Best Films of 2020 [Len's List]

The 93rd Academy Awards are coming up on Sunday April 25. This is a couple months later than usual. The official reason for the delay is the covid-19 pandemic: “Our hope, in extending the eligibility and our awards date, is to provide the flexibility that film makers need to finish and release their films without being penalized for something beyond anyone's control.” Fair enough. And, given the surprising plethora of excellent films to be considered, maybe the extra time is warranted.  

Also due to covid-19, a few of the rules have been adjusted - the biggest one being that for this awards cycle only, movies don’t have to meet a minimum “theatrical release” requirement to be eligible. So many pictures went direct to streaming over the past year, rather than first to brick-and-mortar theaters; so for this awards cycle they nevertheless are eligible for Oscars.  There were a few other changes as well, like combining the categories of sound mixing and sound editing into just one award, “best achievement in sound”, which may have the salutary effect of knocking a few precious minutes off the show.  Other than sound mixers and editors, few are shedding tears or seriously debating about that one.

The closing of the vast majority of movie houses for much of the year led many production companies and distributors to delay the release of their most expensive action and fantasy blockbusters and many of their “prestige” films – big-money musicals and big-star, award-seeking dramas – until some sense of normalcy returned.  A few examples (of many): The newest James Bond flick with Daniel Craig, No Time To Die, originally set for April 2020 will now be released in October 2021 after four postponements; Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights was pushed back a year from last June to June 2021; and Wes Anderson’s star-studded The French Dispatch currently has no definite release date after being twice postponed from its original July 2020 opening date. 

Even so, over the past year we were blessed with a lot of terrific new movies to stream directly to our homes – many of which only became readily available in the early months of 2021. Honestly, I think the absence of mega-movie hype allowed many of these films, which might otherwise have been obscured in the shadows, to garner the attention from critics and viewers alike that they deserved. And if you aren’t put off by subtitles, the number of superlative pictures that came available for home viewing over the last year is even more astounding.

Even in a typical year, it is awfully hard to rank films into a top ten list. There are so many different kinds of excellent. Does an exciting story deserve more points than amazing acting or writing or cinematography? How important are tone, pacing, characterization? To be considered great does a movie need to explore a big idea or dramatize an important historical event or person? 

I saw most but not all of the movies nominated for major awards at this year’s Academy awards – among them all of the eight movies nominated for “Best Picture” and plenty more besides ,I including a slew of excellent foreign-language films. Try as I might, I couldn’t settle on only ten best ones. There were always a couple more demanding inclusion. 

I have managed to whittle my list down to thirteen. It would be fourteen if we include Small Axe - the agglomeration of five thematically related films by academy award winning director Steve McQueen [12 Years A Slave (2013)] – or would that bring the total to 18?  No, I think we should treat Small Axe as a special case, for reasons enumerated in my January 2021 review. But it is a major cinematic achievement and a brilliant, cohesive collection – well worth your time. Checkout my review of Small Axe HERE.   Then, I’ve got thirteen other pictures that almost made the cut, which I’ll call Honorable Mentions. On another day or on someone else’s list several of these could have been in the “Best” category.  

To save you some scrolling, I’m listing just the titles of the best films first. The list does not separate foreign films from American, nor documentaries from fictional narratives (although there is only one true documentary in the “Best” list), but I’ll note which are which. After the bare list, I’ll follow up with a short-ish elaboration on each one, along with availability info. Note that the titles are listed in alphabetical order. I have not ranked my top-rated films in order of merit; as they are all exceptional and deserving in their own way. 

In addition to all that, I am providing a simple list of my Honorable Mentions - each of which is also worthwhile and wonderful - in a separate post. Again, I am including availability information for the movies in that list. You can jump to the Honorable Mentions list HERE. 

Len’s 13 Best Films of 2020:

The Assistant - USA  

Collective - Romania [documentary]

Corpus Christi - Poland

The Father - UK, France

First Cow - USA

The Heist of the Century - Argentina

Herself - Ireland, UK

Minari - USA

Nomadland - USA

One Night In Miami - USA

Quo Vadis, Aida? - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, and 7 others

Soul - USA

The Trial of the Chicago 7  - USA

The Assistant is a small, yet powerful and impactful film, featuring an absolutely brilliant low-key performance by Julia Garner. Writer /director Kitty Green takes a highly unusual approach,  presenting the story simply as a day in the life of a young college graduate, Jane, who has recently taken a job as a receptionist and assistant to a high-powered entertainment producer. Jane’s aim is to get a foothold in the industry, to herself become a producer. The only female in the office and junior to the two male assistants, (all three sharing a large, nondescript anteroom to the boss’s office), Jane is subjected to a series of slights and tasks that cumulatively feel sexist and demeaning. When she begins to suspect her boss may be using his position to exploit young women, she faces a difficult decision and learns a powerful lesson.

Garner is best known for her work in two series: The Americans and Ozark and was featured as Lily Tomlin’s granddaughter in the 2015 movie, Grandma. She is in virtually every frame of The Assistant, frequently in close-up and has that special something that keeps you fascinated through the film’s entire 89-minute run-time.  Although just 25 when this picture was shot, Garner displays the emotional subtlety of an actor twice her age. While the movie moves slowly, often with little to no dialogue, the camera simply tracking Jane through her day, we feel the tension within this young woman building, her concerns growing, and the cumulative effect on us as well is revelatory. This is a quiet, remarkable movie about a contemporary issue that burrows deep and stays with you. 

  Streams free with Hulu, Hoopla or Kanopy; Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services. 

Collective is an intriguing, fast-moving movie about the power of an investigative press. It’s also about the institutional and political constraints that can muzzle that power. It is a documentary that plays like a scripted thriller - the true story of what happened after a fire at a Bucharest nightclub called “Collectiv” that killed 27 people and left scores more seriously injured. Soon, mysteriously, many of the injured begin dying in local hospitals. When a whistle blower notifies a team of journalist that most of these deaths are from infection and other preventable causes, they uncover a shocking conspiracy of health care fraud and political corruption. And write about it. The public scandal causes the government fall. But that’s not the end.  It's just the beginning. New revelations keep emerging, one after another. It’s a totally enthralling story. 

I’d compare Collective to the Oscar-winning Spotlight (2015) except that this one is an actual documentary, not a dramatization. Yes, it’s from another country (which in fact adds to the intrigue for us outsiders), and yes much of it is in Romanian (nicely subtitled); but this shocking exposé is the real deal folks.

Streams Free with Hulu; Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services 

Corpus Christi,  the best Polish film of 2019, has won scads of awards around the world. It was released in the US on February 20, 2020. Bad timing, huh?  It is a most unusual tale - a tremendously startling and affective one.  We first meet the protagonist, Daniel, in a youth detention center – a rough and tumble place. He’s a hard case – a skinhead with a strong violent streak and a what we’d call an anger management problem. But there’s another side to Daniel, a spiritual side. He aspires to be a priest (even though his record disqualifies him from admission to a seminary). While on a work detail near a rural village, he manages to ingratiate himself to the local priest and, the lord moving in mysterious ways, Daniel soon finds himself donning the robes and leading the little parish church. To many of the congregants, the self-taught “priest” is a breath of fresh air. Through him, we learn quite a lot about these folks – a group with some disturbing, unresolved issues.  Among his many attributes, Daniel is blessed with the human touch and aims to be a peacemaker. 

The screenplay and direction are first rate, and the actor playing Daniel, Bartosz Bielenia, is extraordinary. And intense. Like Wow! The emotional tone of much of this picture is off the charts. There’s some physical violence that is pretty brutal – in the muscle and bone sense, not bullets and rivers of blood, but still hard to watch. And yet I found myself quite moved at times by Daniel’s delicate situation and his personal revelations. It is that rare movie that leaves the viewer both wrung out and exhilarated. 

Free with Criterion Channel; rentable on Amazon and most streaming services

The Father is one of the two or three films on this list that, if I were to rate them numerically, would be at the very top. It features a terrific cast and great acting, including one of Anthony Hopkins’ best performances ever (and he has had quite a few great ones). It’s about a man on the slippery slope of dementia – a story that manages to bring the viewer into the mind of the character. The writing is so good that the leading actor in each of its stage productions - first in Paris, then in London, then New York - and now in the film has been lauded as absolutely brilliant. Maybe all of them were really exceptional, but it suggests to me that playwright Florian Zeller – who also directed the movie – had something to do with it as well. For more about the story and why it works so well, please refer to my recent in depth review HERE.

        Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services  

First Cow is the latest film directed and co-written by Kelly Reichart [Wendy and Lucy (2008), Meek’s Cutoff (2010)]. Released in July 2020, it quickly became a critical favorite, earning scores of 89 from Metacritic.com and 95% from Rotten Tomatoes – both very high. On the other hand, the timing of its release and the absence of big stars or a splashy contemporary story has pushed this movie largely off the awards season radar.  No matter; it deserves to be on this best of the year list. Many other critics concur. For example, NYTimes critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott,  Ann Hornaday of the WashPost, David Fear of Rolling Stone, and the consensus of critics at RogerEbert.com, among many others, all had First Cow in their top 5.  

The film is a Western of sorts, set mainly in the Oregon wilderness in the early 19th century  as two outsiders, a cook known as “Cookie” (John Magaro) and a grifter calling himself King-Lu (Orion Lee) form an odd-couple business arrangement to make a little fortune or at least find a way to move up in the world. Their aspirations are in the great American capitalist spirit, which is to say, daring and creative, if not totally honest. That they are strange bedfellows adds to the melting-pot flavor of their enterprise and the film. The story is engaging enough and serves to hold the picture together, but what makes this such a wonderful film and lands it in the best-of-the-year category is its visual look, tone, and feel; its languid, surefooted pacing; its sense of humor; and its solidly American themes.  It rains a lot in Oregon,and First Cow overflows with greenery, mud, torrential rivers and a budding American life so rich you can feel it. At the same time, Reichert paints her picture of life on the Western frontier with a keen eye for the human detail. Magaro’s and Lee’s characters are funny, endearing and rascally in equal measure, while giving an affectionate portrait of male bonding and friendship.

The movie left me with a warm feeling and a sense that at just two hours, it was time very well spent.   

Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services  

The Heist of the Century is based on the true story of a real 2006 bank robbery, the most audacious in Argentine history. It’s not a message film, a political film or a social commentary; rather, Heist is pure entertainment: exciting, clever, fun – and extremely well done. Like most pictures, this one is in three acts. In the first, the story centers on the mastermind and how he handpicks his henchmen, each with a distinct character and skillset. The man with the plan here is Fernando (Diego Peretti), a contemplative, pot-smoking martial arts instructor – a brilliant, offbeat character for such a role. In the glorious tradition of great heist films, we get to see how the plan is set up and developed, and then, in the second act, how it initially plays out in real time. In this case, the plan involves storming a branch of the Banco Rio, holding the customers hostage, and gathering up cash, bullion and jewelry worth millions. Also in the middle section, we meet the gang’s adversaries – the cops who surround the bank during the heist  along with their savvy chief negotiator, who is determined to avoid a bloodbath (such as occurred in a Buenos Aires bank robbery a few years prior) and equally determined to apprehend the thieves. As the scenario plays out in the final act, another previously undisclosed part of the plan is revealed. Does it work? Do they get away with it? Why would I tell you and spoil the fun?

Without the star power (or bankroll) of a Hollywood production like Ocean’s Eleven (2001), The Heist of the Century relies on a tight script, superior story and taut direction to keep us increasingly on the edge of our seats, while rooting for the “bad” guys. The robbery scheme is clever and original. The acting all around is credible and sincere.  And as with many of the best films in this genre, the movie is funny as well as exciting and suspenseful. It even throws in a bit of a false ending to keep us on our toes. This is truly great stuff, right up there with the very best of them.

Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services

Herself is an Irish film written by and starring the redoubtable Dublin-born actress Clare Dunne, in a tour de force performance. She is Sandra, a young mother who gathers up her two little girls Molly and Emma, and flees a physically abusive relationship.  Sandra has arranged a code word with Emma which tells this little girl to run for help – which, when whispered in her ear early on, she does.   But where can they go, and how can they survive? It’s a desperate situation. Their initial sanctuary in an airport hotel room can’t do for long. Sandra faces challenges, emotional and bureaucratic that would defeat a lesser person: she works as a housekeeper by day, and as a barmaid some evenings; she has no financial reserves, she’s turned down by the welfare system for adequate housing, the court has granted her husband – Gary (an intense, frightening Ian Lloyd Anderson) - visitation every weekend, and on these occasions Gary is alternately pleading with her to come back and threatening her if she won’t.  What Sandra does have is the courage and determination to not only save herself and her daughters from a terrible situation but to literally build them a new home and an independent new life.

While this is a small, limited budget film,  Herself succeeds in telling a rich, resonant story and connecting with the audience in ways seldom achieved by bigger productions. It doesn’t hurt that the director (and film editor) is Phyllida Lloyd, whose previous outings, including Mamma Mia (2008) and The Iron Lady (2011), prove that she knows how to craft a film to fit the material. While all the acting is excellent, Dunne is a revelation! As I was writing this, just re-watching her in a few scenes from the film brought empathetic tears to my eyes. If it were my choice, Dunne would be nominated for Best Actress of the year – and would win. The movie has some relatively brief but hard-to-watch violence at the outset (and in a few flashbacks); but mostly what we get is a heartfelt story well told.  A story, in fact, that is full of hope and grace. Some of this is provided in the person of Sandra’s wealthy employer, Peggy (Harriet Walter), who gives her a remarkable opportunity; and some is provided by a local contractor, Aido (Conleth Hill) and a small army of volunteers who help her realize that opportunity.

Both devastating and uplifting, Herself is a brilliant, memorable, big little film that is true to life, with an honesty and immediacy that few domestic dramas are able to achieve.

Available on Amazon Prime Video exclusively (free)

Minari is a quintessential picture of American immigrants trying to make a new life for themselves and their families by tilling the land. In this respect, it is like The New Land, the 1972 classic about Swedish immigrants (played by Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow) struggling to tame the land and establish their family in mid-19th century Minnesota. Here we have Korean immigrants Monica and Jacob Yi (Yeri Han and Steven Yeun) and their two little kids arriving in rural Arkansas in the mid 1980s to stake their claim to the American dream. While the US now is a far different place than the new land experienced by the Nillsons more than a century before, the quest of the Yi family is much the same. There’s a universality to the story. "This is the movie we need right now", proclaims the PR department, and they are correct.

I must point out that this is fully an American production – produced and filmed in the US, written and directed by American-born, Lee Isaac Chung. It is based on Chung’s own family history, growing up the son of immigrants on a farm in Arkansas. It has been mistaken for a foreign film - most notoriously by the Golden Globes, who awarded Minari the award for Best Foreign Language Film a couple months ago - because the protagonists speak Korean among themselves, especially during the first portion of the picture. Chung poignantly addressed this in his acceptance speech, holding his young daughter in his arms, thusly: “This one here, she's the reason I made this film. Minari is about a family. It's a family trying to learn how to speak a language of its own. It goes deeper than any American language and any foreign language; it's a language of the heart.”  Indeed.

The Yi family’s struggles are environmental – finding a water source, surviving draught and a fire – and familial: Monica and Jacob are often at odds, coming from different backgrounds with different expectations, working two jobs, and worried about their son’s heart condition. Surprisingly, racism or anti-immigrant hostility is not an issue. Whether this reflects a difference in the political atmosphere in the decades between the time-setting of this story and the present, or just a decision by Chung to focus on other things, it is refreshing. In fact, the local white population is quite welcoming and helpful. A standout is “Paul” (Will Patton), a simple man with a deep evangelical Christian faith, a broad smile, and a helpful attitude to match. All the actors of the Yi family are wonderful, with Yeun and the awesome Yuh-Jung Youn (playing the kids’ maternal grandma) nominated for Oscars – Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.  Minari is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.  It is a most engaging and life affirming movie.

Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services  

Nomadland is somewhat of a surprise hit and a critical favorite. It is a surprise because it’s so modest: with only one recognizable star in Frances McDormand (and only two professional actors, total), a noticeably thin plot, no thrilling action sequences and no CGI or special effects! It’s a road movie about a sliver of American society, people dispossessed by the great recession in the early years of the last decade and who have given up the security of a fixed location home and job – sometimes by choice, sometimes of necessity – for a life on the open road of the American West and the camaraderie of fellow travelers. It is also a unique, strange, remarkably successful hybrid blending of the fiction and documentary forms of narrative.  It works because the director, Chloe Zhou, has a rare ability to connect with ordinary people, to allow them to feel seen and feel comfortable playing themselves on camera, and to weave their stories into a cohesive and highly evocative meta-narrative. She and cinematographer Josh Richards also have an eye for the beauty and grandeur of the open vistas of the West.

For more about why Nomadland is such a big-deal movie, see my full length 4/1/2021 review HERE.

Streaming on Hulu exclusively

One Night in Miami  takes place on the night of February 25, 1964, when 22-year-old Cassius Clay, a 7-1 underdog, stunned the world by beating Sonny Liston at the Miami Beach Convention Center to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Clay had recently become a Muslim (without fanfare, uncharacteristically) and would soon change his name to Muhammed Ali. The same evening, a short while after the fight, Clay (Eli Goree) met with three other African-American icons: Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.), arguably the greatest soul singer of all time (whose hits include the classics You Send Me, Chain Gang, A Change Is Gonna Come and Bring it on Home to Me); Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), the renowned running back considered by many the greatest, football players ever; and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), the Muslim minister, and controversial spokesman for the Nation of Islam (from which he would shortly depart). The meeting took place in Malcolm’s hotel room, but no one knows what these guys discussed, as none would ever comment on it.

 Kemp Powers is one imaginative and creative guy. Intrigued by the mystery meeting, he wrote a play entitled One Night in Miami, a fictional account of what might have occurred. When film rights were optioned by Regina King, he was asked to write the screenplay, and while I’ve never seen the stage production, the writing for the movie One Night in Miami is simply terrific (and nominated for an Oscar). The four men have their Blackness and their notoriety in common, but while they greatly admire one another, they are as different as any four humans can be. They argue vehemently over the right way to use their fame and fortune to help the Black community - or if there’s even an obligation to engage in such activities other than by modeling Black success.  The four actors are close to brilliant in their impersonations. The performances are so fresh, we feel like flies on the wall of an animated, historic, fascinating discussion. Despite the passage of some sixty years, the ideas and the depth of feeling expressed come across as very immediate, very contemporary. For me, at least, watching this meet-up of greats was, strange to say, thrilling. Much of the credit is due to the director’s skill and vision. Regina King’s feature film debut in this role presages a great career behind the camera. 

Available on Amazon Prime Video exclusively (free)

Quo Vadis, Aida?  I’m no latin scholar, but the phrase quo vadis is most often translated as ”Whither goest thou?” or  “Where are you going?’’, so here we have Where Are You Going, Aida? I’d prefer a slightly different iteration, perhaps Where Can You Go, Aida?, but 'quo vadis' has a biblical connotation (St Peter’s first words to the risen Jesus), and it does have nice ring to it. Aida is the main character in this remarkable movie - for me, the most viscerally dramatic picture of the year. The picture is one of five nominees for Best International Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards (which it deserves), but it’s a crime that its star, Jasna Djuricic, isn’t one of the finalists for the Best Actress award. More on this below.  

It’s July 1995, and the Bosnian War has been raging for three years, with forces aligned with Serbia and Croatia engaging in an ethnic cleansing campaign against the primarily Muslim Bosniak population. The town of Srebrenica had been under siege for over two years and the  Muslim populace is struggling to survive. The little town has been declared a “safe area” under UN protection, with a few Dutch troops deployed as monitors. Aida, who is multi-lingual, works with the UN group as an interpreter. This is our starting point. What happens next is that the Serbs ignore UN warnings and move into the town, immediately requiring all the Muslim inhabitants to leave, bussing them to a “camp” the UN has set up, essentially a large warehouse. We’re talking many thousands of people, and that warehouse is nowhere near large enough.  How are these people to eat? What about toilets, sanitation and, for the many who can’t fit into the building, shelter?  These folks have heard about atrocities committed in other places by the occupying forces. Despite reassurances by the Bosnian Serb commander, the aptly named Ratko Mladić (brilliantly portrayed by Boris Isakovic), they are justifiably very fearful. 

As a translator, Aida has some access to the UN commanders. Worried that terrible things are about to happen, she urges them to provide more help for the crowd, but their rules of engagement are inadequate for the situation. Aida also has a husband and grown sons. She needs to hold her family together.  With gut-level urgency, fighting off encroaching despair, she pleads that her family begiven UN protection in addition to herself. The UN people are non-committal. What now, Aida?

I can’t say enough good things about this astonishingly gripping and harrowing picture. While Aida may be a fictional character, the events depicted in this film were very real. As Aida, Djuricic brings us with her on a journey that touches every human emotion: tenderness and rage, determination and despair, panic and cool, hope and emptiness, compassion and grace. She is riveting and jolting; and absolutely brilliant in what I think is THE best female performance of the year. Adding to this is great writing and direction by Jasmila Zbanic, whose white-knuckle camera keeps following Aida back and forth, through the crowds, in and out of the compound, down anxious hallways, to meetings with the brass and meetings with her boys and husband, feverishly trying to save them and herself.

Free with Hulu; Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services

Soul, released on Christmas day 2020, is the 23rd animated feature film produced by the wonderful, creative folks at Pixar Animation Studios and, as I said in my January 2 review, not only one of their very best offerings, but one of the very best movies of the year. I’m not just saying it’s one of the best animated films of 2020 (although that’s true too, and it is nominated for an Oscar in that category). It is simply a great movie – with a theme suggesting an answer to the eternal question about the meaning of life. Quoting my own review, “This is not a kiddie flick that adults might enjoy too, so much as an animated film for adults that kids might even like.” It is co-written by the talented Kemp Williams [writer of One Night In Miami, above], who gives this first Pixar film with a black protagonist and majority black cast, a hip, authentic feel. That cast includes as voice artists the likes of Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs, Phylicia Rashad and Questlove, along with Tina Fey, Graham Norton, June Squibb and more. It’s funny, wise, visually creative, and jazzy. 

Read more in my Review of Soul, here.

Free with Disney Channel; Rentable on Amazon and most streaming services

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a movie that harks back to probably my most politically and culturally impressionable time of life - the late 1960s. As a young man approaching the ripe young age of twenty, the events of those years seared themselves into my soul and that of a whole generation of folks like me. As I wrote in the intro to my review of The Trial of the Chicago 7, "Any member of the boomer generation who was paying attention in 1968 and 1969 will be viscerally moved by ... this timely movie; if they are not, he/she may need a medical check-up." Change was in the air then, as I believe it is today. So this is very much a film for contemporary audiences  - one does not need to be a boomer to respond to it and enjoy it. 

The movie is about the tumultuous street protests and police riot that occurred outside the democratic national convention in August 1968 and the political trial the following year of seven anti-war activists charged with conspiracy. And boy was it a colorful and dramatic trial, with the likes of Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) in the dock, fiery attorney William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) defending them, and malevolent Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) presiding. Rather than repeat myself, I encourage you to read or re-read my rather extensive November 2020 review of The Trial of the Chicago 7.  Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, this picture is a real corker, and a stirring one. 

        Available exclusively on Netflix.  

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That’s it my friends. Feel free to share your own list of the best of 2020, or if you feel I’ve missed an important film, share your thoughts on the blog or with me personally. But check out my list of Honorable Mention films first. Here is a LINK.