Review 2020:
Films.

Films The chances are this will be the only "Review" post which mostly exists so that there won't be a gap in the tag list. Hello. I hope you all had a lovely season, such as it has been what with one thing and another. Ours fortunately hasn't been too different to previous years - we're a small family and don't have too many relatives visit most years anyway. 

To the point. Because of the pandemic, most of the films this year have been available for streaming almost as soon as they were released so for once I feel like I'm in a position to produce a list, even though I spent half the year watching back catalogue.  Finally collecting all of Empire Magazine, I've been reminded of a few of the films which I've otherwise missed or forgotten about.  

Anyway, here are the films released in 2020 in the UK which I gave five stars on Letterboxd:

Happiest Season
Tenet
Mank
Proxima
Totally Under Control
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Queen & Slim
Enola Holmes
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
The Booksellers
Mulan
1917
Misbehaviour
A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood
Jojo Rabbit
The Hunt
The Old Guard
Hamilton
Woman Make Film: A New Road Move Through Cinema
Athlete A
Disclosure
The Vast of Night
Ema
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Parasite

Which even omitting the four star list (which I will because there's too many of them) is still an incredibly strong year for the medium of cinema, if not the physical architecture.

There are a couple of items on the list I've perhaps been a bit generous with (Mulan, The Hunt) but there's not one there I wouldn't want to watch again right now, which has always been my rule when choosing five star films.

If I had to narrow things down to a top five:

Tenet
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Parasite
Totally Under Control
Birds of Prey

Which feels incredibly mainstream, but this has not been the year for watching French people in various stages of grief against a backdrop of rural poverty.  Hopefully next year.

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