GMD Poll: Top Ten Films of 2020

Bloody hell that kept me scrolling for an eternity.

I will save people some time with Freaky (not a patch on Happy Death Day), Host (the Blair Witch Project via Zoom, at least it's short), The Mortuary Collection (glossy Goosebumps-esque young adult horror) and Zombi Child (not bad but borrows heavily from The Serpent and the Rainbow).
 
Surprised by how much Promising Young Woman got shit on. I thought it was a pretty clever blending of genres and a modern black comedy that actually managed to be about as funny as it was black. Also I liked the ending, just when I was thinking "this ending was predictable" it did something unpredictable, then predictable, then unpredictable again.

Also it levied just about as much scorn at the women who are complicit in "rape culture" as it did the men. Was it pop feminism outrage porn? Yes, but it was also more meaningfully targeted and subversive, unlike a lot of cinema with a similar bent.
 
Surprised by how much Promising Young Woman got shit on. I thought it was a pretty clever blending of genres and a modern black comedy that actually managed to be about as funny as it was black. Also I liked the ending, just when I was thinking "this ending was predictable" it did something unpredictable, then predictable, then unpredictable again.

Also it levied just about as much scorn at the women who are complicit in "rape culture" as it did the men. Was it pop feminism outrage porn? Yes, but it was also more meaningfully targeted and subversive, unlike a lot of cinema with a similar bent.

I agree with that 100%. And Carey Mulligan was excellent as always.
 
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thought this was pretty bad. it's a 'movie' loosely draped over a gimmick (there's a contagion in which people suddenly become 100% sure they'll die tomorrow) in the same way as something like it follows (complete with nobody talking or acting like a real person even pre-affliction), except that gimmick was really cool and unnerving visually and this one's just people moping around monotonally and occasionally seeing flashing colours.

it is quite funny at times and definitely works best when it's leaning in that direction, i.e. the bickering couple who immediately realise in the face of mortality that they should've broken up ages ago ("you didn't even turn up to my birthday"/"my dad had a stroke"/"if you were really into me you could've at least texted") or the way big emotional crescendos keep getting undermined by sudden cuts, but whenever it wants to be taken seriously it's basically melancholia if it were made by a philosophy undergrad (complete with a camus quote). there's so little here i can only really see it working as a short and even that'd be pushing it.

kind of disappointing given there's such a who's who of big indie names involved: amy seimetz from upstream color and the girlfriend experience directs, kate lyn sheil from every mumblecore movie stars (she's so hyped and i don't really get it), adam wingard (director of the guest, godzilla vs. kong and you're next) and kentucker audley (58% of mumblecore movies) cameo among various others. the only one to really leave an impression is legendary experimental filmmaker james benning, and on that subject here's a funny quote from seimetz:
"He came up to me, did not introduce himself and launched into this story about one time he hit a cow with his truck. He sat by the cow’s side as the cow died and stared into its eye and watched the life drain out of it. And he felt really bad and felt they had this connection. It was a really intense story. Then he just walked away. And I was like, “Who the fuck is that?” And they’re like, “Oh, that’s James Benning. That’s his way of telling you good job."
 
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cummings is probably 1-2 movies away from getting cancelled 'cause these 'personas' of his are just a little too specific and raw (i've seen a few ultra lefty types on letterboxd talking about how he throws up a lot of 'red flags' lmao), but that's why he's compelling, no? this time around he filters thunder road through some very accomplished genre trappings (primarily fargo, zodiac and silver bullet), but it's essentially just the same movie again, another crucible in which tiny nuggets of personal growth are mined from a lot of physical and emotional violence. i did think the screenplay was significantly more strained this time around and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table that its predecessor hadn't already laid out quite beautifully, so i'd recommend that one over this, but if you've seen that and want a more genrefied version of the same this is your next stop.
 
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i'm a miranda july fan but i dunno if there's a single person i'd recommend her to on here lol. her work is extremely affected, but those affectations are always an expression of the inner life of the characters, it's never there for its own sake. consider a repeated shot of them sneaking past a low wall in a straight line to evade their landlord who's working behind it, parents ducking and daughter awkwardly limboing--it's too cute in and of itself but in context it communicates the weight of financial pressure and the oppressive routines it forces upon people, the barrier between the characters and employment, their lower (and outside-looking-in) place in the class hierarchy, the daughter's estrangement (bending in the opposite direction to the others) and internal contortions, and so on. this is a very wainds thing to say but i think there's a bit of synecdoche new york in her stuff actually, 'cept here the house is leaking instead of burning.

anyway, i thought it was very good, too good to get dismissed as quirky shoplifters the way it has in some quarters. the performances from the four listed on the poster are all excellent despite each being in a different mode, and she's always got a great control over tone despite veering all over the place narratively and emotionally.
 
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grossly exploitative 4chan creeper built around a real murder(!) in a packard-ish poverty-stained nightmare vision of LA (contrast with under the silver lake) with an amazing fringe cast of oddballs and a tight precisely-mapped space we circle P.T. style. first half owns--unemployed redpilled douche projects intelligent design onto a loose assembly of signs and we do the same onto his filmmaking--but it does have the usual found footage issue of relying more on stock horror tactics as it escalates beyond plausibility. saw some neckbeard on youtube issue an apology and 'retraction' of his positive review after realising how unethical the film was, so needless to say it's good and i recommend it!
 
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just gonna post the trailer for this one, you can probably tell if it's your bag. disturbing stop-motion fairytale (told from the perspective of the bad guys) about a girl who's escaped from colonia dignidad (the infamous fascist child-abusing cult in chile) and found sanctuary in a little house in the woods which these filmmakers use as their canvas for some jawdroppingly fucked up animation.
 
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We Are (Dir. Eugene Kotylarenko)
comedy about virtual reality and startups. "josh safdie leaned over and said it was the best movie since uncut gems." same director as Spree above, and Wobble Palace. available free on vimeo.
Watched this as the topic made me curious, pretty funny. Worth seeing even just for the boss character who thinks he and his dumpy arcade are the hot shit.
 
Guess I'll throw in a list before I forget, even though there's still a ton I need to see. I tend to see a lot at the cinema, so 2020 really killed me on that front.

1. Motherless Brooklyn (Ed Norton)
2. Mank (David Fincher)
3. I Blame Society (Gillian Wallace Horvat)
4. The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie)
5. The Dark and the Wicked (Bryan Bertino)
6. Riders of Justice (Anders Thomas Jensen)
7. The Dry (Robert Connolly)
8. Psycho Goreman (Steven Kostanski)
9. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
10. Young Ahmed (Dardenne bros)
 
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How do you justify including this?

It ticks a lot of boxes for me. I love noir and I enjoy Norton in full twitchy Method spazz mode. I'm not sure how apparent it is to you, or other viewers, how much of the story is derived from the real life planning/architectural war in NYC between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. My wife is an urban designer so we were both familiar with the historical context even though we didnt realise that was the direction the movie was going to take. So it was a cool and unexpected geek-out moment for us to see the movie turn from typical noir murder mystery into this complex and realistic political intrigue. The jazz soundtrack is awesome too.
 
1. The Kid Detective
2. Color Out of Space
3. Tenet
4. Possessor
5. Sea Fever
6. VFW
7. Bacurau
8. From Here - 40 Years of New Model Army
9. Class Action Park
10. Archive

HM:
We Are
Come to Daddy

All I've seen so far, with Adieu les cons being 2021 in the realm of roast beef.

edit: Watched a few more.
 
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I wanna see The Kid Detective, looks cool.

You should check out VFW. Just a good time watching a bunch of veterans and drug dealers/addicts massacre each other in a bar. Also for some reason Come to Daddy screams "Bloopy's taste" in my brain, could be wrong though.