Welcome to the latest installment of the Logeys!
Before we get started, I have a few things to get out of the way…
- Despite 2020 being an absolute dumpster fire and most of the major blockbuster films getting delayed, I was still able to see 90 movies. And in major 2020 fashion, less than 10 of those were seen in a theater. I think I have been averaging 40–50, maybe even 60, individual trips to the theater per year over the past few years so to watch over 80 of them from the comfort of my own home was certainly something.
- If you’re new here, I have a system when it comes to scoring movies. The system is essentially built from how good I think a movie is and how much I enjoy the movie. There is a little more to it than just that but that’s the gist of it. I have several categories that I’ll be giving awards too. The first batch are for individual performances by actors and directors and then the second is for the movies themselves.
- Maybe this is due to the pandemic or maybe this was just how 2020 shook out but this wasn’t my favorite year for movies. It’s also possible that I’m just comparing it too much to 2019 (which was a fantastic movie year) but, whatever the case, this movie slate was good… but not great. There really weren’t very many movies at all that I truly loved or that I thought were near-perfect kinds of masterpieces.
- Special shoutout to the place that was always a home-away-from-home for me no matter where I was living (minus Daytona), a place that provided me with hours of entertainment just by walking down its aisles, a place that has received a lot of my hard-earned cash over the years, a place that has helped me build my movie collection, and a place where I met some really awesome people and gave me what was truly one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. Rest in peace, Family Video. You outlived the big boys by several years and it took a global pandemic to finally knock you out. Mad respect.
Now for the awards, beginning with the individuals.
Best Vocal Performance:
Tina Fey, Soul
Jamie Foxx, Soul — Winner
Tom Holland, Onward
Honor Kneafsey, Wolfwalkers
Sam Rockwell, The One and Only Ivan
Jamie Foxx in Soul was some awesome voice work. The entire cast of Soul was great, but Foxx was the standout for me.
Best Young Actor/Actress:
Ryder Allen, Palmer — Winner
Reyn Doi, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Alan S. Kim, Minari
Caoilinn Springall, The Midnight Sky
Helena Zengel, News of the World
Helena Zengel and Alan S. Kim were fantastic in their respective roles and have both been mentioned in serious award conversations, but my favorite performance from a young actor was Ryder Allen in Palmer. Justin Timberlake may have been the film’s focal point but Allen was a star in the role of Sam.
Funniest Performance:
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — Winner
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Jamie Dornan, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Adam Sandler, Hubie Halloween
Kristen Wiig, Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar
This is a tough category. I could just as easily have gone with Dornan, Wiig, or even Annie Mumolo from Barb and Star but I had to go with Bakalova here. She is just incredible in her performance and so, so funny.
Best Supporting Actor:
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah — Winner
Bill Murray, On the Rocks
Leslie Odom, Jr., One Night in Miami
Paul Raci, The Sound of Metal
Judas and the Black Messiah is a great movie that deserves more love than it’s received to this point. While it wasn’t one of my favorites from the year, there is no understating how good Daniel Kaluuya was in the role of Fred Hampton. One of the best performances of the whole year.
Best Supporting Actress:
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — Winner
Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman
Glenn Close, Hilbilly Elegy
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Yuh-jung Youn, Minari
Bakalova might end up getting snubbed in this category by the Academy but to me, she was the best one of the whole bunch. A relative newcomer out of Bulgaria, Bakalova had the extremely tough task of having to play alongside all of Borat’s hijinks and she did it incredibly well.
Best Lead Actor:
Ben Affleck, The Way Back
Riz Ahmed, The Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — Winner
Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods
Mads Mikkelson, Another Round
In what was his final acting performance before his unfortunate passing this past fall, Chadwick Boseman gives a great performance as the co-lead in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom alongside Viola Davis. Boseman was really just starting to reach his stride as an actor and his talent was on full display during this performance. #RIPKing
Best Lead Actress:
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Elizabeth Moss, The Invisible Man
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman — Winner
This was one of the most difficult decisions for me this year. Davis, Kirby, and McDormand are all very worthy of this award and are all three contenders for the Oscar in April. For me though, the best performance from a lead actress this year was from Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman. Her performance was funny, it was charming, it was horrifying, but most importantly it was real. I really felt what her character was going through and she carried herself so well on the screen.
Best Director:
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
David Fincher, Mank
Regina King, One Night in Miami
Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland — Winner
Nomadland is one of the very best films of the year and that is mostly credit to Chloe Zhao’s direction. Everything about this movie was stunning visually and what she was able to get out of her actors, who aside from Frances McDormand and David Strathairn were real-life nomads with zero acting experience, was amazing. Seeing what Zhao did with this film has me very excited for her next project, Marvel’s Eternals coming later this year (hopefully).
Now onto the film categories…
First, a few of the less contested categories that I felt deserved a mention —
Best Film that Wasn’t Actually a Film: Hamilton
Best BOTS/Biopic: The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Sports Movie: The Way Back
Best Sci-Fi and Best Horror: The Invisible Man
Best Comic Book/Superhero Film: Birds of Prey (COVID really screwed us here)
Best Action:
Bad Boys for Life
Birds of Prey
Extraction
Mulan
Tenet — Winner
Even without some of the big blockbuster releases, we still got a few good action flicks in 2020. Bad Boys for Life was the best film of the entire year for quite a while until the world slowly started to open back up. Both Birds of Prey and Extraction had some really kick-ass action sequences in them. And Mulan, sporting a totally different vibe than the film it was remaking, was really a solid action flick as well. However the best action film of the year was definitely Tenet. The story itself might have been convoluted and confusing but what the film lacks in clarity, it makes up for in fun car chases, plane crashes, and reverse fight scenes. It was pretty dope. Also, did you know that Chris Nolan crashed an actual plane in that scene? Like a real 747. Not CGI. Not a scaled-down model. An actual freakin’ airplane!
Funniest Film:
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar — Winner
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Eurovision Song Contest
The King of Staten Island
Palm Springs
A super late entry into the competition, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo in the titular roles) was one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve seen in a while but also the funniest film to come out of the 2020–2021 awards calendar. And as great as Wiig and Mumolo were, Jamie Dornan was an absolute scene stealer. Such a strange film but full of great laughs. Also, shoutout to Morgan Freeman and Reba.
Best Animated:
Onward
Over the Moon
Soul — Winner
The Wiloughbys
Wolfwalkers
Soul is the clear choice here. I wouldn’t say it’s top-tier Pixar like some have gone as far to say but it’s still far and away the best animated movie to come out of 2020.
Most Surprising Film:
Promising Young Woman
Palm Springs
Shithouse — Winner
Clouds
Palmer
I’m just going to use this category as an excuse to talk about how much of a delight Shithouse is. A film written, directed, and starring Cooper Raiff (who is hardly old enough to drink), Shithouse is a story of a college freshman that is struggling to adapt to the experience. Loosely based on Raiff’s real-life experience in college, Shithouse went from a short film that Raiff shot over spring break with his friends and turned into an award-winning film with so much heart. I cannot recommend this movie enough. Watch Shithouse.
And finally..
The Top Nine Logey Movies of the Year
9) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — Very much a showcase for it’s two leads (Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a wonderful film with great performances, beautiful production design and costumes, and a straight-forward script. Director George C. Wolfe puts his actors on full display and they don’t disappoint. Would not be shocked at all if Davis and Boseman sweep at the Oscars.
8) One Night in Miami… — Another actor-driven film from first-time director Regina King, this fictional tale of an imagined night-long conversation between four American icons is easily one of the year’s best and a great directorial debut for King. Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, and Aldis Hodge are all great in the film as Malcom X, Muhammed Ali, and Jim Brown respectively but it’s Leslie Odom, Jr.’s performance as Sam Cooke that is the strongest and most powerful. With the release of Hamilton onto Disney+ in July and then One Night in Miami… releasing a few months later, the world is really starting to see how incredible of a performer that Odom is.
7) Mank — I have a very strained relationship with Mank. I simply cannot dismiss how good this film is from every technical standpoint imaginable. It’s acting performances are great, the cinematography and score is phenomenal, and the overall design really takes you back to 1930s and 40s Hollywood. All of that is fantastic. On the other hand, I find the film to be very inaccessible to a casual audience (myself included). You really have to have an understanding of the subject and the era to fully understand and appreciate the story. While that is a huge knock for me, it’s still not enough to take it out of the top ten. I have too much respect for David Fincher (and his late father, Jack, who penned the script) to do that.
6) Palm Springs — Palm Springs, from an pure enjoyment standpoint, was probably my favorite film of the entire year. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are such a gem of an on-screen pair. While the time loop trope isn’t an unfamiliar one, the way the story is told is really a fresh spin on it and makes it super rewatchable. Also the ironic timing for this movie to drop during the summer of 2020, while most of the world felt like they were experiencing a Groundhog Day-esque timeloop, was just incredible.
5) Soul — The year’s premier animated film, Pixar’s Soul is the story of a middle school music teacher that is searching for his big break as a jazz musician when his body is suddenly separated from his soul and he must go on an out-of-body journey to reunite them. Soul is a beautiful film with a great voice cast, a wonderful score (maybe Pixar’s best score), and a whole lot of heart. This is also the first time that Pixar has made a movie that is truly more for adults than it is for the kids. As I said earlier, I don’t think it’s necessarily the studio’s best work but it’s still a great movie and definitely one of the best that 2020 had to offer.
4) Minari — Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-biographical take on his own upbringing as a child in a Korean immigrant family that’s trying to make it in rural America is, at it’s core, the most American movie you’ll see in 2020. It has the year’s best ensemble acting performances, highlighted by Steven Yeun, Youn Yuh-jung, and seven-year-old Alan S. Kim. This movie will make you laugh and it’ll make you cry and it will make you want to drink a big ole’ glass of Mountain Dew (or it won’t).
3) The Trial of the Chicago 7 — Aaron Sorkin is back at it, doing what he does best: writing courtroom dramas. Trial of the Chicago 7 is the story of the group of anti-Vietnam War protestors charted with conspiracy to start the Chicago riots in 1968. The film features a wonderful ensemble cast full of great performances, most notably Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman who is Oscar-worthy in the role. The real star of the show, as expected, is Sorkin’s quippy dialogue and his ability to dominate the courtroom drama landscape. As a director, Sorkin still has some work to do but his writing remains top-notch, even it Trial wasn’t his best work.
2) Nomadland — From a pure filmmaking and storytelling standpoint, I do believe that Nomadland is the best film of the year. It is a true showcase for director Chloe Zhao and for it’s star, Frances McDormand. The film is so entrenched in realism that Zhao goes as far as to fill out the cast with actual real life nomads and only used two professional actors (McDormand and David Strathairn). Nomadland isn’t the most thrilling film you’ll ever see but while it may not be super entertaining, it makes up for it in overall quality and pure beauty.
And the Logey Film of the Year…
Promising Young Woman — As I stated earlier, when I’m coming up with what I feel like is the top movie of the year I will take into account both how good that I think the movie is as well as how much I enjoyed the movie. While I do think that there were a few movies that were better overall than this one, there wasn’t one of those films that I enjoyed nearly as much as Promising Young Woman.
Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman tells us a story of a woman who is seeking to avenge her best friend’s death and the events that led to it. Carey Mulligan is tremendous in the lead role and gives one of the best acting performances of the year. This wasn’t a film that I was expecting to love as much as I did but was very much surprised by the trip the story takes you on and all the twists and turns along the way. Additionally, I really loved the use of stunt casting to fill the roles of several of the men in the film. Fennell really utilized those particular actors fame to her advantage to tell the story and it was very well done.
Is Promising Young Woman a perfect movie? Absolutely not. Like Jojo Rabbit before it (my top movie in 2019), Promising Young Woman is a flawed movie that has some interesting things to say and chooses to say those things in some non-traditional ways. I’m not here to critique the movie’s message and I’m certainly not going to try and comment on things I’m unqualified to talk about. What I will tell you, however, is that there wasn’t a single movie that came out of 2020 (aside from maybe Palm Springs) that I had more fun watching than Promising Young Woman.
Before we go, here are the movies that just missed the top nine:
Dick Johnson is Dead — Only documentary I watched in 2020 but it was incredible.
The Invisible Man — Still bitter about my popcorn bucket.
Judas and the Black Messiah — Great Daniel Kaluuya performance. Movie was great but didn’t love it enough.
News of the World — The better of the two Tom Hanks movies in 2020.
The Sound of Metal — Riz Ahmed’s performance combined with the film’s use of sound mixing nearly put this in the top ten.
Tenet — Maybe a few more viewings will propel it into the top ten.
