20 2020 films from worst to best
Why waste any time looking back yet again on how crazy 2020 was, including how much it affected the film industry and the releases planned for the year? We all know it, yes, it was crazy, let’s move on. If you somehow find this thread a generation after the time it was published, just keep in mind that there was a plague, we entered a collapse the likes of which we had never seen, our way of life was completely changed overnight, and worst of all, a lot of movies were delayed or cancelled theatrically and moved to streaming.
I watched precisely 20 feature films released in 2020. Some of the new releases I excited for were delayed, some of those I got to watch one way or another. Some of them were surprisingly bad, some of them were surprisingly great, including what surely will become one of my favourites ever. Let’s not waste any more words and talk a little bit about what I liked this year, but first what I didn’t like so much.
20. Artemis Fowl
I doubt anyone even remotely familiar with Artemis Fowl and this film will be surprised by me deeming this movie a complete disaster, broken by concept, and without a doubt the worst film I watched in 2020. I did grow up very attached to the books, and I have zero doubts that it’s my personal history with the series that makes me unable to see anything good in this adaptation. However, it would still be pretty hard to make any case for this movie working at all in the first place, regardless of what it’s based on.
I never held any hopes for Artemis Fowl, knowing that it was stuck for so long on development hell, seeing Disney carelessly throwing it to the Disney+ side without a second thought, and seeing how all the trailers and promotional material promised something that couldn’t be further from what made the books unique. However, even despite coming in with the lowest of expectations, I left quite appalled with what I had watched.
Artemis Fowl is broken on so many levels that it feels inconsiderate to even point them out, like it doesn’t even qualify for genuine criticism. It’s an absolute corporate mess during whose production I had no doubts everything went wrong multiple times, up to the very last minute. I will spare this poor movie and every unfortunate soul that was stuck working on it any further attacks, for I fail to see the point on remarking the obvious yet again.
19. Mulan
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to believe now that I was actually excited for Disney’s Mulan remake. I’ve never kept my disdain for their live action rehashes as a secret, but this was the one time one of them looked promising when it was first announced. No songs, a very distinct tone, what seemed like a different take on the story rather than a shot-for-shot imitation of the original…It seemed like, for once, Disney would actually attempt to offer an actual reinterpretation of their story.
But alas, as we now all know, that’s far from what we actually got. The Mulan remake manages to somehow alienate every person who could be interested in revisiting this story. It alienates the people who did want a shot-for-shot remake by removing most of the iconic elements of the original. It alienates the people who wanted a different take on the story by not replacing those iconic elements with anything else of value. It alienates newcomers by presenting a story that makes no sense whatsoever. It alienates the people who saw Mulan as a feminist icon by completely obliterating her agency, development, and personality. It alienates the Chinese audience it so desperately craved by missrepresenting and grossly simplifying their culture. It alienates human rights advocates disgusted by its lead actor’s support of authoritarian police brutality and filming next door to concentration camps. It alienates the people who wanted a fun story, the people who wanted a serious story, the people who wanted a Wuxia film, the people who wanted a realistic telling of the ballad…This movie, out of all the awful Disney remakes, is the one that has the least to offer, and yet never before have I seen a film wear its failures with such pride and condescendency as Mulan, like it really expects you to consider it something extraordinary. It’s lucky that it came out on the same year as Artemis Fowl so it doesn’t ride straight towards the bottom of this list. At least Mulan is, all things considered, competently produced if you look past the screenplay.
Despite its promise to be different, this time for sure, Mulan ends up being another watered down version of the original. Except this one even manages to completely extirpate the beats of what made the original work, while failing to contribute with anything else. It’s nothing but yet another producer vision that talks down to its audience and disrespects its own characters and story. This remake will be remembered by its shambolic release, how Disney desperately tried to sweept it under the rug and yet slapped a 30$ price tag on it while trying their very best to ignore the political controversies surrounding it. Mulan’s biggest accomplishment is, in the end, acting as a reminder of what Disney is like at its worst.
18. The Hunt
Perhaps I would have liked this movie more if it hadn’t come out when it did.
However, it did come out when it did, at a time in which I could not be more over “both sides” narratives. My disdain for The Hunt is mostly rooted on an ethical and political basis, I have no issues admitting that. I can accept political satire that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I can accept political narratives that attempt to remain neutral and just expose the insanity of an insane situation.
However, I don’t believe this film is as clever as it think it is. The idea of trying to portray in an ironic way what our current social trends might be leading to is somewhat interesting, but The Hunt is far more interested in the easy social media jokes than in offering any sort of commentary, let alone any actual ideas or beliefs. Some of the jokes aimed at both sides do land, but in the end it’s still a film that wants to make people feel good for considering themselves better than the rest while doing little to nothing about the issues at hand. “Isn’t it funny how all these people are fighting over nothing?”, The Hunt asks, while outside the theatre room people are fighting over very real things.
Political satire is necessary, but this kind of political satire that undermines a very harsh reality is, in my opinion, borderline irresponsible. Perhaps I would have been able to focus more on other aspects of the film, or maybe I would haveappreciated its South Park-like cynical attitude if it hadn’t been released under such a hot political climate. But it did, very deliberately so, and I cannot look past that.
17. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
There’s a lot to like about Birds of Prey. In this climate invaded by superhero movies every other week, I always appreciate it when the obligatory new release does something at least a bit different. Birds of Prey has an undeniable style (which is doubly appreciated as it very deliberately distances itself from Suicide Squad), its general tone is quite different from your average MCU/DCEU flick, and we finally have our very first female team-up superhero movie. It only took…over ten years of complete superhero domination of the box office. Whoopee doo.
However, I like the ideas of Birds of Prey more than I like their execution. I want to like this movie, but its kitsch presentation and supposedly irreverent attitude just turn me off so much from the very first minute. While Margot Robbie’s Harley is always fun to watch, she’s never really captivated me as much of other renditions of the character, and I couldn’t find myself invested in any of the other characters either. I deeply enjoyed the action sequences, which I found to be quite creative and fun, and plenty of the moments that just strived to be cool worked just fine for me. It didn’t take itself too seriously, and that definitely worked in its favour. However, I struggled to really care about the bigger picture, and I doubt I’ll ever put it on again.
16. Tenet
I didn’t know what to expect from Tenet. Nowadays, I don’t know what to expect of Nolan in general. He’s probably the most polarising director I’ve seen in my experience within the film circles, the mere mention of his name summoning seemingly as much praise as as it generates disdain. I generally find myself more on the side that enjoys his work, but over time I’ve been growing less forgiving of his seemingly irreparable vices.
Tenet is such a self-glorifying film that takes itself so seriously that I find it really hard to get into. Its concept its good, and there’s nothing about its direction or presentation that’s anything short of great…but it does carry with it the spirit of that one self-righteous film student who thinks their experimental movie is going to change the medium.
The dichotomy inherent to this film is so intriguing. It seems to take for granted that it’s fascinating, and yet it insists on explaining itself at every turn, like it’s afraid to letting us see any twist coming or come up with our own conclussions. The end result is a film that struggles to pick up its pace, and every time it does it insists on interrupting itself with either a rather silly action scene or an exposition dump that’s far less interesting than the writers seem to think. Especially considering you can always hear Nolan speak through the mouths of the characters.
It has its moments and some good ideas, but I’ve gotten tired of Nolan’s nonsense by this point. His characters are always little more than mouthpieces to let the viewer know what to think, they hardly ever show any sign of real humanity, and the sense of self-importance this film carries with it is just hard to look past. I know Nolan can do better.
15. Da 5 Bloods
I greatly respect how Spike Lee doesn’t feel the need to play nice. He’s not in the film world to follow any rules or to please anyone, he’s here because he has something important to say with every single one of his films. He’s an extraordinarily talented filmmaker, and he tells the stories he wants in the way he wants, not like anyone else would want him to.
Unfortunately, this one story specifically didn’t manage to keep my attention. This is a very busy film, with a lot of characters and threads that demand attention and development. All of these are fine (although some are more interesting than others), but they step on each other a lot and it’s hard to stay focused. Even though I always liked what I was watching, especially the scenes that took place during the war, I found rather hard to make it through its runtime.
14. Sonic The Hedgehog
The fact that this movie turned out to be decent feels like a miracle.
I’ve never been a fan of Sonic, but if I was I’m sure I would have felt truly disappointed after finding out that his first feature turned out to be yet another live action CG companion-shoehorn buddy film. The whole concept from the very pitch looked like it’d be just another unremarkable video game adaptation…and yeah, it kind of was, but it did have fun with it.
Funnily enough, despite its astonishingly generic and forgettable plot, I ended up really enjoying the characters in this little film. Sonic, who nowadays I only associate with memes of varying degrees of awulness, was actually rather endearing in this rendition. I was definitely distracted by how he sounded like Dewey Duck every time he opened his mouth, but he certainly wasn’t nearly as annoying as I feared he’d ended up being. The couple he finds on Earth is quite cute, and I was glad that the girl wasn’t sidelined for the whole film and actually had something to do past the first act. Jim Carrey as Robotnik certainly stole the show in most scenes he was in, he obviously had a lot of fun going all the way over the top and the movie wisely used him sparsely enough that he didn’t get annoying.
What else can I say? This movie just knows what it’s trying to be and is not ashamed. I do wish it had been a fully animated feature instead, but this is okay too. And yes, I can’t believe I’m ranking it above Tenet either, but hey, 2020 did strange things to all of us.
13. Yes, God, Yes
I watched the original Yes, God, Yes short film when it came out, and I found it quite charming and enjoyable. With this hour long feature, we find ourselves in the interesting position of being able to compare both versions. It goes to show the differences between both forms, as they both have their pros and cons. The short film is more engaging throughout is runtime and it’s better paced, doing more with less. The feature film, on the other hand, recontextualises the scenes from the original and it gives them more of a compelling thesis and a purpose.
However, it’s also much less consistently interesting than the short film, and despite being pretty short on its own it still feels like it drags on a bit at times. I really feel for this poor girl, but this movie kind of goes to show that sometimes short films are short films for a reason. Funnily enough, perhaps a middle ground between the short and the full feature would be the best way to tell this story. As things are, though, both versions have their merit.
That being said, the sequence involving the biker lesbian is one of my favourites of the years, and believe it nor not, not just because it involves a biker lesbian. Although let’s be honest, that definitely helps.
12. Wonder Woman 1984
If you’ve read any Wonder Woman 1984 critique, you already know what my issues with it are. Yes, it’s a mess, it’s way too crowded with ideas that don’t mesh with each other, and it completely loses the plot by the end.
…I still kind of like it, though.
I’m generally of the opinion that a film lives and dies by its plot structure, even more than the plot itself, so I find hard to explain why I don’t mind that Wonder Woman 1984’s structure doesn’t work at all. It might be because I’m admittedly biased, I really like this version of the character, we even share names, and I’d watch her do pretty much anything. Except maybe arguably rape a man without thinking twice about it, but I digress.
In general, I like the ideas in this story, and I really appreciate that it doesn’t feel like any other superhero movie I’ve seen before, or at least in a long time. It’s weird, campy, and retro, and I think that works on its favour most of the time. Until the ending, at least. The visual effects are pretty lackluster and it’s rather bonkers at times, but I still had a good time with it from beginning to…almost end.
It really needed some more time polishing the screenplay, but that’s its only really big flaw. However, that’s the most important part of almost any film, so it finds itself closer to the bottom of this list.
11. Death to 2020
When I first heard that the Black Mirror creators were making a mockumentary about 2020, I was really excited. The end result did let me down a little bit, but just a little bit. It’s clever, it’s funny, it’s ingenious, it’s well-acted…It just doesn’t really live up to the potential of the Black Mirror creators making a mockumentary about 2020. It’s a nice send off to the year, but it feels more like a TV special than a documentary that lives up to the expectations. It’s probably because it was actually produced under circumstances more akin to a TV special, but nevertheless, I expect more from some of the smartest kids in the class, especially when they’re playing to their strengths in the first place.
It really does put into perspective the craziness we went through in 2020, even though it leaves a lot outside of its scope. Like The Hunt, it doesn‘t really take a side when it comes to the political themes. But unlike The Hunt, it does not pretend to be equidistant or excuse the inexcusable. Overall, an enjoyable look back at what will hopefully be the most collectively traumatic year of our lives, but probably not a piece that we’ll remember years from now on like it could have been with a bit more polish.
10. Enola Holmes
Sometimes movies are just fine.
Enola Holmes is fine. Just fine. But hey, that’s fine.
The word here is “charm”. It’s great to see a version of Doyle’s story that’s not ashamed of being fun and family-friendly, and Millie Bobby Brown plays an extremely endearing leading role as Enola. Book accurately buff Henry Cavill as Sherlock is also very entertaining, and I enjoyed how flawed they allowed him to be without making him feel incompetent or mean-spirited to make Enola look better, even if he was perhaps a bit underutilised.
To address the elephant in the room, though, this definitely should have been a series. Not much actually happens in the story, which feels oddly stretched out and yet introduces things that are never explored. I’m sure sequels are planned, and I will happily watch them, but it makes this first installment feel rushed and yet incomplete at the same time.
It’s fine, though.
Just fine.
9. Onward
It feels, to me, that critics and audiences alike have been a bit too harsh towards Onward. Maybe a lot of people still have set a standard that’s too high for a studio that’s been quite inconsistent for a while, but I do not think this film deserves nearly as much flack as it got in certain circles.
That being said, I don’t think it’s great either. Onward feels like the opposite of Up, in a way. A good but otherwise not that remarkable movie elevated to another level by its opening, or in Onward’s case, its ending. You can really tell that the whole film was building up to that final moment, and when it does get there it really does work brilliantly…but the journey to get there is, unfortunately, not really nearly as remarkable. Maybe it would have been fine in a different context, but considering this whole movie is about quests and the imporance of journeys and the moments lived along the way, it really could have used more spark in the second act.
Onward lives and dies by its ending, and it’s true that its conclussion is its only great quality…but it’s such a great one that it alone puts it above average. If the whole movie had supported it better I have no doubts that we’d be talking about one of Pixar’s best, but as it is, it’s already pretty good.
8. Over The Moon
If I’m being honest, Onward is probably the better movie in pretty much any aspect, but I still enjoyed Over The Moon just a bit more. While the story and overall presentation felt just a bit too Disney (which shouldn’t be surprising considering the director), this is such a charming film that I just can’t help but have a truly good time watching it. All of these characters are likeable (except the obligatory talking animal sidekick), and although the plot is a bit too cliché-heavy it’s still very much enjoyable.
Besides, it’s a musical, and I spent the whole year starved for those. Chang’e’s introduction is easily my favourite character reveal in any 2020 film, and she plays circumstantial antagonist in a deeply entertaining way. I don’t think its ending hit me as powerfully as the film intended, but I still had a wonderful time from beginning to end.
7. Phineas and Ferb: Candace Against The Universe
Phineas and Ferb is easily in my top ten favourite shows, maybe top five, so of course I was going to deeply enjoy their triumphant return.
Candace Against The Universe is everything that made Phineas and Ferb great in the first place. It’s creative, it’s funny, it’s clever, it’s wholesome, it’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s got jokes, it’s got heart, it’s got great songs, it’s got everything you need in yet another wonderful adventure alongside Phineas and Ferb.
So why isn’t this closer to the top of the list, then? Solely due to the same reason why I wouldn’t rank any of the Phineas and Ferb specials all that high either: They rely a lot on previous knowledge of the show and love for the characters, and they function better as a package than on their own. Candace Against The Universe is a great movie for Phineas and Ferb fans, indispensable even…but not that much better in a vacuum than special episodes like Summer Belongs To You or Night of the Living Pharmacists. Your favourite characters are back and they bring their a-game, but they’re not win you over if you’re not already in love with them. Unlike many other shows, the strength of Phineas and Ferb was always its consistency, not necessarily its peak.
But hey, if you enjoyed Phineas and Ferb at all at any point and you haven’t watched this movie, do yourself a favour and put it on. You will not regret it.
6. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Talking about Borat is hard.
It’s hard because you can’t really talk about Borat in a vacuum, not without ignoring a mountain range of social and cultural context behind the character, especially now that he’s graced us with his presence in a post-2016 world. That kind of analysis is way beyond the scope of this thread, so I’ll keep my thoughts on Borat brief.
There’s been a lot of debate regarding whether this subsequent moviefilm stands up to the original, but I don’t believe it’s fair to judge them this soon, considering that the first one counts with fifteen years of cultural impact to draw from. I only watched the first one for the first time shortly before the sequel was released (I also watched more material by Sacha Baron Cohen, gaining a pretty deep respect for his quest against hate, methods aside) and I thought they were of comparatively quality.
There are a lot of great scenes in Borant Subsequent Moviefilm, albeit perhaps fewer than in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. However, Subsequent Moviefilm has a stronger thesis and more thought put into its structure and overall message. The meandering plot of the first one was completely intentional and it worked wonders, but the more traditional narrative of the sequel gives it a more powerful punch.
Which one is better? That’s up to you to decide, I definitely find very hard to choose one above the other. All I know for sure is that I fear how the world will look like when Borat visits us again.
5. The Willoughbys
The Willoughbys is the first feature film by the Canadian studio Bron Animation, and they’ve definitely earned my attention already. This film is very well made in all aspects. The voice acting is phenomenal, it’s very well directed, and it looks great despite not counting with the best technology.
It’s also really, really funny. Not only is it a hilarious and novel concept, it also has an excellent sense of timing and the performances really elevate the already clever jokes. The Willoughbys is a charming and adorable story, and I give it extra credit for being, I believe, the first animated movie I see that acknowledges that sometimes family members are awful and you shouldn’t accept them. The moral of the story is what you probably expect, but it’s delivered in a very natural, heartwarming and, again, hilarious way.
This is just a very sweet movie. It’s funny, it’s daring, it’s wholesome, go watch it if you haven’t yet.
4. Soul
It’s good to have you back, Pixar. Now, please actually stay this time around.
If he wasn’t already, Pete Docter has definitely earned a spot in the pantheon of modern animation filmmakers, delivering yet another excellent story. This film does what Pixar does best and what put it in the pedestal so many people still hold it in to this day: It takes a story that any other studio would have told competently, and it gives it a unique spin that completely recontextualizes it, giving it a new meaning that sticks with you. It’s hard to discuss what makes Soul great without getting into spoilers, so I won’t say much more.
This film is Pixar doing what Pixar does best. If you’re an animation lover like I am, you don’t really need more than that. But then again, if you’re an animation lover like I am, I’m sure you have your own thoughts already.
3. The Trial of the Chicago 7
I was not expecting to love this film as much as I did, but that’s what happens when you base your screenplay on a great story and form such a well-told narrative around it. In terms of structure, pacing, rhythm, and editing, this is probably my favourite movie of the year. It packs so much information, and yet it remains clear, intriguing and captivating for all its runtime. This was, in fact, the only film that managed to keep my ADD in check and had my full attention since the moment I put it on until the credits started rolling. My only issue with it is that, after researching the event it’s based on, which I didn’t know a lot about, I found out that it actually downplays it considerably.
But that aside, everything in this movie just works. This is only Aaron Sorkin’s second film as director, but he’s already proven to be one of the more talented non-genre fiction writers working today in Hollywood, with title such as A Few Good Men and The Social Network to his credit. I truly hope he’ll direct more films, because if he can mix excellent writing with excellent direction once again like he did with The Trial of the Chicago 7, it’ll become yet another truly remarkable title under his belt.
2. Feels Good Man
2020 had no shortage of surprises.
And yet, among all of them, perhaps one of the biggest ones was how somehow a documentary about Pepe the frog ended up becoming one of the best films of the year.
This is, unironically, a very well-crafted movie with deeply thought-provoking story. It expertly walks the fine line between deliberately trying to look amateur while still being unquestionably professionally produced, and it presents itself as one third documentary about memes, one third documentary about 4chan, and one third documentary about the alt right. However, all of that pales when compared to what the story is really about, an artist whose beloved creation was taken from him, spiraling completely out of his control, and the desperate struggle of fighting a righteous, but losing battle.
This documentary didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know politically, but it made me think a lot about how I’ve perceived the past few years, the era I’ve had to live in, and how we all try to find our place in an increasingly confusing and disheartening world. It deals with some very complex and deep themes for a story about a cartoon frog, but I suppose not taking Pepe seriously is a symptom of the same issue that allowed us to let everything get s out of hand. Unironically one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and I suspect it’ll only get much better with time.
I only watched one 2020 movie that I liked more, but before that…
Honourable mentions
Once Upon a Snowman: I’ll never get tired of Frozen-grade animation quality, but this pointless short offers nothing of value. I could easily list fifty Disney characters that deserve a short more than Olaf, but here we are.
Burrow: Very cute, I like the bunny.
Canvas: Easily the best short film I watched all year, but it’s over too quickly to really leave that much of a lasting impression.
Hamilton: Of course it’s great. It’s Hamilton. But it wouldn’t be fair to judge it as a film, so I won’t. And besides, this is not even from 2020.
Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical: I have absolutely no idea how I’m supposed to judge this, but I’m including this because I really hope that in a few years I’ll be able to claim I was already in the know about this avant-garde concept piece.
And now, without further ado, my favourite film in 2020…
1. Wolfwalkers
What can I say about Wolfwalkers that I haven’t said already?
I love just about everything in this film. The characters, the art style, the story, the animation, the themes, the voice acting, the lore, the music…
Everything in this movie works so perfectly. It’s an authentic marvel to listen to and look at, and it tells such a riveting and captiveting story with such a profound, almost spiritual energy.
A film hasn’t resonated with me like this since…Well, I don’t really remember the last time. I realise these arguments are extremely personal, but what can I say? This is already a very personal film to me. I really look forward to rewatching it, and then rewatching it again…
Cartoon Saloon have absolutely cemented themselves as one of my favourite studios, perhaps my all times favourite. It’s absolutely unbelievable to me how they manage to produce great film after great film, and I can only hope they keep making more wonderful movies like their first four features. My absolute dream is to, one day, be able to create something as deeply beautiful, genuine, charismatic, and remarkable as Wolfwalkers.
2020 was a hell of a year, but even the end of the world as we know it couldn’t stop some truly great movies from coming into our lives, one way or another. The future of the industry is uncertain right now, and the way in which films will be produced and distributed in the future has to be highlighted with a big question mark. However, we can all rest assured knowing that, as long as there’s talented and passionate people picking up a camera or a stylus, eager to share their vision with us, good film will always have a future.
