2020 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 2020:

1. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train
2. The Eight Hundred
3. My People, My Homeland
4. Bad Boys for Life
5. Tenet
6. Sonic the Hedgehog
7. Doolittle
8. Jing Ziya
9. A Little Red Flower
10. Shock Wave 2

What are your top three films for 2020? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
2. Undine
3. Time

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

1. Bloody Nose Empty Pockets
2. Another Round
3. I’m Thinking of Ending Things

 

This was a bizarre and chaotic year for me, as I imagine it was for many. I watched fewer movies than any other year, so this is more of a "movies I watched" list than a selection of the true standouts.

1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
2. Another Round
3. I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Honorable mentions:

The Sound of Metal
Small Axe
Nomadland
Possessor

Still haven't watched:

Bloody Nose Empty Pockets
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Tenet
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Kajillionaire
Time

 

1. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
2. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
3. Another Round

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets really captured how fun bars can be, how they can become a ritual and a family. The old dingy pub we used to eat giant $12 steaks at after Monday night sparing got acquired by the government earlier this year so they could build a train station, the new place we go is nicer and all the panels on the big screen work all time and I hate it.

Tenet was fun.

My Favourite part of I'm Thinking of Ending Things, was how strongly the character/s expressed themselves through sharing others art. I found the scene when the Dad says he couldn't understand how a landscape could make him feel something unless there was person in it telling him how to feel funny because when all I saw online was people complaining they didn't understand the plot or the ending, it's still a great movie with meaningful scenes even without the plot. The plot was good too and there's plenty of youtube plot detectives to help you out.

 

When we've been getting closer to the present day, these films don't necessarily feel like 2020 films for me.

1. Veins of the World
2. Possessor
3. Undine

Veins of the World is truly breathtaking, a Mongolian film by Byambasuren Davaa, who has previous with three beautiful little docu-dramas, but this is her first narrative film. A furious look at activism and environmentalism, in the face of global industrial mining conglomerates assault on the nature of Mongolia, with no connection to the steppes, or respect for the traditional livelihoods and people that live there, just interested in profit. It's basically Ken Loach in Mongolia, which sounds about as perfect as a description can be for me. I really have heard no buzz for this elsewhere, so I would highly recommend trying to track this film down ( Or PM-ing me if you can't find it...).

Possessor is Cronenberg-Jr following in the footsteps of his father, with a great body horror sci-fi. There's some fantastic and iconic individual moments and scenes here, and moments of extreme violence.

Undine is Christian Petzold's sort of magical realist, fantasy romance between an Undine (which is like a mermaid, but I'd never heard of Undine mythology before this) and a man. A very different interpretation to The Shape Of Water, basically.

Honourable mentions;

A couple of good animated films, with a political heart to them, Wolfwalkers from the ever reliable Cartoon Saloon set in feudal Ireland in the 16th Century. Josep, an animated biopic of Josep Bartholdi, who fought against Franco. Both approach animation differently, but both have some beautiful illustrations.

From America, Shiva Baby was a fun, economical and incredibly tense black comedy. Always great to see Fred Melamed in anything - an extremely reliable comic presence. Nomadland was great for the most part, beautifully shot, with some wonderful naturalistic performances from it's (mostly) non-professional cast. I felt it was a little bit toothless politically, but I can get over that. Palm Springs is a fun time-loop / Groundhog Day romance, very American type of humour and writing, but it worked for me.

Another Round was a great little exploration of the trappings and joys in alcohol. It's also essentially a remake of this Mitchell and Webb sketch from 15 years previous.

Sweat is a good little Polish film about the life of a lonely Polish fitness Instagram influencer, with a superb lead performance from Magdalena Koleśnik. Host was a fun screen horror made and set during lockdown.

The Cloud in her Room is a really interesting debut feature from Zheng Lu Xinyuan, and Mama is similarly promising and interesting debut from Li Dongmei. Neither are perfect, but both show promise for the future.

The Woman Who Ran is a good and reliable Hong Sang Soo film, which features a scene stealing appearance from a local cat.

Not sure if they really count as films, but Steve McQueen's Small Axe series was mostly great.

Dishonourable mentions to After We Collided, which might be the worst film I've seen in the cinema?

 

Soul
Nomadland
Time

HM: The Father, Shiva Baby, Possessor, His House, Riders of Justice, The Forty Year Old Version

 

1. Red Post on Escher Street
2. Bloody Nose Empty Pockets
3. Test Pattern

Never Rarely Sometimes Always was the closest to making the top 3. I love Small Axe’s Mangrove and Lovers Rock, as well as Kajillionaire, Da 5 Bloods, Dick Johnson is Dead, Another Round, and Let Them All Talk.

 

What I learned going through the list of releases is that I maybe watched 8 releases total for 2020. Pandemic took the wind out of my sails for seeking out new things and obviously closed the theaters.

1. Soul
2. Onward
3. The Invisible Man

 

1. Possessor
2. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
3. Freaky

 

Damn I can’t even participate haha. I haven’t seen any of these movies.

 

A lot of the great 2020 movies probably haven't even had American distribution yet.

 

1. Minari
2. Mank
3. Nomadland

 

1. The Empty Man
2. Another Round
3. Possessor

Very weak year but still a strong top 3. I know it got dumped in the theaters in the middle of a pandemic but it's still crazy to me that a movie like The Empty Man even got released by a major studio in this day and age. James Badge Dale the GOAT

 

I need to rewatch Bloody Nose. I bought the blu but missed out on the limited edition slipcover

 

1. Bloody Nose Empty Pockets
2. Sound of Metal
3. Kajillionaire

tough leaving off Another Round or I’m Thinking of Ending Things

 

1. The Empty Man
2. Sputnik
3. His House

 

1. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
2. Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul
3. World of Tomorrow Episode Three

4. The Father
5. Shiva Baby
6. Possessor
7. Another Round
8. Promising Young Woman
9. Mangrove
10. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train


Also loved Shithouse, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Birds of Prey, Wolfwalkers, Dick Johnson Is Dead, Palm Springs, Minari, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, Soul, His House and Time.

 

Lovers Rock
Host
Sound of Metal

 

Da 5 Bloods
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Nomadland (which I’m also gonna include in my EOTY list this year ‘cause that’s when it got wide release and when I saw it, but for the purpose of this thing, I’ll put it here I guess)

 

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets wins it with 11 votes. I'm Thinking of Ending Things was in second place with 9 votes. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets will move on to the bracket.

 

Woah cool

 

Hell ya

 

I was worried the Covid release years would be skewed towards like, Soul or Tenet or something, so that’s a really cool winner

 

I still need to see that film, will take this as a push to do so.

 

I’d never heard of it, which I think is a first for these thread winners, so will also try and find time to check it out.

Is that the only documentary winner we’ve had?