Just over 100 reputable critics have submitted their Best of 2020 lists to World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy. The topper, no surprise, is Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland with 49 votes. Here’s the list along with some HE comments. My own personal preferences are after the jump:
1) Nomadland (49 votes) / HE: Yowsah.
2) First Cow (41) / HE: Good film but not this good…c’mon.
3) Never Rarely Sometimes Always (40) / HE: Somber, touching film about tural teens getting a NYC abortion, but doesn’t hold a candle to Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days.
4) Da 5 Bloods (35) / HE: Deserving of respect but all that ’60s montage stuff was just thrown in to augment a so-so essence.
5) Minari (34) / HE: Good, earnest film.
6) I’m Thinking About Ending Things (32) / HE: Creepy but fascinating. Grows on you. The Oklahoma! stage performance sections + Agnes DeMille choreography.
7) Lovers Rock (29) / HE: Still haven’t seen it.
8) The Invisible Man (26) / / HE: Ranked higher than Tenet? Ludicrous.
9) Trial of the Chicago 7 (25) / HE: Yup.
10) Mank (21) / HE: Deserves higher placement.
11) Bacurau (21) / HE: Brazilian social-clash Peckinpah-Jodorowsky…hated it.
12) David Byrne’s American Utopia (21) / HE: Haven’t seen it.
13) Palm Springs (20) / HE: No way. Ridiculous. Mostly hated it. Sundancey.
14) Tenet (19) / HE: Should be among the top ten.
15) Dick Johnson Is Dead (19) / HE: Still haven’t seen it.
16) Bad Education (18) / HE: Agreed…a sharply observed docudrama.
17) Time (17)
18) The Assistant (17) / HE: Nope.
19) Vitalina Varela (16)
20) Pixar’s Soul (15) / HE: Bothersome, underwhelming, doesn’t make sense.
21) Promising Young Woman (15) / HE: Brilliant reflection of #MeToo rage, but cold, vicious and bloodthirsty.
22) The Father (14) / HE: Deserves much higher placement.
23) The Nest (14)
24) City Hall (14)
25) Collective (13) / HE: Brilliant doc that I’ve yet to write about.
26) Kajillionaire (13)
27) Mangrove (12)
28) She Dies Tomorrow (12)
29) The Climb (11)
30) Bloody Nose Empty Pockets (11)
HE Faves:
1. Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland.
2. David Fincher‘s Mank.
2. Roman Polanski‘s J’Accuse (An Officer and a Spy): “Crafted with absolute surgical genius…a lucid, exacting and spot-on retelling of an infamous episode of racial prejudice…a sublime atmospheric and textural recapturing of 1890s ‘belle epoque’ Paris, and such a meticulous, hugely engrossing reconstruction of the Dreyfus affair…a tale told lucidly…clue by clue, layer by layer. Pretty much a perfect channeling. The fact that it can’t be seen in this country has no bearing whatsoever on the fact that it’s an absolutely brilliant film.” (Reviewed on 3.25.20.)
3. Aaron Sorkin‘s The Trial of the Chicago 7.
4. Florian Zeller‘s The Father (Sony Pictures Classics, 12.18.20 — saw it a week or two ago, completely floored and hugely impressed but haven’t written my review yet — Anthony Hopkins is an obvious Best Actor lock).
5. Chris Nolan‘s Tenet — a major conceptual knockout that definitely needs subtitles.
6. Promising Young Woman
7. Rod Lurie‘s The Outpost.
8. Pieces of a Woman
8. Lee Isaacc Chung‘s Minari
9. Michael Winterbottom‘s The Trip to Greece (reviewed on 5.24.20
10. Cory Finley and Mike Makowski‘s Bad Education.
11. Charlie Kaufman‘s I’m Thinking About Ending Things
12. Kelly Reichardt‘s First Cow.
13. GOOD, RESPECTABLE, NOT GREAT: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Night in Miami, Da 5 Bloods.
