The Year in Review- 2020

It was the year the Coronavirus delayed the release of everything you wanted to see.

The ever-increasing homeless population(or houseless, I should say) is presented in a subtle, moving documentary style by Frances McDormand's wandering widow and writer-director Chloe Zhao. The earthy cast is made up of real-life nomads and van-dwellers, an eye-opening experience for those unaware of the 2011 decimation of small towns like Empire, Nevada. The Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, and Actress(McDormand's THIRD win in that category) were rightly rewarded to this sobering indie drama. As someone that once lived a life not unlike these characters, I urge everyone to see it.

David Fincher, don't leave us again. It's been a long six years since "Gone Girl". The great Gary Oldman is Herman Mankiewicz, the alcoholic screenwriter and unsung hero of Hollywood's Golden Age, that Pauline Kael propped up in a 1971 article about the true authorship of "Citizen Kane". Erik Messerschmidt's Oscar-winning cinematography echoes the films of the 1930s and '40s, while the late Jack Fincher's screenplay(David's dad) delves into deceptive California politics that are eerily reminiscent to today's predicament. Amanda Seyfried is the standout in a supporting cast that includes Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, and Charles Dance.

Anthony Hopkins is still an amazing actor. That's one of the comforting lessons we learned during the most challenging year in the history of the industry. The now-legendary Welshman, more than fifty years after his debut in 1968's "The Lion in Winter", became the oldest recipient of the Best Actor Oscar(his second) for this heartbreaking depiction of dementia. First-time director Florian Zeller adapts his own London play with intimacy and class and the same level of acclaim. Olivia Colman ably costars as Hopkins' long-suffering daughter. Christopher Hampton won Best Adapted Screenplay.

Revolution is the only solution. Fred Hampton was the progressive 21 year old leader of the Chicago Black Panther Party and the founder of the working-class, anti-racist Rainbow Coalition movement. In the year of George Floyd protests, his 1969 murder by the police is even more and powerful and potent. D K is living up to the promise of "Get Out", and Shaka King makes an assured feature directorial debut. Will Berson's screenplay reveals the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover(Martin Sheen) himself as the masterminds of an insidious plot to eliminate Hampton. Best Supporting Actor winner L S

The "Captain Philips" team of Tom Hanks and Paul Greengrass reunite for this beautifully somber Western, based on a 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles. A grizzled Hanks is a former Confederate officer on a 400-mile wagon-ride with an 11 year old orphan(impressively played by newcomer Helena Zengel) to a home she no longer has. There's something very warm and soothing about an old-fashioned genre picture like this, even with peril and potential kidnappers all over 1870 Texas. James Newton Howard's score and Darius Wolski's cinematography are selling points. I'd like to spread the news on this one.

Carey Mulligan is magnetic in this aptly-titled

I've found my spark, and it's discovering movies like Pixar's. Jamie Foxx's jazz man has a near-death experience, which includes a tour of the afterlife and a friendship with Tina Fey's lost soul "22". Writer-director Pete Docter

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Honorable Mentions- "Horse Girl"(2020) I like Alison Brie. "Sonic the Hedgehog"(2020) "Onward"(2020), "Da 5 Bloods"(2020) "The Way Back"(2020) *** "The King of Staten Island"(2020) is played by Pete Davidson in this Judd Apatow comedy. "You Cannot Kill David Arquette"(2020) The title says it all. "Rifkin's Festival"(2020) Woody Allen's career is winding down. "The Trial of the Chicago 7"(2020) "The Witches"(2020) Robert Zemeckis remakes Roald Dahl. "The Midnight Sky"(2020) "Hillbilly Elegy"(2020) "One Night in Miami"(2020), "Pieces of a Woman"(2020)