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 

Year in Review: Top 10 First Watches of 2020

by Christopher James

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...

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Curio 2020: Ten movies that will inspire artists

Curated by Nathaniel R

Gorgeous AND THEN WE DANCED collage from Istanbul based artist "Pervane"

Each day we're doing a "year in review" list. When Alexa used to do her Curio series we got a fine overview of what type of films generally inspire artists. The well known classics, of course, but also movies with queer sensibilities, movies from auteurs, movies of any genre outside of drama / comedy but especially horror. The magic ingredient just might be movies and stories that lend themselves to visual reinterpretation or perpetual discovery or which are courting cult favor in some way by their nature or their aesthetic choices. Not every movie that deserves mass fandom gets it. We're dying to know for example what contemplative moving American stories like Nomadland or Minari might bring out in artists? What would cartoonists or painters make of emotionally severe but visually rich movies like Russia's Beanpole or Chile's Ema?  And why isn't every online sketch-machine obsessed with Riz Ahmed's face, tats, and platinum hair in Sound of Metal? Whyyyyyy?

Without further ado here are 10 films from 2020 that we think will continue to inspire visual art. If you click on the links you can see more from that particular artist. Most of them have merch shops or take commissions...

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Year in Review: 20 Style Icons of the Screen

by Cláudio Alves

We Are Little Zombies

A with last year, I'm merging two of my dearest personal obsessions, costume design and the madness of list-making, for year's end. From colorful comic book inspired styles to detailed period fashions, 2020 was rich with interesting sartorial choices in both film and TV. To celebrate, here are some of the best-dressed characters from fiction and real-life. Even if this has been an annus horribilis like no other, there's still plenty to admire from the world of entertainment. Because it's 2020, there are 20 entries. One may think there would be a dearth of options to fill so many positions, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, here are some that didn't quite make the cut before we that list of 20...

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Year in Review: The 20 Greatest Stocking Stuffers of 2020

Our year in review lists begin!  We'll try to bring you one each day for the next couple of weeks. We polled the team for this one and haphazardly tallied the results. At least two members had to vote for them or they had to score really high on one person's list. It's so not scientific but it was fun to think about: Which movie or television prop did you most covet this year? Here are the items Team Experience craved.

Just imagine pulling any of these things out of your stocking this holiday...

20 A BOTTLE OF SECONAL from Mank
If the pandemic has reeked havoc on your sleeping schedule, and what timetable hasn't it disrupted this year, you can take back control with one of these babies if someone is kind of enough to throw it in your stocking. No wrapping necessary. Maybe don't down a whole travelling case full of them like a boozy screenwriter, though.  - Nathaniel

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