2020 in Film
With everyone’s favourite year having drawn to a close, I decided I’d take a moment to look back on what the year offered us in terms of film, what the highlights were, the surprises, standout performances, and let’s not forget the disappointments too (fair few of those).
Many films came into theatrical release in the first two months of the year just around when awards season was kicking into gear. I’ll refrain from reviewing these films that were in contention at the years Oscars/Baftas ceremony, mainly cause everyone around me is likely sick of hearing me talk about how good Parasite was.
The Highlights
Starting off strong is possibly my favourite film of 2020 with a comedy-drama that draws a lot from it’s lead star’s life with Judd Apatow’s The King Of Staten Island. This film sees a Pete Davidson playing Scott Carlin, a 24-year-old high school dropout living at home, battling mental illness without a direction in life and still damaged by the death of his firefighter father while on call earlier on in his life, something Pete Davidson also experienced, having lost his father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The lead character is exactly what you’d expect if you’ve seen any of Davidson’s standup but this performance as well as that of his fictional sister really help strike the more serious side of the issues he so often touches upon that affect him.
The film kicks into gear and finds great irony when Scott’s mother begins dating a fireman portrayed by Bill Burr, with him becoming a target for a lot of the resentment Scott has held towards the void in his life left by his own firefighter father. This spurs on a love-hate relationship between the two of them, aided by superb chemistry between Bill Burr and Pete Davidson, with each character becoming just as sympathetic as the other. Many episodes/stunts in the film’s first half see Scott’s character sinking even lower but the increased influence of Burr’s character and his fellow firefighters help him mature and address many of his insecurities. Two great songs by Kid Cudi fittingly bookend this story of growth and battling with demons and addiction that still manages to maintain its light hearted touch throughout.
One of this film’s most heartwarming aspect sees the cameo of Steve Buscemi, himself a former firefighter who returned to volunteer at his old firehouse in the wake of 9/11, working twelve hour shifts and searching through rubble for survivors and missing fire-fighters.
A courtroom drama by Aaron Sorkin was another of my highlights and brilliantly captured the zeitgeist of the moment it was released into. The Trial Of The Chicago Seven tells a true story of a much publicised trial in the late 1960s that saw a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters charged with inciting riots. This film masterfully builds tension throughout and has a strong, and truly awful, antagonist in Judge Hoffman, whom from the get go fails to hide his prejudice against the defendants and obstructs their efforts to receive a fair trial. Most notably featuring within the defendants are Eddie Redmayne as a leader of a student-activist organisation, and Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong as founding members of the yippies, or Youth International Party. Redmayne is arguably the films protagonist and he delivers with a fantastic monologue in the final scene, while Cohen and Strong absolutely smash it with their performances, both hilarious, provocative, unimpressed and unyielding to the judge’s stature and conventions of the courtroom.
The film has an impressive ensemble across the board, also featuring Mark Rylance, Yahya Abdul-Matteen II, Michael Keaton, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Sorkin’s dialogue is sharp-witted as ever and helps the film maintain an electrifying pace throughout. Some of the film’s most tense moments, especially when seen in this years light, show in flashbacks Illinois police officers provoking peaceful protesters and directly initiating violence.
Best Performances
The two films above have great performers all round but there were some performances this year that really stole the show. Enola Holmes was a fittingly titled film as the story is in many ways secondary in entertainment value to the main character of Enola Holmes. To this role, Millie Bobby Brown brings sharp comedic-timing, stellar chemistry with the camera, displays a full range of emotions, isn’t afraid to look ugly, and manages to keep the film entertaining even at the point where its plot begins to lose steam. The achievement is creating a character, much like Tony Soprano or Walter Sobchak, that you’d be more than willing to follow even when nothing notable is happening.
Another strong performance comes in one of the year’s biggest surprises in The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Lead actor, screenwriter, and director Jim Cummings portrays a Sheriff’s Deputy in a small Utah town supposedly terrorised by a werewolf. Starting off as a comedy-horror, the mystery of the case and the string of murders somewhat takes a backseat, as we see the lead character drowning under the weight of the case, a dispute with his daughter, the deteriorating health of his father (also brilliantly played by Robert Forster in his final film role), and frequent relapses of alcoholism. We spend so much time with the lead that the film could easily be a POV, but Jim does a fantastic job of displaying stress, in both its large displays and its subtleties, and carrying this feeling through to the audience so effectively that you pray for the case to be resolved, if only to give him a much, much needed win.
Lowlights
There were some films this year however that also had strong performances, but of which were not enough to save a film from its flaws. 2020’s retelling of Roald Dahl’s The Witches sees Octavia Spencer and Anne Hathaway acting their asses off, with the latter creating a surprisingly intimidating antagonist. Unfortunately, many storytelling flaws see the work done to make such a good antagonist completely undone, as they are ultimately defeated by the very first plan that the protagonists come up with. Our trio of protagonists consist of three children turned into rats, one of which is a young Chris Rock, one of which is made slow-witted but without any jokes which becomes tiresome very quickly, and another one of which is revealed to be an orphan girl turned into a rat 4 months prior to the film’s beginning, quite staggeringly voiced by Kristen Chenoweth. You’d be forgiven for expecting stronger dialogue, a stronger 2nd act and a more captivating protagonist from a film co-written by Robert Zemeckis and Guillermo Del Toro, and if the premise of Chris Rock narrating his childhood still appeals to you, I can’t stress this enough, watch Everybody Hates Chris instead.
Okay I’ll try and write the next paragraph while trying not to sound completely heartless. Another amusing performance comes in Disney’s The One and Only Ivan, Bryan Cranston giving a very on-brand and energetic supporting performance as a ringmaster of a mall zoo enclosure. Unfortunately this is where the positives end for this film as it too falls victim to a weak protagonist as Sam Rockwell’s sombre and one-note narration of events make this film a much less exciting affair than a film with a 90% animal cast realistically should be. The rest of the animal ensemble offer awkward chemistry and flat jokes but the main problem with these characters is that they’re an attempt by the film to overload you with cuteness. Not that this isn’t an admirable goal, but the film falls way way short of achieving it for the simple reason that CGI animals with human voices aren’t cute because once we see them displaying human intelligence and language, we see them as humans instead of the animals they are.
The real kick in the teeth with Ivan is that the story resolves with characters within the film identifying Ivan’s desire to return the jungle purely by his body language and his paintings. If they can achieve this, you wonder why the audience (us watching the film) couldn’t be trusted to do the same, as what could have been a moment of discovery for us instead has no impact as we’ve already had the point explained to us through every other line of dialogue for 70 minutes.
Speaking of exposition, Christopher Nolan released a new film this year in Tenet, which I would unfortunately characterise as one of the year’s larger disappointments. I’d preface this by saying Tenet is far from the year’s worst film and there are many respectable elements: the special effects are good as ever, with captivating locations and stunning choreography, Robert Pattinson also gives a strong supporting performance, and the premise of seeing a story unfold twice, once as normal and once in reverse, was mildly amusing. Emphasis on mildly. Tenet’s biggest failings are on an emotional level - there aren’t any. Our lead character has the task handed to him and we never once see his desire to succeed, a fear that he might fail, his attachment to what he stands to lose, or any insecurities or emotional toll on him from the film. You’ll struggle to find a line in this film that isn’t pure exposition. They attempt to counter this by handing us the ultimate stakes to force us to care - the possible end of the world. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for us as the audience to fear this outcome if we don’t see anyone in the film displaying the same fear. Further to this, the trained audience member will be well aware that any plot in a film to bring about the end of the world is destined to fail, and I’d love to hear of anyone can name a film where one actually succeeds (and the film must commit to it, no going back in time and reviving everything in the 3rd act).
Another of the years lowlights came in the form of Tesla, unfortunately in this instance there is little in the way of redeeming value. The film progresses at a snails pace, hampered further by Ethan Hawke’s monotonous portrayal of Nikola Tesla. Much of the film is communicated in a lecture format, with a narrator explaining to us how a google search of Tesla returns half as many results as one of Thomas Edison, and helpfully informing us that some of the events we’re seeing probably didn’t actually happen, these interludes however do very little to justify pulling us away from whatever main story there is. A noticeably small budget creates some awkward moments with many painted backdrops and minimal exterior shots impeding any visual stimulation the film could have offered. To the film’s credit, it gives us an insight of Nikola many of us will have been unaware of - his musical talents. There are many risks in this film that backfire and the most notable is a fantasy sequence that sees Nikola Tesla singing Everybody Wants To Rule The World, written in 1985. I can’t tell you how much I wish I was joking. One might hope that this sequence would have some roots in the story and that Ethan might bring a bit more enthusiasm to this performance than he does the rest of the film. Neither are the case.
Highlights
Well, that was fun and while nothing beats some good old fashioned panning, I’m gonna end this review on a more positive note by rounding off the year’s highlights with Palm Springs. This was a film that offered a new take on the story of Groundhog Day, with Andy Samberg welcoming love interest played by Christina Milioti into the same time loop he has experienced for some time, the day of a mutual friend’s wedding in Palm Springs. The two take different approaches, with Samberg’s character typically laid back and trying to squeeze as much entertainment as he can from this one day, while Milioti’s is eager to return to normal life however she can.
The film works on many levels, the premise is engaging without ever becoming heavy-handed or confusing, there is strong chemistry between the two leads creating a turbulent and engaging dynamic, and the film offers many comedic moments through Andy Samberg’s charisma and through several run-ins with J.K. Simmons whom has also found himself stuck in the time-loop and as a result now holds a vendetta against Samberg’s character. While some early moments see the film border on absurdism, it never lets this become off-putting and the story, as fantastical as it may be, never once loses control of itself. To round it all off, the locations around Palm Springs are captured beautifully on film, making this one of the most well-rounded and enjoyable films of 2020.
In the coming months awards season will introduce me to other films I likely should have seen in 2020, and there are other films I could have covered in here (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga might have got a panning for it’s unnecessarily long title as well as leaning on the ‘UK sucks at Eurovision’ joke, only to set the film in Scotland, implying that they won it the year before), however I decided to keep it focused on the films that evoked the strongest reactions in me. Predictions or rather my hopes for 2021 are:
That more films might see the light of day
That we might get less films with a number at the end of their title (I know this completely contradicts my last point but I stand by both)
That following success at last year’s Oscars as well as films such as Pain and Glory, The Platform, and the show Money Heist (La Casa de Papel), we might continue to see films from non-English-speaking countries entering the mainstream
That Space Jam: A New Legacy lives up to the seemingly untouchable legacy left by its predecessor (this is the only acceptable sequel btw)
That the new James Bond film manages to retain even some of its hype despite having its release date delayed some twenty five times already
That we get some word of a new feature from Alejandro González Iñarritu. Just would be nice is all, haven’t heard from him in a while
Stay safe everyone! Massive thank you for reading and have an amazing (or at least better) 2021!