“We’ve somehow already made it to the end of 2020, in a year where time has felt fuzzy—which means it’s time for our year-end list of the best. ”
While this year certainly looked and sounded different than any of us could have anticipated, it hasn’t all been a wash. Across film, music, television, and literature, artists have upended old distribution models and sought out audiences in an increasingly virtual world. Nearly all the stories on this list work through something tough but leave us on a hopeful note.
Without further ado, here’s the best of what our passersby (and some of you!) have watched, listened to, and read this year.
best films of 2020
1. Sound of Metal dir. Darius Marder
recommended by Kristi garced, @xeckok, @Jean.catherine and @imliliaamdoune
Sound of Metal is the story of a life thrown into freefall. When a heavy metal drummer named Ruben (Riz Ahmed) learns that his hearing is beginning to deteriorate, he lashes out and reels. A meditation on false belief, identity, and acceptance.
Available to Stream on Amazon Prime Video
2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always dir. by Eliza Hittman
recommended by Liz Turrigiano, @imliliaamdoune and @Jean.catherine
Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a movie with abortion at its center. But it doesn’t feel like any of the abortion movies you’ve seen before. In Hittman’s intimate and captivating procedural, the lens follows the 17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) on her odyssey across state lines to terminate a pregnancy. As one might expect, she faces a number of devastatingly frustrating logistical hurdles. Though this film is quiet, it tenaciously and poignantly makes its case for a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body.
3. Dick Johnson Is Dead dir. by Kirstin Johnson
recommended by Clémence Polès and Marina Sulmona
Never have I laughed so much and found so much joy and astonishment watching a funeral. Documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson expertly toys with the boundaries between fact and fiction in her intensely personal film Dick Johnson Is Dead. It stars her father and chronicles the durability of their bond through the onset of his dementia. This film is an absolute knockout.
Available to Stream on Netflix
4. First Cow dir. by Kelly Reichardt
recommended by Clémence Polès and Marina Sulmona
Kelly Reichardt is a filmmaker known for her ability to transcribe the vastness, quietude, and melancholia of rural America to screen. First Cow, which is set near the turn of the nineteenth century, proves to be no exception. The film tenderly tracks the budding bond between its two central characters (played by John Magaro and Orion Lee) as they strike up a business and covertly rely on the unknowing aid of a wealthy landowner in their vicinity. It’s a meditative film about survival in the face of scarcity that feels particularly apt this year.
5. His House dir. by Remi Weekes
recommended by tara Thomas and rian fossett
Horror works best when it’s multilayered—when what appears to be at the surface is frightening, but what lingers underneath is far worse. In His House, we meet Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku), two refugees who undergo a traumatic experience traveling from their native Sudan to a hopefully rosier life in England. But upon their arrival at their new, dilapidated home, their sense of un-belonging and fear is only amplified in this jolting, thought-provoking work.
Available to Stream on Netflix
Some additional film picks from our founder, Clémence Polès include, Tout Simplement Noir dir. by Jean-Pascal Zadi and John Wax, City Hall dir. Frederick Wiseman, The Monopoly of Violence dir. by David Dufresne.
And for more, Mahen Bonetti, the founder of the African Film Festival, loved Talking About Trees dir. Suhaib Gasmelbari, Night of The Kings dir. Philippe Lacôte, My Sister, Sara dir. by Sarra Idris, and You Will Die At Twenty dir. by Amjad Abu Alala.
best books of 2020
1. Luster by Raven Leilani
recommended by @sleepyshelby and @julialucydionne
Luster is in part a book about a high-octane romantic tryst, and part a perceptive dive into how racial and class politics play out when sex is involved. Edie is a Black woman in her early twenties living in Bushwick who involves herself with a married, older white man named Eric. The plot thickens like syrup when Edie moves into his house. A stunning debut novel by an author we long to read more from.
Read Luster
2. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
recommended by mahen bonetti and @julialucydionne
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson turns her study to the “eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations” in Caste. Her expertly crafted analysis unearths how America’s history has been shaped by a rigid, hidden caste system. This book is imperative for understanding our country, here and now, and bringing us into a more egalitarian future.
Read Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
3. A Promised Land by Barack Obama
recommended by Puno Dostres
Obama’s long-awaited presidential memoir has arrived. In this stirring first volume, America’s 44th President recounts his experiences of his first term in office with characteristic candor and thoughtfulness. It is a must-read for anyone invested in the ongoing democratic process or interested in his unparalleled insight.
Read A Promised Land
4. Black Futures by Jenna Wortham & Kimberly Drew
recommended by celine semaan, fatima jones, erin allweiss and georgie greville
Black Futures is an expansive, artful text that puts forth an idea of “what it means to be Black and alive” right now. Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham’s approach to creating an archive of collective memory is dazzling and unique—the book includes a medley of forms from photos to essays to memes to recipes to poetry and beyond.
Read Black Futures
5. Untamed by Glennon Doyle
recommended by Jenn Tardif
Glennon Doyle’s third memoir, Untamed, is an intimate and impassioned account of how the author abandoned the world’s expectations to free herself. It’s the story of what striving to be good does to a woman. Doyle’s particular loss of self involves getting swept up in cultural expectations and struggling against addiction. Still, in the end, she teaches us all how to unearth the truest versions of ourselves so we can navigate the world on our own terms.
Read Untamed
The pages didn’t stop turning here though. Our guide on books to gift this holiday season shares more of our favorites. And for a couple final ones, have a look at Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump (Nadia Bedzhanova), We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper (Abby Pucker), Cleanness by Garth Greenwell (@julialucydionne).
best albums of 2020
1. Fetch the Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
recommended by Jenn Tardif, georgie greville, mina alyeshmerni, @femcesca, and Marina Sulmona
Released in April to a world at anxiously home, Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Epic Records) was to our ears the year’s defining album. Apple screams, mumbles, and cheers on behalf of us all. The elusive Pitchfork 10 it received was well-deserved.
Listen to Fetch the Bolt Cutters
2. Homegrown by Neil Young
recommended by Rian Fossett and Marina Sulmona
When an old-time, forever favorite puts out music that they’ve been sitting on for 46 years, it’s hard not to fall in love instantly. Homegrown (Silver Bow Productions) is pared back and allows Young’s warbled voice and rootsy instrumentals to shine. An album well worth the wait.
Listen to Homegrown
3. Heaven To A Tortured Mind by Yves Tumor
recommended by Tara Thomas
Heaven To A Tortured Mind (Warp Records) is textured, mesmerizing, and sensual. Tumor experiments with style and genre—“there’s glam, psych rock, krautrock, Britpop, soul, and noise here”—to compile an album that’s delectably smoky and affecting.
Listen to Heaven To A Tortured Mind
4. Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa
recommended by Nat Guevara
Perhaps the perfect thing you can ask for the moment a pandemic hits is a disco-inflected, bumpin’ pop album. Dua Lipa’s sophomore album Future Nostalgia (Warner Records UK) was just that. For Nat Guevara, “the dance parties it inspired in [her] home were a refreshing bit of counter-programming to the devastating headlines,” and in her mind, “this album established [Dua] as a pop star with taste and an interesting point of view”.
Listen to Future Nostalgia
5. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
recommended by georgie greville
A jolting, punch-packing record (Jewel Runners) by Run The Jewel’s duo Killer Mike and El-P. It’s agitating, anarchic hip-hop that cuts into the police and calls for insurrection. All with hard, raucous yet futuristic beats.
Listen to RTJ4
Find us on Spotify or keep it playing with our founder’s favorites—Microphones in 2020 by the Microphones, Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase? by The Soft Pink Truth, Kelly Lee Owens Inner Song, and Mi specchio e rifletto by Silvia Tarozzi. For more, check out Clémence’s Top Ten Albums of 2020 here.
best television of 2020
1. I May Destroy You (HBO)
recommended by Rian Fossett, Fariha Róisín, Kristi Garced, georgie greville, Clémence Polès, Marina Sulmona and @joycefyz
Everyone we know can’t stop talking about this show. And for good reason. With Michaela Coel firmly and fully at the helm of her own story as its showrunner, director, star, and writer, I May Destroy works through the trauma of sexual assault, the trials of writing a book, and the everyday joys of being a young person with grace and acuity. She’s a singular talent, and this is a masterwork.
2. Normal People (Hulu)
recommended by Marina Sulmona, @jean.catherine, @madisonhuskey, @carolinestfn, and @imliliaamdoune
Rarely does an adaptation do a book perfect justice. But as fans of Sally Rooney’s beautiful novel can attest, this series does. Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal breath life into Marianne and Connell, two young adults navigating life and love, with tender, gut-punching intimacy.
3. How To with John Wilson (HBO)
recommended by Lisa Mayock, Susan Alexandra, Mimi Packer, Marina Sulmona and Clémence Polès
How To with John Wilson is a show that is a bit peculiar (in the best way possible), sharply perceptive, and unexpectedly tender. It’s a docu-series about what happens when a man hits the streets of New York to seek out connection in unusual corners. What makes it “exceptional” in Lisa Mayock’s eyes is that it’s “funny and conceptual and shows the connectivity of us all in a brilliant way.”
4. My Brilliant Friend (HBO)
recommended by Susan Alexandra, Rian Fossett, Clémence Polès
Based on Elena Ferrante’s wildly popular book of the same name, My Brilliant Friend’s second season was released this year. Like the book, this coming of age portrait gazes into the complex and complicated lives of two Italian girls, Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila (Gaia Girace). It’s a mesmerizing depiction of how intense female friendship can be.
5. The Queen's Gambit (Netflix)
recommended by Jenn Tardif, Holly Liss, Kavi Moltz
In the show that took the world by storm this Fall, Anya Taylor-Joy’s Beth is a woman playing a man’s game. It’s the 1960s, and she’s a genius-level chess player, so the politics of gender play in heavily. We’re all getting into chess now.
Available to Stream on Netflix
Honorable tv mentions include We Are Who We Are (nat guevara) Unorthodox (sandi marx and holly liss), What We Do in the Shadows (susan alexandra, puno dostres, clémence polès and @jean.catherine) and The Great British Baking Show (jenn tardif and holly liss).
Words by Marina Sulmona