I still haven’t seen even half of the movies from 2020 I usually see from a specific year, because… well… you know why, but I guess I’ve seen enough to make this list. At least I’ve seeen enough good movies. The situation did apparently mean that movies with smaller budgets rule this list, as the bigger ones were either pushed back or are behind paywalls I’m not interested in paying.

In no particular order. Except that Relic is the best movie of 2020… I’ve seen thusfar.

Relic

Mother and daughter travel to their mother’s-slash-grandmother’s place as she has been missing for a while. Then she just suddenly reappears, but something is different.

We know from the beginning that there is some sort of entity involved, but we don’t know much. I don’t really want to get into it either. There’s a mystery involved, but it’s not really about that. While “it’s about family” has become a joke, this truly is – in the end – about family and sticking with it despite all the problems.

Druk aka Another Round

Four teachers decide to test a theory one of them read about: Can you function better being a little drunk all the time. Things get a little out of hand.

If you put your mind to it, you could probably write the story out without ever seeing this film. It is quite predictable, but it is also a good combination of fun and tragedy. In the end the movie doesn’t really want to take a stand in any direction, but is more interested in giving us scenarios on what could happen, which is a good approach, since it doesn’t make the movie feel preachy.

I’m Thinknig of Ending Things

Jake brings his girlfriend, who remains nameless throughout the movie, to meat his parents for the first time. She is not really into the relationship, but somehow the situation just seems to be outside of her control at all times.

There are popular theories about what’s going on in this movie as obviously certain people have gone through the whole thing pretty much frame by frame trying to find hints. I wouldn’t really recommend reading those before seeing the movie. After all, Kaufman himself is fine with you making up your own mind about what’s going on. Besides, this is one of those movies you might want to see more than once.

Possessor

Vos is an agent for an organization that implants her into other people in order to gain access to their victims in order to assassinate them. This isn’t exactly good for her mental health.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again (because no one is stopping me): Good sci-fi is about investigating how changes in our environment affects us or society. While this has interesting sci-fi ideas and situations, we always get back to Vos’s mental state. She knows she isn’t well, but she is also being pushed into taking more risks with her own identity. This is the second movie by Brandon “Son of David” Cronenberg and while the first one also had an interesting idea, this has just been executed much better than Antiviral.

She Dies Tomorrow

Amy is convinced that is about to die the next day. She shares this information with her friend, who doesn’t believe it first, but it also turns out that the thought is infectious.

The writer/director decided to name the main character after herself. Is there a message here for someone? Weirdly, the thought was in a way infectious. I’ve been listening to Lacrimosa by Mozart a lot and it was very prominently played on repeat by Amy as she was contemplating her situation. Horror movies for their time are always great and this does seem to be saying something about how we see ourselves and the world as doomed.

Freaky

Freaky Friday, but with a high-school girl changing bodies with a middle-aged slasher-type serial killer.

Easily the most fun movie on this list.

Mignonnes aka Cuties

Pre-teen Amy joins a dance troup as part of her sexual awakening.

Come at me, you fucking Karens. Sure, it’s about the sexualization of children and that requires that the camera does make us uncomfortable at times… many, many times, but that is the point. If the movie doesn’t make you uncomfortable, there’s probably something wrong with you. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable at times. This isn’t exactly the dentist’s chair, but the discomfort – in this case – should be telling you exactly what the movie makers want you to hear. Our society might frown upon sexualizing children, but at the same time we are pushing them into that position through various media. However, we must also understand that it’s biological as well. The fact that this still has 3.2 on IMDb just tells me that there’s something very wrong with people’s media literacy, although I bet most of those people giving it low scores haven’t even seen it.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Autumn needs to get an abortion, but can’t do it at home due to local restrictions. So, she travels to New York to get one with her cousin, Skylar.

This isn’t nearly as uncomfortable as the previous movie, but it does have it’s moments. Makes me glad I live in a country with sex education from around fourteen years old.

Gretel & Hansel

Well, you know. Gretel just happens to me more domninant here, as she is much older than Hansel and many of the other details have been changed as well, but it’s still that basic story.

Not nearly as good as Oz Perkins’ first two movies, but it’s still fascinating. Especially the visuals. I’m pretty sure most audiences will find this more interesting than February (or whatever name it was sold under in various countries) and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, because those movies take their time in a way this doesn’t. I wouldn’t exactly call it energetic or anything… It’s mostly just a very beautiful movie, where Perkins uses his new resources to show us something incredible.

Kajillionaire

Old Dolio is a child of two old con artists. As she is much younger than the other two members of this little gang, she has to take on a lot of responsibility over their “capers”. They are very small-time as they want to stay below the radar. However, they haven’t been making much money recently, so they need to do something bigger, which leads them to meet Melanie, who joins their gang just for fun (as an apprentice), but also because she is interested in Old Dolio.

The parents are played by Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger, which is very fun. Evan Rachel Wood, on the other hand, gets to play this very weird character as Old Dolio, who’s whole life has been about just cheating people. There are hints that this might become a heist movie of some magnitude, but the movie never really gets there, and remains more of a character piece as Old Dolio is trying to find her own feet outside the control of her parents.