Kicking the Seat's Top 20 Films of 2020
I’ve officially waited too long to put out my “Best of 2020” list. Sure, odds are out for the 93rd Academy Awards and it's still nearly a week away, but most people have already moved on to caring about new and upcoming films—preferring to leave last year’s movies in the COVID dustbin, along with just about everything else.
For the longest time, I’d considered not writing about my favorites. These days it’s challenging enough keeping up with a day job; guest-appearing on podcasts; writing reviews again; and creating several YouTube videos per week, that the temptation was to just let 2020 go.
Yet here we are.
In the list below you’ll find high-level thoughts on the films that most profoundly affected me last year. Many of them turned out to be eerily relevant to the era in which they were released—a fact that the people who made them could not have anticipated at the time.
Some speak to the seemingly contradictory isolation that can strike at the heart of our most valued relationships; some made me re-evaluate celebrities that I’d long since written off; one is just a fun, brilliantly shot, and very bloody action movie.
You’ll lose your shirt if you try placing odds on most of my picks. But programming a “Top 20 Films of 2020” marathon will be one of the richest, weirdest experiences of your life, guaranteed. Below you’ll find a few words about why each movie stands out, as well as links to my coverage of them as they were released (some are podcast discussions, some are interviews with the talent involved).
Here’s to one of the best years in cinema emerging from one of the most challenging for mankind.
Da Big Zip This wonky, weed-tinged walk-about finds aspiring rapper Oz (Noah Alonzo) searching Chicago for a fanny pack stuffed with dope and cash. Writer/director Nick Alonzo continues to be The Windy City’s greatest indie filmmaker, capturing sights that go beyond the postcard and subcultures whose low-class aesthetics betray the creative, direction-starved beating hearts that comprise them. Alonzo challenges us all to look deeper, even as we wave away smoke.
Extraction Admit it: when you hear “Stunt Coordinator turned Director” follow someone’s name, your first thought is, “big, dumb action—zero story”. Sam Hargrave’s Extraction is zero-for-two on that score, proving that ambitious, relentless kineticism can be just as smart as it is invigorating. The shoot-’em-up starring Chris Hemsworth as a mercenary struggling to rescue a warlord’s son as the city around them erupts in violence has just enough heart, character, and real stakes to keep the action from being its only draw.
Fatman The low-key hard-boiled awesomeness of Ian and Eshom Nelms’ 2017 drama, Small Town Crime, guaranteed that I’d be first in line for their next movie. Fatman made me a fan for life. Mel Gibson stars as a disillusioned Santa Clause whose decision to outsource Christmas deliveries to the military coincides with his being targeted by a hitman (Walton Goggins) on behalf of a jilted twelve-year-old boy (Chance Hurstfield). Yeah, it sounds goofy, but the comedy really works, the action is solid, and the characters (including Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s scenes-stealing turn as Mrs. Claus) are like that last hidden present tucked behind the Christmas tree—your heart will swell, just before it melts. (Bonus: watch me and Keeping It Reel’s David Fowlie interview the Nelms Brothers!)
Finding Courage Kay Rubacek’s moving portrait of journalist-turned-activist Yifei Wang came out early in the pandemic, when all eyes were on China. The movie doesn’t deal with COVID-19, but it does confront the authoritarianism of the communist regime that runs the country. Wang’s sister was detained nearly twenty years ago, demonstrating for the right to practice her religion. Through interviews with friends, family, and former government officials, Rubacek paints a disturbing picture of out-in-the-open concentration camps, prisoner torture, and a chilling commitment to secrecy. Wang not only finds the courage to speak out; she shines a beacon of hope for the hopeless.
The Hunt Speaking of hopeless, few could have predicted that Craig Zobel’s shelved-then-released satiric thriller would have been closer to a documentary than a blood-splattered farce. Liberal elites hunt a curated group of right-wing crazies, only to have the tables turned when one of the victims (Betty Gilpin, in a truly remarkable performance) turns out to be more than they’d bargained for. After a year of mask debates, mass shootings, election conspiracies, and Trial of the Century 2.0, I can understand if you don’t rush right out to watch this one. But writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof infuse many of their archetypes with more nuance than you’ll see on any mainstream news coverage.
The King of Staten Island I’m not the world’s biggest Pete Davidson fan. Judd Apatow is hit-or-miss for me. So it’s with great humility and exuberance that I urge you to check out their 2020 comedy if you haven’t already. Davidson plays an aimless, horny, stoned gamer (no this isn’t a documentary) whose life is upended when his mother (Marisa Tomei) begins dating a no-nonsense firefighter (Bill Burr). Apatow can (and sometimes does) make get-out-of-the-basement comedies in his sleep. Here he gives equal time to adulthood and actually makes it sound appealing.
Minari Lee Isaac Chung’s 1980s-set small-town drama is the kind of immigrant story we don’t often see. When the Yi family moves from Korea to Arkansas to work at a hatchery, their biggest obstacle isn’t racism; it’s ambition. Jacob (Steven Yuen) dreams of starting his own farm, specializing in exotic vegetables to serve the small-but-growing Korean community. His wife, Monica (Yeri Han), struggles to keep her family (and her wits) together while dealing with her husband’s illusions about the Land of Opportunity. If you’re looking for a reminder as to why America is a global magnet, despite our numerous problems, look no further than Minari.
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado Another American Dream movie, but a veeery different one from Minari. Mucho Mucho Amor chronicles the wild life and mysterious disappearance of Walter Mercado, who riveted audiences worldwide with crazy astrological predictions and even crazier costumes. The ambiguously gendered star gave unprecedented access to filmmakers Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch. The result is part history lesson, part legal cautionary tale, part inspiration to live your moth authentic self…as fabulously as possible.
The Nest I like to say that the opposite of “escapism” is “confrontism”, and if you are at all dissatisfied with your marriage, I advise you to consider this a “Top 19 Films of 2020” list. Sean Durkin’s drama takes place in the 1980s and finds a cocky stockbroker (Jude Law) relocating his family from America to the English countryside. His wife (Carrie Coon) isn’t having it, and the move dredges up the absolute worst resentments in both people. This is as well-acted and tightly scripted a psychological breakdown as you’re likely to see. It’s also the opposite of “fun”.
One Night in Miami And what a night it was! Regina King’s feature directorial debut imagines a fly-on-the-wall encounter between Malcom X, Sam Cooke, Cassius Clay, and Jim Brown in 1964. Issues of race, culture, entertainment, and burgeoning social change come to the fore as Kemp Powers adapts his own stage play for the screen. By humanizing these historical pioneers, Powers and King make the immense intimate. They help us see past the public bluster into four souls who struggle not only for the identity of their people but for the identity of themselves as people.
Onward Of course, a “Best Movies” list has to have an animated feature. Of course, that animated feature has to come from Pixar. i know, I’m a walking cliche. But what isn’t cliche is Dan Scanlon’s D&D-inspired road trip comedy centering on two troll brothers and their half-formed dead dad. It’s a crime that this film came out in March instead of on Father’s Day (indeed, this was one of the last pre-pandemic theatrical releases), since Onward’s emotions are just as powerful as its imagination. Sure, the biker sprites, sassy Manticore, and mascot-headed dragon are hilarious and kind of endearing, but the tear-jerking dad energy that permeates this film could just make it an annual favorite.
Palm Springs Do we need another Groundhog Day? Not at all. Luckily there’s plenty of other-dimensional weirdness in Max Barbakow’s loopy time-loop comedy. When Sarah (Cristin Milioti) attends her sister’s wedding, she winds up repeating the same day ad nauseam with party guest Nyles (Andy Samberg), who just makes her nauseous. It took me a little while to get into the film’s groove, but once I hooked into Sarah and Nyles’ endless-life crisis I kind of didn’t want it to end. I also wound up liking it more than Groundhog Day. Thank you for reading up to movie number twelve. Hope to see you again.
Possessor In this darkly inventive body-horror thriller, Brandon Cronenberg turns on all the lights and vanquishes his father’s shadow. Andrea Riseborough stars as a highly trained operative who slips into people’s consciousnesses to perform the ultimate act of corporate espionage. We catch up with her as an unspecified number of years and missions takes their toll, resulting in a job that rips at the very fabric of her own weary mind. Disturbing, engrossing, and very, very weird, this is the kind of movie that makes mainstream sci-fi look like Star Trek played backward at one-quarter speed.
Rebuilding Paradise The 2018 California wildfires leveled the historical town of Paradise. Ron Howard’s documentary opens with harrowing scenes from that blaze, and proceeds to takes us through the relocation, resentment, and, yes, rebuilding. 2020 saw unrest, destruction, and fires of a very different sort all across America (more than a little of which has followed us into the New Year, sadly). Despite the hopelessness of lost lives and livelihoods that engulfs our newsfeeds, Howard and the intrepid residents of Paradise tell us that we can unite and make something better.
Rent-A-Pal I’ll never look at Wil Wheaton the same way again. In Jon Stevenson’s Rent-a-Pal, li’l Wesley Crusher has grown up to be a creepy virtual friend who lives in a 1980s VHS tape. Brian Landis Folkins co-stars as David, the lonely basement-dweller who stumbles upon “Andy” while visiting the headquarters of a pre-Internet video dating service. This absurd premise ventures down the horror path (of course), but makes time to explore the human need for connection—even if it’s only through a screen with a complete stranger—that marked one of the most profound conversations we engaged in last year.
She Dies Tomorrow The other end of the Rent-A-Pal spectrum is Amy Seimetz’s trippy, paranoid nightmare in which chance encounters transmit a deadly mental virus. Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) is convinced she won’t live past the next day. She tells her friend, Jane (Jane Adams), who begins to believe that she is also doomed. The solution, which many people find out too late, is cutting off physical contact and not listening to what anyone has to say. To make matters worse, there’s no concrete evidence of how the madness started or when it might end. If 2020 were a movie, this would be it.
Shithouse Let me tell you about a movie that actually revels in human connection. Cooper Raiff’s funny, observant debut follows a homesick college student (Raiff) who falls in love with his resident advisor (Dylan Gelula). Much of the film takes place in a single night as they fumble through bad sex, get chased out of a party, and take a leisurely but revealing off-campus walk. Raiff balances things out by jumping ahead and around through time, creating a picture of classic heart-on-the-sleeve romance butting up against the guarded anonymity of hookup culture. The result will fill your heart, pop it like a balloon, and have you picking up the floppy tattered bits to blow it up again.
The Social Dilemma Physical proximity wasn’t the only thing atomized in 2020. Social media had already begun to split into echo chambers before COVID. Between last March and present day, the bubbles have become smaller and smaller so that users barely have enough clarity to even consider alternatives to their micro-curated friend groups and news sources. Jeff Orlowski peels back the digital curtain on the forces that govern everything we see online and, more chillingly, dictate how we feel about them. The Social Dilemma may just make you exorcise all social media from your life…after you tweet about it, of course.
This Is Paris 2020 was the year when we stopped giving a collective shit about celebrities. From Ellen Degeneres moping in her mansion to the justified ratioing of that star-studded “Imagine” cover, the abrupt life-and-death struggles of illness, social distancing, and economic decline made entertainers seem as ephemeral as the fantasies they manufactured. So how is it that Paris Hilton’s life story became one of the year’s most compelling documentaries? Alexandra Dean gets the multi-hyphenate heiress to open up about the expectations of fame, the trappings of wealth, the difficulties of trust, and a traumatizing experience in her teen years wound up bleeding out of the movie and into the headlines. I understand if you strolled right by this one. But seek it out. You won’t regret it. (Bonus: Check out my interview with Frally, whose stunning cover of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is featured in the film.)
You Cannot Kill David Arquette No, seriously, I’m closing out with a documentary about David Arquette—who, for some of you, will present an even bigger strain on my credibility than Paris Hilton. The Scream star became a wrestling champion at the turn of the century, thanks in large part to a promotional tie-in for a movie. Years later, after having fought through divorce, addiction, and a flagging career, the actor decided to become a legit presence in the ring. Directors David Darg and Price James follow Arquette from the saddest fan convention appearance ever to the streets of Mexico and into the bloody back yards of amateur matches for a redemption story that begins as a joke and ends as one of the most inspiring stories you’re likely to see this decade.
