Mr. Movie: Best and worst movies of 2020
Movies and how we see them radically changed in 2020.
And how they’re presented in the future will likely stay changed.
What won’t happen is theaters becoming obsolete as some predicted early in the pandemic. You will — however — see more movies streamed but theaters will still be the priority target of studios and producers.
COVID-19 has also done great harm to the industry of making movies. Most of the films I saw in 2020 were the B-list.
Like movies last year and years before, some are awful and some are good. As for the good ones, they’re just not the cream of the crop.
The studios, producers and investors aren’t going to release those films with the risk of having only a few people at a time see them.
So, here’s what I thought about what was released in 2020.
Year’s favorite
Rent-a-Pal was pure guilty pleasure. In fact, it’s so good that Jon Stevenson’s written and directed movie is also going to land on my all time favorite horror movie list.
The story is set in 1990. Brian Landis Folkins is David. To relieve the yawning loneliness that has become his life, David has joined a dating service. Sadly, the guy isn’t all that hot-looking and with an on-camera personality that adds up to zero, David hasn’t generated much interest.
One day while at the dating service office David picks up a VHS tape for a different service called, Rent-A-Pal. He starts watching the video. Andy is the guy on the tape.
He’s played by a bearded Wil Wheaton of “Star Trek: Next Generation” fame. During his monologue on the tape Andy asks rhetorical questions.
David answers them.
As the movie progresses, and as David slips toward madness, the rhetorical questions seem more like real conversation and the conversation gets deeper. Of course, Andy really isn’t conversing with David. Or is he?
Second best
Onward was such a sweet movie. One of Disney’s best.
Two boys have a chance to raise their late father from the dead and keep him for 24-hours.
Something goes wrong and only dad’s bottom half shows up. A wordless dad turns out to be one of the year’s best characters.
It also made me wish I could spend a day with half of my late father.
Rest of the best
Hillbilly Elegy — Ron Howard’s biopic of J.D. Vance’s early life features some of the year’s best acting. The best — however — comes from Glenn Close who is way, way overdue for an Oscar.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 — The year’s best ensemble acting is here. It had me reliving my Vietnam war protesting and surely will give Frank Langella a deserved Oscar.
Others: The King of Staten Island, Irresistible, Arkansas, The Gentlemen and News of the World.
Remakes
COVID also blessed us with the release of very few redos or remakes. The two I can remember are Downhill and Fantasy Island.
Downhill was a remake of a much better Swedish film, Force Majeure.
As horrifyingly bad as the 1970s TV show was, under the Blumhouse label, Fantasy Island managed to actually become a horror movie.
Super heroes
The best of the bunch is The Wonder Woman 1984 and its just so-so.
I didn’t see The New Mutants nor Sonic the Hedgehog.
The others — Freaky, Come Play, Nocturne, Evil Eye and The Invisible Man — pretty much sucked.
Documentaries
Early in the pandemic that’s about all that was being streamed by studios.
I’ve always loved documentaries and was blessed to see a few very good ones. They include Truth is Our Only Client: The Official Investigation into the Murder of John F. Kennedy and My Darling Vivian about country music star, Johnny Cash’s first wife.
Both films were incredible. I also was blessed to talk at length about the Kennedy assassination with a judge who was part of the Warren Commission investigation and with one of Cash’s daughters.
Disney and more
How about this? I ended up loving a live action Disney flick.
I haven’t been a big fan of the Disney’s push to turn some of its classic animated films into live action. Other than Beauty and the Beast none of them have worked. Mulan — surprise, surprise — did and it turns out to be a much better movie than the animated film.
One that ought not to have been made. Or put another way, was Charles Dickens a funny guy? Was he a romantic? Not really.
Shame on the producers of The Personal History of David Copperfield for turning one of Dickens’ greatest books into a rom com.
Worst of the year
Come Away — A fantasy billed as a children’s movie. It’s not even close. Worse, it’s a horrible movie for adults, too.
Wander Darkly — Marriage counseling after death? Interesting premise, great acting, terrible movie.
Tenet — A Christopher Nolan overreach that proves — like most movies involving time — that it’s time to stop making them.
Kajillionaire — A movie about scammers scams those of us who thought this great cast and a film written and directed by Miranda July would be worth catching. As it sits the cast is totally wasted in a horrible mess of a movie.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things — This was the very worst. At one time Charlie Kaufman was my favorite writer. When he’s on target no one tops Kaufman for cleverness. This one is clever in spots but bounces so many places that eventually you have no idea what’s going on. I suspect Kaufman didn’t either.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 11:52 AM with the headline "Mr. Movie: Best and worst movies of 2020."