… I originally wasn’t going to do this. Why bother?
ONE: I don’t think anyone reads these and TWO: the list has always been explicitly made up of films I saw IN A THEATER THAT YEAR. And well… you all know how 2020 went. This year has been tougher and lonelier than most for all the obvious reasons and losing the joy of going out to see a movie safely on a big screen and disengage from everything for 90 minutes or more was a part of that suffering. But, I’m thankful I was able to find ways to keep myself occupied and everyone I know is safe. So I feel very lucky. But, yeah… I was originally thinking of just skipping this odd little annual tradition of mine. Maybe I’d just tweet out my top 15 to my five followers and call it a day. More people would see the tweet than read a post on this rarely used blog (hoping to fix that in 2021 but who the fuck knows, amirite?). But, then I started thinking about how one of the few, very few, positives of 2020 was finding joy in the small things that we didn’t lose to a fucking virus or incompetent leaders. I got back into cooking for a bit. Going for a walk became a new treat. Working out in private became something I looked forward to daily. Music was an even larger part of my life. Sitting on the grass outside and socially distanced being with one person is heaven.
And creating. I got deep into the simple act of creating. The short film I shot in 2019 got held up by the pandemic but is almost complete once my awesome collaborators finish their parts. I also finally got to work on a passion project of mine which is a hybrid animation/live action epic short that I feel is going to be my best work to date. I have about six minutes out of 24 roughly animated – plus a live action shoot to schedule at some point – but I’m quite proud of it so far and will continue working on this long after the pandemic ends. I’m looking forward to bringing in fellow artists soon – digital artists, filmmakers, musicians, actors, etc – but for now the work of animation is keeping me energized and working through the long nights of this pandemic.
And I like doing this write up. I do it once a year and I have a fun time reflecting on what I loved in the last 12 months. So fuck this pandemic. Let’s get to the list! First off, the Honorable Mentions! These are the TV shows, single episodes of TV shows, and miscellaneous things that have really inspired me throughout the year!
Honorable Mention #1 – DEVS.
I prefer mini-series and anthologies to full length TV series. It takes a lot for me to engage in a series knowing it runs runs ten seasons or hundreds of episodes. I get the appeal but it’s not for me. I prefer stories to have set beginnings, middles and ends. Most TV shows find a way to exist in the middle for years until the audience has left and they awkwardly shift to the end. Sometimes they don’t even end at all. So when it comes to TV I prefer a story told over 10 episodes rather than a story told over 10 seasons. And seeing the recent rise of the anthology & mini-series I’m clearly not alone.
DEVS is an incredible mini-series by Alex Garland, the writer-director of EX MACHINA & my favorite film of 2018 ANNIHILATION, and for eight episodes he deep dives into the cultish world of Silicon Valley… with a sci-fi twist. It’s a cliche phrase but it’s also not wrong in this case because DEVS really does feel like a novel. It also has Nick Offerman’s greatest performance to date as he plays against the strong man type he’s built for himself. I don’t want to talk about where the series goes but I will say that while Garland does direct every episode I appreciate he, DP Robert Hardy & the team of composers work hard to make every episode have a look & sound all it’s own while still being a part of the whole. It really goes to some powerful places and is a great watch! (On Hulu)
Honorable Mention #2 – RAISED BY WOLVES – Season One.
And right away I contradict myself. Yes, RAISED BY WOLVES is not a mini-series and according to series creator Aaron Guzikowski the show is planned to run for five seasons. I don’t know if they’ll get there BUT the look, aesthetic & tone of the show was created by fucking King Ridley Scott who oversaw the first two episodes and again the best science fiction director alive delivers! Ridley brought his entire design team to a TV sci-fi series and then went wild and fully embraced all the weird ideas he wasn’t able to work into the “Alien Prequels” PROMETHEUS & ALIEN: COVENANT (both masterpieces btw). This a strange, sticky, HORNY sci-fi series that is a complete original & feels nothing like anything else out there. And it is so up my alley! It’s not perfect – the direction of the episodes following the two Ridely Scott did can’t match his filmmaking prowess & some of the story elements introduced as the show goes leaves me concerned about where this will go in later seasons – but it’s a real original that you’ll either go with or won’t but is so worth giving it a try. The central lead performances by Amanda Collin as Mother & Abubakar Salim as Father are truly something else! The pilot by Ridley Scott is an insane work of sci-fi genius – and if some story elements leave you conflicted like how I felt about who dies, stick around cause the show immediately fixes things by embracing sci-fi 100% and how no one really stays dead – and I’m hoping this show will hold me over with Scott’s lovingly weird obsession on Horny Androids until he (fingers crossed) gets to finish his “Alien Prequel” trilogy about Michael Fassbender as David the Horny Android. (On HBOMax)
Honorable Mention #3 – KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF EIZOUKEN!
The first of two Masaaki Yuasa projects on this list. Yuasa is an animation madman who loves embracing a wide variety of looks for the projects he oversees. Sometimes he’ll go for a hyper stylized almost 1920s American cartoon aesthetic (Kaiba – phenomenal) & other times he’ll push for keeping things close to lifelike (Japan Sinks:2020 – not so good) but he always remains fresh & an original. Here, Yuasa’s 12 episode series ostensibly follows three teenagers who form an after school club called “Eizouken” where they use their combined skills to make short anime films. Using this simple setup, Yuasa essentially tells the story of being a creative & more specifically, being a filmmaker. The series is broken into three acts – about 4 episodes a piece – with each act ending in the premiere of a new Eizouken club short film. When I say this series has perhaps the best representation of the filmmaking process I’m not being facetious & if I was a film teacher I’d make students watch this! It’s so perfect in showcasing the strengths of individual creativity & how that can be improved through the joy of collaborative filmmaking. Especially remarkable is how the show appreciates ALL aspects of the creative process! One of the kids is a Producer even! She doesn’t have a driving desire to tell a story nor does she have any technical skills or an artistic eye whatsoever but she understands how to keep to a schedule + budget & has a strong enough understanding of story to know when the filmmakers personal drive is getting in the way of the overall work. This intelligent portrayal is present through all 12 episodes! It’s really a beautiful series! Are their short films a bit too polished & perfect for things made in a few weeks by a handful of kids? Absolutely! Does it detract from what is a phenomenal pseudo-documentary on the joys of filmmaking? Absolutely not! Seriously – not only is this show entertaining but it’s also informative! Show it in film schools! (On HBOMax)
Honorable Mention #4 – GREAT PRETENDER: Case Three – Snow of London
GREAT PRETENDER is a fun series! It’s essentially OCEAN’S 11: THE ANIME. It’s about a bunch of lovable con-artists going around the world stealing from rich Trump-like assholes & giving to themselves. It’s also one of the few anime series that I think could work for people who aren’t into the medium. The show creators clearly are in love with Hollywood movies cause the show is paced & feels like something Warner Brothers would’ve put out a decade ago. Regrettably, in the final half of the series they start to borrow some of the worst story tropes from Hollywood films & the series doesn’t stick the landing in my eyes. But it is a damn enjoyable ride to the end. A smart thing the writers did was they broke the series up into four cleanly defined acts. Or Cases. The Cases vary in quality – Case 1 in Hollywood is a blast but the last, and longest Case gets too convoluted & messy for my tastes – but the third Case of the show is a mini-masterpiece. Case Three: Snow Of London, centers around Cynthia Moore who usually acts as their front woman & deals with art forgery, critics, forgotten pasts & lost loves. I’m a dumb romantic so this one really got to me. It’s also the most tightly written Case of the series with very little fluff & it just gets straight to the heart of the story. Running only four episodes it’s basically a secret movie & I loved it! (On Netflix)
Honorable Mention #5 – THE MIDNIGHT GOSPEL: The Last Episode
Honest moment: I wasn’t crazy about most of THE MIDNIGHT GOSPEL, Pendleton Ward’s psychedelic adaptation/recreation/interpretation of Duncan Trussell’s podcast “The Duncan Trussell Family Hour“. The show takes extracts from Trussell’s podcast, usually the topic is a form of philosophy, & then animates energetic, chaotic & beautiful world-scapes that comment on the subject matter over them. IE. The person on the podcast could be talking about reincarnation & then we see their animated avatar violently die & be reborn/reforged into a new being. There’s a lot to like & I may revisit the series later but I mostly found myself lost in wanting to indulge in the bombardment of gloriously done animation while also not wanting to miss out on the subject of the conversation. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mindset but the first 7 episodes, while inspiring works of art, just left me cold. I appreciated it as an experiment more than I was moved by it. Then everything clicks in the final episode. Using audio from when Trussell invited his own mother onto his podcast, the last episode is a personal dialogue about about life, family, love & her terminal stage four breast cancer. The conversation is emotionally foregrounded & less philosophical & some of their exchanges are as beautiful as they are heartbreaking. The animation slows down to focus on the intimate & for 36 minutes everything is in perfect harmony. I was inthralled & moved beyond words. (On Netflix)
Honorable Mention #6 – HELLTAKER: The Crazy Fanbase
One thing that brought me so much joy in 2020 was the insane fanbase built up around a silly free online game. HELLTAKER was released online in May by artist & game developer Łukasz Piskorz who had made the game all by himself. Sometime in June I started seeing artwork of cute sharply dressed demon girls show up in my Twitter feed & I was instantly intrigued. I never played the game but I loved the look & design of the demon girls – they are really sharply dressed! – & while all are based on common archetypes they are somehow fully developed characters that I adore! Add in the truly kick-ass music by the band Mittsies & you’ve got a winning little game. But, what the real joy of it was seeing people riff off it. There are hundreds of great remixes of the music & thousands of awesome works of fan art & I have enjoyed everything I’ve come across throughout the year! It was just fun to have a purely original nerdy thing in 2020 that I enjoyed & did not have a fanbase already ruined by the toxicity of canon or gatekeeping. The HELLTAKER fanbase has been a real joy for me throughout this mess of a year! Oh, and Judgement is the best Demon Girl! (In the Wild of the Internet)
THE TOP 15 FILMS OF 2020!
Note: There is still much from 2020 I have not seen. Most likely if you feel a great movie isn’t on this list it likely is that I just haven’t seen it yet.
15. COLOR OUT OF SPACE. (Richard Stanley.)
Had 2021 been a normal year & I’d been able to get in my usual forty to fifty movies in the theaters I don’t think Richard Stanley’s first flick in almost 30 years would’ve made the list. It’s a solid genre effort & really translates H.R. Lovecraft well while also removing the ickier parts of his writing but removed from the theatrical experience I felt it lost some of its power. But, I did see COLOR OUT OF SPACE in a theater back in January & the memory of how much fun I had is still fresh! It’s messy, it’s violent, it’s mean & the color palette of the film is truly out of this world – okay, the Color out of Space is just a mix of pinks & purples but I love pinks & purples so I approve this choice – so I’ll stand by sneaking this movie into my Top 15.
Stanley clearly knows his Lovecraft because while the film is a VERY loose adaptation of the source novel he stays true to the spirit of the author & avoids the usual pratfalls filmmakers fall into when adapting his novels. What has made Lovecraft’s work stand the test of time – narratively at least, on racial issues not so much – isn’t just tentacles how it’s about the loss of sanity & being confronted with the unknowable. Outside of there being a space meteor the movie stops to explain what is happened or what it all means. And I love it for that! COLOR OUT OF SPACE is intentionally a bit of a slow burner but once it gets going it’s an absolute monster-filled & dark blast! A special shout out needs to go to genre king Nicolas Cage who again keeps up his positive habit of making one great film with a wonderfully bonkers performance – the accent he adapts when his character starts going crazy is beautiful & Pure Cage – every other year or so in between the dozens of disposable shoot-em-ups he makes. I believe Richard Stanley intends to adapt more Lovecraft works & I anticipate seeing where he takes things. (Rent This One)
14. WEATHERING WITH YOU. (Makoto Shinkai.)
Makoto Shinkai really had a challenge ahead of when making his first film after YOUR NAME blew up his career. For a decade & a half Shinkai had steadily been making films & shorts that while insanely beautiful & effective were mostly a niche thing. He had his fans – raises hand – & his work got seen but he was still small enough to pretty much do his own thang. Then YOUR NAME in 2016 became a blockbuster smash in Japan & was one of the few Ghibli anime films to really find a mainstream audience around the world. Because of one movie his works were now EVENTS. You can feel that in WEATHERING WITH YOU because while the movie is very much it’s own story there are moments things feel a little too much like people told Shinkai to make this YOUR NAME 2. Thankfully those moments are few & far between & the majority of WEATHERING WITH YOU is a strong film & a chance to see Shinkai evolve into a new stage as a filmmaker. The guy who made small, beautifully animated stories about ennui & loves that never will be & left the viewer contemplating life has now moved into a new stage of his career as a blockbuster filmmaker making the same beautifully animated stories only now they’re about overcoming ennui, love conquering all & leave the viewer happy & uplifted. The story in WEATHERING WITH YOU is a little more complicated & nowhere near as neat as YOUR NAME is but it’s exciting to see Shinkai grow & leaves me excited for what he does next!
And the animation! Makoto Shinkai continues to push his team into creating hyperrealistic environments! His movies are all about the details & the beyond intricate close up shots. There are basic shots in here that I find more inspiring than anything being done by any filmmaking team out there at the moment. Let me just say, I never have a craving for McDonalds but there’s a shot of a Big Mac in here that is aggressively mouthwatering. (On HBOMax)
13. BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM. (Jason Woliner.)
This Moviefilm shouldn’t work. Since 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen has become one of the most famous comedic actors on the planet & everyone can & has done a terrible Borat impersonation. We’ve all told someone not to do “My Wife” again. What also complicates things is the US has become a real trash pile of ignorance since 2006. The country elected a brazen orange rapist to the office of President & he’s committed every impeachable offense imaginable since taking office & stupidity + corruption is now a virtue, I guess. And I don’t know how this is undone. Things will only get more embarrassing from this point on. How do you make fun of that? Trump killed satire.
So Cohen took another route & made a more intimate film. Oh, it still has the gross gags – though nothing will ever beat the naked fight from the original – and still takes the time to make fun of real political figures – Rudy Giuliani …. oh boy – but the soul of the movie deals with Borat getting to know his daughter. This film would not work without Maria Bakalova & Cohen knows this cause he constructed a film that gives her all the best parts. She steals the whole show & does things that I was horrified by & laughed at. It’s one of the best performances in recent years & Bakalova commits 200%. Cohen also gets an actual character arch as Borat, a sexist moron, learns that hey, maybe patriarchy & sexism is bad. Sure, that’s a low bar but Cohen’s performance as Borat makes it surprisingly sweet & effective. The Moviefilm isn’t as funny as the original, how could it when the US is the real joke, but it’s damn better than I ever expected it to be. Hopefully the US can somehow get its shit together – I doubt – & he never feels the need to make BORAT 3. (On Amazon Prime)
12. THE INVISIBLE MAN 2020. (Leigh Whannell.)
This is the horror movie sweet spot! Made on a super-tight budget of just $7 million, director Leigh Whannell takes the skeleton of The Invisible Man story & crafts his telling into a timeless story on domestic abuse & gaslighting. Because the budget is so low he’s free to take risks & go to places & ideas that a $100 or even $30 million movie couldn’t touch without risking the loss of too much money. Horror is really the best genre for making social statements because it can deal with real problems in modern day society by dressing it up with a few fun scary concepts. Here, the Invisible Man is used as a device to deal with gaslighting & domestic abuse as we’re told the story of a woman (Elisabeth Moss) who is still being controlled & manipulated by her abusive ex-boyfriend even after his death. Or is he?
The film graciously stays small & sticks to Moss & her dealing with the violence inflicted on her. We see the story from her eyes as she takes abuse from an unseen monster & then have to sit through many agonizing scenes as people, usually men, refusing to believe her version of what is happening. It’s an effective update of the classic story & does so while still being a cool horror movie with a couple kick-ass action scenes in the third act. And the ending is just perfect! (On HBOMax)
11. FIRST COW. (Kelly Reichardt.)
For the first two acts of Kelly Reichardt’s best film to date, FIRST COW is a lovely story about two men building a small business for themselves in Oregon circa 1820. It’s about how friendship & ingenuity can make anywhere, no matter how unforgiving, feel like it can hold promise & a better future. Then in the third act it turns into a dark & terrifying tragedy as the two men are hunted down because this country is a business first & hates competition.
FIRST COW is a small story & yet, like the poetry it is, the film is also a much bigger epic about the world at large. I loved this film from start to finish & wish I could have seen it in a theater. It’s a simple film yet is so much more. I loved it!
The cow is also very good! (Have to Rent)
10. A WHISKER AWAY. (Jun’ichi Satô & Tomotaka Shibayama.)
Sometimes you just like what you like. This is a silly film that tries REALLY hard to feel like a movie from Studio Ghibli & it fails entirely. There’s an entire third act that takes place in a magical Cat Land that is just a knock off of the magical bathhouse from SPIRITED AWAY. They try their best but all the magical world elements of this film never work. They’re okay to look at but lack the magic of Ghibli’s work & just made me wish I was revisiting a Hayao Miyazaki classic.
Despite all that, I still really loved the movie because I found a real deep personal connection with the main character, Miyo. A weird & very outspoken girl with some serious issues – the first line of the film delivered by her mother is a kicker– she’s essentially cut herself off from most people in her life except a few friends & one boy who she’s unhealthily placed ALL her feelings of love & acceptance on. The boy, Kento, in turn feels he’s unworthy of any attention & just wants to be left completely alone. An extreme extrovert with boundary issues is in love & pursuing an extreme introvert with social issues. That’s my jam! Then to complicate things, through some magical nonsense, Miyo is able to turn herself into a common cat when she likes & uses this gift to get close to this aloof boy without him knowing – he’s a cat lover – since he does everything he can to avoid her in real life. Because of this second life she gets to know the real Kento very intimately, finding herself falling more & more in love. A WHISKER AWAY is a cute film, not a great film, but this is a classic case where a personal connection to the main characters – I deeply felt an affinity with the lovesick Miyo & the loner Kento equally – overcame any qualms I had with the narrative issues around them. The plot I loved & the story not so much. (On Netflix)
09. SOUL. (Pete Docter & Kemp Powers.)
Pete Docter is Pixar’s best filmmaker. He’s the director at the studio who best understands that animation can do literally anything & for two decades he has continually pushed the envelope in what his team of animators can make come alive in ways live action could never do. He doesn’t make animated movies about “What if Cars talked” but instead makes animated movies about finding a new act in old age, the need for conflicting emotions & now a movie about creativity & death. He takes these adult subjects & gives them added dimension through visuals that in live action would feel out of place but in animation are perfect ways to express these emotions. His run of films up till now is essentially masterpiece (MONSTERS INC) to masterpiece (UP) to masterpiece (INSIDE OUT).
Now, potential hot take, I don’t think SOUL is a masterpiece on the same level as his three films. But, I do feel it’s one of the best movies of 2020 & that it deserves commendation for pushing what Pixar can do more than anything else they’ve ever done. Any complaints I have with story elements – the film is sometimes too busy, there’s a body switching thing in the second act I’m not crazy about, the antagonist character while fun is removed from the story & just exists until they’re needed in the third act, and a few other things – are immediately rendered mute by the filmmaking skill on display here. With John Lasseter gone I hope Pixar continues to expand what stories they tell & who gets to tell them – co-writer/director Kemp Powers is the secret weapon here in making the real world scenes the best part of the movie – & that they keep pursuing original ideas. Pixar & Disney Animation are the two bright spots in the concentration camp loving & fascist friendly Disney empire because they’re the only ones in the empire allowed to do original work & aren’t just churning out dull franchises or remaking old classics. Let Pixar have more Soul, not more Lightyear. (On Disney+)
08. TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL. (Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan & Suzanne Hillinger.)
Alex Gibney’s documentary on the beyond terrible response to COVID-19 by the United States isn’t revolutionary if you’ve been following the news. I was reading about “A dangerous flu-like virus is spreading in Wuhan, China” back in early December 2019 & bought supplies for a lengthy lockdown expecting not to leave my house in January – we have yet to have a real lockdown – but Gibney’s documentary tells the whole shit story in a concise & strong way. His team continually contrast the US fucking things up – essentially turning science into a political discussion built on opinions – against South Korea’s COVID-19 response which weathered the pandemic as well as possible. There isn’t much to say about this doc without me getting all political, but it is necessary to understand the deaths in the US – over 400,000 now – while primarily due to Trump’s absolute incompetence the blame still runs down his administration all the way to the American mindset in general. For centuries, Americans have been told they’re “special” & “number one”, that any social duty they don’t agree with is an “attack on mah rights!”. The US was always going to be fucked if a pandemic hit… but it’s been made so much worse by appeasing white supremacists & celebrating idiocy over science. (On Hulu)
07. THE TRIP TO GREECE. (Michael Winterbottom.)
I love THE TRIP series! It’s like the cantankerous middle-aged British dudes version of Richard Linklater’s THE BEFORE TRILOGY. The two leads here even fall in love… kinda… no sex though since both are happily married & blandly straight. Over the last decade, every few years writer/director Michael Winterbottom & actors Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon get together to shoot a little movie – actually it’s always a six episode mini-series that airs on the BBC first & is then re-edited into a roughly 100 minute movie but that’s another story– about where they are in their lives. The set up is wonderfully simple: Coogan & Brydon play exaggerated versions of themselves & they’re asked by some publication to go on an all-expenses paid Trip to somewhere in Europe to write an article about their experiences. They proceed to eat excellent meals at amazing restaurants, drink great amounts of wine, mock each others careers & do a ton of impersonations of famous people. Since the original THE TRIP in 2010, set in Northern England, they’ve since gone onTHE TRIP TO ITALY, THE TRIP TO SPAIN & now, in what is rumored to be the final film, THE TRIP TO GREECE.
I would argue over the last decade, while all that superhero stuff has been sucking up the air in the room, THE TRIP has stealthily become the best adult orientated franchise of the 2010s! And what a unique franchise this is! These are small films where the “set pieces” are just two guys sitting at a table eating incredible looking food! The films are also sneakily dramatic with various real elements of the two men’s lives being worked into the four films over the years. Issues like creative woes, lost loves, middle aged & feelings of failure become more apparent at the films proceed & really take the stage in GREECE. I won’t speak more but in this “final(?)” film they really break with the convention of the franchise.
When THE TRIP TO GREECE was released this summer I wasn’t able to see it in the theaters due to the pandemic so I rented all the films online & over four days I watched them in order paired with alcohol & food that matched the film. It was an absolute delight, but it could not be overstated how much more powerful the films were since I was vicariously living through these small things I couldn’t do – be with people, eat at a restaurant, have a coffee in a cafe, travel the world & experience new cultures – & I won’t lie, I got misty eyed a few times. Once things are safe & I’m vaccinated I need to go on a few trips. Who wants to join? (On Hulu)
06. UNDERWATER. (William Eubank.)
When a movie clicks with you it just clicks & UNDERWATER absolutely clicked with me. This flick knows what it is & doesn’t fuck around! At the 5 minute mark the shit starts & people are running in panic as the underwater sea station starts crumbling because SOMETHING HAPPENED! Five minutes in! Beautiful! From there it doesn’t let up as the few survivors left have to find a way to survive all this & get back to the surface. Survival involves avoiding crumpling bulkheads, dealing with failing (really awesome anime like) deep-sea suits, a lack of oxygen, walks along the pitch-black ocean floor & wondering if SOMETHING in the water. … okay, yes, there are absolutely monsters in the water & they fucking rule!
This is just a fun genre ride that I loved & was all in for from start to finish. It isn’t perfect –this was the last project TJ Miller did before all the awful stuff about him came out so he’s in the film & they grossly name him Paul… an offense!… but Spoiler Alert, his death is a good one – but when a movie looks this good – beautifully filmed by DP Bojan Bazelli -, refuses to slow down & has such cool monsters what is there not to love? Did I mention the movie runs a sexy 90 minutes? Masterpiece! I kinda feel guilty admitting despite all the great art films she’s been in this is by far my favorite Kristen Stewart movie. What can you do? This is a really great sci-fi/monster flick & is the type of fun genre film that just doesn’t get made with so much polish at this scale of budget anymore. Nor will this type of film be again maybe ever… this was the last movie produced & released by 20th Century Fox before it was fully acquired by Disney who has zero interest in taking risks & is solely interested in making fan pandering franchise entires. I wish the studio still existed free of Disney but all things considered, UNDERWATER is a solid final film for the studio of ALIEN. (On HBOMax)
05. RIDE YOUR WAVE. (Masaaki Yuasa.)
Masaaki Yuasa is an artist like no other! His works are experimental, the animation free flowing & the feel is 100% unique to him! RIDE YOUR WAVE falls into an interesting place in his body of work in that it’s his first feature where his hyper eccentric flights of fancy are more grounded to make a more traditional narrative. Normally, Yuasa’s work take place in fantastical worlds where anything can happen but this time he’s flipped things to make a movie where everything is pretty real to life except for one fantastical element & it works sooooo well! And the animation is so good! There are water effects in this film that blew my mind!
The real success of the film though rests in the characters & our two lead protagonists are a delight! Hinako is an airhead & a bit of a goof but whenever she gets out on the water she is a world class surfer in her element & while Minato may be a studious, awkward know it-all he’s an excellent firefighter. They are two lanky goofballs & they’re perfect for each other. These two have a real chemistry with each other & the romance that buds between them in the first thirty-some minutes of the movie is a masterclass of romantic filmmaking. It’s sweet, it’s endearing & had the movie stayed a simple romance I would’ve been all in. But, tragedy strikes & for the remainder of the movie RIDE YOUR WAVE becomes a story about loss WITH one magical element included that I won’t reveal here but will say is ideal for Yuasa’s unique sensibilities. It’s both tragic & silly. Things all build to a third act that’s all about healing & the film culminates in what may well be my favorite “cry” moment in 2020. Seriously, the second to last scene destroyed me in the movie theater & now knowing it was one of my last theater experiences just makes it hit all the more. RIDE YOUR WAVE is a delightful work of art & I’ve already indulged in it a few times during this pandemic! (On HBOMax)
04. NOMADLAND. (Chloé Zhao.)
I think Chloé Zhao is the real thing! She’s been making revelatory films for the lasts few years & NOMADLAND is an epic in all the best ways! Fern (Frances McDormand – incredible) lost everything in the Great Recession of 2008 & now lives a nomadic lifestyle in her rusty van. Her life is now criss crossing over the country to whatever low-paying temp jobs she’s able to get. She’ll spend a few months in the North at an Amazon Fulfillment Center & then a few weeks in the South as a fry-cook. Wherever the work is. Using Fern as an audience surrogate, we’re presented a pseudo-documentary glimpse into an American lifestyle that has been growing in size since the US forgot so many of its citizens. There’s an authenticity to the life on display in this film that is astonishing thanks to an ingenious choice on Zhao’s behalf because aside from McDormand & David Stratharin everyone in the film is a non-actor playing themselves. These people make some rookie mistakes like the occasional glance into the lens but the stories they tell & performances they give are so brutally real & true they must be taking from their personal experiences.
NOMADLAND is another ostensibly small film that in reality is an epic. The vision on display here is vast & rich! We’re shown an American lifestyle that too many people have ignore for too long. I hope Zhao doesn’t spend too much time in the Marvel machine because she’s a unique voice that could give us so many masterworks! (Coming to Theaters but also Hulu)
03. DA 5 BLOODS. (Spike Lee.)
Spike Lee is an incredible filmmaker who is as fresh & driven today as he was when he started out his career forty years ago! He continues to play to his own drum & goes wherever his creative drives takes him! Sometimes that can lead to the occasional off project – his series adaption of She’s Gotta Have It is really bad – but on average his work is impeccably made, intelligent & more often then not just straight up incredible! DA 5 BLOODS is one of the incredible ones. Working with one of the largest budgets of his career – only $35 million, not a huge budget by any means & a real signifier of how little Hollywood respects filmmakers of color if they don’t sign on to a franchise – Lee makes an electric & thrilling adventure film starring people who never get to lead action movies – black men in their late 60s & early 70s. Part adventure movie, part drama, part black comedy & part Vietnam war movie, DA 5 BLOODS is 100% Spike Lee! And it’s glorious!
There’s so much to love in this film but I want to single out two performers. First is Delroy Lindo who gives THE PERFORMANCE OF 2020 as Paul, “Da Blood” who was left most broken by his experiences fighting the war in Vietnam. Lindo’s character is the wounded broken soul at the center of the film. Paul is allowed to be an awful, vindictive & evil man who is still capable of great sorrow & passion. Spike, never one to avoid getting right into the middle of contemporary political issues in his movies, visualizes Paul’s broken soul by having him be a red hat wearing MAGA supporter. That dumb fucking red hat carries hate & death throughout the film, infecting everyone it comes in contact with & Spike, like he did with 9/11 in 25TH HOUR & Trump himself in BLACKKKLANSMAN, again is ahead of the curve in dealing with the problems in the American psyche through the art of film. Delroy Lindo is haunting in DA 5 BLOODS & if he doesn’t win all the awards then what’s the point? Second, attention needs to be given to Chadwick Boseman who portrays Stormin’ Norman, the leader of Da Bloods whose death in Vietnam has left wounds on his four fellow soldiers. Boseman doesn’t have much screen time in the film but he does great work with the vitally important material he has & his final scene with Lindo is one of the most powerful moments of Spike’s career. I haven’t revisited the film since Chadwick Boseman’s shocking death but I can only imagine his performance in DA 5 BLOODS is more powerful today than it was back when the film came out last summer. (On Netflix)
02. SMALL AXE: Complete Anthology. (Steve McQueen.)
Five movies! FIVE! Steve McQueen released FIVE movies in 2020! Even more mind-blowing is that these FIVE movies are all great! Telling five different stories about the seemingly never-ending prejudices West Indian immigrants faced in London during the 60s & 70s, McQueen has made an epic celebrating community, humanity & dealing with the horrors of racism. Each film works great as a standalone work of art but all five take on new meaning when played together. You could watch the five films in any order but I think the best is to go with the way they were released. Start with MANGROVE, the longest entry in the Anthology that covers the most traditional story of racial aggression & the fight for equality. Then follow that up with LOVER’S ROCK, a one hour capturing of a house party that as a work of art exists to celebrate the beauty of black life! Third is RED, WHITE & BLUE, where we see a man (John Boyega) attempt to change the racist police system from the inside only to learn an unjust system can’t be changed if it doesn’t want to. Fourth is ALEX WHEATLE, a miniature biopic of a man abused in foster homes removed from his culture who tries to find his place in the world through art. Finally, EDUCATION deals with the original sin of organized racism which is providing sub-quality education to children from what the British government labelled were “undesirable communities“. All five films are filled to the brim with McQueen’s usual cinematic elegance & all five are also emotional celebrations of life!
It’s honestly heartbreaking to me the SMALL AXE Anthology hasn’t been talked about more. This is THE cinematic achievement of 2020 & it has received less attention than the bad Aaron Sorkin movie on Netflix. I feel if people actually watched these five master works of art they’d be blown away! Give it a try if you haven’t seen them. And if you have let’s watch them again! (Entire Anthology on Amazon Prime)
01. WOLFWALKERS. (Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart.)
Fact: I’m making an animated movie right now. It’s an idea I had a few years ago & I sketched it out but I never did anything with it. For years it just sat there. Without the distractions of social life I found time during the pandemic to actually begin working on it & I’m happy to say I’ve made some progress I think. This is a big one. I don’t even know if I’ll finish it in 2021, in fact I’m expecting it won’t be done until some point in far-off 2022. Again, it’s a big film. Whether it works for others is still a mystery to me but I’m going to finish it.
None of this really matters in why WOLFWALKERS is an incredible masterwork & my favorite film of 2020 but it matters to me! I am enthralled by animation! The more unique the project looks & the more I can see the artists hand in the creation of it the better! WOLFWALKERS embraces 2D animation in way so few other films do! Every choice made in this film from the story down to the execution is flawless. I love how when the lead characters, Robyn & Mebh, are in a good state of mind the lines are drawn smooth & confidently but when they’re in distress or sad we can see the pencil strokes & rough lines of the artwork! It adds so much to the emotions of the film. I love the artwork design where the human worlds are all rigid straight lines & the forest is made up entirely of curves! This is magic in every frame!
Just everything about WOLFWALKERS is…flawless. Incredible. A perfect movie. The best of 2020. And one of my new favorite films of all time! I don’t want to say more. I just want to watch it again. (On AppleTV+)
And that’s 2020.