This is probably going to be the most extensively prepared top 10 I'll ever do - this is the last year where I'll need to watch a film or two a week for radio commitments as my 2XX gig has wrapped up, and I don't have a film-centred gig lined up to replace it at the moment. For better or worse, I'm applying the same rules I have previously, so films are included in 2020 if they've had a general release in Australian cinemas (i.e. outside of festivals or one-off screenings) - and despite cinemas being closed in Canberra for three months, I still got in over 100 films. For full listings of everything I saw (old, new, streaming, cinema, festivals, whatever) you can look at my letterboxd account at https://letterboxd.com/simbot/ - which is usually updated quicker than this website - you can use that if you're wondering "why didn't you consider XYZ"
Baby Teeth - A great tale of adolescence, teenage indulgence, and making the best of a limited time - I'd seen the theatre version of this almost a decade ago but this betrays none of its theatrical origins - it's up close and lively and has a great cast telling an emotionally rich story
A Beautiful Day in the Neigbourhood - Once upon a time I had an aversion to Tom Hanks in any role that wasn't a CGI cowboy. That time has past, partially due to roles like this -where the sincerity isn't overdone, the breakthroughs are earned and the ensemble are all given their spaces to shine. Made my grinchy heart grow three times bigger
David Byrne's American Utopia - This is a damn beautiful recording of a stunning broadway concert, making a virtue of simple stylish design and choices - David Byrne with the assistance of Spike Lee delivers visual and sonic joy in a gorgeous package that plays classic songs in a here-and-now context that gives it even more life.
The Invisible Man - Leigh Whannel follows up his sublime "Upgrade" with an even better horror thriller - taking HG Welles classic novel concept and bringing it absolutely up to date through switching the protagonist and doubling down on empathy. It's startlingly smart, great at exploiting screen space and it goes delightfully over the top in all the right places
The Lighthouse - A tight story for two actors, Willem Dafoe and Robert Patterson, alone in a lighthouse with only some menacing seagulls and something mysterious to accompany them - this is a simple story of how men drive one another nuts, given gorgeous treatment as the isolation leads to the men turning on each other and themselves in ways both brutal and amusing and ultimately terrifyingly surprising.
Little Women - I admit I've never seen any earlier versions of this nor read the books, but this one grabbed my attention, using four great actresses as the March sisters dealing with the challenges of civil-war-era Massachusetts and their hopes, expectations and eventual choices, judging none of them and simultaneously telling the story and critiquing its assumptions in a finale that made this a film that'll be on my rewatch queue shortly.
Nomadland - An examination of a life after everything falls away, Frances McDormand provides a great central performance as a woman who's left behind after her husband's death and her town collapses after the death of its key industry, and her attempt to survive with minimal ties around her - how she gets support from those around her, through small jobs living paycheque to paycheque through the kindness of strangers, always keeping a slight reserve to avoid emotional entanglement as much as she can. It's a film very much of the moment, real and true and heartbreaking and engaging.
Promising Young Woman - A spectacular film with a great central performance and cleverly cast support, looking at the way women do and don't survive after male violence - it's basically a rape-revenge movie without any of the exploitative elements and with wit, intelligence, incisiveness, gorgeously shot, performed and scripted. It uses every weapon in its arsenal to point out the price of casual dismissiveness of women's mistreatment, and never lets the audience off the hook.
Ride your wave - An anime delight, a romance between a firefighter and a surfing oceonographer which becomes far stranger and more delightful as the plot develops, with a complete earworm of a song in it that delighted me completely.
Shaun The Sheep - Farmageddon - a ridiculous almost-silent comedy about a farmer, a dog, several sheep and the cute alien that disrupts their community in several delightful ways. Goofy and spoofy and Aardman at their best, this gave me big grins from ear to ear.
Near misses - First Love, Freaky, Monos, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Possessor.
Woulda been under consideration if I'd included streaming - Da 5 Bloods, Disclosure, Palm Springs, Soul
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