Welcome to the 2020 Shaynies, my personal version of the Oscars. As with everything else over the past 18 months or so, this year’s edition of the Shaynies are going to be a little different. Normally I break the Shaynies into specific categories, so instead of trying to narrow down everything I saw the previous twelve months into a single favourite, I talk about my favourite comic book movie, favourite action movie, favourite comedy and so on and so fourth.
But instead of the previous format, I decided to talk about the things that brought a smile to my face during a year destined to go down in history as the suckiest twelve months in modern history (yes, I realize how much of a first world thing that is to say). That includes the few movies I saw in theatres and the ones that went straight to streaming, streaming TV shows and even traditional broadcast television.
As usual I have tried to minimize spoilers but some of this stuff is over a year old. That’s my way of saying that if an odd spoiler made it in here or there, well that’s kind of on you. But either way, sit back and enjoy the things that brought the biggest smile to my face during a trying and troubling year. If you haven’t checked out some or all of these yet, you’re missing out. Feel free to chime in with your own favourites in the comments section. I’ll be peeking.
The Gentlemen: How this movie didn’t garner as much love as other Ritchie hits like Snatch and Sherlock Holmes is one of 2020’s biggest mysteries. Not only was the cast brilliant, but so was the chemistry between them (particularly Charlie Hunnam’s suave gangster and Hugh Grant’s shady private investigator). Even better, you could tell the entire cast was having the time of their lives. Perhaps the most unforgettable part of The Gentleman was Colin Farrell’s performance as The Coach. Farrell stole every scene he was in (and with this cast, that’s saying something) and his performance should have silenced every critic. The dialogue was as stylish as it was crude and hilarious. Few film makers can make a movie about the English underworld as entertaining and compelling for North American audiences as Ritchie can. And Richie was at the top of his powers with The Gentlemen.
Sonic The Hedgehog: Two things made Sonic a blast. The first was the commitment to detail by the character designers and FX team (who went back to the drawing board after the first images of the movie’s titular hedgehog inspired a horrified backlash from fans). The second was Jim Carrey. Paramount earned serious fan credibility by responding to everyone’s contempt for the first nightmarish Sonic design and coming up with something closer to the original. And it was obvious Carrey was out to have as much fun as he could playing the evil Dr. Robotnik and the rest of us were just along for the ride. I enjoyed Sonic so much that I thought it should spawn a Sega Cinematic Universe. While that isn’t going to happen, it has launched a new animated series that should be racing to Netflix soon. Pandemic be damned, these are good days to be a Nerd.
Onward: Imagine if The Simpsons and Dungeons and Dragons had a baby. Then throw in a touch of signature Pixar pathos. That’s Onward. Pixar’s first of two offerings last year, Onward was just pure, imaginative fun that still managed to tug at a heart string or two. It felt like a return to the company’s creative roots. That isn’t a complaint about Pixar’s fare the last few years, but Onward seemed to be wrapped in an innocent, fresh charm. Perhaps because after doing sequels for a few years, Onward offered something new and different. As someone who cut their teeth on D7D and Matt Groening growing up, Onward playfully spoke to me on levels I forgot I had. It also happened to be the last movie I saw before COVID-19 darkened theatres across the globe. And speaking of Pixar . . .
Soul: While it’s obviously this point that I love everything that comes out of Pixar, I had some doubts going into Soul. Pixar has been known to grapple with some serious stuff in the past (death by furnace, death in the family, forced marriage, pre-adolescent emotional stress, deadly NASCAR crashes, the apocalypse), but dealing with the afterlife felt a little ambitious, even for Disney’s animated juggernaut. But Soul quickly put my fears at ease. It was equally amusing and thought provoking with enough signature sight gags thrown in to provide the right amount of laughs. As I mentioned with Onward, it was great seeing Pixar doing original and having a double dose of original Pixar goodness was icing on the cake in an otherwise rotten year. Soul’s reserved yet humour laced gravitas was a perfect compliment to Onward’s colourful and bold imagination.
The Queen’s Gambit: I decided to check out this Netflix show because of the serious hype it was getting. While I was initially wondering what all that said hype was about, I found myself captivated about half way through. While The Queen’s Gambit revolved around a fictional chess champion, it was actually an interesting and occasionally bleak look at the peculiar nature of singular brilliance. A look at how lonely being a prodigy can be and how that brilliance can occasionally flirt with addiction and neurosis. Anya Taylor-Joy’s quiet portrayal of the rising young grandmaster was pitch perfect in its understatement. Watching others get trapped in Beth’s orbit only to crash and burn before rallying to her side was sad at times and fascinating at others. The Queen’s Gambit was better than I than I initially gave it credit for and was an enjoyable watch.
Extraction: There was a reason why Tyler Rake vs. John Wick was trending on Twitter the weekend Netflix dropped this action flick. While Extraction’s plot was pretty standard fare (an emotionally damaged soldier of fortune has to fight his way out of hostile territory after the kid he was hired to protect reminds him of his humanity), the action was top notch. Particularly the hand-to-hand combat scenes (it was obvious the actors spent weeks training to pull a lot of their scenes off). Extraction went the extra light year with it’s complicated stunts and extensive action work, making impossible to achieve shots look seamless and natural. If the fight choreographers and stunt workers on Extraction don’t get some kind of awards love then the movie gods just aren’t paying attention.
Disenchanted: We all needed a hell of a lot of laughs last year and Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening’s fairy tale about a hard drinking, potty-mouthed princess and her friends (an insufferably cheerful, lovestruck elf and a demon trying to earns it’s wings by cursing her) gave me plenty. This is a bit of a cheat since the first two seasons came out before 2020, but I binged both the first week I was trapped at home. Even though season three (which dropped mid-January) didn’t offer quite the same amount of laughs, it was still plenty of fun. And let’s be honest, we all still needed as much of that was we could get last year.
Westworld Season 3: I’ve been a fan of HBO’s brilliant sci-fi magnum opus since it debuted a few years ago. Not only was Westworld a brilliant story of how the artificial intelligences used by rich tourists to fulfill their violent sex fantasies achieved self awareness, but it was also an unflinching commentary on humanity’s addiction to self-destructive behaviour and reckless consumerism (one of the show’s corporate villains made regular trips to the Westworld park to indulge in violent rape fantasies so he could be an upstanding businessman, father and philanthropist in the real world). But I was equally impressed with how the show carried that story forward after Dolores (who was the first A.I. to “awaken” and then lead the inevitable robot uprising) escaped the island, her vengeful sights set firmly on the real world. But season three revealed that the same forces that shackled the robots for their greedy desires also shackled the majority of humanity to preserve the the status quo. It also seemed that Dolores’ quest for vengeance was as nuanced as it was violently ruthless. And I ate it all up. I can’t wait for season four, as long as it brings back Evan Rachel Wood as the Machiavellian and misunderstood Dolores. If for no other reason than to see what the robot messiah sets her sights on next.
The Mandalorian: I’m gonna go ahead and lump both seasons into this category because I didn’t actually get a chance to watch season one until last spring’s lockdown (yes, I know I just forfeited a bunch of my Nerd cred). Not only did I instantly fall with love with Baby Yoda (I’m calling him that until the grave), but I fell in love with the entire show. Few things excited my burgeoning imagination growing up as much as Star Wars and I desperately longed for more following Return of the Jedi. I was both disappointed and devastated by the prequels. And while I thought the Disney trilogy was OK, it still left me wanting. The Mandalorian scratched my Star Wars itch hard while exploring Star Wars mythology more thoroughly than any movie could. And it looks like The Mandalorian is just the first step in a shared Star Wars streaming universe that will dominate DisneyPlus for years to come. Hell, Mando, Baby Yoda and the rest may even set the course future Star Wars movies take. How could something that checks off so many boxes while rekindling my childish wonder not make this list?
Stargirl: Like I wrote in last Christmas’ Nerd Gift Guide, watching Stargirl was like reading those early comic books in front of the corner store spinner rack when you were a kid. Despite the fact that there was plenty of fighting and more than a little death, it was full of cheesy charm. And Stargirl leaned into that charm big. But at the end of the day, getting a warm fuzzy feeling despite all the camp and bad dialogue and dubious acting was worth an hour of my week. Stargirl was my 2020 comfort food and security blanket all rolled into one (don’t judge). Watching it made feel like an eleven year old up past my bed time. Will I watch Stargirl whenever it returns, likely post-pandemic? Probably not, but it was cozy fun while it lasted.
The New Mutants: The New Mutants was NOT a good movie. It was an underwhelming farewell to the X franchise from FOX (who produced it before the studio was bought by Disney) and it would have been slaughtered at the box office had it been released during a normal year. Hell, it most likely would have made the Shamies (my version of the Raspberries) in normal year. But as everyone knows, 2020 was anything but normal. The truth is I was so starved for something-anything-new, I ignored its many warts (though definite kudos to Anya Taylor-Joy; her fearless portrayal of the cantankerous, pain in the ass Magik was a bright spot). New Mutants was mindless, harmless super hero fluff masquerading as a horror movie that offered a little fresh air to a stale and sour year. It was my 2020 guilty pleasure.
The Haunting of Bly Manor: I was going to going to give up on this show early, agreeing with criticisms that it was paced too slowly and the eventual payoff couldn’t possibly justify my patience. The quality of the acting was suspicious at times and there was at least one glaring plot hole half way through. It was just appealing enough to stick with and I eventually found myself needing to know how it would all end. After all was said and done I’m glad I stuck it out. Unlike it’s predecessor The Haunting of Hill House, I actually found myself invested a little in the characters. Which is why the ending was a satisfying tearjerker that wrapped this tale up and left me with a troubled, tragic aftertaste. Bly Manor wasn’t scary (is anything anymore?), but it successfully pulled off what genuine horror is supposed to do. It made me care about the characters and regret what happened to some of them before the rest lived happily ever after. That made it worth watching.
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