The Best Movies of 2023

It’s official.  I’m actually releasing my top ten list in the same calendar year. I have finally broken the mental strife associated with the Academy Award schedule.  No longer will I bend to the standards of millionaire maniacs who release award films in the final days of the year.  Guess what - you will not see All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, The Taste of Things, & The Zone of Interest on this list.  Why?  They haven’t come to Iowa yet, therefore they are 2024 movies in my book.  It feels good to write that.  My OCD brain is finally at peace…for now.  

Hyperbole is the catch of the day for a reviewer.  We are prone to grandiose statements, over-the-top pronouncements that looking back a year later, we regret.  With that in mind, this was my favorite year in film.  Of the fifty-five releases I watched, only seven fell into the waste bin of regretful decisions.  I have a list of twenty-five movies that competed for the top ten spots.  That’s never happened before. If we look back at the last four years, there were never more than twelve films a year in competition for the coveted final ten.  What sets this year apart?  It was the inventiveness, the ingenuity, and the depth of work from all aspects of the industry.  Some of the best acting, directing, and writing was on display.  It was a year cemented in beauty.  From the production designs of Barbie, Poor Things, and Oppenheimer to the makeup and costumes of Maestro, Priscilla, and Ferrari.  This year had everything: the laughter of Barbie & Theatre Camp, the tears of Killers of the Flower Moon & Past Lives, and the warmth of Are You There God?  It’s me, Margaret.  In a year defined by the writer and actor’s strikes, audiences had the chance to see the majesties of their art. As for me, when I needed the comforts of the theater, the artistic landscape accepted my pleas.  Movies are back! 

Shoutout of the Year 

While it didn’t reach my top ten, I want to shout out Holding Back the Tide.  I have a biased connection to this film.  Trey Tetreault, a friend and husband to one of my close friends, Denver Crawford, is a producer on this film.  That being said, I found the film absolutely mesmerizing.  It’s much more than a film about oysters and NYC.  It’s about creation, artistic and ethereal.  If you’re interested, this article does a far better job describing the film:  Film Review 
Congratulations to the entire team behind an extraordinary piece of living art.  

Honorable Mentions:  Holding Back the Tide, The Holdovers, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, Theatre Camp, Anatomy of a Fall, & Nimona 

Honorable Mention

11.  Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret.  

I never read Judy Blume as a kid, but I’m glad it found its way into my heart as an adult.  One of the most heartwarming films of the past five years.  Impeccably well-acted from the always wonderful Kathy Bates, to Rachel McAdams giving an Oscar-worthy turn, to Margaret herself, Abby Ryder Fortson.  A truthful adaptation of the original text; this is a must-see for the whole family.  

The Top Ten Movies of 2023 

10.  Barbie 

An imperfect movie that suffers under the yoke of being the best it can be under the circumstances.  Will Ferrell’s Mattel role is incredibly flimsy and poorly-written, the ghost of Ruth Handler doesn’t fit, and the now famous monologue, while wonderful and necessary, sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the film.  That being said Greta Gerwig is a perfect three for three as a director and under the pressure and constraints of the industry, she pulled off nothing short of a miracle.  Ryan Gosling is hilarious as Ken, but the true star of the film is Margot Robbie.  Robbie as Barbie is required to be funny, genuine, and distraught.  She accomplishes all of it while keeping her classy Barbie charm.  We laugh with Ken, but the movie succeeds on the strength of Barbie.  

9.  Talk to Me 

I believe this is only the third horror movie to ever make my top ten list (Get Out, Cabin in the Woods).  I’m so glad I braved my indifference toward the Horror genre and saw this in theaters.  What starts as a series of classic horror tropes quickly becomes a conversation on grief and addiction.  Despite the contemplative nature which deals with connection and truth, the movie sings when it dives deep into the horror.  Sophie Wilde is mesmerizing in the lead performance.  

8. Spiderman Across the Spiderverse 

Another genre I struggle with is animation, but this year both Nimona and Spiderverse made my top fifteen. In an animated lens, we talk about the opening of Up, but give me the opening of Spiderverse any day.  Gwen’s story is powerful and poignant.  The screen lights up like the inverse of a Rothko painting.  What transpires after is a film as much about Spiderman as it's about loss.  The two are intrinsically matched.  I laughed and I cried, but while there’s plenty of great action set pieces, the scene between Miles and his parents is why this series is one hundred times better than anything else Marvel has to offer.  

7.  Godzilla Minus One 

Uh, no notes? A monster movie masterpiece.  Made for a budget of under $15 million, Godzilla Minus One proves that all dumb American blockbusters really need to employ better writers.  Amazing storytelling that is equal parts uplifting and sorrowful.  The influences of Jaws and Miyazaki films are apparent without detracting.  If you stayed away because you don’t like monster movies, this isn’t that “type” of film.  

The Top Six 

*Writer’s Note:  I spent two days thinking about the rankings of these six films, in the end, this ranking is a momentary decision.  These six films are all stone-cold masterpieces and all six should be considered in a tie for the number one position.  

6.  Oppenheimer 

Getting to see Barbenheimer for my birthday is a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.  Subsequently, I sought out and watched Oppenheimer solo in IMAX.  Nolan sees the entire screen and creates the impossible in every frame.  The first two hours are dazzling, but the third hour makes this Shakespearean.  We see the idea, we see the creation, and then we watch the fallout, but rather than show the fallout of the bomb, we have to watch the fallout of the idea.  How government bureaucracies destroy the world (as we are watching today).  Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. give the best male acting performances of the year.  The fifteen minutes leading up to the Trinity test is one of the best cinematic scenes ever caught on film.  The only thing that brings this film down from perfection is Nolan’s inability to write female characters.  I hope he finally gets caught up in the fallout of those criticisms and hires a female writer's room to help with future projects.  

5.  The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar, The Swan, Poison, and The Ratcatcher 

In a world where Wes Anderson makes Asteroid City that should be enough, but of course, he one-ups himself by creating four direct-to-Netflix Roald Dahl shorts. I believe as a collection, these shorts are his best work since The Royal Tenenbaums.  These films interweave elements of theatre, animation, stage design, and physical art that have never been seen together on camera.  Henry Sugar was my favorite, but what happens in The Ratcatcher is my favorite moment of artistic expression in 2023.  In a five-minute stretch, he switches from animation to mime to pantomime to acting classroom to mime (again) to standup routine and film; an utterly astounding creation.  On top of that, his troupe of actors for these films are some of the best casted Anderson actors: Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend, Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch, and my favorite reliable actor, Dev Patel.  

4.  Poor Things 

Yorgos Lanthimos is my favorite working director, in Poor Things, he matches willing actors with an outlandish Frankenstein rebirth fable (which tells the story of the original as much as the true story of Mary Shelley).  Mark Ruffalo is off-his-rocker funny and Emma Stone has catapulted herself into the stratosphere.  She shows no fear, no inhibition in connecting an impossible character to reality.  The production design looks like a cross between a fresco painting and a Tim Burton apocalypse.  Some may be turned off by the rampant sex in the film, but I see this as a story of rebirth and ownership.  As Bella goes through her new stages of development, she learns of self-control, self-satisfaction, and ultimately self-ownership without the chauvinistic opinions of men.  

3.  Killers of the Flower Moon 

Martin Scorsese is the GOAT.  At 81 years-old, he delivers one of the best films of his career.  A cinematic and storytelling masterpiece, that even Scorsese admits inside the film, isn’t his story to tell.  A masterwork in the how to create a full picture both on screen & on the page.  Heartbreaking and engaging, a captivating three and a half hours.  Brilliant casting work with De Niro giving his best performance in two decades, Leo completely in the bag, and Lily Gladstone taking the whole movie by storm.  Hands down the performance of the year.  She holds the audience’s grip in her eyes filled with weight, anger, and despair.  This is a movie that will be taught long after Scorsese has left this earth.  A genuine miracle.  

2. How to Blow Up a Pipeline 

The depressing Ocean’s Eleven for our generation.  One of the most political films to ever reach theaters, this movie doesn’t mince words and it’s entirely about the title.  A fascinating piece of writing about what we have done to our Earth and the lengths people are willing to go to do something about it.  Forrest Goodluck gives the breakout performance of the 2023, but the true star of the film is composer Gavin Brivik.  My favorite film score of the year; when you’re listening you’re shocked this isn’t Ludwig Göransson or Hans Zimmer.  It brings accusation to the characters and weight to a devilishly difficult film.  

1. Past Lives  

A movie about the transference of love and how characters hearts can speak two different languages, while simultaneously understanding a third entirely known only to themselves. Even in a year with The Trinity test, the final six minutes of the film is the scene of the year.  So much tension and desire packed into a sidewalk.  Greta Lee, Teo You, and John Magaro are magnificent and Celine Song is the best new director since Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird).  Past Lives holds the emotional heartstrings of the year and uses those strings to play music that is necessary without being overly-dramatic or superfluous.  Nostalgia is equally a weaponized emotion and a yearning love - Past Lives uses it pointedly and hits home the message square in the heart.  This film aches to be viewed.  

Best Movies of 2022

 “Vagueness is bad, ambiguity is good” - Sean Fennessey on The Big Picture (discussing Tar) 

Last year, I released my year-end list in June, this year it’s in March right before the Oscars.  All in all, I’d say I’m improving.  It’s been yet another difficult year in film, with so many companies leering from the sidelines, wondering if they should release their stockpile.  We’ve suffered two years of this phenomenon, completely understandable considering the economics surrounding the pandemic, but as we return to some semblance of our “before times” the movie industry finds itself at a crossroads.  With the success of films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Avatar the Way of Water & Top Gun Maverick, movie goers are flocking back to the theaters in droves, not at pre-pandemic levels, but surprisingly close.  However companies continue to hold onto their cargo.  This year some of the movies being released were in post-production pre-pandemic and yet they are only now coming to the screens.  What does this mean?  

For me, it’s left an artistic chasm.  More and more, I found myself in the realm of literature over cinema.  When I needed to zone out, I found television far more exciting and engaging than film.  It took a collection of snow days and my current bout with Covid to even complete my list.  And yet, I still yearn for the movies.  Beyond live theatre, the movies are the one place where I can find solace from the internal stresses of my life, where I can let go of the digital device seemingly connected to my hand, where I can immerse myself in story and spectacle letting my own problems fade into the background.  When I get a movie that can capture, engross, titillate, wow, shock, or emotional overwhelm my senses, that’s when I know the magic of cinema still lives and breathes.  I think that’s why I still write this list on my blog that is all but defunct.  If something captures the whole of me, I want to share it.  

One honorable mention

Great Freedom (Germany)

As the Allies freed Concentration Camps at the end of WW II, not everyone found freedom.  Under Paragraph 175 in the German Penal code, those found guilty of committing acts of lewd sex acts; or homosexuality, were imprisoned.  Great Freedom follows Hans Hoffmann through three separate imprisonments and how he manages to keep his soul despite the brutality of bigotry.  Impeccably well-acted by the lead, Franz Rogowski, the German cinema enters another beautiful story of its despicable past.  After a difficult week in State Legislatures around the US, Great Freedom doesn’t offer hope for our government, but it does offer a lens into the human spirit and how, to deny one’s self is to stop existing. 

The Top Ten Movies of 2022 

10.  She Said 

While it doesn’t hold a flame to its predecessors, All the President’s Men and Spotlight, it tells a difficult story well.  I’m a moth to the flame for newspaper thrillers and this is another wonderful entry into the canon.  Carey Mulligan turns in a vulnerable, beautiful performance as Megan Twohey, and in doing so, reshapes the film to be about the reporters and the victims rather than the perpetrator.  She Said doesn’t re-invent the genre, but it delivers a captivating story both in and out of the newsroom.  

9.  Playground (Belgium) 

Shortlisted for Belgium’s Academy Award entry, Playground is a simple movie told with very little cinematic flair.  Incredibly well-casted, the lead Maya Vanderbeque pulls off a magnetism so rare in child actors.  You cannot take your eyes off of her for all seventy-two minutes of the run time.  The story tells of a brother and sister, both who deal with different degrees of bullying in their primary school.  Raw and disturbing, your heart breaks for this little girl caught in own catch-22.  The camera doesn’t waste space and follows the children from their height and perspective often illuminating what adults fail to see as important.  This film should be required viewing for parents of young children and for schools throughout the country.  

8. Prey 

Despite being another entry in the Predator series canon, this might be the most beautiful movie of the year.  Gorgeously filmed on location, Prey is the first film to have a full Comanche language dub.  Stylized, engaging, breath-taking in spots, and manages to tell a strong female leadership story - inside of a Predator movie.  

7.  Saint Omer (France) 

The final addition to this list (and why I chose to re-edit this post).  Saint Omer fell prey to my American eyes.  I went into the film expecting a courtroom thriller with the backdrop of Euripides’ Medea.  I watched the movie trying to sort out interpretation and delineation of truth and theme.  In both aspects, I was wrong.  To watch Saint Omer, you need to leave pre-conceived notions of what is a film and what isn’t at the door, you have to let go of seeking twists, of reaching for action, and of engaging with audience subtext.  This is the documentarian Alice Diop’s first “fictional” narrative film, but unsurprisingly it is mostly true and shot sparingly, without Hollywood fervor, much like a documentary.  Saint Omer is a startlingly sad, hauntingly told tragedy that lacks emotional acting for the emotions lie with the viewer.  A thought-provoking dive into the DNA of womanhood well-worth the price of admission.  

6. Everything Everywhere All At Once 

Undoubtedly, Everything will be crowned Queen at this year’s Academy Awards.  Amazing to think considering this is 100% genre, incredibly convoluted, and difficult for some to follow.  Unfortunately, I’m one of those people.  As the movie careens into a conclusion like a train well off its tracks, I found myself filled with anxiety and consumed by a headache - similar to the feeling I had watching Uncut Gems and this year watching Moonage Daydream.  However, unlike with previous experiences the frenetic pace didn’t make me hate the movie - but rather make me want to watch it again…just slower.  On its surface this is a wacky, self-referential, fun comic book movie, but at its bagel creation core, it’s about Asian and immigrant queer culture, about the disconnect between modern generations, and about being the daughter to a frustrating mother and a mother to a confusing daughter.  The Daniels have pulled off nothing short of a miracle in creating a cinematic gem that has so many levels, so many stories that they are bound to connect with everyone in one form or another.  

5.  Free Chol Soo Lee 

One of two documentaries to make my final ten, Free Chol Soo Lee follows the railroading of an Asian-American citizen and the decade long fight to free him from prison.  Beyond the racial injustices and terrible treatment by police, this is more than just a single case focus, but rather a searing indictment on the system that allowed this case to take place.  The filmmaker pulls no punches showing a good man broken by a system that was so clearly built for him to fail.  Rather than paint the main focus of the film as a perfect martyr, the film wends its way through a series of choices that create a very difficult final picture.  An excellent social justice film, but also a great character study into what happens after victory is declared.  

4.  Tár 

Cate Blanchett is the best living actor. Every choice is seen through to fruition on screen, even the lines of her cheeks carry weight.  Unbelievably brilliant, she makes you hold tension and feeling for an absolutely terrible human being.  This is one of those performances that will carry out far beyond the present moment (whether it wins an award or not).  It’s a tour de force and definitely the best of her career.  Tár is imperfect.  Too long, too artistic at times (the “supernatural” dream sequences left me wanting), too self-indulgent, but the sections of the film that work are pure masterpiece.  Probably one of my favorite imperfect movies.  The Julliard class is up there with the best scenes of the decade.  I strongly suggest you see Tár knowing full well many of you will hate it.  

3.  The Banshees of Inisherin 

Martin McDonagh is the best living dark humorist.  He understands the underbellies of simple depravity and while others would seek to shock and dismay, he reaches for subtle humor, even inside of abject tragedy.  This film is a treatise on friendship and the dire consequences of forsaking connection in search of “greatness”.  Perfectly cast with top-notch performances given by all five of the main roles, including the donkey.  I love this film.  I believe it to be McDonagh’s masterpiece, not a missed stroke or a wasted moment.  

2.  Navalny 

You have to watch this movie.  If you walk away from reading this list and watch Navalny, then I will have succeeded.  There is a scene in this documentary film that’s straight out of a spy thriller and as each second ticks by you can’t believe the filmmakers captured it on camera.  Navalny looks at the life, near assassination, and imprisonment of Alexei Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s number one political critic and opponent.  Despite clearly coming from Navalny’s camp, the filmmakers are able to make headway into telling the whole story, even the parts that turn this “hero of the people” into a very problematic martyr.  I had no previous knowledge about Navalny and found every moment gripping.  Favorite documentary in years.  

1. Top Gun: Maverick 

We could get cute and put Navalny or Banshees in the top spot, but in a year where most blockbuster IP was extremely disappointing (A Marvel film didn’t make my top 25), Maverick shines as one of the best big budget movies ever made.  I love every single second of this film and I don’t really care what that says about me as a person.  Yes, supporting the Military Industrial Complex is slightly against my morality, but I’m sorry if I’m going to have my cake and eat it too.  Nothing about this film makes me go ‘rah-rah’ for the US Military; instead I come away with complete admiration for the filming and maneuvering of the cinematic elements.  This is jaw-dropping action wrapped in perfect popcorn-chewing humor and a Val Kilmer sequence that will break your heart.  Tom Cruise might be insane, but this is insanely good.  One of my favorite movie theater experiences, Top Gun Maverick takes my prize of Best Picture.  

The Best Movies of 2021

I know you’re excited, because literally no one has been asking for this article.  This is the definition of an exercise in futility.  However, if you have OCD and you put things in lists, it’s only natural that you would write movies sixth months late so maybe ten people will read half of it. 

My schedule kept me from writing this article, but also a severe lack of interest.  I found 2021 to be the worst year in movies since the middle of the 2000’s.  Sure, there were delicacies if you enjoy animated films, but for the most part, I found the year severely wanting.  I enjoyed my experiences at the movie theater, but that was a mixture of blessedly okay entrees into cinema and getting to attend a movie theatre again.  Films like A Quiet Place Two, Black Widow, Shang Chi, The Suicide Squad, and The Matrix Resurrections answered Gabrielle Union’s query in Ten Things I Hate About You.  Yes, you can in fact be just whelmed.  

Before I get to the list a couple of “pre-trial” write offs.  First to The Power of the Dog and Macbeth. Two movies that fit the category of brilliant artistic achievements, but severely lacking in dramatic substance.  I found Dog to be  as meandering as Jesse Plemons rather than seeking out a completed story.  It felt like a vehicle for Jane Campion’s visionary scope and Cumberbatch’s magnificent performance, but it added up to a film lacking in resonance.  The same can be true for Macbeth.  I really felt distanced from this solo Coen experience.  While I give this movie more credit than the 2015 adaptation starring Michael Fassbender, I have yet to find a Scottish play adaptation better that Scotland, PA.  

Secondly, we find the category of Zak Snyder’s Justice League and F9.  Linked together by excess, but also categorical love.  I appreciated watching Snyder’s full vision, even if I didn’t find it very good.  It was nice to see a completed version and gave credence to my own chosen profession.  In theatre, we show everything.  It film, we only see the top on the iceberg.  On the F9 front, I loved this truly terrible movie.  I love this franchise.  It has become my favorite superhero storyline.  

Thirdly and finally, just missing my top ten is Nine Days.  I strongly encourage devouring this film, but it's impossible to write about this movie without giving it away.  Watch it blind.  I strongly suggest it just as Katie Stoddard suggested it to me.  

In total, I watched forty-six new 2021 movies, these are the top ten.  

10.  Spiderman: No Way Home 
Winner for most enjoyable time at the movie theater.  There’s nothing I can add to the conversation surrounding this film.  A perfect fanboy piece of entertainment and one of the few times that Marvel has achieved third act supremacy.  Entirely worth a watch if only for the Spiderman pointing at each other meme - this movie points at each other for two hours.  

9.  The Green Knight 

A truly masterful performance by Dev Patel, who continues his string of choosing interesting projects and/or making choices in regular ones.  Whether he’s acting in The Newsroom, Skins, Lion, or The Personal History of David Copperfield, Patel understands subtly and beauty in the viewer’s eye.  The Green Knight isn’t for everyone.  It’s hypnotic slow burn casts a spell and you are carried into David Lowery’s vision for two hours.  Lowery has yet to make a movie that doesn’t engage all five senses whether he’s crafting a modern noir in Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, a heartbreaking meditation on the existence of the soul in A Ghost Story

, or one final run in The Old Man & the Gun.  

8.  The Harder They Fall 
A classic western starring an all-black leading cast filled with the best actors and character actors of their generation.  Uh, yes, count me in.  An imperfect movie that’s intensely enjoyable.  I would watch Lakeith Stanfield’s character if he made a forty-hour spinoff.  This movie is everything the 2016 Magnificent Seven remake wanted to be.  

7.  The Rescue 
My favorite documentary of the year, but certainly not the only great one.  The Rescue tells the impossible true story of the Thai cave operation in 2018 that saved a young soccer team.  I encourage giving this movie a watch if only to learn that this rescue operation was truly insane.  Made by the partner team of Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the documentarians mix animation with real life footage.  The Rescue making my list should come as no surprise, because of my obsession with their 2018 masterpiece Free Solo.

6.  Coda 
Congratulations to Coda for winning Best Picture.  While I disagree with the academy, Coda is a thoroughly engaging and enlightening movie about love, art, and family.  This move isn’t ground-breaking in structure, but by making deaf actors a regular part of the company, perhaps it’s ground-breaking as a whole.  I bet you can't  watch this movie without cracking a smile.  

5.  Tick, Tick…Boom 

I’m not a fan of movie musicals.  I think they rarely understand how to adapt the stage to the screen.  Movie musicals feel hollow, two-dimensional.  2021 broke that mold.  Andrew Garfield’s performance is my favorite of the year.  He embodies a mixture between Jonathan Larson (Writer/Creator) and Raul Esparza (Original off-broadway lead).  I love the inventiveness of the staging and the storytelling.  Also, as a theatre maker, I’m impressed by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first directing project.  

4.  Dune 
Marvel take note: this is how you make a blockbuster.  Honestly, Dune is on par with its predecessors in terms of scope and style.  There is a Star Wars world equivalence available in Dune.  As someone who hates needless CGI, this film manages to make the CGI look entirely real.  Unlike Macbeth and Power of the Dog which lack substances inside of their flair, Dune connects the two in order to tell a complete, albeit part one, story with the best visuals of the year.  Denis Villenueve is a modern early age Speilberg and there aren’t many in the field who can capture his vision.  

3.  Licorice Pizza 
If you can get past the movie being about essentially nothing and the age difference, Pizza is Paul Thomas Anderson’s most accessible movie.  Enticing and entirely necessary, the two leads are stand-outs in a year so desperate for new blood.  Due to my schedule, I had to watch this movie at home on an iPad, but it leapt off the screen and into my heart.  

2.  I’m Your Man 
My favorite foreign film of the year and honestly the film that made me still write this list after-the-fact.  I cannot recommend this film enough.  A German “rom-com” that fits into a category I’m calling “Light Science Fiction” in that the film is definitely Science Fiction in origin, but turns into a compelling character drama.  English actor Dan Stevens stars alongside Maren Eggert and they are directed by the fabulous actor-turned-director Maria Schrader (check out Unorthodox).  In order to get research funding, Eggert must live with a perfect companion robot for three weeks.  The Europeans understand science and silence in cinema better than we can ever hope to imagine. 

1.  West Side Story 
It’s so rare that a remake of a masterpiece even comes close to the original.  Spielberg’s West Side Story might surpass Kazan’s.  Tony Kushner pulls off a miracle by adapting the original text in such a way that pays homage without supplication.  This modern take on West Side Story is vibrant, engaging, and stylized in such a way that few movies are and will ever be in the future.  Ariana Debose, Mike Faist, and Rachel Zegler steal the film along with the gang ensemble members and a notable performance by Rita Moreno.  The blocking and design of "Officer Krupke" is entirely inventive.  The production team makes small choices to make the show numbers sing and make sense off stage and on screen.  West Side Story 2021 reminds us that some stories are timeless and remaking them with love is the only way to do it.  

The Best Movies of 2020*

There must be a cut-off date for writing a year-end review, however the standard end of the year deadline has never quite worked for me.  While the Academy Awards is as fraught as a political convention, using the ceremony to delineate completion of a review works well.  Luckily for me, the Awards were pushed back into late April, which gave me a chance to catch-up.  The issue with writing a year-end review of the best films is that the bulk of those films aren’t released to the public until the following year.  In the past, I’ve tried to watch as many films as possible quickly to release my review as close to January first as possible, but that’s like trying to eat sushi, hamburgers, and steak all in the same meal.  Films are meant to be savored, which is why I waited until April.  I could’ve chalked it up to the Pandemic taking away all meaningful understanding of time, but blaming the film industry is far more satisfying.  

Speaking of the film industry, I write this review while the industry sits on a precipice (although some may argue it’s already fallen into the ravine).  The pandemic has caused the industry to shift from theaters to streaming, an inevitability made present and real by circumstances.  With the grandeur of the cinema lost as the scope and scale diminished, many companies pushed their big-budget productions to the future.  For movie lovers like myself, this gave smaller-budget projects the chance for some limelight, and while some succeeded, the entire experience was diminished, because culturally we saw behind the curtain of the film industry and found just a man not a wizard.  Mid-level budget movies aren’t being made anymore.  Films with bite and consequence and political scope are either limited or scrubbed out.  A great example came in this year’s award-nominated Judas and the Black Messiah.  A film littered with brilliant acting and limited writing.  A film about the Black Panthers that tells the audience literally nothing about the Black Panthers.  Whether it was the studio system or the artists themselves it’s purely semantics, because it all ends up the same.  The marrow of the powerful version of this film was sucked out and the shell of a good movie, but not a great one remained.  As we move back into the theaters, I fear a world of IP and franchise is all we will be left with; a world where entertaining superhero movies neglect story in place of spectacle.  This cinematic world was in the tea leaves for a long time, I just failed to read them correctly. As we return to film production, I pray there is still room for artists to make art unshackled from corporate restraint.  Even if those movies fall few and far in between, they will still be supported by film goers like myself.  

On a personal note, movies were a godsend for me during the Pandemic.  My friends and I created weekly movie groups that watched films and discussed them over zoom (a practice I hope to continue into the future).  Films brought stability to my life, one of the few things that was able to successfully do so.  I’m grateful for this.  Since many of those friends are the ones that read this review, I decided to streamline my rather loquacious entry.  I blocked my top fifteen into four different categories and decided to only pontificate on the top five.  Without further ado, I give you my Top Fifteen Films of 2020 (plus a few months in 2021).  

Category 1: Well Made, but Flawed 

Movies: (15) The Half of It, (14) Da 5 Bloods, (13) One Night in Miami, (12) Judas & the Black Messiah, (11) Mank, (10) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 

The first category is filled with movies that fulfilled many checkboxes, but failed to get a mark in all of them.  The Half of It is a beautiful, coming-of-age LGBTQ film that just lacked bite, whereas Da 5 Bloods was all bite and bark without enough coherence.  Both One Night in Miami and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom fell prey to the same pitfalls - a play failing to subvert formula and become a full-fledged movie.  Judas and Mank both struggled in the screenplay department.  However, these weaknesses are only blemishes on otherwise good artistic endeavors.  In the case of four of them, we are given four of the best acting performances of the year: Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey), Daniel Kaluuya (Judas), Kingsley Ben-Adir (Miami), & the criminally overlooked Delroy Lindo (Bloods).  There weren’t four better performances this year than these four great actors.  For me, Kaluuya is the stand out performance of the year as the hauntingly beautiful portrayal of Fred Hampton.  Both The Half of It and Mank shine in the directing department.  The Half of It’s Alice Wu and the great David Fincher excel with their eyes behind their respective cameras, the only thing that enhances Mank above The Half of It is the brilliant, yet understated cinematography of Erik Messerschmidt.  

Category 2: What a Joy! 

Movies: (9) The Old Guard, (8) The Vast of Night, (7) Palm Springs, (6) Tenet 

“What a Joy” encompasses four films which may have individual problems, but were overlooked due to their pure enjoyment factors.  The Old Guard was my action movie for the year.  Charlize Theron is one of the best living actresses because she brings gravitas to every performance even when she’s just an axe-wielding super soldier with immortality.  The Vast of Night is a brilliant little low-budget science-fiction movie.  Where Ma Rainey and Miami fall short in their play to screen adaptations, The Vast of Night manages to shoot a film like individual moments of a play.  Palm Springs was my comedy of the year and should’ve found Cristin Milioti with an award nomination.  It’s a smart take on time loops stuck firmly inside of a romantic comedy and it’s extremely re-watchable.  Finally, there’s Tenet.  I won’t begrudge you if you didn’t like Tenet.  Much like other Christopher Nolan movies, you either go for his style or you don’t (I hated Interstellar).  Tenet worked on me.  The set pieces are phenomenal and the concepts, while difficult to understand, are intriguing, but the movie works because of the charisma of its leads.  John David Washington and Robert Pattinson show what’s possible if James Bond had a partner.  

Category 3:  The Great Films of 2020

Movies: (5) Small Axe: Mangrove, (4) Another Round, (3) David Byrne’s American Utopia, (2) Nomadland 

(5).  Small Axe: Mangrove 

Any of the compendium of five films within the Small Axe cannon constructed by the brilliant Steven McQueen could easily find a spot on this list.  Lover’s Rock is another that I thoroughly enjoyed, but Mangrove is catnip for me.  A drama about civil rights history that ends in a courtroom.  Mangrove is everything The Trial of the Chicago 7 is not.  As a great lover of all things Aaron Sorkin, Chicago 7 really didn’t work for me and concluded in a heap of liberal wet dreams.  Mangrove is a far superior film that expertly crafts a character narrative into a far larger story.  Shaun Parks as Frank Chrichlow gives one of the top five performances of the year and the movie sings from an accomplished and professional ensemble.  Mangrove is a history that feels all too familiar, but is little seen by American audiences.  I would encourage watching all of Small Axe, but specifically singling out Mangrove.  

(4).  Another Round 
    Americans telegraph their films too much and in doing so, they limit the imaginations of their audiences.  It feels like American audiences are too stupid to see the forest beyond the trees, so American filmmakers have to spell out consequences and concerns.  This isn’t the case with Another Round, Thomas Vinterburg’s brilliant look at alcohol.  After a birthday party, four friends who work at a Danish prep school decide to become working alcoholics.  They drink during the day and stay sober at night to see if it will improve their day jobs.  This film wouldn’t work in America.  It would take a hard-line stance and the last thirty minutes would be a descent into darkness.  Instead, the ending of Another Round is the best ending of the year.  This movie shows you all the different sides of alcohol and potentially alcoholism without taking a narrative political stance.  It’s led by the incomparable Mads Mikkelsen, whose slow-burning firecracker of a performance shows why he continues to be one of the most underrated actors on the planet.  His scene in the teacher’s lounge is the funniest of the year and caused me to rewind and play it over and over again.  

(3).  David Byrne’s American Utopia 

David Byrne stands onstage pointing to a prop of the human brain.  He’s dressed in a grey velvet suit and wears no shoes.  He sings, “Here is an area of great confusion.  Here is a section that’s extremely precise.  And here is an area that needs attention.  Here is a connection with the opposite side.”  Before watching American Utopia, I didn’t have a connection with David Byrne, sure, I’ve listened to a handful of popular Talking Heads songs, but they’ve never been a major part of my musical lexicon.  I thought watching this “movie” would be a good way to pass two hours while I did other work on my computer.  Instead, I sat mesmerized by the most joyous expression of the human experience.  I loved this film, and yes, it really is a film.  The reigns of the camera were handed off to Spike Lee and this, combined with Da 5 Bloods, proves that Lee is singular in his craft.  He uses the camera to shift the perspective of this Broadway show and truly turn it into a cinematic adventure.  American Utopia is a direct connection to the American soul and the calling card of justice in the form of Hell You Talmbout should be shouted from the rooftops as we continue to search for the colors of the American dream.  

(2).  Nomadland 

For some, Nomadland fails to reap the political and social ramifications that force people into the lives of the nomad.  For others, the movie isn’t enough of a story to transcend its docu-drama leanings.  For me, it spoke to my heart and trapped me in a longing for the great unknown.  This is a beautiful film about suffering through tragedy and seeking refuge in the world - the actual real world.  Criticisms about this film gloss over the celebration of a life that is too long forgotten in this country.  And unlike many American films, Chloé Zhao’s understated directing allows for a limitless viewing of societal issues rather than a narrow, forced, and focused one.  This movie brought me to tears with Francis McDormand giving the performance of a lifetime.  She is one of our greatest American actresses and should be lauded for her deeply, soulful role as Fern.  Nomadland finds its beauty in the often-overlooked, the heard but not really seen.  In a year like we’ve just had, I can’t think of anything better to focus on.  

Category 4:  The Masterpiece 

Movies: (1) Portrait of a Lady on Fire 

(1). Portrait of a Lady of Fire

Technically, Portrait of a Lady on Fire was released in 2019, but due to a limited release, I wasn’t able to see it until it reached Hulu.  Exactly one year ago today, I watched Portrait and it has stayed with me everyday 365.  It’s a master stroke created by one of France’s most striking minimalist directors, Céline Sciamma.  The movie is a trance-like worship of the female gaze.  It’s easy to get lost in Sciamma’s cinematic eye and as you follow a common plot, you realize you are not watching a common film.  Sciamma is entirely in control of her artistic aesthetic.  She weaves the camera around two magnetic performances by Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel.  In a film devoid of men, we are left without scandal and unnecessary exposition.  What unfolds is a real love that burns with desire.  It leaps off the screen and infects the heart of the film goer turned cinematic explorer.  Portrait is unlike any film I’ve seen in the past decade.  It’s unique minimalism allows the audience to become ensorcelled in Adèle Haenel’s eyes.  This movie earns my strongest recommendation as not just the best film of the year, but as one of the top films of the century.