It figures that the year we needed movies most would also be the year we weren’t able to see them properly. I went to the theater on March 11, at which point things were bad but not yet that bad, hoping I’d be able to keep doing so for at least a few more months. As the credits rolled, my phone was abuzz with two news items that made it clear that I would not. The first was that Tom Hanks had it; the second was that the NBA was suspending its season because a member of the Utah Jazz had it, too.
That was to be the last time I would see a movie on the big screen for exactly 169 days, when local restrictions eased and multiplexes were allowed to open at limited capacity. It had been well over a decade since I’d gone anywhere near that long without stepping foot inside a movie theater, which disrupted my equilibrium more than I care to admit. Most aspects of quarantine came easily to me, but when I couldn’t see Mulan on the big screen I knew the pandemic had gone too far.
I saw exactly five movies — The New Mutants, Tenet, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Kajillionaire, and On the Rocks — between late August and early October, when things were once again trending in the wrong direction and I decided the reward was no longer worth the risk. Three months later, I have no idea when I’ll be able to return; I do know, however, that it will be with a renewed appreciation for an experience I already held dear.
1. Beanpole
If you believe, as I do, that movies should be sad and pretty unless otherwise noted, I hope you’ll take my advice and seek out Beanpole. Bleak but beautiful, it offers only a few glimmers of hope — which is a few more than you might expect, given that Kantemir Balagov's second feature concerns two women in post-World War II Leningrad. Statuesque Ilya (whose nickname gives the film its title), a soldier-turned-nurse tasked with caring for the child of her friend Masha, faces a reckoning when that friend returns from the war asking what’s become of her son. Here as elsewhere, Beanpole raises a question you might not want to hear the answer to — to speak a terrible truth aloud is to make it real. (Kino Now)
2. Da 5 Bloods
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Spike Lee’s follow-up to BlacKkKlansman couldn’t possibly be as good as the film that finally won him an Oscar. You’d also be wrong. Da 5 Bloods is a Vietnam epic as only he could make, one in which five veterans’ return to the battlefield decades later proves just as traumatic as their original deployment. Come for the dearly departed Chadwick Boseman, stay for Delroy Lindo — he delivers the year’s most powerful lead performance. (Netflix)
3. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Has any filmmaker lived up to their potential like Eliza Hittman? I still remember the sense of discovery I had upon seeing It Felt Like Love at Sundance just under eight years ago, as well as the feeling that great things were in store for her. Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which follows a Pennsylvania teenager who, with the help and moral support of her cousin, travels to New York City to get an abortion, doesn’t just confirm that feeling — it makes it clear that, even with a trio of great films to her name, Hittman is just getting started. (HBO Max)
4. Kajillionaire
Two out of three ain’t bad. The Future wasn’t the follow-up to Me and You and Everyone We Know I’d hoped for, but Miranda July’s third movie may be her best. Kajillionaire is certainly her most unexpectedly heartwarming, not to mention the 2020 offering I would most readily recommend to anyone in need of uplift — so everyone, basically. (iTunes)
5. A Sun
If it’s true that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, it only makes sense for each great movie about an unhappy family to be great in its own way. Case in point: A Sun, which received an unceremonious Netflix release in January and is only now getting the attention it deserves. Chung Mong-hong’s film is novelistic in scope yet intimate in its depiction of a Taipei family left reeling after one son goes to prison for his role in a shockingly violent act and the other is forced to confront not only his brother’s true nature but, even more dauntingly, his own. (Netflix)
6. Sound of Metal
Back in high school, my friends and I would go see loud metal bands like Meshuggah, Opeth, and Behemoth at least once a month. We’d arrive at the venue — usually the House of Blues, Key Club, or some other club on Sunset — long before the doors opened in order to be as close to the stage as possible. Sometimes we wore earplugs, sometimes we didn’t. To this day I have a slight ringing in my ear that keeps me up at night every now and again, but even if I didn’t I still would have been wowed by every stressful minute of this film about a drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. Riz Ahmed is even better than usual as Sound of Metal’s percussionist-protagonist, but this may be the first movie I’ve ever seen whose true star is the sound design. (Amazon Prime)
7. Driveways
Brian Dennehy died a few short weeks before the release of Driveways, which is more than just a fitting swan song for the late, great actor — it’s a moving character study in its own right. The setup — a boy who has trouble fitting in with kids his own age makes an unlikely friend in the aging veteran next door — couldn’t be more familiar, but director Andrew Ahn imbues it with such a genuine emotional core that it almost feels new. Equal credit goes to Dennehy's co-stars, Hong Chau and newcomer Lucas Jaye — “it takes a village” applies to more than raising children. (Hulu)
8. To the Ends of the Earth
As if to remind us that his talents have always extended beyond horror, Kiyoshi Kurosawa decided to bless 2020 with this quietly compelling travelogue. To the Ends of the Earth makes good on its title by focusing on the Japanese host of a No Reservations–style TV show as she shoots an episode in Uzbekistan, which turns out to be easier said than done — not all of the locals are friendly, and her attempt to free a goat quickly goes pear-shaped. It’s true what they say about journeys and destinations, whether onscreen or off. (In theaters)
9. La Llorona
I wasn’t especially moved by Ixcanul, the debut feature of writer/director Jayro Bustamante and Guatemala's second-ever Oscar submission, but his sophomore effort immediately grabbed my interest and never let go. The obvious hook is that La Llorona is a kind of horror film, albeit one that's more stressful than actively frightening, and uses the “weeping woman” mythos to explore the lingering effects of a genocidal dictatorship. Individual spirits may be scary, but they have nothing on a country’s collective ghosts. (Shudder)
10. House of Hummingbird
It wasn’t until putting together this list that I realized how, even more than most years, the lion’s share of 2020’s best movies revolved around family — both the one we’re born into and the one we choose. House of Hummingbird is no exception. Bora Kim’s directorial debut follows a 14-year-old coming of age in 1994 Seoul, which happens to be when and where Kim herself came of age. Some autobiographical stories are intimate to the point of being insular, but at its best this one almost feels universal. (Amazon)
Honorable Mentions
Apples is playful until it isn’t, by which time the joke stops being funny and becomes something close to profound. Assassins remains grounded as it documents a conspiracy that grows harder to believe with each new detail. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is even more daring — and, yes, funnier — than its predecessor (give Maria Bakalova all the awards, please). Emma. is an utterly enjoyable Jane Austen adaptation that has the added merit of having been written for the screen by Eleanor Catton, whose novel The Luminaries is an all-time favorite. Gunda’s final scene may be the year’s most haunting, and made me feel even guiltier than I already do about eating meat — a resolution for 2021, perhaps?