The Best 2020 Movies — Bright Lights in a Dark Year

BEST MOVIES OF 2020

20. Tenet

Sofia Coppola’s latest effort shows a father and daughter, played by Bill Murray and Rashida Jones respectively, who team up to try to catch her husband in an act of infidelity. Their schemes escalate as her father continues putting ideas in her head, causing her to question why she listens to him in the first place. 

On the surface, the film has a plot that seems like it would be more at home on a sitcom than a serious film. However, Coppola manages to find the minutiae of what it means to be torn between your father and your husband, particularly when a father has such a dynamic personality. No one wants to believe their parent or spouse is fallible, and the movie portrays the alienation that happens when you get stuck between those two extremes. 

BEST 2020 MOVIES LIST

17. Time

Time may just be one of the most important documentaries to come out in recent memory. It follows Sibil Fox Richardson, an abolitionist who’s fighting for the release of her husband from jail, who’s currently serving a 60-year prison sentence. The movie highlights how their children have had to grow up without a father and how ruthless the criminal justice system in the United States truly is. 

The prison industrial complex has ruined the lives of countless (and predominantly Black) men in the country. Through beautiful black-and-white footage, the movie questions whether this system truly makes society safer or if we’re still living with the remnants of slavery. 

There are plenty of break-up movies, but few get under your skin as well as Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. The film follows a woman who considers breaking up with her boyfriend of seven weeks while they go on a trip to visit his parents. 

It’s the movie equivalent of watching someone unravel at the hands of neurosis. There are no answers here that help illuminate the human condition. In fact, after you watch it, you may find yourself more in the dark than ever before. But it’s a film that sticks with  you and forces to grapple with your own existential shortcomings. 

Cassie was wronged by men in the past, so she seeks out on an epic revenge quest to right various wrongs. While the plot synopsis may sound pretty straightforward, Promising Young Woman takes its central conceit in new, unexpected directions, making for something that has ample bite. 

The #MeToo movement from several years ago really upended Hollywood, and various films over the last few years have attempted to grapple with the sins of the powerful. However, few movies have truly wrestled with this idea as effectively as this one. It truly doesn’t pull any punches, and while it occasionally delves into a heightened reality, it somehow never feels like it’s exaggerating the very real threat women have to deal with on an almost-constant basis.

Death is a sensitive subject, especially when it comes to discussing the topic with loved ones. Kirsten Johnson’s father, suffering from dementia, doesn’t have long to live, so in this documentary, she stages various scenarios where her father “dies” to help her cope with the inevitability. 

There really is no other documentary like this. It’s part-hilarious and part-depressing. By poking fun at death, Kirsten and her father are able to make the situation seem less scary. It doesn’t make the future any less scary, but it at least gives them both some closure in knowing that life will go on when he eventually passes. Plus, the two of them created plenty of fond memories Kirsten can enjoy for the rest of her life. 

Palm Springs takes a classic rom-com set-up and infuses it with a science-fiction twist. Nyles and Sarah get caught in a time loop on the day of Sarah’s sister’s wedding. As such, they relive that day over and over again, starting off by engaging in nihilistic tendencies before eventually attempting to find a way out of this conundrum. 

In a year where every day seemed to blend together with the next, no film exemplifies 2020 perhaps as well as Palm Springs. While most people will be familiar with the formula from Groundhog Day, this film puts its own unique spin on it, showing how we can all find meaning within the chaos. 

The Invisible Man is perhaps the best Universal monster reboot of the 21st century. Cecilia finds herself in an abusive relationship, and after she escapes, she discovers her abuser has “died.” Only she believes he’s not actually dead, and instead, he’s turned invisible to ruin her life and bring her back to him. 

The opening sequence is one of the most brilliantly-filmed things in 2020. Without any dialogue, you immediately understand the situation Cecilia is in and what the stakes are. It’s a film a lot of people can unfortunately relate to as there are plenty of abusers who are willing to resort to gaslighting to make you believe you’re crazy when you can see more clearly than anyone else. The titular character may be the monster Cecilia has to fight in the film, but the true monster is how prevalent this story is in modern society. 

Sound of Metal follows a heavy metal drummer who loses 80 percent of his hearing while on tour. He also happens to be a recovering heroin addict who has built his life around structure, so when his life is thrown for a loop, he checks himself into rehab and learns to accommodate his new disability. 

Again, the sound design helps bring you into the world presented by the film. Even in total silence, you can pick up on all these nuanced details of Ruben’s life. And it’s all bolstered by a mesmerizing performance from Riz Ahmed.

Soul is arguably the most philosophically-interesting Pixar film ever. The movie follows Joe Gardner, a music teacher with aspirations to become a big-time jazz musician. However, when his life is unexpectedly cut short, his soul must find a way back to its body, which takes him on a spiritual journey in learning what it truly means to be alive. 

Soul just feels different from other Pixar animated films. While it’s child-friendly, it genuinely feels like it was written for adults in mind and children could just come along for the ride. After all, the disillusionment of wondering what you’re doing with life and what you would even do after achieving your goals is something that seems like it would go over a kid’s head. But then again, kids are smarter than you think, and leave it to Pixar to refuse to dumb things down for the next generation of moviegoers. 

Minari turns its attention to a Korean-American family that settles down in rural Arkansas in search of the American Dream. Things are further thrown for a loop when the family’s sly grandmother decides to move in with them, completely upending the normal family dynamic. 

There are macro- and micro-level themes present throughout Minari. On the macro level, it’s about what it means for a family of immigrants to assimilate into the United States. On a micro level, the story focuses on what it means to assimilate into one’s own family. While the film may take place in the 1980s, what it has to say about immigration is just as pertinent today.

Based on the August Wilson play of the same name, this film shows what happens during a single recording session involving legendary singer Ma Rainey and her bandmates. Trumpeter Levee has big aspirations, and it’s these dreams that often get him into contention with his fellow performers. Truths get revealed as tensions continue to escalate throughout the film. 

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a faithful adaptation of the stage play, but thanks to legendary performances from Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. The locations are minimal, but those two, along with the rest of the immensely talented cast, are able to infuse an energy like no other into every scene. 

Never Rarely Sometimes Always came out early in 2020 and is one of the most tender films on this list about a sensitive subject. It follows a 17-year-old girl who discovers she’s pregnant, so she and her cousin travel out-of-state for an abortion. The film deftly shows what young girls who want to get an abortion without parental consent have to go through and the numerous hurdles that stand in the way for the medical procedure. 

There isn’t a ton of dialogue between the two leads. Instead, their bond is often shown in glances and the way they hold one another’s hands. They don’t need to spend a ton of time outwardly ruminating on the subject of abortion. It’s just treated as something that needs to be done, which is a refreshing change of pace from how the subject is normally portrayed in pop culture. 

First Cow has had a lot of awards buzz since it debuted to general audiences earlier in 2020. The western-drama takes place in the 1820s Northwest where two hunters have big dreams of striking it rich. Part of their plan involves using someone else’s prized dairy cow.

The movie functions as a beautifully-crafted allegory about what it means to be an American. Dealing with themes of hope and ambition, First Cow shows a director at the top of her craft and shows how the Western is still alive and well if you have the right story to go along with it.

Nomadland is a beautiful portrait of what it means to leave society behind, directed to perfection by Chloé Zhao. It follows a woman in her 60s who lost everything she had in the 2007-2008 recession. As such, she ventures into the unknown with a group of nomads, traveling across the western United States in search of meaning and purpose. 

A common theme that came up in our rankings of the best films of the 2010s was how many films dealt with economic anxiety. The 2007-2008 recession affected millions of Americans, and many movies over the next few years tried to depict this anxiety on film. It’s been over a decade since that time, and it’s abundantly clear that for a significant portion of the population, recovery still hasn’t adequately arrived. 

Nomadland shows a side of life, with real nomads in the cast, depicting what it would mean to abandon what we’d consider to be the typical life. It also suggests there’s another way than just the hustle, bustle, and grinding that’s come to define capitalism. If Nomadland is any indication, we’re in for some incredible works of art going into the 2020s.