Best Films of 2020 [Poll][Dead] - Movies & TV

Hayden

EyeKanFly wrote:

I've marinated enough and decided on the following list:

Soul
One Night in Miami
The Trial of the Chicago 7
City Hall
American Utopia
Nomadland
The Dissident
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Antebellum

Highly doubt I'll see another movie before May 2nd although I was really hoping to see Minari at some point.

Updated

Hoping you catch Minari as well.

Few more days left here. Hoping for some last minute submissions (maybe.... 3? Anxious

).
_________________
Submit Your List for BEA's 2023 Film Poll!

BozoTyrannus

Gender: Male
Age: 32

BozoTyrannus wrote:

1. Another Round
2. Minari
3. Collective
4. The Wolf House
5. Nomadland
6. The Man Who Sold His Skin
7. Rocks
8. Bill and Ted Face the Music
9. The Vast of Night
10. American Utopia
11. First Cow
12. Better Days
13. The Life Ahead
14. Personal History of David Copperfield
15. Pinocchio
16. On the Rocks
17. About Endlessness
18. Tenet
19. The Whistlers
20. Weathering With You
21. Feels Good Man
22. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
23. Boys' State
24. Love and Monsters
25. The Godfather Coda
26. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
27. Tesla
28. The Midnight Sky
29. My Octopus Teacher
30. News of the World
31. Enola Holmes

Holy crap I completely missed The Father and it slides in at #8. Can you push everything else below it down one position?
_________________
I wanna take Sean Penn
And take Sean Bean
Put 'em in a blender
And make Sean Pean

Hayden

BozoTyrannus wrote:

Holy crap I completely missed The Father and it slides in at #8. Can you push everything else below it down one position?

Yup. All good. (Higher on the list, the easier for me Laughing

)
_________________
Submit Your List for BEA's 2023 Film Poll!

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

EyeKanFly wrote:

I finally got around to watching Nomadland. It was fine, gonna marinate on it for a couple more days before adding it to my rankings.

I think Chloe Zhao was very deserving of Best Director. Best Picture and McDormand for Best Actress? mm not so much but it was understandably a weak year.

I think my biggest problem with the movie: why wasn't it just a documentary? Zhao coaxed amazing performances out of the actual "nomads"/first-time amateur actors like Swankie, why not just film a documentary focusing on her or any of the other nomads instead of what we got? I mean granted, I realize it wouldn't have won the awards it did as a documentary, nor would it have made as much money as it has. But I think that it would have been a better experience and more powerful for me if it was just a focus on Swankie or one of the other nomads instead of a retelling of a memoir.

Dude totally. I found the juxtaposition of professional actors with real-life nomads undermined the film's goal of bringing us closer to the nomad communities, because it directed our attention onto fake nomads, those played by actors whose narratives were fiction (and likely had nice houses to return to after the shoot was over). McDormand and Strathairn were a distraction that brought the movie down. The essence of this movie were those documentary-ish scenes where actual nomads shared their experiences. I 100% agree this would have made a much better documentary. I don't believe Zhao made the film narrative instead of documentary because of money or awards. I think she was following her creatives instincts. But it is worth noting the fact it was a narrative and starred a big-name actress gave it exposure documentary films can never hope for. Cause let's be honest, documentaries simply don't get much exposure. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of this movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2118568/

PurpleHazel

1. Nomadland
2. Palm Springs
3. Collective
4. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
5. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
6. Small Axe: Mangrove
7. First Cow
8. The Vast of Night
9. Bad Education
10. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
11. The Invisible Man
12. Minari
13. Dick Johnson is Dead
14. Rewind
15. The Trial of the Chicago 7
16. Sound of Metal
17. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
18. Possessor
19. Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm
20. The Painter and the Thief
21. Shirley
22. The Assistant
23. The Bee Gees: How Do You Mend a Broken Heart
24. Run
25. One Night in Miami
26. The Go-Go’s
27. Time
28. The 40-Year-Old Version
29. Belushi
30. Let Them All Talk
31. Make Up
32. Emma
33. The King of Staten Island
34. Mank
35. The Way Back
36. Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn
37. Driveways
38. I’m Your Woman

Hope to watch one or two more movies by Saturday night. If it's okay, I'll add them and note it as I finish them.

Last edited by PurpleHazel on 04/30/2021 10:03; edited 1 time in total

PurpleHazel

CA Dreamin wrote:

Dude totally. I found the juxtaposition of professional actors with real-life nomads undermined the film's goal of bringing us closer to the nomad communities, because it directed our attention onto fake nomads, those played by actors whose narratives were fiction (and likely had nice houses to return to after the shoot was over). McDormand and Strathairn were a distraction that brought the movie down. The essence of this movie were those documentary-ish scenes where actual nomads shared their experiences. I 100% agree this would have made a much better documentary. I don't believe Zhao made the film narrative instead of documentary because of money or awards. I think she was following her creatives instincts.

I don't completely disagree about the blend of movie stars with real-life people. But there's a very long tradition of narrative films using non-professional actors who work/live in the same millieu (please check out La Terra Trema), so totally disagree that Zhao should've made a documentary. Nomadland does have a story, as loose as it is, but if she wanted to make a doc with some narrative, she would've had little control over what narrative(s) emerged from the hundreds of hours of footage that she would've had to shoot. Maybe no narrative would've emerged at all; maybe it would've been a bad film.

CA Dreamin wrote:

Cause let's be honest, documentaries simply don't get much exposure. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of this movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2118568/

That's a false equivalence. How can you expect anyone who's participated in this thread to have heard of or seen a British TV documentary? Raise your hand if you've ever seen La Terra Trema (other than Hayden Smile

). Raise your hand if you've ever heard of An Inconvenient Truth. Sure, having Frances McDormand star in a movie as opposed to unknown actors probably means significantly more people will hear about it. But there are also a lot of movies with well-known actors released every year that no one's ever heard of. Just came across a movie Billy Bob Thornton directed and starred in called Daddy and Them; also stars Laura Dern, Ben Affleck, Jamie Lee Curtis and Andy Griffith. Never heard of the damn thing.

Hayden

PurpleHazel wrote:

Raise your hand if you've ever seen La Terra Trema (other than Hayden Smile

). Raise your hand if you've ever heard of An Inconvenient Truth.

I've seen La Terra Trema Razz

Had a Visconti binge a few years back.

(Never watched An Inconvenient Truth).

And thanks for the list PurpleHazel. Looks good. Smile

I'll tally it in one sec (and feel free to add more, no problem).
_________________
Submit Your List for BEA's 2023 Film Poll!

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

PurpleHazel wrote:

I don't completely disagree about the blend of movie stars with real-life people. But there's a very long tradition of narrative films using non-professional actors who work/live in the same millieu (please check out La Terra Trema), so totally disagree that Zhao should've made a documentary. Nomadland does have a story, as loose as it is, but if she wanted to make a doc with some narrative, she would've had little control over what narrative(s) emerged from the hundreds of hours of footage that she would've had to shoot. Maybe no narrative would've emerged at all; maybe it would've been a bad film.

I understand the tradition of blending professional actors and real-life people, but it doesn't work in Nomadland (for me, anyway). Watching the film, I just couldn't disregard my knowledge that McDormand and Strathairn were not actually part of the group, and are actually millionaires in real life. Now this doesn't automatically bring the movie down. However, both of their characters ultimately chose the nomad lifestyle because they both had relatives who offered them a place to stay. This undercuts the film's goal of bringing us a closer to the real nomad communities comprising of the real people who are actually stuck in that situation. I think a documentary would have better achieved that goal. It's like Zhao wanted to have her cake and eat it too. She wanted to bring out the experiences of the real nomads, while telling an interesting fiction story at the same time. And for me, it simply doesn't work, because frankly I couldn't bring myself to care about McDormand's and Strathairn's fictional characters while Bob Wells and Swankie were right there beside them. I agree with you the documentary process can be a crap shoot because filmmakers have little to no control over what narratives will emerge, and therefore risk making a bad movie. However, just based on the few scenes with Bob Wells and Swankie, I think there was enough substance to make a decent doc. But how many people would have noticed?

...

PurpleHazel wrote:

That's a false equivalence. How can you expect anyone who's participated in this thread to have heard of or seen a British TV documentary? Raise your hand if you've ever seen La Terra Trema (other than Hayden Smile

). Raise your hand if you've ever heard of An Inconvenient Truth. Sure, having Frances McDormand star in a movie as opposed to unknown actors probably means significantly more people will hear about it. But there are also a lot of movies with well-known actors released every year that no one's ever heard of. Just came across a movie Billy Bob Thornton directed and starred in called Daddy and Them; also stars Laura Dern, Ben Affleck, Jamie Lee Curtis and Andy Griffith. Never heard of the damn thing.

I agree it's a false equivalence but I think it's an accurate generalization. I didn't know that doc existed either until I googled "nomad documentary". I think it makes the points that docs are generally underexposed, while raising awareness that Zhao wasn't the first filmmaker to explore the nomad lifestyle. But yes, point taken. An Inconvenient Truth was, and still is, a well-known film. However, it's an exception to the rule. The vast majority of docs don't come anywhere near that level of awareness.

Anyway, the Bob Wells scenes were the best scenes of Nomadland.

And also, good list. Glad to see a fellow fan of Collective. While we disagree on Nomadland, our lists will have plenty of overlap.
_________________
on such a winter's day

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

1. Beanpole
2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3. First Cow
4. Palm Springs
5. Wolfwalkers
6. Sound of Metal
7. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
8. Athlete A
9. The Father
10. The Invisible Man
11. Bacurau
12. Mank
13. Deerskin
14. Promising Young Woman
15. Minari
16. Collective
17. The Hater
18. Totally Under Control
19. Soul
20. The Gentlemen
21. The Trial of the Chicago 7
22. Da 5 Bloods
23. Lost Bullet
24. The Lodge
25. Bad Education
26. Vitalina Varela
27. After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News
28. Dick Johnson is Dead
29. An American Pickle
30. Mangrove
31. Lovers Rock
32. Quo Vadis, Aida?
33. Possesor
34. The Assistant
35. Another Round
36. The Painter and the Thief
37. Time
38. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
39. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
40. Sonic the Hedgehog
41. The Hunt
42. Emma
43. Let Them All Talk
44. Shirley
45. The Bare Necessity
46. News of the World
47. Alex Wheatle
48. Pieces of a Woman
49. The Social Dilemma
50. Spree

I don't care much about the bottom 20ish movies. They're okay, I don't strongly like nor dislike them. I'm only including them so movies above them get more points.

I'm aware a number of these entries are from 2019, but didn't get a US release until 2020. Still, they may not be eligible. Hayden, if you're going to omit any of these entries, let me know and I'll find some more filler, haha.

Last edited by CA Dreamin on 05/02/2021 02:22; edited 1 time in total

Hayden

CA Dreamin wrote:

I'm aware a number of these entries are from 2019, but didn't get a US release until 2020. Still, they may not be eligible. Hayden, if you're going to omit any of these entries, let me know and I'll find some more filler, haha.

All good CA Dreamin. Tallied. (Portrait of A Lady on Fire is a bit of a slippery release, but I suppose it was 2020 in the US). Your list definitely made a bit of a shake up too (especially in our top 10). I think we have a surprise order at this point. Glad you dug Beanpole so much, definitely one of those films that deserved more love than it got. Wish it had been in the main comp at Cannes that year...

And Quo Vadis, Aida? was recently added to my own list.

Looking forward to whatever else is submitted today. Deadline will be tomorrow.
_________________
Submit Your List for BEA's 2023 Film Poll!