The AFI’s Best of 2020

Earlier this week, the AFI released their best movies and shows list for 2020.

The best movies are:

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

Judas and the Black Messiah

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)

Mank (Netflix)

Minari

Nomadland

One Night in Miami… (Amazon Prime Video)

Soul (Disney+)

The Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime Video)

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)

And the best shows are:

Better Call Saul (I believe Netflix has Better Call Saul, but it is not a Netflix show)

Bridgerton (Netflix)

The Crown (Netflix)

The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)

Lovecraft Country (HBO)

The Mandalorian (Disney+)

Mrs. America (Hulu)

The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

Ted Lasso (Apple)

Unorthodox (Netflix)

A Nightmare on Kel’s Street

I was talking with my friend Kathy Wednesday night about my love of horror movies and she mentioned the whole 31 scary movies in October challenge. Now, because I have a full time job and this blog and a podcast, I don’t know that I could definitely watch a movie a day and do everything else. But I could probably still do a whole bunch and maybe balance it out with some horror novels. (Or, I guess, start watching now and schedule them to post in October.)

But as we all know, I also don’t do well with following through on plans and if I say “I’m going to watch these 31 movies!” I’m going to immediately fail. So here are some horror movies I want to watch or rewatch, and maybe it’ll happen. We’ll see. Yes, I know there’s a lot more than 31, but I’m overplanning so something will stick.

1. Watcher in the Woods (remake)
2. Black Water: Abyss
3. House (super cheesy and directed by Steve Miner and produced by Roger Corman and Sean S. Cunningham)
4. CHUD (I feel like a bad horror fan for never having seen this)
5. Phantasm (same)
6. Southbound (I love anthology horror)
7. Super Dark Times
8. Relic
9. Deep Blue Sea
10. Deep Blue Sea 2
11. Deep Blue Sea 3 (this one is the only one of the franchise that’s ranked Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sequel that’s considered better than the first two installments)
12. She Dies Tomorrow
13. You Should Have Left
14. Pyewacket
15. Piranha (the original)
16. Piranha 2: The Spawning (directed by James Cameron)
17. The Critters franchise
18. Becky
19. Tigers Are Not Afraid
20. DeadTectives
21. Shirley
22. I See You
23. Land of the Dead
24. Gretel and Hansel
25. Villains
26. We Summon the Darkness
27. The Turning
28. Nightmare Cinema
29. Detention
30. Monster Party
31. One Cut of the Dead
32. Daniel Isn’t Real
33. The Dark
34. Grave Encounters
35. Ruin Me
36. The Witch in the Window
37. The House on Haunted Hill (original but I haven’t seen the remake in a long time, either)
38. Maximum Overdrive
39. The Hole in the Ground
40. The Crazies (remake)
41. Mercy Black
42. The Clovehitch Killer
43. Anna and the Apocalypse
44. Monster Squad
45. The Final Wish
46. The Golem
47. The Amityville Murders
48. You Might Be the Killer
49. Death House
50. Down a Dark Hall
51. He’s Out There
52. Incident in a Ghostland
53. Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Words
54. The Void
55. They Look Like People
56. Honeymoon
57. Hell House LLC
58. Ghost Stories
59. Rec
60. Smothered
61. My Bloody Valentine
62. Unsane
63. Tragedy Girls
64. A Horrible Way to Die
65. Demon House
66. The House of the Devil
67. The Exorcism of Molly Hartley
68. The Gate
69. Lost After Dark
70. The Hatred
71. It Comes at Night
72. Incarnate
73. Sleepwalkers
74. Night of the Creeps
75. Night of the Comet
76. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
77. 30 Days of Night
78. Greta
79. The Haunting
80. The Devil’s Candy
81. Let Me In
82. Silver Bullet
83. The Mummy
84. Freaks of Nature
85. Audition
86. Life
87. April Fool’s Day
88. Shut In
89. 28 Weeks Later
90. VHS
91. Chillerama
92. Digging Up the Marrow
93. Under the Shadow
94. Exeter
95. Abbatoir
96. The Wolfman (original)
97. Dolls
98. The People Under the Stairs
99. The Fog
100. Leatherface (because Lili Taylor)

Oscar reactions

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt. This isn’t exactly unexpected but he did a great job in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. His speech was great.

Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 4. I picked Missing Link but I loved Toy Story 4, so I’m not upset.

Animated Short Film: Hair Love. The only short I saw but I loved it.

Original Screenplay: Parasite! I said Knives Out but I’m happy to be wrong. I want Parasite to win everything.

Adapted Screenplay: Jojo Rabbit! Here’s the first real surprise of the night. I wanted Little Women to win but I’m not unhappy.

Live Action Short Film: The Neighbor’s Window. I didn’t see this, or any of them.

Costume Design: Little Women. So happy for this!

Production Design: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Yay!

Documentary Feature: American Factory. I strongly disagree but I think this gets Barack and Michelle Obama an Oscar. So I’m not super mad.

Documentary Short Film: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

Best Supporting Actress: LAURA DERN! So happy. I love her.

Sound Editing: Ford v. Ferrari

Sound Mixing: 1917

Film Editing: Ford v. Ferrari

Cinematography: 1917

Visual Effects: 1917

Makeup and Hairstyling: Bombshell. I am so happy; they deserve it.

International Feature: Parasite! I loved this movie so much. It was unexpected and wonderful.

Original Score: Joker. I agree with this; the score was excellent.

Original Song: The song from Rocketman. I really wanted “Stand Up” from Harriet to win because it was (a) a better song and (b) from a better movie.

Director: PARASITE! I am so happy for Bong Joon Ho. This is the best surprise!

Actor: Joaquin Phoenix. He deserves it.

Actress: Renee Zellweger. It’s not a surprise.

Picture: PARASITE

I’m so happy! This is a rare year when Oscar got it right.

Oscar ballot!

Most of these are safe bets, but I think that Parasite will win Best Picture. I think the Academy is going to choose to do something unexpected.

I also think Missing Link will beat Toy Story 4.

Jojo Rabbit

Jojo Rabbit is one of the AFI’s 10 best movies for 2019 and is nominated for Best Picture. Scarlett Johansson is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

It’s set during World War II and is about Jojo, a young boy whose imaginary friend is Hitler. (But a weird, goofy, friendly Hitler, which is completely jarring.) Then he learns that his mom is hiding a Jewish teenager.

It’s a weird and fun movie, and it deserves the acclaim it’s getting.

This has been a really good movie award season.

Joker

Joker is one of the AFI’s best movies of 2019 and is nominated for Best Picture, Director and Actor (which Joaquin Phoenix is expected to win).

This is an excellent movie but it’s also brutal. We see Arthur Fleck losing his mind (and his grasp is already tenuous at best) and it’s unbearable.

This movie will stay with me for a long time. I’m glad I saw it and it deserves all the acclaim. But…I’m going to hear that laugh for a while.

The Irishman and Ford v. Ferrari

Both are nominated for Best Picture. The Irishman is also one of the AFI’s ten best of 2020 and earned Best Director and two Best Supporting Actor nominations.

I liked The Irishman more than I expected to. It’s very long (“indulgent” is the word I kept using) but the second half is much better than the first. It’s about Jimmy Hoffa and what happened to him (or at least one account; I guess there are several stories, all different).

Ford v. Ferrari…well, the acting is great. It’s also very long (though a full hour shorter than The Irishman) and I can’t care about cars for two and a half hours. I didn’t know anything about the movie going in (I’d heard of Shelby Mustangs, because my uncle loves them) but I didn’t know who Ken Miles was or anything about Le Mans. I didn’t hate it, but this movie was definitely not for me. (I would’ve preferred Knives Out get nominated instead. Or Bombshell. Or Us.)

1917

1917 is one of the AFI’s 10 best of 2019 and is nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (and some down-ballot awards).

This is likely to win Best Picture and probably Best Director. I’m actively rooting for Best Director, and (while I want Parasite to win Best Picture) I’d be OK with it getting Best Picture.

1917 is brutal and unflinching. It’s an intense depiction of war and a great story well told. It’s not a genre I’m fond of, but I appreciate it. I’m not sure how many times I’d watch it but I’m glad I saw it once.

OscarPass (weekend before)

My mom and I watched Pain and Glory (Best Actor, Best International Feature), Parasite (Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature) and Marriage Story (Best Picture Director, Actor, Actress and Supporting Actress).

I really enjoyed all three movies, but loved Parasite and Marriage Story. In my perfect world, Parasite would win Best Picture and Marriage Story would win all three acting awards (I know it’s not getting Actor and Actress, but I thought both were amazing performances, especially from Adam Driver).

I thought that Marriage Story would be a lot sadder than it was (it’s not a happy movie, obviously, but I was expecting to be absolutely devastated and I wasn’t). Instead, it’s an absolute acting showcase and I’m glad it’s recognized by the Academy. It’s also one of the AFI’s 10 best of the year. (Parasite got a special recognition in that list, too.)

So Parasite. It’s completely unexpected and thought-provoking. I knew I’d like it and I really did. I don’t want to discuss it because spoilers.

All three were great and I’ll probably watch each multiple times. I’m working from home tonight today and tonight, I’m seeing 1917.

Best Documentary Feature

For the second year in a row, I wanted to watch all the movies that were nominated for Best Documentary Feature. They are:

American Factory (Netflix): I absolutely loved this movie. It’s very good and also an emotional roller coaster. There’s happiness and hope because the factory is reopening but also a very real sense of culture shock (the Chinese and the Americans have very different ideas of work-life balance and whether safe working conditions are important) and also rage (I am very pro-union; the Chinese businessmen and managers disagree). This is probably winning the Oscar and I am more than fine with that.

The Cave (available to buy on streaming): Watching this right after For Sama was not my smartest idea. Like For Sama, this centers around Syria and a hospital. We see a small group of doctors working in an underground hospital (literally–it’s underground, which is safer) trying to save lives with very few resources. Dr. Amani Ballour is struggling to save people but is clearly losing hope after constant trauma from life in Syria and from dealing with men who don’t think a woman should be a doctor.

The Edge of Democracy (Netflix): I enjoyed this movie, which is a very good mix of personal memoir and politics. My knowledge of global politics is not great, and so everything in here was new to me. It’s very interesting and accessible, even to people like me who are learning everything for the first time. It’s about the Brazil president’s corruption scandal, so it feels very timely.

For Sama (streaming on PBS’ website): If there is any justice, this is what would win the Oscar, but I’m pretty sure it won’t. I’m not sure there’s a strong enough word for much this movie affected me. It’s about a journalist and her husband (a doctor) and their young daughter. They live in Syria and this is an unflinching look at life in Aleppo. We see a lot of carnage, and I will admit that I paused the movie to make sure that Sama survived. This is one of the best and most powerful movies of any genre that I’ve ever seen.

Honeyland (Hulu): This is the first movie to be nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Documentary. This is easily the lightest of the five movies, and as it was also the last one I watched, that was much appreciated. But it’s also not particularly light. It’s about a beekeeper in a long line of beekeepers and the new neighbors who eventually destroy her livelihood. (Her family’s way is to take half the honey that the bees produce and leave the other half for the bees. Her neighbor opts out of that and, long story short, his bees kill hers for their honey.)

Ranking in terms of my preference:

American Factory

For Sama (the best, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to watch it again)

The Cave

Honeyland

Edge of Democracy

Ranking in terms of quality (these are all so close):

For Sama

American Factory

The Cave

The Edge of Democracy

Honeyland