By José Alberto Hermosillo
2020 will be memorable because movie theaters closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and audiences had no choice but to watch movies at home.
Watching movies on the big screen was a fundamental part of the cinematic experience. Now, viewers enjoy those magnificent films on their laptops, tablets, and cellphones – the lucky ones watch movies in their home theaters and big-screen TVs.
Some avid movie-watchers on the big screen struggled with technology but still adapted to the “New Normal.”
A couple of years ago, Academy members and even film festivals despised online streaming services for attempting to remove the movie experience and business from movie theaters. “Roma,” distributed by Netflix, was the most notorious case of discernment between studios and streaming services. Netflix withdrew the Mexican black-and-white epic from Cannes, and Academy members rejected it as the rightful Best Picture winner that year.
Last year, the winning of “Parasite”
opened the door for other independent and foreign films to have the
possibility to seize a nomination in different categories, including Best Picture.
We are learning that we don’t need the Hollywood studios’ “star system” to value good films. Everything becomes questionable because now it is more challenging to grab the viewers’ and voting members’ attention. The “dance of the millions of dollars” used during the award season has been reimagined.
Unfortunately, studios postponed quality films that could raise
the bar this season. We have to wait for the next best thing, next year, and for all of those blockbusters to come out, such as “Dune,” “Elvis,” “The
Matrix 4,” “West Side Story,” “In the Heights,” “Old,” and “No Time to Die,” to compete in the 2022 campaign.
To select the best films, we must set aside our classic “Hollywood State of Mind,” which alters objectivity. I measure a movie by its story, direction, strength of script, and acting.
If you have not seen any of these terrific films, it is about time you start catching up.
1. FIRST COW
2. MANK
3. JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
4. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
5. NOMADLAND
6. PIECES OF A WOMAN
7. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
8. SOUND OF METAL
9. I CARRY YOU WITH ME
10. THE MAURITANIAN
11. I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS
12. THERE IS NO EVIL
13. TWO OF US
14. THE MOLE AGENT
15. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
16. MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
17. ON THE ROCKS
18. THE VAST OF THE NIGHT
19. BAD EDUCATION
20. FUNNY BOY
HONORABLE MENTION:
The Father, Night of The Kings, Hamilton, Wolfwalkers, Better Days,
New Order/Nuevo Orden, Wet Season, The Night Clerk, Radioactive,
Onward, News from the World, Peninsula, Minari, The Glorias,
Uncle Frank, Let Him Go, Fatman, A Sun, Stage Mother,
My Little Sister, Gunda, Boys State, The Platform,
The One and Only Ivan, La Llorona, Run, The Outpost,
Song Without a Name/Canción sin nombre, Broken Keys,
Another Round, I’m No Longer Here, Apples,
Small Axe, Nobody Knows I’m Here, Greyhound,
The Life Ahead, The Grizzlies, Kajillionaire,
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday
Identifying Features/Sin señas particulares, Ammonite, The Father, Tenet.
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Parasite: Accomplishes the South Korean Dream
Gunda: An Emotional Journey of Pigs, Chickens, and Cows
The Painted Bird: In the Dawn of the Holocaust
And Then We Danced: Folk, Love & Pride in Georgia
“Synonyms” A Good Jew in Paris
“Roma” Anarchy and Repression in an Epic B&W Mexican Drama
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
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