The number of original films released in 2020 stood far less than ever. And the majority of the ones that did release found themselves landing on major, online-streaming platforms. At a time when more and more documentary filmmakers are tirelessly exploring untapped subjects for their next creations, the makers of “Black Mirror” (Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones) blend one-of-a-kind creativity and some risky humour to produce “Death to 2020.” It is a Netflix Original production film that takes a satirical look-back at the global events that shaped 2020, including, of course, Covid-19!
The film, produced under Broke and Bones productions, attempts to chronologically explore major, global events that took place in 2020 and surprised humanity beyond imaginations—starting with deadly, Australian wildfires, the surprising stepping down of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from the British Royal Family in January, the rapid spread of Covid-19 across the world (and its impact on our socio-economic lives) after February, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by cops in the month of May (and the Black Lives Matter movement that followed), the U.S. Presidential Elections and Joe Biden’s victory in November, and the rollout of the first Coronavirus vaccine in late December.
These events are also joined by several smaller, but impactful, occurrences dispersed throughout the year that sent resonating shockwaves across nations and gave birth to one of the most tragic years in recent history.
Samuel L. Jackson in the mockumentary “Death to 2020” (Broke and Bones, 2020).
“Death to 2020,” very satirically but fearlessly, looks at 2020 from the perspectives of “experts,” “politicos,” “power-brokers,” “monarchs,” “scientists,” “psychologists,” and “average citizens”—with the most notable roles of these being those of Samuel L. Jackson (as Dash Bracket—a reporter working for “New Yorkerly News”) and Hugh Grant (as Tennyson Foss—a witty historian).
Having different population segments telling you their experience of witnessing 2020, even with their fictionalized stories and never-ending clichés, is something that we can relate to pretty well. It is also something that can grip you for the entirety of the movie—and on top of it all, the perfect and confident narration by Lawrence Fishburne can make it worth your time!
To a great degree, the movie does succeed in making us laugh with a heap-load of jokes on the erratic behaviour of some key political figures (mainly including Donald Trump and Boris Johnson) during times of crises; however, what’s difficult to predict is how different segments of viewers would react to the same. Another area where the film seems to have missed its mark is that unlike what the audience might initially expect to watch, a big part of the movie is an apparent, ruthless commentary on politics. Although the film begins as an insightful documentary on the year 2020, it slowly turns into amalgamation and critique of political events using tons of original, pre-recorded media footages and published news stories. Some might even call it an “overdose of clichéd narration” or an “hour-long of non-stop media adventure.”
Viewers who are keen on seeing a documentary on Covid-19 have a fair chance of being disappointed, as unlike politics, the subject of the pandemic apparently loses its seriousness and centrality as the film progresses. You’d be spending a good deal of time knowing things like how Donald Trump showed his thumbs after being declared healthy post his Covid treatment, etc.
“Death to 2020” might probably not be the best documentary you could watch around this time. Still, it is, by all means, a bold attempt by Charlie Brooker to blend a range of diverse and unrelated events into a single piece of entertainment. It gives us the much-needed laughs after a stressful year that we just left behind—a year we didn’t just “spend” but felt every day in our nerves. Some might call it a bit wavering in its approach, but the mockumentary definitely leaves no stone unturned in standing up for its beliefs and hunting down its targets!
