Top 5: Unsung Films Of 2020
With more and more content becoming available, it’s easy for some excellent work to become buried amongst the litter. Since it’s so easy nowadays for smaller films to go by unnoticed, we wanted to to spotlight a few films from 2020 that we think deserve more praise and attention. These are films that aren’t quite good enough to grace an end-of-the-year best-of list, but don’t deserve to perish in obscurity either. Without further delay, these are the five films from last year that we feel are unsung, underrated, underappreciated, or under championed!
5: Blinders
From Cape Fear to Ingrid Goes West, One Hour Photo to Single White Female, and everything in between, cinema is no stranger to the stalker. The stalker film is one of those sub-genres where it seems as though if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all; however, Tyler Savage’s latest effort, Blinders, proves there’s still room to break new ground. The film melds loneliness, obsession, and appearances into a solid neo-noir stew with strong horror and thriller leanings. Imagine Brian De Palma impersonating Alfred Hitchcock directing The Cable Guy and you’d have something close. The film doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but it carves out just enough space to make the familiar terrain feel interesting and engaging. With Blinders, writer/director Tyler Savage and company have churned out a solid genre piece that holds its own against the firmly established stalker films and has something important to say. It adds just enough twists and turns to make the tried and true stalker formula sparkle with nuance and style. Definitely give this film a watch if you’re into films where appearances aren’t all they seem to be.
4: Crazy World
Isaac Nabwana's Ramon Film Productions is home to Uganda’s rapidly growing, low-budget DIY cinema industry known as Wakaliwood (home of “DA BEST OF DA BEST MOVIES!”). The studio has produced more than 40 low-budget action films over the last 10 years and has cultivated a full-on filmmaking community in the slums of Wakaliga, where Nabwana has lived his entire life. Drawing influence from Hollywood action, gangster, and kung-fu films, Nabwana is able to churn familiar elements into something new and exciting, establishing a new brand of action cinema with his distinct mix of humor, action, and African spiritualism. Describing a Wakaliwood (or Ugawood) film is somewhat difficult, but the overall experience is one of pure joy. On one hand, you have the films themselves, which are ballistic assaults of highly entertaining and absurd action that defy all the rules and standards of traditional filmmaking. On the other hand, you have the VJ (or Video Joker) commentary from VJ Emmie (AKA the “World’s Greatest Tongue-Fu Master”), who constantly shatters the fourth wall to hype up the film, translate dialogue, discuss the plot, and make wise cracks (like “Call of Duty: Uganda,” “Wifey Revenge” and our personal favorite, “Van Damage”). When these two elements converge, they give Wakaliwood films a singular feel, like if the sweded films from Be Kind Rewind got a Mystery Science Theater treatment, which should actively be sought out.
3: Stray Dolls
Sonejuhi Sinha’s stylishly seedy feature film debut, Stray Dolls, is a neon drenched motel noir with a few cards up its sleeve. Recycling familiar genre elements into something that feels wholly inspired and nuanced, Sinha drives her knife deep into the American dream and somehow manages to draw fresh blood, proving she’s a bold and confident new voice worth paying attention to. Stray Dolls twists up the outlaw romance of Bonnie and Clyde with the “Let’s keep going” vibe of Thelma & Louise to create a neo-noir that stylishly riffs on the last-chance motel genre, filtering its events through an outsider perspective that seems cut from the same cloth as Harmony Korine or Sean Baker. At times, it’s guilty of feeling a little too familiar, but it pulls from some very interesting places and manages to squeeze some excitement out of an otherwise tired genre, like Blood Meridian or Mean Streets did (but to not so great an effect). Stay Dolls doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a nuanced genre picture full of grit and gumption that focuses on the elusiveness of the modern American Dream, and it’s one worthy of a watch.
Following a nearly 25-year hiatus, writer/director Richard Stanley makes his welcome return to cinemas with his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, Color Out of Space, and it’s damn nice to have him back! Featuring stunning visuals, quality Nic Cage freakouts, and an abundance of cosmic horror delights, Stanley reaffirms himself as a visionary, melding B-movie trash, Lovecraftian body horror, and sci-fi/fantasy into one bonkers alchemy that is out of this world. Aesthetically, the film feels like a mashing of MANDY and Annihilation, with the body horror elements of The Thing and the CGI-centric oddity of Evolution. As far as Richard Stanley visions go, it’s similar to Hardware, in the sense that a lot of its stylistic elements feel a bit derivative but are worked in a way that’s hypnotic and spellbinding — even in its worst moments — maintaining a cohesively over-the-top tone. Even if the film’s story isn’t doing it for you — and there are many points in which this will be the case — you can always rely on the lush visuals from cinematographer Steve Annis and the keen production design by Katie Byron to keep you somewhat stimulated and engaged. Overall, Color Out of Space is one of those films that won’t be for everyone, but the niche audience of cult connoisseurs it’s aimed at will likely be all about it. In our opinion, it’s an imperfect gem of a midnight movie that succeeds in cultivating a true sense of madness, both visually and aurally (thanks to the phenomenal score by Colin Stetson, which really captures the mysticism and insanity perfectly), giving moviegoers a bit of the grotesque, a bit of shlock, and a bit of terror in equal measure.
Before we get to our #1 pick, here's a few that just missed the cut:
And now, our pick for the most unsung film of 2019 goes to...
1: Sputnik
Sputnik marks the feature film debut of Russian director Egor Abramenko, and it offers audiences a soviet-era slant to the familiar conventions of Space Horror, which is bolstered by strong lead performances, fun creature design, and atmospheric dread. Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, Alien, and its terrifyingly inventive extraterrestrial creature, which uses humans both as a host and feeding source, looms large over any Space Horror flick that came afterwards, Abramenko’s Sputnik being no exception. The film plays like an Alien-Arrival hybrid with the smooth, motion-focused direction of Christopher Nolan — minus the occasionally frustrating non-linear structure. Abramenko’s efforts don’t reinvent the wheel, but its Soviet-era setting separates it from its predominantly-American predecessors, giving it a fresh angle and the right kind of vitality that get you excited about the genre again. It pulls from a lot of excellent sources (Alien, Arrival, Annihilation, The Shape of Water, to name a few), and while it doesn’t mask them enough to make you forget you’ve seen it before, it doesn’t hinder a viewer’s enjoyment either. Its 1983 period setting is masterfully captured (in large part to its superb shooting location, the Institute of Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which was founded in 1959 and is still operational), and it gives the story an interesting layer and depth; chief among them, the theme of individualism versus allegiance to the government. The way Sputnik uses its alien creature even opens the door to the question: what if the real oppressive totalitarian regime was inside of you? There’s some cross-cutting that doesn’t exactly gel and a B-story that seems underdeveloped, but overall, Sputnik is a well-crafted and mature horror film and one of 2020’s more interesting offerings. If you love effectively atmospheric, slow-burning sci-fi thrillers like Arrival and Alien, definitely give Sputnik a day in court!
That's our list! Did we miss any of your underdog picks from last year? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always remember to viddy well!