Watched in 2020
A log of all the films I have watched in 2020.
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- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorAndy DevineA group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.January 12
It's hard not to see why this film was the inspiration for so many things later, especially Ford and Wayne collaborations. Wayne carries the western like a personification of masculinity ready to do whatever the camera wishes.
5/5 - DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsPhilippe NoiretEnzo CannavaleAntonella AttiliA filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.January 18
The quintessential movie about going to see the movies. Everything not about the movies themselves comes across much less inspired, which is a shame.
4/5 - DirectorSunao KatabuchiStarsNonAva PickardKenna PickardA spirited 18-year-old woman is married off to a man she barely knows as she combats the daily struggles of living in Hiroshima during World War II.February 19
The extended 159-minute version adds a major subplot that does not either ruin the pacing or distract from the main storyline. Instead it smoothly adds emotional resonance and thematical layers to an already fantastic film about the mundane daily life quietly shadowed by horrors of war and a virtuous person's quest to find meaning to one's life.
5/5 - DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaLinda DarnellVictor MatureAfter their cattle are stolen and their brother murdered, the Earp brothers have a score to settle with the Clanton family.March 14
My Darling Clementine walks the steps of a morality play in the vein of other westerns, but its real focus lies elsewhere. It's a mood piece not in the sense of overwrought melancholy or slowly burning revenge but as a mundane slice of Western life smoothly woven together by the captivating motives and masculine codes of honor of the unforgettable characters.
5/5 - DirectorRobert EggersStarsRobert PattinsonWillem DafoeValeriia KaramanTwo lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.April 10
No matter how careful you go into these waters, you are bound to puke overboard. If you don't mind that, you are in for one hell of an unpleasant yarn that is obsessed with setting sail straight into the eye of the storm.
4/5 - DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneHenry FondaShirley TempleAt Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe.May 2
It is a testament to Ford's devastating storytelling power that even without knowing anything about Custer's Last Stand prior to seeing the film, I had no trouble grasping what he was using the wide canvas of the Arizona desert for. It's a breathtaking painting armed with gracious little details.
5/5 - DirectorRidley ScottStarsMatt DamonJessica ChastainKristen WiigAn astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.May 3
Despite its posing as hard science fiction, The Martian is just as happy-go-lucky and lightweight in its science as it is in its writing in general. As a result, it is a fairly run-of-the-mill but strongly crafted feelgooder that fittingly has an exceptionally optimistic protagonist and offers wish fulfillment for people whose spiritual lives revolve around science.
4/5 - DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJoanne DruJohn AgarCaptain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled.May 9
The quintessential film about old men facing the looming menace of retirement not with mere succumbence, but by setting the record straight before letting the younger generation take the reins. It's a loving tribute to both the ladies and gentlement of the US Cavalry that bears its symbols with unflinching pride.
5/5 - DirectorTodd PhillipsStarsJoaquin PhoenixRobert De NiroZazie BeetzDuring the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.May 10
The greatest joke of all is that superhero blockbuster money was spent on making something as twistedly genius in its craft and sickeningly on point writing that, among other things, revels in the dirt of the entertainment industry itself. The existence of this film is a hilarious paradox on its own.
5/5 - DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneMaureen O'HaraBen JohnsonA cavalry officer posted on the Rio Grande is confronted with murderous raiding Apaches, a son who's a risk-taking recruit and his wife from whom he has been separated for many years.May 16
Oddly enough Ford brings his Cavalry trilogy to a close with a tamer picture that doesn't quite stand up to the iconicity of the predecessors. Rio Grande hits a more intimate note with a familial focus as Wayne is not just symbolically but also literally a father figure this time.
4/5 - DirectorDavid LynchStarsNicolas CageLaura DernWillem DafoeYoung lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.June 6
This is what happens when your romantic road movie gets lost in a hilarious mixture of absurd folklore and the libido of a teenager only to find out that it was driving along the same road all the way from the get-go.
4/5 - DirectorJohn FordStarsBen JohnsonJoanne DruHarry Carey Jr.Two young drifters guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter cutthroats, Indians, geography, and moral challenges on the journey.June 9
Not one aimed for grand ambition, but perfectly balanced and restrained for its scale and scope. So honed and clear in its direction that it is almost like a myth as a result despite its superficial mundanity.
5/5 - DirectorSion SonoStarsKenji EndoYûto IkedaMegumi KagurazakaA feminine android delivers packages to the scattered humans in the galaxy. With years to spare the android and us have time to contemplate what it is to be human.June 12
A delightfully haunting time capsule of lonely memories that makes one wish the director would spend more of his career showcasing the sensibility he offers here. The film relies on whispering to a fault, but its captivating sound direction makes it work splendidly. If he had done so, this film could have been even more worthwhile.
4/5 - DirectorTatu PohjavirtaJuly 12
A reminder that getting what you want may not be what you ought to get.
3/5 - DirectorShirô MoritaniAndrew MayerStarsLorne GreeneKeiju KobayashiRhonda HopkinsThe shorted re-edited American version of Submersion of Japan, in which Japan slowly sinks into the sea as the US and Japan work together to stop it.July 12
A slowly creeping fear and ultimately a demoralizing catastrophe test the limits of universal good will and nationalistic willpower as grayish old men try to figure out a way out of a living nightmare.
4/5 - DirectorYôji YamadaStarsHiroyuki SanadaRie MiyazawaNenji KobayashiAs the feudal Japan era draws to a close, a widower samurai experiences difficulty balancing clan loyalties, 2 young daughters, an aged mother, and the sudden reappearance of his childhood sweetheart.July 15
Yamada delivers what is essentially The Unforgiven of jidaigeki films set during the Tokugawa period: a bitter swan song for a lifestyle nearing extinction that goes out with a bang.
5/5 - DirectorShin'ya TsukamotoStarsAsuka KurosawaYûji KôtariShin'ya TsukamotoA woman is being stalked by a stranger. His stalking turns to blackmail when he sends her copies of photos of her in an embarrassing position. Now he controls her and she has to do anything he says. Anything.July 18
Only Tsukamoto can smoothly portray the bottled up sexual tension of an ordinary Japanese couple with plastic snake dicks and blatant voyeurism.
4/5 - DirectorMakoto ShinkaiStarsKotaro DaigoNana MoriTsubasa HondaSet during a period of exceptionally rainy weather, high-school boy Hodaka Morishima runs away from his troubled rural home to Tokyo and befriends an orphan girl who can manipulate the weather.July 18
Despite bordering on clusterfuck due to its sheer amount of plot points, Weathering with You is fairly compactly written and gorgeously animated romp that still manages to leave you cold for its unintentionally disturbing ambitions.
3/5 - DirectorNobuhiro YamashitaStarsUda TeppeiHiroshi YamamotoTsutomu meets Kee outside a Pachinko hall. The two strike up an unlikely friendship.July 19
The film is just as aimless and bland as the lives of its good-for-nothing protagonists. Hazy Life showcases the trademarks Yamashita has built his good filmography out of, but falls apart thanks to a lackluster screenplay. Nevertheless the dry and honest portrayal of freewheeling country bumpkins fiddling with illegalities is not entirely a lost cause especially for the fans of the director's later work.
3/5 - DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsElle FanningChristina HendricksKeanu ReevesAn aspiring model, Jesse, is new to Los Angeles. However, her beauty and youth, which generate intense fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry, may prove themselves sinister.July 19
Because The Neon Demon carries itself with the pompous air of a profound magnum opus although it is tad funny that it doesn't quite deliver an astonishing era-defining masterpiece. Nevertheless its straightforward game of symbols about wacky subjects is a very solid venture into territory that few films dare to set foot on.
4/5 - DirectorYôji YamadaStarsKiyoshi AtsumiChieko BaishôSachiko MitsumotoTora-San, an itinerant peddler who is thrown out of his father's house twenty years before but reconnects with his aunt, uncle and sister Sakura. Tora wreaks some havoc in their lives, like getting drunk and silly at a marriage meeting.July 22
While the fool with a heart of gold trope is vastly off balance to the fool side in this case, Tora-san is a cultural icon for a good reason. With absolutely killer dialogue in Edo dialect, it's a splendid depiction of Showa era.
4/5 - DirectorMitsuo YanagimachiThe 1970s in Japan saw the rise of motorcycle gangs, which drew the interest of the media. The movie follows a member of the "Black Emperors" gang and his interaction with his parents after he gets in trouble with the police.July 22
As a documentary Godspeed You! Black Emperor is haphazard at best, but its value as a cultural relic is undeniable.
3/5 - DirectorYôji YamadaStarsKen TakakuraChieko BaishôKaori MomoiThree complete strangers embark on a road-trip to Hokkaido.August 4
Japan's John Wayne in the Waynest film Japan has ever made.
5/5 - DirectorKeith FultonLouis PepeStarsTerry GilliamJohnny DeppJeff BridgesTerry Gilliam's doomed attempt to get his film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), off the ground.August 6
Less a spectacular documentary and more a "I happened to be there" sort of testament to one of the most infamous development hells in cinema history. But it's a good one at that.
4/5 - DirectorTerry GilliamStarsJosé Luis FerrerIsmael FritschiJuan López-TagleToby, a disillusioned film director, is pulled into a world of time-jumping fantasy when a Spanish cobbler believes himself to be Sancho Panza. He gradually becomes unable to tell dreams from reality.August 6
After the end credits roll, it's obvious that if Gilliam had spent less time working on this project it would have been a more coherent and straightforward story, but then again the charm of this film is its cluttered but never aimless madness. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. As an "up yours" to all the people who have stalled the project all these years, it's brilliant. However, it requires its viewer to know Gilliam's history with the project and the original novel pretty well to get through the mindtrip.
3/5