More Movies Like This, Please: 2020 List

I started something in 2012. Whenever I saw a new movie I liked, I would jump onto Twitter, identify the movie, then simply tweet: “More movies like this, please.”

Then I thought, Why don’t I do an annual More Movies Like This, Please list?

What do I mean by “more movies like this, please”? Not big popcorn flicks. Hey, I love huge spectacle movies as much as the next guy, but we know Hollywood is going to make them, studios don’t need encouragement to produce prequels, sequels, remakes, tentpoles, and so forth.

Rather, I’m talking about movies Hollywood seems to have a hard time committing to nowadays for a variety of reasons, most of them related to economics and conventional wisdom about what supposedly will work / won’t work.

Here are some of elements I’m looking for in my More Movies Like This, Please list:

• More adult dramas
• More mid-budget movies [$25–50M], smaller stories that need larger budgets to be told well
• More original movies [based on an original screenplay]
• More movies targeting people who love movies and appreciate the history of movies
• More movies that represent the vision of one writer / writer-director or team of writers / writer-directors
• More movies that explore interesting, unique and unusual subcultures
• More movies written, directed, and/or starring BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women
• More movies that take risks
• More movies that approach narrative in different ways
• More cinematic movies
• More quirky, whimsical, oddball movies reflecting a distinctive take on the world
• More movies where the focus is on characters, not special effects
• More movies that make me think
• More movies that have no reason to exist other than the fact they have a great story to tell.

So here is my 2020 More Movies Like This, Please list [Note: These only include movies I’ve seen]:

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Da 5 Bloods
First Cow
Hamilton
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
I’m Your Woman
The Invisible Man
Kajillionaire
Mank
Miss Juneteenth
One Night in Miami
Onward
Palm Springs
Promising Young Woman
Saint Frances
The Sound of Metal
Soul
Spontaneous
The Trial of the Chicago Seven
The Old Guard
Uncle Frank

Movies I want to see and I’m sure would be on my list: Minari, On the Rocks, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Let Them All Talk, The Forty-Year-Old Version, Nomadland, Tenet (no, I haven’t seen it yet).

This was a strange year in that the only movies I saw in a theater were pretty much at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Then in March, everything shut down.

I also watched a ton of television series this year in order to do research for the book I’m writing. Of note there: The Queen’s Gambit, Ted Lasso, Never Have I Ever, Babylon Berlin, Dark, and Sex Education.

Here’s to being able to get back into movie theaters in 2021, even if we’re looking at mid to late-summer. I really miss that experience.

How about you? Which movies would you put on your More Movies Like This, Please list?

UPDATE: I just watched I’m Your Woman on Amazon Prime and really enjoyed it, so I’m adding it to my 2020 list. Here’s the trailer:

Check it out along with all of the movies on this year’s More Movies Like This, Please! list.