Chad Kennerk Looks Back at the Year of 2020

In an unprecedented year, a staggering number of films found their way to streaming platforms, many of which had been intended for cinemas. The way an audience views a film is changing. The fortuitous timing of entirely new emerging streaming platforms such as Disney+, HBOMax, AppleTV+ and Peacock created a new means for distributing films that would otherwise still be waiting in the wings. Despite our lockdown, we have access to more content and streaming libraries than ever before. At the click of a button, we can be taken over the rainbow, into Rick's Café Américain, and be made an offer we can’t refuse. The advancements in home theater technology, along with the affordability of large screens have changed rapidly, even when compared to just a few years ago.

Seeing Sam Mendes’ 1917 on the largest IMAX screen in North America, safely within the confines of 2019, was an unknown blessing. A rare theatrical experience in its own right, but now one that I treasure. It’s not often that I find myself unable to move until the full roll of the credits. The haunting score by Thomas Newman was not to be missed. There were however, a long list of high-profile 2020 films that I did miss seeing in that theater, including 007’s No Time to Die, A Quiet Place Part 2, Top Gun: Maverick, Dune, Jungle Cruise, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife — all of which sit in their digital queues, waiting for release.

While there’s no substitute for the cinema, conscientious home viewers have the ability to create their own cinematic environment as best they can, complete with room darkening shades and no cell phone policy. We sit in rapt anticipation of the return to cinemas, trusting that they will indeed remain a vital collective experience when the curtain rises once more.

Chad Kennerk’s Favourites:

1. Driveways
2. Onward
3. The Invisible Man
4. The Prom
5. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
6. Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
7. Sound of Metal
8. Palm Springs
9. Soul
10. Tenet