2020’s Gems, Treasures, and Everything in Between

With COVID-19 changing the path 2020 should have gone, there was still somehow no shortage of worthwhile films out there. Yes, theater chains have suffered—and the theatergoing experience cannot be replicated in one’s living room on even the biggest smart TV—but this was the first year in recent memory in which it was nearly impossible to keep up with all of the content available to stream. With all of that said, I saw roughly 163 films—thank you, Letterboxd!—and I still have a list of films I couldn’t squeeze in before making this list.

Here are some films that I caught up with and are worth your time. Remember, the grades don’t really matter!

Another Round (2020) An absorbing Danish dramedy about a booze-filled pact in the midst of a midlife crisis, Thomas Vinterberg’s Mads Mikkelsen-starrer “Another Round” counts as another win for director and actor after 2013’s “The Hunt.” Mikkelsen plays one of four high school teachers—all of them old friends—who get together one night and, while drinking a few bottles of wine, decide to challenge a scientific theory that man is born with a blood-alcohol deficiency. Drinking morning, day, and night, they track their progress to see how it affects them socially, professionally, and in their home lives. For a while, it makes them more productive and energized. Getting drunk has never looked less fun, but “Another Round” is bittersweet, tragic, and funny, ending memorably in a spirited toast and dance. Samuel Goldwyn Films, 115 min., not rated. Grade: B

The Assistant (2020) “The Assistant” is a timely but different kind of #MeToo story in the era of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases. In writer-director-producer-editor Kitty Green’s understated but fascinating film, the reliably excellent Julia Garner has never made “just being” more riveting as Jane, the assistant who does everything for a powerful-but-never-seen Weinstein-esque executive. Throughout her daily routine of brewing coffee, making photo copies, answering the phone, picking up earrings from the boss’ office, and coming up with excuses for the wife, Jane speaks up when she fears for one of the young, fresh-faced talents who’s put up in a hotel. Though some will find it as thrilling as watching paint dry, “The Assistant” impresses in how it is so observant and minimalist in the workplace mundanities yet never loses its grip. Bleecker Street, 87 min., rated R. Grade: B +

Bacurau (2020) A sociopolitical anthropological study-turned-siege thriller, “Bacurau” is quite a strange beast. Set in the near future, there is a small village named Bacurau in the Brazilian sertão that becomes invaded by Americans getting off on killing for sport. The group is led by Udo Kier, so you know nothing will end well. Sounds like “The Hunt,” right? Just add a psychotropic drug that the townspeople all take, a drone resembling a UFO, and Sônia Braga as an unpredictable doctor who deliciously threatens to feed the mayor’s penis to the hens. Combining arthouse and grindhouse sensibilities while still defying description, directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ “weird western” is unevenly paced, taking at least a half hour to find its footing, but once it does, it’s brutal and singularly demented. Kino Lorber, 132 min., not rated. Grade: B 

Driveways (2020) “Driveways” is a gently affecting little slice-of-life that slows down and makes one appreciate genuine human connection. It is a story about a young boy and an old man changing each other’s lives, but naturalistic director Andrew Ahn (2016’s “Spa Night”) and writers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen manage to never let it play as maudlin or mundane. Lucas Jaye is a revelatory old soul as the anxious 9-year-old Cody, who’s brought along with his mother Kathy (a wonderful Hong Chau) to clean out and sell her late hoarding sister’s home. Brian Dennehy finds a long-lasting tenderness in his final performance as neighbor Del, a widowed Korean War vet who ends up forming an unexpected friendship with Cody. Don’t let this delicate, lovely under-the-radar gem about kindness and compassion pass you by. FilmRise, 83 min., not rated. Grade: B +

The Father (2020) Florian Zeller’s “The Father” is one of the scariest and most devastating films to deal with the grueling ravages of age. Outside of Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins gives the most accomplished performance of his long, esteemed career as Tony, a man living in his London flat and living with dementia. Hopkins shares the screen with not only Olivia Colman, as Tony’s daughter Ann, but also Olivia Williams as a possible version of Ann, Imogen Poots as a helper, and Mark Gatiss and Rufus Sewell as versions of Ann’s husband. Tony can be charming, but his words can be hurtful, too, as he becomes more confused and disoriented as to who is who and what is what. This is based on the French play by director Zeller (whose work was adapted for the screen by Christopher Hampton), but as a film, it is brilliantly edited and never feels more stifling than it needs to be. It might make a traumatic double feature with Natalie Erika James’ “Relic,” but “The Father” so closely and uncomfortably captures the reality of both sides of caring for a parent who is deteriorating. Sony Pictures Classics, 97 min., rated PG-13. Grade: A -

Minari (2020) A24 does not disappoint with writer-director Lee Isaac Chung’s lovely “Minari.” An intimately scaled story about the American Dream, the film follows the Korean-American Yi family—father Jacob (Steven Yeun), mother Monica (Yeri Han), daughter Anne (Noel Kate Cho), and son David (Alan Kim)—as they move from California to Arkansas in a parked trailer home for a new start in the 1980s. The parents work as chicken sexers, while Jacob begins farming on a new plot of land. Monica isn’t so sure about their new life, as little David has a heart murmur and they live far away from a hospital. When Monica’s mother Soon-ja (a poignant, spikily funny Yuh-Jung Youn) soon comes to stay with them, her grandchildren introduce her to their love of “mountain water” (Mountain Dew). Aside from one final conflict that feels a little contrived, the film has no formally concrete plot; it’s a matter-of-fact slice-of-life that could have been called “Boyhood,” “Girlhood,” “Parenthood,” or “Grandparenthood.” Specific yet universal, “Minari” is eloquent cinema made with beauty, grace, warmth, and even humor. A24, 115 min., rated PG-13. Grade: B +

The Nest (2020) Nine years between exceptionally haunting feature debut “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and his second feature, Sean Durkin gets back to his directing efforts with “The Nest.” Jude Law and Carrie Coon are outstanding as Allison and Rory O’Hara, who are living the façade of a happy marriage when Rory moves his New York family to Surrey and spends money as if they have disposable income. Often shooting its subjects at a distance as if it were a play, this chilly, detached style works for a 1980s drama about marital turmoil. Points are also earned for spot-on musical choices, as well as once-normal details, like Allison and Rory’s daughter hitting record on her boombox when the Thompson Twins come on. An absorbing and expertly moody slow-burn, “The Nest” deserves to be spoken in the same sentence as all of the dysfunctional-family greats. IFC Films, 107 min., rated R. B +

Pieces of a Woman (2020) Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman” is tough at best, and grueling and masochistic at worst, but hardly an arm’s-length experience. An anxiety-inducing 24-minute single take of the titular woman’s home-birth scene that comes before the title card is impressively carried out, but that’s not the only virtuoso thing here. Vanessa Kirby is rawly, stunningly devastating as Boston woman Martha, who loses her baby during her intended home birth with an unexpected midwife substitute (Molly Parker). Starting with that fateful loss, the rest of Martha’s journey traces her year-long mourning where she becomes a hollow shell of her former self. It’s an internal and external performance hinged on Kirby’s thinking and feeling that may be inscrutable at times because losing a child at birth has to be one of the most terrifying and devastating incidents in a person’s life. Shia LaBeouf, as Martha’s short-fused, six-years-sober husband, and Ellen Burysten, as Martha’s mother, lend excellent support. A subplot involving Martha’s lawyer cousin feels superfluous, but it gives us Sarah Snook. “Pieces of a Woman” soberly observes brittle despair through Kirby’s performance, but there is hope in the face of tragedy. Netflix, 126 min., rated R. Grade: B

Saint Frances (2020) Alex Thompson’s “Saint Frances” is an indie in the truest sense of the word — it’s intimate, honest, warm, funny, and compassionate. Kelly O’Sullivan (who co-wrote the script) is a fresh-faced talent as Bridget, a 34-year-old server who says exactly what’s on her mind. Around the same time she goes through with an abortion, this self-proclaimed “millennial on the cusp” and “fallen Catholic” takes a job as a nanny for a lesbian couple’s first child, Frances/Franny (an adorably precocious Ramona Edith-Williams). Bridget and Fanny’s bond strengthens throughout the film, as does Bridget’s dynamic with one of the moms, Maya (Charin Alvarez), who’s suffering a bit from postpartum depression after the birth of Frances’ brother. O’Sullivan’s insightful script never judges any of the characters, including Maya’s workaholic wife, but actually listens to them. “Saint Frances” is a feel-good picture with zero false notes. Oscilloscope Laboratories, 106 min., not rated. Grade: A -

Sylvie’s Love (2020) Textured and gorgeous, writer-director Eugene Ashe’s “Sylvie’s Love” is like this year’s “Brooklyn.” A sweet, dreamy, and old-fashioned love story, the film begins in New York City, 1962, when TV producer Sylvie (a radiant Tessa Thompson) is stood up at the theater. When she runs into a former love, self-taught saxophone player Robert Halloway (NFL athlete-turned-actor Nnamdi Asomugha), the film goes back five years earlier to the time they fell in love in the summer of 1957. “Sylvie’s Love” can be soapy, and the destination isn’t really in doubt, but it’s a rich entertainment and a full, emotionally invested journey carried by both of its stars whose charisma and chemistry can be seen from space. Be prepared to swoon. Amazon Studios, 114 min., rated PG-13. Grade: B

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) Jim Cummings’ “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” is a refreshingly idiosyncratic full-moon procedural played with a straight face and an offbeat comic flavor that’s Coen Brothers-adjacent but distinctly its own. Writer-director Cummings also casts himself in the lead as John Marshall, a policeman in the small mountain town of Snow Hollow, Utah, with a lot on his plate. He’s a recovering alcoholic; he and his ex-wife share custody of a teenage daughter; and his sheriff father’s (the late, great Robert Forster) health is rapidly fading. To add one more complication, a very tall, serial-killing creature begins eviscerating a lot of local women every night. Cummings has a manic, quirky Jim Carrey quality, and as John, he can be off-putting but also quite funny. Comparatively, Riki Lindhome is a low-key savior as a fellow (and more competent) officer. Despite some jarring editing choices that don’t quite work during the harrowing (and very bloody) wolf attacks, Natalie Kingston’s picturesque, snow-blanketed lensing that belies an indie budget lends wintry atmosphere. “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” is a tonally fresh, genre-bending original with a lot of character that genre fans won’t want to sleep on. United Artists Releasing, 83 min., rated R. Grade: B

Bye, 2020!