PROFESSOR'S PICKS: 5 Films I Missed in 2020

Given the peculiar nature of this year’s run of movies, neither a traditional “Best Films of 2020” nor a traditional “Most Anticipated Films of 2021” feel appropriate. Instead, I’m going to do something in between: A spotlight of movies that I was looking forward to in 2020 that have now been bumped into a 2021 release date. There are other films set to release in 2021 that I have on my radar (most of them simply premiering later in 2021 than originally planed), but here are five films that I missed this year in 2020.

This installment of Professor’s Picks is partway between a memorial and a forecast. Weep with me, celebrate with me, whichever jives with your inner truth. Anyways . . . five movies long eager to graduate from my list of anticipated movies.

1. A Quiet Place: Part II

~~March 20, 2020~~ ~~April 23, 2021~~ ~~September 17, 2021~~ May 28, 2021

Admittedly, I am kind of cheating with this one. The original March release date actually passed with little ceremony for me as I wasn’t yet on the Quiet Place train. I wouldn’t even see the original 2018 film until a few months into quarantine season. (What can I say? Horror films are a harder sell for me.) Eventually the universe corrected itself, and I found myself dying to see what happens next for the Abbot family.

This sequel takes place shortly after the events of the first film when the Abbot family must abandon the home that has kept them safe and brave the outside world. Krasinski, who returns to direct the sequel, has shared that where the first film was more a study of family, this sequel is interested in community and how far you will go to help your neighbor.

There’s a lot to be said about how A Quiet Place innovates many conventions and ideologies of the horror genre (hm, someone should write an essay about that . . .) and this follow-up has every opportunity to continue in that tradition.

2. In the Heights

~~June 26, 2020~~ June 11, 2021

My reverence for the musical genre is well-documented on this blog. It’s so rare that we see Hollywood spend their dollars on a musical (it’s even rarer to see one led by a minority cast), and just as often as not, the results range from passable to Cats.

I myself am familiar with the source musical mostly by reputation, having only listened to one song in fulness (I prefer to experience a soundtrack for the first time in its narrative context). But I understand In the Heights takes place in a New York district where opportunities are low but community is rich. This is a contrast to La La Land or most musicals where the setting is the red carpeted streets of LA. When the music doesn't come from the sparkle of Hollywood tinsel, it can only come from the story itself. From what we've seen so far, this offering seems to understand that. The trailer displayed an array of snapshots of a vibrant, kinetic, lyrical world where, indeed, the streets themselves are made of music. (Why aren't there more dance numbers in swimming pools?) Maybe Hollywood won’t drop the golden egg this time.

3. The Tomorrow War

~~December 25, 2020~~ July 23, 2021

The Tomorrow War was originally going to be Paramount gifting us a summer movie for Christmas, now it gets to be just a straight summer movie.

Originally titled "Ghost Draft," this blockbuster imagines a future war between mankind and an alien threat. So overwhelming is the invasion that the future enlists the help of the past, drawing in our main character (Chris Pratt, also a producer on this film) from our time to fight in this war. The cast is rounded out by a vast ensemble, enlisting Yvonne Strahovski, JK Simmons, Seychelle Gabriel, Keith Powers, and Mary Lynn Rajskub, among others.

As someone who wants the signature films of the 2020s to amount to more than just remakes and spin-offs of films of the 1990s, I try to take special interest whenever studios gamble on a non-franchise project. The medium’s creative-lifeblood obviously hinges on more than the returns of any single film, but in a post-coronavirus landscape where major studios like Warner Bros and Disney are actively shifting their model to favor streaming over theaters, the success of an original property like The Tomorrow War should be of special interest to all of us. Can Chris Pratt save the future of humanity? And theaters? We’ll have to wait until this summer to find out.

(EDIT: Okay, maybe I spoke too soon.)

4. BIOS

~~October 2, 2020~~ ~~April 16, 2021~~ August 13, 2021

First announced in October 2017, the film follows “a robot that lives on a post-apocalyptic earth. Built to protect the life of his dying creator’s beloved dog, it learns about love, friendship, and the meaning of human life.” Tom Hanks’ casting as the robot’s inventor was announced alongside the synopsis. The cast is rounded out by Caleb Landry-Jones as the robot with Skeet Ullrich, Samira Wiley, and others.

While few plot details have been revealed, the logline proves tantalizing. The desolation of a post-apocalyptic setting seems a stark contrast to the pathos inherent in a story about a robot learning to care for another living thing. I imagine the final product as something between Children of Men and The Art of Racing in the Rain. There are all sorts of directions the filmmakers could go with that, and I’m eager to see any of them.

5. Raya and the Last Dragon

~~November 25, 2020~~ March 5, 2021

I set my movie calendar by Disney and Pixar titles the way most audiences do with Marvel or Star Wars films, but in between the company’s conquest over the last few years their animated offerings have gotten lost in the shuffle. Walt Disney Animation Studios hasn’t released a non-franchise film since Moana back in 2016. (Imagine a four-year wait between Frozen and Big Hero 6.) Raya and the Last Dragon brings an end to that drought.

Drawing inspiration from southeast-Asian cultures, Raya and the Last Dragon tells the story of a young warrior (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) on a quest to find Sisu, the last dragon (voiced by Awkwafina), who holds the key to restoring peace to her divided kingdom.

Raya won’t be the studio’s next musical (audiences will have to wait until Disney’s November offering, Encanto, for that) but the genre does catch my interest. The movie has been billed as a kung-fu adventure film a la House of Flying Daggers set against a fantastical backdrop that animation so effortlessly provides. Disney’s marketing campaign has yet to start, but so far all signs point to Raya being Disney’s next animated champion.

One of the hardest things about 2020 for me has been the waiting. The waiting, the waiting, the waiting. We're not quite out of the woods yet, but we may only have to wait a little longer. Whatever we've missed out on these last several months, we can take some consolation that there are good times still to be had. Raise a glass to 2021.

--The Professor

Honorable Mentions: Jungle Cruise, Black Widow, West Side Story, The Batman, Death on the Nile, The Woman in the Window, Sound of Freedom

Comments

Elemental: Savoring Pixar's Fading Light

I’ve only been doing this writing thing for a short while. But in that space, I have been surprised at many of the developments I’ve gotten to witness unfolding in the popular film landscape. It was only five years ago, for example, that superhero movies were still thought to be unstoppable. Here in 2025, though, we know better. But the wheels coming off the Marvel machine accompanied a shift in their whole method of production and distribution, and it didn’t take long for the natural consequences to catch up with them as verifiable issues started appearing in their films. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) No. The development that has most surprised me has been critics and their slow-motion break-up with Pixar. The only way I know how to describe what I’ve seen over the last five years … imagine that your roommate has been stuck for a long time dating a girl who was obviously bad for him, and after he finally breaks up with her he gets back into the dating ring. All the girls he takes out ...

REVIEW: ZOOTOPIA 2

Any follow-up to the 2016 masterpiece, Zootopia , is going to be disadvantaged. Cinema was still a year ahead of Jordan Peele's "Get Out" when Disney released one of the most articulate explanations of race, allyship, and accountability ever put to film. Now that everyone knows how good, even "timely," a Disney pic can be, how do you surprise everyone a second time? The insights in this sequel won't spur any new chapters in your sociology 101 textbook. Though honestly, neither was the deflection of white saviourship that novel back in 2016. We more or less knew how racial profiling and biases played out in the landscape. What surprised many of us (and validated the rest of us) was the idea that these ideas could be articulated so eloquently in a children's film. It seems that the studio tried the same thing here with Zootopia 2 that it did with Frozen II six years ago. I think a lot of people wanted that m...

REVIEW: Mufasa - The Lion King

To get to the point, Disney's new origin story for The Lion King 's Mufasa fails at the ultimate directive of all prequels. By the end of the adventure, you don't actually feel like you know these guys any better. Such has been the curse for nearly Disney's live-action spin-offs/remakes of the 2010s on. Disney supposes it's enough to learn more facts or anecdotes about your favorite characters, but the interview has always been more intricate than all that. There is no catharsis nor identification for the audience during Mufasa's culminating moment of uniting the animals of The Pridelands because the momentum pushing us here has been carried by cliche, not archetype. Director Barry Jenkins' not-so-secret weapon has always been his ability to derive pathos from lyrical imagery, and he does great things with the African landscape without stepping into literal fantasy. This is much more aesthetically interestin...

REVIEW: AVATAR - Fire and Ash

The "Avatar" chapters have generally renewed their interest to the masses based on which exciting new locale and each new culture whichever film opts to explore. Following that dance, "Fire and Ash" introduces yet another Na'Vi clan, this one hailing from the scorched plains under the shadow of an erupted volcano. But their biome is decidedly less spectacular than the lush jungles of the Omaticaya or the rich coral reefs where the Metkayina dive. Between the ashen grounds of the volcano clan and the metallic fortress of the humans, this is comfortably the most monochromatic of the three Avatar films. And yet, Avatar: Fire and Ash is no less gripping for it. And this is where the internet really starts to reckon with what us fans of the franchise have always kind of known: that the many screensavers offered by the Avatar world ... they have been nice . But these films would have never made the impact they have if the...

PROFESSOR'S PICKS: Five Lessons Hollywood Ought to Learn from the Success of WICKED

That which has teased studios since the freak success of La La Land and The Greatest Showman has finally come to pass: Hollywood has finally launched a successful musical. Or rather, they've launched two. The musical is sort of like the golden idol at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark . It's valuable beyond imagination--but only if you know just how to retrieve it. There have been specific periods where the musical has yielded tremendous rewards for Hollywood, but for the greater part of the lifespan of feature-filmmaking, studios have been punished for reaching beyond their means. Yet after ages of dormancy, t he years leading up to the Wicked movies were lined with musicals, more than we'd seen in the previous decade. A few of them were quite well crafted. Others were ... learning experiences. None really became what we'd call "mainstream." But Wicked and Wicked: For Good have both seen rare success. I'm publishing ...

Fine, I Will Review The Percy Jackson Show

The YA scene in the late 2000s and early 2010s was stuffed full of failed book-to-movie adaptations, desperate attempts to ride the Harry Potter train. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was not the first book to receive this treatment. Yet it somehow became the most infamous. We can speculate as to why it is that Percy Jackson never really exited the discourse the way properties like Eragon or Inkheart did. Perhaps it's because Rick Riordan continued to add to the lore with two follow-up sagas set in the same universe. (As of this writing, Riordan is preparing a whole additional Percy Jackson trilogy.) Perhaps it's because, while those other movie adaptations merely tried to replicate the Harry Potter effect , Percy Jackson admittedly borrowed generously from the Harry Potter story template. Whatever the reason, young millennials have never really been allowed to forget the crimes committed by FOX back in 2010 ...

REVIEW: Wake Up Dead Man

Last week when I reviewed WICKED: For Good , I mentioned that I couldn't help but analyze the film specifically from the lens of a lifelong fan of the Broadway phenomenon. I find myself in a similar position here examining the new "Knives Out" movie and its meditation on faith and religion. I can't help but view the film through my own experiences as a practicing believer. But first, some notes on the filmmaking itself. The third installment in the Knives Out saga sees Benoit Blanc investigating the murder of a tyrannical priest, Monsignor Wicks, presiding over a smalltown flock. The prime suspect is none other than the young, idealistic Father Jud, the new priest who found Wicks' approach to spirituality repulsive and completely counter to Christ's teachings. Thus, this mystery is a contest between two representations of Christianity, each desperate to define the function of religion in the mod...

An Earnest Defense of Passengers

Recall with me, if you will, the scene in Hollywood December 2016. We were less than a year away from #MeToo, and the internet was keenly aware of Hollywood’s suffocating influence on women on and off screen but not yet sure what to do about it. Enter Morten Tyldum’s film Passengers , a movie which, despite featuring the two hottest stars in Hollywood at the apex of their fame, was mangled by internet critics immediately after take-off. A key piece of Passengers ’ plot revolves around the main character, Jim Preston, a passenger onboard a spaceship, who prematurely awakens from a century-long hibernation and faces a lifetime of solitude adrift in outer space; rather than suffer through a life of loneliness, he eventually decides to deliberately awaken another passenger, Aurora Lane, condemning her to his same fate. So this is obviously a film with a moral dilemma at its center. Morten Tyldum, director of...

REVIEW: Soul

Pixar's latest film, Soul , dropped on Disney+ Christmas day, another regrettable casualty of the virus. This time around, we follow a hopeful musician bursting with enthusiasm. Music is an oddly appropriate metaphor for the film: both certainly touch the outer rim of mankind's emotional faculty, but good luck summarizing the experience to your friends. Joe Gardner is a music teacher at a public school whose enthusiasm for music is spilling out of the walls of his classroom. Opportunity strikes Joe the same day that misfortune does, and a fatal accident lands him in a celestial plane of existence known as "The Great Before," where souls are developed and finessed before being sent to earth to experience human existence. Joe is saddled with mentoring 22, a soul sapling who has settled in The Great Before for several hundred years and has no intention of ever giving mortality a chance. But in 22, Joe sees a chance to return back to earth and fulfill his purpose if he ca...

The Notebook Has No Excuses

The thing about film is … the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. Film tells us, even in a society obsessed with wealth and gain, “Remember, George, no man is a failure who has friends.” Film warns us that the most unnatural evil lies in wait at the Overlook Hotel and peeks out when all the guests leave for the winter–and that the heart of it resides in room 237–knowing we'll trip over ourselves wanting to open that door. Film is what makes us believe that the vessel for the deepest human emotion could be contained in a cartoon clownfish taking his unhatched cartoon son and holding him in his cartoon fin and telling him he will never let anything happen to him. Nights of Cabiria (1957) Even when it tries to plant its feet aggressively in realism, film winds up being an inherently emotional realm. We feel safer to view and express all manners of passions or desires here in the space where the rules of propriety just don’t matter anymore. So a fa...

Films and Feelings

Search This Blog