The movie going experience in 2020 can best be summed up in the picture at the top of this post. Shut down and closed theaters, and empty ones when they did reopen, right before they were shut down again. Of all the many things deprived of us in this pandemic year, I think that I missed going to the movies (and live theatrical performances) most of all.
This whole thing caused me to track the movies that I have seen this year in a different manner. I tracked them on two separate lists. One was for movies that bear a 2020 release date, and I saw a grand total of eleven such films this past year. Pathetic, huh? I also had to give in to the times and include movies that I saw on TV streaming services such as Netflix and Prime. In the past, it only "counted" for me if I saw it in an actual theater on a big screen. Another paradigm shattered.
Knowing that we would be spending a lot of time watching old movies on the tube during the days of isolation, I developed a second list which I concisely labeled "2019 Movies and Movies From Other Years That I Have Seen for the First Time in 2020."
Disclaimer: I am not a professional critic. I don't see every movie. I tend to see only movies that interest me and that I want to see, so I am predisposed at the outset to like them. For that reason, I do not call these Best Movies, but rather Favorite Movies, and I am going to give you a baker's dozen of them, six from one list seven from another.
2020 MOVIES
#6 Soul
The Disney-Pixar movie about a music teacher who longs for something else, and finds it when an accident takes him to the "Before Life" where souls are assigned to human form. Funny stuff for the kids, serious stuff for the adults. Looking forward to a second viewing of this one to pick up on things and themes that I may have missed the first time around. As always with Pixar, the animation is unbelievably good.
#5 The Half of It
A teen rom-com wherein the lunkhead high school jock enlists the aim of the school nerd/geek (a girl as it happens) to write letters for him to the most beautiful and popular girl in the school on whom he has an unrequited crush. You've seen it all before, right? Maybe, but this one has an unexpected twist, and terrific performances by the three young leads, Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire, particularly Miss Lewis, make this one worth watching.
#4 Downhill
On a family ski vacation in Europe, an avalanche takes place, and an impulsive act by husband Will Ferrell has unintended consequences for him, his wife, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and their kids. Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus take a break form comedy and play dramatic roles here, and do it very well. This is not a great movie by any means, but it was enjoyable, and it is memorable for the fact that it was the last movie which Marilyn and I saw in an honest-to-God movie theater, way back in February.
#3 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
The fictionalized story of a one day recording session in Chicago in 1927 by the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey (a real person) and her band of musicians, based upon August Wilson's 1982 play. Great drama and performances by Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman that will no doubt earn them Oscar nominations. Very sad to realize as you watched that this was to be Boseman's final performance and to realize what he was dealing with in real life as he made this movie.
#2 Hamilton
For this movie, two performances of the play "Hamilton" were filmed right before the original cast were about to leave the show, edited together in a seamless presentation as a filmed recording of the play. Close-ups of the performers allowed you to see the actors expressions and reactions in a manner that you would never see sitting in a theater, yet you actually felt like you were seeing a theatrical performance and not a movie. Originally set to be released for Christmas 2021, Disney and creator Lin Manual-Miranda agreed to release it via streaming over the July 4 weekend. A better gift to a pandemic-weary audience I could not imagine. I have written on and on about "Hamilton" over the years, so I will say no more. Just see it.
#1 The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Aaron Sorkin both wrote and directed this story of the trial that took place in 1969 of counter-culture demonstrators that disrupted the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. As I watched, it brought back memories of those tumultuous days and the sham of a trial that was conducted by the Nixon Justice Department. It also made me realize that no one under the age of sixty would have any real memory of this event or knowledge of names such as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tom Hayden, facts which were confirmed by many informal surveys that I took among many people under age sixty. Great writing and great performances by Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Michael Keaton. Look for Oscar nominations for Sorkin for his screenplay and Cohen for his portrayal of Hoffman.
Honorable Mention: "Greyhound" starring Tom Hanks.
2019 Movies and Movies From Other Years That I Have Seen for the First Time in 2020
#6 and 6a (tie) The Lady Vanishes (1938) and The Thirty-Nine Steps (1938)
Okay, call it a cop out, but I just couldn't leave either one of these off of my year end favorites list. Both are films that Alfred Hitchcock made in England prior before he came to America for bigger budgets and greater fame. Both have all the trademarks of what came to be known as "Classic Hitchcock", and both are a ball watch.
#5 Patriots Day (2016)
This movie tells the story behind the terrorist bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 and the investigation to find and arrest the perpetrators. A solid cast of Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, J.K. Simmons, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, and a minor but important part played by Rachel Brosnahan (before she was "Mrs. Maisel").
#4 The Good Liar (2019)
Older widowed singles Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren meet up via a computer dating site and hit it off famously. Sweet story, right? Trouble is, he's a con man and she's yet another victim. Or is she? Great twisty story with wonderful performances by two old pros.
#3 1917 (2019)
Director Sam Mendes story of two British soldiers in WW I who are dispatched to deliver a message behind enemy lines that would save the lives of hundreds of allied soldiers. Mendes filmed the the entire movie, seemingly, in one single take, and this makes this very interesting visually. Make sure you see the "Dedication" that Mendes gives at the end of the movie for a real "oh wow" moment.
#2 Parasite (2019)
This South Korean movie from director/writer Bong Joon Ho swept the Oscars last year, and it's hard to argue against those awards. A family of living-in-poverty con artists infiltrate themselves into the household of a wealthy family in-order to sponge off of them. It's funny at first, but it takes a dark turn with some disastrous Tarentino-esque results. Don't let the subtitles scare you away, this is a good movie.
#1 Atlantic City (1980)
My sincerest thanks to Facebook friend and Washington DC critic Jason Fraley for tipping me off to this one. The story of an aging two-bit hustler, Burt Lancaster, in a decaying Atlantic City NJ, his unlikely romance with a neighbor and aspiring casino dealer, Susan Sarandon, and a cache of stolen cocaine was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1980, including Best Picture, and is just a fantastic movie to watch. Director Louis Malle sets the tone for the seediness of the surroundings perfectly, and Lancaster and Sarandon are fabulous. Great line as Lancaster bemoans how great it used to be: "You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean back then." Just a fabulous movie.
Honorable Mention: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Carrie Pilby (2016), A Royal Night Out (2015), and Mean Streets (1973).
Oh, and my Least Favorite Movie of 2020. That's an easy one. 2019's Joker. It won an Academy Award for Joaquin Phoenix for playing a loathsome character in a loathsome movie (to me at least). I guess he deserved it. It was hard for me to even get through this one.
Here's hoping for better days and better movies in 2021, and a return to the theaters for us all. There is still nothing like seeing a good movie in a crowded theater on the big screen, and being one of those wonderful people out there in the dark.
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