Land, the nondescript and forgettable title of Robin Wright’s directorial debut, has a Clint Eastwood-ish trailer. If you watch any movie directed by Clint Eastwood, it makes it look like it’s a Best Picture nominee. While many of these films earn an Oscar nomination, many more (The 15:17 to Paris, J. Edgar, Hereafter, Changeling, Invictus) not only do not but aren’t even worth a watch. Land is better than those previously mentioned films, but it likely will be just as unmemorable. It is by no means a bad movie. It is, however, a dime-a-dozen movie, and it certainly did not do its enthralling trailer any justice.
Nomadland (2020)
I listened to a podcast about Chloe Zhao’s (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider) Nomadland and how this might feel like a top ten movie in a typical year but maybe closer to the back five range rather than a front-runner for best film of the year. I agreed with that sentiment and wished I had said that myself. Like so much else associated with the year 2020, with a few exceptions, this year of films will quickly be forgotten. The fact that Nomadland is the clubhouse leader to win Best Picture at the time of this March 1st post seems incredible to me. I thought 2019 was a bad year, but it still produced memorable movies such as 1917, Ad Astra, and Parasite that will be remembered for years. While there are still a few movies I have yet to see that I think I’ll enjoy (most notably Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Trial of the Chicago 7), I have seen the other movies that likely will earn a nomination for Best Picture. It’s the weakest list I’ve seen in a long time, coming off a year in which I had said the same thing.
Palm Springs (2020)
Palm Springs, the Andy Samberg (NBC’s Brooklyn 99, Saturday Night Live) and Cristin Milioti (The Wolf of Wall Street, It Had to Be You) led comedy, was exactly the movie we needed during the summer of 2020. In a year with very few comedies (Borat Subsequent Movie will likely be the most memorable), this was a fun, unique movie that I’m sure would have broken up a dreadful summer. The problem was that theaters were mostly closed when this movie was released.
Minari (2020)
Suffering from similar fates as other 2020 films such as News of the World, Land, and Nomadland is Lee Isaac Chung’s breakthrough Minari. This movie tells a familiar story in a way that is unique but ultimately ineffective. I say that tongue-in-cheek because my favorite film of the year (at the time of this post) is News of the World, which fails to escape many of the traps these other three movies fall into. And that’s not even to say that News of the World is a great film. It’s a very good film that earned quite an affinity in a reasonably drab 2020.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
2020 was a year that felt like the world had turned itself upside down through events that we couldn’t have ever imagined. Despite that, a quiet story came about an age-old worldwide issue (one that could have been told in any year and still be applicable). I found Never Rarely Sometimes Always the most memorable, honest, and authentic film of the year.