The Lost Films of 2020

Roger Ebert’s Matt Zoler Seitz is tackling the lost movies of 2020: the films from early on in the pandemic that deserved a better fate, but were nixed from theatrical release and relegated to being streamed at home.

From the context of a movie year that had most of its post-March theatrical releases canceled, the number of good movies that actually came out in 2020 were lower than usual. Not even the streaming platforms could save this doomed year.

With most theaters shuttered, we had to settle with watching movies in the comfort of our own homes. Release dates for potential blockbusters such as “Dune,” and “West Side Story,” were pushed back to 2021, and Cannes was cancelled, but in no way did that leave us with no movies.

Seitz mentions a few of his under-the-radar favorites, including Pixar’s “Luca,” Max Barbakow’s “Palm Springs’ and Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” but that’s a very short list.

My own personal “best of “ list would include 18 films: “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Lovers Rock,” “Mangrove,” “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets”, “First Cow”, “The Invisible Man,” “Quo Vadis Aida,” “Beginning,” “Bad Education”, “Sound of Metal”, “The Assistant”, “Bacurau”, “Pieces of a Woman”, “American Utopia”, “Possessor”, “Spree”, “The Nest,” and “Young Ahmed”.

Notice, I have two Steve McQueen films on there. They were both part of his “Small Axe” anthology for Amazon. This was actually confirmed, if Cannes had happened in 2020, McQueen would have had two films playing in competition: “Lover’s Rock” and “Mangrove.”

“Lovers Rock” might have been the bolder film, but, in “Mangrove,” McQueen ran circles around Aaron Sorkin’s “other” 2020 courtroom drama, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” The film, based on the true story of the "Mangrove 9," focused on a group of black protestors who clashed with police during a march in London in 1970, they were subsequently arrested and put on trial.

“Mangrove,” depicting that trial, is proof that you can make high art out of such a tiresome genre. Vital, powerful and resonant, McQueen is total master of the form, and, if it had been properly released, in the right year, “Mangrove” could have been in contention for numerous Oscars, including Best Picture.

In all, I watched 120 new films in 2020, an astounding number, all things considered, and although, compared to the prior year, there was no “Uncut Gems,” “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” or “The Irishman,” the good stuff came in smaller packages, dished out via independent studios who, in the midst of endless lockdowns, managed to find a lifeline between audience and cinema.

And yet, in the 20+ years I’ve been covering movies, I don’t think I endured a worse year in terms of quality. I tend to be reliant on quality films coming from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Telluride. Two of those fests were outright canceled and the other two had mediocre lineups to show for, from filmmakers who didn’t mind having their films screened digitally as well as “in-person” (with 50% capacity attendance).

Now that it’s been almost four years since the pandemic-destroyed 2020 movie year, which films have managed to hold up for you?