10 Surprisingly Awesome 2020 Movies You Probably Missed

One look at the key art for The Outpost suggests it's just another of the many forgettable military action flicks - a soulless flag-waving exercise intended to appeal to Trump supporters as they pass by the DVD bargain bin at their local truck stop.

But Rod Lurie's (Nothing but the Truth) film ultimately turned out to be one of 2020's big shockers, having more in common with The Hurt Locker than its bottom-of-the-barrel genre brethren.

The Outpost dramatises Afghanistan's Battle of Kamdesh, where in 2009 an American Army outpost was attacked by 300 Taliban soldiers.

What could so easily have been a hacky, exploitative slice of action schlock is so much more than that: a compassionate and deeply human look at the American soldiers trapped at the center of that conflict.

The entire ensemble cast is terrific here, especially Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, and Orlando Bloom, while Lurie's coverage of the battle itself is beautifully stylish without losing sight of its unflinching brutality.