However, we kept going and even in this year’s darkest moments we still could look forward to an incredible array of releases. And 2020 certainly had a range of terrific cinematic moments to celebrate.

Below is the list of our favourite films of the year and they’ve certainly helped us get through this difficult time, and given plenty of joy in the process.

10. Unhinged

Russell Crowe delivered an incredibly scary and full frontal attack of a performance as an unnamed man who suddenly flips and takes out all of his aggression and anger on an innocent woman in Unhinged. This was popcorn cinema at its most thrilling. Unhinged didn’t let up for a moment, and Crowe’s scary performance had us on edge the whole time. It was a simple premise that was executed with perfect delivery by its filmmaking team and as an audience member you were holding your breath right up until the very end frame. This was a pulse-pounding piece of thriller cinema at its best and Crowe’s performance as this nameless and violent thrill killer was sure to give you nightmares.

9. Downhill

Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus brought out plenty of long-simmering tensions in Downhill and this was one dark-comedy that kept its audiences on their toes the entire time. Examining the nature of loyalty, cowardice and a clash of opposites, Downhill kept you guessing from the start and made for a very intelligent piece of cinema. Director’s Nat Faxon and Jim Rash teased out the long-held resentments between Ferrell’s Pete and Louis-Dreyfus’s Billie, and all throughout the film’s proceeding events you are constantly wondering whether or not their marriage is actually going to survive their so-called ‘dream holiday’. Downhill was something completely different and proved to be a very intellectually stimulating watch for audiences,

8. Words On Bathroom Walls

While you might think you understand and know the teen genre, you really needed to think again with the likes of Words On Bathroom Walls. Showcasing incredible sincerity with its subject matter and mind-bending creativity with its production, Words On Bathroom Walls was a piece of cinema that tugged at your heartstrings. The main character Adam Petrazelli is a complicated young man, made even more so by his underlying schizophrenia that he is battling with on a daily basis. Add to this teenage angst, young love and the hardships of not quite being normal and you have a recipe for an incredibly compelling piece of cinema that pulled audiences inwards towards its narrative.

7. Onward

It’s been a strong year for Disney- Pixar and director Dan Scanlon’s fantastical fantasy tale of brotherly adventure in Onward was a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Scanlen and his team turned the fantasy genre on its head with this one and there was a great inventiveness and creativity presented through this epic, heavy-metal, fantasy road trip. Actors Christ Pratt and Tom Holland made a perfect combination as the delightful Lightfoot brothers, and Onward told a story of rediscovering the magic and what it means to ultimately find your father. The geniuses at Disney-Pixar made 2020 that little bit brighter with Onward and this was a delightful film on every single level.

6. Nomadland

Two-time Academy Award winner Frances McDormand bore her soul with an introspective performance that was utterly beautiful to watch in Nomadland. Directed by rising talent Chloé Zhao, Nomadland was a powerful film of second lives, the open road and being forced to rediscover yourself while travelling down a new path. Both its striking imagery and the magnificence of McDormand’s performance seared themselves into your very soul, and this film was truly unforgettable. Nomadland was a film filled with depth, discovery and humanity and is a piece of cinema that audiences should cherish, especially after the events of this year.

5. The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie returned to his native England and wound up his sleeves to jump back inside the gangster genre with The Gentlemen, which made for one of 2020’s coolest cinema experiences. Led by Matthew McConaughey as the impressive and stylish drug kingpin Mickey Pearson, and featuring a stellar supporting cast including Charlie Hunnam, Henry Goulding, Michelle Dockery, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant, this was a film that went from A to Z in a flash and everywhere else in between and was certain to put a certain strut into the step of the audience. Ritchie radiated his own unique brand of ‘alpha male’ cool with The Gentlemen, and for audiences who were looking for a stand-up good time, well, they were sure to find it with this slick piece of gangster cinema.

4. Savage

Raw and unflinching in equal measures, Sam Kelly’s Savage hit with the force of a ball-peen hammer and took audiences inside the brutal world of New Zealand’s gang culture. Kelly didn’t hold anything back in exploring the scary reality that gripped so many and took audiences inside the traumatic world of the state boarding schools that shaped innocents into monsters and then sent them out into a world filled with nothing but seething pain and relentless rage. Savage was a shocking watch, but this was all a part of the extreme honesty that Kelly used to showcase the reality of this world and the handling of his subject matter certainly struck a nerve with audiences. Praise also needs to be lauded on the performance of Jake Ryan as Danny aka Damage, a brutal, Frankenstein’s monster of a man who knows only violence, but who is in reality is just searching for a way back home. Savage was a film that hit us hard in 2020 and it was without-a-doubt one of the year’s best.

3. Mank

Director David Fincher returned to cinema in a long-held obscene since 2014’s Gone Girl and the master filmmaker did not disappoint in presenting a marvellous project in Mank. Chronicling the production behind what many claim is the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane, Mank was a detailed exploration of one man’s creativity and ethics in a town which normally does away with such things. In terms of the narrative experience, everything came together in Mank. Production design, cinematography, location, costume design, hair and make-up and musical score all served to tell an incredible story and long-time film aficionados were sure to bask in the glow of this radiant portrait of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Mank was a deeply held passion project for Fincher and he delivered an incredible radiant piece of cinema that was well worth the watch.

2. Let Him Go

How far would you go to protect your family? That was the simple premise behind director Thomas Bezucha’s adaptation of Let Him Go, a revenge tale burning with the fury of Old Testament frontier justice and this was a thriller that stripped its audience back to the bone. Featuring career-best performances from the likes of Diane Lane and Kevin Costner, Let Him Go was a simple and to-the-point thriller which was delivered with maximum intensity and hit the audience like the force of a Winchester rifle. It’s burning Western-setting brought to life in the style of Cormac McCarthy, and Bezucha certainly knew how to get the most out of the impressive pairing of Lane and Costner. Let Him Go was that rare kind of film that harkened-back to the True Grit days of John Wayne and delivered audiences a searing drama of family loyalty and justice that was certain to take them to the edge.

1. The Way Back

But if there had to be one movie that we crown as our favourite film of 2020 it is without-a-doubt Gavin O’Conner’s portrait of sports and addiction in powerhouse drama The Way Back. Starring Ben Affleck as washed-up alcoholic, and former high school basketball star Jack Cunningham who finds a second chance gifted to him, The Way Back was a searing drama that gripped your soul and wrestled your emotions as you saw a flawed man trying for a second chance. Borrowing from Affleck’s own personal life and battle with addiction, The Way Back is an extremely heavy film that examines themes of loss and triumph, addiction and love, heartbreak and hope and O’Conner and Affleck truly gave their all to this project. This film moved me to an incredible degree and as an audience member, I could not look away from the events that were unfolding on screen. The Way Back was powerful in its presentation and it’s third act twist hit you like a stone wall and made the film that much more powerful because of it. Film’s like The Way Back don’t come along that often and when they do they need to be celebrated.

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Inspired by stories from New Zealand’s boys’ homes and the early history of our gangs, Savage follows Danny (Jake Ryan) across three decades of his life, taking a deeper look at a boy who grows into the brutal enforcer of a gang, to understand how he got there.

In Savage, director Sam Kelly takes audiences inside the hidden subculture of New Zealand’s gangland and produces a historically accurate portrait of how it evolved and those men who find their lives shaped by it. Audiences need to be forewarned that Kelly doesn’t pull any punches with either his film’s subject matter or narrative, and his eye for cultural relevance and authenticity makes the film that much more engaging. As a director, he holds nothing back about these characters, or the scars that have shaped them, and all of it leads to an incredibly compelling watch.

Beginning in 1965 and culminating in 1989, Kelly’s Savage charts the story of Danny (Jake Ryan) and his journey to becoming Damage, the brutal enforcer of an outlaw criminal gang, The Savages. Through this unique narrative structure that covers three distinct time periods of 1965, 1972 and 1989, Kelly is able to produce a thoroughly intimate and layered portrait of Danny’s life and the events that push him into claiming a patch. This film is both shaped by drama and history and Kelly doesn’t shy away from any of it as he gets to the very core of Danny’s trauma, along with the physical, mental and emotional violence that has shaped him, and these moments hit with the force of a ball pin hammer.

A huge contributing factor to Savage’s power over the audience and the reaction that it creates in them stems from the level of authenticity that Kelly brings to his subject matter. Cultural advisor Wayne Hapi (The Dark Horse) was an integral collaborator to Kelly and together these two, with their large and passionate team, got everything right. Everything just fits together in Savage. Key to this was the film’s casting which drew from the local community and added that quintessential realness that Kelly wanted to capture on-screen. Three amazing performances that came out of this included young stars Olly Presling and James Matamua who portray Damage at ages 10 and 16, along with Alex Raivaru who portrays the film’s chief antagonist Tug, who is gunning for Moses’s president patch and is willing to run through Damage to get it. This focus on local casting and dedication to the real made all the difference for Savage and it shows up on the screen.

A team of behind-the-scenes talent also made a big impact on the final product of Savage. From the film’s location setting and production design of Chris Elliot to the rugged and intimidating wardrobe of Bob Buck to the imposing and incredibly realistic hair and make-up of Stefan Knight. All of this on-screen detail comes together perfectly to capture this unseen world.

Capturing the events of Savage is cinematographer James L. Brown and he brings a unique earthy palette of browns, greens, greys and blacks to the surface of this film that helps to raise its edge and the ferocity of the picture. Also to be factored into Savage’s impressive tone is the sound design of Nick Buckton which firmly places you in this loud world of unhinged aggression, while composer Arli Liberman’s haunting, yet melodious soundtrack is a touching piece of work that helps to take audiences deeper into Danny/Damage’s psyche and the fractured emotions that he feels.

Leading Savage from the front is Australian actor Jake Ryan, and he brings tremendous gravitas to the role of Danny aka Damage. As the Sgt. At Arms, Damage is the gang’s resident enforcer and is feared and loathed by all those around him. He’s a man who has a talent for violence, but who is now beginning to falter due to internal conflict, alongside his scarred emotional state. While Ryan is an absolute beast in the role and cuts an intimidating figure as the patched gang leader his real strength is the emotional complexity that he gives to Damage and his ability to draw out this man’s own internal demons and conflicted headspace.

While it’s easy to see Damage as a simple monster. A literal walking Frankenstein’s Monster who has been let off his chain to cause chaos, Ryan makes him a completely 360 person who is not devoid of emotion or feelings and longs for the chance to finally go home. Ryan’s performance will cut audiences deep to the bone with its layered detail and he presents a very grey character who is neither good nor bad but exists in the middle. Power, presence and bravery permeate in Ryan’s performance as Damage, and it’s clear that as a performer he has incredible mana that bears an important influence over his choices as an actor in the role of Damage, and this character and Ryan’s performance, is certain to remain with the audience.

Providing backup to Ryan’s Damage is noted New Zealand performer John Tui as gang president Moses. Tui’s performance is unique here and channels the conflicted nature of this sub-culture and the brotherhood that exists within it. Having known Danny since he was young, Moses is his literal blood brother and the two of them have created their own empire together where they can be kings. But the times are changing and it soon becomes apparent that what they built won’t last forever. Tui’s performance is far less stern than Ryan’s and he’s very much the life and soul of the party as Moses, albeit still being able to resort to extreme violence when necessary. With Moses what we are seeing is very much the idea of the King in his twilight and this places him at odds with his sworn blood brother Damage. Tui has a great back and forth with Ryan and each actor feeds off the others performance and leads to an interesting examination of Kiwi masculinity and its place within this environment.

Thematically Savage plays with and examines some big ideas and these are sure to hit audiences hard. Issues of family, loyalty, identity and past trauma come into play here and Kelly and his stars don’t hold back in the expression of them. The world that Savage is set in is an uncomfortable one and Kelly doesn’t sugar coat any of it, and this only hastens the effect of the film on the audience. Through it audiences can learn not to judge a book by its cover, and that sometimes the masks that certain individuals wear are actually hiding far more personal issues. Savage is a rallying cry to listen, learn and heal and by its closing credits, audiences will have seen this brutal yet broken man having undergone a serious journey that changes him for good, and who for the first time in his life might finally find some sense of peace within his life.

Savage is an utterly triumphant piece of cinema that hits audiences deep with its layered narrative and complex character. It’s a raw piece of cinema that doesn’t let up for a moment, and its heartfelt character study of one man’s journey home is sure to resonate with all New Zealander’s in the most poignant way possible. It absolutely is required viewing.

Image: MadMan Films

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