ReelBob: My top 10 movies of 2020
By Bob Bloom
2020 has been a year like no other. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all our lives — unfortunately, for hundreds of thousands much more than the rest of us.
Restrictions on dining out, attending social entertainment events have upset the normal routines on a vast majority of us.
And that includes movie reviewers as well.
The last time I attended a movie in a theater was at the end of February. Since then, I have watched more than 50 movies at home — most of them on my computer screen.
Obviously, viewing a film alone at home is very different from the theater experience in which you can sense an audience’s reaction to what is on the screen. That feeling of community you get in at a movie is nonexistent sitting alone in your home.
I did, however, see enough movies to compile a top 10 list of features that stood out among the rest. By now, most of these are available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ or other screening services. A few can be found at Blu-ray and DVD, as well.
Here, then, are the movies that I enjoyed the most in 2020:
1. “One Night in Miami”: Academy Award-winning actress Regina King moves to behind the camera, transforming us into flies on the wall as we listen to four powerful and famous black men — Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke — discuss what it means to be black as well as the responsibilities that encompasses.
The film takes place the night of Feb. 25, 1964, the night Clay defeated Sonny Liston and claimed boxing’s heavyweight crown.
The moment is early in the growing civil rights movement. It also is a time when the lives of this quartet of black icons are in flux.
The film is a true ensemble piece. It is a commanding movie with dynamic performances. It may be stagey and dialogue-heavy, but it also is so, so compelling that you lean in to listen because you don’t want to miss a word.
2. “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”: Autumn, a 17-year-old high school girl in a small Pennsylvania town, finds herself pregnant.
The local women’s clinic cannot give her any help, so, along with her cousin, she takes a bus to New York City to obtain an abortion.
On the surface, that sums up “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”
Yet, the movie, written and directed by Eliza Hittman, is so much more than its simple premise. Hittman’s movie speaks volumes with what goes unsaid — who impregnated Autumn, her relationship with and within her family and Autumn’s feelings about what she wants to do and how she feels about herself and her decision.
The film is a graceful and sensitive movie about giving young women a voice, allowing them to choose their own paths.
3. “Nomadland”: Writer-director Chloe Zhao is drawn to people who are not so much loners as self-sustainers. They exist on the fringes of society, going through life on their own terms.
In, “Nomadland,” Frances McDormand portrays Fern, a widow, who, after losing her job and home during the recession, embarks on an odyssey through the West, living out of her van.
She is a self-sufficient woman, always willing to help others, while refusing aid from friends and fellow vanners. Fern is determined to live life on her own terms.
“Nomadland” is a paean to the independence of modern pioneers. It’s a memorable feature, one of the best of the year, worthy of Academy Award consideration.
4. “Mank”: Much has been written about “Citizen Kane,” Orson Welles and the controversy about who actually wrote the film.
“Mank” is a time capsule, an examination of 1930s Hollywood when Los Angeles was a company town — and the company was the movie industry.
The film, in glorious black and white, looks at the era through the alcoholic prism of Herman J. Mankiewicz, one of the preeminent screenwriters of the day; a man with a scathing, razor-sharp wit that spared no one, including the most powerful people in the industry.
Mankiewicz wrote “Citizen Kane,” loosely basing it on people he knew and with whom he socialized — most notably newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, his longtime mistress, actress Marion Davies and MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer.
The movie is a film-lover’s delight, a fascinating and entertaining experience that also will give you a better appreciation of Mankiewicz’s contributions to cinema history.
5. “The Vast of Night”: This is a little gem, an eerie sci-fi thriller that plays like a classic episode of “The Twilight Zone” or “The Outer Limits.”
First-time director Andrew Patterson’s feature is a movie about the uneasiness and fear of the unknown. Patterson relies on strange audio recordings, dropped phone calls, AM radio signals and secret reels of tapes dumped in a library basement to build tension and a sense of foreboding.
“The Vast of Night” makes you ponder what is in the sky as well as what more Patterson can do here on Earth.
6. “Soul”: Pixar’s latest animated feature is a funny and rewarding story about finding your place in the universe — or at least your part of it.
The movie, directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers and written by Docter, Mike Jones and Powers, overflows with heart, even as it gets you thinking about your own life.
The movie is a delight, filled with numerous sight gags, fun characters and life lessons that children as well as adults can recognize.
“Soul” focuses on dealing with the struggles of life and rising to the occasion, even if it means subverting your own goal to help someone else reach his or hers. And I guarantee, you will fight holding back tears when the movie ends.
7. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”: An air of melancholy hangs over this production. Not because of its storyline, but as a testament to the brilliant talent of the late Chadwick Boseman. While watching him perform, you begin thinking of all the lost opportunities and challenges before him.
The movie, based on August Wilson’s play, is set in a 1927 Chicago recording studio where Rainey and her group are scheduled to record a few songs.
Boseman is Levee, her trombonist. His cockiness and brashness hide a naïve young man scarred by memories of violence and past indignities. It is a brilliant and complex performance.
Boseman’s final performance is a gift that everyone should experience.
8. “The King of Staten Island”: People who know “Saturday Night Live’s” Pete Davidson know his background the loss of his firefighter father on 9/11, his drug problems and his mental issues.
This movie, co-written by Davidson, David Sirus and Judd Apatow, who also directs, takes pages from Davidson’s life to tell a story about a shiftless man-child still mourning his father’s death and who is still trying to find his place in the world.
It is difficult to make comedy out of pain, but “Staten Island” does so in a manner that makes you sympathize with Davidson’s Scott, as well as cringe at his self-centered and obnoxious behavior and many of his antics.
What involves you is the movie’s melancholy tenderness and Davidson’s performance. You root for him to mature, succeed and accept his place in life.
9. “The Assistant”: This is a soul-crushing experience; a movie that encapsulates the #MeToo era and shines a harsh spotlight on the sexism, abuses of power and toxic work environment — especially for women — in the film industry.
The movie takes place over one day, focusing on Jane (Julia Garner), a recently hired junior assistant to a powerful movie mogul.
Her boss, who we never see — but do hear — is a profane, demanding and exploitive bully, modeled on the disgraced Harvey Weinstein.
Jane, whose goal is to one day be a movie producer, is at the bottom rung of the entertainment ladder.
Writer-director Kitty Green uses a low-key approach, allowing the viewer to eavesdrop on what goes on behind closed doors in the mogul’s offices.
Nothing explicit is detailed or shown; “The Assistant” is heavy on implication, allowing you to make your own observations.
In a sense, “The Assistant” is like an old-fashioned horror movie in which all the murder and mayhem occur off-screen, so it is left to our imaginations about what happens behind closed doors.
“The Assistant” is an unpleasant movie, disturbing viewing that makes your heart race. It is a bit too circumspect, but I believe that is a deliberate choice by Green to allow us to reach our own conclusions.
The film’s overall silence is thunderous — and that is its greatest power.
10. “The Personal History of David Copperfield”: This Charles Dickens classic has been adapted several times for the screen, but this latest version, from director Armando Iannucci, brings a lightness to the story, glossing over much of the misery David suffered as a boy.
Iannucci takes a more optimistic approach to the story, almost making it into a fairy tale about goodness and decency prevailing over darkness, bigotry and evil.
This “David Copperfield” is an uplifting and beautifully photographed movie. Despite all the calamities in David’s life, the film soars with optimism — something that is in short supply these days.
These five movies are ones I enjoyed and deserve some mention. They, too, are worth viewing.
• “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”: Sasha Baron Cohen returns with another feature that skews America and Americans. It is biting and funny and well worth seeing.
• “On the Rocks”: Bill Murray shines in Sofia Coppola’s trifle of a comedy about the insecurities of permanence in marriage.
• “Promising Young Woman” An audacious movie driven by a chameleon-like performance by Carey Mulligan as a young woman whose life is on hold because of a tragedy in her past.
• “The Trial of the Chicago 7”: Aaron Sorkin brings one of the most memorable events of the 1970s to life in this look at the government’s efforts to jail seven counterculture protesters they contend were responsible for the riots that marred the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
• “Yes, God, Yes”: In its own quirky way, writer-director Karen Maine’s feature, “Yes, God, Yes,” spotlights the confusion and guilt experienced by Catholic teens — especially those in parochial schools.
The movie is set in the Midwest in the early 2000s and focuses on Alice (Natalia Dyer), battling the various emotions that conflict a high school sophomore.
Alice is a good girl and considers herself a faithful Catholic. But, like all girls her age, she is sexually curious, which increases her anxiety. When she attends a weekend Catholic retreat, she learns every human being is flawed, even those she had considered above temptation.
So, that is my year in movies. I hope yours was as entertaining as it could be under the circumstances — and here’s looking ahead to 2021.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.