What a terrible year for everyone. Lockdowns, masks, a year of remote school (which I actually didn't mind as much as some), an attempted coup, a second impeachment trial, and hundreds of thousands dead from a terrible virus that 30% of the population either thinks is a hoax or distrusts science enough not to get vaccinated. Thinking about movies in times like these probably seems trivial, but I'm a firm believer that literature and film can offer us something. Maybe they won't save us from extremism or the deadly virus, but they can at the very least help us forget, even if only for a couple of hours.
It was another solid year for movies. There have been better years, but movies aren't quite dead. As I always say there are movies I didn't get a chance to see, but these are the best that I saw last year.
10. Annette. This movie isn't for everyone. It's pretty strange. Directed by the famously odd French director named Leos Carax, Annette features a puppet baby and one of the funniest sex scenes ever made. Not sure if it's meant to be funny, but I laughed quite a bit. Like Power of the Dog, it's a film about male power, but it also explores fame and the kinds of things audiences gravitate toward. It took me a bit to get into it, but I was totally absorbed 20 minutes in. Streaming on Amazon.
9. Night of the Kings. It's the story of a new prisoner at an Ivory Coast prison who uses storytelling to survive. It blends fantasy and gritty realism. Some obvious echoes with One Thousand and One Nights.
8. Exterminate All the Brutes. A four-part documentary directed and narrated by the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck and partially based on the 1992 book of the same name. It's a powerful history lesson about colonialism and genocide. The story of Europe and America. The documentary is worth it just to listen to Peck's voice; it's deep and resonate and poetic. Streaming on HBO.
7. Dear Comrades! A Russian film about a massacre that occurred after an entire city rose up to protest working conditions during the Communist era in the 1960s. A faithful Communist and member of the city committee searches for her daughter and becomes torn between her commitment to party and her love of family. Like Quo Vadis, Aida, this film also shows the almost futile attempt of a parent doing anything she can to help her daughter. I'm realizing just now how many of the films on my list deal directly with parenthood. Streaming on Hulu.
6. Bo Burnham: Inside. I had a difficult time deciding if I wanted this film to be on my list and where I should place it. If you don't know Burnham, he's a young (31 years old) comedian and singer-songwriter who writes satirical songs about society and life. While Inside isn't a perfect film, it is hilarious, smart, raw, beautiful, emotional, brave, and at times brilliant. It also has some catchy songs, and some songs have some spot-on social commentary. This film more than any other captured what it was like to live in the year of the lockdown, to live in isolation. Written, directed, edited, scored, and performed by Burnham, it is literally a one-man show. Some of the songs and jokes don't work or seem heavy handed, but I watched this three times and was thoroughly entertained each time. Streaming on Netflix.
5. The Power of the Dog. Directed by Jane Campion (The Piano and Top of the Lake), Power of the Dog is a film about toxic masculinity. Set in rural Montana in the 1920s, it tells the story of two brothers who own a cattle ranch. One of the brothers gets married, and his new family disrupts and intensifies an already troubled relationship between the brothers. It's a movie that deserves or maybe even demands multiple viewings. Not that the entire film is particularly challenging, but there are details that mean more than what they seem to mean. One of the qualities of a great film is how well it holds up to multiple viewings. Streaming on Netflix.
4. The Lost Daughter. The directorial debut by the actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, this is a film that finally bursts the overly simplistic bubble of Hollywood's depictions of mothers. Traditionally, mothers fit into the binary of either idealized supermoms or abusive monsters. There aren't many in the in-between, where most actual mothers reside. The Lost Daughter shows how difficult it is to be a mother, a role that carries such huge societal expectations. I love that this movie makes being a mother more complex--and finally we see a movie that shows how annoying and exasperating children can be. We were pretty lucky with Wyatt. He wasn't an excessive crier; he mostly listened to us and asked permission to eat snacks or get out of bed. He drove me a little crazy sometimes, but I always knew there were much worse out there. Anyway, The Lost Daughter is a film that deals with these ambiguities. It's also brilliantly acted and perfectly paced. It's a haunting film that stayed with me long after I saw it. Streaming on Netflix.
3. Undine. A German film by one of my favorite directors, Christian Petzold, that's a modernized telling of a European folktale about love and loss and rebirth. It's a simple story, beautifully told with a perfect cast. Streaming on Hulu.
2. Quo Vadis, Aida. The title sounds pretentious, but the story is actually very simple. It tells of a Bosnian woman working as a translator for the UN as Serbian troops enter her town and leave a trail of death in their wake. She attempts to do anything she can to protect her family. It's one of the most moving and emotionally charged films of the year, revealing the horrors of war and the ineptitude of the UN--despite their seemingly good intentions. Streaming on Hulu.
1. The Underground Railroad. I'm cheating a bit with this one because it's not a film but a television series. Directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk) and based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, the series tells the dual story of a runaway slave named Cora and her hunter, a fiercely determined man named Ridgeway. It's a film about survival, persistence, and love in a shameful time during American history. The book and the film both literalize the metaphorical railroad: a train and underground track take people to freedom. It's a beautiful, dramatic, well acted film. And the music and sounds are amazing too. Streaming on Amazon.
Other films I liked this year in alphabetical order:
Azor--story of a banker who travels to Argentina in 1980 and complicitly supports a brutal dictatorship. Streaming on Mubi.
Benedetta--controversial story of a nun's sexual awakening and her claim that she is in direct communication with Jesus.
CODA--a story of a deaf family whose hearing daughter struggles between her love of singing and her necessary role as the translator for her family. Streaming on Apple+
Dune--it has a few small flaws and the original Middle Eastern elements of the book are downplayed but it's still an effective and beautiful film with some excellent performances. I wouldn't go so far as to say the costumes and set design make the film, but almost.
The Killing of Two Lovers--a powerful drama about a recently separated couple. Streaming on Hulu.
King Richard--the story of Serena and Venus Williams's father, played by Will Smith.
Passing--an emotional story of a black woman passing as white in the 1920s. Streaming on Netflix.
The Velvet Underground--an excellent documentary about a ground-breaking band. Streaming on Apple+
Zola--based on a true story, it's a wild tale of a stripper who gets wrangled into a trip to Florida and trapped by her "friend's" pimp. Streaming on Showtime.
