Best of 2020 - End of Year Report

Yes, it's been a pretty cruddy year. Many cinemas closed for a bit, and some still are at time of writing. We were luckier here in Perth. There was a gap of around three months between visits to the cinema but I still managed to get to 29 films in the remainder. With streaming sites and more free time than expected, it was possible to see around 140 films in total in 2020. Take out the repeat viewings and there were around 100 films to whittle down to the best 10. So here, in descending order, they are. Fill your sandals, human movie lovers.

10. Archive (2020)

One of the films of the Revelation Festival, this is a cracking little futuristic tale of loss and grief in the AI age. First time director Gavin Rothery, working from his own script, serves up a belter.

9. Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020)

And here's another gem from Rev, this a doco on the life of the erstwhile Pogue's frontman. Director Julien Temple must have spent about a year in the edit suite - there's so much going on here. The frenetic pace doesn't allow any time to drift away and the format of 'boozy chats' works especially well with the subject. A craic-er.

8. Dheepan (2015)

This film by Jacques Audiard won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and though it's not one of his absolute best, it still manages to say something about the disenfranchised in an entertaining way. It's part social drama, part gang thriller and all class.

7. The Death of Stalin (2017)

Weird, very British look at said historical event, this comedy by Partridge alumni, Armando Ianucci keeps an odd grin on the mush for most of the duration. Aside from the murdery bits. Steve Buscemi as Nikita Krushchev? I'll have one of those, thanks.

6. Deerskin (2019)

This is one of the films that stayed with me most this year. It is fucking mental. Great turns from Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, with a jacket as the third protagonist. Bags of fun.

5. Collective (2019)

A brilliant documentary from Romania about a nightclub fire and the corruption and misery that follows. Director Alexander Nanau tunes this up like a noir-ish thriller and gives us two heroes to get behind, a journo and a government minister. A fantastic film, a must watch.

4. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

I don't usually use the word sumptuous but there it is. This film, directed by Céline Sciamma and starring Noémi Merlant and Adèle Haenel, glides along at its own pace and manages to keep you enthralled as to how things will pan out, all with very little fuss. The two leads are mesmerising and Sciamma shows her sublime talent here.

3.Honeyland (2019)

A moving, almost hypnotic doco about a wild honey gatherer in North Macedonia. Sounds a bit dull but the 'characters' are intriguing, and tension is built when a wandering family move into her virtually deserted village and eventually try to muscle in on her gig. A quiet masterpiece.

2. Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan's attempt at saving the cinema industry was all it should have been - big, ballsy, loud and exciting. It was also intricately fiddled, with plot points coming and going and the reverso-confusion stuff almost twisting itself in knots....before it all lands perfectly soundly. The kind of film that leaves you needing a breath AND asking questions.

1. 1917 (2019)

I think I knew when I saw this in January that it would take an absolute peach to knock it off top spot. Forget all the talk of the 'one shot' gimmickry, this would stand up as a near-perfect piece of filmmaking, even without Roger Deakins' peerless cinematography. It has one of the best sequences I've seen in films, not just in 2020, but since my birth. Best thing Sam Mendes has done by a long straw.

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