2020 Year in Review (Part 4)

Best Shirt

Froot Loop shirt in Atlantics


Best Mutton Chops


Burt Lancaster, The Leopard




Best Hat


I loved those Teutonic Knights helmets (the one with the outstretched hand or the one with the chicken foot) in Alexander Nevsky, but Gregg Turkington’s hat in Mister America is the winner here. I’m sorry if you don’t understand why. 




Best Jewelry


Furby bling in Uncut Gems



Best Hair


Bernadette Peters’ beehive in The Longest Yard




Best Dress


A tie! The killer dresses in In Fabric or any number of dresses in Donkey Skin are all great. 


Best Furniture


Giant white cat throne--also Donkey Skin




Best Mustache


W.C. Fields’ fake mustache he insisted wearing in his shorts (“perversely insisted” according to Wikipedia) because he knew his audiences didn’t like it




The Wiseau


This award is for the best-worst example of a person who thinks he or she can do it all--write, direct, act, and sometimes even make music. The nominees: 


Neil Breen, Pass Thru


Noel Marshall, Roar 


Julie Kimmel, A Karate Christmas Miracle


The winner: An upset! Maybe it’s because Breen has won this award too many times or something, but I’m giving this one to Noel Marshall because Roar is a pretty special work of art. 




Favorite Cameo of the Year


Jake “The Snake” Roberts, The Peanut Butter Falcon


I thought he was dead. 


Number of Frederick Wiseman Documentaries I Watched This Year


Pretty sure it was seven! Maybe eight!


The Zap Rowsdower Achievement in Bad Action Heroism Award


Ron Slinker, Andy in Mr. No Legs


It was Ron Slinker’s only role. 


The Lew Zealand (Best Movie Puppet)


The randy puppet in Coming Home at the hospital. He really really liked Jane Fonda. 


Best Scene Featuring a Mask That I Totally Forgot to Mention Earlier!


The use of a Richard Nixon mask in The Ice Storm. Thanks for reminding me, Josh!



Favorite Minor Character of the Year


That dude with a flower in his mouth in French Cancan certainly was up to something. I wanted a spin-off for his character. 


The “sundial man” in The Man Who Sleeps


John Fielder plays the human equivalent of Piglet (well, other than my friend Josh) in Sharky’s Machine


The winner is a rich lady in Husbands who Peter Falk flirts with. With this ever-changing face, she was just so interesting. 



Best One and Done Performance


The previously-mentioned Noel Marshall directed and starred in Roar and then did nothing else. And again, that was truly special. 


Fernando Ramos da Silva’s story is a little sadder. He was the titular character in Pixote and didn’t do anything after that because he was shot by police before his 20th birthday. 


Ted Vollrath played Mr. No Legs in Mr. No Legs and then couldn’t find any studios looking for actors to play more legless characters. 


Vladimir Garin, the older brother in The Return, sadly drowned at the age of 16. This year-in-review has suddenly gotten really depressing. 


Ike Sanders, thus far, has directed Final Flesh and nothing else. 


Barbara Loden acted in a few things, including Wanda, the only full-length feature she directed. 


And Bill Sherwood wrote and directed Parting Glances, his only feature, before he died from AIDS. 


I’m too depressed about all of this to pick a winner in this category. 


Best Actor


Bernard Pruvost, Li’l Quinquin

Dirk Bogarde, The Servant

Claude Laydu, Diary of a Country Priest

Shooby LeBoof, Honey Boy

Volker Spengler, A Year of 13 Moons

Giancarlo Giannini, Seven Beauties


I liked all of those. The winner, however, is Honey Davis for She’s Allergic to Cats




Best Actress


Zhao Tao, Ash Is Purest White

Jeong-Hie Yun, Poetry

Chunibala Devi, the aunt in Pather Panchali (she’s so hot!) 

Isabelle Adjani, The Story of Adele H. 

Krisha Fairchild, Krisha


The winner is Ana Torrent from Cria Cuervos. She was 7 years old when she did Spirit of the Beehive, and this came out a few years later. These performances are the opposites of Tooties. 




The Torgo Award (The Best-Worst Performance by an Actor) 


Look! It’s Neil Breen again. Pass Thru was his movie. 


Two one-and-dones deserve a mention--Ted Vollrath and Noel Marshall from Mr. No Legs and Roar respectively. 


And Jeff Kirkendall from Sharkenstein is the final nominee. 


This one goes to Neil Breen. “Isn’t that corrupt?” Maybe, it is, Neil. But nobody knows what either of us is even talking about. 




The Livingstone (The Best-Worst Performance by an Actress) 


Kathy Corpus, Pass Thru


Donna T. Rogers, the smuggler lady who sounds like Mr. T in Pass Thru


Edith Massey, Polyester


Rebel Wilson, Cats


Maybe it’s a bit of recency bias here, but I’m giving the Livingstone to Anne Barschall for her confusing work in A Karate Christmas Miracle. 




The Ten Least-Enjoyable Movies I Saw in 2020


Cats

Ready or Not

It: Chapter Two

Two Tons of Turquoise for Taos Tonight

Hillbilly Elegy

The Bling Ring

Maps to the Stars

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus

The Old Guard

Where’d You Go, Bernadette


Bob Dylan’s Renaldo and Clara almost made this list, by the way. 


The Manos Award (Best-Worst Movie of the Year) 


Bad Movie Club didn’t meet a lot this year, surprising since we all had more time at home in 2020. There were still some enjoyable bad movies though, including these nominees for the Manos: 


Pass Thru

Sharkenstein

A Karate Christmas Miracle

The Christmas Tree

Future Fear

Mr. No Legs

Neon Maniacs

A Score to Settle

Assassin 33 A.D.

The Creation of the Humanoids


The winner? Probably no surprise--Breen takes it again! 



Best Twenty New-to-Me Movies I Saw in 2020 in Random Order


1917

The Servant

La Notte

Aparajito

The Naked Island

Diary of a Country Priest

Il Sorpasso

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

The Man Who Sleeps

Le Million

The Burmese Harp

Loves of a blonde

Nazarin

Welfare

Quai des Orfevres

The Travelling Players

Topsy Turvy

All About My Mother

L’Eclisse

Kanal


Movies I Saw Twice This Year


Uncut Gems (in one 24-hour period actually)

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

I’m Thinking of Ending Things


Favorite TV Shows That I Watched This Year


The Mandalorian

Schitt’s Creek

Neon Genesis Evangelion


1 comment:

joshwise said...

Whew... I can sleep now.