2020 Review 1/4: Films

As usual I'm going to look back on the films, books, comics and television programs I most enjoyed in the last year. In the midst of all the terrible things in the world today a little bit of positive thought can't hurt. I let my streaming video apps lapse in 2019, thinking I'd be overseas for most of 2020. Still, thanks to streaming video at my work, through my public library's Kanopy account and a friend's gift of Disney+ I still saw quite a lot of movies.

1917 was the only movie I watched in the cinema during 2020. The attempt to create a 'single take' film is artificial, but adds to the film's suspense and sense of unease. It's in the Hitchcock tradition (ala Rope) and I quite enjoyed it.

Kanopy has a heavy emphasis on world cinema; some great international films I saw were Beauty and the Beast, the great French adaptation of the fairy tale; O Heroi, an Angolan film about a one-legged veteran and an orphan boy both trying to find a place in post-war Angola; The Loyal 47 Ronin, a great version of the Japanese historical incident; and A Separation, an Iranian film with a surprisingly compelling interpersonal conflict that kept me enthralled.

As a fan of classic cinema there aren't many great films left for me to see, but in 2020 I found a few notable ones: Intruder in the Dust, a surprisingly frank look at racism for 1949; Pygmalion, the fine 1938 adaptation of the play; and True Confession, a great screwball comedy which did a lot to help me glean why Carole Lombard was such a great comedienne.

I saw a number of great documentaries during 2020: I Am Not Your Negro on the life of James Baldwin; The Great Buster on the life of Buster Keaton; Hearts and Minds about the USA's pull out of Vietnam; A Time for Burning, a phenomenal picture about racial tension in Nebraska and the church's inability to confront the problem; Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann on the life of the great film composer; and Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles.

Some other strong films I saw were To Build a Fire, an adaptation of Jack London's story; the Disney sequels Toy Story 4 and Incredibles 2; Mr. Holland's Opus; Reginald Hudlin's bio-pic Marshall, which I sought out after Chadwick Boseman's death; the political film Game Change; and Hamilton (which I'll review on its own soon).

Tomorrow: Books