In 2020,
Donald Trump was impeached by the United States House of Representatives and later acquitted by the United States Senate;
The United Kingdom formally withdrew from the European Union;
COVID-19 wreaked havoc on world health and economic systems;
Massive protests erupted in the US in response to police brutality against minorities, particularly the death of George Floyd;
Jeff Bezos became the first person in the world with a cumulative net worth of over two hundred billion dollars;
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the US Presidential election;
Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations, a major step towards peace in the Middle East;
The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship and the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series;
SpaceX became the first private company to launch a person into orbit;
Amy Coney Barrett became the 103rd associate justice of the US Supreme Court;
David Stern, Qasem Soleimani, Neil Peart, Buck Henry, Christopher Tolkien, Terry Jones, Kobe Bryant, Mary Higgins Clark, Kirk Douglas, Orson Bean, Clive Cussler, Hosni Mubarak, Jack Welch, James Lipton, Max von Sydow, Stuart Whitman, Kenny Rogers, Terrence McNally, Bill Withers, Adam Schlesinger, Shirley Douglas, John Prine, Brian Dennehy, Roy Horn, Little Richard, Jerry Stiller, Michel Piccoli, Fred Willard, Jerry Sloan, Christo, Wes Unseld, Ian Holm, Joel Schumacher, Carl Reiner, Charlie Daniels, Ennio Morricone, Kelly Preston, John Lewis, Olivia de Havilland, Wilford Brimley, Chadwick Boseman, Tom Seaver, Dianna Rigg, Winston Groom, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gale Sayers, Helen Reddy, Bob Gibson, Eddie Van Halen, Whitey Ford, Sean Connery, Alex Trebek, Diego Maradona, David Prowse, Chuck Yeager, Dick Allen, Ray Perkins, Charley Pride, John le Carré, Ann Reinking, K.T. Oslin, Kevin Greene, Rebecca Luker, K.C. Jones, Phil Niekro, Joe Clark, Dawn Wells died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 2020:
10) Normal People
Connell Waldron’s mother is the housekeeper of Marianne Sheridan’s family. Despite their different backgrounds, Connell and Marianne are attracted to each other and begin a relationship. The pair break up when they go to college because Connell is embarrassed to tell his classmates he’s involved with a snobby outcast and she refuses to be with someone who won’t acknowledge her.
They incidentally reencounter each other at Trinity College. Now, Marianne is the more socially adjusted and Connell the outcast. They agree to remain friends, but their easy intimacy eventually causes Marianne to dump her boyfriend and return to Connell. However, they once again drift apart when he loses his job and abruptly returns home, too embarrassed to ask Marianne for financial assistance.
Over the course of several years, they careen from relationship to relationship, but always find their way to each other.
Marianne’s tendency to be in toxic relationships is a brutal, but insightful look at the potential reasons women choose to stay in such situations.
Paul Mescall and Daisy Edgar-Jones are wonderful in a film which required them to bare so much of themselves (physically and emotionally). We believe their relationship because we’ve lived it. We’ve felt an unspeakable closeness to someone which transcends reason and want to believe everyone has such a soul mate.
Marianne and Connell will become a shorthand for a passionate, intellectually stimulating romantic pairing, a pseudo heir to Jesse and Celine from Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy.
9) Unorthodox
Trapped in an unhappy arranged marriage with Yanky, Etsy feels stifled by their ultra conservative Hasidic Jewish community.
She runs away to Germany to begin a new life and pursue a career in music. When her piano playing is deemed inadequate for a scholarship, she switches to voice, despite her insecurities.
Meanwhile, her husband and his cousin Moishe track her down in Berlin.
The film is perhaps a little too harsh towards the conservative religious community, but the central conflict between religious devotion and personal fulfillment is potent and Shira Haas’s amazing performance as Etsy elevates the material. It’s only a matter of time before she finds a role which will propel her to superstardom.
With medication, schizophrenic Thomas Birdsey is able to live a relatively normal life, but when he doesn’t take it, he’s a danger to himself and others.
After an unmedicated Thomas cuts off his arm to protest the Persian Gulf War, his identical twin brother Dominick struggles to get Thomas the help he needs, while dealing with the implosion of his marriage following the death of his child from SIDS and a troubled relationship with his mom and abusive stepfather.
Mark Ruffalo is wonderful in the dual role of Dominick and Thomas. The schizophrenic part is flashier, but his performance as Dominick centers the film. He masterfully portrays the quiet tragedy of watching a loved one suffer from an incurable, invisible illness, the unimaginable grief of losing a child, and the frustration of dealing with bureaucratic red tape.
Bruce Greenwood is a commanding presence and gives the doctor in charge of Thomas’ care a more layered texture than it had any right to possess. Rosie O’Donnell does yeoman’s work as the kind hearted social worker who unfairly bears the brunt of Dominick’s anger. Melissa Leo is heartbreaking as the Birdsey matriarch. Kathryn Hahn has quietly developed an impressive and eclectic resume (from Bad Moms to Transparent to Mrs. Fletcher) and shines in what could have been a one dimensional role as Dominick’s ex-wife.
The movie’s one false note is Juliette Lewis as a grad student Dominick hires to translate the autobiography of his grandfather. I enjoyed the flashback to the grandfather’s life connecting Thomas and Dominick to a much larger story, but Lewis’s character felt like she walked in from another movie.
This tough, spiritually affirming film was a wonderful exploration of the ravages of mental illness and the way we deal with grief.
7) Bill and Ted Face the Music
It’s 2020, and Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) have not yet written the song destined to usher in an era of world peace. The Great Leader (Holland Taylor) travels back in time to tell them they have until 7:17 PM to write the song or the universe will collapse.
Hedging her bets, the Great Leader sends Dennis (Anthony Carrigan), a time traveling robot, to kill Bill and Ted and restore order to the universe.
The titular pair steal a time machine from Kelly (Kristen Schaal), the daughter of their mentor Rufus and the Great Leader, and travel to get the song from their future selves but find these versions just as creatively stymied.
As they race to write the song in time, their daughters, musicians Thea and Billie, procure their own time machine to track them down. Along the way, their kids assemble a band of incredible musicians from across the ages, including Mozart, Louis Armstrong, and Jimi Hendrix.
There’s so much to like: Carrigan as the inept Dennis, Kid Cudi, the marriage therapy sessions with Dr. Wood (Jillian Bell), the return of the Grim Reaper (William Sadler), the side trip to hell. This fun film builds impressively on the work of two of my favorite films from my adolescence. It does require some knowledge of the previous films for everything to land, but it’s hard to imagine many not tangentially aware of Ted Logan and Bill Preston, Esq.
As Radha nears forty, she faces the unfulfilled promise of her career. She was once on a list of playwrights to watch, but none of her recent work has garnered attention. She struggles getting her new play Harlem Ave. financed and clashes with her agent / childhood best friend. She thinks the producer of her play (Reed Birney) is clueless and racist, but needs his money. She asks for the play to have black director, but settles for a white woman.
When the play is well received, she’s both elated and depressed. Her success came at too great a cost and she doesn’t feel like she can accept it without diminishing her artistic integrity.
Meanwhile, she’s still coming to terms with her mother’s death and briefly reinvents herself as a rapper.
Radha Blank gives a powerhouse performance. This film is full of the kind of small, subtle detail which separates good films from great ones. I especially loved the scene where Radha defensively clashes with her director as they cast her play.
Based on her own career as a playwright, Radha Blank creates a spellbinding film about a midlife creative crisis, what it means to sell out, and working within a collaborative process where money and creativity are often at war.
5) David Byrne’s American Utopia
I’m not sure why I didn’t listen to David Byrne and The Talking Heads when I was in high school. I was only vaguely familiar with “Burning Down the House.” I first heard “Psycho Killer” in Rock Band 2. However, when I saw Jonathan Demme’s concert film Stop Making Sense featuring Byrne in his famous big suit, I became a big fan and was excited to see this filmed version of Byrne’s recent Broadway engagement, intrigued by Spike Lee’s involvement.
Nearing seventy, David Byrne is a boundless, joyous bundle of energy. Even on his more thoughtful songs, you can tell he’s holding back; his natural state is frenetic.
His cover of Janelle Monáe’s “Hell you Talmbout” was a moving reminder of the human loss which prompted the 2020 protests. And, of course, “Burnin’ Down the House” doesn’t disappoint.
The band is incredible, especially when they showcased how little electronic assistance they were using.
In a year dominated by so much bad, this is a delightful reminder of some of the good in the world.
After medical school student Nina Fisher is raped, Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan) abandons her own career to care for her friend.
Following Nina’s suicide, Cassie pretends to be drunk at clubs to scare men who attempt to take advantage of her, hoping to prevent others from experiencing what Nina experienced.
After Cassie runs into an old school friend, Ryan (Bo Burnham), she’s slowly drawn out of her reclusive life. However, when she finds out Ryan is still friendly with Nina’s attacker, things take a dark turn. When she’s shown a video of the incident and discovers Ryan was there when it happened, she concocts a desperate plan to hold those who failed Nina responsible.
Mulligan is electric and the supporting cast is top notch, including Burnham (who has a strong everyman quality), Allison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Sam Richardson, Alfred Molina, Connie Britton, Laverne Cox, and Molly Shannon. I can’t think of anyone who hit a false note.
Writer / director Emerald Fennell is probably best known for playing Camilla Parker Bowles on the most recent seasons of The Crown, but she has a bright career in front of her as a director. You can feel her passionate advocacy for the plight of women who are subjected to abhorrent behavior.
Fennell’s film is a stunning indictment of the good guys who do nothing because of their own inertia. I found Ryan to be a compelling character, who found himself in a horrible situation and didn’t have the courage or conviction to do the right thing. He lives with guilt, but he’s still too worried about protecting himself to do anything about it, rationalizing his involvement as tangential. While some (including myself) see him as sympathetic figure, Fennell makes a compelling case he isn’t worthy of our sympathy, but deserves our scorn.
3) I’m Thinking of Ending Things
A deteriorating relationship, weird jumps through time and space, untrustworthy memories: this is Charlie Kaufmann’s wheelhouse, and I love Charlie Kaufmann’s wheelhouse.
Being John Malkovich was a wonderful, quirky film and he’s improved as a writer since. Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are two of the most well written films this century.
This is his third film to write and direct following Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa. Both previous films contained his signature surrealism and questioning of identity, but were unrestrained and a little self-indulgent. They were good, not quite great films. This is his most fully realized film as a director.
Jesse Plemons is always compelling and is wonderful as the possibly mentally ill Jake. Jesse Buckley is a relative newcomer, but this movie portends of greatness to come. And of course, Toni Collette and David Thewlis deliver the wonderful performances we expect.
It’s interesting to think of this movie as a Fargo companion piece. Plemons was in season 2, Thewlis season 3, and Buckley season 4.
I love the minor details, including a discussion of A Woman Under the Influence, and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” The sublimely, surreal ending includes an extended ballet sequence and an older Jake singing showtunes from Oklahoma during his Nobel acceptance speech.
I’m not entirely sure, but I think this is a movie about the loneliness of man, and our inability to effectively communicate anything about ourselves. Regardless, I know it was a ride I enjoyed and will think about often.
2) Soul
High school music teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) dreams of a career as a jazz pianist and sees his job as a temporary gig until he gets his break. His mother Libba (Phylicia Rashad) discourages him from pursuing his passion and encourages him to be more practical.
One of his former students gets Joe an audition with a famous band leader, Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), and, after a successful meeting, he’s given a chance to play with her. Distracted by this long hoped for news, Joe falls down a manhole and his soul is transported to the Great Beyond. While the souls around him take their place on a conveyor belt towards eternity, Joe has other plans.
His quest to return to his body and make his appointment leads him to the Great Before where he encounters 22 (Tina Fey) a young soul reluctant to go to earth and start a life. 22 and Joe work together and enlist the help of a mystic sign twirler, Moonwind (Graham Norton).
Fey is wonderful as the petulant, stubborn 22. Jamie Foxx is great as Joe. I ‘m excited about the exposure Rashad has received over the last few years (from Creed to This is Us to Empire). Angela Bassett is always solid. I smiled when I heard Richard Ayoade’s distinctive voice, but I wish Daveed Diggs had been given a more substantial role.
This is a perfect companion piece to Inside Out, and it’s fitting each film features two women inextricably linked in popular consciousness: Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.
This sweet film, continues the exemplary record of Pixar’s Pete Docter, the driving force behind many of the company’s best films, including Up and Inside Out. While John Lassiter has received most of the credit for Pixar’s meteoric rise, Docter has been just as stellar. Docter has said in interviews he’s a Christian, but doesn’t think it’s appropriate or helpful to use his films as a glorified evangelical tract. However, I believe his films are a much more effective and long lasting form of evangelism. Infused with a gentle reminder of the foundation his faith provides, his films focus on the reasons of our existence and what makes life worth living: finding extraordinary joy in ordinary life. It’s a phenomenal achievement and a message children and adults desperately need to hear.
1) Hamilton
This filmed performance of the original cast of the most iconic Broadway musical of the young twenty first century somehow exceeded my lofty expectations.
My only quibble is Anthony Ramos as the younger Hamilton in the second act. He’s very good as Laurens in the first half, but as Phillip Hamilton his performance is too frail.
David Diggs as Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson is transcendent in a career defining performance.
Lin-Manuel Miranda deserves enormous credit for creating this nearly perfect musical which made hip hop accessible to a larger, different audience.
“Guns and Ships,” “Wait for It,” “Say No to This,” “What’d I Miss,” “My Shot.” I will undoubtedly watch this numerous times.
The technical accomplishment is dwarfed by the power of the music, but this film’s seamless integration of multiple performances is an impressive feat and sets a new standard for recreating the theatrical experience on screen.