Cinema · 2020 Ranked

Best Films of 2020, Ranked by IQ Score

The COVID-disrupted year — streaming saved prestige cinema. Ranked.

15 titles · ranked by IQ Score

1. 1
   

   The Trial of the Chicago 7

   Masterclass biography, crime, drama

   Aaron Sorkin's 2020 courtroom drama dramatizes the 1969-70 federal conspiracy trial of the activists charged with crossing state lines to incite riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Sorkin uses the courtroom'…

   192/200
2. 2
   

   Mank

   Masterclass biography, drama

   David Fincher's 2020 Old Hollywood drama, written by his late father Jack Fincher, follows screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) drafting Citizen Kane during convalescence while Orson Welles waits offstage. The bl…

   184/200
3. 3
   

   The Father

   Masterclass drama

   An aging man with dementia watches his grip on reality slip. Educational about dementia and aging. Cognitive engagement from the disorienting perspective shifts. Entertainment from the psychological depth.

   173/200
4. 4
   

   Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

   Masterclass drama, music

   George C. Wolfe's 2020 August Wilson adaptation anchored by Viola Davis's Oscar-nominated performance as 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman's final film performance. The structural commitment to letting Wi…

   166/200
5. 5
   

   Time

   Masterclass documentary

   Garrett Bradley's 2020 documentary about Sibil Fox Richardson's 20-year campaign to free her husband from Louisiana State Penitentiary. The structural commitment to weaving home-video footage Sibil shot across two decade…

   166/200
6. 6
   

   Nomadland

   Masterclass drama

   An aging woman travels America in her van after losing her home. Educational about economic displacement and aging. Cognitive engagement from the meditative pacing. Entertainment from the road-trip narrative.

   165/200
7. 7
   

   Da 5 Bloods

   Masterclass drama, war, thriller

   Spike Lee's 2020 Netflix film about four Black Vietnam War veterans returning to Vietnam decades later to recover their squad leader's remains and buried gold. The structural commitment to letting Black-Vietnam-veteran e…

   164/200
8. 8
   

   First Cow

   Masterclass drama, western, indie

   Kelly Reichardt's 2019 Oregon-Territory frontier film set in the 1820s anchored by a friendship between a cook and a Chinese immigrant who steal milk from a settler's prized dairy cow. The structural commitment to lettin…

   161/200
9. 9
   

   Minari

   Stimulating drama

   A Korean-American family pursues the American dream in rural Arkansas. Educational about immigration and identity. Cognitive engagement from the family dynamics. Entertainment from the character study.

   159/200
10. 10
    

    Sound of Metal

    Stimulating drama

    A drummer loses his hearing and must relearn his relationship to sound. Educational about deafness and adaptation. Cognitive engagement from the sensory experience. Entertainment from the character journey.

    157/200
11. 11
    

    Promising Young Woman

    Stimulating drama, thriller

    Examines how institutional failure enables sexual assault, with protagonist pursuing vigilante justice that forces viewers to evaluate moral authority and complicity across social networks.

    154/200
12. 12
    

    Wolfwalkers

    Stimulating animation, fantasy, adventure

    Cartoon Saloon's stunning film about a girl in 1650s Ireland who discovers a pack of magical wolves. Rich historical and ecological themes. Cognitive demands from the parallel between colonialism and environmental destru…

    150/200
13. 13
    

    Tenet

    Stimulating action, sci-fi, thriller

    Constructs action narrative around time inversion mechanics, demanding viewers track inverse causality while processing philosophical implications of temporal reversal.

    149/200
14. 14
    

    Birds of Prey

    Stimulating action, comedy

    Cathy Yan's 2020 DC film anchored by Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. The structural commitment to letting the girl-gang-team-up premise operate inside the DC-Suicide-Squad cinematic universe is the film's distinctive regi…

    142/200
15. 15
    

    Soul

    Competent animation, adventure, comedy

    Pete Docter's Pixar feature is the studio's most direct engagement with jazz musicianship and vocational meaning. The afterlife-as-bureaucracy conceit doubles as theological inquiry into what 'purpose' actually means; th…

    129/200