Five Years Later: 2020 Movies
- Feb 4
- 10 min read
Every year, I like to go back and rewatch the movies from five years ago, hunting down a few that I missed, and seeing if the movies enjoyed from back then still hold up. It's my experiment of very fake awards with the power of hindsight, culturally and with a sense of artistic impact on the industry over the successive years. The Oscars for 2020 movies were overwhelmingly dominated by Nomadland, Minari and The Father, most of the films with nominations were heavy in drama. The previous year was an especially great year for movies and 2020 saw a lot of releases delayed until theaters would open up again. This meant plenty of straight to streaming movies, some offbeat movies ended up being seen by more people than they otherwise would have. There were bad movies dumped to streaming in 2020, but also a lot of special projects like Hamilton, David Byrne’s American Utopia and Zach Snyder’s Justice League the following year that might not have had the same impact otherwise. I have made my own awards for the movies of five years ago, my Hindsight Awards, with standard awards, plus stunts and special effects, two outstanding actors and two outstanding actresses as well as a best ensemble cast. Here is a list of my top 20 movies, down from the original raking post of 25 movies and over on Letterboxd I have every movie from 2019 that I have logged in a master ranking. I call this The Hindsight Awards.
Palm Springs (previous: 1)
- Best Picture, Best Acting Andy Samberg
All production of this movie taking place before Covid, this Groundhog Day-style comedy manages to capture the feelings of isolation and repetition of lockdowns while bringing a message of love and hope… and attempting to use a ton of science to solve a seemingly impossible problem. Eternity in Palm Springs looks pretty nice when you get the hang of the party guests, the house with the free pool to float in, and find love.
Disney+/Hulu
Greyhound (2)
- Best Actor Tom Hanks, Best Special Effects
Tom Hanks is the very Tom Hanks Navy captain during this World War II thriller. This pulls off the best cinematic magic trick of the year by convincingly setting the movie entirely at sea while never filming any actual water outside of the ship, it’s entirely special effects. This fits right in with the great World War II movies of the last 30 years or so.
Apple TV+
Mank (4)
- Best Direction David Fincher
On rewatch Gary Oldman’s performance is incredibly silly, although I think that’s at least part of the intent of the character. I am a fan of Orson Welles and Citizen Kane is a movie I enjoy, and this is a very well made movie. This past year we went San Simeon which was a really great experience to accompany this story, this really brings to life the compound in a more realistic way than the exaggerated scale of Citizen Kane. I really wish this would get a physical release, it feels like movies stuck solely on streaming services are more easily forgotten to the movie buff collectors out there and they also tend to be pretty vocal of their favorites on social media.
Netflix
Tenet (8)
Christopher Nolan demanded that this was released in theaters in 2020 so that it could get the IMAX treatment. It’s a very difficult movie to wrap your head around the concept of going backwards in time, and I still don’t think it works, the lighting is so unsettling that it is especially shocking coming from the very glossy look of Nolan’s films, but this is the one movie that has stuck in my head the most over these years. I didn’t go out to the theater to see it when it came out, I waited for the physical release and played it on my projector, and I have rewatched it pretty much on a yearly basis ever since. I think the characters and the concepts of their motivations stick with me the most are especially fascinating.
for rent only
- Best Writing Emerald Fennel, Best Actress Carey Mulligan
I enjoy the filmmaking of Quentin Tarantino but I am often hung up on his concepts of revenge and that they are often carried out in similar, yet thrilling, ways. I often find his movies cross a moral line that can be disturbing where the revenge comes awfully close to the atrocities they are in reaction to. His style, like the style of many of the other filmmakers on this list, like Fincher and Nolan, are especially masculine and I have to admit that I find a lot of my favorite movies are on that end of the cinematic spectrum which can feel a bit limiting in taste. Promising Young Woman is a revenge movie written and directed by a woman, Emerald Farrell, with a female protagonist, and what I absolutely love about it is that these perspectives take what is basically a standard revenge set up by those masculine directors but the reaction is just as vengeful, but so very different to the point that it is a twist in comparison. The revenge is carried out using the perceived weaknesses and disadvantages women face in society as an ultimate weapon against those societal norms.
for rent only
- Best Actress Merryl Streep
Steven Soderberg’s Traffic was one of the first movies that I saw in the theater where it clicked in my head that moviemaking is high art. I have been fascinated by his filmography ever since, from his intended retirement and the span of about a decade since then that he has averaged more than movie release a year. There have been so many movies that he has put out, many times they are smaller stories, that they can be forgotten. I zero in on his movies and almost all of those “post-retirement” movies have been so fascinating, well shot, and there’s something comforting about his style that I appreciate. Let Them All Talk might be my favorite of these movies, I love that it takes place on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic really appeals to me. I think it was my time on Semester at Sea that makes me a sucker for movies set on ocean liners. I am not the biggest Meryl Streep fan, she’s good but I don’t go out of my way for her movies, but she is great here. This has a fun cast and a touching story that unexpectedly fits with the 2020 sense of confinement.
HBO Max
- Best Documentary
I love the Beastie Boys but their history has always been a little hazy to me. They name a lot of their friends that they work with, pieces of their personal histories and cultural touch points that their music is really about the friendship between them rather than being able to coherently put together their story. This is so much fun and it’s great to see so much imagery from the ‘80’s to the 2000’s. The music is really great, too.
Apple TV+
Birds of Prey (19)
Harley Quinn is the true star of the DC Universe over the last decade or so, to the point that she is the one character/actor combo to stay consistent in the change of creatives controlling the property. This movie is fun, stylish, funny and stuffed with great characters. And the one great thing this movie does is that it takes the place of the first Suicide Squad movie in the storyline of of their cinematic universe, a movie that is painfully unwatchable.
HBO Max
Bacurau (11)
- Best Foreign Language Film
I’m not even sure where to start with this movie, it has one of the most insane plots of any movie without falling off the rails. This Brazilian movie is very violent, you can’t just stumble into it. This is the story of a little rural Brazilain town that has disappeared from GPS and maps and something weird is happening. Ultimately this is a story of big business and politics encroaching on a small town, American gun culture and a hidden local history, maybe aliens(?) and it’s pretty much a western. This movie is wild.
Kanopy
The Last Dance (12)
This documentary of Michael Jordan’s last season with the Bulls is like digging up sunken treasure, a shock that the footage was stashed away for so long, but the time subjects had between the events and their interviews creates a lot of honesty. These guys had a lot of time to let some things stew and we as an audience probably needed that buffer to accept that some lovable characters happened to be great at basketball because they also happened to be assholes.
Netflix
The Trip to Greece (NR)
The Trip movies are really interesting to see the fictional versions of Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden get talked into spending time with each other despite comedic friction of personalities. This installment breaks from the format and becomes a movie about the moment that COVID hits. The Trip ends early with the death of Steve’s father, a moment that grounds Steve, brings the two men together in very subtle ways and marks a point of history of isolation, death, sadness and reaching out for togetherness over distance.
Kanopy
The circumstances of a protest going violent and political targeting through the justice system rings true, even more so five years later. The great cast capture the incredible real life characters very well, we shouldn't have expected the relevance to grow again over the years.
Netflix
Da 5 Bloods (17)
- Best Ensemble
Spike Lee is a bit of a magician in his storytelling that he stacks themes and stories upon each other in a way that doesn't clutter his movies but raises the level of art that he creates. Here, we have a bit of a heist movie, and Vietnam War movie, but mix in a character whose trauma has put him into the mindset of being MAGA, and the film builds up to a chanting of “Black Lives Matter." That sequence was shot before protests had exploded in 2020 with incredible foresight of the climate in America. With all of these stories and complicated characters and layers of themes, this still has a pace that feels cinematic comfort.
Netflix
Uncle Frank (9)
A touching and visually stunning movie about a gay man in the ‘70’s who was closeted in his rural hometown and out and free to be his true self in the big city. He comes back home where he has to face traumas of his past as his boyfriend and niece try to support him despite his reluctance. From Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under one of my favorite shows ever, this captures the similar feelings of that show as well as the great characters.
Prime
The Kid Detective (NR)
This is almost like a Wes Anderson film. A child prodigy private detective grows up, continually living out his film noir fantasy despite never maturing beyond small stakes cases or gaining a respectable income. While the soundtrack is not bad, if it were more plucked from an oddball’s vinyl collection it would make cult classic status.
for rent only
Nomadland (NR)
- Best Cinematography Joshua James Richards
I originally had this as one of my top two or three movies of 2020 when it came out. This was the star of the Oscars for that year, but it’s hardly one of the movies I have thought of revisiting. I really enjoy Chloe Zhau’s Marvel movie Eternals, which is also beautifully shot, but that action movie is the one I revisit and this isn’t. Nomadland is an incredible witnessing of American life in the so-called ‘fly over’ states. There aren’t many movies that end up being as widely seen as this that focus on alternative living conditions (in a sprinter van at RV parks) or working in places like an Amazon warehouse.
Hulu/Disney+
Weathering With You (NR)
- Best Animated Film
From Makoto Shinkai, this is a visually stunning modern fairytale about a girl who can control the weather in Japan. The characters can be a little awkward and the music is incredibly emo, but the story is captivating enough and the animation is so brightly colored and detailed that it almost feels live action. Shinkai’s movies have this emo streak to them, but they are so moving and fun that it feels like anything can happen.
HBO Max
Soul (Soul)
Although this came out as Disney started to push Pixar aside, less marketing, and more straight to streaming releases, this is as good of an anthropomorphic intangible character movie as they have made. And oddly they have put out a good number of those movies. The score incorporates jazz and heavenly tones and great animation for a rather euphoric kids movie.
Disney+
On the Rocks (24)
While Sophia Coppola’s first three films are by far the most well known of her career, this is a very personal feeling father/daughter film much like Somewhere. Rashida Jones is living in the shadow of her charismatic and selfish father. Her husband is increasingly distant with work and she goes off on a caper to find out the truth of her relationship as her father inserts his big personality along the way.
Apple TV+
Hamilton (16)
- Best Music
Although I have had the soundtrack to the musical for a very long time, I have never had the chance to see this in person. It was so fortunate that this was released to Disney+ in the middle of COVID to enjoy at home. It has become a Fourth of July staple in our house, as difficult as it is to translate a stage show to the big screen it is still very watchable. I’m sure it’s even more electric in person, but as a film the performances feel as though they have been captured very well.
Disney+
Honorable Mentions
I felt I had to cut this list down from 25 to 20 because it wasn’t all that strong of a year, however there are a few movies of note to mention honorably here. Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow is a mesmerizing story, Greenland is one of the best disaster movies ever, David Byrne’s American Utopia is a fun concert film directed by Spike Lee, and two weird movies that oddly work are Bill & Ted Face the Music and Jesus Shows You The Way to the Highway. One odd movie that’s neither great, nor bad but I have been thinking about it a lot in the five years since it came out is Capone, the movie about Al Capone’s later years as he is losing his mind and his bowels.
The Worst Movie of the Year
The Jesus Rolls is an official sequel to The Big Lebowski that the Coens didn’t have anything to do with. It follows the convicted pedophile on the other bowling team as he goes on a road trip and gets caught in a love triangle. And it isn’t funny, even if it is trying to be. I watched a lot of movies in 2020, the most I have ever watched in a year, and there were a lot of very bad new releases.
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