In the Predictions Friday post I had a version of this form but it wasn’t working properly. So please use this instead and if you have a problem, please send me an email.
The idea is to rank them in order of preference. You must choose five but you can choose up to ten.
1. Promising Young Woman
2. The Climb
3. Tenet
4. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
5. Palm Springs
6. The Trial of the Chicago 7
7. Sound of Metal
8. Nomadland
9. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Still a few left to see like Minari (seeing tomorrow), Another Round (and any other foreign film this year), and The Father (probably won’t have that opportunity until next month).
1 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
2 Promising Young Woman
3 Ammonite
4 Hillbilly Elegy
5 The Trial of the Chicago 7
6 Nomadland
7 The Prom
8 Minari
9 I Carry You with Me
10 Driveways
1 and 2 are actually tied for me. 🙂
Have not seen: The United States vs. Billy Holiday, The Mauritanian, Cherry, and The Father. Have seen all other domestic contenders.
Have seen these foreign films:
Welcome to Chechnya
Collective
Night of the Kings
Two of Us
1. On the Rocks
2. The Vast of Night
3. Promising Young Woman
4. The Outpost
5. First Cow
6. Minari
7. Emma
8. Mank
9. Wolfwalker
10. Chicago 7
This has been a really strong year. Stronger than 2016 I must say. Here’s how I rank the 10 best so far:
1. On the Rocks
2. Emma.
3. French Exit
4. No. 7 Cherry Lane
5. Mank
6. Let Them All Talk
7. Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar
8. Minari
9. Another Round
10. La Llorona
What purpose is there for following the Oscar eligibility window in your own rankings?
I’ve seen well under half of what I plan to see by the end of my 2020 viewings, but, anyway, this is my provisional top 5 (giving a full top 10 feels a bit much, under the circumstances):
1. Wolfwalkers
2. Spontaneous
3. Colectiv
4. Mank
5. Palm Springs
I find this year surprisingly strong given the circumstances and with all the films that were postponed I already have about two dozen titles I’m excited about for 2021. Usually at this time of year, I only have 2 or 3, half a dozen at most.
Yeah, based on the sample so far, I also wouldn’t say this year is any weaker (or stronger) than the average year. Maybe next year and the year after that is when the Covid effect will make itself most felt…
1. Judas and the Black Messiah
2. Soul
3. Promising Young Woman
4. Sound of Metal
5. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
6. The Vast of Night
7. Mank
8. Da 5 Bloods
9. Dick Johnson is Dead
10. The Invisible Man
Guys you should block out some time and watch A Sun on Netflix. If you give it a chance you’ll make changes to your list I bet.
So happy that it made the top 15. So well deserved.
powerful film wasn’t it? One of my ten best last year. Samantha Ko’s performance as the mother of the fractured family was just superb.
Definitely, a great film that will rank high on my list no matter what else I haven’t seen. Which isn’t that much else. Loved this one. She will definitely ranks high on my list.
I’ve seen it twice and it was no less impactful, even knowing what was coming…..
Still a lot to see before Oscars
Here’s my current top ten best
1. Mank
2. Soul
3. Borat subaquent movie film
4. The trial of Chicago seven
5. Ma Rainey’s black bottom
6. Tenet
7. The way back
8. Burrow
9. Boys state
10. The croods a new age
Worst
1. Doolittle
2. Gretel and Hansel
3. Music
4. Mulan
5. The boy 2
6. Underwater
7. Bloodshot
8. The boss
9. Honest thief
10. Shortcut
Likewise, still a number of the heavy hitters to see, but currently:
1 Sound of Metal
2 La Belle Epoque
3 News of The World
4 One Night In Miami
5 Mank
6 The Trial of the Chicago 7
7 The Life Ahead
8 Promising Young Woman
9 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
10 Da 5 Bloods
I just saw Minari last night and I kinda feel terrible about myself because I just really struggled to connect with it. I know lots of people are head over heels in love with it and I felt like I should’ve been too – I loved the score and cinematography, the cast was amazing, it was all very authentic but something about it just didn’t connect with me – even though this is generally exactly my kinda film… Unfortunately I kinda feel its my fault and not the movie’s. Anyway my top 10 right now are :
Promising Young Woman
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Nomadland
Sound of Metal
Soul
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Davis Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
Crip Camp
Dick Johnson is Dead
First Cow
I must say, I’ve been really bad at not seeing foreign language films this year… I need to fix that!
I’m getting most of my foreign language films from Netflix and the imminent Alliance Francais. Netflix was great for some Taiwanese films last year and Spanish and Italian – regions i had planned to visit last year, but……
I felt very similar about Minari. It just annoyed me for an inexplicable reason.
I saw Minari yesterday and feel the same. It never really took off for me, as much as I admired parts of it.
You’re two hours ahead of me (time zone) and a week in front it seems for the release of Minari. It opens here on Thursday. It is interesting that there were lots of elements you loved and found it authentic but couldn’t connect with it. I hope to see it as soon as I can. It’s getting a lot of promotion here.
The moment/mood in which you choose to watch something can certainly affect your ability to connect with it, sometimes drastically – it’s happened to me before. (Which is why I’m so careful in choosing when I do or do not watch something these days.) Of course, only you may know whether this might be the reason, in this case.
It’s a very quiet, small film, so I don’t think you should feel bad.
Just saw Supernova and Land.
Supernova is indeed “small” and a little too on-the-nose talky perhaps, but I found it a wonderful film. It really won me over. Mostly, two just stellar performances. I don’t understand why those two at least haven’t received more attention. Also, Dick Pope’s cinematography is wonderful. I wish “smaller” films with great cinematography would also get more attention.
I wanted to like Land more. But, it seemed a bit half-developed. Demian Bichir was wonderful though.
Just watched Supernova last night. I think the film is back-loaded, which led to people tuning out. The last half hour is excellent though.
When is the deadline for this? I’m seeing Minari on Tuesday and seeing Nomadland on the 19th. I’d like to see as much as I can before voting.
I’ve only seen 40 films so far, and I’d like to see another 40-50 before I finalize my Top 25 for the year (target date is Oscar Sunday). This is my Top 10 at this very moment…
1. Soul
2. Promising Young Woman
3. Boys State
4. City Hall
5. Collective
6. Sound of Metal
7. The Mole Agent
8. Feels Good Man
9. The Invisible Man
10. Onward
—
Judas And The Black Messiah
One Night In Miami
Not a particularly strong year overall, IMO. But a stellar year for documentaries.
This is my early (lol) list of Best of 2020 (Small Axe excluded), rated on a universal scale of 1-5 stars:
1. Soul (★★★★+)
2. Nomadland (★★★★+)
3. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (★★★★+)
4. Promising Young Woman (★★★★)
5. Let Them All Talk (★★★+)
6. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (★★★+)
7. The Forty-Year-Old Version (★★★+)
8. On The Rocks (★★★+)
9. First Cow (★★★+)
10. Mank (★★★+)
Still a lot left to see.
Never Rarely is sooo good! I wish it would get in for screenplay. 🙁
I have yet to see so many highly anticipated contenders (like Nomadland, First Cow, Judas and the Black Messiah, Promising Young Woman and Minari) that I feel my contribution is surely very incomplete… But still, these are the films in competition that I truly liked:
1. Colectiv
2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
3. Emma.
4. The Assistant
5. Sound of Metal
6. One Night in Miami
I have not seen many contenders, including Nomadland and Minari, which I will see next week.. My list was Promising Young Woman, Mank, Trial of the Chicago 7, Hillbilly Elegy, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Night in Miami, Judas and the Black Messiah. I didn’t really think I liked anything else well enough to put in this list.
So as counterbalance to my complaint in the other thread about the top contenders, here’s what I picked, going only for the films I think came out in the US during 2020 and are feature length, meaning would be eligible for best picture (with films marked in parentheses as films that if eligible, I’d probably rank at that particular point):
(Days)
1. First Cow
2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
(Labyrinth of Cinema)
(Lovers Rock)
3. City Hall
(World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime)
4. Vitalina Varela
5. Shirley
6. Time
7. Ham on Rye
(The Woman Who Ran)
8. Martin Eden
9. About Endlessness
10. Nomadland
My top 3
1. Wolfwalkers
2. Nomadland
3. Minari
Wolfwalkers is my current #1 as well. 🙂 (I’ve thus far only seen maybe a third or a quarter of the movies I plan on seeing for 2020, though. It might stay top or it might not, based on how strong my #1’s were in previous years. Haven’t seen your other two yet, by the way.)