The last social network that really addicted me - no hyperbole, searching-for-the-next-dopamine-hit addicted - was Letterboxd. That should clue you in to whether this website will be exciting. I’d been dumped, it was cold outside, and I’d been curious about this movie-listing site my college friends were using.
In one weekend, I had clicked the little “watched” icon on every movie I could remember seeing. For a stretch of 2018, I’d prioritize watching forgotten foreign movies, to fill in the map on my account (here’s a good Greenland fix), or Oscar winners I had missed, to give myself 100 percent on the relevant Letterboxd list.
This turned one of my more relatable hobbies into a game, and I played it, loading up on movies whenever it made sense to. That got harder, actually, in 2020. The first problem was on the supply side: Studios that could get away with it delayed their movies until a hypothetical back-to-normal date. That had downstream effects, like no new movies on planes, which I still took lots of, after February. The second problem was on the demand side: I had access to nearly any movie ever filmed, because the Internet, and every year the choice of some old Douglas Sirk melodrama or the Oscar bait that’ll be forgotten instantly becomes easier.
Still! I watched a few dozen movies released in 2020. Letterboxd actually makes tracking them a little harder, relying as it does on the date when a movie was screened, anywhere, as its “release.” So I saw 61 “movies” released in 2020, of which two (Vox’s “Sex Explained” and “Seduced”) were documentary mini-series, four were fiction mini-series (“Devs,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” “Mrs. America,” “The Plot Against America”), and 10 were shorts, musicals, or stand-up (“Black is King, “America Utopia,” “Strasbourg 1518,” “Kapaemahue,” “An Evening With Tim Heidecker,” “Hannibal Burress: Miami Nights,” “Eric Andre: Legalize Everything,” “Marc Maron: End Time Fun,” “Hamilton,” and “Goldman v. Silverman.”)
Did I only see 45 movies last year? Again, blame Letterboxd: It doesn’t count “The Outpost,” “First Cow,” “Scare Package,” “Sound of Metal,” “The Color Out of Space,” “Sorry We Missed You,” “Bacurau,” or “Beanpole” as 2020 movies. This is a damn lie and l refuse to accept it.
Anyway: If you are still reading, this is my explanation for saying I watched 53 new movies released in 2020 before it was over. Some of these will ripen in my memory, some will be forgotten, some will be displaced if a couple of the 2020 stragglers end up being good.
Ranking these movies would insult everybody’s intelligence, and giving them star ratings is what Letterboxd is for. I sorted what I saw into five tiers. Only the elite make the “god tier,” movies that wormed their way into my consciousness and I’d quickly watch again. The “great tier” consists of stuff I truly enjoyed, but didn’t feel the same emotional connection to. I’d be happy if they won Oscars, and watching “Parasite” win during a simulcast at the Brattle Theater was my last normal 2020 memory, so we’re talking good vibes. The “respectable tier” consists of stuff that made me 10 to 30 percent less happy.
Then we descend. The “adequate tier” encompasses everything from movies that shouldn’t exist (but didn’t offend me) to movies that sabotage a bunch of fine ingredients. Some of these are pretty bad. The movies of the “shit tier” are not bad - they are transcendently worse, as memorable in their way as the god tier classics.
God Tier
“Sound of Metal.” It does everything - love story, addiction drama, incredible sound design that also *surprises* even though you know what’s coming.
“Lovers Rock.” Not just a great hang-out movie but the first to consider what would happen if some effort went into filming it.
“Feels Good Man.” The ur-documentary of the last political age.
Great Tier
“First Cow”
“Bacurau”
“Sorry We Missed You.” Of course Loach makes the first movie about a phenomenon that was re-sorting the economy for a decade.
“Dick Johnson is Dead”
“His House”
“Boys State”
“I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
“Miss Juneteenth”
“The Wolf of Snow Hollow.” Jim Cummings keeps putting up three-pointers.
“Shirley”
“She Dies Tomorrow”
Respectable Tier
“The Outpost”
“The Color Out of Space.” Best creature SFX of the year by far, just not enough to elevate the movie.
“Beanpole”
“Mank”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
“The Trip to Greece”
“Kimmy v. the Reverend”
“Sylvie’s Love”
“Palm Springs”
“The King of Staten Island”
“Da 5 Bloods”
“Underwater”
“Birds of Prey”
“Host”
Adequate Tier
“Prom”
“After Truth.” The sequence about the Jack Burkman scam is fantastic, rest feels a bit like a long news package.
“Midnight Sky”
“Happiest Season”
“The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Sorkin writes good dialogue when he steps out of his own way; the problem is that he replaced the far wittier dialogue of a trial whose wittiness is the reason we have a movie about it. (Several!)
“The Comey Rule”
“Let Them All Talk”
“On the Rocks”
“Eurovision Song Contest”
“Miss Americana”
“The Lovebirds.” Adore the cast, cannot remember a single thing that happened.
“On the Trail.” Not the filmmakers’ fault, a documentary about campaign reporter life was just not compatible with the year.
“Scare Package.” Occasionally funny, far more frequently amateurish. But Joe Bob Briggs shows up.
“Bill and Ted Face the Music.” We were fine without it. Good robot jokes.
“Kajillionaire.” Enjoyed every Miranda July movie, thought I knew what to expect, was drowned in a dark syrup of whimsey.
“An American Pickle.” Has so much less to say than it thinks!
Shit Tier
“WW84.” Not merely bad, but the first movie in a while to zoom straight from the hype funnel to infamy. Incredibly funny, no bad decision left un-made.
“Capone.” Very realistic shitting SFX.
“Assassin A.D. 33.” Muslims go back in time to murder Jesus in “the ultimate jihad.” Almost as funny as “WW84,” less obviously pro-IDF.
“Hillbilly Elegy.” You’ll believe a man can go to college.