The best movies and TV shows of 2020 (in our opinion)
Goodbye 2020 and all that!
Hello!
On this week’s ~year-end special~ episode of Criticism Is Dead, we each present our top 5 picks for film and TV, respectively, plus some honorable mentions, making for a grand total of... 10 movies and 16 shows recommended??
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02:27 Our favorite movies of the year, in no particular order
Palm Springs (Hulu)
Pelin: “A savior of those early days of pandemic panic.”
Jenny: “It’s a really enjoyable movie that is a little smarter than I think it has to be.”
First Cow (Showtime, available for rental elsewhere)
Jenny: “Sweet and sad and warm and bitter.”
Pelin: “It’s about the promise of the American Dream in that it feels really vast despite the smallness of the circumstances.”
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (HBO Max)
Pelin: “Sometimes cinema just needs to show you how fucked up the world is, and this is a perfect example of that.”
Shithouse (available for rental on Amazon Prime Video) (previously discussed on CID here)
Jenny: “It captures the loneliness, the isolation, the longing for home that accompanies going to college and growing up, and it does so in an emotionally mature—but also refreshing—way.”
Lovers Rock (Amazon Prime Video)
Pelin: “It’s so transportive, it took me away … I haven’t seen anything like it.”
Minari (trailer here; limited theatrical release February 2021)
Jenny: “It’s full of a lot of love, tears, and hardship. I did cry while watching this.”
Tenet (available for rental on YouTube and elsewhere)
Pelin: “This was the first film I’ve watched this year where I felt like I was watching a capital-M Movie … None of it really made sense, and that did not matter one bit.”
Driveways (Showtime, available for rental elsewhere)
Jenny: “Another really quiet, tender, warm film … If you’re in for an emotional cry, this is a good watch.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Pelin: Another Round, Black Bear
ETA: Pelin has a much longer list of runner-ups that didn’t make it into the episode! Here for your viewing pleasure:
20:12 Our favorite TV shows of the year, in no particular order
His Dark Materials (HBO Max)
Jenny: “If you’re a fan of Paradise Lost or anything that’s a bit biblical but also maybe heretical in nature, you would enjoy this … also a good choice if you’re just in it for a great fantasy series and escapism.”
Normal People (Hulu)
Pelin: “It’s sad and horny, which are my two main emotions.”
The Great (Hulu)
Jenny: “Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult are fantastic. I think they’re having the time of their lives.”
I Know This Much Is True (HBO Max)
Pelin: “Mark Ruffalo’s performance is incredible. It’s the best he’s ever acted.”
The Good Place finale (Netflix)
Jenny: “What makes a good person, what makes a good life, what comes after life, what comes after the afterlife—all these heavy themes that philosophers have debated for centuries, and here is this NBC show tackling them head on … It’s so good that I rewatched the entire series just so I could get to the finale again and feel that high.”
I May Destroy You (HBO Max)
Pelin: “It’s one of the freshest things we’ve seen on TV this year … Michaela Coel doesn’t give you what you want, she gives you what you need.”
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) (previously discussed on CID here)
Jenny: “What does it mean to be a decent person?”
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) (previously discussed on CID here)
Pelin: “It’s somewhere between comfort food and fine dining.”
What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu)
Jenny: “You would think we’d be over the mockumentary thing by now, but they apply it in such a good and smart and fucking funny way.”
How To with John Wilson (HBO Max)
Pelin: “I’m obsessed with it … It gave me so much joy.”
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Jenny: Selling Sunset and The Undoing (for exactly the same reason), Perry Mason’s cinematography
Pelin: The Mandalorian, Alice in Borderland, Veneno
ETA: Pelin has a much longer list of runner-ups that didn’t make it into the episode! Here for your viewing pleasure:
Bonus links
A summary of this week’s cultures notes that we edited out for the sake of time:
Lauren Michele Jackson does it again: “Kim Kardashian and the Year of Unchecked Privilege-Checking.”
Media and the “weird Japan” trap.
A truly inspired quiz: “Is This Quote From Barack Obama’s Memoir or Cazzie David’s?”
Okay bye, happy new year!
— Jenny
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Have inquiries, complaints, and/or recs for what to watch? We’re at criticismisdead@gmail.com.
Some credits:
Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu
Special thanks: Dan Geneen