The Best Films of 2020

The Best Films of 2020  They’re All Streaming
Yes, it’s been a weird year for movies, but our chief critics have still found plenty of gems. Here are their top picks.
They are championing several movies that hit theaters ere the closing or were distributed online afterward. If you’re looking for new movies that will ask you, here are their picks.

‘Beanpole’

Plot
The film, set in 1945 Leningrad, tells the story of Iya, a young woman returning from World War II with a 3-year-old child, and her friend and former fellow soldier Masha.

Release
In April 2019, it was announced Beanpole would debut in the Un Certain Regard segment at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in May.

Box office
Beanpole received $196,258 in the United States plus Canada and $1.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $2 million.

The story:- Set in Leningrad just after World War II, the freakishly tall nurse of the title points to wounded soldiers in a hospital. But Beanpole fought in the war as well, and struggles, alongside her friend Masha, to overcome traumas of her own.

Directed with Kantemir Balagov
Produced with
Alexander Rodnyansky
Sergey Melkumov
Natalia Gorina
Written with
Kantemir Balagov
Alexander Terekhov
Starring
Viktoria Miroshnichenko
Vasilisa Perelygina
Konstantin Balakirev
Andrey with kov
Music with Yevgeny Galperin
Cinematography Ksenia Sereda
Edited with Igor Litoninsky
Production
company
Non-Stop Production
Release date
16 May 2019 (Cannes)
Running time
130 minutes
Country Russia
Language Russian
Box office $2 million

1. ‘The Half of It’

The story:- A riff on “Cyrano de Bergerac,” the movie stars Leah Lewis as high schooler Ellie Chu, an outsider several times over in her small town:- she’s an Asian-American lesbian who’s also a gifted writer. She unexpectedly bonds with a star football player (Daniel Diemer) who has a crush on the same girl she does.

What we said:- The film, directed with Alice Wu, “transcends the limitations that frequently serve as obstacles to ingenuity in young adult movies, 

The Half of It very almost continues Netflix’s great track record with teen comedies, of which the apex is still 2018’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Much of this contemporary teenage Cyrano de Bergerac, with a queer twist, is the kind of gentle fun you’d want, and both Leah Lewis’s lead performance (as the shy and awkward Ellie) and Alice Wu’s direction are terrific.

The Traitor

Film poster Italian Il traditore

Directed with Marco Bellocchio

Produced with Beppe Caschetto

Screenplay with

Marco Bellocchio

Valia Santella

Ludovica Rampoldi

Francesco Piccolo

Francesco La Licata

Edited with Francesca Calvelli

Production

company

IBC Movie

Kavac Film

Rai Cinema

Gullane

Ad Vitam Production

Match Factory Productions

Distributed with 01 Distribution

Story with Marco Bellocchio

Starring

Pierfrancesco Favino

Maria Fernanda Cândido

Fabrizio Ferracane

Fausto Russo Alesi

Luigi Lo Cascio

Music with Nicola Piovani

Cinematography Vladan Radovic

Release date

23 May 2019 (Cannes)[1]

23 May 2019 (Italy)

6 November 2019 (France)

Running time

153 minutes[2]

Country

Italy

France

Brazil

Germany

Language

Italian

Sicilian

Portuguese

Box office $8.7 m

The story:- Tommaso Buscetta was a real-life member of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra who turned on his partners in crime in the 1980s, testifying in open court. In Marco Bellocchio’s feature, he’s played with Pierfrancesco Favino as a not entirely admirable figure out for revenge.

What we said:- “Bellocchio’s approach to the story is at once coolly objective — the movie is part biopic, part courtroom procedural and almost feverishly intense,” Scott wrote. “He has a historian’s analytical detachment, a novelist’s compassion for his characters and a citizen’s outrage at the cruelty and corruption that have festered in his country for so long

The story:- The Swedish conceptual painter Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was a trailblazer whose reputation was covered with that of male artists. But in 2018 a career survey at museums including the Guggenheim tried to rectify that, and so does this documentary with Halina Dyrschka.

What we said:- “‘Beyond the Obvious’ bristles with the excitement of discovery and also with the impatience that credit has taken so long,” A.O. Scott wrote. “It stimulates the eyes and the mind.