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2020 vision: The year in film
Streaming services stepped up as viewers hunkered down, seeking connection
Uploaded: Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 11:26 am
2020 turned the world upside down in so many ways, causing upheaval to our every way of life.
Though movies are a relatively trivial example of the existential threat posed by COVID-19, Bay Area movie theaters were effectively shut down for most of the year, giving new life to socially-distanced drive-ins and a major shot in the arm to streaming services as Americans hunkered down in front of their TVs for their escapism. Disney+ emerged as a frontrunner in the streaming war and Quibi lost big, with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, AppleTV+ and others still hanging tough.
20 of the Best Films of 2020
Updated / Monday, 28 Dec 2020
08:27
Here s hoping we re back to all this in 2021
In the year that lasted a decade, the movies helped us to escape like never before. Here are some of our boltholes.
Uncut Gems
Sarah McIntyre says: It is rare that a film as relentlessly propulsive and uniquely gripping as
Uncut Gems comes along - probably about as rare and mesmerising as the uncut opal around which a lot of the action centres in this high-octane thriller. From acclaimed sibling filmmaking duo Josh and Benny Safdie, who were behind the excellent 2017 crime-drama
Uncut Gems similarly thrives on chaos and a mounting sense of stress that verges on panic-inducing. Adam Sandler puts in a career-best performance as Howard Ratner, a fast-talking Manhattan diamond district jeweller who funds his compulsive gambling habit with increasingly high-stakes dodgy dealings. An endlessly nerve-wracking, visceral assault of a movie.
Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant in Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Neon
Critic score: 98%
Audience score: 92%
Summary: In the 18th century, painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is whisked away to Brittany to paint a wedding portrait for the young Lady Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), and the two women grow closer than they ever expected.
Both critics and audiences agreed that the delicate period piece benefited from pairing its minimalist filmmaking style with raw emotional power. Beautiful, just flat out beautiful, wrote one viewer. I don t know why it took me so long to watch this masterpiece that left my heart wrenching.
Even with all that going on, plenty of great stuff still came out in 2020. From an inclusive musical about gay teens to modern #MeToo takes on classic thriller tropes to movies about the Black experience, exceptional stories and diverse storytellers were there for audiences to find. So here are the best films of 2020, ranked (and where to watch them):
What the 10 best movies of 2020 say about diversity in Hollywood, streaming and more
USA TODAY’s Brian Truitt looks back on his 10 best films of 2020. Some weren’t released until December because of the pandemic s effect on Hollywood.
Entertain This!, USA TODAY