Despite the pandemic, 2020 had some great flicks
While many anticipated films were put on hold in 2020, there were still plenty of good ones available
Way back at the start of this year I wrote my usual movies-i-can'twait-to-see article. Turns out I can wait. We all can.
My 2020 preview listed 36 movies. Of those, just 10 actually opened in cinemas — 11 if you include Wonder Woman 1984, which most people will watch on demand this week. Most of the ones that made it to the big screen were January and February releases. A further seven of those movies went directly to streaming services or VOD rental. And fully half, including blockbuster titles such as No Time to Die and Black Widow, have been delayed until some time next year. And yet for all the mayhem and cancellations, there were actually some worthy movies on screens small and large this year. Here's a pandemic-themed list of what 2020 had to offer.
BEST PRE-PANDEMIC RELEASE THE INVISIBLE MAN
The Invisible Man was an unexpected, delightfully frightening surprise. (Not unlike 1991's The Silence of The Lambs, a best picture Oscar winner.) This one, starring Elisabeth Moss, is a spousal abuse drama with the pacing of a supernatural horror story. And it is nail-bitingly, heart-stoppingly intense as hell.
BEST INADVERTENTLY TIMELYRELEASE BLOOD QUANTUM
Indigenous filmmaker Jeff Barnaby wrote and directed this smart, politically charged horror movie in which a pandemic starts turning people into zombies — all except the Mi'gmaq residents of the Red Crow reservation, who find themselves immune. With Indigenous issues dominating the news this year almost as much as COVID-19, this film hit all the buttons.
RUNNER-UP BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
British provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen dusted off his moustache and quasi-kazakh accent for this shot-during-thepandemic sequel to the insane 2006 original. Between footage of vice-president Mike Pence promising that, with only 15 COVID-19 cases, the U.S. was “ready for anything,” to that jaw-dropping, almost pants-dropping scene of Rudy Giuliani, Borat 2 was 2020 in a bottle.
BEST FILM WE NEEDED THIS YEAR AMERICAN UTOPIA
Opening the Toronto International Film Festival under the bizarre title of Spike Lee's David Byrne's American Utopia, this filmed version of the former Talking Heads frontman's recent Broadway show is infectious in only the best ways. Byrne, backed by a rambunctious multinational troupe of musicians and dancers, rocks out, and sometimes quiets down for some thought-provoking monologues I'm going to call standup philosophy.
BEST LAUGH WE NEEDED THIS YEAR PALM SPRINGS
“Andy Samberg comedy” does not seem like the kind of film that would deliver laughs and also something deeper. But that's just one of the pleasant surprises in this romantic comedy, set during “one of those infinite time loop situations that you might have heard about,” as Samberg's character puts it. In a year in which every day feels like, at best, a mild variation on every other day, this film offers hope.
BEST SPORTS MOVIE NADIA,BUTTERFLY
We all know baseball movies and boxing movies, but how many swimming movies can you name?
This luminous drama from Quebec writer-director (and former competitive swimmer!) Pascal Plante is the only one you need. Katerine Savard stars as Olympic medallist Nadia Beaudry, wrestling with the emotional quandary of planning to retire at an age when most people are just starting their careers.
BEST ADVICE IN A TITLE LET THEM ALL TALK
Steven Soderbergh took an allstar cast — Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen, Gemma Chan and Lucas Hedges — aboard the Queen Mary 2 last year and shot this sharp, trenchant drama about a famous writer (Streep) reconnecting with some old friends. Most of the dialogue was improvised, including fascinating conversations and soliloquies on the difficulty of human connection, the mystery of creative inspiration, and the debt owed by writers to their sources.
BEST SCIENCE-FICTION THE MIDNIGHT SKY
George Clooney directs and stars in this meditative story of a lonely astronomer in the High Arctic trying to contact the crew of a spacecraft on its way back from a mission to Jupiter. We never find out what happened to the rest of humanity — some kind of pandemic? — but it's the least of our concerns as viewers. If you liked Christopher Nolan's Interstellar you may find yourself similarly drawn into this quiet, powerful tale of loneliness, connection and redemption.
BEST BIOPIC I AM WOMAN
The story of Australian singer-songwriter Helen Reddy (winningly played by fellow Aussie Tilda Cobham-hervey) chronicles her struggles as an artist but also her enduring musical legacy, including the 1971 hit and feminist anthem that gives the movie its title.
BEST HANKS NEWS OF THE WORLD
If you're a fan of Tom Hanks, 2020 was the best of times and the worst of times. In March came news that he and wife Rita Wilson had tested positive for COVID-19 while filming in Australia. But a month later “America's Dad” was back on his feet and introducing Saturday Night Live's at-home edition. And in addition to a surprise cameo in Borat, he could be seen on Appletv+ in the naval thriller Greyhound.
But Hanks kept the best for last with News of the World, Paul Greengrass's story of an itinerant newsreader in 1870 Texas who must try to return an orphan girl to her family, across dangerous territory.