The 2020 Film Year In Review – Part 2

January 28, 2022

OK, we’re back for part two of my look at the year in movies.  If you missed part one, you can read it here.  There are a lot of films covered in this post, so let’s jump right in.

A Big Swing, With Uneven Results – Don’t Look Up

Ooh boy, where to start with this one?  Look, I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but…..  back when I did my Fall preview, I noted my reservations about this movie, written and directed by Adam McKay (Anchorman, The Big Short, Vice).  It’s the story of two astronomers (Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) who discover a comet headed for Earth with likely catastrophic results.  Despite their best efforts to warn the government and everyone else, no one really takes it seriously, convinced it’s either a government conspiracy, not a big deal, or some combination of both.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, well, this movie was written and started pre-production before the pandemic, and is actually an allegory about climate change and society’s tendency to ignore the potential impacts and kick the can down the road because we have too many important things going on in our life (or unimportant things like being glued to our phones.)

I noted in my Fall preview that doing dark comedy and satire is very hard.  Don’t Look Up could easily be called Dr. DiCaprio: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Comet or Network 2021, and it would have fit with the plot just fine.  That’s because the vibes of those two iconic satire movies are felt throughout this picture.  That’s not to say Don’t Look Up is bad – it’s just very uneven.  Parts of it are hysterical and very effective – just about everything with DiCaprio and Lawrence were sequences I really enjoyed, particularly the first 30-45 minutes.  It started to lose me when we got into the government operation, led by Meryl Streep as the President, seemingly always in a red suit, when she might as well have been wearing a red baseball cap, if you get my drift.  The nepotism of her son as her chief of staff, played by Jonah Hill, who is funny at times, but a little too over the top for my liking, is also a little too on the nose. 

And that’s the problem that I found with a lot of the political rhetoric and commentary on parts of our society that are too bothered to pay attention to the oncoming danger.  There were too many times that I thought to myself, “OK, I get it McKay – you hate parts of our society and want to portray them as morons, some literally wearing red baseball caps in one scene.  And you think the world is screwed, especially in the context of the last five years.  Just give me more scenes of Leo and J-Law losing their shit, screaming that we’re all gonna die.  Cause those parts were pretty funny.”  Consider this one to be pretty divisive – Don’t Look Up will likely land on a lot of lists of most disappointing films, but some might really love it and it could receive several Oscar nominations.  Go into this one with an open mind and a little trepidation (it’s satire, after all), if you decide to check it out.  Don’t Look Up is now streaming on Netflix.

A Mother In Crisis – The Lost Daughter

With much less fanfare than Don’t Look Up, Netflix released another film in late December, starring a pair of incredibly talented actresses.  You might not have read a lot about The Lost Daughter, but it’s one of the best films I saw this past year, and has received strong reviews from critics.  Olivia Colman (quickly becoming the best actress working today that owns everything she performs in) stars as a college professor on holiday in Greece.  She becomes acquainted with an American family, including Dakota Johnson as the mother of a young girl.  The two bond over the challenges of motherhood as Colman recalls her experience as a young mother, with Jessie Buckley portraying her in flashback scenes.  We go back and forth and see our lead character make some pretty interesting (and shitty) choices in her life that we don’t always quite understand. 

The Lost Daughter is based on a novel and was written and directed by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal in her debut as a filmmaker.  This was a captivating story featuring impressive performances by Colman and Buckley, who is one of my favorite young actresses based on her last several films.  The Lost Daughter is an unconventional movie in some respects, and although the story isn’t tied up in a nice bow at the end, it’s still a film I recommend.  It’s nice sometimes to have a movie leave you thinking about it for a few days after you finish it.  I’m really looking forward to what Gyllenhaal does next and the strong reviews her debut has received ensures she will get many chances in the future.  The Lost Daughter is now streaming on Netflix.

A Masterclass in Filmmaking – The Tragedy of Macbeth

Confession time – I’m not a literary guy.  Not to say that I don’t read – I do, I just am not a fan of the classics or what might be considered great literature.  I tend to read more nonfiction and probably what people might consider “junk food” books.  That’s probably why I didn’t connect with Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch.  It would be pejorative for me to simply say it was all style over substance.  While I really liked the look and feel of the movie, the music, and the performances, I just couldn’t connect with the stories he told throughout the film.  It’s been said that The French Dispatch was heavily influenced by The New Yorker and Anderson’s love for that publication.  Those who are big fans of the magazine have raved about the movie, but it just wasn’t for me.  Oh well.  Where was I going with this?  Oh, yeah – Shakespeare.

I probably had to read a lot of Shakespeare when I was in school, but the stories never stuck with me.  I’ve heard of the big ones, but other than Romeo & Juliet, I don’t know a lot of the details of the stories.  So, going into The Tragedy of Macbeth, I didn’t know much about the plot except it involved a couple who conspire to murder a king so he can take over the throne.  Director Joel Coen (working for the first time without his brother Ethan) shot the film using the original Shakespeare prose, which (I have to be honest) I had difficulty following at times.  That’s just my inexperience with the works of Shakespeare.  But that’s not to say it’s a bad movie – in fact, Coen does a phenomenal job of bringing this story to the screen.  It’s shot in black and white in a 4:3 aspect ratio on a soundstage that has a feeling of a stage production brought to life on film.  And his use of light and shadows were spectacular.  The performances are also top notch – Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand (Coen’s wife) as Lord and Lady Macbeth were breathtaking.  Despite a little trouble following the story at times, I still thought this was very good.  And if you are a fan of the bard and know the story, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it a great deal.  The Tragedy of Macbeth is now streaming on Apple TV+

A Risky Role – Being the Ricardos

First things first – it took a lot of guts for Nicole Kidman to agree to play one of the most beloved comedic actresses in television HISTORY.  She plays Lucille Ball opposite Javier Bardem as Ricky Ricardo in this film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin.  The stakes were naturally high for this one, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario where this picture would be a home run.  While aspects of this movie were very good and grabbed my attention, a few of the filmmaking choices by Sorkin left me wanting.

He chose to show us a week in the life of the Ricardos as they are juggling a number of crises, all of which happened in real-life, just not all in the same week.  Instead Sorkin took some artistic license in crafting the screenplay this way.  Rather than telling a cradle-to-grave biopic story, he took the road of blending together various storylines to try to give us the essence of Lucy and Ricky, with all of the good and bad.  He does employ some flashbacks as well, to show us how they met and fell in love, which were effective in portraying the evolution of their relationship.  During the week in question, we see the couple trying to get the weekly episode completed, dealing with two scandals (Lucy being accused of being a Communist and Ricky’s womanizing), revealing to the producers that Lucy is pregnant and debating how to handle it on the show, natural tension among the couple and the show’s writers, producers, and co-stars, and everyday tension of being a married couple who also happen to work on the most popular television show in the country.  Whew, that’s a lot!

Overall, I like the approach Sorkin took with the “week in the life” story – it felt a little like the film Steve Jobs, which Sorkin wrote.  I do think he tried to cram too much plot into the movie and he didn’t let the story breathe as much as he could.  Kidman and Bardem are very good in the roles – I didn’t find them to be distracting or doing impressions, but recognizing the stakes were high for these performances, I probably went into it with lower expectations.  The on-set scenes were very good – you can tell Kidman did a lot of research to portray Lucy as accurately as possible. 

The one quibble I had with Sorkin’s choice was to use present day interviews of people who worked on the show (with actors portraying them) telling the “interviewer” and us stories of what happened.  That choice felt lazy and took me out of the movie mentally whenever it happened.  I did like how he got creative in giving us the chance to see Lucy in the famous wine-making / grape-stomping episode.  When discussing Lucy’s pregnancy, the creative team thought of an excuse to send the show to Italy and possible plotlines.  We see Lucy’s creative genius in motion as she imagines the scenario unfolding in her mind and we get to see a recreation of that famous scene on our screen.  So, some aspects of the movie are very good, but it could have been a lot better.  The common reaction to Sorkin’s effort is that he should stick to writing and leave the directing to other people and I tend to agree with that assessment.  Being the Ricardos is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

The Box Office King – Spider-Man: No Way Home

As I mentioned last week, there is no stopping this juggernaut at the box office.  It’s the one film that shows that people will still come back to theaters for the right experience, especially if it’s targeted at an audience that feels comfortable seeing movies in a theater.  And you know what helps?  Making a fun movie.  I’ve been on record noting that I wasn’t a Marvel guy, but decided last year to take the plunge into the universe, making my way through all the phases.  And overall, I’m glad that I did as I have mostly liked the franchise.  Some I liked a lot (the Captain America, Iron Man, and Avengers films) and some just didn’t work for me (I’m out on Guardians of the Galaxy – just not my thing, and probably out on Thor, but we’ll see.) 

One of the more complicated characters in the comic book world is Spider-Man.  There have been two recent iterations of the webslinger – the very good Tobey Maguire series in 2002 – 2007, and the less successful Andrew Garfield pictures in 2012 – 2014.  Since he was conceived by Marvel Comics, you would think Spider-Man would be part of the Marvel movie machine that has been going strong for twenty years.  But, the Spider-Man film rights have been owned by Sony Pictures since before Marvel Studios started their juggernaut.  This is why you can’t find some of the big Spider-Man movies on Disney+, despite Marvel Studios ownership by Disney.  But in 2015, Sony and Marvel came to an agreement to jointly produce stand-alone Spider-Man pictures and include the character in various MCU movies, which has happened over the last seven years.  Enter Tom Holland. 

Holland was a relatively unknown actor when he was cast for the MCU version of Spider-Man and 2021’s film was his third stand-alone movie, all of which have been phenomenal successes at the box-office.  Holland brought a wonderful charm and exuberance to the Peter Parker character, along with strong acting chops that combined the best of Maguire and Garfield.  This new installment features not only Spider-Man battling villains trying to do evil in the world, but brings him together (spoiler, but it’s kind of hard to not know about this detail by now) with the Maguire and Garfield versions of Spider-Man.  They travel from their universes to Holland’s universe through a portal that connects the multiverse.  Yeah, I don’t really understand it either.  Just go with it….

You don’t need to be a physics expert (or wizard) to understand how it happens – it’s just fun to watch Holland fly around the city, battle bad guys and monsters with help from his girlfriend (the wonderful Zendaya) and best friend (the very funny Jacob Batalon), and his Spidey counterparts.  I saw this film early in its theatrical run, in a pretty large theater with a decent sized crowd (but not too big to freak me out – God, I’m sick of COVID times), and it was fun to hear people’s reactions to Maguire and Garfield showing up on screen and seeing them work together during the last third of the film.  Sometimes Marvel coughs up some stinkers, but I’m a big fan of this iteration of Spider-Man, and this latest entry was exactly what the doctor ordered for movie theaters in need of some box-office receipts.  Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters.  Given the strong box-office performance and complicated Sony / Marvel relationship, a streaming release date and platform has yet to be announced.  Stay tuned.

Man, The 80s Were A Trip – Listening to Kenny G

I am sometimes surprised by a reaction to a blog post.  I have a few dedicated readers who text me or comment almost every week (thank you for supporting this crazy hobby of mine!) and every once in a while I receive a comment from someone that I had no idea was even reading my rantings and ravings.  The day after my post about Taylor Swift last April, I received a text from a family member that said, simply “Taylor Swift?  Really?”  I responded, “Hey, what can I say?  I like what I like.”  And that little anecdote is what I thought of while watching this documentary.

Don’t worry, you’re not about to embark on a 2,000-word piece on my love for Kenny G.  On the contrary, I don’t like his music – it’s just not for me.  And this documentary is not a gushing tribute to him, nor is it a hate fest.  It’s a very well-done balanced look at not only his success, but the fascination with why people just hate his music, and in some extreme cases, the man himself.  Director Penny Lane (I can’t decide if her parent’s name choice was embarrassing or magnificent – I’m leaning toward the latter) spends a lot of time with Kenny, his fans, and music critics discussing his music.  She recounts his career, from his humbling beginnings in Seattle as a budding jazz musician in the high school band, to one of the best-selling musicians of all-time.  The guy’s music literally led to the creation of a radio station genre (smooth jazz).  One of the more interesting choices Lane made was to interview critics while they are listening to some of his songs.  The reactions are fantastic – some complimentary, some a little too cruel.  One critic in particular is someone I can say with certainty I would never want to spend one minute with – what a miserable troll he was. 

But the best part of the documentary is that Kenny is in on the joke.  There’s no underhanded hit job planned by the director – she was up front with him about the goal of the movie.  Why do people have such a strong reaction to his music, either positive or negative?  And what does it say about the concept of “art criticism”?  And yes, the irony is not lost on me that I have written tens of thousands of words criticizing art based on my opinion.  Regardless if you like or hate Kenny G or his music, this is a fascinating and unique look at his career and the world around him. 

Listening to Kenny G was part of the HBO Music Box series of music documentaries.  There were two other ones I recommend from that series.  Jagged is an exploration of Alanis Morissette and the phenomenon of her breakout album, Jagged Little Pill.  Mr. Saturday Night is a look at Robert Stigwood, the music manager of The Who and The Bee Gees, who (almost single-handedly) got Saturday Night Fever made.  It’s an interesting look at his short, but very successful career, the phenomenon behind the legendary film and the disco era, and how he helped create the movie soundtrack industry.  One last music documentary to mention, since this is my year-end list is Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), the excellent look at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which I wrote about here.  Listening to Kenny G, Jagged, and Mr. Saturday Night are all now streaming on HBO Max.  Summer of Soul is now streaming on Hulu.

Best Documentary (Under Eight Hours Category) – The Rescue

What’s that disclaimer mean?  Just wait, we’ll get there.  Ever since I first heard about this documentary, I’ve had it on my list to watch.  I even went to see it in a theater, not realizing it would wind up on Disney+ later in the year.  It was one of those rare experiences where I had the whole theater to myself.  Kind of cool, to be honest.  Unlike a Spider-Man movie, this one was not going to attract a big crowd, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of the picture.

The Rescue is the story of the incredibly complex operation to save the members of the Philippine soccer team that was trapped in a cave in 2018.  We all remember this story, as it became international news for the 18 days that they were stranded.  The film was directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the team who directed Free Solo, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary three years ago.  This movie is one of the rare documentaries that can keep you glued to your seat and riveted to the story, even though you know it has a happy ending.  The footage and coverage of the whole rescue operation was amazing to watch unfold, and very emotional as the mission concluded with the rescue of all of the boys and their coach.  The word “hero” is thrown around in our society way too often, but the people who designed and executed this rescue (and there were a lot of them) fit the description to a tee. 

One other note on this story – there is a dramatization of this rescue (Thirteen Lives) scheduled to be released this year, directed by Ron Howard with some high-quality actors (Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, among others).  I’ll probably check it out, but my skepticism is high given Howard’s recent work (Hello, Hillbilly Elegy!), but his work on documentaries has been strong, as I covered here.  I just read that the test screenings for Thirteen Lives were so good that the studio moved the release date to November, in an attempt to generate awards attention.  So, hopefully it’s a quality film, but if it’s not, we have the real thing to fall back on.  The Rescue is now streaming on Disney+.  Two other quick documentary picks that are both in the vein of Free Solo.  The Alpinist is an excellent look at an extreme mountain climber, who focuses on frozen waterfalls and icy mountains.  14 Peaks is a look at a Nepalese mountain climber who attempts to climb the world’s largest 14 mountains in less than seven months.  Both movies explore the danger and exhilaration of a lifestyle that I could never imagine.  The Alpinist and 14 Peaks are both available to stream on Netflix.  

It’s Not About the Destination.  It’s About the Journey – The Beatles: Get Back

Sometimes more IS more.  On the surface, one might ask why we need a documentary with an almost eight-hour runtime about the making of an album with only twelve tracks.  And that’s a fair question.  But when you dig into what we are actually witnessing throughout this journey, it’s more than just the “making of an album.”  It’s so much more.

Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, combed through over 60 hours of video and 150 hours of audio compiled during The Beatles’ recording sessions over the course of four weeks in January 1969.  The filming was done as part of an idea Paul McCartney had to document the writing and recording of a new album, culminating in a live performance to cap off the end of the film.  Ultimately, the television special was scrapped and the footage was compiled together into a somewhat messy 90-minute film.  Over a year after the recording, the movie and accompanying album, Let It Be, were released, shortly after The Beatles made their breakup official.  The film and album became known as “the breakup story,” but as Jackson made his way through the raw footage, he unearthed amazing moments of the band actually having fun writing and recording, with only a handful of tense moments.  And there was a good reason for those tense moments. 

Due to scheduling commitments, the band only had one month to complete the project.  Their initial location (a movie studio) proved to be inadequate for recording and rehearsing, and their next location (their new recording studio) was still being built out, resulting in growing pains to get everything working properly.  They also felt the pressure from the director of the film who was constantly trying to get them to make a decision about the concert (when, where, and how).  Those scenes, in particular, show the struggle they were going through as a foursome – they all had many ideas, but no one to make the final decision.  The seeds of this issue would ultimately lead to their demise.  Without a manager, producer George Martin usually helped shape decisions / play band therapist.  Things got so testy early in the recording sessions that George Harrison actually quit the band, returning after a few days.  McCartney seemed to be facing the most pressure (since the whole thing was his idea), but didn’t want the band members to resent him for making decisions, or forcing a decision on them.  Harrison and John Lennon seemed more interested in the music, with an eye toward releasing material on their own in the near future.  Ringo just seemed to go with the flow.

And as far as the writing goes, the band wasn’t lacking for material.  There are a ton of songs that we see them perform snippets of throughout the film, ranging from classics by Little Richard and Carl Perkins, to songs written when they were teenagers, to songs they played in their heyday, to songs by their contemporaries (Bob Dylan and Elvis) to songs that would end up on Let It Be and Abbey Road (recorded after Let It Be, but released before it), and even songs that would appear on solo albums the band members would release after the breakup.  These moments are fun, especially when you see the joy they are experiencing, just having fun playing as a band together, like they did in the old days.  Their previous few albums had been largely constructed through individual performances mixed together in a studio.  In this case, they wanted to capture the band performing together on the whole song, so if one part got messed up, they had to start over. 

To me, the magic in this documentary was watching the writing process.  Seeing McCartney starting to play a riff with Ringo and George that we quickly realize will become Get Back gave me goosebumps.  When George is struggling to create the opening lyrics to Something, John tells him to say anything that fits the timing (luckily he came up with “Attracts me like no other” and got rid of “cauliflower”).  Ringo comes into the studio with a little piano riff that would turn into Octopus’s Garden and George comes over to help him with some chord progressions to move the song along.  The band brings in piano player Billy Preston to help on some songs that need keyboards and it’s like the band gets a shot of adrenaline with a new personality in the studio.  Early in the writing process, Paul is talking to one of the recording assistants who asked him if he worked on anything the previous night and Paul starts casually playing the opening sequence to what would become The Long and Winding Road.  My jaw dropped at that moment, watching the creation of history.  There are so many of those little nuggets throughout the series.

Now, if you are a big fan of the band (like me, as I wrote about here), and the process of music creation interests you, then you will probably like this, but it’s not for everybody.  And don’t let the eight-hour runtime intimidate you.  While it’s broken up into three parts, the story is also told chronologically with a calendar that shows the end of each day, so you can take your time going through it.  And while I can understand a criticism of the runtime, I think it works, even beyond my strong fandom.  Yes, there are some sequences that could have been cut (like some of the takes that go off the rails, or some of the multiple takes of the same songs, anything with Yoko wailing into a microphone, or some of the “sitting around the studio”).  But with all of the magical moments throughout the film, keeping some of these lighter moments or downtime in the final cut lets the activity breathe.  If we had magic moment after magic moment crammed into two hours, it would have felt rushed, and we would have asked, “what else was there?” 

For example, we end up with such a strong appreciation for the creation of Get Back after watching it evolve from a little riff that Paul created, to Paul and John wrestling with the lyrics (I found myself almost saying to the screen, “Paul, try ‘Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona’ – Trust me it works!”), through the triumphant performance on the Apple rooftop at the end of the movie.  Speaking of which, Jackson did an excellent job editing that final sequence, piecing together footage of the band from multiple angles, interviews with fans on the street, and footage of the cops storming the building to shut down the show after noise complaints from neighbors.  So, while we do get many takes of a few songs, I didn’t mind hearing them over and over again, because I have such a deep appreciation for the creation of music from nothing but a blank page and a melody in the writer’s head.

In making my top ten list of my favorite movies of the year, I had no idea what to do with The Beatles: Get Back.  Is it a three-part television series or an eight-hour film?  I have no idea.  I ultimately decided to leave it off my top ten list given its unique structure, but I know it was the most impressive feat of filmmaking I saw this year.  To me, the destination of the final tracks on Let It Be was never the point of the project.  It was the journey of watching geniuses, facing personal and professional crises before they were even thirty, coming together with their best friends to create incredible art, through every painstaking note and lyric along the way.  The Beatles: Get Back is now streaming on Disney+.

That’s it for this week’s post.  I’ll be back next week for part one of my top ten list of my favorite movies of the year.  If you’d like to read more about other pictures I’ve covered in this blog, you can check out my Film Index at this link.  This has a list of every movie I’ve written about, along with a link to JustWatch.com where you can find where to watch the film, and a link to the post where I covered it.  Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.