The T-Dub Movie Awards of 2020
No pandemic will delay the most important movie awards in the industry. Yes, the T-Dub Awards, exclusive to the Coeur d’Alene Press, celebrates the movie year with a mix of serious and arbitrary categories. Some of them hardly make sense!
Though most of the “big” movies of the year retreated to 2021, I still managed to catch 80+ movies released in 2020 (though things like “Princess Switch 2: Switched Again” might’ve been called into question in a normal year).
Stay tuned for a real “Best Movies of 2020-ish.” That will include full sentences and maybe even some paragraphs!
Scene of the year: Delroy Lindo’s monologue in “Da 5 Bloods.”
Just give her (another) Oscar already: Frances McDormand, “Nomadland.”
Give him a posthumous Oscar: Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” RIP, T’Challa.
The “Can we also give him an Oscar? award: Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal.”
Best performance in a bad movie: Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Best performance in a mediocre movie: Rachel McAdams, “Eurovision Song Contest.”
Best performance by a kid: Alan S. Kim, “Minari.”
Best movie you hadn’t heard of: “Kajillionaire.”
Best looking movie: “Nomadland.”
Best shot: Traversing the town, “The Vast of Night.”
Best first impression: Emerald Fennell’s feature directorial debut, “Promising Young Woman.”
Underrated performance: Nicole Beharie, “Miss Juneteenth.”
Best ensemble cast: “One Night in Miami.”
Best breakout performance: Sidney Flanigan, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”
The “Finally gets a chance to shine” Award: “John Boyega, “Red, White and Blue” (“Small Axe”).
Best pick-me-up in a terrible year: “Hamilton” arriving on Disney Plus.
The “Makes it look easy” Award: Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Last movie I saw in a theater: “Bad Boys for Life.”
Movie most bummed about jumping to 2021: Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.”
Movie I wish I could’ve seen in a theater rather than at home: “Soul.”
Movie people get mad at me for recommending: “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
Best return to form: Ben Affleck, “The Way Back.” Yes, Affleck is good in a lot of things!
Best scenery chewing: Jim Carrey’s manic, throwback performance in “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
Most likely to cause a panic attack: The idea of seeing a movie in a crowded theater during a pandemic.
The “Awesome, but does it count as a movie?” Award: Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology film series on Amazon. Spoiler alert: I’ll be counting it on my Top 10.
Most shocking scene: Elisabeth Moss meets her sister at a restaurant, “The Invisible Man.”
Most baffling decision: Making “Wonder Woman 1984” a pseudo-”Wishmaster” sequel.
The “It really goes there” Award: The last 15 minutes of “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
All the tears: “Dick Johnson is Dead.”
Best fight: Funhouse brawl, “Birds of Prey.”
Best car chase: Back and forth on the freeway, “Tenet.”
Best opening: “Blow the Man Down.”
One scene makes the movie: The HR sequence of “The Assistant.”
Best “TV” movie: “Bad Education” on HBO.
Favorite movie other people think is just fine: “Mank.”
The “Stop telling me it’s actually good” Award: “Hubie Halloween.” Just because it’s not as awful as the other Adam Sandler Netflix movies doesn’t mean it’s good.
The “High tension” Award: The opening scene of “The Invisible Man.”
Most enjoyable relic from the 90s: “The Gentleman.”
Best overall relic: “Relic.”
Best chemistry: Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, “Palm Springs.”
Best courtroom theatrics: “Mangrove” (“Small Axe”).
Best needle drop: Carey Mulligan walks into the climax of “Promising Young Woman” to an instrumental version of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.”
Most traditionally powerful climax: “Soul.”
Most surprisingly powerful climax: “Nomadland.”
Too much climax: “Tenet.”
The “Be sure to get your crazy Nicolas Cage fix” Award: “Color out of Space.”
Best “musical” not named “Hamilton”: “David Byrne’s American Utopia.”
Breakout character in need of a spin-off: Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies in “Mank.”
Best “slow burn”: “First Cow.”
Best animated film not made by Pixar: “Wolfwalkers.”
Scene-stealer: Dan Levy, “Happiest Season.”
Best use of a small budget: “The Vast of Night.”
Most unnecessary remake: “Rebecca.”
Wait, it’s a remake? Shrug: “Downhill.”
Movie your dad will like: “Greyhound.”
Best fantasy sequence: The afterlife, “Dick Johnson is Dead.”
Making black-and-white cool again: “The 40-Year-Old Version.”
Best theatrical adaptation: “One Night in Miami.”
The “Elisabeth Moss appreciation” Award: “Shirley,” “The Invisible Man.”
Funniest Movie: “Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm.”
Best blockbuster: Slim pickings… A toss-up between “The Old Guard” and “Birds of Prey.”
Worst blockbuster: “Project Power.”
Bill Murray being Bill Murray: Bill Murray, “On the Rocks.”
Fastest 2.5-hour runtime: “Hamilton.”
Best horror movie that’s not a horror movie: “The Nest.”
Best duo: Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman, “The Father.”
Best stand-in for James Bond: John David Washington, “Tenet.”
Best movie I’ll never want to watch again: “Totally Under Control.”
Best inversion of expectations: The dinner table sequence, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
Best musical moment: Pretty much the entirety of “Lovers Rock” (“Small Axe”).
Strangest musical moment: Ethan Hawke sings in “Tesla.”
The “Shia LaBeouf Appreciation” Award: Oops, this category aged poorly.
The “It’s totally fine!” Award: “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
The “No, really, it’s pretty good. Honest!” Award: “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
The “Big swing and miss” Award: “The Devil All the Time.”
Wasted cast: “Ava.” Runner-up: “The Last Full Measure.”
Definitely not worth $30: The live-action “Mulan.”
The “What were they thinking?” Award: Adding even more creepy CGI elves to “The Christmas Chronicles 2.”
Underrated: Pixar’s other 2020 film, Onward.”
Most baffling misfire: “Artemis Fowl.”
Messy but points for trying: “Bad Hair.”
Most overstuffed: “The King of Staten Island.”
Best movie to watch after binging “Tiger King”: “Roar!” from 1981. You can find it on YouTube. You’re welcome.
Yep, that actually came out in 2020: “Spencer Confidential.”
Confusing title: “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.”
The “Wish I could see it before I made this list” Award: “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Best animal performance: The cow in “First Cow.”
Most uncomfortable cameo: Rudy Guiliani, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”
The “At least it was only 90 minutes” Award: “Underwater.”
Best villain: Vanessa Hudgens #3 in “Princess Switch 2: Switched Again.” I just had to get this movie on the list somewhere.
The “She needs to be a bigger star” award: Jesse Buckley, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
The “I forgot about it five minutes after seeing it” Award: “Enola Holmes.”
Most pleasant surprise: Vince Vaughn in “Freaky.”
It seemed good but I kept falling asleep: “Emma.”
Best thing about 2020 that’s not in a movie: Baby Yoda from “The Mandalorian” repeats in the category. No, I won’t call him Grogu.
Biggest guilty pleasure: What’s the deal with me liking “Sonic the Hedgehog” so much?
And….. My kids’ favorite movie: “Soul.” Nah, just kidding. It was “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com. He is the co-host of Old Millennials Remember Movies, available everywhere you find podcasts and OldMillennialsRemember.com.
