Well, ladies, gentlemen, those who don’t identify as either, and everyone in between, the time has finally come. The mid-tier movie lists are complete, and the Fisher Awards nominations are fast approaching. But before that time comes, we’re gonna buckle up and start getting definitive. Welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan, and today, we’re talking about the absolute worst of the past year in movies. Doing “worst” lists has always bothered me a little bit, because making movies is hard, and making good ones is even harder, but for whatever reason, studios still choose to greenlight a great many things that are unnecessary, uninspired, insensitive, or all three. Such is the case with many of the films listed here, which you can check out if you so desire, but you are also more than okay to pass over (I chose to take passes on The Last Days of American Crime and Scoob!, for my part). Without wasting too much more of your time, let’s dive right in. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Worst Movies of 2020! 10. Monster Hunter Monster Hunter, a multiplayer video game franchise with no linear narrative to speak of, was never going to be any sort of groundbreaking work in the video game movie adaptation genre, but given how bad the film actually is, anything even halfway decent would probably feel like a win. Unfortunately, the film’s not halfway decent – in fact, it’s pretty far removed from being that, in a bad way. The action is incredibly difficult to follow at times, the camerawork feels so randomized it’s like they put a “shuffle” option onto their shooting style and ran with it, and the film is so poorly edited it almost literally gave me a headache to watch. Any characters we could care about disappear as soon as there’s an opportunity to develop them, and the “story” being told has a billion holes all throughout. The only reason this movie isn’t higher on the list is due to the actually quite excellent creature effects and the final battle being (mostly) pretty cool to watch. Even then, the film is pushing it. 9. Artemis Fowl I never read the Artemis Fowl books as a kid, so I’m in a bit of two boats with this one; for one, I probably didn’t hate it as much as book readers did because I don’t have any personal attachment to the lore and details present in the source material, but I also can only speak on whether or not it works as a movie separated from that same source material, which means I can’t critique its apparent failures as an adaptation (though, from what I hear, they are abundant). Regardless, there were two movies steeped in Irish folklore released this year, and this was by far the worse of the two. Again, I can only speak on it as a movie detached from its source material, but even there, this is one of the worst children’s adventure films I’ve ever seen, largely because no one goes on any sort of adventure in it. Disney being forced to dump this onto Disney+ was maybe the luckiest they ever got with their 2020 slate, as (apart from fans of the books) the movie essentially got buried, and with good reason. The film sets up so many things as if they’re going to be important or somehow change what the outcome of the story should be, but the only thing I could take away from it was how sorry I felt for Judi Dench having to die in Skyfall and then appear in Cats and this back-to-back as significant characters. 8. Brahms: The Boy II How bad is this movie? It totally undoes the entire point of the first movie, attempting to retcon the purpose of the Brahms doll, and then does absolutely nothing scary with that. In execution, the story beat feels like an afterthought, as if someone decided they needed a sequel to the lackluster The Boy, but they didn’t even consider the need to correct the ending of that movie in order to make this one work until halfway through principal photography. Katie Holmes has been good in other stuff (let’s not forget she was the original Rachel Dawes), but she’s utterly wasted here, and the jump scares the movie does attempt to use are both annoying in presence and ineffective in execution. And, as a final note, that title and its order are just atrocious. 7. The Grudge (2020) This only landed both as low and as high as it did because I cannot remember one thing that actually happened in this movie other than John Cho going into a house and getting possessed by a…bathtub? Or maybe there was just a demon in the bathtub of this house? I honestly only remember that he and Andrea Riseborough are both in it, and only one of them has interesting stuff to do. There’s little to recommend and even less to remember about this film, and I think, even if I watched it again, I’d just come away with the same conclusion. 6. Dolittle Whoo boy, alright…Dolittle. Needless to say, Robert Downey Jr.’s first film to open post-MCU (they likely shot this a while ago) is a dumpster fire of epic proportions that bypasses all of its more interesting ideas and introduces newer, more bizarre ideas in their place. I’m not sure Dr. Dolittle was ever all that interesting of a character to begin with, and RDJ is doing…something…here…, but the bare-bones script and absurd editing of the film make his performance far less engaging than it could have ever been, even with a story this bad, this silly, and this all-over-the-place. Jessie Buckley is in this movie for like 5 total minutes, and for 4 of them, she’s just asleep in a bed. The climax of this movie is a dragon farting into RDJ’s mouth. I’m not making any of this up, but boy, do I wish I was. 5. 2 Hearts I had incredibly low expectations going into 2 Hearts, which ends up just being a feature-length organ donor PSA, so while I actually didn’t hate watching it in the moment, I’m not going to pretend that that means it was any good at all. The film wants to make us care about both romances in the story, but one just feels like a fanfiction story brought to screen, and the other employs a “twist” you can see coming so far away that any attachment you might have been able to build just feels pointless the second the relationship starts. TL;DR – be an organ donor and feel free to skip this movie if you’re on the fence (but especially if you're leaning that direction). 4. After We Collided You all remember After, the Wattpad Studios movie (I still can’t believe I have to write that and say it out loud every time I talk about these things) adapted from a fanfiction so painfully generic and incredibly ridiculous that it made my “Worst Of” list last year? Well, not only did the end of the last movie apparently not happen, they did it again, except this time they took out all the shitty romantic stuff and replaced it with shitty sexual stuff, adding some R-level cursing and a “love triangle” to boot. (I put “love triangle” in quotes because the movie sets it up but then does nothing with it.) After We Collided is a terrible, terrible movie, but part of me is starting to think that this might just become my favorite “so bad it’s good” franchise by the time it’s done. The storytelling is so sloppy, the Hardin character continues to make no sense whatsoever – there’s a moment where he reacts in absolutely hilarious fashion to the “look what the cat dragged in” expression – and sounds like he has a fake British accent despite the fact that he is British, and the film once again contains an ending that serves the story in absolutely no way. Dylan Sprouse is the best part of the movie, but only because he gets to say “I’m drunk, I’m uncomfortable, and I just saw a tampon on the floor – I’m leaving.” What Mission: Impossible 7 set? This is the gold standard. 3. Fantasy Island Jeff Wadlow has made two movies for horror studio Blumhouse so far. The first was Truth or Dare, which I did not personally see but was not received well, and this is the second. When a PG-13 horror movie plucks a bunch of CW-looking actors to all be stuck on an island together, engaging in twisted versions of their own fantasies like some sort of freaky Fyre Festival, one can usually tell the film won’t be very good. The level of bad to which Fantasy Island sinks isn’t quite on another level, but it sure tries to get there. The script makes a huge deal of the characters saying “fantasy freaking island” so they can drop the “fucking” into one of the character’s lines at the end of the movie, but given that PG-13 films can have been able to have two “fucks” in the script since 2015, it all just seems like nobody told them that, and the “catharsis” one is meant to feel in that moment actually feels absurdly childish, like that one curse word parents allow kids to say at birthday parties or sleepovers. This is all before we get to the fact that the “twisted fantasies” in the film are meant to all tie into each other, and while they mostly do, that added context makes earlier moments in the film feel totally illogical and unnecessary. There is one that almost gets interesting when a Call of Duty obsessed attendant actually discovers he doesn’t want to be in a military-style firefight, but even that means nothing by the film’s end. Dear Blumhouse, please stop doing these. 2. 365 Days You could be forgiven for never having heard of Netflix’s international, overly-raunchy spin on Fifty Shades of Grey; the only problem therein is that it seems everyone who has a Netflix account knew about this movie the weekend it debuted on the service, considering it hit #1 on the streamer’s Top 10 list…twice (Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods took over the spot four days into Days’ debut; Days reclaimed the spot four days later). I can certainly understand why – movies about sexually passionate relationships have always drawn a crowd, especially on streaming services, and Days had a particularly scandalous reputation in that regard – but for the life of me, I cannot understand why Netflix produced, or anyone watched, this horribly misguided film, let alone enough to bring it back to #1 a second time. The entire premise hinges on a kidnapping victim falling in love with a mobster in just under a year (not an unheard of story), but considering how cringey and poorly written most of his dialogue is, it’s a wonder the cameras didn’t stop rolling the second they heard the script through the leading man’s unbearably “bro-tone” voice. It’s not a particularly good performance either. There is no moment, at any point in the film, where the two characters genuinely connect beyond a physical level, so the “romance” never materializes, and the ending of it feels laughable rather than tragic, as if the movie sincerely believes anyone cares about these characters enough to be remotely affected by what happens to either of them, and how the other reacts to that. Much like Artemis Fowl, this movie too has a parallel situation to another: there is a Sicilian mob plot where the protagonist interrogates a man named Alfredo. And, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, these films too are not remotely of the same quality. 1. Songbird Movies about the Covid-19 pandemic are a dime a dozen even as the living through it has not yet ended (for the United States, at least). We’ve barely begun the vaccine rollout, all things considered. And yet, back in September, a little movie came out called Songbird, which imagined the novel Covid-19 virus had mutated into Covid-23 – a far more lethal strain – and that if you in any way attempted to exit your home without being immune, you would be shot on site. The film also features a health task force with a threatening leader that shows up at your door if you so much as run a fever or cough, as well as a “black market border pass” that allows individuals to exit what are known as “quarantine zones;” in the film, they’re framed as being equivalent to concentration camps. Songbird is poorly made, insensitively crafted, and wildly irresponsible. Setting aside its thinly drawn and undeveloped characters, the nonsensical camerawork, the scattered script, the bad editing, and the truly miraculous stretches in logic, the fact that it was even made at all is a blight on moviemaking itself. The leagues of fearmongering and whataboutism this film engages in just to make its premise plausible is beyond laughable, it’s outright dangerous. There are still people who don’t believe the virus is real (or if they do, think it’s only so the government can exact its will on people), and this film does absolutely everything it can to satiate the fantasies of those people, whether it intends to or not. This movie shouldn’t exist. And yet, it does, and the world is worse off for it (though that does tend to happen these days where Michael Bay is involved). This may not be pound-for-pound the worst movie of 2020, but it is without a doubt the one I hated the most, in concept, execution, and presentation. Fuck Songbird. And those are my picks for the Top 10 Worst Movies of 2020! What movies did you vehemently dislike this year? Any not on this list that should be? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Dishonorable Mentions:
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Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! While we dive deeper into the end-of-year coverage for 2020 movies, sometimes movies that don’t make a big splash or a particular impact get lost in the shuffle. This list is a way to (hopefully) remedy that notion by spotlighting all the movies I’ve watched in a given year that I would still recommend seeing, even if they’re not in content for the Top 10 or even the Honorable Mentions list. These films range from decent to downright fantastic, but alas there are only so many slots in those lists, so many of those films are forced to sit them out. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be celebrated, and today, that is what I aim to do. (Fair warning: this list is a lot more casual than most other lists I make, so there are no posters or artwork apart from the header image.) And now, back to the show. Here is my list of Recommended Movies from 2020! (This list is in alphabetical order purely for organizational purposes. It is not intended to be read as an official or unofficial ranking of the films listed.)
And that’s my list! Have you seen any of these? How many? Anything you’d personally recommend that doesn’t appear on this list? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
- The Friendly Film Fan Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! After discussing the surprises, disappointments, and hidden gems of movies in 2020, it’s time to get a little more definitive with the end-of-year coverage. Tons of movies came out this past year that had more than a few great moments, but many of the best films of the year also didn’t contain standout moments at all due to their overall balance across their respective runtimes. Those films may not be included on this list, but you’re encouraged to watch for them later on down the line (wink wink). For now, though, it’s time to talk about the standout moments in 2020 movies – the ones that made us laugh, cry, and let our jaws hit the collective societal floor. Obviously, because these moments cannot be fully discussed without context or a summary of their content, this is a spoiler warning: FULL SPOILERS AHEAD. Now, without further ado, let’s get right into it with… 5. “Epiphany” – Soul Pixar’s Soul tackles a lot of weighty, complex themes, some of which even the film itself isn’t able to get all the way around, despite its incredibly smart, nuanced script which should put it in the running for Best Original Screenplay. But when it hits, it really hits, and that’s no better demonstrated than in Joe’s epiphany as he realizes that experiencing life, joy, and wonder is the spark 22 needed to start living. I’ve personally been grappling lately with the idea of my work consuming me, my purpose becoming so much the only thing in which I participate that I miss out on all the living I have to do and my career eventually crushes me because I’ve poured my soul into something that, on its own, cannot be inherently fulfilling. I love writing about movies a lot, but I don’t want to become so consumed by it that I miss the sparks of life all around me. Joe’s epiphany touched me during a very formative time in my career, and it seems at just the right moment, Pixar knew exactly what I so desperately needed to hear. 4. The Kiev Opera Siege – Tenet Tenet was certainly a mixed bag for many Nolan fans, particularly wherein it concerned the film’s narrative complexity, with many feeling that the film was only complex for complexity’s sake, without offering anything of substance or weight to take away from the story. While this is admittedly an understandable position, as a pure action movie, Tenet might well be the best thing Christopher Nolan has ever done. That’s not to say the film doesn’t have its flaws – and some noticeable ones at that – but none of those flaws are in the incredible action sequences Nolan is able to craft, the most notable being the Kiev Opera Siege that opens the movie. John David Washington hauling ass across a Ukrainian opera house to the sounds of Ludwig Göransson’s pulse-pounding, all-timer score in the background was one of 2020’s most exciting movie moments. You can feel the desperation, you can witness the fantastic camerawork and editing on display just in the opening minutes, and that sense of urgency carries the whole operation through to the very end. Other sequences, such as the Oslo-set inversion fights, also stand out as part of Nolan’s time-bending genre thriller, but it’s the opening that takes the cake by letting us know what sort of movie we’re really in for. 3. “Stars Are Blind” Montage – Promising Young Woman Promising Young Woman is a very dark, nearly pitch-black comedy (no matter what the Golden Globes say) that deals with a lot of heavy subject matter and traumatic themes. But the standout amongst all of it is the montage set to Paris Hilton’s 2006 hit, “Stars Are Blind.” The scene begins when Cassie and Ryan make a trip to their local pharmacy (the purpose of which is never made clear, not that it matters), but when the first chorus kicks in, we get to see what it’s like for Cassie to be in a relationship that doesn’t have any sort of asterisk or deeper-than-superficial connection to her previous life (that we know of, until later). It’s the rare moment in the film where Cassie gets to be happy, uninhibited by the advances of “nice guys” or the tactics she uses to subdue them. None of her trauma follows her into this part of her life; she’s free from its relentless grip each time she’s with him. It’s not gone, per se, but it’s not an overwhelming force on her anymore, and she can finally allow herself to be happy. She’s living her own life in this moment, rather than avenging Nina’s, and that’s a big part of the reason the rug-pull later on in the movie – when Ryan is discovered to have borne witness to Nina’s assault – burns so much hotter. 2. Home Birth – Pieces of a Woman As much as Pieces of a Woman was somewhat of a letdown as an awards contender (apart from the committed performance of Vanessa Kirby), there is one sequence in the film that could win an Oscar all by itself – the home birth. With no hidden cuts and brilliantly slick camera movements, the home birth sequence of the film runs for a full 24 minutes, ranging from terrifying to skin-crawling to a little bit gross to stressful to triumphant to sweet to tragic without skipping a beat. Benjamin Loeb’s camera is as patient and urgent as it needs to be from moment to moment, and there is not one second of this sequence that feels as if the camera is showing off; one barely notices the absence of cuts if you’re not looking for them ahead of time. To truly feel the weight of this narrative, we needed to experience what it would have been like to witness the loss of Vanessa Kirby’s child, and no other film I’ve seen has been able to pull off this level of sequence ambition this well. It’s a true stunner, and if the rest of the film had been even half as good as this sequence, we’d all be talking about it as a Best Picture front-runner right now. 1. The Rudy Giuliani Interview – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Of course, the #1 movie moment of 2020 also happened to be one of the year’s top news moments as well, in a year chock full of them. During the climactic scene of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Borat’s daughter Tutar (played expertly by Maria Bakalova) is set to interview Rudy Giuliani, former President Trump’s personal lawyer. Borat crashes the interview by posing as a boom operator, who is quickly dealt with by Tutar and forced out of the interview room, leaving Tutar and Giuliani alone, apart from the rest of the camera crew. As the two make their way into another part of the hotel room in order to continue the interview, Giuliani can be seen putting his hand down his pants in front of Tutar – who, in the film, is 15 years old. (Giuliani has since claimed that he was adjusting his shirt.) This moment blew up overnight once the film screened for critics, becoming a national news scandal at the highest level, and so the film’s biggest secret was instantly spoiled. That doesn’t make it any less shocking, though, even within the context of the narrative. A surprise comedy sequel to 2006’s Borat implicating the personal lawyer of the most infamously shitty President the U.S. has ever had in what could (and should) well be considered a sex crime was not something anyone saw coming even in 2020, yet it somehow became – in an instant – its most fitting, appropriately executed, and memorable movie moment. And those are my picks for the Top 5 Best Scenes/Movie Moments of 2020! Any of these on your list? What are some of your favorite scenes and moments in film from the past year? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
Greetings, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! The 2020 movie lists are almost done, and with their end comes to announcement of the 5th Annual Fisher Award Nominees (those being my “Oscars”-style award I give out at the end of every year). For now, however, let’s all reminisce a little longer on the cinematic year that was by discussing some of the more unexpectedly great projects that were released last year – the ones that made us laugh, cry, cheer, cringe, and say “hey, that actually was pretty good.” These are the films that came out of nowhere, or that shouldn’t have worked, or that looked like potential dumpster fires, or all three, and yet, they managed to break through the slog of 2020 to become some of our most unexpected favorites and genuine recommendations. So, without further ado, here are my picks for the Top 10 Most Surprising Movies of 2020! 10. Palm Springs Palm Springs was the largest buy at Sundance this past year, getting scooped up by Neon early on in the game; unfortunately, as with most movies in 2020, the arrival and subsequent mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis in the United States (something that, as of this writing, we’re just barely starting to come out the other side of) meant that the film had to be sent to streaming over the summer. Luckily, Neon has a pretty good relationship with Hulu, and so on July 10, the film was released to rapturous acclaim, and it’s not difficult to see why. Palm Springs is loads of fun, taking the tried-and-true time loop formula and adding a dash of clever rom-com sweetness to it that has a lot of interesting things to say about what relationships should be like, what things matter and what doesn’t, and why. Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg are excellent as the two leads of the film, and J.K. Simmons as a supporting character is absolute dynamite. The film also has quite a clever spin on how characters could escape the time loop, bringing science into the puzzle that previously hadn’t been discussed in something this lighthearted. It’s an intelligent movie, to say the least, but it never loses the fun of it all. It didn’t have to be as great as it is, and for that (plus the fact that it dropped the same weekend as The Old Guard and Greyhound and managed to be the most popular movie that weekend), it gets on the list. 9. Run I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest Sarah Paulson fan in the world. She’s an immensely talented actress, but too many of the projects she’s attached to, especially in the streaming world, have vastly underwritten scripts that always cast her as the same kind of character; she’s good at it, but it can get pretty boring given the sheer volume of mediocre material she ends up starring in. So, when Run hit Hulu and began making the rounds through streaming numbers, I was skeptical, to say the least. Was this truly a worthwhile endeavor or were we just so starved for movie star content by this point that people would praise just about anything that wasn’t total trash just for coming out and being watchable? Luckily, the former had the stronger bid. The film is noticeably imperfect (as many of this list’s entries are), and Paulson does somewhat play a version of the same character she always does, but it’s the whip-smart script, co-written by Searching scribe Aneesh Chaganty, and the performance of lead actress Kiera Allen that one sticks around for. It’s not particularly revolutionary as these sorts of films go, and you can see the twist coming from pretty much the start of it, but Run is nevertheless a thriller that didn’t have to be as good as it was, and was anyway. The eleven-minute sequence at the 40-minute mark still has me wringing my hands. 8. Promising Young Woman When I first saw Emerald Fennell’s feature directorial debut, I considered it a success, though not quite a masterpiece, and thought some choices too odd for general audiences to latch onto in any meaningful way. Then I saw it a second time, and it began to grow on me significantly. Promising Young Woman is bold, audacious, daring, and every other synonym one can think of for a film of its type, of which this might well be the first to genuinely hit the mainstream and stay there. The awards attention it has received thus far has not been unwarranted in the slightest; the filmmaking itself is stylish, the production and costume design covered in pastels and pretty, candy-coated colors only for its pitch-black comedy narrative to rip to pieces everything underneath those surfaces. Carey Mulligan could very well win Best Actress at the Oscars for this, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised; her performance, as well as those of Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, and Laverne Cox, is note-perfect for the role she’s playing, and the film doesn’t let you forget for one second the range of emotional beats she can act through. The way the film is cast is no accident, and the ending (while not necessarily the most realistic) offers a catharsis rarely experienced by victims of the sexual violence – and subsequent consequences of it – taken to task by the film’s incredible script. 7. Love and Monsters I talked enough about Dylan O’Brien’s Monster Hunter Lite project on my Top 10 Most Underrated Films of 2020 list, so I’ll just link to that here (as well as the Love and Monsters Review I wrote for Bitesize Breakdown) if you’d like to get more info on it. Suffice it to say, I had an unexpectedly nice time watching the film. O’Brien can easily carry a franchise of this size, and the creatures introduced in the film are wonderfully creative in both concept and execution. It’s no coincidence that the film is a Best Visual Effects shortlister at the Oscars this year, and if the marketing people do manage to sneak in a nomination then hey, good for them. 6. City Hall It’s an absolute stunner of a miracle that documentarian Frederick Wiseman is able to make a 4 ½-hour documentary on the intricacies of the Boston city government feel as well-paced as it is. At its worst, it only feels as if around 3 hours have passed by the film’s end. That’s staggeringly great pacing, especially for a documentary, a film medium which typically has always felt longer to me than it actually is. Nevertheless, this a near-perfect, totally complete look at the city of Boston over the past few years as we could have ever gotten without ever having visited or lived there. The city feels like a character of its own, and the level of access to so many disparate parts of the city’s blood-and-bone makeup is a stunning thing to witness, no matter how long it takes to parse through it all. 5. Happiest Season Every year, a streaming movie comes out around Christmas time that a ton of people I know see and overhype to the point of me actually getting annoyed enough to not want to watch it. That could have been Happiest Season, a film which – apart from its plot – has a lot in common with Palm Springs in terms of fitting fairly snuggly into a streaming platform style. It’s full of movie and television stars who don’t typically headline larger projects giving charming performances, and though it’s somewhat imperfect, its lightheartedness makes it a breeze to watch. Luckily, that breeziness also comes from a genuinely funny, emotional, heartwarming script about self-acceptance and sacrificial love that’s far more nuanced than it ever needed to be. The specter of revealing one’s true self to those close to you is always going to be tough to work through, no matter how accepting or unaccepting they might be, and while we can all debate who Kristen Stewart’s character should have ended up with, the braver choice is to ask the harder questions, and I deeply respect the film for following through on the narrative it set out to tell. 4. Kajillionaire Well, this thing really came out of nowhere. Having never seen a Miranda July film before, I had no idea what to expect from Kajillionaire, but the trailers for it – which initially began playing in July, ahead of an expected late-summer/early-fall release – were full of an energy I wanted to experience more of. The style captivated me, and that style is all over this film, which is one of the most creatively energized indie projects I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing. I loved this movie from the second the credits rolled. Everything about it teeters on the edge of silliness, but it never loses the gravitas that keeps it grounded and bound to the power of its own story. Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, and especially Gina Rodriguez all give excellent performances in the film (Rodriguez in particular really goes for it here), but no one outsteps Evan Rachel Wood as Old Dolio, a performance so genuinely perfect, it might be one of the 10 best movie performances across all of 2020. The script is full of that same energy present in the film’s marketing, and the quirky specificity of the dialogue, as well as July’s command of filmmaking, make this one of the year’s most unforgettable viewing experiences. 3. The Half of It Netflix rom-coms may be 90% shitty movie scripts that couldn’t find a home anywhere else (and 5% mediocre scripts that get overhype because there aren’t many produced for theaters anymore – looking at you, Always Be My Maybe), but occasionally, they actually hit the ball out of the park. Such is the case with The Half of It, a film that could have been an incredibly generic “ghostwriter” love story which actually turns out to be fairly nuanced and generous towards even its more insignificant characters. This is most notable in the way the film refuses to make any of its main players any less than three-dimensional, particularly Daniel Diemer’s, who gives a wonderful performance which endears the audience to him even as it initially wants to root against him. Leah Lewis leads the terrific ensemble cast, and while the script does make some missteps (such as with Aster’s boyfriend character being the most generic high school football boyfriend ever), the film rarely succumbs to what would be the expected route for it to take in its narrative. Alice Wu’s teen romcom might well be the best of the bunch for Netflix, despite its streaming numbers pulling in less than other, lesser films. This is definitely one worth checking out – I think you might be surprised by how much you like it. 2. Greenland A Gerard Butler-led disaster movie with what looks like a huge VFX budget and a trailer that mostly focuses on an end-of-the-world scenario wherein comet fragments crash to Earth, destroying life as we know it in the process? There’s no way this movie doesn’t end up being one of the worst of the year…right? Not so with Greenland, a film more focused on how its characters navigate an impending disaster than it is with the disaster itself. Butler and co-star Morena Baccarin turn in really solid performances, and the film itself addresses some elements of navigating a situation like this – elements which may be uncomfortable to witness – with a surprising level of sensitivity. The film won’t necessarily blow your mind or anything, but it’s far better than it was ever expected to be, and if you give it a shot, I have a feeling you’ll have a nice time. 1. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm The true surprise of all surprises came in September of 2020, when just a month before the film was due to release, Sacha Baron Cohen revealed that they had actually written and shot an entire sequel to 2006’s irreverent comedy Borat, and that it would be on Amazon Prime in October. No one saw this thing coming, and when critics were finally able to see it, one scene became so infamous it made nationwide, record-breaking headlines overnight (though I’m sure you already know what it is). It can be easy to underestimate just how big a deal Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was when it initially came out, but if it’s any indication, it’s been all over awards-season comedy lists, and even won the Golden Globe for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical), as well as Best Lead Actor for Sacha Baron Cohen. And it’s so celebrated because it genuinely is one of the best movies of 2020. A comedy like Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was the perfect vehicle to explore the ridiculousness of American life under the Trump administration, covering everything from how famous the character had become, the covert break-in of a CPAC at which former VP Mike Pence was giving an address, the emergence of Covid-19, and so many more elements of U.S. life in 2020, it’s incredible the film wasn’t also nominated for a special Pulitzer. And on top of all of that, it ended up being one of the most heartwarming secret feminist narratives of the past few years, perhaps the sneakiest since Mad Max: Fury Road. Though she did not win in her Globes category (she was in the wrong one anyway), Maria Bakalova’s breakout performances has garnered major awards attention – as it should – and has put her at the front of the line to win Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars this year. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm may not be as zippy or blistering as its predecessor, but it has a much deeper story to tell, about women’s self-actualization and personal growth. It came out of nowhere. It shouldn’t have worked. And yet, it’s one of the best, most-celebrated movies of the year, which puts it at the top of the list of the Top 10 Most Surprising Movies of 2020. And those are my picks for the Top 10 Most Surprising Movies of 2020! What are the movies that surprised you the most this year? Are you going to check out any of these? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
2020, once again needless to say, was somewhat of a dumpster fire for movie releases. Most moved, many moved to this year, and others were even delayed into next year after 2021 became so overcrowded with postponed releases. Even The Batman ended up moving release dates to next year. The Batman. It can be hard to navigate through all the noise of everything constantly moving and changing production schedules or opening weekend plans, so for today, I thought perhaps I could let you all in and shed some light on some material coming out this year that I’m particularly excited about. Some of these are new, while others are rollovers from the previous year. The only strict rules I followed in creating this list are these: 1) Every film on it has to have a planned 2021 release date already marked, so while I am greatly anticipating Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, I will not be able to include it here due to its lack of an official release date at this time. That could change very soon, if everything goes in its favor, but with circumstances being what they are, I am not able to confidently consider it a 2021 movie just yet. 2) Movies that I’ve already seen that are slated to be released this year, such as Rebecca Hall’s Passing, will not be appearing as I can no longer anticipate their release. With all that in mind, let’s talk about all these other exciting new projects. Here are my Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2021! 10) Last Night in Soho Edgar Wright, director of such hits as the Cornetto trilogy, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Baby Driver, now has his sights set on the horror genre, something he has yet to explore apart from cross-genre fare such as Shaun of the Dead. The cast is stacked, the hype is real, and I am very interested in seeing what the rhythm-obsessed filmmaker can do with a project like this. 9) The Suicide Squad James Gunn’s firing from Disney over decades-old tweets he has repeatedly apologized and made reparations for was just about the stupidest “cancel culture” thing to come out of what I like to call the “consequence boom.” Some legitimate people having issues with Gunn’s past humor and behavior is worth noting, but Disney only fired him after a bunch of absurd morons who found out he didn’t like Trump gamed the system to try to get him blacklisted by Hollywood. Their ridiculous plan backfired perfectly. Not only has Gunn since been re-hired to direct Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, he also got scooped up by DC in the process to make an R-rated Suicide Squad movie, and from the looks of it so far, the whacky Gunn energy seems to be all over it. Gunn is an excellent artist and a highly admirable craftsman in the world of blockbuster filmmaking, and I have a feeling that with the Disney reigns turned off here, we’re going to get something really special. 8) Killers of the Flower Moon Martin Scorsese is my favorite director. Leonardo DiCaprio is my favorite actor. Robert De Niro, a long-time Scorsese collaborator, who most recently worked with him on The Irishman in 2019, is also part of the cast, and it’s all being led by the immaculate Jesse Plemons. How could this not make the list? 7) West Side Story (2021) Steven Spielberg is remaking West Side Story for a new generation, and given that the studio planned on releasing the film in December of last year, it’s expected to be a major awards contender in several categories. You all know how much I love awards season films, so yeah, this makes the list too. I can’t wait to see what newcomer Rachel Zegler brings to the table. 6) Black Widow Black Widow is certainly the more high-profile MCU film on this list, given that there are already two trailers for it, despite the second only coming out as the project was poised to exit its September release date (after being postponed from May 2020). With that in mind, there’s not much to say about this one that hasn’t already been said. I’m excited to see Taskmaster, Florence Pugh is my queen, Rachel Weisz is everyone’s queen, and it looks like the MCU is returning to the sleek, grounded action of films like The Winter Soldier, which indicates some incredible sequences could be in store. I’ve been signed up for this for a while, and I have no plans to take my name off that list. 5) In the Heights The thing keeping this movie afloat despite being delayed an entire year and becoming part of the HBO Max rollout catalogue for 2021 is that incredible trailer. Full of vibrance, energy, swagger, heart, and pride, In the Heights’ first footage put exactly the right foot down when it came to marketing the film for audiences. The costumes and choreography look amazing, this could be a huge break for Anthony Ramos in becoming a genuine movie star, and it will definitely be interesting to see how the first-ever film adaptation of a Lin-Manuel Miranda project turns out. Plus, it’s been a few years since we’ve gotten a theatrically-released musical, and John M. Chu proved with Crazy Rich Asians that he knows how to give any film a style all his own. 4) Nightmare Alley The last movie Guillermo Del Toro made was The Shape of Water, which went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. With a cast this stacked, and a director this ambitious and talented, this was always going on the list, and it was always placing high. 3) Eternals Chloe Zhao, the trailblazing director of The Rider and Nomadland, is directing a movie for Marvel Studios, which is primarily known for making their superhero films action flicks with some drama supporting that action. That’s an incredibly bold step for Marvel to take – it’s not as if Zhao isn’t a risky bet, given her usual style of filmmaking is more patient and meditative. With easily the most stacked cast (in terms of pedigree) that the MCU may have ever had, I’m incredibly eager to see what Zhao does with a project like this, and if she can keep her signature style unaltered throughout the film. This is by far the MCU’s most ambitious movie project since the first Guardians, and we all know how those guys turned out among the wider scope of the franchise. 2) No Time to Die Daniel Craig’s final turn as James Bond might have had the roughest, worst-luck promotional campaign in the history of the franchise (through no fault of its own). After countless delays, it’s hard to believe the film will ever even come out anymore, but hopefully it can hold on to its current release date of October 8 long enough to actually open. We shall see. For more of my thoughts on why I’m excited for No Time to Die, check out my Top 10 Movie Trailers of 2019 piece. 1) Dune What else is there to say at this point? It’s Dune. Everyone who knows anything about movies, books, or both knows that when it hits, it’s gonna hit big. Denis Villeneuve adapting the iconic novel is a note-perfect director choice, and from everything we’ve seen so far, I’m entirely prepared for it to be October, to sit in a movie theater (hopefully amongst many other people), and experience what is sure to be an earth-shaking cinematic event. And that does it for my Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2021! Are any of your most anticipated films on this list? What other films are you looking forward to this year? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
*Expected 2021, Official Release Date TBD Continuing with the this-time-only tradition of acknowledging upfront that 2020 was a pretty harsh year for almost everyone (especially those in the arts and healthcare) and everything, it may feel somewhat of a moot point to do a Disappointing Movies list. After all, of course there were more disappointing movies to notice in 2020 – most of the non-disappointing blockbusters and experiments in filmmaking got moved to 2021. Plus, why bother with such negativity? You’d be surprised, however, that even in the 2020 cinematic year, there was still a ton of other great work that did get a chance at the spotlight, and right alongside it were works that aspired to greatness, but couldn’t quite get there. That isn’t to say that any of these movies are bad or even particularly egregious in terms of how lackluster they ended up being – I actually quite like one of them – but ultimately, they failed to live up to their potential. Some were grandiose, highly-anticipated sequels. Others were experiments that simply didn’t pay off as well as they could have. All are on this list. With all this in mind, here are my picks for the Top 10 Most Disappointing Movies of 2020. 10. Wonder Woman 1984 Wondering which film it is on this list that I actually liked? Look no further. The first Wonder Woman film was both a financial and critical success for DC; despite the third act nearly sinking the whole endeavor, the film remained an iconic first step in the journey to getting more women behind and directly in front of the camera in the superhero subgenre, with killer performances from Gal Gadot as the titular character and Chris Pine as the hilariously charming Steve Trevor. A second WW movie was going to have to top all of that, and unfortunately (though I still enjoyed the movie), Wonder Woman 1984 dropped the ball in more than a few ways. Some have already been discussed at length – namely the haphazard and incredibly problematic fashion of bringing Steve back from the dead – but needless to say, this sequel did not live up to what fans had been wanting or expecting from this franchise. Sometimes that’s a good thing, such as with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but other times (like this one), it just isn’t. I ended up having fun with it as an extremely 80’s-centric silver age cartoon adaptation overall, but there are many ways in which I can understand why people just did not connect with Patty Jenkins’ second DC outing. 9. The New Mutants No one expected this movie to be particularly good, but at least it floated some interesting ideas for the Fox X-Men brand to mess around with…until it got delayed 40 times and was DOA essentially the second it came to theaters. The New Mutants is hardly the worst superhero movie to come out in the past couple of years, and personally I don’t even think it’s the worst in the Fox X-Men arsenal; unfortunately, those two things don’t change how much of a disappointment it still ended up being. The way it connects to the broader X-Men movie canon feels forced (in execution, not concept), but the rest of the setting feels fresh and new. Many of the film’s characters get little bits of development here and there, but none of them are ever fully realized. I suppose how its events would affect the X-Men timeline going forward is a moot point now that Disney owns the rights to mutants again, but it still feels like there should be at least some sort of consequence to what occurs here. At the end of the day, nothing that happens in this movie actually matters or feels like it should, and that’s its own kind of bad. I didn’t hate it, but I most likely won’t be watching it again. 8. Cherry The Russo Bros. return to the directing chair, and my god, the MCU machine duo did not translate to the story being told here. Tom Holland is excellent in the film, as he is in everything due to his immense level of talent, but everything else feels as if it’s been hacked to bits and then stretched out to three hours (it is 2 hours and 21 minutes long). The camerawork in this film is nauseating on more than one occasion, never really committing to a style but always wishing to be stylish, which makes the hodge pog of camera effects, frames, movement, etc feel like a pair of directors trying too hard to prove to non-MCU fans that they really are the real deal. If this film is truly supposed to be about the opioid epidemic (which the filmmakers have said it is), the other hour and a half it haphazardly devotes to other things could have fooled me. 7. Freaky This seems to be where the majority of other critics and myself differ in terms of taste. There are certainly elements of Freaky that I enjoyed (the wine bottle kill at the beginning is an all-timer in my book), but the overall narrative saw every opportunity to make itself more compelling and challenging to the viewer, and bypassed it for the sake of an easy, fun ride. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in every case – Ready or Not isn’t particularly high-concept, yet it’s super fun to watch – but here, all the non-horror elements of it feel incredibly underdeveloped and lazy in their executions. There are more than a few places in the film where things could be brought up that would make sense to address, but they never are. I can understand people that have fun with this movie on a surface level, but it’s not particularly clever or smart enough for me to deem it anything more than passable. 6. Greyhound This could have been a slam dunk. Tom Hanks writing a screenplay about naval warfare in the Pacific as one ship tries to survive its journey to the other side of the most dangerous area of the ocean? Yes, please. Unfortunately, the film – which starts off incredibly promising – soon becomes so repetitive that it manages to sink its own momentum. The fast-talking naval jargon makes for a lean, no-nonsense script, but we don’t really end up caring about any of the characters or the mission itself by film’s end. The action sequences are well-crafted, but when you’ve watched the same one about five or six times in a row, it loses its effectiveness and ends up actually kind of getting a bit irritating. This is hardly the worst movie AppleTV+ has made, but it’s certainly not one that will keep free trial users on board past day 7. 5. Wild Mountain Thyme Outside Mullingar is a play that means a lot to me, personally. I even directed a production of it when I was in college, so it both intrigued and baffled me that John Patrick Shanley was adapting his one-act drama into a feature film starring Jaimie Dornan and Emily Blunt (two people who could not be a more ill-suited match), throwing Christopher Walken in there for good measure. Upon watching the film, I can safely say that I was entirely right to be baffled beyond explanation. I’m not one to claim that I understand an author’s material better than the author himself (in fact, I don’t believe I do), but if this is what was truly intended by Shanley’s text, perhaps there is a different route by which it could be made compelling. The added material which does not appear in the play offers nothing in the way of character development or significant plot detail, and the ending of it feels entirely alien to what the play is attempting to communicate. Beyond all that, however, the strength of it rests on the chemistry of the two leads, who (as noted) do not have any chemistry together, despite their individual performances being sufficient for scenes they act with others. Truthfully, Christopher Walken is the best part of the movie, and if you’re familiar with this story, you know that that is simply not enough to make it worthwhile. 4. The Devil All the Time The ensemble cast for this movie is insane. Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough, Bill Skarsgård, Haley Bennett, Sebastian Stan, Jason Clarke, Harry Melling, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska – the list goes ever on. Unfortunately, so too does the movie, despite the fact that it might have been better with about 20 minutes shaved off of its bloated runtime. It’s not that the film is particularly bad or even all that boring, but that the “epic” feel it’s meant to have in both its narrative and its ensemble simply doesn’t translate to the story being told. Pattinson refusing to have a dialect coach is both its own flex and impediment to his performance, but beyond that, the film doesn’t really seem to know what it’s trying to communicate across its multi-generational narrative. It all plays out like a bunch of famous actors doing scenes for other projects that somehow managed to get bundled together in this one, and none of them ultimately pay off to much satisfaction. 3. The Lovebirds Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae in a romantic comedy where they have to solve a murder mystery because someone posing as a cop ran over someone else with their car – how does this not work? And yet, for all its bells and whistle, The Lovebirds just feels empty at the end of the day. Most of the comedy isn’t particularly funny, the narrative doesn’t really end up going anywhere interesting, and the ending feels fairly lackluster given the pedigree involved with both the director and cast. Michael Showalter is a good director (The Big Sick is one of my all-time favorite rom-coms), but I can certainly understand now why Paramount was willing to give this and not other projects to Netflix – it was a safe bet to make. People would watch it, but it didn’t have to make a ton of money, so sending it to streaming was a smart move. Unfortunately, if the movie were half as smart as the Paramount execs that made this decision, it probably would have been a lot more fun. 2. Ammonite Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan should be Oscar contenders for this. The film should be competing for Best Picture, Director, Costume Design, and several other Oscar categories – unfortunately, the film just isn’t that compelling. Winslet and Ronan are dynamite in it and have palpable chemistry, but the narrative itself feels a little too plain to make a splash in the awards race. There’s plenty to love in this movie about two women connecting with each other (in many way) whilst one of their husbands is away, but the “repressed lesbian” trope is starting to fall a bit by the wayside in terms of its novelty, and the striking cinematography can’t save what ultimately turns out to be a story less compelling than the one we could have gotten. 1. Earwig and the Witch I’m not sure what I expected from Studio Ghibli’s first fully-CG animated feature, but holy shit, whatever it was is most likely a lot better than this absolute mess of a movie. The animation itself is often jarringly bad as far as the character designs are concerned, their movement feeling sufficient only for what could be an early Saturday-morning cartoon on Disney Jr. (like 7 a.m. early). The film’s inconsistency in both plot and character is baffling, tanking the respect Ghibli could have gotten off a project like this right down into the ground, and the fact that only the dubbed version is available on HBO Max (where the film finds its streaming home) does nothing to ease that lack of acclaim. This isn’t just the most disappointing film of the year relative to expectations/context, it’s genuinely one of the year’s worst films. Studio Ghibli released one of the year’s worst films. And I absolutely hated typing that sentence. So, what are your most disappointing movies of 2020? Are there any on this list you agree with? Disagree with? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading, and watch for more end-of-the-year lists, coming soon to The Friendly Film Fan and Bitesize Breakdown! - The Friendly Film Fan Dishonorable Mentions:
Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! The cinematic year of 2020 officially closed at the end of last week with the close of submission eligibility for the 2021 Academy Awards (more on that soon), thus rendering all films released before Feb. 26 as belonging to the previous calendar year. For myself, I have only been counting releases in January and February as 2020 films if they were, in fact, originally intended to be released in the normal calendar year and were released before the submissions deadline. In light of this, it’s time to begin The Friendly Film Fan’s end-of-year coverage, starting with the Most Underrated films released last year. Movies in 2020 could be difficult to find a method for watching if they weren’t already on streaming or didn’t have big promotional campaigns. To that end, the more underrated movies, the true small-time greats of 2020 were even harder to find for most people, whereas in previous years, they would have appeared as part of the regular theatrical rotation. But fear not! I have come to put your minds at ease, and perhaps even give you a little bit of hope that not all the hidden gems of 2020 have been lost to time or an altered release schedule. These are my picks for the Top 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2020! 10. Love and Monsters Not everything in the YA-esque adventure Love and Monsters works, but Dylan O’Brien travelling cross-country with a dog to go see a girl he loves is a lot more fun and less teen-movie-cringey than it sounds. The monster concepts introduced are beautifully creative, and the film moves at a surprisingly solid clip so you’re never bored. There’s frankly not a whole lot else to say about a movie this small or a story this simply, but this could be a really good start to a new franchise for the Maze Runner star, and for once, I’d actually encourage the series to continue. 9. Yellow Rose Yellow Rose, perhaps the most underseen indie of 2020, came and went with nary a whimper, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have a lot worth recommending. A killer lead performance from Eva Noblezada and a near scene-stealing supporting turn by Dale Watson make this tale of an immigrant’s American dream not just worth watching, but emotionally effective in a surprising way. The songs, though not hits, are very well-written, channeling the A Star Is Born energy through a much smaller tale. At the end of the day, it doesn’t make a big splash, but it’s one of the more beautifully-shot films of 2020 as well, with some shots that may have competed for Oscars if the rest of the movie were like them. Check this one out if you get the chance. 8. Gunda Gunda is imperfect, slow, and frankly, the tiniest bit boring. There are long stretches of this animal rights doc where one may assume not much is happening as the audience watches farm animals go about their day. One would assume incorrectly. Of course, this sort of filmmaking style and deliberately observational patience will not be for everyone, but for those who would like to give it a shot, I would highly recommend at least taking the time to experience its flood of empathetic observation, which is accompanied by unbelievably gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. As much as there is plain, no-nonsense camerawork (largely sticking to a pig pen), and very little else going on, there is also life happening before your eyes – life that can be genuinely moving if you allow yourself to accept what the movie is trying to offer. It is definitely a slow-burn in terms of pacing, but the value it can add to your movie-watching experience is undeniable by film’s end. 7. Let Him Go Diane Lane and Kevin Costner play a married couple in this movie about them rescuing their grandson and daughter-in-law from a domestic abuse situation, and it mostly works. With a tone somewhere between domestic drama and neo-noir Western, Thomas Bezucha’s film can feel like it’s just doing the bare minimum at many points, but when you have this caliber of performer at your disposal, even bare minimum can get the job done. Guy Godfree’s cinematography is sweeping and beautiful, elevating what might have otherwise been something “okay” into a film that’s worth both your time and your attention, if you’re looking for something simple. 6. The Lodge Neon’s first major foray into the horror genre, The Lodge contains one of the most unsettling endings of any 2020 movie. It can be quite slow at points, and doesn’t always use the hiding of its central plot very well, but Riley Keough owns this movie from start to finish. Before she’s even on screen, we feel the effects of what her presence does to the kids at the movie’s center, and see it first hand when [redacted]. The film also has an oppressive tone that’s hard to shake, and once again, that ending shot is perhaps the most unsettling I’ve seen this cinematic entire year. 5. The Life Ahead While it did not make the shortlist for Best International Feature (or my own Best of 2020 list, to be fair), Italy’s submission to the Oscars this year is nonetheless a wonderfully underrated film about a young hustler and a Holocaust survivor that takes him in forming a unique and unbreakable bond. Sophia Loren is excellent in the film, as are Abril Zamora and Babak Karimi, but it’s the young Ibrahima Gueye who manages to keep his lead character firmly above the rest with an outstanding performance. The film itself never really reaches the levels of profundity or wisdom necessary to elevate it above many other films of its type (think The Intouchables), but it’s quite an enjoyable watch nonetheless, and I think if you give this one a shot, you won’t be too disappointed. 4. His House Remi Weekes’ Netflix horror film about a pair of refugees being relocated to a sketchy house in London might not always have everything in the right balance, but it’s a stunning example of how to weave a refugee narrative into horror. As Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku slowly settle into their home, the ghosts of their past can’t let them go, and this is made evident through their stellar lead performances. The horror, too, is genuinely frightening, unfolding slowly within the background of many frames until the viewer is almost invited to notice it creeping into the foreground, despite the knowledge that what lies there won’t be in any way inviting. 3. The Broken Hearts Gallery One of the first films to open only in theaters once some of them re-opened, The Broken Hearts Gallery does nothing to re-write or alter the rom-com genre in basically any way, but man, was it so good to see one of these again that seemed to genuinely enjoy itself. Geraldine Viswanathan is really great in this, and Dacre Montgomery manages to underplay his character just enough to make him appropriate for the script, despite the myriad of genre cliches and predictable beats the film has. It doesn’t hurt either that Molly Gordon, goddess of comedy, also lends her talents to the picture with a genuinely funny recurring bit centered around her boyfriend, played by Nathan Dales. If you’re looking for a good date night movie, look no further. 2. On the Rocks Sofia Coppola always seems to end up in the “underrated” conversation in terms of directors, despite creating some true masterworks, particularly in the early and mid-2000’s. Perhaps this is because her films don’t exactly try to be profound or groundbreaking, but rather because they find themselves becoming so almost by accident or invitation even if they’re not really made for that purpose. On the Rocks may not be her best work, but it’s the film of hers that feels closest to a warm hug as dad Bill Murray whisks off on an adventure with a top-of-her-game Rashida Jones to find out if her husband is cheating on her. The ending of it leaves a little to be desired, but this sort of low-key, mid-budget drama from AppleTV+ starring movie stars is the sort of thing Hollywood just doesn’t give much thought to anymore, and it’s refreshing to see that both Coppola and Apple recognize how important these kinds of films can still be. 1. The Way Back (2020) Ben Affleck gets both a lot of praise and a lot of shit for putting his struggle with alcoholism so publicly on screen, but his reckoning with it fuels his performance in Gavin O’Connor’s saga of triumph over the self, resulting in a career-best performance for the screenwriter turned actor turned A-list director. That much is undeniable. The film doesn’t give quite the time or devotion to the actual game of basketball that it needs to in order for the games to be as exciting as something like Ford v Ferrari’s racing sequences, but it’s got a ton of hidden layers that are simultaneously heartbreaking and cathartic to unpack. This is easily the most underrated film of the year, and if you’re in the mood for a good, positive cry, it’s absolutely worth your time. And that’s it! Those are my Top 10 Most Underrated Films of 2020. How many of these have you seen? Are there any movies from 2020 you feel are particularly underrated? Let me know in the comments section below! Thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
Hello, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! Ladies and gentlemen, it is finally that time. Time to start publishing end-of-the-year movie lists for 2020, despite the fact that we’re already a month into the following year. As a result of the expanded release/awards season, many 2020 movies are still releasing theatrically, but their trailers (in some cases) managed to make it just under the wire. And that is what we are here to talk about today. We all love movies. Whether they end up good or bad, making movies is an art requiring skill of the highest caliber, the most dedicated of craftsperson. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. One part of moviemaking seemingly everyone can agree works most of the time, though, is the putting together and subsequent releasing of a movie trailer. Trailers are an art form unto themselves (hell, even most prestige television shows come with movie-trailer-like ads): a good one can get you excited for an upcoming release from its editing alone, whereas others can totally turn one off from even the idea of going to check out whatever film it happens to be advertising. But regardless of how one feels about the finished product, a great trailer is a great trailer, and they deserve to be celebrated just as much as their movies may or may not. So I won’t drone on any longer; instead, I’ll cut right to the chase. These are my picks for the Top 10 Movie Trailers of 2020! 10. Dune – Official Trailer Dune was the most anticipated movie of 2020 for any number of people, but the anticipation for its first full-length trailer might’ve been even higher. Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the iconic sci-fi novel boasts a stacked cast, an incredible production team, and a director who’s all but mastered how to re-energize the blockbuster sci-fi genre on the big screen. And the first official trailer did not disappoint. Paying tribute to Pink Floyd’s original involvement with the David Lynch adaptation of the film, this look at the world of Dune had a ton of intrigue built in, some incredible first looks at significant characters and cast members, and of course, visual splendor to spare (including our first official look at the sand worm). Some, such as myself, didn’t quite think this was as good as a different trailer for Dune that we’d already seen, but its raw power is hard to shake, especially in a movie theater setting. 9. Wonder Woman 1984 – Official Main Trailer While the film itself didn’t quite turn out to be the smash hit Warner Bros. had hoped for, this second trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 managed to be just the alternate to the first that a lot of fans were hoping for. Dripping in 80’s vibes, giving us a look at Cheetah, spending more time with fan-favorite Steve Trevor, and seeing the Kingdom Come armor in action made this an appropriate expansion to the film’s marketing, and it was hard not to get excited when Diana shed those golden wings to throw down with Kristin Wiig. (Although, to be honest, the humor in this doesn’t quite hit the way it’s meant to.) 8. Nomadland – Official Teaser Trailer In less than a minute, and with a single, un-broken shot of Frances McDormand walking through a crowd of vans, adrift among drifters, Chloé Zhao tells us exactly what her new movie Nomadland is all about. The exact tone, vibe, what-have-you of the film is captured and teed up magnificently with nary but a piano score, and it’s exactly the kind of teaser trailer that gets film enthusiasts like myself excited about a hot new project from a trailblazing director. 7. Mank – Official Trailer When it was announced that David Fincher would be returning to the silver screen to film an adaptation of his father’s script based on the making of Citizen Kane, there wasn’t a movie fan in the world who didn’t anticipate it. Our first official look at the film not only confirmed that this would be something wildly different for the director of Se7en and The Social Network, but also that its technical elements would be unassailable in their presentation. Regardless of how one feels about the film itself, no one can deny that this trailer captured the film’s aesthetic and tone perfectly, or that it elevated the film all the way to #1 in terms of awards season anticipation. 6. Dune – Tenet Trailer Teaser The first official trailer for Dune would be released on September 9th, but until that date, all fans had to go on was a small teaser for the full-length trailer which played in theaters before showings of Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Tenet. And while that official trailer is certainly a force of nature in its own right, it’s this initial teaser which takes the cake here as the best piece of marketing yet for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation. The other trailer gives us a much better look at many of its characters, but this teaser gets the tense, desperate tone of the film under the viewer’s skin as they listen to Timothée Chalamet’s screams of anguish, and hearing Hans Zimmer’s magnificent score over the title card indicates without doubt just how epic this will be to watch in a giant movie theater. (Apologies for using the Canadian French version - it's the only one I can find anywhere online.) 5. Black Widow – Final Trailer Black Widow has had a rough go of it lately, what with all the delays, as well as Disney’s insistence that they will not be sending the film to Disney+ despite fan concerns and endless clickbait articles to the contrary, resulting in the streaming services’ show WandaVision being the first MCU property to be released in over a year. Back when the film was going to open in November 2020, after its first release delay, Marvel Studios’ released a final trailer set to AudioMachine’s “We Are Gods” instrumental track, and boy, did it work. This music increased the feeling of desperation for whatever mission the titular character is on, and its wider look at the villain Taskmaster held many key moments for those who know what that villain’s actual shtick is. However the final film turns out is anyone’s guess at this point, but this trailer only increased excitement for the project, even for those who weren’t initially on board. 4. Nomadland – Official Trailer There was a time when I was wondering if we would ever get a full trailer for Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, as it had already screened for most critics (including myself…more on that later), and its December release was inching ever-closer. Then came the release delay that placed the film in mid-February, and in place of its original release date, Searchlight Pictures released the official trailer for the film, which I can say with confidence captures the tone and tenor of the movie almost perfectly. Set to beautiful piano music from Ludovico Einaudi's “Seven Days Walking,” (just as the film is), this trailer covers all manner of the various aspects of the Nomad life, and showcases even more of Joshua James Richards’ stunning cinematography. 3. The Batman – DC FanDome Teaser Matt Reeves’ The Batman has been shaping up to be one of the most significant and likely highest-rated superhero movies in years, with a breathtakingly great ensemble cast, and a director that managed to bring Planet of the Apes back to the top of the list in terms of sci-fi blockbuster IP. Fans watching the live DC FanDome event got a lot of first looks at a ton of new DC movie properties, including a pretty neat behind-the-scenes look at James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, but none were as talked about, as hyped-up, or as explosive as the first trailer for The Batman. Apart from a tone eerily reminiscent of Se7en, production design as dark and dingy as the city of Gotham itself, some queries from the Riddler, and a truly inspired alternative Nirvana track, the crown jewel of this trailer is its showcase of Batman’s speed and brutality in combat. The Batman films we’ve gotten over the years (save for one scene in Batman v Superman) haven’t quite managed to capture the master of combat the character truly is, but all worries were laid to rest when one random thug attempts to step to Robert Pattinson’s dark knight, and the Lighthouse actor lays him out with extreme prejudice, capping off the takedown by saying one of the character’s most iconic lines: “I’m vengeance.” It’s a perfect moment in a trailer comprised only of footage the crew already had, as they had yet to film more than 25% of the movie, and that’s impressive enough to land it at #3 on this list. 2. No Time to Die – Trailer 2 Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond is sure to be arguably the most watched movie of 2021, if we do get to see it this year after all (with up to three release delays now, it’s hard to say with confidence that that will be the case). Nevertheless, the second trailer for Beasts of No Nation director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s entry into the iconic franchise is chock full of things for Bond fans to love. New gadgets! Gunfights! Jeffrey Wright! A mysterious villain played by Rami Malek! Ana de Armas! And it’s all set to a tone and action-packed visuals not just worthy of the Bond moniker, but which manage to elevate it to such a level that I almost put this at #1 purely based on how good the trailer was. But there was one other trailer released in 2020 that hit so hard, so suddenly, and with such force, that it became the #1 trailer of the year in less than a week. 1. Judas and the Black Messiah – Official Trailer Judas and the Black Messiah’s first trailer was a force of nature, burning so hot and containing so much raw energy that when it dropped, I knew that whatever else came out, I had to see this movie as soon as humanly possible. With Creed and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler producing the film for director Shaka King (someone I haven’t heard of before but am now extremely aware of), this tale of the assassination of Black Panther Chicago chapter leader Fred Hampton was sure to be one of the most-anticipated movies of the 2020 awards season from the get-go. The fact that a trailer this powerful managed to be its first true piece of marketing, coasting on the strength of Daniel Kaluuya’s calls of “I am a revolutionary,” is truly a remarkable feat, and it sure doesn’t hurt that Lakeith Stanfield’s lead (William O’Neal), or the always-great Jesse Plemons, are there either. What are some of your favorite trailers from 2020? Did you like any of these? How did you feel about the films in question after seeing them? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
- The Friendly Film Fan Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! It’s been quite some time since we reflected on where the Oscar nominations are going to be by the end of February, so I thought that with the delayed awards season now in full swing (in early January 2021, if you can believe it), we could all take stock of what those Oscar races look like. Some films, such as Judas and the Black Messiah and the upcoming Netflix quarantine film Malcolm & Marie (the latter having screened for critics to rave reviews) have picked up serious momentum, whereas others like Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy or the Russo brothers’ Tom Holland-led Apple project, Cherry (which has had a fairly poor reception thus far), have fallen off the map all but entirely. Other films, too, have managed to pick up momentum in select categories, though they don’t seem quite strong enough outside of those categories to be true Academy favorites – there’s a lot of buzz around Tahar Rahim’s performance in the upcoming Jodie Foster film The Mauritanian. All that said, things mostly look the same for many of these categories; the favorites are still there in most of the same spots, and those new predictions don’t seem to be big enough to pull off wins in their respective categories…at least, not yet. This will go just about the same way as it did last time: I will list, in full, my list of predicted nominees in each category, including up to three wildcard picks that could potentially also snag nominations if those categories are campaigned well enough for them to break through into the coveted 5 spots. Because the Academy has altered some categories a bit (such as guaranteeing the Best Picture category will have 10 nominees this year and combining both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing), the predictions may look a bit different than previous years. However, the one constant similarity – at least as far as nomination predictions are concerned – is that I don’t predict the short films until the final list, as I have not seen enough of them (or seen any shortlists of submissions) to truly be confident that any 5 picks in those categories would be any more meaningful than a different 5. With all that out of the way, let’s dive right into it, shall we? Here are my updated predictions for the nominations at the 2021 Oscars. Best Picture:
Best Director:
Best Actor:
Best Actress:
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress:
Best Animated Feature:
Best International Feature Film:
Best Documentary Feature:
Best Cinematography:
Best Film Editing:
Best Production Design:
Best Costume Design:
Best Makeup & Hairstyling:
Best Original Score:
Best Original Song:
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Best Original Screenplay:
Best Visual Effects:
Best Sound:
Do you agree with these assessments? What do you think will be nominated for the Oscars this year? Are you anticipating any late-race upsets or surges? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
- The Friendly Film Fan Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan once again! I do apologize that I haven’t been as active on this blog as I would have liked over the past few weeks – I have been catching up on a bunch of movies from this year that I hadn’t seen yet, writing for Bitesize Review, and desperately hoping that the results of the U.S. Presidential election aren’t going to make me consider making a bid for Toronto, Canada at some point in the near future. (I pray it doesn’t happen.) Beyond all of that, plus working my day job, I haven’t had much time to squeeze in full reviews of a lot of things, or keep up with a lot of the movie news coverage beyond which movies have been getting delayed, and which movies are just now starting to ramp up production. But hey, we get a Spider-Man 3 teaser next month, so that’s nice! A fourth installment of Mini Reviews is pending, so keep an eye out for that, and more full reviews coming just as soon as I can get the time (as well as the official announcement of a very special new thing that I’ve been working on for months). So, the Oscars. I love them. Any time that anyone asks me what my favorite season is, the answer is and always shall be “Oscar season.” Normally, this would take place sometime between early October and the first week of January, but, y’know, *gestures loudly at everything*. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging all manner of arts industries across the world, and the movie industry existing underneath that umbrella, many of the films we expected to see by now have been delayed, whether indefinitely or to a future date sometime next year. This includes many of the larger movies which were expected to compete in more technical categories, such as Marvel’s Black Widow and Eternals, as well as heavier awards-season fare like Denis Villeneuve’s highly-anticipated adaptation of Dune and Daniel Craig’s final Bond film, No Time to Die. Before most of these moved, however, during the nationwide theatrical shutdown, the Academy had the insight to postpone the Oscars to the later date of April 25th, 2021, in order to give everyone a fair chance of competing, with the submission deadline for nominations moving to February 28th. Luckily, film festivals like NYFF and TIFF were quick on their feet to respond to these adjustments, and held largely virtual screenings with limited capacities for many of the films they had planned to show, although some festivals, such as Telluride and Cannes (two other major awards indicators), had to be cancelled anyway. This meant that although the Oscars are still pretty far off, many of the films that hoped to compete for them (and weren’t moved past the submission deadline) could be seen by critics and small audiences, and thus the image of an Oscar race, however slight, could begin to take shape. Several contenders, such as Florian Zeller’s The Father and Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland already have a good deal of heat behind them, and David Fincher’s long-awaited Netflix project Mank has just emerged as a major frontrunner as well, after screening for critics two days ago. With all this in mind, I figured now was as good a time as any to get started on The Friendly Film Fan’s Oscars coverage, and put out the first round of nomination predictions. A few notes before we begin: I can only use films that I know are meant to be releasing before the February 28th deadline for nomination consideration, so certain contenders in some categories, like Judas and the Black Messiah, are not listed because the film has been delayed to 2021 without a firm release date. There is also a highly likely scenario in which Wonder Woman 1984, which is currently listed as a prediction in the VFX category, is postponed past that submission deadline, and thus made unable to compete this year. These are not predictions for what the Oscars are definitely going to look like by April; these are ridiculously early predictions based on the data I have to work with right now. By Sunday, four major nominees could be moved to summer 2021. We’ll just have to wait and see. Also (and this really should go without saying), the Short Film categories are not included here, and won’t be joining the other predictions until the Oscars shortlists are released. Now, let’s get into it. Here are my Ridiculously Early Oscar Nomination Predictions for the Academy Awards of 2021! Best Picture:
Well, there they are, all my predictions for the 2021 Academy Award nominations! What do you think will be competing for 2020’s top movie prizes? Do any of these seem too far-fetched? Too light on nominations? Let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
- The Friendly Film Fan |
AuthorFilm critic in my free time. Film enthusiast in my down time. Categories
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