This year’s worst list hardly needs a preamble, as 2020 is almost universally considered one of the worst years anyone can remember.
The cinema industry took a hard, possibly terminal hit this year: film production halted and cinemas closed in the wake of the pandemic, and most big releases were either dumped on streaming services or postponed far into 2021 (the rescheduling of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune to October next year was particularly painful).
We lost some cinema greats this year, including legendary actors Max von Sydow, Ian Holm, Diana Rigg and Kirk Douglas, iconic composer Ennio Morricone and Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. Robert Pattinson tested positive for coronavirus, stalling production on Matt Reeves’ The Batman just three days after it resumed in September. Disney had the gall to charge a hefty fee for the live-action Mulan on top of their monthly streaming subscription.
And a new Borat movie came out: that says it all, right there.
Every year has its share of bad films, but this wretched year’s bad releases stand out either for their contemptible characters or repugnant morals.
Here are my picks for the ten worst films of 2020.
10. The Night Clerk. Features an excellent central performance from Ty Sheridan, but has toothless tension, thinly-written characters and a very stereotypical portrayal of autism.
9. Artemis Fowl. A contrived, inept fantasy thriller and an atrocious adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s source novel.
8. Fatal Affair. A well-acted but poorly-paced psychological thriller that takes far too long to get going, and thus fails to generate an ongoing sense of threat.
7. Dolittle. A tedious historical fantasy lacking in suspense but crammed with forced reference-based humour.
6. Hubie Halloween. This painful comedy is a prime example of cognitive dissonance: you cannot present an anti-bullying message while constantly abusing your main character and openly inviting audiences to laugh at him.
5. Midway. Crashes and burns after the enthralling first act, with a slack middle, hard-to-follow battle sequences and plot-points given heavy focus but little dramatic importance.
4. Coffee and Kareem. A buddy cop crime comedy with crude, grating (and even homophobic) humour and an irredeemably mean main character.
3. The Last Days of American Crime. A perfect encapsulation of 2020: drawn-out and miserable.
2. The Wrong Missy. An apocalyptically bad comedy with less than ten decent gags and a relentlessly annoying title character, this film also makes light of sexual assault, which is unacceptable.
1. 365 Days. A romantic thriller that is neither thrilling nor romantic, but repulsive: the film has wooden leads and slow, empty pacing, and the plot glamourises abduction, sexual abuse and emotional manipulation.
Next week we’ll be looking back at 2020’s best films.
Seth Lukas Hynes
