It started with Parasite winning Best Picture and ended with everyone wondering where all their blockbusters went. Yes, 2020 was a movie year like no other. But despite the closure of cinemas, the switch to streaming and wild uncertainty over what comes next, there’s been plenty of mesmerising films to enjoy. As recognised by our top seven, celebrated by Time Out writers from across the globe, it’s been a great year for female filmmaking, jolt-filled horror movies, and for fans of Terrence Malick and Adam Sandler.
Uncut Gems
Remember the normal bit of 2020? That brief moment in time was lit up by the Safdie brothers’ modern noir: a rollercoaster of dirty streets, crims and eccentrics; high life and low life. It’s all centred on Howard Ratner, Adam Sandler’s fast-talking, big-dreaming, New York diamond dealer who gets in deeper and deeper thanks to a rare uncut rock, an impossible loan and an NBA star. It’s only when the credits roll that you find out who the real criminals are: the Oscar jury, for letting this diamond slip through their paws. By James Manning, international editor
Lovers Rock
I’ve watched it three times already and could watch it three more tomorrow. It’s less than 70 minutes long and almost entirely set at a house party in west London in 1980 – a pay-on-the-door event in someone’s home for the area’s young West Indian community who are into lovers rock and reggae. Put aside the thrill of being immersed in a house party at a time when you’re not allowed to do exactly that, it’s so moving and so sharply evocative of such a specific time and place that it feels completely convincing and real. By Dave Calhoun, global deputy editor-in-chief
1917
Sam Mendes stepped away from the James Bond franchise, but not the thrills and spills, kickstarting the year with a serious bang. I was staggered by this (sorta) one-take Great War epic that casts George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman as battle-weary Tommies tasked with delivering a life-or-death message to another unit. It takes them right through no man’s land and into a world of pain. Stitched almost seamlessly from several long takes, the film’s cumulative effect is mesmerising. By Stephen A Russell, arts editor, Time Out Sydney
The Lighthouse
Robert Pattinson feels the sharp edge of Willem Dafoe’s tongue in Robert Eggers’s scabrous and scary gothic chiller about two nineteenth-century lighthouse keepers going mad on a remote, storm-wracked island. Shot on rich celluloid and with an ominous, compelling sound design, it’s a glittering, dark marvel. By Chris Waywell, deputy editor, Time Out London
Invisible Man
Proof that big studios can still turn out mid-budget thrillers that defy expectations, rather than just pandering to them. Elisabeth Moss does the heavy lifting as a woman gaslit to the point where even the audience questions her sanity. Combining topical social issues (big tech, surveillance, toxic masculinity) with big jumps, it could be the first Hollywood movie to pinpoint the fears of the new decade. Who could have seen this Invisible Man coming? By James Hooper, London sales manager
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
There’s a relatively deflating likely ‘explanation’ for the events in Charlie Kaufman’s typically oblique roadtrip movie. For me, it works best simply as a disorientating, intense horror about being trapped in a relationship. It’s not a violent or abusive one, but one full of weird little hells that Jessie Buckley’s stoic young woman forced to endure as she goes on an ill-advised visit to meet the parents of Jake (Jesse Plemons), her partner of seven weeks who she’s contemplating dumping. It’s a queasy situation in and of itself. Typically, Kaufman pushes it into full-on surrealist nightmare. By Andrzej Lukowski, London culture editor
Tenet
My favourite film-watching experience of the year, largely because it was so refreshing to watch something not on my TV, but also because the time-bending storyline really captured my imagination. Did I understand the plot? Barely. Did I miss a lot of the dialogue due to poor sound? Absolutely. Did I find Clémence Poésy’s explanation of time inversion blasé? Yes. Yes, I did. Yet despite these flaws I was gripped from the cold open opera house siege right to the temporal pincer movement finale. Tenet drove home just how much I miss the big screen. By Charlie Woods, product manager, London
