The best films of 2020, so far …
Uncut Gems (Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie)
Energetic and rowdy, the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems is their most exciting film to date, boasting a Shakespearian performance from Adam Sandler as the Jewish-American jeweller Howard Ratner (his best role since 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson). Available to stream on Netflix.
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers)
Two lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) gradually lose their sanity whilst stranded on a remote island in 19th century New England. Superstition, homoeroticism and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick wonderfully collide over its 100 minutes runtime.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
Taking place over a week and a half, Céline Sciamma’s latest picture tells the brief affair of Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). Filmed in soft, romantic pastels, Portrait of a Lady on Fire captures the rush and headiness of falling in love. Available to stream on the Mubi Library.
Bong Joon-ho triumphs in this perfect satire of class relations, building from ideas stretched and flexed in both The Host (2006) and Snowpiercer (2013). The impoverished Kim family ingeniously infiltrate the household of the wealthy Park family, with devastating and bloody consequences ensuing.
Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg find themselves trapped in topsy-turvy suburbia after agreeing to a house viewing in the development site “Yonder.” Unable to leave or find a way out, the couple decides to accept their new life. John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) and Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (1988) inspire this multi-layered, unique thriller.
Light of My Life (Casey Affleck)
Indebted to the post-apocalyptic world of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), Casey Affleck writes, directs and stars in Light of My Life (his first time behind the camera since 2010’s mockumentary I’m Not Here). Father (Casey Affleck) and daughter, Rag (Anna Pniowsky), attempt to survive in a landscape where the female population has been decimated by a plague. Subtle, beautiful and evocative.
The Painted Bird (Václav Marhoul)
One of the most shocking films in recent years, The Painted Bird (adapted from Jerzy Kosiński’s novel of the same name) is a violent and muddy vision of post-Holocaust Europe. Carried from one extremity to the next, an unnamed, Jewish boy (Petr Kotlár) journeys across a changing Europe.
A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
Terrence Malick returns to form with A Hidden Life, abandoning the wishy-washy ensembles of Knight of Cups (2015) and Song to Song (2017) for an elegant, mercurial autobiography of the Nazi-objector Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl). If Malick demands patience from his viewers, then he also rewards them with a sympathetic and beautifully-realised picture.
Having shared the Oscar for Best Screenplay in BlacKkKlansman (2018), Spike Lee reteams with co-writer Kevin Willmott to produce another spectacular and timely picture. Experiences of the Vietnam War are hazardously revisited when a group of ageing veterans return in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader (Chadwick Boseman). Available to stream on Netflix.
Little Joe (Jessica Hausner)
Alice Woodward (Emily Beecham, taking the award for Best Actress from Cannes) is the breeder of an artificially engineered strain of flower titled “Little Joe,” whose curious scent leaves its owner feeling happy. Far from the grotesque appetite of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 1986), “Little Joe” poses a subtler kind of threat. Hypnotic and beautiful in equal measure.
Turning from Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda translates his studies of family life into a Parisian setting, exploring the relationships between the actress Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) and her daughter, Lumir (Juliette Binoche). Tenderly observed.
Other films to mention include Autumn de Wilde’s comic adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.; David Lynch’s latest selection of short films (including What Did Jack Do?, Fire (PoZar), and The Story of a Small Bug); Luca Guadagnino’s fashion-short The Staggering Girl; and Patrick Vollrath’s hijacking thriller 7500 (a student of Michael Haneke).
Films to avoid include Pablo Larraín’s dull and vacuous Ema; Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ body-horror Swallow; the Irish production Sea Fever (Neasa Hardiman); Naomi Watts as a paranoid author in The Wolf Hour (Alistair Banks Griffin); and William Eubank’s Alien-rip off Underwater.
