Five Favorites From 2020
The first thing I published on Middle of the Barrel was a top-five list from 2019. I opened it musing about the significance of films feeling contemporary and speaking to the moment in which they exist. I talked about the ways that the films released in 2019 were stories of class consciousness and fear, feeling like you’ve aged out, and superheroes. In 2020, I did not care at all if a story felt contemporary, and frankly most of the films released in the last year that tried to “say something” were forcing their point and fell flat. The notable exceptions being films like Da 5 Bloods and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, which tells you all that you need to know about the kind of care and effort placed into telling a story of race and class consciousness written by white folks versus ones written by black folks. With the slate of films pushed back in 2020, who knows what the tone of this year could have been, all I know is that the films released this year served as a way to transport me somewhere other than my home.
5. The Invisible Man
I recently watched a short interview with legendary horror director John Carpenter where he spoke about no longer attending these events called the Masters of Horror dinners in which a bunch of horror filmmakers gather around to talk about whatever they please. He makes reference to the young kids who seem fed up with “traditional horror films” and that they want to reinvent the wheel without actually making a compelling horror film. In one part of the interview, he says “Darren Aronofsky, I think secretly hates horror films… let the geniuses go”. I don’t think there’s any fan of the genre that would say Leigh Whannell has anything but adoration for horror films. The Invisible Man is a great example of what a writer/director can do when they choose to stay within the genre, you don’t have to expel so much effort into subverting expectations if you stick to what makes the genre great. Great jump scares, smart pacing, and a brilliant central performance is the true secret sauce to a genre horror film. Elisabeth Moss is incredible and seems to love getting cast in films that are emotionally punishing, but I don’t blame her for wanting to show just how good she is. I wrote a review for The Invisible Man in March, so give that a read if you want to know more of my thoughts.
4. Tenet
I would like to take this chance to apologize to my friends for how much I’ve talked about Tenet over the last four months. It can’t be overstated how much I enjoyed seeing Tenet for the first time and the effect that seeing a Christopher Nolan globetrotting action film had on me. I wrote 2,600 words last year on why I loved Tenet and why I think it’s so effective as an action movie, so I don’t feel the need to take the time here to convince you to watch it, but I do want to say something about the discourse surrounding the film. Tenet doesn’t make sense, and that’s fine. I know we all come to expect convoluted stories from Nolan that he tries to make sense of and wants to convince us all that they’re scientifically accurate and logically sound, but I want you to know that it’s okay that Tenet doesn’t make sense. Christopher Nolan just wants you to have fun, watch the movie, and have some fun. It’s an adventure that spans multiple continents where everyone is dressed to impress and Robert Pattinson and John David Washington play besties, I don’t want to hear you talk about why it breaks its own rules. In the parlance of film Twitter, Tenet is the “dudes rock” film of 2020.
3. Mangrove
I haven’t formally written about Mangrove at all, but I have spent a lot of time thinking about it and having discussions on the importance of the film since it first released in late November as the first part of Steve McQueen’s film series Small Axe. While the film is centered around at trial of nine black defendants fighting against the racist systems put in place by the British government and the police force, Mangrove is also about the places that mean so much to us. The Mangrove was a Caribbean restaurant opened by community activist and restauranteur Frank Crichlow, played magnificently by Shaun Parkes, that was a hub for the black community in Notting Hill. McQueen takes the time to show why The Mangrove as a restaurant mattered to a community of black people in a predominantly white nation that was actively trying to keep them down. It wasn’t just a restaurant that provided great food that reminded them of home, but a place that became a sort of home away from home. That juxtaposed with the protests and the ensuing trial shows just a small sliver of what the Mangrove Nine were fighting for. I mentioned earlier that most of the films that have tried to be contemporary in 2020 fell short, but Mangrove is one of the few exceptions. McQueen has picked a significant moment in history to portray the struggles of black people, and it shows the first acknowledgement by the British courts that there was behavior motivated by racism amongst the metropolitan police. It also reminds you that since 1971, black folks have continued to fight in all circles of influence to see change take place. Mangrove is just beautifully made and has an insane amount of talent throughout, it’s disappointing to know it can’t compete at the Oscars, because I’d be part of the hive pushing for Shaun Parkes in Best Actor.
2. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
I haven’t decided if putting this film at number two is the best decision I could’ve made or the worst. I don’t know if I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a top three Charlie Kaufman project or a bloated mess of a film that wants you to pay attention to it like a child showing you a dance they came up with. I can say with certainty that Jessie Buckley is giving a performance that has stuck with me for months. One of the most intriguing things about I’m Thinking of Ending Things is the way that Kaufman has spoken about it over the last few months. He’s talked about the collaboration with author Iain Reed and the way they worked together to adapt Reed’s novel, this film being the first time that Kaufman has adapted a work written by someone else. He also seems to have a bit of a fatalistic view of his filmmaking and the rest of his career. On the virtual press tour for the film, Kaufman spoke a lot about the difficulties that he faces getting a film made versus another auteur filmmaker. Performers seem to love working with Kaufman because they make something special and unlike anything they may have made prior, but it certainly isn’t a project that attracts moviegoers. There’s a significant barrier to entry with Kaufman; more often than not that barrier is built around the audience being willing to follow him along these paths towards a more experimental style of storytelling, but this film also expects its audience to have a cultural cache and familiarity with the films of John Cassavetes and the writing of Pauline Kael amongst other things. It’s brilliantly crafted, it doesn’t make sense because it wants to be absurd, and Toni Collette kinda gives me the creeps, overall great film.
Honorable Mention: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
I am choosing to take this chance to talk about Céline Sciamma’s masterpiece Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It was released in most of Europe in fall 2019 and in New York and L.A. in December of that year, but I live in Central Texas, so when I saw it after it came to Alamo South Lamar, it was in March of 2020, I’m going for it. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is an unassailable masterpiece and should be an example of brilliant writing, cinematography, production and costume design, and performance for the rest of time. As a loser who knows nothing about cameras but really likes shots, I find myself thinking about this film constantly. Céline Sciamma and Claire Mathon chose to shoot the film in 8K to give it the feeling of a contemporary love story set in Brittany in 1760. The easiest and certainly the most tiring comparison is to seeing a beautiful painting in a museum and feeling like you can’t take in all of the detail, but in my subsequent rewatches and time spent reading about and thinking about the film, it begins to show that this story is one that can only be captured through film. The depth and nuance of a love that can never be lived out require motion and sound and time. There’s so much depth to be mined relating to the relationship and subsequent dissolution of the long term love shared between Céline Sciamma and Adèle Haenel, especially the relationship between the artist and the subject of their art, but that’s for another day and a more thoughtful and intelligent writer. Portrait is just an incredible romance and it can’t be understated how good Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel are together, just a tremendous amount of chemistry and longing shared between them on screen. For the sake of honoring it’s official release date, Portrait of a Lady on Fire will remain as an honorable mention, but it truly is the best movie I watched released in the United States in 2020.
1. Mank
What did you expect from me? If any of you took the time to slog through my 2,000-word review of Mank, I’m sure you know just how much I love this movie. It’s a return to form for my favorite filmmaker as he exhibits all of the things that he does that make him my favorite filmmaker. As stated in my review, my favorite Fincher is Zodiac because of his obsession with both the craft of filmmaking and with the subject within the frame. For a filmmaker who very rarely displays the personal and loves to show the perverse and the profane, Mank is almost saccharine at different points throughout the film. Obviously, it is built around a drunk, degenerate gambler who also happens to be a brilliant writer, but the moments in which Oldman turns up the charm in the writer’s room or with William Randolph Hearst or Marion Davies are some of the most enjoyable to watch. Mankiewicz as a person seemed to be a romp of a man and the sort of person you’d love to have spent an evening with under good circumstances and that hasn’t ever been the case when it comes to the protagonists of Fincher films. There’s also something about the Old Hollywood of it all that makes it so much more endearing to me. It helps that she gives what may be my favorite performance of the year, but Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies is just lights out good and a wonderfully sympathetic character. Maybe one day I’ll dedicate the time to break down every moment of Mank and Marion’s walk through San Simeon and what I love about each minuscule detail, but that can wait. So there it is, Mank is my favorite film of 2020, I love it, I love David Fincher and I hope that this is finally the year that my guy gets his Oscars.
Thanks for reading! It’s been great to publish my thoughts here on the website and I hope to pick up the pace a bit in 2021, but no promises. I love you, I love movies, I hope you keep reading. In the meantime, here’s a list of some more honorable mentions, you can also find them all ranked on my letterboxd account.
Possessor
The Vast of Night
Palm Springs
The Last Dance
Promising Young Woman
Shithouse
Let Them All Talk
Da 5 Bloods
Sound of Metal
The Way Back