and the constant state of flux of young city peoples’ housing situations.
4. Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito)
To paraphrase a tweet I saw about this movie last week, Her Socialist Smile leans into the current cultural moment of #girlboss feminism only to suplex it. This experimental biography of Helen Keller is clear up front about what it expects of the viewer (so you’re going to sit here and intermittently read huge blocks of text on a screen for an hour and a half); by opting in, you agree to give proper attention to Keller’s moral and political convictions, passionately held her entire life but all too often ignored by those hoping to promulgate more palatable, less overtly anticapitalist narratives about her life.
3. Atarrabi & Mikelats (directed by Eugène Green)
A wholly original myth that dallies with pagan and Christian tradition alike. Eugène Green’s signature preference for emotionally neutral acting will alienate many (though here it pays dividends). There’s song and dance and anachronistic costuming; a total aesthetic pleasure that might be total nonsense as well—not necessarily a bad thing.
2. City Hall (directed by Frederick Wiseman)
A Boston movie unlike any before it, not just because of the four-and-a-half hour runtime. Frederick Wiseman’s look at city governance out in the field reveals both the importance of crafting a narrative as a means of doing politics and the necessity of getting the right storytellers in the room—whether the “right” person is the mayor, a panelist who resembles the audience she’s speaking to, or a community member with institutional knowledge. A study in civic engagement that, like every Wiseman movie, gives you the dots and trusts you to do some connecting yourself.
1. I Was at Home, But… (directed by Angela Schanelec)
Angela Schanelec presents her movie without a map, letting you swim around until you find something to grab onto or drown. I found something beautiful, funny, mysterious, alarming. I could invent a more profound reason for why it was my favorite movie of the year, but I simply felt it was so, and I’ll leave it at that.
Honorable Mentions
And Then We Danced, Dick Johnson Is Dead, Education, First Cow, Lovers Rock, Malmkrog, Nomadland, On the Rocks, Residue, Sound of Metal
My 2020 Oscar Ballot
If, you know, the Oscars played by my rules. Winners in bold!
Best Director
Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, Bacurau
Steve McQueen, Red, White and Blue / Lovers Rock / Education / Mangrove / Alex Wheatle
Cristi Puiu, Malmkrog
Angela Schanelec, I Was at Home, But…
Frederick Wiseman, City Hall
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
John Boyega, Red, White and Blue
Luca Marinelli, Martin Eden
Franz Rogowski, Undine
Best Actress
Carrie Coon, The Nest
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Maren Eggert, I Was at Home, But…
Tallie Medel, Fourteen
Vitalina Varela, Vitalina Varela
Best Supporting Actor
Ventura, Vitalina Varela
Jonathan Jules, Alex Wheatle
Silvero Pereira, Bacurau
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
Steve Toussaint, Red, White and Blue
Best Supporting Actress
Sônia Braga, Bacurau
Sandra Hüller, Sibyl
Ksenia Kutepova, Beanpole
Paola Lázaro, Black Bear
Rochenda Sandall, Mangrove
Best Ensemble
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Da 5 Bloods
Jeanne
Malmkrog
The Woman Who Ran
Best Original Screenplay
Atarrabi & Mikelats
First Cow
Fourteen
Red, White and Blue
Vitalina Varela
Best Adapted Screenplay
Emma.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Malmkrog
Martin Eden
Nasir
Best Editing
Bacurau
City Hall
I Was at Home, But…
The Nest
Red, White and Blue
Best Cinematography
Lovers Rock
Malmkrog
The Nest
On the Rocks
Red Moon Tide
Best Sound
Bacurau
Lovers Rock
Nasir
The Nest
Tenet (home theater mix, which might not actually be any different than the theatrical mix, but I’ll never know)
Best Original Score
And Then We Danced
Kajillionaire
Mank
The Nest
Tenet
Best Adapted Score
Alex Wheatle
Bacurau
I Was at Home, But…
Lovers Rock
The Whistlers
Best Hair and Makeup
Emma.
Kajillionaire
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Martin Eden
Best Costume Design
Atarrabi & Mikelats
Emma.
Malmkrog
Mank
Red Moon Tide
Best Production Design
Beanpole
The Human Voice
Malmkrog
Nasir
Servants
Best Documentary
City Hall
Collective
Dick Johnson Is Dead
Her Socialist Smile
Time
Best Animal
The stray cat, The Woman Who Ran
Carrie Coon’s horse (which definitely had a name but I’m forgetting), The Nest
The donkey in the first and last scene of I Was at Home, But…
Eve the cow, First Cow
All of the animals that very easily could have found a way into Liberté but mercifully did not
Best Friends
Cookie and King-Lu, First Cow
(Runners up: the ladies of The Woman Who Ran)
Queer Palme
And Then We Danced
(Runner up: Lingua Franca)
Best Hong Sang-soo Movie
The Woman Who Ran
(Runner up: Yourself and Yours)
The “It’s Not You, It’s Me” Award
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Best Movie Poster
Bacurau
City Hall
Collective
Da 5 Bloods
I Was at Home, But…
Scenes of the Year
Scene of the Year: Silly Games, Lovers Rock
Let’s Dance, dialogue with the director, I Was at Home, But…
Cat!zoom, The Woman Who Ran
Red moon tide, Red Moon Tide
Basque dancing, Atarrabi & Mikelats
Parking ticket court, trash route, cannabis shop town hall, “thanks Fred,” City Hall
Naptime, Beginning
First day of Saturday school, Education
Act II, Tenet
Vitalina Varela goes to church, Vitalina Varela
End credits, The Whistlers