Top 20 Films of 2020 (Part 1)

Man, 2020 was a weird fucking year wasn’t it. I spent a good chunk of last year trying to work out what to do for a Best Of List, do I keep it at a Top 10 because there’s nothing coming out, do I do a full Top 20 or drop it to 15 if there’s not enough film I want on the list. I honestly didn’t expect to get a full list out and yet I’m here, not only with a full 20 but getting to the point where knocking things off the list was getting difficult.

And who knows, maybe going without an Avenger film for one year has opened the gates for a few hidden gems to make their way into this list.

Honourable mentions go to;

Host: The 2020 Zoom horror movie, low-fi but highly effective in building a surprisingly scary piece.

Bad Boys For Life: A third film in a forgotten franchise that turns out to be its best entry, bringing back laughs and action a plenty with a maturity befitting where Mike and Marcus have ended up.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: A little too close to its theatre roots, but a strong examination of a powder-keg between Chadwick’s loud-mouth but internal hurt Levee and Viola Davis ‘Been here too long’ Ma Rainey.

Small Axe - Mangrove: The British police get into the racist action thanks to Steve McQueen’s series of black based British films with Mangrove tackling a frustrating true story that even by its end still leaves a larger war unfought.

Mank: Arguably the least Fincher film ever made by David Fincher, there is a little too much talky-talky, insider-Hollywood stuff that probably hurts the film towards the general masses. But for me Fincher’s recreation of 1930s L.A. and of the Citizen Kane style was a technical powerhouse and a solid companion piece to the film itself and it’s tempestuous origins.

And now, the main event.

20: Swallow

I didn’t expect Swallow to be on this list but after watching it for the first time I found myself thinking back on it more and more fondly every time, it’s such a strange, almost unique experience that it’s hard not to think on it long after the credits roll. From Haley Bennett’s incredible performance as Hunter being powerful, tragic and sympathetic all at once to director Carlos Davis’ examination of mental-health, body autonomy and his unflinching showing of Hunter’s disease, it all comes together for a mental-health horror film that I didn’t know I wanted as much as I did.

19: His House

Allegorical horror films are some of my favourite to come out of the genre in recent years and His House makes a fine addition, tackling the very real horrors of war-town Sudan and the refugee experience in mainland Britain with grief, guilt and ghosts. The journey we follow it’s leads Bo and Rial on through their own struggles and hardships is frightening enough on its own but once the ghost story starts coming into play it becomes a slow, unnerving piece and I’m very excite to see what director Remi Weekes does next.

18: American Utopia

Spoiler alert, not the only concert movie on this list. Filmed as part of his Broadway Tour, David Byrne uses his catalogue of songs from Talking Heads to his solo work to even a Janelle Monae cover alongside state of the art wireless technology and perfect choreography to examine the human condition and the nature of togetherness. It’s a film that has so many moving parts in such a small area that you don’t even realise how it all works together, but once you realise what Byrne is doing the whole thing comes together beautifully.

Plus any film that lets me hear This Must Be The Place live is gonna be pretty great.

17: One Night In Miami

One of the best Actor’s Films of the year, One Night In Miami takes its simple concept of four men talking in a room and lets their history push the drama. While the talk itself likely never happened, putting Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke together to discuss and argue the civil rights movement as well as their own personal struggles. All four men are brilliant together with Kingsley Ben-Adir and Leslie Odom Jr. as Malcolm X and Sam Cooke especially stealing the show with their discussions over the right way forward for equality and both men making great opposing points. It might be an Actor’s Film, but when the actors are this good it’s worth it.

16: The Invisible Man

Hard to believe when this came out we weren’t giving much thought about it being one of the last films we’d be able to see in theatres. Regardless, Leigh Whannel’s update to the Invisible Man story perfectly modernises the story, making it a little more believably sci-fi and a lot more emotionally scarring. The allusions to gas-lighting and emotional trauma that Adrian puts Cecilia through are enough to chill you even without the horror elements and Elisabeth Moss is incredible as she’s slowly put through hell trying to prove the impossible, hell there’s even points where you’re not sure when Adrian is on-screen or even if he is on-screen at all. This is a dark, twisted tale and a great update to the classic formula.

15: Possessor (Uncut)

Brandon Cronenberg does his best impression of his dad with one of the strangest, most unnerving films of the year but also one of the best and most unique. Equal parts emotional hijacking and violent sci-fi horror, the whole thing has this cold detachment to it all that never leaves you feeling right and the more it goes on the more you feel things slipping into something darker and darker. It’s a film that didn’t give me a straight answer as to what was actually happening, but I want to see it again to try and piece it together myself and that alone is praise enough to put it on this list.

14: Sound Of Metal

For sound design alone this makes it onto the list but the whole thing has this quiet power that makes it a fantastic experience. Watching Ruben slowly lose his hearing and working with others in the deaf community would’ve been a strong enough film on its own but it’s Ruben’s self-destruction and Riz Ahmed’s portrayal of this young man who can’t see the forest for the trees that’s the real heartbreak of the story. We get deep in Ruben’s head to the point of literally hearing what he hears and the pay-off at the end is a turn that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon, one of the best gut-punches of the year.

13: Palm Springs

Time loop movies are nothing new but Palm Springs offers a new twist to the formula by having someone already stuck in the time loop before we start. The pairing of Andy Samberg and Cristen Milioti work wonders for the charm of this film while still having both of them be broken people, Samberg’s Nyles has been stuck for decades - if not longer – and has turned into a nihilistic drunken disaster while Milioti’s Sarah is new to the loop which throws his self-destruction into overdrive with no worries about consequences. And yet the two of them together make for a brilliant, if slightly dangerous pairing, they bring out the best in each other and the fun they have is infectious. It’s a rom-com that embraces the fact that the two leads are shitty people and uses the time loop to give them a reason to better themselves, in the end creating a film that’s one of the best of both genres.

12: Another Round

As someone who likes a drink now and then, this film gave me exactly what I needed, it’s examination of the joys of drinking and the good times had by letting loose now and again are balanced by its condemnation of over-drinking and losing sight of what soberness is even like anymore. It’s an often funny, sometimes dour little film but one that works to showcase the good and the bad and brings out the best of both, Mads Mikkelsen especially is worth checking out for how effortlessly he combines the charm of being buzzed with the touches of midlife crisis depression. It might take you to some dark places, but by the dance scene at the end you’ll remember why life is worth taking in its stride and finding the right balance to live it well.

11: Soul

Pixar have touched on death before – looking at you Up – but it’s never made death the main focus of its story and judging by this film I can understand why they waited until now to do so. Soul is easily one of the most mature, thought-provoking and existential films ever created by Pixar with a core message of enjoying the simple pleasures and not worrying about a ‘purpose’ in life that might go over a lot of kids heads, but for adults who have found themselves stuck in life it’s exactly the thing they need to hear. Combined with some of the studio’s most inventive animating to date, hilarious performances from Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey – as well as Graham Norton who I was not expecting but does a great job all the same – and one of the best Black Positive themes to come out of 2020 and together you get this wonderful little piece of existentialism.