Chris O’Falt, VP Features Strategy and Toolkit Host and Executive Producer
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
Three big studio projects on this list were “runaway productions,” chaotic, over budget, and at times during their creation considered disasters. One movie was born from failure, another shot guerrilla style under a theocracy, and all were big all-or-nothing swings in what feels like an all-or-nothing moment.
1. “One Battle After Another”: Sailed right past the discourse that would’ve sunk a merely great version of this film (he writes naively, with three months left in awards season).
2. “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions”: CNN via YouTube via Godard via Black academia via the most innovative filmmaker alive.
3. “Eddington”: Ari Aster anthropomorphizes the internet, circa June 2020.
4. “Sentimental Value”: The best script of year, maybe the decade, sticking an emotionally complex ending without a word.
5. “It Was Just an Accident”: Giving “no notes” new meaning.
6. “Sinners”: Six movies in one, there’s no logical reason all these ingredients should fit into such a joyous, terrifying, satisfying whole. The clarity and confidence to take a swing this big… is Coogler becoming our Coppola?
7. “The Naked Gun”: If any “serious” film was constructed with this level of precision the Academy would be showing more leg than Liam Neeson in his schoolgirl skirt.
8. “Marty Supreme”: This Is America.
9. “Zodiac Killer Project”: “Cameraperson” meets true crime.
10. “Sirat”: When I wasn’t overwhelmed by the need to throw my shoe at the screen, I was in awe.
#11. _______ left blank for the inevitable great film made by one of my favorite directors whose newest work I shamefully still haven’t seen: “Below the Clouds” (Gianfranco Rosi), “Die My Love” (Lynne Ramsay), “Father Mother Sister Brother” (Jim Jarmusch), “No Other Choice” (Park Chan-wook), “Resurrection” (Bi Gan), “The Secret Agent” (Kleber Mendonça Filho), “Sound of Falling” (Mascha Schilinski).
Honorable Mentions: “April,” “The Chronology of Water,” “Eeuphus,” “Friendship,” “Hamnet,” “Jay Kelly,” “Mickey 17,” “Nouvelle Vague,” “The Smashing Machine,” “The Shrouds,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Train Dreams,” “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” and “Weapons,” all of which could have easily made a Top 10 list in recent prior years.
