Top 20 Films Of 2020 (Part 2)

10: Never Rarely Sometimes Always

The best teenage abortion film of the summer. All joking aside, the delicateness in which Never Rarely tackles it’s theme is incredible, this subject needed a deft touch and it got that in spades thanks to Eliza Hittman showcasing that for some woman, abortion is necessary but pointlessly difficult exercise filled with lies, propaganda and bullying to prevent you from your rights to your own body. Anchored by an amazing performance from first-time actress Sidney Flannigan who will easily break your heart – the interview scene alone is one of the best of the year thanks to her – and Hittman’s soft but unfiltered direction, this is necessary viewing for anyone still on the fence about the abortion topic, and even if you are watch it anyway cause it’s fucking amazing.

9: Hamilton

‘Southern motherfucking democratic republicans’

Yes the musical that every theatre kid has been obsessed with for the last five years finally became a film and it’s praise was well-warranted, this is an entertaining, funny, tragic and exceedingly well written piece of history that takes the birth of America and translate it into Epic Rap Battles of Congress. It’s easy to see why this was a hit, the songs are a mixture of good to great to fantastic, ranging from quiet but powerful ballads like Burn to fun little ditties like You’ll Be Back to powerhouse theatre fillers like Non-Stop, the performances are brilliant across the board, from the charisma of Thomas Jefferson to the heartbreak of Eliza Hamilton to the layered villainy and tragedy of Aaron Burr to the spitting psychopath of King George and the choreography of the spinning stage is some of the most inventive I’ve seen on stage. Granted I’ve not seen much on stage but shut up I loved it. The theatre kids finally got one right, Hamilton is worthy of the praise and then some.

8: Tenet

Christopher Nolan has been fucking with time for most of his career now and Tenet finally gives him an excuse to go hog-wild with it, some might say it’s too much for his own good, I say good for him. There’s enough brains on show for the timeline fuckery to work its magic on the story and the recontextualisation of some scenes later on is worth several viewings at least, there’s enough heart in the story of our unnamed protagonist trying to save a mother and her son whilst making friends with a charming English bloke and where their relationship goes and there’s enough guts for Nolan to pull off some of the most inventive and unique action sequences of his career with the highway heist pulling off some truly exciting manoeuvres before the script puts its things down flips and reverses it and makes it even better before you’ve had a chance to catch your breath. I had a lot of fun with Tenet and I’m more than ready to go through it again.

7: Freaky

I was not expecting to expecting to enjoy Freaky as much as I did, I figured I’d like the body-swap comedy horror but what I got was one of the best genre films of the year that embraced the clichés of slasher movies, body swap comedies and modern day high school while still subverting as much as it could with it’s R-Rated jokes and insane levels of gore and murder. It’s also helped immensely but it’s cast who are all game for the ridiculousness, from the too gay to function Josh to the level-headed Nyla and the main duo of Katheryn Newton’s cold and fuck Butcher and Vince Vaughn giving the best teenage girl performance since Jack Black in Jumanji, everyone knows this is all for fun and it is a fucking fun film to watch.

6: The Trail Of The Chicago 7

It might have a few too many Sorkinisms for its own good – the ending is too on the nose for this to go any higher on the list – but at its heart this is a great example of the frustration of the American court system and how the broken system punishes those who don’t need to be. Seven peaceful protestors and one Black Panther member are put in front of the most senile, pathetic and rage-inducing Judge who treats them with hostility, disdain and thinly veiled racism and gets away with it because he’s a judge in the American court system. It’s a film that puts you at the forefront of one of the most ridiculous cases in American history and thanks to the fantastic performances across the board with Redmayne, Cohan, Rylance, Langella and Manteen all bouncing off each other in increasingly humorous and infuriating ways, you get an inside look into the sheer aggravation of fighting an uphill battle for something as simple as human rights.

5: The Devil All The Time

There are a few glaring issues with The Devil All The Time that even I can’t defend, there’s a few too many storylines to fit into the runtime and some of the characters are pushed to the sides. But as a whole, this ultra-dark, disturbing and grimy tale of one young man’s corruption in post W.W.2 America is one of the best films I’ve seen all year. It’s not for everyone, the relentlessly brutal nature will take a lot out of you, from suicide to animal murder to castration to statutory rape, but I loved that it didn’t pull any punches, it showed just how fucked up this time was and how it takes Arvin Russell – a great mature performance from Tom Holland – and forces him to fuck with the world before it fucks him first. It’s pitch-black, it’s unsettling, it’s not for everyone, and it’s bloody brilliant.

4: Judas & The Black Messiah

Set in the same time as The Chicago 7, where that film showed the victory of fighting injustice, this shows the human cost and is all the better for it. Equal parts thriller of William O’Neal infiltrating the Black Panther Party and biopic of the greatness that Fred Hampton brought to the city of Chicago, the split focus allowed both men to rise and fall in our eyes as they worked for and against the FBI respectively and the fallout of O’Neal’s betrayal. Stanfield and Kaluuya are both fan-fucking-tastic as O’Neal and Hampton respectively and director Shaka King takes a growing sense of foreboding doom and uses that to push this harsh, awful tale forward into it’s inevitable conclusion. Easily one of the most powerful films of the year and for good reason.

3: Promising Young Woman

With my guilty pleasure of revenge movies, I knew I’d enjoy Promising Young Woman, but I was not expecting to kick to the nuts it gave me and I fucking loved every minute of it. This is a strong indictment of modern day society and our inability to punish college rapists because ‘boys will be boys’, and using Cassie Thomas – an incredible, resilient, damaged and mildly sociopathic turn from Carey Mulligan – to bring justice to an unjust world following a personal tragedy is phenomenal. First time director Emerald Fennel is gutsy, provocative, entertaining and harsh, using Cassie to give voice to the silent victims but not afraid to have reality crash into her as evidenced by the ballsiest ending of the year that I still think about from time to time. This is the film of the Me Too era and it’s more than earned its welcome.

2: Saint Maud

There is a lot to unpack with Saint Maud and it’s a can of worms you don’t wanna open, but it’s worth diving into for what is easily the best horror film of 2020. There is something so creepy, so disconcerting about the look of horror and ecstasy on Maud’s face as she faces the most old-testament style of religious fervour since Mrs Carmody, between her own delusions and the ambiguous reality she’s living in, you don’t know what the fuck’s going on and that makes everything that harder to watch. The combined brilliance of first time director Rose Glass taking the manic nature of Maud and twisting her world around it and of Morfydd Clarke delivering one of the best sympathetic female villain performances since Kathy Bates in Misery makes this an easy choice for this high on the list.

1: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.

I knew after I shut it off that Portrait Of A Lady would be my number 1 film of the year, never before had I seen a film tackle a period-set lesbian relationship with such tenderness, such intimacy and such grace that anything that came close to beating this would have to hit me harder than this did with so little. Following the slow burning romance between the enigmatic Marianne and the silently suffering Heloise as they come together for artistic purposes and find a passion and a care for each other despite knowing there’s likely no future for the two of them after Marianne leaves. The amount of time dedicated to watching this love story bloom and grow, all the while director Celine Sciamma uses the subtleness of mere looks and touches to show more affection than have been seen in any sex scene I’ve ever seen. For it’s poignancy, it’s tenderness, it’s bittersweetness and for giving me a love story that I can easily pour my heart into, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is an easy choice for the Best Film of 2020.