I’ve finalized my grades and rankings for my personal 2020 movie season over at Letterboxd, so I decided to write down a list of my top 15 favorite films from the year accompanied by plot descriptions provided by the social cataloging site.
Note: Some top-tier 2020 awards contenders such as Judas And The Black Messiah, Minari, Nomadland, or The Father ended up not being counted as 2020 films for me as I did not have access to those movies until early 2021, and I wasn’t going by the Academy’s awards schedule for that particular season.
15. Small Axe (Film Anthology)
An anthology series of five stories looking at the lives of a group of friends and their families in London’s West Indian community from the late sixties to the early eighties.
14. The Trial Of The Chicago 7
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
13. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927.
12. One Night In Miami…
In the aftermath of Cassius Clay’s defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964 the boxer meets with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown to change the course of history in the segregated South.
11. Mank
Thirties Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.
10. Soul
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at The Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to The You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in The You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
09. Howl From Beyond The Fog
Set during the Meiji reformation era in a small village in Kyushu, Japan. The story revolves around a young boy named Izana and a blind woman named Takiri, the two encounter the large monster Nebula who since ancient times was feared as the god of lake Amenosagiri.
08. News Of The World
A Texan traveling across the wild West, bringing the news of the world to local townspeople, agrees to help rescue a young girl who was kidnapped.
07. Da 5 Bloods
Four African American Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam. They are in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. These heroes battle forces of humanity and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.
06. Emma.
In eighteen-hundreds England, a well meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends.
05. Another Round
Four high school teachers launch a drinking experiment - upholding a constant low level of intoxication.
04. Bacurau
Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.
03. Tenet
Armed with only one word, “Tenet”, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
02. The Vast Of Night
At the dawn of the space race, two radio obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.
01. Palm Springs
When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honor Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated as they are unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other.
