The "Unofficial" Best Films of 2020 (Take One)

 

2020 fucking sucked. I'm sure there's a lot of films that everyone missed and wished they had seen in the theaters but given the events that had happened. It is clear that this wasn't a good year at all and cinema took a big hit out of it. Even in films that everyone wanted to see in the theaters but never got a chance to because of this fucking pandemic with some films choosing to sit out the rest of the year and wait till the pandemic is over. Here are the list of films from 2020 that I missed out on and hopefully will watch this year and in the years to come: Mank, Nomadland, On the Rocks, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Ana, David Byrne's American Utopia, Emma., The Way Back, Tenet, Soul, Onward, Another Round, Dick Johnson is Dead, Zappa, Promising Young Woman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Wolfwalkers, Possessor, The Woman Who Ran, The Life Ahead, Pieces of a Woman, Summer of '85, One Night in Miami..., Cuties, Lost Girls, His House, Kindred, Minari, Hopper/Welles, Palm Springs, The Rental, Mainstream, Relic, Beastie Boys Story, You Cannot Kill David Arquette, Horse Girl, Kajillionaire, Shirley, The Quarry, Crip Camp, Zola, Nine Days, Ammonite, Greyhound, News of the World, Rifkin's Festival, The Devil All the Time, The Glorias, and the Small Axe film series.

Now are the best films of 2020 so far:

1. Da 5 Bloods

2. The Invisible Man

3. Loop

4. Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children

5. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

6. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

7. Wonder Woman 1984

8. The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

9. Out

10. 8:46

11. Showbiz Kids

12. Women of Troy

13. Wake Up

14. The Go-Go's

15. Lamp Life

16. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special

17. Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind

18. New York New York

19. 537 Votes

20. Oasis-Return to Rockfield

© thevoid99 2021

The Year-End Reflections of 2020

 

What a horrendous fucking year this has been. The past few years for me personally had been tough as I lost a couple of my pets a few years ago and then my father last year. The year didn’t start off great as I was dealing with bronchitis although my mother and I are convinced we had some form of what would become the coronavirus in late December of that year. Well... whatever plans I had or wanted to do for the year went to shit as I never thought I would live through a fucking pandemic. I ended up only seeing two films in the theaters before the whole world went to shit and it just stifled me in a lot of ways of not really being able to do what you want and not go out though I’m not really an outgoing person.

The fact that nearly 2 million people have died from this pandemic around the world and nearly 300,000 have died here in the U.S. by the end of this year is something that shouldn’t have happened. My brother-in-law got infected before Christmas as my sister and her son had to stay with me and my mother for nearly 2 weeks before he eventually got better all because a bunch of stupid assholes didn’t wear mask at his office and their dumb-fuck of a boss is convinced that it’s all a hoax. Cunts who believe that this pandemic is a host and dumb ass motherfuckers who decide to hold events such as stupid prayer circles outside of a fucking mall can not only go suck my fucking dick but also should be beaten to a bloody fucking pulp by the people who lost friends and family from this fucking pandemic.

Yet, there are so many people this year that have died from COVID and non-COVID related deaths as it really made the year a total shitshow. Kobe Bryant, Kenny Rogers, Neil Peart, Ginger Baker, Eddie Van Halen, Bill Withers, Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quinones, Dawn Wells, Little Richard, Ric Ocasek of the Cars, Sean Connery, Ennio Morricone, Olivia de Haviland, Kirk Douglas, Danny Hodge, Pat Patterson, Phil Niekro, Chadwick Boseman, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, Regis Philbin, Naya Rivera, Tony Rice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, John Prine, Hana Kimura, Alex Trebek, Kelly Preston, Terry Jones of Monty Python, Max von Sydow, Andrew Weatherall, James Lipton, Vera Lynn, the greatest of all-time in Diego Armando Maradona, and more recently Jon Huber aka Mr. Brodie Lee along with so many others. Yes, 2020 is fucking shit.

In the world of cinema, I have to say that this wasn’t a good year not because the industry got shut down because of this pandemic and the idea that cinema itself is in danger with more studios decided to stream new films on the day they’re also released in theaters is to me a bad fucking idea. In the year of 2020, I saw a total of 316 films in 154 first-timers and 162 re-watches with 32 of those first-timers directed by women as part of the 52 Films by Women pledge as I admit that this year was lackluster and I’m blaming it on the fucking pandemic. The Blind Spot Series has always been a major highlight of the year as here is the final ranking of the films of the 2020 Blind Spot Series:

1. Grave of the Fireflies

2. The Koker Trilogy (Where is the Friend's House? - Life, and Nothing More... - Through the Olive Trees

3. Betty Blue

4. The Grapes of Wrath

5. I Am Cuba

6. Phantom of the Paradise

7. A Place in the Sun

8. One Sings, the Other Doesn't

9. The Big City

10. Blind Chance

11. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

12. Louisiana Story

With every new film to watch aside from my Blind Spot picks, here are my top 25 pre-2015 first-timers that I saw for 2020:

1. The Lone Wolf and Cub film series.

2. Out of the Past

3. White Dog

4. The Housemaid

5. Insignificance

6. Meshes of the Afternoon

7. Forty Guns

8. Diary of a Lost Girl

9. The Harder They Come

10. Le Amiche

11. Ceddo

12. Hardcore

13. Closely Watched Trains

14. Female Trouble

15. Scent of a Woman

16. Shallow Grave

17. Targets

18. Emitai

19. Teorema

20. The Crimson Kimono

21. Creature from the Black Lagoon

22. House of Bamboo

23. Underworld U.S.A.

24. Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

25. Satan's Brew

Despite the fact that I didn’t see the films that I wanted to see, at least I saw a good amount. Plus, I’m also glad that I got to see some old concert movies and such from some of my favorite acts. If anyone is to ask me what is the best album of 2020? It is Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters as it is this incredible album that if full of humor but also this amazing musicianship from a woman who is probably eons above every other artist out there in terms of quality and standards. I also want to give mention to Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, the Strokes, Paul McCartney, AC/DC, and Kylie Minogue for putting out some solid albums this year though there wasn’t much new music that I heard this year as I went more towards older music. I want to also thank professional wrestling for making me matter again despite these tough times as promotions such as All Elite Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and the National Wrestling Alliance as well as various independent promotions for at least trying to bring it to their audience and put the safety of their wrestlers, the staff, and audience first instead of trying to make a lot of money unlike some slop house who tells you who to cheer for and who to boo for.

In closing, I want to wish everyone a happy new year but given the fact that everyone went through a rough year. I think it’s best to just say this… FUCK YOU 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!



© thevoid99 2020

Blog News: Blog Plans for 2020

2019 sucked. It fucking sucked. Anyone who says "it's 2019" or "it's 2020" is going to get fucking punched in fucking throat. I am in no mood for people saying "you can't say this or say that because it's offensive". I have a sore throat and coughing up a storm. I'm not feeling jolly as I'm still dealing with the fact that my dad isn't here anymore. His passing was really terrifying and I'm still not over it. Everything that I had plan to do went away as I found myself not really wanting to do anything for a time. Plus, having to take care for my nephew while his parents go and work. There's not much time to really do anything. I'm not sure if that will change for 2020 as it's likely I won't reach that elusive goal of watching 500 films in a year.

Now that I have access to Netflix, AppleTV, and Disney+ as well as digital cable and my local library as well as having acquired a lot of DVDs during the holidays. There is still a lot that I hope to do for the new year. Along with films in my never-ending DVR list, I also have the films that I plan to see for the 2020 Blind Spot Series. There are also some things that I want to do for next year:

Take part in the 52 Films by Women pledge in the hopes to reach 52 films directed by women that I've never seen.

Do more films from Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Diversify more with mainstream films and art films.

Catch up on films by previous Auteurs subjects such as Woody Allen, Jason Reitman, Francois Ozon, and others.

Have the Cannes Film Festival Marathon from May 12-23.

Those are among the things I hope to do as well as finish the MCU is Cinema project as I've only 3/7 done so far. That's the only major project that I'm doing as I have no interest in taking part in other projects as one I was hoping to do in tribute to my dad has been scrapped as I just prefer to finish the MCU project into the New Year. Then there's the Auteurs series as I had to suspend it for the rest of the year. I have no plans to add anything new as instead I'm just going to go back to work on the subjects that I had hoped to do in 2019:

January-March-Kelly Reichardt

April-June-J.C. Chandor

July-September-Michael Mann

October-December-David Lean

That's all I'm likely to do for 2020 as I have no plans to do anything for The Void-Go-Round unless NIN is planning to do another tour or there's a band/singer that I will see. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off...

© thevoid99 2019

2020 Blind Spot Series Announcement

2019 is coming to a close as I'm about to embark on my final film of this year's Blind Spot Series in Shoah which is an astronomical film with a running time of nearly 10 hours. While I will be watching that film for the month, the time has come to get ready for the upcoming Blind Spot Series for 2020 as my choices are emphasized more on films that I have on DVD but never had the chance to watch them as well as films that were on Sight and Sound's list of the 10 best films ever made as well as films that are on the 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die though the films they recently put in have been questionable to say the least. I also wanted to diversify myself with my choices but also lean towards classic films as this list is mainly set from the 1940s to the 1990s with one trilogy in that list. Here are the films of the 2020 Blind Spot Series that I will watch in chronological order:

The Grapes of Wrath

Louisiana Story

A Place in the Sun

The Big City

I Am Cuba

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Phantom of the Paradise

One Sings, the Other Doesn't

Betty Blue

Blind Chance

Grave of the Fireflies

The Koker Trilogy by Abbas Kiarostami (Where Is the Friend's House? - Life, and Nothing More... - Through the Olive Trees)

© thevoid99 2019