However, we kept going and even in this year’s darkest moments we still could look forward to an incredible array of releases. And 2020 certainly had a range of terrific cinematic moments to celebrate.

Below is the list of our favourite films of the year and they’ve certainly helped us get through this difficult time, and given plenty of joy in the process.

10. Unhinged

Russell Crowe delivered an incredibly scary and full frontal attack of a performance as an unnamed man who suddenly flips and takes out all of his aggression and anger on an innocent woman in Unhinged. This was popcorn cinema at its most thrilling. Unhinged didn’t let up for a moment, and Crowe’s scary performance had us on edge the whole time. It was a simple premise that was executed with perfect delivery by its filmmaking team and as an audience member you were holding your breath right up until the very end frame. This was a pulse-pounding piece of thriller cinema at its best and Crowe’s performance as this nameless and violent thrill killer was sure to give you nightmares.

9. Downhill

Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus brought out plenty of long-simmering tensions in Downhill and this was one dark-comedy that kept its audiences on their toes the entire time. Examining the nature of loyalty, cowardice and a clash of opposites, Downhill kept you guessing from the start and made for a very intelligent piece of cinema. Director’s Nat Faxon and Jim Rash teased out the long-held resentments between Ferrell’s Pete and Louis-Dreyfus’s Billie, and all throughout the film’s proceeding events you are constantly wondering whether or not their marriage is actually going to survive their so-called ‘dream holiday’. Downhill was something completely different and proved to be a very intellectually stimulating watch for audiences,

8. Words On Bathroom Walls

While you might think you understand and know the teen genre, you really needed to think again with the likes of Words On Bathroom Walls. Showcasing incredible sincerity with its subject matter and mind-bending creativity with its production, Words On Bathroom Walls was a piece of cinema that tugged at your heartstrings. The main character Adam Petrazelli is a complicated young man, made even more so by his underlying schizophrenia that he is battling with on a daily basis. Add to this teenage angst, young love and the hardships of not quite being normal and you have a recipe for an incredibly compelling piece of cinema that pulled audiences inwards towards its narrative.

7. Onward

It’s been a strong year for Disney- Pixar and director Dan Scanlon’s fantastical fantasy tale of brotherly adventure in Onward was a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Scanlen and his team turned the fantasy genre on its head with this one and there was a great inventiveness and creativity presented through this epic, heavy-metal, fantasy road trip. Actors Christ Pratt and Tom Holland made a perfect combination as the delightful Lightfoot brothers, and Onward told a story of rediscovering the magic and what it means to ultimately find your father. The geniuses at Disney-Pixar made 2020 that little bit brighter with Onward and this was a delightful film on every single level.

6. Nomadland

Two-time Academy Award winner Frances McDormand bore her soul with an introspective performance that was utterly beautiful to watch in Nomadland. Directed by rising talent Chloé Zhao, Nomadland was a powerful film of second lives, the open road and being forced to rediscover yourself while travelling down a new path. Both its striking imagery and the magnificence of McDormand’s performance seared themselves into your very soul, and this film was truly unforgettable. Nomadland was a film filled with depth, discovery and humanity and is a piece of cinema that audiences should cherish, especially after the events of this year.

5. The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie returned to his native England and wound up his sleeves to jump back inside the gangster genre with The Gentlemen, which made for one of 2020’s coolest cinema experiences. Led by Matthew McConaughey as the impressive and stylish drug kingpin Mickey Pearson, and featuring a stellar supporting cast including Charlie Hunnam, Henry Goulding, Michelle Dockery, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant, this was a film that went from A to Z in a flash and everywhere else in between and was certain to put a certain strut into the step of the audience. Ritchie radiated his own unique brand of ‘alpha male’ cool with The Gentlemen, and for audiences who were looking for a stand-up good time, well, they were sure to find it with this slick piece of gangster cinema.

4. Savage

Raw and unflinching in equal measures, Sam Kelly’s Savage hit with the force of a ball-peen hammer and took audiences inside the brutal world of New Zealand’s gang culture. Kelly didn’t hold anything back in exploring the scary reality that gripped so many and took audiences inside the traumatic world of the state boarding schools that shaped innocents into monsters and then sent them out into a world filled with nothing but seething pain and relentless rage. Savage was a shocking watch, but this was all a part of the extreme honesty that Kelly used to showcase the reality of this world and the handling of his subject matter certainly struck a nerve with audiences. Praise also needs to be lauded on the performance of Jake Ryan as Danny aka Damage, a brutal, Frankenstein’s monster of a man who knows only violence, but who is in reality is just searching for a way back home. Savage was a film that hit us hard in 2020 and it was without-a-doubt one of the year’s best.

3. Mank

Director David Fincher returned to cinema in a long-held obscene since 2014’s Gone Girl and the master filmmaker did not disappoint in presenting a marvellous project in Mank. Chronicling the production behind what many claim is the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane, Mank was a detailed exploration of one man’s creativity and ethics in a town which normally does away with such things. In terms of the narrative experience, everything came together in Mank. Production design, cinematography, location, costume design, hair and make-up and musical score all served to tell an incredible story and long-time film aficionados were sure to bask in the glow of this radiant portrait of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Mank was a deeply held passion project for Fincher and he delivered an incredible radiant piece of cinema that was well worth the watch.

2. Let Him Go

How far would you go to protect your family? That was the simple premise behind director Thomas Bezucha’s adaptation of Let Him Go, a revenge tale burning with the fury of Old Testament frontier justice and this was a thriller that stripped its audience back to the bone. Featuring career-best performances from the likes of Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, Let Him Go was a simple and to-the-point thriller which was delivered with maximum intensity and hit the audience like the force of a Winchester rifle. It’s burning Western-setting brought to life in the style of Cormac McCarthy, and Bezucha certainly knew how to get the most out of the impressive pairing of Lane and Costner. Let Him Go was that rare kind of film that harkened-back to the True Grit days of John Wayne and delivered audiences a searing drama of family loyalty and justice that was certain to take them to the edge.

1. The Way Back

But if there had to be one movie that we crown as our favourite film of 2020 it is without-a-doubt Gavin O’Conner’s portrait of sports and addiction in powerhouse drama The Way Back. Starring Ben Affleck as washed-up alcoholic, and former high school basketball star Jack Cunningham who finds a second chance gifted to him, The Way Back was a searing drama that gripped your soul and wrestled your emotions as you saw a flawed man trying for a second chance. Borrowing from Affleck’s own personal life and battle with addiction, The Way Back is an extremely heavy film that examines themes of loss and triumph, addiction and love, heartbreak and hope and O’Conner and Affleck truly gave their all to this project. This film moved me to an incredible degree and as an audience member, I could not look away from the events that were unfolding on screen. The Way Back was powerful in its presentation and it’s third act twist hit you like a stone wall and made the film that much more powerful because of it. Film’s like The Way Back don’t come along that often and when they do they need to be celebrated.

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1930’s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.

Regarded as a very personal film for Fincher, Mank adapts the screenplay written by his own father, Jack Fincher, and chronicles the making behind what many regard as the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane. Transporting audiences back to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Mank is an exploration of the power of narrative and just what it can do to people, along with exploration of one man’s place within it in the form of the film’s protagonist Herman J. Mankiewicz who is portrayed on film in a magnificent turn by Academy Award winner Gary Oldman.

Mank offers up Fincher a grand canvas to tell Mankiewicz’s story, and the director takes audiences back to the studio system of the late 1930s and early 1940s and his production mirrors this in every fashion. Shot in beautiful black and white by cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, Mank is gorgeous to look upon. Everything comes together in Mank. From its fantastic Art Deco buildings and the magnificence of William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon residence to the stunningly evocative gowns and dresses of it’s leading lady in Amanda Seyfried’s Marion Davies. Fincher paints a beautiful portrait of the Golden Age of Hollywood, from the glamour to the sleaze, and the result is a picture that transports the audience back to another era and grounds them within the narrative that the director presents on screen.

Both the narrative and the look of the film are completely intertwined here in Mank, with Fincher using the production techniques of the era to keep audiences starring at the screen. From its scrolling crawl credits to the click of typewriters keystrokes to indicate time, location and scene-setting, all of it is in keeping with the era. Fincher’s unique mix of en-media-res framing takes audiences back and forth between Mank’s isolated residence in 1940’s Victorville, California where he toils away on the screenplay for Citizen Kane, along with Mank’s time spent in the studio system of the mid-1939s, and helps to tell the story of how Kane came to be. Fincher’s presentation of the narrative keeps this film exciting and the audience on the hook the whole way through.

Taking centre stage on the screen is Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz, a completely complicated character of a man. Mankiewicz is the smartest guy in the room masquerading as the clownish court jester to Hollywood’s elite. A loudmouth and a drunk, Mankiewicz is a completely flawed individual who has stumbled into the position of the hack writer, even though he is a genius. At one minute loutish and offensive, and the other sincere, kind and thoughtful, Oldman’s Mankiewicz can see the bigger picture in front of him and his work on Citizen Kane is ultimately his desire to show-up these Hollywood elites for who they really are. Mankiewicz is essentially a man with a conscience in a town without one and this makes him an incredibly interesting character to view through the events of Mank.

Standing as Mank’s leading lady is Amanda Seyfried who takes on the real-life character of actress and mistress to William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies. Best described as a complex yet self-absorbed character, Marion is many things to many different people. Ravishingly beautiful and the centre of attention at all times, Seyfried’s Marion is no mere airhead, but a native Brooklyn girl who is a born survivor and who has used her looks and womanly attributes to elevate herself to the heights of Hollywood power. She’s a party girl who’s fond of liquor and who is uniquely brash and outspoken for her era. But beneath that character is a very lonely individual who finds in Mankiewicz the only person who can truly see her for who she actually is. Seyfried is exceptionally fine in the part and like Oldman draws her audience into her performance as this very unique and memorable person.

Providing key support to Mankiewicz in Mank is Lily Collins as Rita Alexander, Mank’s assistant and the character within the film’s narrative who humanises him the most. A no-nonsense British secretary, Collin’s Alexander at first comes off as rather to-the-point and appears to be non-too-pleased with having to babysit this drunken buffon. But as Mankiewicz begins to craft his story, she soon sees the genius of his work and the sincerity of this man who actually puts the interests of others ahead of himself. Collins is a great counter to Oldman in the same way Seyfried is and is able to tease out a different side of this character. She’s the supportive character we could all wish for in our corner and her hands-on approach is exactly what Mankiewicz needs when the going gets tough.

Standing in as the film’s chief antagonist is the great Charles Dance as the unmoveable William Randolph Hearst. As the richest man of his age, he commands huge respect and power from his grand San Simeon residence and holds sway over the whole of Hollywood and those who make up it’s elite. He’s the king to Mankiewicz’s jester and the two share an interesting relationship that is showcased through the picture. Dance has made a career portraying intense and stone-hearted characters and his work as Hearst ranks as one of his best performances to date. You find yourself having to do a double-take every time he appears on the screen and this menacing villain is sure to leave you off-put.

Mank’s thematic exploration of the power of the media, and how a story can be used to both entertain and manipulate is where the focus of Fincher’s narrative lies. While it is an exploration of the historical, this central theme of the manipulation of the media is entirely relevant to our current time and Fincher uses this to his advantage in order to bring his audience deeper into the story. Balancing this exploration of the power of the media is the parable of ‘the organ grinders monkey’ which is a reference to the relationship shared between Mankiewicz and Hearst. This exploration of power dynamics is incredibly interesting to watch in relation to the history of both Mankiewicz and Hearst, alongside the creation of Citizen Kane.

Mank is an absolute must-watch for those who appreciate the history, art and form of filmmaking and here we see Fincher at the top of his game. The subject matter is close to his heart and he gives audiences a film that is worthy of its subject matter and the legacy of its lead character.

Image: Netflix

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