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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2021)
C AREERS Special Edition April 21, 2021 o Pinionated J udge Page 9 My Top 10 Films for 2020 by d arleen o rTega Best films help you see world in another light For a cinephile like me, this year has been a hard one. I miss being inside movie theaters; it really is the best way to experience a film. I’ll be glad to go back. Fortunately, I’ve learned to ac- cess a broad range of cinema from home and have easily assembled a list of my 10 favorites of the year, which I’m releasing in advance of Sunday’s Academy Awards cer- emony as I always do. These are the films that stayed with me, that changed me and helped me see beyond my circumstances, as the best films do. Here’s my list, in to- tal, followed by my thoughts about what makes them especially great: 1. Minari 2. Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint 3. Driveways 4. Judas and the Black Messiah 5. The White Tiger 6. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 7. The Dissident 8. Crip Camp 9. The Father 10. David Byrne’s American Utopia 1. Writer-Director Lee Isaac Chung has said that he began work on his luminous film “Minari” by making a list of memories of his childhood in the early 1980s, when he, his sister, and his Korean immigrant parents moved to rural Arkansas so that his father could start a farm. This film isn’t strictly about ex- periencing racism and alienation, or about being Asian American, or about being immigrants or the chil- dren of immigrants, though it poi- gnantly depicts aspects of those ex- periences that are under-explored in American cinema. It’s also the best film I can re- member about marital conflict be- tween people who love each other. 2. My favorite film for most of this year was a sleeper that few peo- ple saw--and it came into my world early in the pandemic, when I was largely accessing films through dis- tributer and theater websites. “Be- yond the Visible: Hilma af Klint,” now more broadly accessible, stayed with me more than anything I saw this year. It’s a beautifully crafted examination of the life and work of the Swedish artist. Af Klint is one of the more dra- matic examples of how far from a meritocracy the art world--and the world in general--actually is. She Minari, director Lee Isaac Chung’s film about a Korean family who moves to a farm in rural Alabama. In advance of the Academy Awards on April 25, Portland Observer film critic, Opionated Judge columnist Darleen Ortega, rates Minari as the best film of 2020, the first of her top 10 films of the year. Photo courtesy Diamond Films. began creating a massive body of astoundingly visionary abstract work in 1906, yet remains relative- ly obscure to this day. Unnoticed, hindered, discounted, and quite possibly ripped off, the artist nev- ertheless kept producing astound- ing work that no one saw until re- cently--and this film enlists a host of passionate experts (most of them women) to help us understand af Klimt’s importance and what her obscurity indicates about the art world to this very day. 3. “Driveways” is a gentle film that stayed with me long after I watched it, and called me back for return viewings. By any measure, it’s a slender film--no major plot points, many moments of quiet observation. But director Andrew Ahn and screenwriters Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen seem to un- derstand that human beings viewed with compassion and interest can be inherently moving, even with- out a major conflict or tragedy; this is a story about kindness and con- nection that earns real investment and even tears with every lean mo- ment. 4. “Judas and the Black Messiah” deserves much more credit than it is getting for bringing attention to a long- neglected story with courage and canniness. Its creators made a string of improbably good choices in selecting as their focus Fred Hampton in contrast with Bill O’Neal, the FBI informant who played a critical role in facilitating his fascination, shedding light on the FBI’s obsession with Hampton, other charismatic black leaders, and the Black Panthers, and opening the way to so many questions we should be asking ourselves. This is smarter storytelling than we usually see, and Daniel Kaluuya deserves an Oscar for his brilliant performance of the charismatic murdered leader. 5. “The White Tiger” is a ma- jor omission from the Oscar list of Best Picture and Best Actor nomi- nees. As with “Jesus and the Black Messiah,” I suspect its under-ap- preciated status is because it shines such a light on things we don’t want to see in ourselves. Director Ramin Bahrani (nominated for the screenplay) is drawn to the stories of people at the margins--his excel- lent prior work includes the 2008 film “Chop Shop,” which made a lasting impression on me with its immersion into the life of a young boy supporting himself and his sis- ter in the underworld of Queens, New York, in poverty that we pre- tend doesn’t exist in the United States. 6. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” C onTinued on P age 16
