Not-Oscars 2020

This year’s Not Oscars are really not the Oscars, because the Oscars aren’t happening for another three months and there’s still six weeks left in the eligibility window for new contenders to pop up. I’ve seen all the likely nominees from 2020 and several more yet to be officially released, but some buzzed about performances […]

The Best Of The Rest Of Film: 2020

It’s become a tradition for me to call out an additional 15 strong films from every year, and since there was plenty more good stuff that didn’t make it into my Top Ten for 2020, I’m carrying on with it. Nearly all of the following films have some political or sociological importance. I didn’t do […]

Top Ten Films: 2020

“We are gathered here today in remembrance of The Motion Picture. To bid it adieu, and to share some of our fondest memories from its final year. Thank you very much to Netflix for providing the catering at this difficult time.” That’s how I opened last year’s top ten list — with a mock eulogy […]

Private Greatness: David Fincher’s ‘Mank’

This week, Hollywood is abuzz about HBO Max’s assault on theatrical windows. It is perhaps the greatest threat yet to cinema as we know it, in a year that had already been most unkind to older forms of entertainment, giving streaming platforms even more of an upperhand — a shot in the arm they really […]

Trollin’ With My Homies: ‘The Hater’

What would Tom Ripley get up to in 2020? That question ran through my head multiple times while watching Jan Komasa’s latest film, starring Maciej Musialowski as a conniving social climber also named Tom — or rather, Tomasz. But in the end, The Hater‘s central sociopath sinks to lows even the amoral Ripley would steer […]