By Lola Cantillon ‘23, Arts and Entertainment Staff Writer 

We all know that 2020 was a rough year, and how at times it felt like an action-packed movie. There was lots of talk on social media that movies should be made about this year, and Netflix quickly took advantage of this idea and picked up on it to make their own: “Death to 2020.” Produced by Charlie Brooker and starring Hugh Grant, Lisa Kudrow, and Samuel L. Jackson, this “mockumentary” consists of a series of interviews in which celebrities from around the world described the events that occurred throughout 2020 in a comedic way, and their own experiences with it. 

Personally, I believed that the movie was interesting enough to follow the slight plotline, but it wasn’t very comedic to me. I would agree with some critiques that stated that the movie could be put on as background noise. It was well produced, and the overall organization of it was great, but the humor in it lacked. I enjoyed learning and listening to celebrities’ experiences with everything that occurred, as it gave me insight into how different their lives are from mine. Netflix’s Original “Death to 2020” sparked controversy amongst many film critics and paved the way for many more mockumentaries on current events to come. 

Within the interviews, many described their own personal experiences with everything happening in the current events, primarily the pandemic. Many reviewers were unsatisfied with the constant fixation on COVID-19 and believed that other issues that occurred in 2020 should have been addressed. 

Released in December of 2020, many critics were unimpressed and believed that the film was not as comedic as the production team intended. The producer, Charlie Brooker, had lots of expectations for this film, as he is the producer of “Black Mirror”, a world-renowned TV series, that received an 83% on rotten tomatoes. On the other hand, “Death to 2020” was given a 37% rating, a very low score. One critic from Vox said that it was very average and adds to the “painfully humorless noise that’s made up most of the year.” Multiple other critics agreed with Vox in the sense that the movie wasn’t as good as expected.

Although many critics did not enjoy the movie, the audience rating on rotten tomatoes is much better: 62%. Some reviews said that it was the perfect farewell and ending to a year – the difference in tones of the reviews shows the variety of opinions this movie has generated. Although this movie may not be a success amongst the critics, it sure racked up enough talk about social media today.