A few years ago, Columbia Business School professor Sheena Iyengar wrote a popular book on the concept of consumer choice. Her conclusion was that some choice is desired, but too much choice should be avoided; if you give your customers too many options, then analysis paralysis sets in and they end up making no choices at all. I’ve thought about this research more than once over the past 10 months. In a world where shelter-in-place orders have already broken down the walls between our personal and professional spaces, we are being asked to navigate a byzantine number of new screening services. Our theatrical options may be more limited than ever, but studios continue to jostle for attention on a crowded home video market. So how does one find a signal amidst the noise? Maybe you don’t. Without the ritual of going to the theatre – of carving time and attention out of my day for a new release – I find myself not even trying to keep up with the new releases. My 2020 Top 10 list will be in great shape sometime in March.
1) The Lodge
2) Emma.
3) Fourteen
4) Relic
5) Gamemaster
6) Mephisto (2020 restoration)
7) Detention
8) Gretel & Hansel
9) The Old Guard
10) The New Mutants
Matthew Monagle’s Top 10 in Cinema in 2020
A version of this article appeared in print on Dec 18, 2020 with the headline: Matthew Monagle’s Top 10 in Cinema in 2020
This article appears in The 2020 Top 10s Issue.