Year in Review: Top 10 First Watches of 2020
Monday, December 28, 2020 at 6:20PM 
Many people discovered new hobbies while under quarantine. I, however, re-discovered my love for movies. As many film fans can attest, it sometimes feels like you have to watch so many new films each year that it can be hard to find time to fill in classic blind spots. But with the 2020 quarantine (plus the fun of insomnia), I turned to the Criterion Collection and basically got a whole second film school education. As 2020 comes to a close, I’ve had over 120 new-to-me watches for the year, not counting films released in 2020. They span from silent era cinema through Camp (2003).
Since the final week of December is always about lists, here are my top 10 favorite first-time-for-me watches from 2020...
10. Real Life (1979)
Who knew Albert Brooks was skewering reality TV way back in 1979? Other than old movies, my 2020 was characterized by watches and re-watches of The Real Housewives of {Potomac, New York, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, Salt Lake City}. Potomac, in particular, knows how to break the fourth wall and allow the production crew to become part of the drama. So too does Brooks (playing a version of himself), as he leads a documentary film crew to the Yeager family to capture “real life.” Soon, his presence derails their life, as well as the lives of the townspeople around them. Brooks’ absurdist humor naturally conflicts with the banality of the average suburban life. The joke-a-minute tone is perfectly captured in the film’s opening and never stops. Brooks didn’t just skewer a moment in time, he predicted a trend that only grows stronger forty years later.
9. Written on the Wind (1956)
Who doesn’t love a good Douglas Sirk melodrama? For fans of his romances like All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind may come as a surprise. The film has a tremendous energy. It’s like a roller coaster, you just have to decide if you’re along for the ride. Kyle (Robert Stack) and Marylee (Dorothy Malone), children of a wealthy oil baron, are used to getting what they want in life. That’s why they think falling in love will be easy. Kyle pressures a New York secretary, Lucy (Lauren Bacall), into marrying him. Marylee throws herself at Kyle’s childhood friend, Mitch (Rock Hudson). Little do they both know that Mitch and Lucy are falling for each other while Kyle and Marylee throw fit after fit. Dorothy Malone isn’t just actressing from the edge in her Supporting Actress winning performance, she’s chewing the scenery and acting the house down. She goes as broad as one can go, but still fits it all into a very specific character whose highs and lows go so far in either direction. Coming in at 99 minutes, they truly don’t make films as energetic, juicy, deranged or efficiently as they used to.
8. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Nobody conveys attraction and repression in the same glance quite as effectively as Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty do in Splendor in the Grass. Set in 1928 Kansas, it initially seems like a fairly standard teen love story. Beatty plays Bud Stamper, the All-American son of the richest family in town. Wood stars as Deanie Loomis, a beauty from a much poorer family. Yet, the movie takes a turn as it interrogates the sexual morals of the time. Deanie can’t lose her virginity to Bud because she’ll be ostracized. However, she also can’t let him get his needs satisfied by other girls who would be happy to share his bed. To express the dangers of embracing one’s sexuality, Barbara Loden plays Ginny Stamper, Bud’s flapper sister who drinks, smokes and screws. The Stampers turn their backs on Ginny, placing the family’s future all on Bud. Both Wood and Beatty do a great job showing two bright, young people driven crazy by society’s expectations of them.
7. Margaret (2011)
It’s hard to know where to begin with Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. The long road to release makes this depiction of grief and purpose feel a bit of out time. Yet, this also made it a particularly cathartic and emotionally draining (in a positive way) quarantine watch. A small interaction between a New York teen, Lisa (Anna Paquin), and a bus driver, Gerald (Mark Ruffalo), directly leads to the death of a pedestrian, Monica (Allison Janney). The often meandering two and a half hour film finds Lisa searching for ways to forgive and flog herself for these actions. The meandering quality is what I found most haunting and realistic about the film. Grief isn’t a narrative, it’s something you have to slog through and watch helplessly as it permeates facets of your life you wouldn’t think it would touch. Combined with post-9/11 raw feelings, Lisa and her friends are all struggling with how to exist in a world that feels so profoundly broken. As we go through the pandemic, these are similar feelings we’re all struggling with. How do we keep doing the right thing when so many are still spreading the disease through irresponsibility?
6. Mysterious Skin (2004)
I don’t know what I thought I was going to watch when I started Mysterious Skin at midnight one weekday night, but it whatever it was, I was fully unprepared for what I got from Gregg Araki’s searing drama. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Brian (Brady Corbet) experience something strange after a Little League game that neither can explain. Decades later and states apart, the boys move through the world very differently. Brian believes he was abducted by aliens and regularly suffers from nosebleeds, blackouts and bedwetting. He journeys to find Neil who may know more about the alien abduction. However, Neil is too busy seeking out gay sex from older men, eventually moving to New York City to become a prostitute. The haunting depiction of queer trauma is so incredibly well done in the film. Araki uses mystery and sci-fi genre elements to great success. Meanwhile, Gordon-Levitt has never been better. The film particularly shines when focused on the friendship between Neil, his first “girlfriend” Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) and the only other out gay kid in school, Eric (Jeff Licon).
5. The Red Shoes (1948)
Speaking of being in the mind of an artist, The Red Shoes definitely puts us in the headspace of dancer Victoria Page (Moira Shearer). One of my favorite discoveries in 2020 has been experiencing the technicolor masterpieces of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. With The Red Shoes, they manage to make madness look big, bold, sumptuous and frightening all in the same breath. Both Victoria and music student Julian Craster (Marius Goring) are drawn into the web of eccentric producer Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). In trying to craft perfection in The Ballet of the Red Shoes, emotions and attractions run high between the trio. In bearing your heart and soul on the stage, whether it be through music composition or dance, an artist is leaving themselves vulnerable and open. As many movies following (most notably Black Swan) have confirmed for us, being a dancer is hard work, both physically and mentally.
4. Original Cast Album: Company (1970)
As a fan of Documentary Now, I was familiar with D.A. Pennebaker’s short-lived “Original Cast Recording” episode on “Company,” by Stephen Sondheim. The Co-Op episode, featuring John Mulaney as a Sondheim type and Paula Pell doing a Elaine Stritch screech, was my favorite of the series. It wasn’t until Original Cast Album: Company was put on the Criterion Channel in June (happy Pride month indeed) that I realized the actual text is even funnier, darker and more layered than any satirical version ever could be. In just 53-minutes of bliss, Pennebaker captures the grueling flop sweat of artists trying to recreate the magic of stage in a small recording studio. Stritch’s performance of “The Ladies Who Lunch” is like watching Michael Jordan miss a free throw (is that the right sports lingo?). She’s an incredible talent who screeches as she tries to reach the high bar she’s set for herself. Few other pieces of art accurately depict what it’s like to be inside an artist’s head.
3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
The only feeling stronger than young love is the pangs of love lost. Jacques Demy’s musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg pairs striking, sumptuous imagery with beautifully sad songs to create a singular film experience. Genevieve (Catherine Deneuve) and Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) fall in love instantly. Unfortunately, Genevieve’s disapproving godmother (Anne Vernon), economic imbalances and the Algerian War each threaten to tear them apart. Over the course of six years, the film shows how time can alter and shape love. One can easily see how and why Damien Chazelle said The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was his main inspiration for La La Land, particularly with the ending. It’s hard to name a more beautiful or sad final scene. Young love is fleeting, as life moves fast and brings with it new complications and obstacles. Guy’s gas station will be burned in my brain forever.
2. Black Narcissus (1947)
Of the Powell & Pressburger filmography, nothing left me as speechless and in awe as Black Narcissus. Colors have never been brighter. Shorts have never been shorter than Mr. Dean’s (David Farrar). Nuns have never been hornier or scarier. Even on the small screen, the images of Black Narcissus feel purely and overwhelmingly theatrical. Visually and story-telling-wise, I’ve seen few films as thrilling and involving as Black Narcissus. FX tried to expand the tale with a three episode miniseries this November. However, they missed the point. Black Narcissus is more than just impending doom. It’s about how repression and isolation allows pent up feelings of all sorts (lust, jealousy, rage) to bubble up and explode.
1. Grey Gardens (1975)
Even though Grey Gardens had been a major blind spot of mine, I felt like I knew what I was getting into. The tale of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, cousins of Jackie Kennedy, is part of the fabric of pop culture. Between Jinkx Monsoon on RuPaul’s Drag Race, the Jessica Lange/Drew Barrymore tv movie, the Broadway musical adaptation, and Documentary Now, the images and personas of the Edies are indelible. From the opening frames of decrepit Hampton estate, I realized the 1975 documentary is way more than just the iconic moments we all know. Every exchange between Little Edie and Big Edie carries with it decades of abuse and codependency. The documentary crew captures every nook, cranny and nuance within the withering estate. The filmmakers stumble upon a treasure trove. Every moment is packed with more things to notice and unpack.
What were your favorite first time viewing discoveries this year?
Reader Comments (19)
Nice write-up, so many classics on that list!
My favorite discovery this year was "The Set" from 1970, an Australian, bisexual coming of age story, sort of halfway between a British kitchen sink drama and an pulp novel. It turned up on Prime and I'd never heard of it, but it's fascinating - kind of arty, kind of trashy.
Some of my highlights:
1. Tsai's VIVE L'AMOUR
2. Kusturica's UNDERGROUND
3. Varda's MUR MURS
4. Wiseman's CENTRAL PARK
5. Schlesinger's BILLY LIAR
I like those P&P films, but for me nothing tops I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!
I also saw BLACK NARCISSUS for the first time this year! Here were some of my other favorite "new to me" films this year...
All About Eve
All About My Mother
Blancanieves
Cabaret
Double Indemnity
It Happened One Night
Little Shops of Horrors
Meet Me in St. Louis
One Sings, the Other Doesn’t
Ordinary People
Pulp Fiction
Querelle
Rear Window
Reservoir Dogs
sex, lies, and videotape
Sherlock, Jr.
Vertigo
Victim
What’s Up, Doc?
Uh, yeah, I had a lot of time on my hands what with lockdown and quarantining this year. A lot of these were also to shore up some cinematic blind spots for me.
I'm gonna have to start doing this. Every time Dec 31 rolls around I don't feel I've seen enough of that year's movies to do a list yet, and then, by March or April, nobody cares.
Just dropping in to say I’m wildly jealous - getting to see Grey Gardens, Mysterious Skin, The Red Shoes, and Original Cast Album: Company for the first time - those are all soooooo good. And Dorothy Malone’s is one of my favorite Best Supporting Actress wins, and J. Smith-Cameron is outstanding in Margaret. It’s great to see all this work being appreciated.
Red Shoes is my favorite from your list, the dancing scenes are really great, dancing and storytelling wise.
Fuck yeah. Get that fag education comrade.
My heart beat for the mention of Mysterious Skin, the ending dialogue is beautiful. I love the carefree tone of Gregg Araki films.
My heart beats even harder watching Kusturica's Underground in the comments. This one and Black Cat, White Cat are a couple of cinematographical gems.
To me, probably Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.
by the way, never got to see Margaret yet. Heard A LOT that Paquin would have secured Oscar nom, and even possible win #2 if the film would have been released in time, and not after years of legal lawsuits. That is what prevents me to reaching out to see the cut that is available, it is not the director approved one.
What a wonderful list and a really great idea for the year’s end - I think I focus too much on the latest releases when there are so many masterpieces I haven’t seen which have stood the test of time or been neglected, ripe for discovery. Your list has inspired me to shift priorities and note the “new to me” watches in 2021. Thank you!
Not a movie to rival any of these but a long sought out by O completists can be found in ok.ru: The Lively Set, sound editing nom, 1964. And I’m down to 71.
I also saw Grey Gardens for the first time this year and it was wonderful! I haven’t seen any of the other films here. Time for me to catch up!
One of my ten favorite directors is William Wyler. And I've seen every single feature film he's directed during the sound era. Except one. This year I finally saw THE HEIRESS. Strange that I'd seen such things as THE WESTERNER, COME AND GET IT, THE COLLECTOR and THE LIBERATION OF L.B. JONES first but there you have it. BTW: THE HEIRESS is the single best film I saw this year. Better than SMALL AXE, MINARI, POSSESSOR or ANOTHER ROUND.
Great list! Lists like these are often more interesting than best of the year list, because there's more variety. Grey Gardens is one of my all-time favorite films and I love Written on the Wind as well.
Here is mine. I watched a lot of Japanese film this year (I discovered Naruse), and 3 of these are shorts.
1. Flowing (Naruse 1956)
2. Clotheslines (short; Cantow 1982)
3. Purple Rain (Magonli 1984)
4. I Am Easy to Find (short; Mills 2019)
5. Yearning (Naruse 1964)
6. Orlando (Potter 1992)
7. Betty Tells Her Story (short; Brandon 1972)
8. You Were Never Lovelier (Seiter 1942)
9. Twenty-Four Eyes (Kinoshita 1954)
10. Sound of the Mountain (Naruse 1954)
I filled in most of my John Carpenter blindspot this year, watching and enjoying Christine, The Fog, Assault on Precinct 13, and In the Mouth of Madness. Still got to get around to Big Trouble in Little China and They Live
other great new discoveries for me were
- The Fly (86)
- Marjoe
- The Little Foxes
- Mikey and Nicky
- Saboteur
- The Gunfighter
- Postcards from the Edge
- Trees Lounge
- Suspiria
- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
I have already documented my glee at discovering Coppola's Dracula on here
Oh man, to be able to see The Red Shoes and Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the first time. What jealousy.
I too saw I Know Where I'm Going for the first time this year (must have just been discovered by TCM?), and really liked it. It's not particularly indispensable, but that kind of movie done well is very hard to find. All the greats have already been discovered.
I also finally saw/finished Red River this year due to Nathaniel's Clift retrospective. I was thrilled to find that John Wayne was playing an asshole (he's so good at that), AND that he was absent for long stretches of the movie. ;-)
i need to keep better track each year so i can do one of these. But i did very much enjoy the 1938 retrospective i made lots of time for in the summer my favourite of which was HOLIDAY which i somehow had not seen before.
Love the idea behind this list. I was really 'movied out' for most of 2020 and then spent the last few months watching only 2020 films, so I don't have a ton to report in the way of 'first watches,' but I can say:
My *absolute favorite* first watch of 2020 was The Heiress. I watched it the day that de Havilland passed and what a sneaky, sneaky little film! It's both charming and horrific. I don't know that I've laughed so much during a tragedy.
Honorable Mention to A Place in the Sun, which I watched because I wanted to see more Monty Clift after seeing him in The Heiress. Shelley Winters was pitch perfect there.
My biggest disappointment is coincidentally on your list, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's probably a thing of high expectations not being met more than anything else, but I really, really hated the music. I went in expecting some French approximation of showtunes and got libretto more than anything else... and not very well-sung libretto at that. Loved the look of the film though (of course!).
@Evan: I'll forgive being let down by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg because you mentioned The Heiress, which narrowly missed being on the list. Absolutely fell in love with it and such an incredible de Havilland performance!