It’s been a weird year, cinematically speaking. For starters, there were very few major studio releases after February. That’s how “Bad Boys For Life,” which opened in January, earns the title of the year’s highest domestic grosser. Moreover, our experience of watching movies changed, with almost all of us spending the last ten months watching them at home. That changes our perception of them.
So how do we rank the year’s best films? The same way we always do: guts and intuition. These are the greatest films of the year.
- The Assistant
Director Kitty Green captures the ripple effects of sexual harassment in this haunting drama by training her lens on the secondary victims of abuse. It’s a day in the life of Jane (Julia Garner, who holds an entry-level position as the executive assistant to a Harvey Weinstein-like producer. Filled with quiet menace, the film shows both the banality and the evil of sexual harassment, demonstrating how abuse at the top of any company or organization creates a destructive culture of complicity. (Amazon Prime)
- Sorry We Missed You
Director Ken Loach is the Bernie Sanders of film. He’s been hitting the same note of economic populism for decades, and the world has finally caught up. His latest masterpiece chronicles the devastating impact of the gig economy on one London family. Unflinchingly honest, it exposes the dangerous risks many workers must take just for the chance to earn what so many others are gifted. (Criterion Channel)
- On the Rocks
Sofia Coppola’s latest film, on the other hand, is set in a ritzy Manhattan milieu. It’s about a weary wife and mother (Rashida Jones) who enlists the help of her playboy father (Bill Murray) to find out if her husband (Marlon Wayans) is cheating on her. She’s on the brink of devastation, which Jones masterfully underplays. He sees it as a father-daughter lark, perfect for Murray’s droll playfulness. Set in an old school New York that is gradually disappearing (a key scene is set at the now-defunct 21 Club), “On the Rocks” is the weekend in New York we all desperately need. (AppleTV+)
- Gunda
This documentary is as close to pure cinema, with the entire story told visually, as you may ever seen. It chronicles several weeks in the lives of pigs, cows, and chickens on an undetermined farm, but it miraculously does so without narration or anthropomorphizing. With classical black-and-white cinematography and its long takes, “Gunda” draws you into the rhythms of the natural world and lets you see animals for what they really are. The result is revelatory. (Coming soon)
- The Trial of the Chicago 7
All of writer/director Aaron Sorkin’s narrative mannerisms – his fast-talking protagonists, grandstanding speeches, and political idealism – are well-used in this courtroom drama based on the prosecution of anti-war activists after the 1968 Democratic Convention. Sacha Baron Cohen as the yippie Abbie Hoffman leads a brilliant ensemble, and Sorkin’s depiction of how the defendants used the absurdity of the political trial to their advantage speaks to the politics of 2020, in which confrontation and spectacle spoke the language of the oppressed. (Netflix)
- The Father
Dementia is a difficult thing to make art about. Once you have it, you can no longer describe it. The debut film from Florian Zeller, based on his own play, comes as close as I can imagine. It’s centered on a woman (Olivia Colman) struggling to care for her father (Anthony Hopkins), whose Alzheimer’s is progressing to heartbreaking levels. Capturing the terror of both witnessing and having dementia,“The Father” features an innovative structure and some of the best acting I’ve ever seen. (Coming Soon)
- Nomadland
The third feature from Chloe Zhao mashes reality and fiction without ever breaking a sweat. It focuses on a new American archetype: the nomad, who has been driven out of their home for either personal or economic reasons, and now lives on the road, picking up seasonal work where they can. Frances McDormand plays Fern, who is new to the lifestyle, but Zhao pits her against real-life nomads, creating a shared space where the non-actors can perform and a two-time Oscar winner can just be. (Coming Soon)
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things
It’s the story of a woman traveling with her boyfriend to meet his parents, except there’s another story underneath that is something else altogether. The first time I watched “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” I took it at face value and was drawn in by its Lynchian imagery and hyper-literate script. The second time, I put the puzzle pieces together and unlocked its mysteries. I loved it both ways. Some viewers will find its meaning frustratingly opaque. I found it endlessly engaging. (Netflix)
- Sound of Metal
A heavy metal drummer loses his hearing and learns to cope. That’s the logline for Sound of Metal,” but it hardly does justice to this deeply empathetic story of a life lost and rebuilt. Riz Ahmed (HBO’s “The Night Of”) is captivating as Ruben, who battles his own demons while living in a home for hearing-impaired addicts, and director Darius Marder and his sound design team take some daring leaps to approximate Ruben’s various stages of deafness. (Amazon Prime)
- First Cow
Kelly Reichardt’s anti-western is not the film of 2020. It’s the antidote. The story of two friends – a mild-manner cook and a Chinese outlaw – in the Old West who steal milk from a rich man’s cow to make the best “oily cakes” in the territory, the measured pace and warm affection for its characters make “First Cow” an outlier in its rough-and-tumble genre. It’s a deeply enjoyable film that inverts the values of its antiquated genre, staking a new claim on a tract of land that was once dry and uninhabitable but is now ready for rebirth. (Amazon Prime)
