When I moved to Seattle in 2008, I began keeping track of all the movies I managed to see which came out that year. I track whether I watched them in the theater (and how many times) or on the small screen (in italics). I also indicate which ones I’ve purchased [Blu-ray].
Below are the movies that debuted in 2020 and at the bottom of this post, you can find links to my rankings from 2008-2019.
A special note on 2020: The movie theaters closed down in March of 2020. I saw six films in the theater using my AMC pass before the closures. Everything else was viewed via a streaming service. Some movies were originally intended to play in theaters, but were converted to originals for specific streaming services which I indicated. Some still made debuted in drive-inn theaters or film festivals. I listed the movies that were delayed from opening in 2020 which hopefully will be out in 2021.
Grand Total: 48 In Theater: 6
At Home/Streaming: 42 In 2021: 21
The Beyond Awesome/Fun (A+ for Everything):
- The Gentlemen [Blu-ray]
- Onward
- Hamilton [Disney+]
- The Personal History of David Copperfield
- Soul
- Save Yourselves
The Award Season Awesome (A):
- Emma
- 7500 [Amazon]
- Rebecca [Netflix]
- Zappa (Documentary)
- Uncle Frank [Amazon]
- Let Them All Talk [HBO Max Original]
- Happiest Season [Hulu]
- Nomadland [Hulu]
The Highly Enjoyable (Solid A):
- The Vast of Night [Amazon]
- Old Guard [Netflix]
- Enola Holmes [Netflix]
- Yes, God, Yes
- Superintelligence [HBO Max Original]
- Tenent
- To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You [Netflix]
The Award Season Good (A-/B+):
- Irresistible
- Driveways
- Sound of Metal [Amazon]
The Guilty Pleasures (A for Effort):
- Birds of Prey
- Bill and Ted Face the Music
- Fatman
- The Last Blockbuster (documentary)
The Good (Solid B):
- Just Mercy
- Artemis Fowl [Disney+]
- Project Power [Netflix]
- Radioactive [Amazon]
- The Way Back
- Invisible Man
- The Hunt
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 [Netflix]
- X-Men: New Mutants
- Ava
- Midnight Sky [Netflix]
- Hope Gap [Amazon]
- Run [Hulu]
- Kajillionaire
The Just Okay (B-/C+):
- My Spy [Amazon]
- Downhill
- The Prom [Netflix]
- Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Story [Netflix]
- Da 5 Bloods [Netflix]
- Residue
- Greenland
The Neither Good Nor Bad (C):
- Troop Zero [Amazon]
- Extraction [Netflix]
- The Lovebirds [Netflix]
- Showbiz Kids (Documentary) [HBO]
- Bad Education [HBO]
- The Witches [HBO Max Original]
- Time (Documentary) [Amazon]
- Sylvie’s Love [Amazon]
- Made in Italy
- First Cow
- Synchronic [Netflix]
The Bad (D):
- Dolittle
- Spenser Confidential [Netflix]
Deeply Disappointing:
- Rhythm Section
- Antebellum
- Mank [Netflix]
- Mulan [Disney+]
- Wonder Woman 1984 [HBO Max]
- Wild Mountain Thyme
It Wasn’t Bad, But Not My Cup of Tea:
- [Small Axe] Lovers Rock [Amazon]
Want to See, but Haven’t Yet (11):
Another Round, Freaky, Love, Weddings & Other Disasters, On the Rocks [AppleTV], Promising Young Woman, The Secret Garden, She Dies Tomorrow, [Small Axe] Mangrove [Amazon], [Small Axe] Red, White and Blue [Amazon], [Small Axe] Alex Wheatle [Amazon], [Small Axe] Education [Amazon]
**[Small Axe] are individual films released as a TV series for award purposes so they would be grouped together and not competing with each other**
Want to See, but didn’t come out in 2020 because of the pandemic (18):
Black Widow, Coming to America 2, Death on the Nile, Fantastic Beasts 3, Free Guy, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Godzilla vs Kong, In the Heights, Irresistible, Jungle Cruise, The King’s Man, Last Night in Soho, Minions 2: The Rise of Gru, Morbius, No Time to Die, The French Dispatch, Top Gun: Maverick, West Side Story
Past Rankings from old blog:
Which movies this you see this year? Anything not on my list that you recommend? Let us know in the comments section.
