Best films of 2020 + the pick of music, TV and podcasts Sound & vision
A Son
I don’t know if it was significant that A Son was the last film I saw before lockdown. And maybe the power of the film was amplified by the circumstances, but it remains the most affective drama of the year, by a long mark.
Mehdi Barsaoui’s feature, on a couple’s collapse as their son fights for his life in hospital, is one of those stay-with-you-forever narratives with the power to subtly alter the way you see your world.
Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always
Two young women travel from Pennsylvania to New York, so that one can obtain a legal abortion without needing a parent’s consent.
Seen during the Trump regime, Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always was a sobering, angering reminder of the American right’s attack on women. But, somehow, the film never became unendurable or dour.
Directed by Eliza Hittman, with a terrific cast, and a cameo from Sharon van Etten. Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always is a gem.
American Utopia
Spike Lee’s film of David Byrne’s American Utopia did the seemingly impossible – it topped Stop Making Sense as the most impressively staged and technically-well-realised concert movie I know of. Stunning.
Rosie
Another downbeat stunner that could have been unendurable, but turned out oddly joyous and uplifting.
Rosie followed a young family around hostels and shelters in contemporary Dublin, while hunting desperately for a secure home.
Paddy Doyle ( The Commitments) wrote the script. Sarah Green’s title performance held the film together perfectly.
Luce
In an unnamed American suburb, well-meaning parents are in turmoil as their adopted son feuds with a teacher at his school.
Luce throws race, sex, politics and global conflict into a blender and came back with something disorientating and unmissable.
Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth and Naomi Watts were the big names on the poster, but Kelvin Harrison Jr, as the former child-soldier-turnedhigh-school-athlete, was hypnotic.
Monos
High in the Colombian mountains, a rag-tag bunch of young rebel recruits have an American woman hostage.
After she escapes, they turn on each other to prove loyalty to their brutal adult commanders.
Lord of the Flies was the laziest comparison, but unavoidable. Monos looked and sounded like an epic, but worked on every level it pitched at.
Savage
Sam Kelly’s debut feature didn’t glorify, excuse or shy away from the brutal reality of Aotearoa’s gang culture, but still wrested a provocative, authentic and ultimately moving story out of the accumulated cruelties and delusions that drive young men to join gangs at all.
Technically, it stunned. And emotionally, it connected.
Loimata
Her friends called Ema Siope ‘‘Six Foot Two, with the strength of three men’’. She was recognised as one of the best builders, captains and navigators of ocean-going waka of the modern age.
Ana Marbrook’s documentary on this formidable woman – who really should be more famous in Aotearoa than any America’s Cup sailor – was a crucial examination of a life and family history that went to places I didn’t see coming.
God of The Piano
Nope, I don’t know why so many films about disputed paternity have come out in 2020 either. Or why they have all mostly been so good.
God of The Piano is an Israeli drama that lays out a slender tale of a child prodigy being raised by jealous and disaffected parents. It played like a Michael Haneke film, but with a PG rating, if such a thing were even possible.
Calm With Horses
This underseen Irish drama wove a dark tale of rural meth labs, retribution and one dad struggling to find a place for himself in his ex partner’s and his child’s life.
Calm With Horses is as lyrical and insightful, as it is brutal and fierce.