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The 20 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movies of 2020

Speculative fiction offered us little desired escapism this year, but the best of these genres still affected us greatly.
Best Sci fi Movies 2020
By  · Published on January 1st, 2021

5. Synchronic

Synchronic sci fi movies 2020

This was one of my last entries watched ahead of compiling this list, not expecting much since I hadn’t heard anything about it. It wasn’t on my radar at all. That makes it one of the best surprises of the year since, as you can see, it ranks pretty high. From the duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Synchronic is another sci-fi movie involving bad pharmaceuticals (see The Old Guard and Project Power), this time revolving around pills that make you travel through time. When in history you go to is not determined by the user and is up to where you are when you take the drug. Maybe it’s to the Ice Age, maybe to the Civil War, but whenever it is, chances are there’s going to be trouble then. Most users seem to be dead at the end of their “trip.” Or lost to the past.

While the premise and execution of Synchronic are all fine and good, what really pushed the movie to the top five for me was Anthony Mackie‘s performance. He’s always proven to be a decent actor and with his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he shows that he’s got star appeal. But here he carries what could have been a stiffly played film (co-star Jamie Dornan covers that territory plenty) and adds a real dramatic center to its proceedings. For a film dealing in temporal residues, it’s fitting that Mackie’s emotional performance has stuck with me since watching.


4. The Vast of Night

Vast Of Night Amazon sci fi movies 2020

Presented as an episode of a fictional Twilight Zone-type show, Andrew Patterson‘s The Vast of Night is actually too impressive a production to have been made for 1950s/1960s television. Set in near-real-time over the course of an evening in a small New Mexico town in the ’50s, the simple story follows a radio DJ and a switchboard operator investigating a mysterious sound interrupting the former’s broadcast. But it feels much bigger and more urgent with its fast-moving pace and fast-talking dialogue. And maybe there is something extraordinary at the end of their exploration. The Amazon Studios release received some deserving attention for its very cool long take, but Patterson and cinematographer M. I. Littin-Menz do superb work throughout that immerses us in the town and the narrative. Available on Amazon Prime Video.


3. Sea Fever

Sea Fever

Another movie that immerses us in a place, Neasa Hardiman‘s Sea Fever is firstly your usual single-location sci-fi/horror movie, a la Alien and The Thing where an alien creature picks off members of an ensemble one by one. This one is set aboard a fishing trawler that ventures into a forbidden zone and pays the price with a mysterious parasite infecting the crew. Yeah, it’s another one of 2020’s releases that accidentally reflects the tone of 2020. Rather than feeling like a horror movie, though, with a focus on the deaths, Sea Fever is a more affecting work that ultimately feels like a film about humanity. Available on Hulu.


2. Palm Springs

Palm Springs sci fi movies 2020

People keep on making time-loop (a.k.a. Groundhog Day type) movies (and series), and they keep on being amazing. And it’s not just that the concept itself is that amazing. With Palm Springs, which is also our pick for best comedy of 2020, the success is mostly in the cast, from leads Adam Samberg and Cristin Millioti to the movie-stealing J.K. Simmons, who keep us amused from day to repeated day, ad infinitum. What makes it especially notable as a sci-fi movie, though, is that it’s actually interested in the science, even if there’s no real concrete way of explaining the science of what causes or how to get out of a time loop. But I love watching Millioti’s character, Sarah, going that route, and I love that it might be what works. Available on Hulu.


1. Possessor

Possessor

Brandon Cronenberg no longer needs to be known as David Cronenberg’s son. With Possessor, he’s proven his worth as a sci-fi/horror auteur independent of his father’s legacy. Dare I say that I like the younger Cronenberg better? It’s okay, you don’t have to agree with me (I was never a huge David Cronenberg fan), and my own opinion can be valid. Isn’t that neat? Unlike with the scenario of this movie, our minds are our own.

But I’m veering off track. Possessor stars Andrea Riseborough as an assassin who takes over other people’s bodies in order to commit her missions anonymously. But her latest possession (Christopher Abbott) isn’t as easily controlled, resulting in the dark version of All of Me we didn’t know we needed. I have to admit that I thought the movie was pretty good on first viewing, but then I read Mary Beth’s explanation of the ending (and the film overall), laying out the analysis of the main character’s identity, and I loved it even more. Now I can’t stop thinking about it. The elder Cronenberg makes films that get under our skin, while the younger’s latest lodges into your soul. Available On Demand.

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.