The 20 Best Movies of 2020 So Far
and Keith Kimbell, Metacritic Film Editor – July 2, 2020
Which films have impressed critics the most during the first half of the year? Above, we rank the best-reviewed movies released in theaters* or on digital/VOD/streaming outlets between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020. Films are ranked by Metascore and must have at least 7 reviews from professional critics to be eligible.
* Commonly found in urban locations during the Before Times, a theater was an enclosed public space where strangers came together to watch films projected on a screen.
After winning the Palme d’Or in 2016 for I, Daniel Blake, the now 83-year-old director Ken Loach has produced another social-realist drama that critics like even better. Once again collaborating with screenwriter Paul Laverty (Jimmy's Hall, The Angels' Share, Looking for Eric, The Wind that Shakes the Barley), Loach immerses viewers in the lives of the struggling Turner family. After losing their house in the 2008 financial crisis, they are desperate to improve their financial situation, but Ricky’s new job as a delivery driver proves more difficult than anticipated, and the stress builds for his wife Abby and their two teenage children. It’s an honest, intimate and wrenching look at the dark side of the gig economy.
“It’s fierce, open and angry, unironised and unadorned, about a vital contemporary issue whose implications you somehow don’t hear on the news.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian