2020 in Films

Format adapted from Charles François, who I still hope will one day rediscover his cinephilia and start hanging out with myself and the Skandies crew again. It’s been ten years since he last used it and I hereby declare it in the public domain.

Combine the first two columns for a list of films released in 2020, and the last two columns for films seen in 2020. Ordering is preferential when ratings are identical.

Seen Previously
Movies I saw in 2019 {or before} that were released in the U.S. in 2020. Films not yet released but currently scheduled for this year are indicated by a (→).
Seen in 2020
Movies I saw shortly before, during or after their 2020 U.S. run. Asterisks (*) indicate films seen prior to their actual release. TV-only "runs" (arbitrarily deemed eligible) get a (†).
To Be Released
Movies I saw in 2020 which are still awaiting a U.S. release. Those known to have lined up distribution are indicated by a (→). Production {year} is listed if film is more than two years old.

A For All Time

A- Event

B+/A- Near Great

*First Cow (Reichardt) 78

B+ Must See

A White, White Day (Pálmason) 76
*The Nest (Durkin) 73
Fourteen (Sallitt) 73

B/B+ Warmly Recommended

Red, White and Blue (McQueen) 71
Tenet (Nolan) 69
Shithouse (Raiff) 69

B Recommended

Dick Johnson Is Dead (Johnson) 67
Lovers Rock (McQueen) 66
I Am Greta (Grossman) 65
The Old Guard (Prince-Bythewood) 65
*76 Days (Wu, Chen, Anonymous) 64
*Save Yourselves! (Fischer, Wilson) 64
David Byrne's American Utopia (Lee) 64

B-/B Recommended with Mild Reservations

Sibyl (Triet) 63
The Vast of Night (Patterson) 63
The Invisible Man (Whannell) 62
Bad Education (Finley) 62
Tommaso (Ferrara) 61
The Burnt Orange Heresy (Capotondi) 61
Soul (Docter) 61
Days (Tsai) 60
What the Constitution Means to Me (Heller) 60
*On the Record (Dick, Ziering) 60

B- Recommended with Strong Reservations

Vitalina Varela (Costa) 59
On the Rocks (Coppola) 59
Another Round (Vinterberg) 59
*Tesla (Almereyda) 58
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman) 58
The Whistlers (Porumboiu) 58
*Corpus Christi (Komasa) 58
Undine (Petzold) 57
*Fireball: Vistors From Darker Worlds (Herzog, Oppenheimer) 57
Bacurau (Mendonça Filho, Dornelles) 57
Da 5 Bloods (Lee) 57
Palm Springs (Barbakow) 56
Color out of Space (Stanley) 56
To the Ends of the Earth (Kurosawa) 56
*City Hall (Wiseman) 56
Disappearance at Clifton Hill (Shin) 55
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno {2017} (Kechiche) 55
Run. (Chaganty) 55
*Ghost Town Anthology (Côté) 55
*Kajillionaire (July) 55

C+/B- On the Fence, Leaning Forward

Collective (Nanau) 54
The Traitor (Bellocchio) 54
*Nomadland (Zhao) 54
Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia (various) 54
Sorry We Missed You (Loach) 54
*Let Them All Talk a.k.a. The Fall of 2019 (Soderbergh) 53
Premature (Green) 53
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (Herzog) 53
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Rosses) 53
The Truth (Kore-eda) 53
Mank (Fincher) 52
Mangrove (McQueen) 52
Beanpole (Balagov) 52
I Wish I Knew {2010} (Jia) 52
WolfWalkers (Moore, Stewart) 51
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze) 51
*Troop Zero (Bert, Bertie) 51
A Voluntary Year (Köhler, Winckler) 51

C+ Take It or Leave It

Time (Bradley) 50
Zombi Child (Bonello) 50
Martin Eden (Marcello) 50
Deerskin (Dupieux) 49
*The Last Vermeer (D. Friedkin) 49
The Salt of Tears (Garrel) 49
Sea Fever (Hardiman) 48
*The Painter and the Thief (Ree) 48
*My Psychedelic Love Story (Morris) 47
A Girl Missing (Fukada) 47
Synchronic (Benson, Moorhead) 47
*Lost Girls (Garbus) 46
The Woman Who Ran (Hong) 46

C/C+ On the Fence, Leaning Backward

Family Romance, LLC. (Herzog) 45
*The Last Full Measure (Robinson) 45
The Calming (Song) 45
Oh Mercy (Desplechin) 44
The Devil All the Time (Campos) 44
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Hittman) 44
*Wendy (Zeitlin) 43
*Olympic Dreams (Teicher) 43
*I Carry You With Me (Ewing) 43
Mr. Jones (Holland) 42
Alex Wheatle (McQueen) 42

C Pass

*A Rainy Day in New York (Allen) 41
Nine Days (Oda) 41
Fire Will Come (Laxe) 41
*The War With Grandpa (Hill) 40
I Was at Home, but... (Schanelec) 40
Notturno (Rosi) 39
*Young Ahmed (Dardennes) 39
Education (McQueen) 38
The Wild Goose Lake (Diao) 38
*Love and Monsters (Matthews) 37

C- Ugh

The Personal History of David Copperfield (Iannucci) 35
Malmkrog (Puiu) 28

D+ Double-Ugh

*Mortal (Øvredal) 26
*The Last Thing He Wanted (Rees) 22
Viena and The Fantomes (Naranjo) 21

D Bomb

Liberté (Serra) 16

F Burn the Negative

Walk-outs Channel Surfing

Atlantis (Vasyanovych)
*Boys State (Moss, McBaine)
The Cloud in Her Room (Zheng)
Driveways (Ahn)
Exil (Morina)
The Fever (Da-Rin)
Giraffe (Hartmann)
Hamilton (Kail)
Happy Times Will Come Soon {2016} (Comodin)
House of Hummingbird (Kim)
Kala azar (Rafa)
Marona's Fantastic Tale (Damian)
The Metamorphosis of Birds (Vasconcelos)
MS Slavic 7 (Bohdanowicz)
Nafi's Father (Dia)
Nasir (Karthick)
Ordinary Love (D'Sa, Leyburn)
The Painted Bird (Marhoul)
*Possessor (Cronenberg)
Red Moon Tide (Patiño)
*Sergio (Barker)
Share (Bianco)
She Dies Tomorrow (Seimetz)
The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs (Singh)
Surge (Karia)
Twelve Thousand (Trebal)
*Until the Birds Return {2017} (Moussaoui)
Welcome to Chechnya (France)
Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine (Piperno)

Incomplete Mishap/Bad Timing