The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Both a rollicking, trickily structured crime film and an absurd study of language and communication, Corneliu Porumboiu’s atypical
The Whistlers proposes that these two strands are inseparable: the operative image is that of a finger perched in a mouth in the trigger position. There’s a marked emotional resonance that develops slowly, but the droll humor, the cool precision of its characters’ actions and Porumboiu’s shameless references to various antecedents have a pleasure all their own.
9. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
Making the leap from DV to HD, Pedro Costa’s hushed, immaculate images reach an even greater state of beauty in
“
Thank you for the days / those endless days, those sacred days you gave me” So begins the classic 1968 single by the Kinks, and Tsai Ming-Liang has an apposite poster tagline here if he needs it. But altering any one element of this immaculate comeback feature––say, putting this very track against the closing credits––would be heresy, especially when it already contains a beautiful use of diegetic music in the theme from Chaplin’s
Limelight. I was lucky enough to see his tender, spellbinding new film at BFI London’s in-person, distanced screenings, and strongly hope others are afforded that pleasure when things open again in 2021––when it will most certainly appear on TFS’s list for the second year running. –
3
For one blissful month, it seemed like the defining moment of movie culture this year might be the most joyful one, too. Bong Joon Ho’s class warfare crowd-pleaser,
Parasite, had beat the odds, shattered precedent, and overcome an American aversion to subtitles to win the Oscar for Best Picture. What a thing it was to experience live a wonderful glitch in the simulation! Sadly, that night now feels miles away, a distant glimmer in the rearview mirror, a speck of light from the before times of ancient February. Just a few weeks after
Parasite made history, James Bond made other plans: He would
The 25 Best Documentaries of 2020
Though the pandemic has all but murdered moviegoing in 2020, for the lowly documentary film, the distribution landscape has never looked more promising. Often relegated to festivals and then, if fortune-favored, Netflix or HBO, documentaries rarely receive the attention or the right platform to reach more than a specialized audience. If it seems like 2020 was a particularly bright year for documentaries, that might be because you could actually watch many of these at home, streaming through virtual cinemas or online festivals or via services like Mubi and Kanopy (off the top of the dome).
In the spirit of such bounty, the following 25 documentaries cover a broad swath of picks: Jodie Mack’s feature-length