Year in Review: 20 Best Movie Posters

by Nathaniel R

The Year in Review party continues. Contrary to those headshots against monochrome backgrounds titles you see while scrolling through Netflix, the movie poster as an artform is not dead. It just has diminished in popularity and might soon be evolving. The upright rectangle has been the norm for almost a century, probably because it was just-right for magazines and newspapers. But both of those modes of information-distribution are outmoded. The standard shape might still continue in dominance, though, given that it's also the shape of a phone but who knows. But we digress. The 20 best movie posters for 2020 films after the jump...

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Year in Review: Greatly Abbreviated Box Office Lists and 'What Ifs'

the year in review lists are winding down but not quite yet done!

If you had predicted that Bad Boys 3 would be the biggest grosser of 2020 in January, nobody would have believed you.

We shan't rehash what's happened to movie theaters this past year (everyone knows). But normally at this time we have tons of fun compiling extensive deep-dive lists of how well movies of various genres and types of releases did. And of course we can reflect on how the success impacted their awards chances (Parasite never would have won Best Picture without that incredible theatrical run, becoming the biggest subtitled hit in the US in the past 16 years. Since there was only the first three months of the year with normal box office the lists are VERY strange and in some cases we just couldn't do them. But here's an extremely abbreviated version of what we normally do...

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Year in Review: Greatest Thirst Traps

by Team Experience

Beauty is the eye of the beholder and so is sex appeal and cinematic eye candy. So take these rankings as seriously as they were assigned which is to say, barely seriously at all. T'was but a glancing approximation of how many lists each hottie showed up on from our teammates and whether they were high up on said lists. At any rate these faces (and bodies) and born-to-perform stars deserve your wide open appreciative eyes when they're working it onscreen. 

We meant to post this last night when the mood was more drunken and festive but it's okay to start a new year off lustily, too! Please to enjoy our choices for the greatest thirst traps of 2020. Which of these stars made you quiver under your bodice or weak at the knees these past twelve months? 

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Year in Review: Best Onscreen Chemistry of 2020

by Team Experience

Chemistry may be something you can predict in a lab but in showbiz it's always been volatile, elevating some projects to unpredictable heights and dooming others with its absence or withholding or misdirections. Strong onscreen chemistry may be far less rare than capturing lightning in a bottle but it can feel just as miraculous. In the studio system they'd seize on any great example and repurpose it by ordering additional pairings of the stars involved. Modern Hollywood executive (and the stars themselves to some degree) have been notoriously dumb about capitalizing on incredible partnerships. This has made great onscreen chemistry basically a one & done phenomenon for the most part for decades... and thus all the more ephemeral and precious. So let's celebrate it.

We polled Team Experience on "best screen chemistry of 2020" and pooled the results. Sound off with your own in the comments... 

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Best of December. It's a Wrap

Tomorrow is New Years Eve which means this cursed year is nearly up --happy 'Light at End of Tunnel Day' to you! Obviously our "year in review" festivities will continue a bit still. Plus the 2020 film year is extra long (in a way) due to the Awards Show Shenanigans of extending Oscar & Globe & so on eligibility by two months. So we won't be done with 2020 until April but at least the calendar year is concluding and the 2021 film year can also begin with Sundance in January!

Ten Highlights You Might Have Missed
• Lily James to play Pamela Anderson creative or confounding casting?
• Review: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom proved divisive amongst our readers
• Mad for Mads the Danish star gives his best performance yet in Another Round
• Riz ascends the star really delivers in Sound of Metal 
• Podcast on Mank Murtada and Nathaniel talk the Best Director race
• Ann Reinking (RIP) another loss in 2020. Superb dancer. non-prolific actor
• Gay Best Friend: Abby in Carol Christopher's new series reaches a milestone. This is how you do the gay best friend trope.
• Wonder Woman 1984 Lynn likes it more than she admits she should. Same.
• How Had I Never Seen White Christmas? Claudio confesses and rectifies
• Cartoon Saloon from The Secret of Kells through Wolfwalkers

5 Most Discussed Articles
• Review: The Prom you always love to talk Meryl!
• LAFCA goes haywire awarding their "Best Film" prize to an anthology collection
• In defense of Glenn Close Carlos says "Maw Maw" is Hillbilly's saving grace
• What's your vote for most underrate (respected) movie? This question sparked so many great answers
• The day moviegoing died Warner Bros destroys theatrical biz model for 2021

COMING IN JANUARY: One Night in Miami, Pieces of a Woman, Nathaniel's top ten list and the 2020 Film Bitch Awards, and at the end of the month, the Sundance Film Festival. Plus anniversary looks at Angels & Insects, The Music Lovers, Patricia Highsmith, and more...

If you're just rejoining us looking to catch up, previous 2020 overviews...
Feb | March | April | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov