Top Ten Films of 2020

Another year for film is in-the-books, but 2020 was a film year unlike any other. Like much else in 2020, it will end up being defined by the COVID-19 global pandemic. For the film industry that means that film releases were delayed or postponed sometimes several times thus leaving the 2020 film year in an odd place with much fewer major releases than expected. Tenet feels like one of the only major blockbuster films that were actually released in 2020, and its woeful performance at the box office made studios even more intrigued by the idea of releasing films on PVOD. This leaves the movie theater industry in a tricky place. However, in Denmark, the movie theater industry was salvaged by a resurgence of truly great Danish films from some of our greatest directors and starring our most popular actors.

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8th I’m Jeffrey Rex Awards – 2020

It’s finally time to reveal what films, shows, songs, performances, and games were my absolute favorites of the year 2020. Look, I know what you’re thinking, we’re already in July of 2021. But, to be perfectly honest with you, the last twelve-to-sixteen months or so have for obvious reasons made everything a bit unclear to me. Let’s just say, it was a weird year, as was also evident by the fact that AMPAS decided to push the eligibility window for their recent awards ceremony (which both honored 2020 films and select films from early 2021). I’m not doing that, though. I still have my strict year-end deadline, but, unlike the last seven I’m Jeffrey Rex Awards, I’m announcing both the nominees and winners of each and every category in this very post. So strap in, folks, and let’s talk about the best and most memorable culture of 2020.

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Overview: December 2020

Overview provides my readers with a brief overview of the articles or reviews that I have written. In December 2020, among other things, I reviewed Netflix’s The Midnight Sky and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In general, I tried very hard to review as much as I could before the end of the year, but I actually still have some reviews that I need to finish.

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REVIEW: Collective (2020 – Documentary)

‘Collective,’ Still Image — Photo: HBO Europe / HBO Nordic.

Directed by Alexander Nanau — Seen on HBO Nordic.

It was inevitable that during this global coronavirus pandemic we would all start to think more about the state of our countries’ health systems and hospitals. During both the first and second wave of the pandemic, there has been a lot of talk about how many patients each hospital can take in, and so on and so forth. I thought about all of this as I watched the incredible and infuriating Romanian documentary Collective, which is an exposé of widespread corruption in Romania and a health system that, as one whistleblower puts it, has lost its humanity. Continue reading “REVIEW: Collective (2020 – Documentary)”