TrustMovies: DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD, THE STAND (the doc, not the TV series remake), THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, THE GLORIAS top Best of 2020 list

Thursday, December 31, 2020

DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD, THE STAND (the doc, not the TV series remake), THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, THE GLORIAS top Best of 2020 list

Yes, it was a shit year for just about everything. Except movies. Herewith, TrustMovies' list of his favorites for 2020, in pretty much the order during the year in which I viewed each. As usual, eclectic doesn't begin to properly describe things. You may notice that there are almost as many documentaries as narrative films in this year's list. (The Mole Agent very nearly compresses the two into a single uber-hybrid genre.) If a lot of major, year-end movies seem to have been left off, this is either because they were not special or

surprising enough for me, or more likely, because I have not yet seen them. So some will be added to the list once I have done so.

The single film on the list so far that I did not officially review is Dick Johnson Is Dead, which I only caught up with this week via Netflix and was blown away by. What a wonderfully funny and moving testament to family and film it is! The Stand: How One Gesture Changed the World is one of those documentaries that was barely seen or acknowledged, but its importance is huge. It

is as timely now as the events from the 1960s that it covers so well, while showing us how much -- and how little -- has since then changed.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 offers Aaron Sorkin at his best, which is going some. It also gives us history, humor, and the chance to see past events and connect them to our present with both shame and hope. (Dateline--Saigon offers a documentary look at the Vietnam War that makes a fine companion piece to Sorkin's film.) The Glorias is far from a perfect film, but Julie Taymor's ability to

weave Gloria Steinem's history into a fanciful, thoughtful, consistently interesting tale is hugely worth viewing (and more than once). It is feminist in the finest manner.

Paint is on my list because it handles art and the art world so amusingly and well, while Dead makes the cut for its delightful combination of the supernatural, dry humor and a certain other theme that oughtn't be given away by a reviewer.

As GLBT movies go, I warrant you have never seen one (and probably never will again) as original and amazing as Kill the Monsters: An American Allegory, which compresses an oddball gay love story into American history in a most creative manner, ending up with one of the funniest, put-him-in-his-place looks at the laughing-stock President who is about to leave office that you can imagine.

Knockout acting in a neo-noir thriller about guilt? See Blood on Her Name (above). A near-undefinable sui generis ensemble film about grace and connection? Try Change in the Air. A look at mental illness unlike just about anything else? Yes: Eternal Beauty. Capitalism as the Death Star? You've got several picks, from Capital in the Twenty-first Century to System Error and The Andorra Hustle (below) -- that last an amazing little doc about a place and an incident/situation of which you've most likely never heard. You'll remember it, however, once you've seen this film. Oh, and a musical comedy, The Prom, too delightful and self-aware not to include.

The movies are from all over the place, and the count -- at this point 35 -- is, as usual, too many. (Cutting back is not TrustMovies' forte.) For more information on each, simply click its title link. Here they are, plus this year a mention of a few worthwhile series, as well as a new streaming source:

Movies

CUNNINGHAM

THE TRUTH ABOUT MARRIAGE

BLOOD ON HER NAME

THE HUNT

KILL THE MONSTERS: AN AMERICAN ALLEGORY

THE TRAITOR