Opinion: Best of 2020

As 2020 is coming to a close, I would like to share my collection of favorite movies and shows that I have seen in 2020. I’ve selected movies and shows that have stuck with me and allowed me to see through different perspectives.

Movies:

  • Beautiful Boy
  • 7500

Beautiful Boy is based on the real story of a boy named Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet) who was a drug addict for many years of his life. This movie goes into the impact that drugs had not only on Nic’s life but also Nic’s family, specifically his father David Sheff (Steve Carell). Although the superficial message of the movie is basically saying “don’t do drugs”, that’s not the underlying message. This movie was made to reveal the ugly truth of drugs: the effect it has on relationships. Beautiful Boy was very eye-opening for me because of course, addiction can ruin one’s life from an individualistic viewpoint, but more importantly, it also has a much greater impact on the people around the addict.  

Beautiful Boy (2018) movie poster

7500 is about a co-pilot, Tobias Ellis, (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who was forced to pilot on a hijacked plane flying from Berlin to Paris. The meaning behind the title is that 7500 is the emergency code for a plane hijacking. One Islamic terrorist is in the cockpit with him, the wounded pilot is unconscious next to him, and two other terrorists are outside, holding everyone on the plane hostage, including Ellis’ girlfriend, who is the mother to his only child. Watchers experience a feeling of claustrophobia as we watch Tobias try to fight for control of the plane for 90 minutes. This movie does a great job in portraying the raw human emotion of fear when put into a life-or-death situation. This movie also depicts the hijacking from two different perspectives, as we also see the raw fear of the 18-year old terrorist in the cockpit with Tobias. 7500 also portrays that heroes exist everywhere. Heroes are the ones who take action when others cannot. Initially, Tobias is seen as a soft-spoken man, so I never thought he would be capable of the actions he had to take in this movie. 

7500 (2019) movie poster

Shows:

  • “Black Mirror”
  • “Criminal Minds”
  • “Hollywood”

Although “Black Mirror” and “Criminal Minds” are both fictitious, there are elements that can be observed in real life. For example, in “Black Mirror”, there is a very real possibility that technology will one day take over our world, and also the possibility that technology can be twisted for bad and malicious purposes. In “Criminal Minds”, vicious people with psychopathic tendencies definitely do exist, and “Criminal Minds” draws inspiration for episodes from real murderers/events. These two shows have made me more aware of the dangers of the real world.

Black Mirror
Criminal Minds

“Hollywood” follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers, all of who want to make it big in Hollywood and the movie industry set in a post-WWII era. “Hollywood” takes an in-depth look at diversity, not only in the movie industry but also in the world. Specifically, it focuses on Asian, Black, and LGBTQ representation. It also depicts the discrimination that women also experience. It emphasizes the common theme in history that White (or White-passing) people will have that edge in life due to their appearance in this western, eurocentric world we live in. Darren Criss, who plays Raymond Ainsley, speaks up about his privilege of being White-passing, as he is a mixed-race Filipino, and it spreads awareness as his character also has that privilege. We may view Hollywood as this great industry, but behind the curtains, there was an unfair system in place that discriminated against many groups of people.

Hollywood (2020) on Netflix