Jacob Mouradian’s Top 10 Films of 2020

5. Spontaneous

An explosively gory take on the emotional turmoil that is adolescence, as well as the seemingly unrelatable trauma people collectively experience in the face of an unprecedented event. Brian Duffield’s directorial debut manages to be witty, but not in a disassociated way that would condescend toward his teenage audience. Likewise, he manages a very good horror-comedy balance that despite its extremes remains emotionally sincere throughout. Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, and Hayley Law all give terrific headlining performances, and Joseph Trapanese’s ambient score adds its fair share of the tender and the terror.

You can read my full review of the film here.

4. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

The Western capitalist reflection of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days’ Eastern Bloc dictatorship, exposing the common thread of systemic misogyny inherent in modern-day political systems. Eliza Hittman’s film is an unflinching look at the bureaucratic hurdles American women – and in this particular case, teenage girls – have to go through just to achieve bodily autonomy, which subtly exposes the hypocrisy of the American dream and our infatuation with free will. Autumn and Skylar (portrayed by Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder, respectively) may defensively reflect the grayness of their lives back out onto others, but their strong bond of friendship ensures their mutual protection and moral strength as they navigate a world that was never built for them.

You can read my full review of the film here.

3. The Invisible Man

Leigh Whannell reworks Universal’s troubled Dark Universe to a smaller scale, taking the “Invisible” out of the supernatural realm and making it more of an allegory for both domestic abuse and the invasiveness of the Information Age. While that make it sound like it could be even more of a mess than its predecessor, Whannell doesn’t allow Cecelia’s struggles to be made into a high-concept gimmick – nor, on the other hand, for the film to become some sort of technophobic screed. The invisibility device is instead there to remind us to remain vigilant of insidious horrors in others’ lives as well as our own ­– even if we can’t see them – while also acting as a much-needed diatribe on the persistence of misogyny within the tech(-bro) world.

You can read my full review of the film here.

2. Da 5 Bloods

For the past four decades Spike Lee has been one of most distinct and provocative voices in American cinema, and Da 5 Bloods is evidence that that’s still the case. Lee and his co-writers Kevin Willmott, Danny Bilson, and Paul De Meo elucidate the troubling relationship between Black identity and American history, which in turn reveals the intergenerational trauma spurred on by both racism and war. The Bloods are but five forgotten fighters from a failed war, taking their last chance to stake a claim at the fame and glory they were initially denied. As with BlacKkKlansman Lee might be a bit too eager to draw connections to modern-day conservative extremism, but it works as more than just a call-out given its complex insinuations with Paul’s character and his relationship to his son – whose actors, Delroy Lindo and Jonathan Majors, respectively, lead a stellar ensemble cast with knockout performances (and a particular scene which may be the most anxiety-inducing, tear-jerking one of the year). And R.I.P. to Chadwick Boseman, in his spectacular penultimate role.

1. The Quarry

Films as intimate, introspective, and confident in its vision as The Quarry are all the more unexpected in a landscape inundated by tentpoles and other studio filler, so whenever they spring up they should be cherished as the blindsiding sucker punch that they are.

Director Scott Teems allows the film’s mysteries and the characters’ deceptions to unfold at their own slow pace, and his smooth handling of it further bolsters the film’s dark sense of ambiguity. By committing so wholeheartedly to this construct Teems entrusts his audiences to fill in the blanks and make their own moral judgments, which really abets The Quarry’s neo-noir western aims. It also provides what should be a star-turning lead role for supporting regular Shea Wigham, who fills his mysterious preacher role with gritty, pathetic dread.

It’s Night of the Hunter by way of The Club, as filtered through the Americana-doused eyes of Jeff Nichols … and wow, does it pack a wallop.

You can read my full review of the film here.

Honorable Mentions

Makoto Shinkai continued his stellar animation run with Weathering with You, while Quentin Dupieux made one his most delightful absurdities in years with Deerskin. Justin Kurzel managed to get out of his Assassin’s Creed slump with True Story of the Kelly Gang, and Robert Zemeckis returned to his campy side with his new take on Roald Dahl’s The Witches. Feels Good Man and Totally Under Control were timely and competent docs, and both Nocturne and The Gulf of Silence were laudable small-scale horror efforts. Charm City Kings was a coming-of-age drama with enough camaraderie and on-screen chemistry to carry a whole series if it wanted to, and had I actually managed to catch in before 2020 was up Soul could have very well made the cut.

2020 Films I Have Not Seen

Film-bro magnates Christopher Nolan and David Fincher have managed to allude me in my post-college years, so I completely missed out on Tenet and Mank. Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology is the primary reason I regret no longer paying for Amazon Prime, but I suppose Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal is a close second to that claim. I also missed out on A24 darlings First Cow and Minari, and I’ll have to wait until the wide release this coming year to see Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland. Streaming staples such as I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Palm Springs, Wolfwalkers, Happiest Season, and The Trial of the Chicago 7 also managed to bypass me.

Leave your thoughts on Jacob Mouradian’s Top 10 Films of 2020 below in the comments section. Want up-to-the-minute notifications of new top ten films? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, and Flipboard.