Culturopolis

                            The global haves and the have nots collide in the brilliant Brazilian nightmare Bacurau  A year of difficulty for individuals and also for the film industry, COVID-19 made 2020 a trial by fire for many. But even despite quarantine, incredible films by a variety of talented filmmakers, many of which flew under the radar, have made this a banner year for great filmmaking. It was also a year when smaller, independent or art house fare had a moment to shine, as blockbusters and big Hollywood movies took a back burner and tried to wait out COVID for the moment when theaters opened up. Smaller films, foreign films and works by a new wave of younger female directors were able to shine in the absence of the Hollywood's braying media blitzkreig. Read on for some of my favorite films of 2020 so far, in a year of visual delights still to come. All are currently streaming now on a TV near you. ...

Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always /Image courtesy of Focus Features Tales of innocence lost and knowledge gained, the male bildungsroman in film runs the tonal gamut from American Graffiti t o Stand By Me to Boyhood . It's an adventure story coupled with a rite of passage that signals a shift from childhood to manhood. Director Eliza Hittman's devastating Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a coming-of-age with a difference, an "adventure" defined by a quest, myriad obstacles and a fresh, painful reckoning with the world's injustices, for both protagonist and audience. The quest in this case is 17-year-old Autumn's (Sidney Flanigan) herculean effort to obtain an abortion following sex, the film insinuates, that may not have been her choice. The film's title comes from an interview in a New York City Planned Parenthood office in which Autumn is asked to, essentially, recount her sex life on a rating scale from good to horrific a...