Set during the COVID-19 outbreak, the isolation of lockdown causes an assortment of people to tackle some uncomfortable truths, ranging from an Australian named Mark (played by Greg Poppleton) reconnecting with his brother, Elijah (played by Kevin Scott Allen) while trying to raise his deceased sister’s daughter, an American journalist named Clarita (played by Dilia Corujo) uncovering a conspiracy which involves her two coworkers, an American blogger in China named Emma (played by Jessica Castello) dealing with her mother, Heather’s (played by Sheila Ball) leukemia diagnosis, and an Israeli woman named Esther (played by Lital Luzon) reflecting on a past romance she had with Jewish-Australian man, Levi (played by Gil Ben-Moshe). These stories, while disconnected, share a common thread about adrift people coming out of this dark period with clarity about their lives.
ANNO 2020 only had a select number of theatrical screenings originally, but did well in the film festival space, earned a very high IMDB critical rating, and was praised by critics for its ingenuity, diverse casting and radical delivery. While you can feel the limited scale, experience an occasionally stilted performance, and may not fully jell with the presentation, the ambition is clear, and thanks to some engaging vignettes, a handful of effective performances, and a reflective and very human atmosphere, it succeeds with its intended goal.
Based on a novel written by the film’s writer and director, James Morcan, ANNO 2020 tries to reflect on the very chaotic period of 2020, and given the circumstances, it’s impressive that Morcan and his crew were able to achieve as much as they did in such a difficult time with only a budget of $6,000.
Filming in multiple different locations across the globe during the 2020-2021 lockdown, a clear point of this film seemed to be about exposing the stress and hardship, but also bizarre clarity that arose from being in quarantine, and while it’s hard to say it achieved everything it set out to explore, it did convey its main intent very nicely. With a running time of 145 mins and with Morcan readapting his own work to the screen, it’s given time to explore each of its stories without feeling rushed, the initial presentation and layout can feel scattered, but the way things wrap up ties things together pretty nicely, and through solid storylines, performances and pacing, it keeps your attention despite not really feeling like a movie in the traditional sense.
While it can feel more like an ambitious fan project than a cinematic feature, this can be excused due to the pandemic limiting the kind of visuals, scenes and interactions they could get. This can’t excuse everything however, as while the directing is well done, the scripting isn’t always good from a storytelling or dialogue perspective, as the apparent improvising leads to some aimless interactions, and the very trendy, millennial-type speech makes it hard to take any of its words seriously. It also tries to take on too much, incorporating aspects of the Black Lives Matter Protests and Trump’s 2020 presidency without having the time to say anything meaningful about them, and while the journalist and leukemia plots are easily the most engaging and emotionally effective, the other plots can feel a bit repetitive and don’t have very fulfilling conclusions.
Since most of the cast had to film some of their scenes from essentially a video call, it’s not hard to see why some of the acting is a little uneven. With a diverse ensemble that ranges from relatively unknowns to some with an established portfolio, these actors are the driving force of the movie, as the small-scale production, inability to produce dynamic imagery, and a script that does its duty rather than surprises, means they’re the ones doing most of the heavy lifting and they do a good job at that. While they feel more like regular people than memorable characters, some pull this off better than others, with Sheila Ball and Crystal J. Huang as mothers dealing with living separately from their daughters, being the best as they have the smoothest delivery and feel the most defined as characters. Jessica Castello is also quite good as Emma and is one of the few to have a prominent character shift, being a conspiracy vlogger living in Wuhan forced to accept reality due to her mother’s condition, it’s nicely handled, and she and Ball share some sweet scenes together.
Dilia Corujo, Shaun Huff and Andre Doc Williams also do well as part of the other interesting story surrounding journalists trying to expose a murder cover-up (even if it does have a bit of an anti-climax), but the remaining actors have to deal with some debilitating factors. Greg Poppleton and Kevin Scott Allen play off each other well which leads to a sweet ending, but their story isn’t that intriguing, Lital Luzon gives a reserved performance as Esther but this passivity alongside a fairly minute story leaves little room for her to stand out, and Gil Ben-Moshe plays easily the most irritating character in the film, with Levi feeling hate-able in a bland sense and containing ‘’soap-box’’ dialogue that makes him feel unbearably self-indulgent.
Given the film’s topic, it’s only fitting most of the imagery is from the viewpoint of a computer screen/phone, as it would’ve been hard to film the actors outside (let alone together) for long stretches, but the movie does use this supposed hindrance to its advantage. While there is clear use of stock footage, there are some on-site shots that (since they were filmed during a lockdown) really captures the unsettlingly empty feeling most locations gave off in that period, effectively mirroring the zeitgeist of the era not just through the topics being addressed and the rampant conspiracies, but also the isolation felt by everyone and how most reacted to it. The zoom chat viewpoint offers a more personal view into these people’s lives, and even if it can lead to some rambling dialogue and a non urgent tone of delivery, it fits pretty smoothly in a film about COVID.
With Simon Carter handling both the cinematography and the editing, he had the task of piecing together a series of separate vignettes that don’t have much immediate connective tissue, which couldn’t have been easy. While some of the abrupt cuts can feel haphazard, and the lesser stories getting randomly interjecting into the more engaging options can feel a little annoying, it is impressively edited together for the amount of footage he had to work with. The music by Ashsha Kin is perfectly acceptable, but feels a little stock and is used mainly as a way of livening up the large amount of talking throughout, when in practice, that can feel a little intrusive and audibly crowd a scene that’d do better with silence.
While it’s hard to say that ANNO 2020 is truly experimental or shows the strengths of what can come from limitations, it should be respected for offering a story and performances that can still emotionally resonant in spite of its unconventional delivery. Not all the plots are engaging, some of the performances don’t work, and the script could’ve drawn more from its idea, but a few solid moments of acting, engaging plot threads and the overall impressive feats it achieves, makes it an experiment that bore meaningful results.
ANNO 2020 is set to release on YouTube, Odysee, Daily Motion, Rumble and additional platforms on September 13th, 2025.
