BBC推荐：2020年度佳片
The best films of 2020

Wolfwalkers

Anyone who has seen The Secret of Kells or Song of the Sea will recognise the Celtic mysticism and the ornate, angular animation favoured by their director, Tomm Moore. But Wolfwalkers is his most delightful yet. Its plucky heroine is Robyn (voiced by Honor Kneafsey), the daughter of an English huntsman (Sean Bean) stationed in Ireland in the mid-1600s. He has the job of clearing the wolves from a forest near Kilkenny, but when Robyn goes exploring, she finds that one of those wolves can transform into a human girl (Eva Whittaker). The girls' battles against destructive adults are exhilarating fun, and every frame is a work of art.

Ammonite

Kate Winslet gives one of the most dazzling performances of her career as the real-life Mary Anning, whose 19th-Century discoveries of fossils transformed palaeontology, although the credit went to men. Writer and director Francis Lee's exquisitely photographed and bracingly unsentimental romance finds Mary in middle age, scraping together a living in the seaside town of Lyme Regis. Lee invents Mary's affair with the married Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), and Ammonite gained notice for the women's graphic sex scenes. But it is most notable for Winslet's empathetic and natural portrayal of a self-contained, defensive woman who begins ever so gradually to breathe.

The Personal History of David Copperfield

This joyous and endlessly inventive film by Armando Iannucci is a glittering achievement that raises the bar for Charles Dickens adaptations. And while Iannucci roots it firmly in the poverty and class system of Victorian England, it’s also bracingly modern, not least in its multicultural casting (Dev Patel is terrific in the lead role). BBC Culture’s review called it “a warm and lively David Copperfield for today”.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

This quietly profound drama follows 17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), pregnant in a small town in Pennsylvania where abortion is restricted, as she and her cousin secretly take a bus to nearby New York City to terminate the pregnancy. The camera silently captures the heartbreak on Autumn’s face. The film is wrenching in its honesty yet exhilarating in its empathy.

The Assistant

Structured as a day in the life, The Assistant stars Julia Garner as the lowly new employee who toils from before dawn until after dusk, answering phones, printing out scripts, unpacking bottles of water: imagine a more authentic, low-key companion piece to The Devil Wears Prada. The Weinstein-alike CEO may be the villain of the piece, but the film looks beyond one man to focus on a wider corporate culture. There are no big speeches or explosive confrontations, but there is tension throughout as we wait for the titular assistant to rebel against her boss... or accept that she is going to keep working for him, come what may.

Emma

Did the world need one more Jane Austen adaptation? Not really, but this enchanting, colourful version is a very welcome addition. As Emma, Anya Taylor-Joy captures the heart and warmth beneath Austen’s bossy, match-making heroine. Johnny Flynn is irresistible as her improbable love, Mr Knightley. And Bill Nighy gloriously steals every scene as Emma’s comically overprotective father.