Mixed Metaphors

“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” — Pauline Kael, For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies

Sadly, I haven’t seen a movie in a theater for over a year, though as Kael describes, the experience of watching a film can make us feel alive again and find hope. This past year — filmgoing was replaced by film-viewing in my home —and yes — the experience for the most part fulfilled many needs. Streaming content in my home distracted from the deadly pandemic, entertained and informed, invited people and adventures virtually and safely into my home, and told stories about the past, present, and an imagined future. Movies gave me hope that some semblance of life, as we knew it, would eventually return.

A Year Like No Other

I missed the experience, however, of filmgoing in a theater. It would get me out of the house and into a darkened movie theater, occasionally, no rarely, treating myself to overpriced concessions. My preferred strategy, sneak in my own treats of chocolate or nuts, see films at matinee prices and avoid the movie theater snacks and beverages, that way I could afford to see more movies. For me, I often saw films alone, sometimes two or three matinees in a weekend since I had three-day weekends off of work. I also enjoyed viewing films with friends and family. I had number of filmgoing companions, including young family members, and cinephile friends. We’d combine a movie and a meal, dessert, or coffee afterwards so we could catch up with each other, and we’d often debrief and critique the film we had shared. Over the years, I also organized film-watching parties, for my birthday, or around the holidays.

Since most films were initially streamed online this year, some were released later this year in hopes that they could premiere in theaters if they reopened. Award shows were also delayed and postponed until later this season anticipating whether social distancing guidelines would relax. In the end, my annual A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films is posted three months later than usual and overlaps with what would typically be the Wisconsin Film Festival, which for me is eight days of filmgoing when I also review the films I see.

The Wisconsin Film Festival

Another loss this past year was in fact the cancellation of the Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF). In March of 2020, I attended, what had become a new tradition for me, First Look at the Fest, a fundraiser for the Real Butter Fund to help underwrite the festival. It was a delicious opportunity to review the Isthmus Film Guide and select films while enjoying appetizers, watching festival trailers, and purchasing tickets before they went on sale to the public. The event in Madison took place at the AMC Madison 6 at Hilldale, formerly Sundance 608, my preferred filmgoing venue.

Shortly afterwards, the WFF was cancelled. Some films would still be streamed throughout the year. For those of us who already purchased tickets, we were offered options for refunds. I donated half of my ticket sales to the festival and accepted a refund for the other half, which helped offset the cost of watching films On Demand that I would have seen at the festival or in theaters. In addition to my overpriced premium cable service, I watched films on three streaming services: Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max. I made the decision to not add more subscription services, so films that streamed on Amazon, Apple TV+, YouTube, and other platforms, I didn’t see, so I was unable to include them for consideration as I compiled this year’s A Filmgoer’s Guide. One example, Minari, a film on my must-see list, which was not available on the streaming services which I subscribed to and I refused to pay $19.99 to watch it On Demand. I will note films that were on my must-see list that I missed.

Lastly, this year’s Wisconsin Film Festival will be virtual again. I purchased my Festival Pass.

From the WFF website:

The Wisconsin Film Festival is presented by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division Department of Communication Arts. The Festival presents an average of 150 film screenings over 8 days every spring. Founded in 1999, it is the largest university-produced film festival in the nation.

The Festival is known for its diverse film offerings. Categories include American independent, international cinema, and documentaries. We also screen experimental and avant-garde, and restored classics. The Wisconsin’s Own Competition features Wisconsin filmmakers, themes, or settings. Big Screens, Little Folks features specially curated full-length and short films for young people that will inspire and delight. We strive to make films screened during the Festival accessible for all audiences.

The full film lineup will be announced on April 30^th. Festival Passes can be purchased now, and individual tickets on May 1^st. See link at the end of this essay for the Wisconsin Film Festival and how to purchase Festival Passes or individual tickets.

Notes on the Criteria for A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films

As in other years, first, before I share A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2020, this is a reminder that I’m a cinephile and not a critic. I offer my thoughts and impressions on the films I saw this past year and comment on what worked for me, what didn’t, and what transported me. Movie-going is, for the most part, a solitary experience. Like other forms of art immersion, we respond intimately with the medium, emotionally, viscerally, and intellectually.

I choose films drawn from my favorite genres. I like biographies, LGBTQ-themed movies, crime and suspense dramas, coming-of-age stories, dystopian future fantasies and satire, well-done romantic or black comedies, relationship and dysfunctional family dramedies, and documentaries. On the flip side, genres that typically don’t appeal to me are action-hero/comic book films, period dramas, horror, or ultra-violent or exploitation films, especially when women and children are victims. Films that pass the Bechdel Test earn extra credit, especially stories from a woman’s point of view, even more so when produced, written, or directed by women, or feature a strong female lead. I seek out movies made by a short list of favorite directors and writers who often work with a familiar repertoire of actors, and finally, independent films often make my annual list of best films. This year, in addition to independent films, I sought out films written and/or directed by Black filmmakers. 

Now for the movies…

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2020

(Not ranked, except as noted. All official movie posters courtesy of the film production studios.)

The first two films on the narrative film list are my favorites in this category, Nomadland and The Father. I’m hard-pressed to choose between them, much like a parent who loves all their children, but for different reasons. The following list is a baker’s dozen of Best Narrative Films. Add in a half-dozen Best Documentaries, plus my pick for the Best Foreign Language Film. Note: Again, this year’s list does not include a Best Animated Film (I didn’t see any of the full-length features). This rounds out my Top 20 Films of 2020.

I reprise these bonus special categories not included in the Top 20: Honorable Mention, Films I Didn’t See, and Dream Double Features. New this year, critically-acclaimed Films I Didn’t Like.

Best Narrative Films

1. Nomadland – Written, directed and produced by Chloé Zhao (the award-winning director of The Rider) stars the always amazing Frances McDormand and David Strathairn, who are supported by a cast of actors and real nomads whose faces all tell a story. I was primed for this film on the anniversary of my mother’s birthday. She died six years ago and this film about grief, loss, remembering and letting go, struck chords in my heart. A quote from the film, “What’s remembered, lives,” followed by, “I may have spent too much of my life just remembering.” This is essentially the theme of the film, which opens and closes at a storage locker in Empire, Nevada. Clearly, the storage locker is a metaphor for the memories and material things we hold onto after a loss while we stand at the threshold of a new life and begin to let go. Fern, played by McDormand is a widow. She’s grieving both the loss of her husband and the decades of life in Empire that she shared with him. She strikes out on her journey as a nomad, living in a van, seeking temporary work where she can find it. She discovers a community of other displaced people, who due to financial circumstances or other losses in their lives, exist as vagabonds. They rendezvous creating temporary settlements, share resources and advice, and often a meal and campfire circle. Fern remarks when someone asks her if she’s homeless, “I’m not homeless, I’m just houseless.” McDormand’s face, and those of her nomadic fellow travelers, reflect their lives and tell stories of where they came from, what happened, and why they’re on the road less traveled. Their weathered faces match the desert and mountainous terrain they inhabit. Their lives are both earthbound and ethereal. As a director, Zhao knows how to tell her story in a restrained cinematic and auditory style. She lets the setting, the faces and silences between characters, and the subtle and moving score by Ludovico Einaudi inform the viewer’s experience. There’s a lyric melancholy that is pervasive yet avoids excessive sentimentality. A mentor. who serves as the nomads leader, shares with Fern the reason he’s living on the road. He remarks, “There’s a lot of people our age, and inevitably there’s grief and loss for a lot of them, and they don’t get over it, and that’s okay, that’s okay!” He says, “I never say a final goodbye,” instead, “I’ll see you down the road!”
2. The Father – The Father is directed by Florian Zeller, adapted from his ward-winning play by the same name. It stars the always compelling and shapeshifting Anthony Hopkins in a role which will be seen as iconic as his performances as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Pope Benedict in The Two Popes, or Mr. Steven’s in Remains of the Day. The Father is a journey into dementia. The film’s point of view shifts dramatically between Anthony, his caregivers, and his daughter, Anne, played by award-winning actress and always watchable, Olivia Coleman. Her husbands, in Anthony’s eyes and distorted memory, inhabit different bodies, times, and apartments. Clearly Anthony is experiencing deteriorating dementia, manifesting in displacement and disorientation, caused by destabilizing events as he moves into his daughter’s home, believing it’s his own apartment. His wristwatch becomes both a grounding metaphor and a symbol of his fear that time is slipping out of touch. He accuses just about everyone of stealing his watch, when in fact it’s safely put away in his hiding place whose location sometimes eludes him. The conceit of the director’s story convention is that the viewer becomes increasingly disoriented, losing its own grip on place, time, and players. Caregivers, daughters, and husbands inhabit different apartments as Anthony’s bedrooms change, shifting from past, present, to finally, revealing the future. The Father is one of three films whose themes are dementia, Falling, Supernova, and a fourth about memory loss due to a stroke, The Two of Us. I include The Father and Falling in my Dream Double Feature category. These two films exhibit the rollercoaster spectrum of emotions of late onset dementia and how our loved ones can run the gamut of love and hate, and all the feelings and memories disconnected in between.  
3. Ammonite – On Valentine’s Day, I watched a period drama based on a true story which featured a love story between two women. The film, Ammonite, stars Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. “Ammonite is a 2020 romantic drama film written and directed by Francis Lee. The film is loosely inspired by the life of British paleontologist Mary Anning, played by Kate Winslet. The film centers on a speculative romantic relationship between Anning and Charlotte Murchison, played by Saoirse Ronan. From a review in Common Sense Media by Stefan Pape, “Ammonite is a film that thrives in its mood, a beautifully shot, visceral piece of filmmaking by Francis Lee, that shows off his ability as a storyteller, so poetic with his camera.” Full disclosure: I’m not typically a fan of period dramas, though I’m growing to appreciate bios of artists, writers, poets, and scientists of the past, especially those profiling women. For me, the film was slow going at the beginning, as it established time, place, and introduced principal characters and their status, both in class, and in their relationships with family, loved ones and passions (or lack of passion). Winslet’s, Mary Anning, is married to her work, a passion since youth. Her demeanor is serious and her fierce focus and expression barely varies, communicating a woman with little warmth or tenderness, channeling her energy into her work. Soon she’s presented with an opportunity to augment her meager earnings that support Anning and her aging mother. Ronan’s, Charlotte Murchison, is an upper-class woman who suffers from melancholia, whose husband, a follower of Anning’s work proposes that his wife become Anning’s assistant, while he travels for his work. He believes both the time outdoors and the company of others will provide some degree of solace and healing for his wife. Anning reluctantly agrees. The story unfolds as the two women, and other women in their orbit, begin interacting, and the relationship grows between Anning and Murchison. They eventually become lovers, and we witness each of their transformations, Anning’s expressions finally open and warm up, and Murchison engages with the world as she blossoms from the tender care and attention she receives from Anning following an illness and from her internship. These are two actresses who I find compelling in every role they’ve played. Seeing them together, they are believable from the opening scenes. The brutal weather and conditions that Anning works and lives in gives way to candlelit nights of passionate lovemaking. This is not the first time Winslet plays a lesbian. I first saw her in her debut performance in Heavenly Creatures, another true story, yet one very different, chronicling a horrible and deadly crime. Though the film starts with a slow pace, it heats up into a slow burn. I won’t reveal the ending, or the nature of the relationships between secondary characters. I do however, highly recommend this film, one of the Best Films of 2020.
4. Supernova – Supernova is just one of a number of films this year that deal with dementia or memory loss that have been garnering award nomination buzz. Other films include The Father, Falling, and The Two of Us, all films that made my best films list. In Supernova Tusker (Tucci) and Sam (Firth) embark on a road trip in their camper with their canine companion to visit Sam’s family and their friend’s before he and Sam have to make some difficult decisions about Tusker’s future and as Sam prepares for his first piano recital in a number of years. It’s a bittersweet journey and reunion. The very nature of reunions is reliving the past in the present. Tusker and Sam’s road trip is a journey down ‘memory lane’ as they attempt to navigate the present, and make difficult decisions about the future. The lead actor’s relationship is infused by their real-life friendship and affection for each other. I felt I knew these characters from the very beginning of the story, and I cared for them and empathized with the challenges they were facing. Like the other films in this essay, it’s a story about remembering, the tension created by holding on and letting go, and the never-ending nature of grief and loss, experienced in the present moment, while anticipating the future. Like the characters in the story, I too grieved past losses and anticipated future ones. For me, this was not a “pull-out the Kleenex at the end of the movie tearjerker,” instead there were poignant moments throughout the film.
5. Falling – Falling is the directorial debut of one of my favorite actors, Viggo Mortensen in a film which he also wrote, stars in and composed the music. It’s a heart-wrenching film, with many difficult moments, dialogue characterized by daggers aimed at family, loved ones, and bystanders. From the New York Times, “Though not entirely autobiographical, Falling is informed by Mortensen’s memories of caring for several family members stricken by dementia. The result is a movie keenly aware of the effort involved in reconciling the parent we have with the one we might have wished for.” There are tender moments too between father and son, the father played by Lance Henriksen to Mortensen as his gay son, John, who is trying to help his father remain independent yet supported as he ages. There are many flashbacks woven through this film that chronicle the history of the family, the evolution of the vitriol that is unleashed as Henricksen’s character, Willis’s dementia takes hold and strikes without mercy. Mortensen is a gay man, a recovering alcoholic, a father to his daughter, starring Gabby Velis and a husband to Eric, played by Terry Chen. Rounding out the cast is the always compelling Laura Linney as John’s sister, Sarah, who survived their father’s verbal abuse and instability as they grew up together. Linney’s character remarks, “Heaven doesn’t want him, and hell keeps sending him back!” The film has been receiving many accolades. The story narrative switches back and forth from past to present. In the end it’s a lesson on how to love someone who only loves us intermittently, who both embraces and rejects our essence. The film is both painful and poignant and may be triggering for people from abusive homes.
6. The United States vs. Billie Holiday – First, let me begin by saying Andra Day is amazing, mesmerizing, and truly believable as she inhabits the title character, Billie Holiday. On the other hand, critics have either embraced or panned the choices director Lee Daniels made in the story he chose to tell. From a Rolling Stone review, “It tells the story of Holiday’s life and career in the wake of the song, Strange Fruit — her elegy to Black lives lost to decades of lynching in the long aftermath of the Reconstruction — making the airwaves, filling concert halls, and pissing off certain people. Among the aggrieved: the U.S. government. And one J. Edgar Hoover. So, no, this is no straightforward biopic. Billie Holiday tracks two stories at once, much like Sam Pollard’s MLK/FBI and Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah, which, like Daniels’ film, are attempts to unbury essential conflicts in the history of Black political activism and, to the extent that movies can be trusted as historical record of any kind, put them on the record. For all three of these films to be given such confrontationally binary titles — titles that evoke political warfare — is telling.”  Lady Day was a powerful presence on stage, willing to risk her own life and career for her artistic choices and beliefs. She was not always surrounded by people with her best interests in mind. She was exploited, abused, and victimized, both by members of her own race and intimate circle, and more damagingly by the dominant white culture and the power it wielded. Since the story is a snapshot in time, we see Billie Holiday, the flawed, mercurial artist, addicted and conflicted. Many critics wished for a broader story, though for this viewer, I related to the powerful depiction of the performer as activist and the personal cost her artistic integrity extracted from her life.  Watch, The United States vs. Billie Holiday coupled with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blues, to create a Dream Double Feature.  
7. I’m Thinking of Ending Things – As my followers know, I often review the films I see, not as a film critic but as a cinephile. I usually recommend the films I see, sometimes invoking a degree of discretion. When I finished watching the Netflix film, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, I must admit, the movie was challenging to watch. Perhaps it was the mood I brought to the film-viewing experience, or the very nature of Charlie Kaufman’s symbolic, lyrical, and often mythic works which include, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York. The movie is based on the novel by Iain Reid and I found it both depressing AND thought-provoking. Some moments employed horror film conventions, and other scenes unfolded like a Grimm’s Fairy Tale, emphasizing the grim! There were references to other films, one of my favorites by writer, actor, director, John Cassavetes, starring his wife Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence, authors, David Foster Wallace, and poets. I’m not going to attempt to summarize the narrative storyline other than it was a story of a new romance and the couple’s snowstorm road trip to meet his parents in rural America, with detours in time, both past and future. The cast was excellent, featuring Jesse Plemons (a perfect stand-in for one of Kaufman’s former leads, the late and amazing, Philip Seymour Hoffman). The rest of the cast was compelling too, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis. I can’t recommend the film for the faint of heart (and mind). I must admit however, that I stayed with the film because I wanted to know how it ended. If you choose to view it, you will as well.
8. Trial of the Chicago 7 – This film, like many others in 2020, premiered and released on subscription streaming services, in this case Netflix, rather than a theatrical release by Paramount Pictures. Now that it has received critical acclaim and award nominations, it can now be seen in movie theaters. The film was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and features a stellar ensemble cast which includes: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Frank Langella, Jeremy Strong, Michael Keaton, Alex Sharp, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and more. “The film is based on the infamous 1969 trial of seven defendants charged by the federal government with conspiracy and more, arising from the countercultural protests in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The trial transfixed the nation and sparked a conversation about mayhem intended to undermine the U.S. government.”  A review in Variety summarizes this cinephile’s take on the film, Aaron Sorkin’s Counterculture Docudrama Is a Knockout — the Rare Profound Movie About the 1960s mirrors this baby boomer’s lived experience which includes the evening news while “the whole world was watching” the Democratic Convention, Mayor Richard Daley’s violent response to the protestors, and the arrests and trial that followed. “Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 is the rare drama about the 1960s that’s powerful and authentic and moving enough to feel as if it were taking place today. Sorkin doesn’t just re-stage the infamous trial, in which a motley crew of anti-war leaders were charged with plotting to stir up violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. He jumps into the trial, goes outside the trial, cuts back to the demonstrations, and leads us into the combustible clash of personalities that was going on behind the scenes…” 
9. First Cow – First, full disclosure, I’m a fan of director Kelly Reichardt’s films and her repertoire of actors and will seek them out and sometimes view them more than once. There are few writers and directors who tell truly original stories, whether adaptations or written for the screen. She is one of a very select group of trailblazing storytellers with a cinematographer’s and editor’s eye and the ability to bring to life her films as if she was sharing her own lived experience. Movies I’ve seen and loved, despite sometimes being challenged by the pace of the screenplay (example: Meek’s Cutoff), are mesmerizing and linger long after I leave the theater. Other films include: Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy (a favorite), Night Moves, Certain Women, and now First Cow. The film is described by the production company as, “Two travelers, on the run from a band of vengeful hunters in the 1820s Northwest, dream of striking it rich — but their tenuous plan to make their fortune on the frontier comes to rely on the secret use of a landowner’s prized dairy cow.” The description doesn’t do justice to the richly intimate and renegade entrepreneurial friendship of the two lead characters. From Wikipedia, “First Cow is an American drama film directed by Kelly Reichardt, from a screenplay by Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond based on Raymond’s novel The Half Life. It stars John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd, Gary Farmer and Lily Gladstone.” From a review in Vulture, Reichardt, in her films, explores themes of relationships and home. “First Cow opens with a line from William Blake’s Proverbs of Hell: “The bird, a nest, the spider, a web, man friendship.” A startling assertion, that home isn’t a place or thing but a connection to someone not you. (Sartre’s “Hell is other people” can be regarded as a related — not opposing — contention.) Blake’s conception of home applies to the major characters in all of Reichardt’s films, nomads for whom alienation is a baseline state and alliance (with a person or, in Wendy and Lucy, a dog) the only means of attaining a sense of permanence. The prospect of losing a friendship triggers existential dread in Reichardt’s first feature, Old Joy (also based on a story by Raymond), while the anti-hero of the eco-thriller Night Moves defends the Earth at the expense of human ties and ends up (along with everyone else) in hell.” Kelly Reichardt possesses the rare ability to totally immerse the viewer in the stories she tells.
10. Judas and the Black Messiah – From Wikipedia, “Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 American biographical drama film about the betrayal of Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late-1960s Chicago, at the hands of William O’Neal (played by Lakeith Stanfield), an FBI informant. Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Lil Rel Howery, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne, and Martin Sheen also star. The film is directed and produced by Shaka King, who wrote the screenplay with Will Berson, based on a story by the pair and Kenny and Keith Lucas.” From a review in rogerebert.com, Odie Henderson writes, In Judas and the Black Messiah, Daniel Kaluuya gives an electrifying performance that raises the hairs on the back of your neck. As Fred Hampton, the murdered chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, Kaluuya is riveting as he prowls the stage inspiring his audiences. His speeches burn with intensity and conviction. When FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), the Judas in the title, tells his handler Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) that Hampton “could sell salt to a slug,” it’s not hyperbole; Kaluuya makes you believe he’ll succeed in his mission to unite a “rainbow coalition” of people of all races against a common enemy.” The story, inspired by true events, chronicles the lengths the FBI would take according to Wikipedia employing, “COINTELPRO was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic American political organizations. to infiltrate and disable domestic American political organizations.” In the end the charismatic Fred Hampton is assassinated by the police. From Henderson’s review, “Fred Hampton’s preternatural ability to bring potential enemies and rivals together made him dangerous to an America all too happy with the racist status quo. So, he became yet another entry in the “Black Messiah” christening sweepstakes the FBI kept awarding after their prior candidates for the title were assassinated. Hampton would be assassinated as well, on December 4, 1969, exactly 20 months after the last “Black Messiah,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed. O’Neal played a large role in facilitating this tragedy, providing Hampton’s apartment layout and even doing a bit of the FBI’s dirty work a few hours before. Since he was a trusted confidant, whose ultimate goal was betrayal, the Biblical allusion in the title is an appropriate one.”  I match up Judas and the Black Messiah with a PBS documentary, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution for a Dream Double Feature. Invite a number of friends and cohorts, host a salon, watch these two films, followed by political discussion, guaranteed to inspire activism.
11. Never Rarely Sometimes Always – Sometimes a small independent film sneaks up on the moviegoer. This story certainly did for me. On face value it could be seen as a common trope in movies, a coming of age, road trip. Instead, it was an existential journey, which we witnessed both the internal and external struggle of the film’s main character. From Ben Travis’s Empire review, “When 17-year-old Pennsylvanian girl Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) discovers she’s pregnant, she heads to New York with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) for an abortion. But getting the procedure — and keeping it secret from her parents — won’t be so easy.” The film focuses on the adult decisions young people sometimes make and the emotional cost it extracts. The film’s subject — abortion — in itself is a controversial lightening rod. The screenplay and directorial command by the film’s director, Eliza Hittman, distills it down to its most personal and human level. The performances by Sidney Flanigan (Autumn) and Talia Ryder (Skylar) infuse it with authentic relatability and credibility. From Ben Travis’s review, “It’s Hittman’s choices as both writer and director that make it so effective — conjuring the overwhelming intensity and pervasive threat of the big city, and having her characters speak in naturalistic, monosyllabic conversations rather than verbose movie teen-speak. Best of all is the film’s centre-piece sequence: a five-minute unbroken take as Autumn is asked a series of mandatory questions about her sexual history at the abortion clinic, where the answer options (the “never”, “rarely”, “sometimes”, “always” of the title) reveal yet more difficulties in her past. Flanigan’s performance completely commands the screen, the camera never cutting away.” Lastly, this film earns extra credit for passing The Bechdel Test!
12. Mank – As a cinephile, a movie about movies and their filmmakers is an easy choice for this filmgoer. Even more so, the story centers on what some critics consider one of the greatest films ever made, wunderkind Orson Welles’s, Citizen Kane. If that wasn’t enough to make the film a compelling choice, Mank is directed by David Fincher and is based on a screenplay written by his late father, Jack. Lastly, like the film Citizen Kane, Mank is filmed in black and white, an easy and authentic, almost documentarian-style creative choice. From Aisha Harris’s NPR review, Mank Is A Lushly Rendered Cinematic Landscape, “A cardinal sin too many biopics indulge in is checking off the beat-by-beat life excerpts, ignoring a specified vision for depicting their real-life protagonists in favor of broad strokes. Mank, directed by David Fincher and based on a screenplay written by his late father Jack, is no such kind of biopic, thankfully. Inspired by Pauline Kael’s spicy (and since widely discredited) New Yorker tome Raising Kane, which argued Herman J. Mankiewicz deserved sole credit for the Citizen Kane script, not Orson Welles, the film is as much about Hollywood’s immersion in politics as it is about a writer struggling to finish what would become known as his masterpiece. You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours, you can only hope to leave the impression of one,” pronounces Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) – explaining his circuitous, complex approach to writing Kane, but also, implicitly, Fincher’s approach to making Mank.” Though there are problems with the storytelling, especially, answering the question of how does a visual medium depict the internal process of writing, Harris commends the actors portrayals,  “As Mank, Oldman is a crochety but witty alcoholic, who is generally respected but labeled by many to be difficult; the real-life Mankiewicz was notoriously disdainful toward the art of moviemaking, in part because he believed its inherently collaborative nature diluted the input of everyone involved. This type of character could lend itself quite well to scenery chewing of the Darkest Hour variety, but mercifully, Oldman is a touch more subtle here, playing disaffected handily. His best scenes are with Amanda Seyfried as the actress Marion Davies – Seyfried is outstanding here, infusing Hearst’s longtime mistress with pluck and self-awareness that allows her to carry on thoughtful conversations with Mank, the only person who seems to take her seriously.”
13. Promising Young Woman – Much like the film I reviewed earlier, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Promising Young Woman, is part black comedy, morality tale, and horror film, equally disturbing and thought-provoking. Not all viewers and critics embraced the film’s tone and/or message and gave it mixed reviews. It took me some time to reflect on the experience to judge whether I really liked the film (‘liked’ seems too lame of a word), or not. In the end, the fact that I spent a considerable amount of time thinking about it, replaying the striking imagery, and was moved by the convincing and tragic performance by Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman made this Best Films with this warning: The film may be triggering, contains graphic violence, and is not for the casual moviegoer. From the film’s producers, “Nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be — she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from the past.” The film is the directorial debut of Emerald Fennell. Some critics questioned the casting of Carey Mulligan, whether she ‘fit the image’ convincingly of a woman who could attract her victims. Variety later retracted their comments and published the following Editor’s Note: “Variety sincerely apologizes to Carey Mulligan and regrets the insensitive language and insinuation in our review of Promising Young Woman that minimized her daring performance.” From a review by Brian Tallerico of rogertebert.com. Spoiler Alert: “Promising Young Woman” is a tonal roller coaster, but that’s part of the point. Trauma often makes for swings of mood and decision making, and Mulligan and Fennel never forget that Cassie is a traumatized person, taking out her pain on the patriarchal system that enabled it. It’s a film about a woman searching for catharsis that she’ll simply never find. Look at the notebook with the names of the men she’s taught a lesson—there are dozens of them. And there’s a sense that even going right to the people who caused this pain can only do so much, which is then enhanced by an intense final act. I have to admit I thought Fennell had written herself into a corner—it felt like nothing could possibly satisfy Cassie’s emotional arc—but then she pushes right through that corner with a final act that will divide audiences but I admire for its audacity the more I sit with it.”

Best Documentaries

(Not ranked: Except as noted)

1. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution – There were so many documentaries to stream this past year on multiple subscription services, plus watch offerings on network and cable television, this list could be so much longer. Full disclosure: Documentaries are one of my favorite genres. I’m often less critical of documentary filmmaking, as long as the story holds my attention and informs. Crip Camp and the list that follows are diverse in their subject matter from musical performances in American Utopia, social media and cultural exposés, The Social Media and Some Kind of Heaven, and American icon biopics, Tina and Tiger, were all exceptionally outstanding. Crip Camp however engaged all my interests: The profiles and lived experience past and present of the campers, the social activism it inspired, and the disability-rights legislation that resulted in the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, a precursor to the modern-day Americans with Disabilities Act.  From Wikipedia, “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a 2020 American documentary film directed, written and co-produced by Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht. Barack and Michelle Obama serve as executive producers under their Higher Ground Productions banner.” From Joshua Rivera’s review in The Verge, “Directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim Lebrecht — the latter attended Camp Jened, and his story serves as one of Crip Camp’s focal points — the film begins in 1971 with Lebrecht and others attending the camp for the first time. Remarkably, the people at Camp Jened had a camera running and regularly interviewed the campers about everything: how they’re treated by the outside world, the privacy they long for that they are not afforded, the crushes they have. This is juxtaposed with present-day interview footage where attendees also reflect on that time in a place where they spoke with their own voices about their own desires and were listened to.” The documentary further chronicles how the camp experience inspired an activist movement and created social change. From Rivera’s review, “Calling Crip Camp a feel-good movie feels contrary to its purpose, even as it is tremendously inspiring. It’s more of a reminder that something that seems impossible can be done; it just takes an immense, downright unfair amount of work to will it into existence and support from others who may not be impacted but benefit from a more equitable society because everyone does. In one memorable anecdote, the Black Panthers arrive during the 26-day 504 Sit-In to provide meals to the protestors at no cost, simply out of solidarity. In another, one lawmaker refused to listen to protestors’ concerns during a hearing, locking himself in his office until he was forced to return.” Rivera continues, “Crip Camp is refreshingly honest about the social change it chronicles, noting that laws are frequently undercut and only remain effective as long as the populace is vigilant. It’s a message that feels like a vital one during our current moment of socioeconomic upheaval where nearly every marginalized group feels under assault in some way, and what little legal protections each had are unceremoniously stripped away on a weekly basis.” Hard work — hope in the face of diversity — and community are the themes the Crip Camp engages and inspires.
2. American Utopia
3. The Social Dilemma
4. Some Kind of Heaven
5. Tina
6. Tiger

Best Foreign Language Film

1. The Two of Us – A quote by Audre Lorde summarizes the theme of the film, “Silence will not protect you.” Spoiler Alert: This French film which has been nominated for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language. Two of Us is an LGBTQ -themed story of two retired women whose decades long relationship was hidden from the adult children of one of the partners and was explained simply as neighbors and friends. Now the mother is preparing to inform her children that she is selling her French apartment and moving to Rome with her friend (and longtime companion), when a stroke derails everything and a battle ensues between mother, children, and longtime partner. The story is a testament to the enduring and sometimes heartbreaking bonds of lovers as they are separated by circumstances beyond their control, or by people who are unaware of their intimate relationship and strive to protect their loved one. Mado (Madeline), the stroke victim and mother, is now under the care of her daughter and son. Nina, who lives across the hall, risks all barriers to maintain her connection to Mado in hopes that the now mute Mado will recover and keep their love alive.

Honorable Mentions

(Not ranked. Includes narrative & documentary films).

1. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blues
2. Let Them All Talk
3. Pieces of a Woman
4. Blackbird
5. Diane
6. Malcolm & Marie
7. The Assistant
8. News of the World
9. Shirley 

Films I Didn’t See

(Still on my must-see list)

1. Minari
2. The Sound of Metal
3. On the Rocks
4. The Nest
5. My Octopus Teacher

(Additional films I may see)

5. One Night in Miami…
6. Da 5 Bloods
7. Soul
8. The Collective

(Postponed 2020 releases, must-see films)

9. The French Dispatch
10. The Many Saints of Newark

Dream Double Features

1. United States vs. Billie Holliday and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blues
2. The Father and Falling
3. Judas and the Black Messiah and The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Films I Didn’t Like

(Critically-acclaimed films I abandoned)

1. Kajillionaire
2. Dick Johnson Is Dead
3. Hillbilly Elegy

What’s on your list?

See you at the movies…maybe!

Related Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2019 

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2018

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2017

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2016

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2015

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2014

Additional Reading on Filmgoing & Content-Streaming During a Pandemic

2021 Wisconsin Film Festival

I went to the movies during the pandemic

Pass the popcorn: The movies we watched again and again at home during the pandemic

The 79 Best Pandemic Movies to Binge in Quarantine