Were there any good movie released this past year? For months at a time, it seemed like no movies were being released at all, as we hunkered down in our homes and dealt with the new reality of differing ways to consume entertainment. But Hollywood did figure out how to get new movies in front of audiences (though a heavily balance of streaming, and the occasional branch out into safe-as-possible theatrical distribution), and a handful of them were truly great.
My Top 10 list for 2020 feels so very unusual, which is an accurate representation of the year, itself. There are traditional storytelling powers, major studio fare, some indie darlings, and the best films that I saw on streaming services. But because this year was so nontraditional, I couldn’t think of any other way to capture, via snapshot in time, the bizarre year we just lived through. Looking back on 2020, these are the ten films that moved me, inspired me, spoke to where I was as a person, and entertained at a time when we were all desperate for distractions. These are the 10 best movies I saw this year.