Movie: Death to 2020
Release date: December 27, 2020
Genre: Mockumentary
Our grade: B+

After the catastrophes that occurred in 2020, many people may say it was not the best year for them. To say the least, it was a year that will go down in history books. “Death to 2020” on Netflix highlighted some of the most important events throughout the year. In this “mockumentary,” we can relive 2020 all over again, and reminisce over all of the things we had forgotten even happened.

In this movie, the directors created different people with different personalities. There was the middle-aged soccer mom, the YouTuber and so on. They made sure that the people expressing their opinions on camera were more over-the-top than they had to be. This is part of why the genre is a “mockumentary.” It is supposed to be a funny take on all the tragic events in the past year. In some parts of the movie, you could see some things being taken seriously, and in others, you could see how they completely made fun of controversies.

“I did not think anyone could make a comedy out of tragic events but they did it and it honestly was not that bad,” senior Neil Toloza said.

Although there could have been a more elaborate way of recalling the events, they did a good job of representing different points of view. For example, when speaking about the Black Lives Matter protests, they made a man say that All Lives Matter, to refute the movement. The director then says, “I think the point is that they’re currently treated like their lives don’t matter.” As the conversation continues, the man eventually says that the director is racist for saying black lives matter more than “all lives,” and proceeds to say every single person around him has called him a “bigot.” In this specific scene, they were trying to show one of the biggest controversies in America, and making a joke.

“I think that all of the events that happened in 2020 is hard to fit into a movie, but they mostly did a good job at showing the real problems while still being funny,” junior Camila Ruiz said.

One part of this movie that stood out the most was the constant referencing to social media, and how it affected everything that happened. There is no denying that the United States is going through political polarization that, believe it or not, is greatly influenced by what we see online. “Death to 2020” highlighted the event when Democrats and Biden supporters purposely sabotaged Trump’s rally. It also mentioned how conservatives feel their voices are being silenced because prominent voices on social media “preach hate” towards the right. Even when they included humor in this, it showed a prevalent problem that should not be ignored.

Overall, “Death to 2020” was a good laugh and a good description of the events that happened in 2020. Although it is a mockery of events, it did highlight many issues that are present in today’s society, and how it caused a series of unfortunate events. The creators of Black Mirror did a good job at representing 2020 in 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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