5. Frank E. Abney III (Canvas)
Frank E. Abney III takes nine minutes and totally decimates your soul. A veteran Pixar animator, the director clearly absorbed the studio’s gift for emotional carpet bombing. Canvas gets to work instantly. The silent short opens with an old man cornered in a huge bed. When his granddaughter seeks some Crayola time, it ignites a painful confrontation with loss and how human tragedy can poison if left unattended.
Not content with a studio house style, Abney dives into a classic realm when it’s time to present the story’s essence. While Canvas achieves everything it set out to do without wasting a second, you hunger for more when it ends. We need to get Abney whatever he needs to produce a feature.
4. Remi Weekes (His House)
Remi Weekes understands the simmer. His House pulls its audience into a hot environment of dread. Tracking the hellish flight of Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) from Sudan to Britain, Weekes slowly ratchets their assimilation-struggle until the pot bubbles over, and the terror comes gushing forth. Like the best horror films, His House seeps out of real agony, using metaphor to underscore the exorcisms this planet craves. P.S. it’s a gorgeous-looking film to boot.
3. Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old Version)
Watching The Forty-Year-Old Version feels like the first time you watched Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, or She’s Gotta Have It. The filmmaker’s voice is fully formed and firing on all cylinders. The Forty-Year-Old Version might not ultimately be your favorite film from Radha Blank, as whatever is set to follow will surely build off what’s established here. As Valerie Ettenhofer stated in her list of the year’s best movies directed by women, you don’t want the experience to end and could easily imagine this story blowing up into a set of sequels or a television series. There’s more to say, and we can’t wait to hear it.
2. Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)
No other film this year had me bouncing back and forth as much as Promising Young Woman. Emerald Fennell, a.k.a. Killing Eve‘s second season showrunner and The Crown‘s Camilla Shand, rustles up a viciously angry black comedy that chews up its audience before spitting them out a sloppy mess. The ride is jarring, even queasy, but utterly unforgettable.
Promising Young Woman stole the chatter out of Sundance, and since its debut, those who saw it refused to shut up about it. With such hype swirling around its contents, the film was doomed to disappoint, but — SURPRISE — nothing could temper what Fennell has lurking in the climax. This movie comes with claws, and once rooted, it won’t shake off easily.
1. Regina King (One Night in Miami)
Just when you can’t get any more psyched about Regina King, she drops one of the best movies of the year as the calendar reaches its destination. One Night in Miami is an exhilarating performance showcase that imagines a conversation between Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge). The idea of these four icons in a room is mouthwatering, and the film fulfills its potent potential with fabulous gusto.
Based on the stage play of the same name, the film, via King, injects the verbal battle with a kinetic visual flourish. She and cinematographer Tami Reiker refused to wallow in the words, freeing the camera to float within the hotel room location. It goes where the actors require it to be, inviting an audience to join the party. The feeling is intimate, a touch naughty, and absolutely compelling.
When Covid-19 initially shut down production, King was despondent. When the people rose in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, King and her crew returned to battle. One Night in Miami champions activism and recognizes the spectacular strength required to unite against injustice. The film acknowledges the hero-worship centered around these four titans, but it also revels in their normality. Heroes are not born so. They’re made one action at a time.
Related Topics: 2020 Rewind, directors
