The Stage is Set
The Stage is set.
On one hand, we have Andy Reid. On the other side, we have Bruce Arians.
On one side, we have the defending #Superbowl champion, Patrick Mahomes, still in prime form, but recovering from a concussion. They made it through another AFC championship. In as much as he took a terrible spill in the AFC Conference Championship, getting racked in the head and falling, he came back and defeated the likable everyman underdog team, the Buffalo Bills. And he's able to play the long game, getting passes, trick plays, and long passes even when there's a a pocket the size of the eye of a needle.
On the other side, there's Tom Brady, hwo has been consistently great, is four years older than me, but looks about eight years younger. He moved from an AFC team to an NFC team. He managed a humorless win over the New Orleans Saints, which was the last game of retiring quarterback Drew Brees' career. And then he went to Lambeau for the NFC cmapionship and defeated the MVP of the NFL, Aaron Rodgers, after he's pulled some torch-bearing fantastic comebacks from behind in this past season over formidable foes. And though Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes have made great State Farm commercials together, and it would have amounted to a great opportunity for future commercials if the Chiefs and the Packers had faced each other in the Superbowl, we had to watch Brady, Gronkowski, and the defensivebacks for the Buccaneers shut down the 37 year old Rodgers unceremoniously in the NFC Championship, and we had to be at peace with that. And he's only going for his seventh Superbowl win, his ninth appearance overall. He's teamed up with Rob Gronkowski, the wide receiver who can read his every move and thought.
How's it going to turn out again?
Of course, Tom Brady keeps his eye on the prize, doesn't get distracted, and wins. And the world celebrates.
It's the most exciting time of the year.
The Golden Globe Awards.
Unlike the Superbowl, which was something like 9-21, wait, I'll go look it up online...
https://www.nfl.com/scores/
Oh yeah, 31-9. I forgot. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers went ahead and ran up the score even after his team had the game in the bag. Things were well in hand for the Bucs, and he had to show off his super-power of going for the victory lap.
I opted to go to Olive Garden with my family. We celebrated my birthday a night early. Then I brought Sara home some four cheese ravioli. Then I went to my parents and made two batches of cookies to bring to school for my birthday. I watched the game a little bit, here and there.
But yeah, the Golden Globes are more interesting.
It was a year where movie theaters were largely shuttered, most of the major releases for movies were pushed back to 2021, and the movies that did come out were either on extremely limited release, or on streaming services that I could choose to watch alone, if I had the patience and motivation, or would watch at Arc, or would watch with Phil at his house. Or I would watch a program on Netflix, Hulu, or Disney Plus with Sara.
In other words, most of 2020's movies I'll get around to in 2021, or I will see them released as 2021 movies in a theatre after they finally open back up.
Here is how my top ten list of movies shakes out for 2020.
1. Tenet
Tenet is the story of a man who's given a single word, Tenet, as he is sent on a mission to stop a World WAr III from breaking out. A man has a macguffin at some point in the future, and it's going to be used to devastate the world. It is revenge for the damage inflicted by our present world on future generations. It's a powerful argument on both sides. But the future overreacts. Tehy're willing to destroy themselves. Thy're willing to destroy everything. The protagonist doesn't want to believe that the present is inherently going to cause all the harm in the future, and that we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes from the future attack, and maybe change things for hte better. But we can't just prevent the pollution, drought, famine, severe weather, and depletion of resources by ending things. John David Washington. Robert Pattinson. Elizabeth Debecki. Michael Caine. Dimple Kapadia. Michael Caine. Kenneth Branagh Tenet is nominated for one Golden Globe. Original Score.
2. The Prom.
The protagonist, Emma, has been bullied mercilessly at her Indiana school by Kaylee, Shelby, Nick, and Kevin for being a lesbian. The PTA is worse. They cancel the prom and blame her. Emma just wanted to go to prom with her girlfriend. She wasn't out to make waves or anything. She is an unassuming, perhaps drab, but sweet and harmless young woman. She comes down with the brunt of the blame from all sides when the PTA decides to pull the plug on prom, not wanting to have same sex couples on the dance floor.... much as that has been destigmatized in other parts of the country, in small pockets of states, far away from big cities, people are traditionalist. And all they see is sin in alternative lifestyles. Enter Dee Allen (Meryl Streep), Barry Glickman (James Corden), Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman) and Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells), four out of work Broadway performers who intend to save the day by getting prom back on track. Will they succeed in helping Emma find herself? Or are they more interested in finding themselves by championing a cause? Keegan Michael Key, Ariana DeBose and Kerry Washington round out the cast along with newcomer Jo-Allen Pellman as Emma. This film is nominated for Best Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for James Corden.
3. Eurovision Song Contest the Story of Fire Saga
Will Ferrell was at his earnest best. Reminiscent of Elf, Melinda and Melinda, and Stranger than Fiction, but also with some of the irreverence of the Anchorman movies, he plays Lars, who equally loves his music and loves Sigrit, his songwriting and singing partner. If only God, or the elves, could nudge him a little harder to make a move on Sigrit. Sigrit would love to marry him and have a child, if only he weren't singularly focused on their career, passing the Iceland Heat of the Eurovision Song Contest, and beating the Russian contestant played by Dan Stevens if they managed to beat their own pop star played by Demi Lovato. And what about the country? Do they want to have the winning contestant? Do they have the budget to host the subsequent year's Eurovision? Directed by David Dobkin, I loved watching Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams make doe eyes at each other. And almost kiss. And read each other's signals for humor, running with each other in carrying a gag, joke, or pun seamlessly. Eurovision Song Contest drew zero Golden Globe nominations.
4. Artemis Fowl
It seemed like a bad idea on paper. But it worked. It worked for me on a quiet hot summer day. It brought some charm to a COVID and pandemic summer where events and plans were largely preempted. Ferdia Shaw as Artemis Fowl, a twelve-year-old mastermind. Jr. Lara McDonnell, an eighty-four-year-old elven reconaissance officer, who was also played by a twelve year old. If Artemis thought he knew his father, a simple international art thief, he was wrong. He's about to learn that his dad had evidence, a whole library of evidence, of the existence of magical creatures. And that he had tactically gone on treasure hunts for such artifacts. He had priceless fairy artifacts when he was taken captive by a hooded figure on his boat several days before the action of the story begins. It's very simple. If Artemis can go out and retrieve the oculus, he might draw his dad's kidnapper to him; or at very least an elf or fairy with knowledge of his whereabouts. Along the help with his dad's butler, Dom, a delightful character who is more like caretaker and paternal figure than paid staff, Dom charts a course with a captured fairy, Holly, Artemis Fowl Jr. gets to go to Haven City to answer on charges against his father of theft of artifacts, but hopefully helping the fairy realm to stop a bad magical creature from getting to the Oculus first, and using it for world domination, or ruin. Holly is first to the scene when a rogue troll attacks a wedding in Martina Franca, Italy, and the trail is suddenly hot onto who the thief is.
Originally scheduled for an August 2019 theatrical release, Artemis Fowl got delayed by a whole year, originally scheduled for release in June of 2020. It was released exculsively to Disney + instead. It has an average score of 3.70 out of ten on Rotten Tomatoes. It has an 8 percent fresh rating. It has zero Golden Globe nominations, no SAG nominations, and it has perhaps an outside chance at some special effects categories at the Oscars. But I wouldn't hold my breath.
5. Soul
Soul is probably the film from this list that has the best chance of taking home a Golden Globe tonight, and maybe even an Oscar, should its name be announced as a nomination in a month or so. How best to describe Soul? It's about a jazz musician named Joe Gardner. He's on an existential journey to find his place in life as a great jazz musician. He teaches middle school music. But his night job, he hopes, will be to play piano for Dorothea Williams. The jazz legend is auditioning for her ensemble. He delivers a dynamic audition. The Disney-Pixar sequence of Gardner playing in the jazz club, just carried away with the joy of performing his music well, was reminiscent of Ryan Gosling in La La Land. He no sooner gets the news that he has the gig than he falls through a manhole, hits his head, winds up in a coma, and is on a moving sidewalk to the Great After. He can't die now though! He's got a gig. The comedy of errors ensues. He winds up going backwards on the sidewalk, winding up in the Great Before, where souls are created. They await their placement in a human, or animal, on earth. One such soul hasn't gotten her final spark to be allowed to travel to earth. It's like a merit badge. Soul 22 could be Joe's ticket back to earth, though, if he can mentor her in the joy of life. They go to the "zone," an area where people living on earth go when they are set by their passions into a euphoric trance. Moonwind, a psychic guiding a galleon, is able to help grant Joe Gardner and Soul 22 safe passage back to earth. But there's a body swap. (A typical Pixar trope, but it works here). We get to watch Soul 22 experience, first hand, the finer things in life in the body of Joe Gardner. But it's only temporary. She doesn't get to live in his shoes forever. Joe, for the matter, wants his body back; he is stuck in a therapy cat. Directed by Pete Docter, with an excellent score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the film does show us how beautiful life is, in ways we too often fail to slow down and appreciate. It is nominated for two Golden Globe awards, for Animated Feature and Original Score.
6. Onward
Onward is right outside of my top 5. One of my favorite filmgoing memories of the summer of 2020 was working an afternoon shift at Arc, and while helping handicapped individuals eat their dinner, somebody clicked on the Disney + tile on the television in the living room, and put on Onward. This would have been about June. I watched almost half of the movie between other nightly duties, watching Tom Holland again ditch his velvetty British accent for that of an American teenager, so ironic to hear, because onscreen, he was an elf-like creature. As was his brother, Barley, played by Chris Pratt. In this universe, the whole world is populated by mythic creatures who used to depend upon magic, but nolonger depend upon it, as the creature comforts of electricity, gas, plumbing, television, radio, telephone, and internet have replaced the need to master magic. I was sucked into the narrative about Ian, who desperately wants to have a relationship with his dad. But he can't, because his dad dies shortly before he was born. He heartbreakingly manages to simulate a conversation with his dad by playing a cassette tape of his dad's end of a conversation. For his sixteenth birthday, he gets a magical staff. The world, inhabited by fairies, elves, dwarves, unicorns, centaurs, minotaurs, and other fantastical creatures, has moved beyond use for it. But no technology that is as-it-were man-made will bring back his dad. And one of the most hilarious scenes in the film is watching Chris Pratt as Barley try his hand at tricks. See, Barley, in his twenties, has actual memories of his dad. He knows what he's missing. He lived to be parented by him, and grieved for him. Barley wants to use it to cast a spell to bring their dad back for a day. It requires them to go on a quest. Gathering a map from the pizza place, which has a mythic history, and go to the place where they can fulfill the spell to bring the halfway summoned dad back to life. Who wants to make this mission more badly? Ian or Barley? It was a good film. It shines more brightly in a COVID pandemic-truncated film year.
7. The Sleepover
Speaking of movies that gained more visibility with me during the pandemic, there's The Sleepover. Another film that helped a gloomy day of winter pass more quickly. I enjoyed The Sleepover while working a weekend shift at 12th Street in January. Clancy Finch gets invited to a house party by her crush, a boy in her class. But will she be able to sneak past her parents to get out of the house to go to the party? She has bigger things to worry about. Her parents are former spies. This was like The Americans, but dumbed down, and straight-forward comical. Wait, wait, the dad, played by Ken Marino, was most definitely not a spy. He's a pastry chef, who's in over his head when his cooperation in his wife's return to the game requires him to assume the life of a spy. It's the mom, Margot (Malin Akerman) and her ex-fiance, Leo (Joe Manganiello), who the kids have never met, are spies. The ex-fiancee breaks into the house, looking for the mom (Malin Akerman), to take her back for one last big heist at a huge state dinner with other foreign diplomats. I loved that Ken Marino was utterly hapless, but got pulled into the espionage thrills. That's to say nothing of the kids. I loved this movie. And the younger brother who just quietly has a feckless, clumsy crush on one of his sister's friends.
8. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special - I watched this one on a lark with Phil Kopp. We get to watch a Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron trying to make a special Life Day. (This theme is borrowed from the 1978 broadcast network holiday special.) Finnn goes off on a mission to gain a deeper knowledge of the Force. She enters a mysterious temple, and is there thrust into a cross-timeline adventure. This brings her into contact with characters from Star Wars, The Empire STrikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi. She encounters Luke when he's training on the Degobah system. But will she make it back to the Millenium Falcon in time to help celebrate Life Day? From Poe Dameron trying tofind the perfect Holiday sweater to getting a delicious Life Day feast ready, we get the same frustration of Finn being friendzoned by Rey, and the same compensation for for Finn by introducing a new friend girl with Rose Tico. And Rey of course using her knowledge of the force, and her great strength as a Jedi in training, to try to get through to Kylo Ren, whom of course is weaker in mastering the Force for good, and more susceptible to the Dark Side. But this is a full-scale comedy. It has heart. But there's very little dark side to this holiday special, pun intended.
9. Hubie Halloween - It's quite amazing a deliberately bad Adam Sandler movie is still in my top ten. But I really had a great time watching it while picking up a shift at the 2930 group home with Arc. Adam Sandler was fiftyish, lives with his mom, who wears inappropriate t-shirts, and potentially lives next to a werewolf. He is the Halloween safety monitor, whom nobody really appreciates, for his invasive safetu protocol ruis young people's parties. It was more enjoyable of a watch than Uncut Gems, even in as much as Uncut Gems was a more substantial story.
10. The High Note- I just watched this one with Phil Kopp on Feb. 27th. I bought it from a Family Video store closing sale. It's about a young woman named Maggie (Dakota Johnson) who is the personal assistant for Grace Davis (Tracey Ellis-Ross), who happens to be one of the most famous musicians. But she's middle aged, she peaked in the early 1990's, and when faced with the prospect of a new album, it's much safer to release a Greatest Hits live cut, rather than record new stuff. And the producer she's working with is a flake. He wants to ruin her previous work. Maggie is more professionally minded, and wants to replicate the authentic experience of being at a concert, playing up the dialogue between her and fans at the beginning of song tracks, and emphasizing her voice and emotion just the right ammount over instruments. She wants the music to be personal. Will she get to help Grace do the album the way she envisions? Or does Maggie not yet have enough clout to push her weight around? And what about that boy she likes? David Cliff? He meets her in an health food grocery store, they make a connection over music, and she underestimates, sweetly, his knowledge of music. He's a musician! Maybe, just maybe, she can produce his album, and use that as a leg-up into the music producer business, a place not populated by women. Maybe Grace Davis will be eager to let her mix and produce a whole Greatest Hits album... or a whole new album. This one was fun.
Just outside my top 10:
11. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn- This was the only movie from 2020 I saw in an actual movie theater. It was great to see Margot Robbie back in the role of Harley Quinn, surrounded by an all-female superhero ensemble. And they weren't really just mercenaries, like in Suicide Squad. Well, okay, yes, they did operate out of self-interest. But it's plausible that they felt like they were doing an act of public service in the process.
12. Ava- Jessica Chastain got to make out with Common. And she got to have lots of great fight scenes. Colin Farrell got to be made to sweat. Even though he was convincingly menacing, it was great to see his brown eyes dart around with worry, coming ever closer to the conclusion that he was overmatched by Jessica Chastain. And her mentor, played by John Malkovich, just chewed up every scene he was in.
Need to finish:
Sylvie's Love- This one could climb into the Top Ten
John Lewis: Good Trouble- This one could handily climb into the Top 10 once I finish watching it.
Television:
I watched one episode of Lovecraft Country in September. It was essential viewing.
I watched a few snippets of Season 4 of The Crown on TV. It was a go-to TV program for me in 2007 and 2008, along with Jalen vs. Everyone, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, and back episodes of The Newsroom.
Now, what was that big game I was talking about at the beginning of this post again?
On one hand, we have Andy Reid. On the other side, we have Bruce Arians.
On one side, we have the defending #Superbowl champion, Patrick Mahomes, still in prime form, but recovering from a concussion. They made it through another AFC championship. In as much as he took a terrible spill in the AFC Conference Championship, getting racked in the head and falling, he came back and defeated the likable everyman underdog team, the Buffalo Bills. And he's able to play the long game, getting passes, trick plays, and long passes even when there's a a pocket the size of the eye of a needle.
On the other side, there's Tom Brady, hwo has been consistently great, is four years older than me, but looks about eight years younger. He moved from an AFC team to an NFC team. He managed a humorless win over the New Orleans Saints, which was the last game of retiring quarterback Drew Brees' career. And then he went to Lambeau for the NFC cmapionship and defeated the MVP of the NFL, Aaron Rodgers, after he's pulled some torch-bearing fantastic comebacks from behind in this past season over formidable foes. And though Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes have made great State Farm commercials together, and it would have amounted to a great opportunity for future commercials if the Chiefs and the Packers had faced each other in the Superbowl, we had to watch Brady, Gronkowski, and the defensivebacks for the Buccaneers shut down the 37 year old Rodgers unceremoniously in the NFC Championship, and we had to be at peace with that. And he's only going for his seventh Superbowl win, his ninth appearance overall. He's teamed up with Rob Gronkowski, the wide receiver who can read his every move and thought.
How's it going to turn out again?
Of course, Tom Brady keeps his eye on the prize, doesn't get distracted, and wins. And the world celebrates.
It's the most exciting time of the year.
The Golden Globe Awards.
Unlike the Superbowl, which was something like 9-21, wait, I'll go look it up online...
https://www.nfl.com/scores/
Oh yeah, 31-9. I forgot. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers went ahead and ran up the score even after his team had the game in the bag. Things were well in hand for the Bucs, and he had to show off his super-power of going for the victory lap.
I opted to go to Olive Garden with my family. We celebrated my birthday a night early. Then I brought Sara home some four cheese ravioli. Then I went to my parents and made two batches of cookies to bring to school for my birthday. I watched the game a little bit, here and there.
But yeah, the Golden Globes are more interesting.
It was a year where movie theaters were largely shuttered, most of the major releases for movies were pushed back to 2021, and the movies that did come out were either on extremely limited release, or on streaming services that I could choose to watch alone, if I had the patience and motivation, or would watch at Arc, or would watch with Phil at his house. Or I would watch a program on Netflix, Hulu, or Disney Plus with Sara.
In other words, most of 2020's movies I'll get around to in 2021, or I will see them released as 2021 movies in a theatre after they finally open back up.
Here is how my top ten list of movies shakes out for 2020.
1. Tenet
Tenet is the story of a man who's given a single word, Tenet, as he is sent on a mission to stop a World WAr III from breaking out. A man has a macguffin at some point in the future, and it's going to be used to devastate the world. It is revenge for the damage inflicted by our present world on future generations. It's a powerful argument on both sides. But the future overreacts. Tehy're willing to destroy themselves. Thy're willing to destroy everything. The protagonist doesn't want to believe that the present is inherently going to cause all the harm in the future, and that we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes from the future attack, and maybe change things for hte better. But we can't just prevent the pollution, drought, famine, severe weather, and depletion of resources by ending things. John David Washington. Robert Pattinson. Elizabeth Debecki. Michael Caine. Dimple Kapadia. Michael Caine. Kenneth Branagh Tenet is nominated for one Golden Globe. Original Score.
2. The Prom.
The protagonist, Emma, has been bullied mercilessly at her Indiana school by Kaylee, Shelby, Nick, and Kevin for being a lesbian. The PTA is worse. They cancel the prom and blame her. Emma just wanted to go to prom with her girlfriend. She wasn't out to make waves or anything. She is an unassuming, perhaps drab, but sweet and harmless young woman. She comes down with the brunt of the blame from all sides when the PTA decides to pull the plug on prom, not wanting to have same sex couples on the dance floor.... much as that has been destigmatized in other parts of the country, in small pockets of states, far away from big cities, people are traditionalist. And all they see is sin in alternative lifestyles. Enter Dee Allen (Meryl Streep), Barry Glickman (James Corden), Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman) and Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells), four out of work Broadway performers who intend to save the day by getting prom back on track. Will they succeed in helping Emma find herself? Or are they more interested in finding themselves by championing a cause? Keegan Michael Key, Ariana DeBose and Kerry Washington round out the cast along with newcomer Jo-Allen Pellman as Emma. This film is nominated for Best Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for James Corden.
3. Eurovision Song Contest the Story of Fire Saga
Will Ferrell was at his earnest best. Reminiscent of Elf, Melinda and Melinda, and Stranger than Fiction, but also with some of the irreverence of the Anchorman movies, he plays Lars, who equally loves his music and loves Sigrit, his songwriting and singing partner. If only God, or the elves, could nudge him a little harder to make a move on Sigrit. Sigrit would love to marry him and have a child, if only he weren't singularly focused on their career, passing the Iceland Heat of the Eurovision Song Contest, and beating the Russian contestant played by Dan Stevens if they managed to beat their own pop star played by Demi Lovato. And what about the country? Do they want to have the winning contestant? Do they have the budget to host the subsequent year's Eurovision? Directed by David Dobkin, I loved watching Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams make doe eyes at each other. And almost kiss. And read each other's signals for humor, running with each other in carrying a gag, joke, or pun seamlessly. Eurovision Song Contest drew zero Golden Globe nominations.
4. Artemis Fowl
It seemed like a bad idea on paper. But it worked. It worked for me on a quiet hot summer day. It brought some charm to a COVID and pandemic summer where events and plans were largely preempted. Ferdia Shaw as Artemis Fowl, a twelve-year-old mastermind. Jr. Lara McDonnell, an eighty-four-year-old elven reconaissance officer, who was also played by a twelve year old. If Artemis thought he knew his father, a simple international art thief, he was wrong. He's about to learn that his dad had evidence, a whole library of evidence, of the existence of magical creatures. And that he had tactically gone on treasure hunts for such artifacts. He had priceless fairy artifacts when he was taken captive by a hooded figure on his boat several days before the action of the story begins. It's very simple. If Artemis can go out and retrieve the oculus, he might draw his dad's kidnapper to him; or at very least an elf or fairy with knowledge of his whereabouts. Along the help with his dad's butler, Dom, a delightful character who is more like caretaker and paternal figure than paid staff, Dom charts a course with a captured fairy, Holly, Artemis Fowl Jr. gets to go to Haven City to answer on charges against his father of theft of artifacts, but hopefully helping the fairy realm to stop a bad magical creature from getting to the Oculus first, and using it for world domination, or ruin. Holly is first to the scene when a rogue troll attacks a wedding in Martina Franca, Italy, and the trail is suddenly hot onto who the thief is.
Originally scheduled for an August 2019 theatrical release, Artemis Fowl got delayed by a whole year, originally scheduled for release in June of 2020. It was released exculsively to Disney + instead. It has an average score of 3.70 out of ten on Rotten Tomatoes. It has an 8 percent fresh rating. It has zero Golden Globe nominations, no SAG nominations, and it has perhaps an outside chance at some special effects categories at the Oscars. But I wouldn't hold my breath.
5. Soul
Soul is probably the film from this list that has the best chance of taking home a Golden Globe tonight, and maybe even an Oscar, should its name be announced as a nomination in a month or so. How best to describe Soul? It's about a jazz musician named Joe Gardner. He's on an existential journey to find his place in life as a great jazz musician. He teaches middle school music. But his night job, he hopes, will be to play piano for Dorothea Williams. The jazz legend is auditioning for her ensemble. He delivers a dynamic audition. The Disney-Pixar sequence of Gardner playing in the jazz club, just carried away with the joy of performing his music well, was reminiscent of Ryan Gosling in La La Land. He no sooner gets the news that he has the gig than he falls through a manhole, hits his head, winds up in a coma, and is on a moving sidewalk to the Great After. He can't die now though! He's got a gig. The comedy of errors ensues. He winds up going backwards on the sidewalk, winding up in the Great Before, where souls are created. They await their placement in a human, or animal, on earth. One such soul hasn't gotten her final spark to be allowed to travel to earth. It's like a merit badge. Soul 22 could be Joe's ticket back to earth, though, if he can mentor her in the joy of life. They go to the "zone," an area where people living on earth go when they are set by their passions into a euphoric trance. Moonwind, a psychic guiding a galleon, is able to help grant Joe Gardner and Soul 22 safe passage back to earth. But there's a body swap. (A typical Pixar trope, but it works here). We get to watch Soul 22 experience, first hand, the finer things in life in the body of Joe Gardner. But it's only temporary. She doesn't get to live in his shoes forever. Joe, for the matter, wants his body back; he is stuck in a therapy cat. Directed by Pete Docter, with an excellent score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the film does show us how beautiful life is, in ways we too often fail to slow down and appreciate. It is nominated for two Golden Globe awards, for Animated Feature and Original Score.
6. Onward
Onward is right outside of my top 5. One of my favorite filmgoing memories of the summer of 2020 was working an afternoon shift at Arc, and while helping handicapped individuals eat their dinner, somebody clicked on the Disney + tile on the television in the living room, and put on Onward. This would have been about June. I watched almost half of the movie between other nightly duties, watching Tom Holland again ditch his velvetty British accent for that of an American teenager, so ironic to hear, because onscreen, he was an elf-like creature. As was his brother, Barley, played by Chris Pratt. In this universe, the whole world is populated by mythic creatures who used to depend upon magic, but nolonger depend upon it, as the creature comforts of electricity, gas, plumbing, television, radio, telephone, and internet have replaced the need to master magic. I was sucked into the narrative about Ian, who desperately wants to have a relationship with his dad. But he can't, because his dad dies shortly before he was born. He heartbreakingly manages to simulate a conversation with his dad by playing a cassette tape of his dad's end of a conversation. For his sixteenth birthday, he gets a magical staff. The world, inhabited by fairies, elves, dwarves, unicorns, centaurs, minotaurs, and other fantastical creatures, has moved beyond use for it. But no technology that is as-it-were man-made will bring back his dad. And one of the most hilarious scenes in the film is watching Chris Pratt as Barley try his hand at tricks. See, Barley, in his twenties, has actual memories of his dad. He knows what he's missing. He lived to be parented by him, and grieved for him. Barley wants to use it to cast a spell to bring their dad back for a day. It requires them to go on a quest. Gathering a map from the pizza place, which has a mythic history, and go to the place where they can fulfill the spell to bring the halfway summoned dad back to life. Who wants to make this mission more badly? Ian or Barley? It was a good film. It shines more brightly in a COVID pandemic-truncated film year.
7. The Sleepover
Speaking of movies that gained more visibility with me during the pandemic, there's The Sleepover. Another film that helped a gloomy day of winter pass more quickly. I enjoyed The Sleepover while working a weekend shift at 12th Street in January. Clancy Finch gets invited to a house party by her crush, a boy in her class. But will she be able to sneak past her parents to get out of the house to go to the party? She has bigger things to worry about. Her parents are former spies. This was like The Americans, but dumbed down, and straight-forward comical. Wait, wait, the dad, played by Ken Marino, was most definitely not a spy. He's a pastry chef, who's in over his head when his cooperation in his wife's return to the game requires him to assume the life of a spy. It's the mom, Margot (Malin Akerman) and her ex-fiance, Leo (Joe Manganiello), who the kids have never met, are spies. The ex-fiancee breaks into the house, looking for the mom (Malin Akerman), to take her back for one last big heist at a huge state dinner with other foreign diplomats. I loved that Ken Marino was utterly hapless, but got pulled into the espionage thrills. That's to say nothing of the kids. I loved this movie. And the younger brother who just quietly has a feckless, clumsy crush on one of his sister's friends.
8. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special - I watched this one on a lark with Phil Kopp. We get to watch a Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron trying to make a special Life Day. (This theme is borrowed from the 1978 broadcast network holiday special.) Finnn goes off on a mission to gain a deeper knowledge of the Force. She enters a mysterious temple, and is there thrust into a cross-timeline adventure. This brings her into contact with characters from Star Wars, The Empire STrikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi. She encounters Luke when he's training on the Degobah system. But will she make it back to the Millenium Falcon in time to help celebrate Life Day? From Poe Dameron trying tofind the perfect Holiday sweater to getting a delicious Life Day feast ready, we get the same frustration of Finn being friendzoned by Rey, and the same compensation for for Finn by introducing a new friend girl with Rose Tico. And Rey of course using her knowledge of the force, and her great strength as a Jedi in training, to try to get through to Kylo Ren, whom of course is weaker in mastering the Force for good, and more susceptible to the Dark Side. But this is a full-scale comedy. It has heart. But there's very little dark side to this holiday special, pun intended.
9. Hubie Halloween - It's quite amazing a deliberately bad Adam Sandler movie is still in my top ten. But I really had a great time watching it while picking up a shift at the 2930 group home with Arc. Adam Sandler was fiftyish, lives with his mom, who wears inappropriate t-shirts, and potentially lives next to a werewolf. He is the Halloween safety monitor, whom nobody really appreciates, for his invasive safetu protocol ruis young people's parties. It was more enjoyable of a watch than Uncut Gems, even in as much as Uncut Gems was a more substantial story.
10. The High Note- I just watched this one with Phil Kopp on Feb. 27th. I bought it from a Family Video store closing sale. It's about a young woman named Maggie (Dakota Johnson) who is the personal assistant for Grace Davis (Tracey Ellis-Ross), who happens to be one of the most famous musicians. But she's middle aged, she peaked in the early 1990's, and when faced with the prospect of a new album, it's much safer to release a Greatest Hits live cut, rather than record new stuff. And the producer she's working with is a flake. He wants to ruin her previous work. Maggie is more professionally minded, and wants to replicate the authentic experience of being at a concert, playing up the dialogue between her and fans at the beginning of song tracks, and emphasizing her voice and emotion just the right ammount over instruments. She wants the music to be personal. Will she get to help Grace do the album the way she envisions? Or does Maggie not yet have enough clout to push her weight around? And what about that boy she likes? David Cliff? He meets her in an health food grocery store, they make a connection over music, and she underestimates, sweetly, his knowledge of music. He's a musician! Maybe, just maybe, she can produce his album, and use that as a leg-up into the music producer business, a place not populated by women. Maybe Grace Davis will be eager to let her mix and produce a whole Greatest Hits album... or a whole new album. This one was fun.
Just outside my top 10:
11. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn- This was the only movie from 2020 I saw in an actual movie theater. It was great to see Margot Robbie back in the role of Harley Quinn, surrounded by an all-female superhero ensemble. And they weren't really just mercenaries, like in Suicide Squad. Well, okay, yes, they did operate out of self-interest. But it's plausible that they felt like they were doing an act of public service in the process.
12. Ava- Jessica Chastain got to make out with Common. And she got to have lots of great fight scenes. Colin Farrell got to be made to sweat. Even though he was convincingly menacing, it was great to see his brown eyes dart around with worry, coming ever closer to the conclusion that he was overmatched by Jessica Chastain. And her mentor, played by John Malkovich, just chewed up every scene he was in.
Need to finish:
Sylvie's Love- This one could climb into the Top Ten
John Lewis: Good Trouble- This one could handily climb into the Top 10 once I finish watching it.
Television:
I watched one episode of Lovecraft Country in September. It was essential viewing.
I watched a few snippets of Season 4 of The Crown on TV. It was a go-to TV program for me in 2007 and 2008, along with Jalen vs. Everyone, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, and back episodes of The Newsroom.
Now, what was that big game I was talking about at the beginning of this post again?