Nick Kelly’s Top 10 Films of 2020

5. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

I love theatre as well as film, and this film plays as theatre on film. You’re in the room with these great characters as they struggle through a hot day in Chicago trying to record an album. This is the second August Wilson play brought to the screen by Producer Denzel Washington following 2016’s Fences and it holds it’s own to that Oscar winning film. Viola Davis is a force of nature, and Chadwick Boseman in his last film performance is so powerfully raw it hurts to watch. The themes that August Wilson writes into this piece dealing with racism, oppression and religion are as biting now as they were in 1927 when this film takes place.

4. Soul

Pixar delivers their most adult film yet. Tackling themes of purpose and passion and how we live our day to day lives, this may not slap with the kids as much as Monsters Inc., but for any of those who have chased a dream or felt lost, Soul puts you right in the pocket and shakes you up like a Charles Mingus funky bassline.

3. Wolfwalkers

Cartoon Saloon, who is firmly planting themselves as the Studio Ghibli of Ireland, delivers another stunning, beautifully animated film filled with enough heart to make you howl at the moon. Don’t sleep on Wolfwalkers slipping in and stealing the Oscar for best animated right from under Pixar’s Soul-nose.

2. Another Round

Mads Mikkelsen leads a brilliant cast of Danish actors in this sometimes hysterical sometimes heartbreaking always fascinating look at four friends who are caught in a rut and looking for a way out. They find it, and then some. A perfect film for 2020 or even better: 2021, it has the weight of life behind it, but also a hopefulness that the future will bring something better, as long as you are brave enough to face it.

1. Cats

WHAT!? you say? HAVE YOU SEEN TENET you scream? PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE?! you cry? HAVE YOU SEEN DA 5 BLOODS?! HAVE YOU SEEN TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7?! HAVE YOU ACTUALLY SEEN CATS????!?!? Let me explain. 2020 was a tough year for most of us, and the idea of watching something that would make me cry was tough, most times if I watched a drama it was either for work, by mistake or I just couldn’t control the need to see a certain actor. BUTT….and the two t’s are not a typo, Cats brought true joy into my life. This Tom Hooper- helmed MASTERPIECE of a train-wreck is a FASCINATING watch. WHO Green-lit this film? WHAT the hell were they thinking? WHERE was the evil Hollywood exec who should have killed this film? WHEN have I had a better time watching a film! HOW have you not watched it yet? If I can say I am proud of ONE thing I did in 2020 it was going to see a screening of Cats and having the best time I’ve EVER had in a movie theater with my clothes on. Watch Cats drunk. Watch Cats h***. Watch Cats with your mom. Watch Cats with your dog. You’ll thank me later.

Leave your thoughts on Nick Kelly’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.