Callie's Top Ten Movies of 2020

It’s become really easy for many to say that 2020 was a bad year for film because of, well, every other thing about 2020. Yeah, the pandemic severely limited the amount of films released this year and left an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, but, uh, let's not focus on that right now… The bright side is that we got some really great films in 2020, despite everything. You just had to seek them out even harder than before, but it was always worth the struggle.

I mean, I’m still feeling compelled to include some honorable mentions, so you know I watched plenty of great things! My rapid-fire 11-15 of the year are: Bacurau, The Invisible Man, Soul, Let Them All Talk, and Hamilton. And I really, really struggled with leaving them off the full list!

(Also, it’s worth noting before we dive into my list I’m only including things that are actually available to the public in 2020, not the start of 2021. So, films like Minari and Nomadland will have to wait until I’ve seen them. Same goes for One Night in Miami, which just barely missed that 2020 cut off.)

One quick special mention: Small Axe

Steve McQueen’s miniseries on racism in 1970s Britain is a set of five remarkable films, many of which would be in this countdown if I counted them separately. There’s so much going on here, from the compelling courtroom drama of Mangrove to the deeply euphoric, experiential depiction of Black joy in Lovers Rock. Systemic racism is a hot topic these days, in political discourse and in film, and the fresh perspective McQueen gives on these same issues existing so profoundly in Britain is incredibly enlightening and educational to an American, and especially so to a white one. Each entry in Small Axe moved me in different ways to keep fighting against these racist systems within our society. (Small Axe is streaming on Amazon Prime.)

Now, onto the list of rad movies I saw in 2020!

10.  Another Round

Thomas Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen’s latest collaboration is, granted, a little predictable and by-the-numbers, but damn if it isn’t exquisitely crafted in almost every way. The tale of these friends experimenting with maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood to improve their work and lives perfectly highlights both the bright side and the dark side of drinking and, well, life in general. There’s joy and despair, confidence and embarrassment. Mikkelsen is doing some of his best work as a normal, everyday high school teacher, and, boy, he’s nearly transcendent in that final scene for the ages. Another Round is a perfect encapsulation of the ups and downs of life, all shown through the dizzying lens of an abundance of booze. (Another Round is available for rental through virtual cinemas and other rental streaming services.)

9.  Swallow

This is the kind of film that sinks or swims on its lead performance, and Haley Bennett is more than up to the challenge. Her performance grounds the hard-to-swallow (pun fully intended) concept of pica for those of us who once thought they could not ever conceive of why on Earth someone would have this kind of issue. Carlo Mirabella-Davis’s directorial debut is one of remarkable empathy and understanding, and these feelings shine through from the very start, when the setting is the alienating minimalism of extreme wealth, all the way to the ending, when Hunter (Bennett) rejoins the lower-middle-class life from which she came. Swallow is deeply moving and earned a special annual award I didn’t even realize I was mentally giving out: The Movie I Had to Discuss in Therapy. (Swallow is streaming on Showtime.)

8.  Palm Springs

It’s so, so rad that I can put a movie that starts with a Lonely Island Classics logo on my top ten of the year and that it absolutely deserves to be here. Palm Springs is a time-loop movie, à la Groundhog Day, but instead of being about one bad dude becoming good, it’s about two bad people finding each other and becoming…slightly less bad. Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, and JK Simmons play these scumbag characters with fully-committed performances. In their journey, they have to find meaning in their repetitive existence and accept their past wrongs. It’s all about embracing the uncertainty of the future and choosing to be hopeful in spite of everything that tells you not to be. In having such a timely message, Palm Springs became one of the first movies that felt accidentally perfect for the time into which it was released: a reminder of the joy of living, even in the roughest times and circumstances. (Palm Springs is streaming on Hulu.)

7.  First Cow

Kelly Reichardt is a filmmaker known for her slow, contemplative works, and First Cow is no exception. It’s a lovely tale of a friendship between two driven loners in the dog-eat-dog world of America in the 1800s. They both have dreams to reach cities and open businesses, but in a time where one had to risk their life to travel for weeks and weeks, these things are easier said than done. The relationship at the core of First Cow is a warm and genuine depiction of friendship between men, and it's genuinely heartwarming and lovely. It's a warm hug of a movie, but with a deeply melancholy soul. That combination is as soothing and calming to me as a nice warm cup of tea. (First Cow is streaming on Showtime and is available for digital rental.)

6.  Da 5 Bloods

There’s just so much going on in Spike Lee’s latest narrative film that it’s honestly a little dizzying to even think about trying to capture it all in this short little paragraph. It’s an adventure film and a war film, but one that turns a deeply critical eye on those very things. Granted, we’ve all seen many anti-Vietnam-War films, but none quite like this. Lee lays bare the ramifications on both Vietnam and America, but unlike many of those other films we’ve all seen, this is the ramifications on Black Americans. Of people who fully know they’re fighting on behalf of a country that doesn’t fight for them. Even with all that dense thematic stuff going on, though, Lee never loses track of the treasure-hunting adventure element of this whole thing, and the result is a damn entertaining adventure flick on top of all that thought-provoking analysis. We’ve all been talking about Delroy Lindo’s performance in this film all year, and that’s for good reason, but this whole cast is on fire. Combining their talents with a smart script is a recipe for a really great film that makes you wish you could've seen it in a theater. (Da 5 Bloods is streaming on Netflix.)

5.  Kajillionaire

I went into Kajillionaire relatively blind. Sure, I’d seen a trailer or two, but I didn’t know much about what I was really getting into. It looked like a heist-ish film, but I wasn’t familiar with the previous directorial work of Miranda July. So, while many films have kept me guessing with twists and turns in their story, Kajillionaire just kept me guessing on just what kind of film it was even aiming to be. Yeah, there’s the conning to get by and all the deception that comes with that, but there’s also a distressing family drama here. And then there’s drops of quirky humor, moments of existentialism, and a wonderful romance that left my heart all warm and fuzzy. But all of those things come together into something coherent and beautiful and so, so unique. I adored this film and can’t wait to dive deeper into July’s work. (Kajillionaire is available for digital rental.)

4. Promising Young Woman

Emerald Fennell’s feature debut is one of the gutsiest films I’ve seen this year in almost every single regard. Every choice feels bold, and all those risky decisions pay dividends upon dividends. (Bo Burnham as a romantic lead singing along to a Paris Hilton song with Carey Mulligan? Yes, please, thank you for this thing I didn’t even know I needed.) And yeah, I know there have been a lot of movies and shows that have come out in the wake of the #MeToo movement to the point that it can feel overwhelming, but the vibrancy, urgency, and murky morality of this one make it something utterly fascinating. Carey Mulligan walks a tightrope with her performance and does so perfectly, never tipping too far one way or the other. It’s a difficult film (and performance) to discuss without feeling like I’m giving too much away, so suffice it to say that it’s worth watching as blind as possible to make your own decisions about the many twists and turns the film takes. (Promising Young Woman is in theaters and available for early access rental.)

3. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

There have been so many great films that try to explain the many difficulties and complexities of abortion, but few have handled them with as deft and delicate a hand as writer-director Eliza Hittman. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is the story of seventeen-year-old Autumn, who lives in Pennsylvania and needs an abortion. We don’t know why, and we are never told why because this is simply not the kind of film to give such easy answers. This is a film that trusts the audience to fill in the blanks of Autumn’s story with answers buried in long, difficult silences, gazes shared between young women, and small gestures of kindness that cannot come close to fighting back the trauma of their experiences. And their trip to New York City is certainly full of that. Men become, at best, an obstacle to overcome, and at worst, the villains in this story. Their mere presence in a scene is a threat, and you can feel the fear deep in your gut. Even so, is there catharsis once the procedure is complete? Of course not. The daily struggles are still there, waiting to return. Abortion isn’t some magical cure-all. Even under the easiest circumstances, it’s still trauma, still an aftermath full of grief and mourning. There is nothing easy about watching this film, but every single second practically vibrates with urgency. (Never Rarely Sometimes Always is streaming on HBO Max.)

2. David Byrne’s American Utopia

I mean…this shouldn’t be surprising. After all, I reviewed this for the site, and it was pretty dang positive. This is the spiritual sequel to one of my favorite movies of all time, Stop Making Sense, and it bangs pretty much just as hard. And on top of that, I went to the touring version of this show so…it’s basically impossible for me to be objective about this film. It’s a bunch of songs I absolutely love being played loud as hell by a dancing band and miniature drumline. And on top of that, it’s got all kinds of great visual flair and little signature directorial choices; it’s Spike Lee’s creative fingerprints pressed over David Byrne’s, a combination that results in cinematic euphoria for one Callie Smith. (David Byrne’s American Utopia is streaming on HBO Max.)

1. Sound of Metal

No film this year moved me quite the way Sound of Metal did. Even at home with all the distractions that can entail, I found myself fully immersed in the world of Ruben, a heavy metal drummer who suddenly finds himself virtually deaf. Riz Ahmed gives the best leading actor performance of the year as Ruben, slowly transforming the agony and despair of something so life-changing into an understanding and peace that’s truly breathtaking to behold. It’s a lead performance that runs the gamut and deserves to be in a film that’s firing on all levels in every single way, and, luckily, director Darius Marder is more than up to the challenge. The sound design of this movie is on another level, and it submerges you into the choppy waters of Ruben’s experience. From the first moment the sound cuts out, to the first time a cochlear implant is switched on, you're left just as distressed as Ruben, at the loss of something that has been so instrumental to your agency as a human being. But, while the sound and Ahmed’s performance put you in that place of distress, the script and Paul Raci’s performance as Joe are there to remind you to be calm. That your agency is still fully intact. That disabilities like deafness don’t have to be fixed. That there’s peace in the silence. That the stillness is where God lies.

And any movie that reminds me of something so deeply profound as that deserves its spot as the best of the year. 

(Sound of Metal is streaming on Amazon Prime.)