Instead of just discussing my favorite movies of the year, I figured it would be fun to discuss some of my favorite movie moments of 2020. It was a weird year in movies due to the pandemic. A lot of movies were pushed to 2021 and most movie theaters were closed for the vast majority of the year. The total shift to streaming services seems inevitable. But despite all that, there were still some special moments in movies this year.
I hope this is obvious, but there are spoilers below for the associated movies. I will do my best to not entirely ruin the experience in case you want to read and still watch the movie (and some of these moments are really un-spoilerable), but be warned!
Spoilers Below!!
Tenet Opening Sequence
Tenet is a movie with significant flaws. The dialogue is often times hard to hear, there isn’t a whole lot in the way of character development, and you may need an advance degree in physics in order to understand it. But as is the case with most Christopher Nolan movies, you’ll have a better time if you don’t try to understand it, but feel it. And this first scene definitely makes you feel it. I was lucky enough to see this movie in theaters (twice, actually) and as usual, this man knows how to put together an opening action set piece. Remember the opening heist scenes in the Dark Knight or Dark Knight Rises? Or the opening heist in Inception? Well this scene is all of those scenes combined and on steroids. Your heart is pumping from the second the haunting score from Ludwig Göransson hits (shouts to Childish Gambino) and you see the terrorists running into the symphony. The next 10 minutes are an unapologetic cardiac arrest as we watch The Protagonist and his unnamed force of nebulous good guys save the day. I can still feel my heart racing. Nobody does an action set piece like Nolan.
Lovers Rock Silly Games
Lovers Rock is a movie unlike any I have ever seen. From acclaimed director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Widows, Shame), we follow a group of West Indian partygoers in 1970’s London as they celebrate life, music, love, and friendship. This isn’t a Superbad or Booksmart kinda party movie. This is a “let me sit you in the vibe of this party for an hour” kinda movie. There is no driving plot device. There isn’t any real dramatic tension. There are only one or two pieces of conflict in the entire movie. But it does a tremendous thing that many movies strive for but few achieve: you are fully transported to the time and place where the movie is set. You are AT the party. There are a million things that can be said about the beauty of how the film was made, like the fluid camera movements that pull you through the party, but I want to focus on the Silly Games sequence. If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what I am talking about. We are introduced to Janet Kay’s Silly Games early in the movie, but just for a snippet. We hear the matrons of the party sing to it as they are prepping the food for the night. But then, in the middle of the party, for one beautiful moment, everyone comes together in harmony. As the DJ (Mercury Sound!!!) starts with the soft but upbeat melody, we see the crowd start to seemingly sway in motion. Then “I’ve been watching you, for so long, it’s a shame….” drops and it’s game over. The crowd, one by one, starts to sing and we spend the next 10 or so minutes sitting firmly in a beautiful moment as they slowly build to a crescendo. I still get chills when I listen to the song. There aren’t any words that give this moment justice. It is something you need to experience yourself. Please do so.
Borat Takes His Daughter Dancing
How do these people not know who Borat is at this point!? I realize in this specific scene he is in a different costume, but for fucks sake people. Anyway, the comedic genius of Sacha Baron Cohen cannot be understated. He has the uncanny ability to bring out the absolute worst in people as they lay their racism, sexism, and xenophobia for all the world to see. These people willingly say some of the most vile and awful things imaginable, on camera, to a total stranger. Admittedly, that was much tougher in 2006 when we didn’t have a political climate that seemed to thrive on this villainy in human nature. But the achievement is still incredible. And as many great moments as there are in this movie (here’s looking at you Rudy), the ballroom dance sequence with his daughter (played masterfully by Maria Bakalova) will always be lodged in my memory. Somehow, with a straight face, Sacha and Maria were able to do a coordinated dance sequence in front of a room full of strangers with a gallon of period blood exploding down Maria’s legs and dress. Keep in mind, they only had one shot at this. They can’t screw up the dance, or laugh, or let anyone in on the secret. They have to do this all in one take and straight laced. My jaw is still on the floor and my cheeks still hurt from laughing so much. The audacity! The cajones! Here is to Borat 3 in 2034 when King Baron Trump and his aunt-wife-Queen Ivanka are hoodwinked into his next adventure.
Shithouse Calls His Mom
Listen, I’m a mommas boy (shout out to Mama Parnham who is going to read this and tell me she loves me). I don’t try to pretend otherwise. Why wouldn’t you want to unconditionally love your mom and have her as your best friend? Anyway, Shithouse is one of my favorite movies of the year and one you probably haven’t heard much about. It was written by, directed by, and stars Cooper Raiff, a guy who can barely legally drink, and follows him in his semi-autobiographical freshman year as he is having trouble adjusting to being away from his family and on his own in college. He hates his roommate, he isn’t doing well with his grades, and his only friend is the man who serves him food in the cafeteria. The movie follows him on one of those once in a lifetime nights as he connects with his RA, played perfectly by Dylan Gelula, and the fallout thereof. Cooper gets into the habit of calling his mom multiple times a week to check in and often finds himself lying about how well he is adjusting. Again, who wants to disappoint their mom or make them feel bad!? But about two thirds of the way into the movie, he calls his mom and finally decides to tell her the truth. That he is struggling, that he misses home desperately, and that he has been lying the whole time about how well he has adjusted. He tells her that it is probably for the best that he stops calling her all the time and that he needs to find his own way in school without having her as a crutch. He breaks down crying in one of the most emotionally raw scenes of the year. You see him growing up and maturing as he is making the call. If you have the maturity to understand that you need to make a difficult and painful choice in order to move forward with your life, you are well on your way to being the independent person you are striving to be. Also, fun fact, he originally made this as a short film and tweeted the Duplass Brothers, daring them to watch it. They did and in turn asked him to turn it into a feature film. Wild.
Da 5 Bloods Heel Turn
Delroy Lindo is an absolute tour-de-force and gives the best performance of the year in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” He plays Paul, a Vietnam war veteran suffering from severe PTSD who heads back to Vietnam decades later under the pretense of finding his old squad leaders body, while also in the search for buried gold he and his friends left there years earlier. It’s pretty remarkable that he is very clearly the standout in this movie against both Jonathan Majors and Chadwick Boseman, two of my favorite actors. But there is no denying the visceral, schizophrenic, manic, and oppressive performance that Lindo pulls off here. Maybe not my favorite scene, but the most memorable one, is near the end of the movie after Paul has abandoned his friends, his son, and his only hope at survival to venture through the jungle by himself. He is a man in control of his own fate. After telling his friends that he son is “no longer my problem,” he walks through his own valley in the shadow of death while reciting Psalm 23. Marvin Gaye’s vocals for “What’s Going On” play as Paul meanders through the jungle. Eventually, he turns to the camera and as if looking into a mirror, justifies his actions to himself. “I will choose when and how I die. Ya dig? You couldn’t kill me then, three tours. You sure in the fuck can’t kill me now.” He holds up a raised fist. And we understand this is a man, while often not in control of his own mind, he sure as hell is in control of his own destiny.
parnhampicks.com 
I will watch Borat and Da 6
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