2020 - IN REVIEW: TOP FIVE WORST FILMS

 Let's make this clear, writing a "Top Five" list for the worst films you have seen in a year is never fun and as such you find little inspiration while writing about them.  Because of this my reasons for disliking a film are probably not very deep, but here you have my 


TOP FIVE WORST FILMS OF 2020

 

5. TENET

Christopher Nolan's latest film, “Tenet” was meant to be the saviour of cinema during these COVID times; a blockbuster big enough to entice people into the cinemas even during the current health crisis. However, the film itself is mind-numbingly boring and made in a way that simple story points are so confusing, that cause the viewer to find themselves lost within the narrative. Despite all of this confusion, the irony is that the film's big “twists” are so easy to figure out right from the get-go. Personally I believe that Nolan thinks that his film is much cleverer than it actually is, however he must have had some inkling of its deficiencies when he included the line “Don't try to understand it, just feel it”. I am not against a film that opens itself up more, the more you watch it, but I still believe that a film should make some narrative sense the first time around too, and this film failed in that. The film goes forever and is a good forty five minutes too long, with the final half an hour action scene being one of the worst “action” scenes I have seen in a good while. The only thing that I liked about the film was Hoyte Van Hoytema's cinematography. Something that has amused me when I have spoken about my dislike for this film with other people is that they all come back with “Well don't you like “Inception” then?”, as if just because they are directed by the same person and is also a little confusing, that they are the same things. For the record, no, I really like “Inception” a lot. It is a great movie, but “Tenet” is not. Sadly, I have realised that after loving his early films, this is the third film in a row from Christopher Nolan that I have been underwhelmed by. And finally, he has got to do something about his sound mixing in regards to his dialogue scenes, as they are so hard to hear anything in both this, and his previous film, “Dunkirk”.

 

4. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG

I have a theory that good filmmakers can make terrible films because they commit to their vision thoroughly, due to believing that what they are doing is the right thing for the material, and thus follow it through to the end. However, when their vision works against the story they are trying to tell, this is where disasters can happen, which is what I think has happened with Justin Kurzel's “True History of the Kelly Gang”. I hated almost every second of this film, bewildered by some of the decisions Kurzel made in his telling of this tale. This surprised me as I have been a fan of everything Justin Kurzel had made up until this point, particularly of his version of “Macbeth” which I was very impressed by. This film however did nothing for me at all. To be honest, almost a year after seeing the film, my memory of it appears purged from my brain as I struggle to recall details of the film, except how much I hated it. The whole thing had a very bizarre atmosphere to it and it did not work for me at all, and I thought the casting was horrible which led to very questionable performances particularly from lead actor George MacKay who was embarrassing.

 

3. THE GRUDGE

Every year my “worst of” lists seem to be populated with a number of uninspired horror films. For some reason the genre seems to get littered with a huge amount of half hearted attempts to scare people, but which are really more focused on just making money off of an already established property or name. One of the worst examples this year was Nicolas Pesce's “re-imagining” of “The Grudge”, which seemed to have no clue about what made the original film's so successful and so scary. Pesce forgoes the use of suspense and atmosphere and substitutes it with extreme gore, violence and blood. Also the decision to not include Kayako, the main villain from the franchise, was definitely a head-scratcher. It made the film feel like there was no connection at all to the previous films; be it from a story point of view or even just a feeling of legacy. The biggest problem though with “The Grudge” was that it was boring and not the least bit scary. It was also surprisingly mean spirited. It is sad to say, but Nicolas Pesce has not lived up to the promise of his disturbing first feature “The Eyes of My Mother”, with his following two films being terrible.

 

2. FANTASY ISLAND

What was I just saying about producers making horror films with no heart, and attempting to make some money out of an established property? Here we go again! “Fantasy Island” was the worst horror film I saw all year, mainly because it was so damned vanilla and again, not at all scary in the least. This film was produced by the makers at Blumhouse, whose business model I was a fan of initially. They give filmmakers a modest to small budget to make their movies and due to the smaller amounts of money involved, they do not interfere with the making of the films. This sense of freedom given to the directors should result in better and more interesting films, but lately the Blumhouse films seem to be missing the mark more than they are hitting, and worse they are starting to become synonymous with the branding of “mediocre horror”. As harsh as that is, it certainly describes “Fantasy Island” perfectly. Again, I have forgotten a lot of this film, but it is hard to believe that I was actually looking forward to watching this film thanks to its better than average trailer. It actually looked scary, but the actual film was anything but. I should've been wary knowing that the film was directed by Jeff Wadlow, who previously made the very dull horror film “Truth or Dare”.

 

1. WONDER WOMAN 1984

The timing of the eventual release of “Wonder Woman 1984” may be a reason that this film is my least favourite of 2020, because it is still so fresh in my mind. By this time next year, I may determine that “Fantasy Island” was more deserving of this spot on my list, but due to having just seen “Wonder Woman 1984” and being so disappointed in it, it takes out the top spot now. And “disappointment” is the right word too, because coming off the high that was the first “Wonder Woman” film, this sequel doesn't come close at replicating it's fun and success. Personally I thought the entire film was a unmitigated disaster. The only thing that works in the film is Gal Gadot, who is perfectly cast as the titular superhero, but who is also totally wasted in the sequel. She is given nothing to do in this! She comes across as a supporting character in her own film. The storyline or plot is one of the dumbest I have seen yet in one of these films, and the work from Pedro Pascal as Max Lord, the main villain of the piece, is the worst performance I have seen this year in a film. In fact it is the worst performance I have seen in a big budget film since Eddie Redmayne's baffling turn in 2015's “Jupiter Ascending”. Max Lord is the least charismatic villain in a superhero film yet, and his plot against the world is one of the dumbest. I must say that I am a fan of Kristen Wiig, but she has been sadly miscast here as Cheetah. I also do not understand why the film was set in the 1980's, as it seemed to hold no relevance to the story and the film never actually felt like it was set during that time. Despite the use of clothing of the era, and pop culture of that time, it never felt real. Another point about the film that I have to bring up is the resurection of Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman's love interest. I have no idea how anyone thought it was a good idea that this character would be reborn into an already living person's body, without that person having a say in it, and that no one would have a problem with it. The fact that it is then implied that the two have sex only makes the decision more baffling. It is elements like this that give the film the feeling that this sequel was rushed into production with the first draft of its script. It just does not have the polish of the original film. Worst of all though, the film just lacks fun. It was a crushing disappointment and my least favourite film of 2020.