This was an um…unusual year. Movie theaters shut down, every single film festival went virtual, all movies were released directly to streaming services, and I ended up watching more new releases since the summer of Moviepass. This year I watched 459 movies. By comparison, last year I watched 326 movies.
Is streaming going to be the way of the future for cinema? What does that mean exactly?
For the near future, streaming is going to be the way. We are entering 2021 with too much fear and uncertainty (for very good reason too). There is a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus now spreading worldwide. Meanwhile, Covid-19 numbers are still climbing and will probably hit 5,000 deaths per day after Christmas since so many people insisted on having holiday get-togethers. All the talk about the vaccine has caused even more people to become reckless and careless about social distancing and mask-wearing.
“2020 was the year streaming incumbents like Netflix and Amazon were swarmed by new combatants, including HBO Max, Apple TV Plus and Peacock. And there’s still more coming next year, with Discovery Plus launching next week and Paramount Plus expected at ViacomCBS...When the history of the so-called streaming wars is eventually written, 2020 will be looked back on as an absolutely pivotal period.” (Brutally Honest Insights on a Wild Year in the Streaming Wars, Variety)
Warner Bros has announced that it will release its entire 2021 lineup of films on HBO Max. It’s important to know that Warner Bros is owned by AT&T now. So of course they want us to stream even more. They don’t care about the box office loss. HBO Max happily teamed up with them because unlike Netflix and Disney+, they were lagging behind in terms of subscribers and viewership. Unlike Netflix they don’t have like a House of Cards or a Stranger Things or all these other episodic serials that got subscribers hooked a long time ago. Warner Bros signing an exclusive deal with HBO just makes them a competitor now.
Disney is a a huge conglomeration of entertainment — in addition to their parks, resorts and cruise ships, they are also a production studio and a streaming service with plenty of their own movies and series to push. They’ve been acquiring the rights to properties such as Marvel, ESPN, Studio Ghibli, and are even partial owners of Vice. Disney has announced that they will be releasing 52 new projects on their streaming service, Disney+. Losing out on the box office won’t mean much to them either.
Netflix has long been the leading streaming service for almost a decade now. But Disney+ is well-poised to build on a great 2020, given the wealth of content the company previewed at its recent presentation to investors, setting up a Netflix vs. Disney rivalry that will come into focus in 2021. (Brutally Honest Insights on a Wild Year in the Streaming Wars, Variety)
Amazon has monopolized almost all retail shopping at this point, which is what finances their streaming service Prime Video and their own movie studio, which has been very successful, both commercially and critically.
The next few years will be a continuation of the streaming wars, as well as the continuation of the battle between tech corporations and creatives. Basically, Hollywood is at war with itself.
Could this mean a boon for indies and smaller mid-budget dramas that have been slowly disappearing ever since Marvel took over the industry and every studio is trying to replicate that success?
It’s a good question. If movie studios aren’t competing to sell the most amount of box office tickets and they are now competing for our time spent streaming, then why do you need to spend $180 million dollars on a movie like Godzilla vs. Kong? A two hour movie is a two hour movie and it’s the same thing if I spend two hours watching a low-budget $7 million indie film. Also, what counts for viewership anymore? What if people are only watching the first ten minutes of Godzilla vs. Kong but they spend the whole two hours watching something much less expensive but still high quality like Sound of Metal?
I am very interested in where this goes. I think we need to face it, people watch movies at home now. I cherish the theater experience and I miss when every town had a cinema megaplex and a second-run theater and a drive-in theater and a video rental store. I miss those as cultural touchstones because that is how I watched so many movies growing up. I love the sense of community and immersive experience of watching a movie in a theater.
On the up side, consumers will have an easier time accessing movies like never before. If you don’t live in a top ten market like NYC or Los Angeles, you probably don’t have access to a lot of non-blockbuster fare, arthouse and foreign films. Prestige film festivals most likely won’t come to your city. But if they all have a virtual option, then it doesn’t even matter. Why should some movies remain so inaccessible for so many people?
On the downside, Disney is monopolizing and bullying everyone in the industry.
Phil Provencio for Variety.
Hollywood is at war with itself.
Martin Scorsese was ahead of everyone last year when he said Disney and Marvel are monopolizing the film industry and returning to the studio system that Scorsese and the directors of the New Hollywood era helped dismantle in the 1970s.
Disney has been dealing and acquiring theaters too. It's deals with theaters are meant to bully other movies out. Important to know that Disney doesn’t just own Marvel and kiddie movies -- they also bought Fox Searchlight, so if you’re a fan of Terrence Malick and those kinds of serious art movies, Disney also owns them. Yes, it is easier to find more variety in cities with art film theaters that don’t want to run Disney movies, but most cities don’t have them.
Who is to blame here? Audiences who will only show up to the theaters if it’s a blockbuster tentpole event? Not so fast. California recently passed Prop 22 (a law that will allow contract workers to be exploited even more than they already are) which means film and TV unions could be in danger next. What will happen to all of those behind the scenes jobs — makeup artists, special effects, composers, editors, and all the other creative and crew positions that could be lost? Major corporations and tech giants would love to collect all those streaming numbers while cutting down on labor and working people’s wages. Much of the problem is that Hollywood and the rest of the film industry is now run by Wall Street financiers and MBA types who only care about the bottom line and profits instead of creatives and artists. If you want my opinion, the movie theater industry could use a government bailout. In fact, all creative industries deserve one.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t feel safe going to a movie theater anymore. I hope that post-pandemic and theater shutdowns, drive-in movie theaters will see a resurgence. That would be one solution to keeping the communal theater experience alive until it’s safe to go back to indoor theaters again.
Steven Soderbergh is one of the most talented and prolific directors of this generation. But after this year, I am convinced that Contagion is his best work ever.
On to my list of favorite movies of 2020. My absolute favorite movie to come out this year as A Sun but Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 movie, Contagion, also deserves a mention. My family and I watched it on the first day of lockdown back in March. We laughed at how dystopian and horrifying the pandemic and the societal/government response was in the film. We watched the movie again before Christmas, after spending a full ten months in lockdown together. This time, we saw the societal and governmental response in the film to be a best case scenario. Props to Soderbergh for being so prescient. Would love to see him do another movie about Covid-19.
THE BEST MOVIES OF 2020
A Sun
Directed by Chung Mong-Hong from Taiwan, “A Sun” tells the story of two sons, one a top student poised to attend the medical school of his choice, the other a delinquent whose latest mishap lands him in a juvenile detention center. The former, A-Hao (Xu Guang-Han), makes his parents proud and is the perfect son, whereas his younger brother, A-Ho (Wu Chien-Ho), is what you’d call a disappointment. This is a family saga that takes place over the course of half a decade. Eventually, the two sons will switch places in their parents’ hearts but it is a lot of heartbreaking drama to get there. It’s a tale of crime and punishment. From the start, I was like “OH SHIT.” And at the end, I found myself also saying to myself, “OH SHIT.” A Sun is now streaming on Netflix.
A Sun, directed by Chung Mong-Hong, is undeniably the best movie of the year and a cinematic masterpiece from Taiwan.
The Devil All The Time
Palm Springs
The Old Guard
Minari
Soul
First Cow
Bacurau
The Sound of Metal
The Invisible Man
Bad Education
Another Round
Trial of the Chicago 7
Yellow Rose
Promising Young Woman
The Vast of Night
Nomadland
The Hunt
WORST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
Personal History of David Copperfield, with its race-bending cast, was the absolute worst movie of 2020.
Personal History of David Copperfield
To hear more about why this movie was chosen as the worst of the year, check out this episode of my new podcast show, Unverified Accounts.
Wonder Woman 1984
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
The Half of It
In Full Bloom
Tenet
Recent Posts
I usually do a write up of the events I’ve organized or hosted and my most-read articles at the end of the year. This was an unusual year (obviously, there is no need to go into it here) so I didn’t bother. Instead I want to highlight a project of mine that I am particularly proud of — it’s my new podcast show, Unverified Accounts, that I cohost with my frequent collaborators, Chris Jesu Lee and Filip Guo. If you're a big movie/TV/book buff, have leftist sympathies, but can't stand 'wokeness' dumbing down our culture, then we're the podcast for you. So far in our 25 episodes, we’ve covered a range of contentious topics.