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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November. It's a Wrap

Hi readers. I know I got lost in the weeds a bit in November. It's that damn International Feature Oscar race. It really brings out my OCD qualities with those Oscar history overviews (Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Netherlands,  Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) so I skimped on other stuff. ANYWAY, here are some of key posts of November in case you missed any. There's one day left but it's the holiday weekend so we're doing the wrap up early ;) 

Highlights from the Month That Was

• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?
• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!
• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun
• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities
• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting! 
• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection
• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year
• Gene Tierney - a three film retrospective for her Centennial
• Carmen Maura in Law of Desire - the definitive Almodóvar interpreter?

Most Discussed

• Amy Adams in Arrival - almost there at the Oscars
• Smackdown '87 - Olympia Dukakis vs Norma vs the Annes (x 3)

COMING IN DECEMBER / ANY REQUESTS?
Oscar chart updates this week. Then a new movie bonanza as the studios finally release their supposedly strongest Oscar contenders --mostly huddled around Christmas week as if they're pretending it's a normal awards-strategy year: The Prom, One Night in Miami, Soul, Promising Young Woman, The Father, Minari, Mank, Ammonite, Nomadland, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.  Beyond that flurry of titles we'll begin our "year in review" list-making frenzy.

Not sure how much time we'll have for older titles but which of the following birthdays/anniversaries would you most like to see celebrated? 10th: Black Swan, Rabbit Hole, The Fighter, True Grit, Blue Valentine, Another Year; 25th: 12 Monkeys, Dead Man Walking, Sense & Sensibility, Nixon, Waiting to Exhale, Cutthroat Island, Timothée Chalamet; 50th: The Aristocats, Donkey Skin, Husbands, Love Story, Horror of Frankenstein, The Wild Country, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Little Big Man, Gimme Shelter, Regina Hall, Jennifer Connelly; 75th: Spellbound, Bells of St Marys, Leave Her to Heaven, or National Velvet?