Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):
Big Time Adolescence
Guns Akimbo
The Photograph
Spenser Confidential
The Way Back
20.The Rental:
With this taut, efficient thriller that cleverly uses a slowly mounting rift that emerges between its four lead characters played by Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White during a trip to a secluded Northern California AirBnb to build an increasingly paranoid atmosphere that reaches a tipping point when a masked killer enters the fold in the final act, Dave Franco adds himself to the increasingly growing list of actors in recent years who have made waves with their first directorial efforts.
19.Project Power:
In a year where traditional superhero movies were almost entirely sidelined, Project Power stepped up to fill the wonderous entertainment void. This Netflix blockbuster from the unfairly slept on directorial duo of Ariel Schulman/Henry Joost (Nerve, Paranormal Activity 3) gets the most out of its clever premise (A New Orleans cop, his teenage informant and a mysterious man with a score to settle team up to stop the distribution of a drug that gives people superpowers for 5 minutes or kills them immediately) by putting likeable characters into an adrenaline-fueled package that relies heavily on bursts of wild action, slick camerawork and the excitement that stems from the wide variety of outcomes that can occur when humans get a taste of unfathomable power.
18.Sound of Metal:
Being deaf is something that hearing people likely can't even begin to conceive and although nothing short of becoming deaf can offer any significant insight, Sound of Metal does a great job of providing a very basic understanding of what it might be like to live with that ailment. Through exceptional sound design that distorts audio and even goes completely silent on occasion, writer/director Darius Marder puts the audience in the shoes of a punk band drummer (Riz Ahmed) that is losing his hearing at a rapid clip and how he struggles to cope with the impact his condition is having on his life. While the actual narrative is a bit choppy and needlessly melodramatic at times, the compassionate, visceral way Marder tackles living with deafness and Ahmed's extraordinary performance turn Sound of Metal into something noteworthy.
17.Palm Springs:
The breakout hit of Sundance 2020 is a funny, sweet and gleefully strange sci-fi romantic comedy driven by a home run of a central relationship (Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti-both absolutely fucking delightful) that is so powerful it manages to overshadow the increasingly convoluted mechanics of its time time plot device that could've easily derailed the whole movie.
16.Freaky:
Christopher Landon's (Happy Death Day franchise) slasher legacy continues to grow stronger with each new project he puts out. Aided by some prominent self-aware humor and a pair of deeply committed, spiritually-connected dual character performances from Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, Landon parlays a clever body swap gimmick (Vaughn plays a small town serial killer who switches places with Newton's shy high school senior thanks to a stolen magic dagger) setup into a deliriously fun, thoroughly blood-soaked ride that successfully puts the genre's timeless DNA through a present day cultural filter.
15.Uncorked:
Quietly released on Netflix at the end of March, the feature debut from Prentice Penny-who is best known for being Issa Rae's writing/producing partner on Insecure- is a gem of a family drama centered around a young man (Mamoudou Athie-who crushes the lead role he's long deserved) who is torn between pursuing his dreams of becoming a sommelier and appeasing his parents (Courtney B. Vance, Niecy Nash) by remaining employed at their successful Memphis barbeque restaurant that he's set to takeover in the not-so-distant future. All of the performances are grounded to the point where every character feels like a real person living today- which makes it incredibly easy to get invested in their plights and Penny sprinkles in some moments of soul-crushing reality without taking away from the sense of heartfelt optimism that attracts viewers to this type of movie.
14.Borat Subsequent Moviefilm:
While never reaching the level of depraved hilarity or volume of alarming windows into the ignorant psyches of many Americans that filled Sacha Baron Cohen's prior Trump-era project Who is America?, the surprise return of Kazakhstan's most prolific foreign journalist is still a welcome use of his guerilla comedic gifts as well as one hell of a coming out party for upstart Bulgarian actor Maria Bakalova-who matches Baron Cohen's absurd wit and fearlessness every step of the way with her turn as Borat's "teenage" daughter Tutar.
13.Extraction:
A gruffly charismatic lead performance from Chris Hemsworth, string of dazzling action setpieces helmed by veteran stunt coordinator turned director Sam Hargrave and the presence of a classic Schwarzenegger/Stallone-esque cheesiness in every frame made Extraction an effective piece of old school meathead entertainment.
12.Black Bear:
There's not another title that appears here that I would recommend to less people than Black Bear. Not only does it have an ambiguous plot structure where the gaps between reality and fiction are never clearly defined, it's a very meta film full of observations about the movie industry and the people who work in it that is likely to confuse or enrage a lot of viewers. Through my eyes, Black Bear is a unique, fascinating character study where the lead actors (Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon and particularly Aubrey Plaza) show off unbelievable range as they put themselves through a grueling emotional torture chamber that shifts on an almost scene-by-scene basis and writer/director Lawrence Michael Levine does an outstanding job of establishing a sense of thriller-esque unease that exposes the fragility of both the relationships and individuals that occupy this surreal universe
11.Love and Monsters:
Driven by a winning combination of charismatic characters, cool, clever monster designs and a massive beating heart that would likely make the late John Hughes proud, the quirkily upbeat dystopian adventure comedy romance Love and Monsters proved to be one of the most pleasant cinematic surprises of 2020.
10.One Night in Miami...:
A low-key drama featuring cultural icons in Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) essentially hanging out in a hotel room in Miami after Ali-who was still known by his birth name Cassius Clay at the time-beat Sonny Liston to secure his first heavyweight title is one of the most fascinating portrayals of historical figures I've ever seen. When have we ever seen another movie where cultural titans just sit down for a couple hours and challenge each other's ideas, bond over their shared experiences and express their own doubts/fears/insecurities during a rare instance where they're completely away from the limelight in the company of people they trust? Even if this meeting didn't exactly happen like this in real life (or at all, "inspired by true events" is about as loose of a fact-based designation as there is), it's extremely cool that something like this exists because we aren't used to seeing larger-than-life legends portrayed in such raw, human fashion. Major props go to screenwriter Kemp Powers for crafting such engaging discussions, the four men on screen who fearlessly tackled playing such stripped-down versions of these legends and Regina King- in her directorial debut- who provides a easygoing touch that gives the proceedings the free-flowing conversational tone required to make this entire project work.
9.Bad Boys for Life:
Before the American public was fully aware of the imminent threat of COVID-19 last January, millions of people packed movie theaters across the country to watch Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett talk shit, crack skulls and destroy an astronomical amount of high-end Miami property in pursuit of an ultrarich criminal syndicate that has access to an unbelievably deep arsenal of weapons and vehicles for the first time since 2003. Now let's get our shit together as a nation so we can celebrate this type of glorious action movie excess in the venues they were made to be seen in again ASAP.
8.The Old Guard:
Action/superhero hybrid The Old Guard wisely uses director Gina Prince-Bythewood's (Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights) background in making dramas and the acting talent of its ensemble cast (Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marawan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli) to deeply explore the emotional pain that these immortal warriors have dealt with by having generations of loved ones be ripped away from them provides the film with level of character depth that tends to allude blockbusters-which in turn gives it a secret weapon to go along with its well-shot/choreographed action sequences that helps push it from very good to truly great.
7.Charm City Kings:
HBO Max has done an awful job promoting Charm City Kings following its October release and since I'm not confident that more than 50 people have seen it, I can easily declare this my pick for the most underrated movie of the year. Centered around a group of motorcycle-obsessed teenagers (Jahi Di'Allo Winston, Donielle Tremaine Hansely, Kezii Curtis) attempting to navigate a tight-knit Baltimore neighborhood with a strong gang presence, this lively yet tragic coming-of-age tale packs an uncompromising gut punch that is reminiscent of classics like Boyz n The Hood, Menace II Society and Juice.
6.Promising Young Woman:
I just watched this last Saturday and if I was posting this a few weeks from now, there's a good chance it would be even higher. Former Killing Eve showrunner Emerald Fennell comes out guns blazing in her film debut by packing a thorough exploration of the variety of factors that allow rape culture to continue to thrive in the world have allowed into the framework of a terrific darkly comedic revenge thriller that obscures its true intention until late in the game before dropping it on an unsuspecting audience like a fucking anvil-naturally leading to a game-changing conclusion that should generate a variety of strong responses across the emotional spectrum. Top things off with a knockout lead performance from Carey Mulligan that deserves to land her in the thick of the Best Actress conversation and you have yourself an excellent film with an urgent message that demands to be dissected and discussed for years to come.
5.The King of Staten Island:
Pete Davidson has been very open about the mental health struggles he's faced that stem from the death of his firefighter father on 9/11 and this semi-autobiographical film is his way of healing through art. The unrelentingly honesty that fuels Davidson's performance paired with the sensitivity that co-writer/director Judd Apatow shows in dramatizing his story allows King of Staten Island to blossom into a quietly poignant drama with hilarious comedic interludes that explores how the deep-rooted pain of grief can cause someone to push people away whenever they start to get close and the support of the right people can help begin to brake those internal walls down.
4.Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn):
Almost 11 months before Wonder Woman 1984 reinvigorated the DCU online hate machine to a level that hadn't been reached since Justice League, Birds of Prey achieved an important milestone that had alluded the superhero giant's attempt to build a Marvel-esque juggernaut franchise since it launched in 2013 with Man of Steel: producing a truly great movie. Harley Quinn's long overdue headlining adventure distills the colorful, chaotic essence of its antiheroine into a consistently captivating cartoonish action saga that's overflowing with energy, visual pizazz and bone-crunching fight scenes that also happens to further cement Margot Robbie's-whose portrayal of Quinn is nothing short of perfect-status as a crucial building block for a franchise that's desperate to build lasting momentum.
3.The Trial of the Chicago 7:
The peaceful turned unruly protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention and subsequent trial of the "Chicago 7"-a group of anti-Vietnam protestors accused of inciting a riot by the FBI-was the perfect historical vessel to receive the Aaron Sorkin treatment. Sorkin's knack for staging riveting courtroom scenes and deploying one-liners to provide levity at exactly the right time adds a layer of pure entertainment to this dramatization that actually makes the film's points on serious matters such as the government trying to scare citizens out of exercising to right to protest injustice by blatantly abusing their power and continuing to fight for justice regardless of what obstacles stand in the way stick harder.
2.Soul:
Safe to say Pixar redeemed themselves with their second original film of 2020 after dropping the depressingly plain Onward back in March. By evoking all of the best qualities (jaw-dropping animation, well drawn-out characters, irreverent humor, an overarching message about some aspect of the human experience that will go way above the head of 99% of the kids that watch it) associated with the Pixar brand, Pete Docter and Kemp Powers have concocted a stunning movie that conjures up the same type of profound magic as the best work (Toy Story, Toy Story 3, Up) the iconic animation studio has produced during their 25-year history.
1.The Invisible Man:
Reimagining a classic horror property as a real life meets sci-fi horror flick about an abusive scientist (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who fakes his own death then uses his undisclosed technological breakthrough to silently terrorize the woman (Elisabeth Moss) that left him proved to be an unexpected stroke of genius. Anchored by Leigh Whannell's brilliant script/direction that meticulously builds an eerie atmosphere that heightens the intensity of everything from the feeling of ever-present dread that the abused feels in the aftermath of leaving their abuser to the shocks from the jump scares and a fearlessly commanding performance from Moss that conveys paranoia and fear with a haunting degree of authenticity, The Invisible Man is an intelligent, terrifying and eventually cathartic tale that does for abusive relationships what Get Out did for race relations.
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