Here's part two of my list of my favorite films I saw for the first time in 2020, with several runners up at the bottom...

I saw some incredible movies in 2020, but this 2009 Japanese film was my favorite discovery of the year. Bouncing back and forth in time from the recording of a forgotten punk rock song in 1975 to a record store in 2012 when a comet is five hours from destroying the world, with a failed romantic encounter and a hijacked cruise somewhere in between, it manages to be funny, exciting and oddly inspiring, with one of the best “tying it all together” endings I’ve ever seen. Best of all, the title song – which you hear over and over – is truly great, never wearing out its welcome. A wonderful tribute to the power of music. 

If you know anything about this movie, you probably know that (a) Casey Affleck plays a ghost in a white sheet, Peanuts-style, and (b) Rooney Mara eats an entire pie in real time. Both of those things are technically correct, but they don't come close to conveying the weird, wonderful almost mystical power of this movie. Affleck and Mara are a young couple who hear strange noises in their small house. Then, one day, Affleck dies in a car accident. He wakes up as a ghost, goes back home, and watches Mara grieve, recover and move on with her life. And then, he watches much, much more. I don't want to spoil anything, because this is one of the most surprising, most unusual movies I've seen in years. It's not a horror movie, and it's not a romance, but it has elements of both -- and a lot more besides. It's amazing.

Spike Lee got a lot of (much-deserved) praise in 2020 for his epic Vietnam drama "Da 5 Bloods," but I liked this 2018 movie even better. Based on some genuinely bizarre true events, it's the story of an African-American detective who infiltrates the Colorado Springs chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The strong cast is headed up by John David Washington, Adam Driver and Topher Grace (as David Duke!), and Lee manages an impressive balance of comedy (it's surprisingly funny), suspense and, when the story calls for it, stark political horror. Great stuff, and with a powerful, terribly timely ending.

Somehow, I’d never seen this, the other 1964 movie about an errant nuclear attack that threatens to destroy the world, and I assumed it was a weak imitation of “Dr. Strangelove.” Wrong. Though I still prefer Kubrick’s film for its jet-black humor, this Sidney Lumet film is no slouch. Filmed on stark, stylized sets that crank the claustrophobia up to 11, it’s a deadly serious take on the same story, with an all-star cast (Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Fritz Weaver) trying to prevent Armageddon. I knew how the story ends, and I was still on the edge of my seat. 

Who would've guessed that a surprise sequel to 2006's "Borat" would be the most politically timely release of the year, and not just because it played a part in Rudy Giuliani's (much-deserved) fall from grace. Naturally, with the character of Borat world-famous after his first movie, Sacha Baron Cohen had to change tactics this time around, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. By adding the character of his daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), the film shifts the focus to someone else and finds a way to spotlight the horrible treatment of women in the world today. Laugh-out-loud funny and consistently surprising (just like the original), "Subsequent Moviefilm" also has a real heart, and Bakalova deserves an Oscar nomination (at least) for one of the bravest performances I've ever seen. And, as a bonus, the ending features the COVID joke we didn't even know we needed, with the perfect cameo appearance (which I wouldn't think of spoiling).

Bracingly gritty 1975 cop drama about a hippie-ish rookie (Michael Moriarty) plunged into a complex, dangerous case involving a female detective (Susan Blakely) who is deeply undercover. The great Yaphet Kotto (years before "Homicide: Life on the Street" -- or "Midnight Run," for that matter) plays a none-too-friendly experienced cop, and Hector Elizondo, Bob Balaban, William Devane and a young Richard Gere fill out supporting roles. Best of all, director Milton Katselas makes the most of the Manhattan locations, with a wild chase around and above Times Square that I'm still not sure how they managed to shoot.

This visually astounding 2007 Argentinian reminds me a bit of Guy Maddin’s early work, but without the psycho-sexual obsession that sometimes drives Maddin (and I mean that as a compliment). “The Aerial” is more in the vein of a mostly kid-friendly fairy tale, taking place in a city that has “lost its voice” where a brave family tries to save the day and defeat the minions of “Mr. TV.” Filmed in lush black and white and chock-full of imaginative and breath-taking images, it has the sort of low-tech special effects that are deliberately awkward while conveying a real sense of wonder. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime – check it out! 

Runners Up: "Lake Mungo," "All That Jazz," "The Color Out of Space," "Uncut Gems," "The Undertaker and His Pals," The Vast of Night," "Border," "It Follows," "The Cassandra Crossing," "The Lodge," "The Ritual," "Christine," "Suspense," "There's Always Tomorrow"