The Top Movies of 2020: A Most Unusual Year

The Blockbusters

2020 was quite an unusual year, to state the least. It was a year that changed the way things worked across the board, and most times, things did not change for the better. One industry that was particularly touched by the pandemic that ravaged throughout 2020 is the movie and film industry.

The pandemic negatively affected the movie industry in more ways than one. In fact, the crisis somewhat completely destroyed some trends that we were used to. It then established new ones that are either likely to be with us permanently or at best for a while.

One such trend is the end to the era of the cinema. The cinemas are one of the most symbolic and crucially institutions in the entire film industry. First, they served cultural functions. When movies debut, they first hit the cinema.

Furthermore, they served very important commercial roles for movie producers and the cinema owners. Initial earnings for a movie come from the cinema. It can be said that we could judge the success of a movie based on the amount of cinema crowd it did pull. We all had to resort to streaming. For the first time, we had movies having their debuts directly on streaming.

Then COVID-19 halted several movie productions and releases. Many earnestly anticipated films could not be released. In short, 2020 could be described as a “Year without blockbusters.”

However, we still did see some pretty amazing releases in the year. And even though we did not experience those Box Office record-shattering productions, there are still lots of movies that did quite well. Here, we reviewed 3 of them.

Two black girlfriends having fun at home, watching comedy
Serious man arabian on leather jacket and black hat copies his idol from action movie.

1. The Trial of The Chicago 7

As if the ravaging pandemic was not enough, 2020 added some quite unsavoury events that made this movie come strong to our screens. The timing could not have been better. There was police violence and then an impending, highly contested election, both in the US. All these made the plot of The Trial of the Chicago 7, which retells the 1968 elections and the ensuing unrests from the polls which led to violent clashes with the police, very relevant. Baron Cohen, Golden Globes multiple-awards nominee for the comedy Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, delivered a stellar performance in The Chicago 7.

Full-length portrait of the beautiful woman with lifted hands up near face.

2. Palm Springs

Amazon seems to be hitting it with its original productions, and Palm Springs is a testament to that fact. We are not the only ones who think this is an amazing movie. Organisers of the Golden Globes Awards think so too, as the movie scooped up two nominations. The romantic comedy stars Andy Samberg (who got nominated in Globes for his role in the movie) and Cristin Milioti.

Post-apocalyptic Woman Outdoors in a Wasteland

3. The Devil All The Time

Based on a novel by veteran writer, Donald Pollock, the movie is a narrative production which tells the story of a young man striving to protect his postwar town from evil forces. Suspense, psychopathy, violence and strong acting: the movie has all of that.