2020 Movie Catch Up Part 3

Collective

I’m quite behind on documentaries, and I figured I’d start with this since it’s been appearing on many Best of 2020 lists, and I can see why. This was an incredibly engrossing documentary about the journalists exposing corruption in the Romanian healthcare system following a fire at a club. It plays out like a traditional narrative feature, and it grabs you from the opening moments, and never let’s go. You feel the desire for justice for all those affected by the malfeasance by the hospitals and the government that enabled it and covered it up, and it really gets you emotionally involved. It’s really good stuff, and I would highly recommend it.

The Outpost

There is definitely something to be said about Hollywood’s (and really America in general) glorification of the military and mythologizing of the War on Terror, and while I am generally not interested in stories that more often than not ignore the perspectives of the people we’ve invaded, and how little we have ultimately helped. That said, this film is quite intense, and features some of the most impressive camerawork I’ve seen this year, not in a showy way, but in a way that heightens the intensity and sense of place, even utilizing subtle long takes really effectively. I don’t think there’s all that much to it aside from being a straightforward boots-on-the-ground exercise, but as far as one of those kinds of war movies goes, it’s one of the better ones in recent memory.

AK vs AK

This is not necessarily Vikramaditya Motwane’s best by any means, but it’s a relentlessly entertaining Bollywood meta-thriller. Anurag Kashyap and Anil Kapoor play exaggerated versions of themselves in a story where after a public spat, Kashyap has kidnapped Kapoor’s daughter, and films his journey to find her. It’s a silly movie, but it’s full of gonzo energy that keeps you engaged from start to finish, and this is easily the most I liked an Anil Kapoor performance in a while. I had a great time with it. However, I don’t think it will be as effective for folks who don’t have a basic familiarity with the ins-and-outs of the Bollywood industry. Though, funny enough, it’s also kind of a stealth Christmas movie.

Breaking Surface

This is another fairly recent release, and it’s one I feel is going under the radar, which is both unfortunate and weirdly appropriate since it involves someone being trapped underwater. It’s about two sisters who go for a winter dive in a remote part of the Norwegian coastline, and sure enough, things go south fast, leaving one trapped under a rock while the other has to figure out how to save her. It’s quite the roller-coaster, and and it’s very tightly constructed,  very unpretentious about what it is and what it’s doing. Madeleine Martin and Moa Gammel anchor the thrills with some emotional grounding, and writer/director Joachim Hedén does a great job at making it all come together. It’s a solid thriller that’s work seeking out if you want something fast, simple, and visceral.

The Painted Bird

There was a point, about a little over two hours into this near three hour movie, where I thought to myself, “ah, this is trying to be Come And See 2.0, isn’t it?” And then the actor who played the kid in Come And See showed up. I laughed. I actually laughed for a lot of this movie, which is probably not great considering how relentlessly cruel and bleak it is, but it just keeps going, and it just keeps escalating, that it just becomes funny after a while. At least in Come And See, the filmmakers gave the story some surreal flourishes, they gave it a very distinct mood and vibe while The Painted Bird goes for straight realism, with the only real stylistic touch being the black-and-white. I actually do like the film, and admire it in many ways, but boy, is it not something I would recommend to most people. If it were up to me, I’d give Petr Kotlár an honorary Oscar for being put through all that.

A Sun

This film has been sitting on my Netflix watch list ever since it released almost a whole year ago, and boy, I can’t believe I’ve been just letting is hand there all this time. This is a terrific film. It tells the story of this Taiwanese family who experience some serious hurdles following the arrest of one of the boys in the family. It covers several years, following each member of the family, and it’s so engaging and thoughtful and it really blew me away. I’m not very familiar with the works of its director Chung Mong-hong, but this was a great film, and it’s seemingly intimidating two-and-a-half hour runtime flew by.

Standing Up, Falling Down

Man, Billy Crystal has been semi-retired for a while, and I forgot just how good he can be. He’s absolutely hilarious in this. The film itself is about a failed stand-up comedian played by Ben Schwartz who moves back in with his folks, and finds himself making an unlikely friendship with an alcoholic dermatologist played by Crystal. It’s nothing groundbreaking, it’s fairly predictable, especially if you’ve seen more than one movie about a 30-something who is trying to figure out what to do with his/her life, but it’s very charming and watchable and very funny. It’s a small film that I think is worth supporting.

And there you have it. Keep an eye out for my best of 2020 list, which will hopefully be posted on the site either late January or early February. In the meantime, have you gotten a chance to see any of these movies? Let me know what you think!