Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) | Directed by Cathy Yan

 4.5/5

Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is a gleefully anarchic treat with some of the most inventively staged action sequences I’ve seen in a comic book film. Yan has complete mastery over the tonal shifts that would be fatal in a lesser filmmaker’s hands – playing into and subverting comic book tropes with reckless abandon. The range of narrative devices the film plays with – from Margot Robbie’s pitch-perfect turn as our unreliable narrator, to the contrasting genre styles of the supporting casts’ narrative arcs, to the delightfully absurd digressions and shifting timelines and running gags. The performers are all fantastic, and it’s nice to have a female-led comic book film in which the camera doesn’t leer at our protagonists for the entire running time. Like Yan’s first feature, the brilliant Dead Pigs, Birds of Prey is ultimately about the question of whether or not everyone is selfishly out for themselves, or whether we can ever learn to trust one another. But like Dead Pigs, it’s a film that is infused with so much buoyancy and joy from beginning to end.

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The Lovebirds (2020) | Directed by Michael Showalter

 3/5

Michael Showalter’s The Lovebirds is fine – a perfectly innocuous film about a couple learning that, maybe, the rough edges in their relationship are actually what makes them stronger. And it’s all wrapped up in the trappings of a ‘90s action-comedy – a genre for which I have a particular weakness. The narrative holds together well enough for the genre, and I especially like some of the ways they undercut their own plot mechanics and reveal the absurdity of the situation. But Showalter isn’t particularly adept at weaving together the action and mystery elements with the romantic comedy elements. The jarring tonal shifts leaves the entire enterprise weighed down by a slough of mediocrity. And as charming as Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani can be – as clever as their dialogue can be from time to time – they spend so much of their energy improvising in muddled and formless scenes, more interested in finding the next zinger than they are in telling a coherent story or giving us fully developed characters. The film isn’t terrible – it’s mildly diverting and fun. But with a cast and filmmaking team this talented, it should have been so much better.

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) | Directed by Dean Parisot

 4.5/5

Dean Parisot’s Bill & Ted Face the Music is a film that could have simply coasted along on Gen-X nostalgia to make a little extra money, and yet, it is so much better and more emotionally satisfying than I ever expected it to be. Yes, the time and space shenanigans are convoluted and make no sense if you’re trying to keep track of cause and effect and alternate timelines. But this is a Bill & Ted movie. You’re not here for a physics less. And sure, the pacing feels a little disjointed and breathless at times. But they manage to make breathlessness work in their favor as the film counts down the minutes until the end of the world. The film’s real strength lies in the juxtaposition of its dual narratives – one in which Bill and Ted run into darker and darker versions of themselves, the other in which their daughters try to help out by assembling the greatest band of all time (literally). The film’s lighthearted exploration of the unrealistic expectations we put on ourselves as artists to create masterpieces with each and every work is especially poignant. It’s a charming, generous film that moved me, brought me to tears, and took me completely by surprise.

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Tesla (2020) | Directed by Michael Almereyda

 4.5/5

Michael Almereyda’s Tesla is an ethereal, idiosyncratic, and otherworldly biopic that explores the life and work – and obsessions – of Nikola Tesla. While the techniques Almereyda employs here might not necessarily be a great fit for every biopic, there is something invigorating about the ways he takes such a usually dry and stale genre and breathes new life into it through such highly theatrical, anachronistic, and metafictional touches. The use of laptops and digital projectors by an onscreen narrator who both tells the story and fact-checks any bits of fictionalization that creep in are lovely touches. And taking an otherwise minor character in Tesla’s life story and giving her the reigns (along with making sure we know about her own hopes and dreams) keeps the film from turning into the rote “great man” narrative that can be so tiresome. Almereyda’s use of rear projection with period photographs for many of the sets gives the film its ethereal quality – and the central performances by Ethan Hawke and Kyle MacLachlan are really stunning. While most Tesla biopics make Edison an unredeemable villain, MacLachlan brings a sadness to the role the arouses our empathy, even as we see his machinations for what they are. And there’s nothing quite like watching Ethan Hawke as Nikola Tesla singing a karaoke version of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” against a neon pink background while staring directly into the camera. All of these stunning experimental elements work together to highlight Tesla’s inability to connect with others and and his desire to take the visions of the future he saw in his head and make them real.

Troop Zero (2019) | Directed by Bert and Bertie

 3.5/5

Bert and Bertie’s Troop Zero is a surprisingly moving and unexpectedly sweet film tinged with loss, grief, and the desire for community and connection. It’s always a delight to see a family film that challenges the stereotypical norms of gender, class, and race and encourages children toward greater empathy and tolerance of those don’t fit into society’s rigid boxes of conformity. While the film has your standard quirky, indie-comedy visual vocabulary, there are some lovely and unexpected narrative beats that keep it continually engaging. The performers are all genuinely charming, and you can’t really go wrong with Viola Davis. It’s a film that especially feels resonant during this time of distancing and tech-mediated connection, as we all proclaim “I’m here!” to one another along with the film’s lovable troop of misfits and outcasts.

An American Pickle (2020) | Directed by Brandon Trost

 2/5

Brandon Trost’s An American Pickel is a comedy with so much promise that is squandered on a narrative that never fully commits to any of the 15 different directions it tries to take and stumbles so terribly in the final act that there’s no possibility for it to recover. While it hits all the beats of a traditional Seth Rogan bromance, the connective tissue that gets us from beat to beat is missing, leaving the entire experience unsatisfying. And then there are these feints into Being There territory – the moments they almost pull off a great satire on American politics and what it means to confront the ugliness of American history – but the filmmakers are never willing to commit to a theme or an idea and see it through to the end. The final attempt at pathos and heart-tugging is manipulative, cloying, and unearned – ripping us out of the story they’ve been trying to tell. Yes, there are a few sweet moments and bits of humor scattered throughout, but it’s a deeply flawed film that could had the potential to be so much more.

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Young Ahmed (2019) | Directed by the Dardenne Brothers

 4.5/5

The Dardenne brothers’ Young Ahmed is a gut-wrenching, deeply poignant look at radicalization and the ways desperate young people can be held under the sway of charismatic authority figures – especially in religious communities. Like so many of their other work, the effortless, almost documentary realism makes the film appear simpler than it is. The loose, handheld camerawork and long sequence shots are meticulously crafted and perfectly constructed – to heighten suspense and tension in some scenes, to bring us to profound emotional catharsis in others. And I appreciate the ways in which they attempt to show the breadth of Muslim experience in this community – especially since so much of the film focuses on a radicalized Muslim teenager. It’s a work filled with the Dardenne brothers’ deep humanist compassion for everyone – even for characters who attempt terrible things. It’s a beautiful, deeply moving film.

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Palm Springs (2020) | Directed by Max Barbakow

 4/5

Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs is a thoroughly enjoyable addition to the time loop comedy genre. It’s especially refreshing to have the narrative handed off between the two leads, allowing us genuine moments of surprise as the story is told from multiple viewpoints. The comedy is tightly executed and just absurd enough to work within the premise without ever spinning too far out of control. Samberg and Milioti play off one another beautifully, and J.K. Simmons makes for a perfect third player. As the film reaches its conclusion, the script does try to explain the “science” of the scenario more than is needed, bogging down the final act with nonsensical particle physics for dummies. But in reaching for an explanation, the film does provide some nice moments for Milioti’s character as she tries to take control of her life and navigate this endless purgatory. Even though it was made long before the pandemic was a blip on our radar, it’s the perfect film for this moment, stuck inside during a health crisis for months on end in an endless repetition of the same routines, reaching out beyond our wall, looking for connection.

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Da 5 Bloods (2020) | Directed by Spike Lee

 5/5

Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods is absolutely incredible – another masterpiece from one of America’s greatest living filmmakers. As he’s done so beautifully in recent years, Lee draws such clearly defined lines between the past and the present, working in archival footage, fictional narrative, pseudo-documentary, and direct address to craft a rich narrative quilt that looks at the legacies of racial and colonial violence, deep generational trauma, and the communal effort it takes to heal and rebuild from these deep wounds. And the fact that it’s all wrapped up in a rip-roaring adventure story makes such incendiary material more accessible for the average viewer than it otherwise would be. Working with an impressive cast of Lee veterans and newcomers alike, the filmmaker and the performers are all working at the top of their game – especially Delroy Lindo who gives a career best performance in a lifetime of incredible work. Like so many of Spike Lee’s films, it manages to be both highly experimental in form and deeply moving in its content. As I continue to dig into his filmography, I continue to be astounded by Lee’s work.

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Hamilton (2020) | Directed by Thomas Kail

 4.5/5

Thomas Kail’s Hamilton is an effective and deeply moving recording of the stage production, capturing so much of the energy, evocative and highly theatrical staging, and thoroughly compelling performances that are only part of what’s made it such a phenomenon. Of course, with all the hype, it has a lot to live up to – more than any work of art can possibly be burdened with – but it still manages to be thoroughly engaging. It’s refreshing to see the ways that writer Lin Manuel Miranda allows the United States’ founders to be fully human – petty, vain, idealistic, naïve, and very wrong sometimes. And the way the play interrogates the idea of who gets to shape our narratives – of a nation’s history or even a person’s history – adds more thought and nuance to its layers than many of our modern musicals. Even though the financial side of a recording like this is highly impractical on a wide scale, it would be nice to see this open the door for more theatrical recordings-on-film to make their way to the general public. Increasing accessibility to this art form through digital technology may be imperfect, but there’s something beautiful about increasing accessibility to productions that people would never be able to see due to geographic, physical, or financial limitations.