Honorable Mentions: Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Last Dance, Deerskin
10. Soul: This final spot was an extremely tough call for me. Most of my honorable mentions were in this spot at one time or another and I’ve gone back and forth but Soul stuck with me the most. It’s a beautifully conceived movie that immediately shot up to being one of my five favorite Pixar movies. Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey are perfect foils for one another in the leads with unbeatable comedic chemistry. It has a ton of heart, laugh out loud moments, and exceptional music from the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to the phenomenal jazz music developed and performed by Jon Batiste. Like most Pixar movies, it knows how to drag the emotion out of you and teach the valuable lesson. The ending effectively tugs at the heart strings, but watching Foxx’s Joe forced to be an observer during the barbershop scene (one of the best of the year) and the resolution with his Mom put this movie over the top. It was seriously a tough call for this spot, but ultimately I chose the movie I enjoyed the most.
9. One Night in Miami: Regina King rules. The Emmy and Oscar winning actress jumped behind the camera this year to prove she’s one hell of a director too. As a snub in the Best Director category, she took a play and adapted it to the screen with ease. The blocking and the pacing made the movie feel much larger than four people mostly talking in a hotel room. But her casting choices were spot on: Eli Goree as the bombastic Cassius Clay grappling with a huge decision. Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown provides the comic relief while still adding depth. Kingsley Ben-Adir stole the show as Malcolm X, stepping into the big shoes of Denzel Washington who played the civil rights activist years ago, and truly made it his own. And Leslie Odom Jr as Sam Cooke continued his monster year between this and Hamilton. Malcolm X and Cooke bumping heads drives the film all leading up to the Chain Gang performance scene, my second favorite scene of the year. The build to that scene and King’s direction of it are a perfect microcosm for how the rest of the movie makes the most out of a simple premise in simple locations. I can’t wait to see more from this cast and anything Regina King does.
8. Sound of Metal: You know this is a good year for films when a movie this terrific is only #8 on my list. Sound of Metal is about a heavy metal drummer named Ruben, a revelatory Riz Ahmed, who starts losing his hearing which will take away his love of playing music. He’s also a recovering addict so his girlfriend and lead singer of the band Lou, a terrific Olivia Cooke who was snubbed for a Best Supporting Actress nod, worries it will trigger his desire to use. Ruben goes to a rehab center run by Paul Raci’s Joe that also teaches deaf children, so Ruben begins to learn sign language. Raci and Ahmed work great together and their last scene is a doozy. But it’s Ahmed’s movie and his desperation throughout is palpable as you see every detail of an addict in his performance. The only thing as good as him in this movie is the sound design. It’s one of the best I’ve ever heard. It’s brilliantly conceived and masterfully executed. And the script helps it build to an ending that is simple and perfect.
7. Nomadland: Well, this movie broke me. It’s a fascinating look at nomads who work odd jobs here and there but spend the rest of their time on the road. It’s a group of people I’ve never really seen a movie about before. Their bathroom is a bucket, they don’t have much money, but somehow they’re content because they know the road is where they belong. Director Chloe Zhao used real nomads to make it feel as naturalistic as possible and it paid off. This movie won Best Director and Best Picture and it deserves both. You won’t find many movies shot more exquisitely. Oscar winner Frances McDormand is the lead and, no surprise, she’s fantastic. But the real scene stealers are the non-actor nomads as McDormand’s Fern provides more of a vehicle to tell their stories. There are four monologues in this movie delivered by nomads that had me sobbing, each one for a different reason. But all of it combines to give fascinating insight into their lives. Zhao is a rock star and you’re going to hear her name at awards’ shows for years to come.
6. Minari: This movie begins modestly enough with a Korean family starting a farm in 1980s Arkansas. Steven Yuen and Yeri Han play married couple Jacob and Monica at odds over the decision to move which heightens when they see their modest new home. Jacob is obsessed with growing his farm and Monica is losing faith in her husband’s judgment. Yuen and Han’s tension in arguments are incredibly authentic. It’s not flashy or over the top which makes it even more powerful. Their daughter Anne and son David, played by Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim, are also adapting to the new surroundings. David is the heart of the movie and Kim plays his earnestness effortlessly in one of the better child performances I’ve seen. The movie kicks into another gear when Monica’s mom Soonja, deserving Best Supporting Actress winner You-Jung Youn, moves in with them. She’s hilarious and full of life, but then a twist happens and you see an entirely different side of her, both expertly portrayed. Throw in a quirky Will Patton as Jacob’s religious gardening partner and the cast is top notch. It all converges at a gorgeously shot climax, another one of the best scenes of the year.
5. The Kid Detective: This is my other movie that won’t win any awards but it was perfectly made for me. A noir comedy starring Adam Brody, who is reminiscent of Elliot Gould in The Long Goodbye, playing a PI that got famous in his little town for solving mysteries as a kid until he met the big one he could never solve. Now as an adult, he’s still haunted by it while being seen as a laughing stock around town until a new case shows up at his door. If the film Brick is a high school noir, this feels more like a junior high noir with a supporting cast that, unlike Brick, don’t talk like noir characters and that adds to the comedy. This movie is filled with subversions of some classic noir tropes and I loved them all. Brody is pitch perfect in the lead with his blend of deadpan and self deprecating comedy while still being able hit you hard in the dramatic moments. It all leads up to a shocking climax and the final shot of the movie feels absolutely appropriate. I wanted to start this movie over as soon as it was done so it had to make my top five.
4. Promising Young Woman: No movie this year stuck with me longer afterwards than this one. Carey Mulligan, who is literally great in everything, gives her best performance to date as a woman trying to scare bad men into being better people after her best friend was the victim of rape. It’s a movie that can play as a revenge film one minute, then a rom-com, and then just bulldoze you. Writer and director Emerald Fennell's aesthetic choices aid the storytelling and set the mood in an extremely effective way. The climax of the movie left everyone talking and, whether you like it or not, that’s usually a sign you did something right. I personally thought that while her original ending would certainly have left more of an impression, the actual ending made the movie something that I would watch again (similar to the different endings of Get Out.) If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then just see it. It at least accomplishes conveying the constant threat women are under and how even the “nice guys'' can still be the worst. It’s a polarizing movie and count me as one of the people that loved it. A tough watch but a necessary one.
3. Palm Springs: This is one of the two movies in my top ten that weren’t the best movies of the year, but they were tailor made for me. It’s basically an updated version of one of my all-time favorite movies (Groundhog Day) starring one of my favorite comedy actors (Andy Samberg) that takes a comedically dark look at what it would be like to be stuck in an endless time loop. Samberg can go from muppet-like, over-the-top comedy to breaking your heart in the blink of an eye. Opposite Samberg is the always wonderful Cristin Milioti who is one of the most likable actresses working today. Add in an unhinged JK Simmons and you can’t go wrong. The movie is hilarious, heartfelt, clever, and maximizes the premise of a time loop to its full potential. But the movie really thrives because of Samberg and Milioti’s off the charts chemistry. In a sad year of sad movies, this was a welcomed delight. I saw it at a drive-in and then watched it again at home two days later. I knew I was going to love this movie before I saw it and boy was I right.
2. Hamilton: I’d heard the soundtrack to Hamilton multiple times and had even seen the traveling company live, albeit from high up in the balcony seats. Nothing could prepare me for this movie though. I had a visceral reaction with tears in my eyes throughout, though I wasn’t actually crying most of the time. I was simply in awe. When the beat dropped during the opening number “Alexander Hamilton”, my favorite from the album, and Aaron Burr sings, “Well, the word got around, they said this kid is insane, man...” my skin didn’t have enough space for all the goosebumps. I completely underestimated what seeing this now legendary original cast would be like, getting to see every nuance of their performance up close. I was gobsmacked on my first viewing and have been the other 5 or 6 times I’ve seen it since, always finding something new to love. The Room Where It Happens and Satisfied are absolute show stoppers and Leslie Odom Jr and Renee Elise Goldsberry in those songs are...well you understand why they won Tonys. Obviously the music by Lin Manuel Miranda is incredible but to actually get to see him, Daveed Diggs, Phillipa Soo, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Jasmine Cephas Jones and the rest of the original cast was surreal.
1. Judas and the Black Messiah: A long overdue telling about the assassination of the chairman of the Black Panther party, 21 year old Fred Hampton, who I sadly never learned about in school and only knew of from listening to hip hop. Daniel Kaluuya gives one of the two performances this year that rank with the best in the last decade, the other of course being Chadwick Boseman. Kaluuya plays Hampton, who was assassinated in 1969 because his desire and drive for equality was seen as a threat to the FBI. The power, vulnerability, and charm he exudes are something to behold. Lakeith Stanfield walks the fine line of friend or foe playing the man the FBI manipulated to bring Hampton down. Stanfield shines, particularly in the second half of the film when the consequences of his decisions start weighing on him. Dominique Fishback gives a star turning performance and Jesse Plemons gives off major Phillip Seymour Hoffman vibes in a chilling portrayal. The story is fascinating and heartbreaking, giving insight into how easily people in power can take advantage of someone, especially minorities, in a terribly broken system. The “I Am a Revolutionary'' scene is the best of the year, not just because of the jaw-dropping speech, but because of the different layers of experience happening to each main character. It’s a gut-punch of a film with an exceptional cast and the most affecting end title cards I’ve ever seen.
