The screens looked different, but the films kept coming.
Here, our critics celebrate the greatest of our pandemic year.
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Why dont all movies just come out online?
they asked in those B.C.
(before COVID) years.
Who needs movie theaters?
We live in a world of many truths.
We cant say that we had a great time at the movies this year.
A great time is not a thing one has in 2020.
But we did see many, many great movies.
(Available to buy onAmazon.)
Its perfectly calibrated mixture of mischief and melancholy culminates in the most ecstatic ending of the year.
(Available to rent atAvalon Theatre.)
The film is lush-looking, poisonously romantic, and intentionally untethered from any one decade within the 20th century.
(Available to rent atAvalon Theatre.)
(Available onKanopy.)
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
Youre not his bang out.
The line, at once meant to reassure and shame, wounds like a knife.
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
It lays out a house party, from setup to early-morning aftermath, in layered, lushly cinematic detail.
Its not an idealized event theres drama and a burst of violence.
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
(Available onThe Criterion Channel.)
BilgeEbirisTop10MoviesoftheYear
10.Mayor
Its not easy being the mayor of Ramallah.
But you cant stop too long to dwell on any one thing.
Ribbon cutting ceremonies have to continue.
Sewage problems need to be dealt with.
Visiting dignitaries must be greeted.
Meanwhile, I cant even buy groceries without having a nervous breakdown.
(Available to rent onFilm Forum.)
(Available onNetflix.)
Some movies do none of these things, but still find a way to just plainsave you.
How does one quantify (or, god forbid, rank) such joy?
And yeah, maybe its not perfect … but its more perfect than you think.
Ive watchedEurovisionall the way through seven times now, and I notice wonderful new details each time.
When Im done writing this list, Im gonna go watch it again.
(Available onNetflix.)
And while the movie doesdeserve a big screenand demandsyour total attention(how novel!
And yeah,Im still listening to the score.
(Available onHBO Max.)
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
(Available onKanopy.)
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
In the triumph and tragedy of this one man, Marcello uncovers unsettling truths about human endeavor.
(Available to rent atAvalon Theatre.)
AngelicaJadeBastiensTop10MoviesoftheYear
10.Console Wars
You are free to read my list as a strict ranking.
But I prefer to look at it as a mixtape, guided by mood, emotion, obsession.
Its bright, sprightly reflecting the visual architecture of the games explored.
(Available onCBS All Access.)
(Available onKanopy.)
But what has always beckoned me to these shadowy narratives are its women.
But here she is granted a full range of humanity.
And thats not where the pleasures of the film end.
The production and costume design which take great pleasure in the 1970s setting are absolutely luscious.
The supporting performances are some of the films most effective and entrancing.
The twinkling piano score envelopes.
This is the kind of film that reminds me why I love crime dramas in the first place.
(Available onAmazon Prime Videoon December 11.)
InKindred,Charlottes (Tamara Lawrence) unwanted pregnancy is a portent for tragedies to come.
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
6.Shirley
I have always been attracted to madwomen.
The women who shirk societal mores while wearing silken gowns.
The women who are forced into the shadows.
The women who are just too much.
Its looser in form and more precise in emotions.
(Available onHulu.)
5.Another Round
Whats your relationship with alcohol like?
Is it a mild flirtation?
Or do you find the world becomes more beautiful when youre staring at the bottom of the bottle?
Keep an eye out for its ecstatic ending, in which Mikkelsens character dances and drinks with abandon.
(Available to rent atAvalon Theatre.)
I found all of this and then some watchingPossessors uncut version.
But this woman isnt quite herself.
Shes possessed by a corporate assassin of sorts (Andrea Riseborough).
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
But her presence pours gasoline on the fire already roaring between the couple.
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
She dances ecstatically, as if possessed.
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
ButLovers Rockstands as its crown jewel.
Curry goat and ackee and saltfish cook in the kitchen.
Silly Games by Janet Kay plays, at one point sung a capella by everyone on the dance floor.
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
Many of those selections appear above in our top 10 picks.
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
Color Out of Space
Look, all you really need to know about this trippy H.P.
(Available onShudder.)
Best experienced without knowing anything beforehand; Ive already said too much!
(Available onHulu.)
Birds of Prey
At first blush its easy to dismissBirds of Prey.
The plot is besides the point.
What matters is the visceral experience.
The costume design by Erin Benach is iconoclastic, drenching Harley in a confetti-and-caution-tape aesthetic.
(Available onHBO Max.)
(Available onThe Criterion Channel.)
This haunting movie transports you to another world and redefines home.
(Available onShowtime.)
(Available onHBO Max.)
(Available onShowtime.)
Its an anti-police procedural.
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onHBO Max.)
Annie SilversteinsBulldoesnt jerk you around.
It doesnt go for it.
(Available onHulu.)
What follows is the sort of movie that gets lost in the U.S. when life is normal.
(Available to rent onOutsider Pictures.)
Rarely does a directorial debut feel like such a master class in tonal control.
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
The premise may not be original, but what Wu does with it is.
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
Still, its hard to escape the sadness in this film, set amid both global and personal tragedy.
(Available onHulu.)
Back home, he was the leader of a small gang/dance crew known as Los Terkos.
This may prove difficult for some viewers.Im No Longer Heredemands your attention, and it merits your attention.
And the music and the dancing gradually becoming more mournful, expressing a profound homesickness are lovely to behold.
(Available onNetflix.)
Lucky Grandma
Is this … a comedy?
A heartwarming drama about an eccentric old lady?
But what ultimately makes it all work so well is Tsai Chins endearingly gruff performance.
Actress and director build a symphony out of Grandma Wongs grimaces and her glares.
(Available onShowtime.)
Director Andrew Ahn is slowly perfecting the former.
Ahn lets ideas and emotions linger but never underlines them and never tries to lead the viewer along.
Instead, he lets his actors and hence their characters just be.
(Available onShowtime.)
Constantly rewritten and nearly aborted multiple times, the film was never properly released.
(Available to rent onAmazon.)
Her work since has been equally powerful, andMr.
Jonesis a fine addition to her impressive body of work.
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onAmazon Prime Video.)
Maybe if it hadnt been released during an actual plague it might have felt like an abstract cinematic curio.
(Available onHulu.)
(Available onApple TV+.)
But the movie itself is not exploitative in the least.
Doucoure comes off as a far too sensitive director for that kind of polemic.
Her film is subtle, complex, and honest.
(Available onNetflix.)
Its full of grandstanding, speechifying, and self-righteousness, all of which absolutely rules.
And you know what?
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available to buy onAmazon.)
Thats not to say, however, that the social dimension takes a back seat.
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onNetflix.)
Its a thoroughly absorbing film, and a deeply nerdy one, filled with Tinseltown lore and political wonkery.
(Available onNetflix.)
(Available onApple TV+.)
The girl too has lost everything, twice over her birth family as well as her adopted family.
More than anything, its about undoing the illusory vestiges of civilization, privileging humanity over myth.
(In theaters on December 25.)
