This year has been perhaps the most educational year in cinema of my life. I didn’t watch as many films as I have in years’ past. For once, I actually tried to watch quality films over quantity and while I didn’t see as many classics as I have in previous Oscar cycles, I did see plenty of films I would like to watch again. Films that inspired me, made me think, and most importantly spurred creativity in recesses of my brain that had been left dormant. Before I begin my list, I would like to make one caveat. As my friends and family can attest, I am definitely a difficult critic to please. In previous years, I have joked, poked fun at, mocked, and even open-mouth gaped incredulously when people told me their favorite movie of the year. I won’t be doing that anymore (unless you liked Suicide Squad). For the most part, I’ve learned the nature of perspective in appreciating film. I know that my list is extremely subjective at best and everyone has the right to their opinions. I think, we as a nation, have lost sight of this simple truth. When you embrace opinions that differ from yours, you might actually learn a little and grow. If you liked Rogue One: fantastic. I thought it was mismanaged and poorly written with a kickass third act. If you liked Jason Bourne, thought it was a great spy flick - wonderful! I thought it was so forgettable, my best friend had to remind me that we went to see it. These examples aren’t meant as sarcastic, in fact quite the opposite. There are certain movies BvS, Suicide Squad, and the Hillary Clinton Smear movie that I will still go to the mat as being truly atrocious, but I embrace anyone who has the courage to share what they honestly believe. Movie theaters are meant to be places of escape and not everyone needs the same escape that I do.
One other note: Time is an important factor in understanding a movie critique. Time is perhaps the greatest inherent bias when watching a film. I remember watching Her one week after I finally came to terms with my ex-girlfriend leaving me. No matter how good that movie may or may not have been, I couldn’t emotionally connect with it because I had already moved on. The same is true with my list this year. You will notice that phenomenally made films like Fences and Hidden Figures are not on my list. They are undeniably wonderful films and perhaps in time I can appreciate them more, but with a movie like Fences I couldn’t get the extremely powerful performance I once saw of James Earl Jones and Courtney B Vance out of my head and so the film didn’t resonate as much with me. In time I hope to revisit Fences along with many other films on this list.
Finally, perhaps the best movie made this year is the documentary OJ: Made in America, but seeing as I watched the film as a mini-series it felt disingenuous to include it on this list. It is a must see, incredibly timely and thought-provoking, and is as much about race and celebrity as it is about OJ.
My list is of the top 20 films of the year, but I will only go into detail on the top ten to save on time, energy, and of course, your patience.
20. The Lobster 19. Doctor Strange 18. Hacksaw Ridge 17. Green Room
16. Zootopia 15. Moana 14. Sully 13. La La Land
12. Captain America: Civil War/Deadpool 11. The Nice Guys
10. Moonlight
I will admit that Moonlight did not capture my creativity in the same way that it captured a lot of my friends. I believe that director Barry Jenkins is trying to accomplish too much with this film and so it constantly changes the movie’s defined category. As a viewer, while captivated by the majesty of his storytelling, I wasn’t always sure what story he wanted to tell. Nevertheless, it makes both my list and the top of the Academy Awards Best Picture list, after the biggest flub in Oscar history. I hope people won’t remember this film by the moments it had on stage during the Oscars, but rather by the moments of careful precision acted powerfully and perfectly by Naomie Harris, Ashton Sanders, and one of my favorite actors working today, Mahershala Ali. I remember first seeing Ali in 2004 in the role of Richard Tyler on The 4400 and thinking that he would go somewhere. Now thirteen years later, he’s an Academy Award winner. I’ve never seen an actor deserve an award for just one line of dialogue, but for those who’ve seen the movie, the line is obvious, “yes.” And I say, “yes,” to all the brilliant performers of Moonlight who truly make the movie special.
9. Other People
If you didn’t see this little movie, don’t worry, you aren’t the only one. I’m thankful that the Independent Spirit Awards saw fit to award Molly Shannon with a Best Supporting Actress Award. She deserves it for portraying Joanna, a mother suffering from terminal cancer trying to live out the final months of her life while still maintaining motherhood. I adored this little film shot through the perspective of Friday Night Lights alum Jesse Plemons who plays a gay, out-of-work comedy writer whose homosexuality is accepted by everyone other than his father. It intermixes tragedy with comedy, light with dark (perhaps a theme from 2016). The end result of the film is inevitable but still subtly satisfying as Plemons finally learns that unconditional love is still incredibly messy.
8. Don’t Think Twice
Comedian Mike Birbiglia’s follow-up to his 2012 comedy Sleepwalk with Me proves that Birbiglia’s brand of slightly off-kilter comedy works really well in low-budget independent films. I’ve heard this film compared to Annie Hall and I personally believe it's better told, where Annie Hall follows two people as their main story, this follows the nature of comedy and how it affects everyone it touches. The film is a heart-breaking hilarious ride in that its third act is definitely sad, but never loses the benefit of goodwill that the hilarity of the first act has carried. Comedians Chris Gethard, Tami Sagher, Kate Micucci, Keegan-Michael Key, and even Birbiglia contribute to the films overall success, but the real star of this movie is Gillian Jacobs. She proves that the comedy she provided on Community is only one facet of her skillset.
7. Eye in the Sky
Released in the early months of 2016, this film looked doomed from the start. It was just another re-hash of the same tired old action movie premise. Army + Terrorists + decisions = 1000 other movies; but what followed was certainly not another carbon copy of previous films. This is a taut and timely film about the morality of drone warfare and the inability of government to take responsibility. All of the actors do the majority of their work in a small amount of real estate, a bunker, a cabinet room, a chair piloting the drone, but each actor uses the excellent script and emotional dilemma created to the best of its advantages. This film is also the final live action acting piece of the beloved Alan Rickman who goes out on top. His second to last line of the film, “Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war,” is delivered with such experience and weight that whatever moral decisions you’ve made throughout the film, they're once again thrown into flux. Eye in the Sky does not telegraph the audience’s final perspective, but rather gives the gift of allowing you to make up your own mind.
6. 13th
This slot could’ve easily gone to any one of the magnificent documentaries made in 2016, but unfortunately I still have yet to see I Am Not Your Negro and Cameraperson. Instead the slot goes to 13th, a movie that I put off seeing as long as I could. A few years ago, I dramaturged a production that centered around the Prison Industrial Complex and racism within prison. Since I knew all of that information, I figured I had already watched 13th without actually seeing it. Boy was I wrong. The difference between my belief and reality is that while I knew the majority of the facts, I was not fully aware of the historical depth perception required in understanding the context of those facts. 13th might be the most re-watchable movie of 2016; not because of fun or frivolity, but because Ava DuVernay packs so much information into its 100 minute run time. DuVernay shines as a director in this piece, both from subject matter and from film composition. In 2015’s Selma, I took issue with the way in which LBJ was vilified, citing that George Wallace was already a villain, why do we need to add another one. In this film the villain, while painful to accept stares us in the mirror and doesn’t let go of our gaze. Available on Netflix, 13th is a powerful reminder that slavery didn’t die when the North won the Civil War, it simply evolved.
5. Midnight Special
Midnight Special is the less critically lauded Jeff Nichols film of 2016, being passed over for his impactful tale of the heart bridging the racial divide in Loving. For me and my tastes, the more complete film is Midnight Special. This is a strange little science fiction movie that left some fans wanting a different third act, but myself wanting to applaud. I love a good twist as much as anyone and in a film that combines cult worship with aliens; morality with murder it would make sense for a twist - if you’re looking at it as a larger story, but it doesn’t have to be that. When it boils down to the nitty gritty, this is a tale about a family, the father played extraordinarily by Hollywood’s most underrated actor, Michael Shannon, the mother, Kirsten Dunst who continues to turn in subtle, yet nuanced roles and the son played by newcomer, Jaeden Lieberher. This is a movie that shifts between tense drama and fulfilling wonderment. Deeply powerful and passionately potent, Midnight Special is much more than a simple science fiction movie.
4. Kubo and the Two Strings
Anyone who knows my taste in pop culture knows there are two things that I vehemently dislike: Pop Country Music and Animated Films; so it is surprising to find an animated film so high on my list. This year I found three films that were exceptions to the rule. I liked Zootopia, loved the music in Moana, and was completely mesmerized by Kubo. I’ve never seen an animated picture quite like this one. With the musical Avenue Q, it’s said that if after ten minutes you still see puppets acting then the show isn’t doing its job. The same can be said with Kubo, even while I was being dazzled by the artistry and diligent hard work that went into creating this animation, I stopped thinking of it as an animated film and instead as a well-acted drama with comedic relief. A much darker plot than I imagined and a much deeper film, I’ll be watching Kubo for many years to come.
3. Manchester by the Sea
Much like 13th, I held off watching this film for as long as I could. I was told over and over again just how much I would cry, how much it would rip my heart out. I held out for as long as I could, but when it reached redbox I couldn’t wait any longer. What I found out was that while this is certainly gut-wrenching, it’s also quite funny. I first heard about Kenneth Lonergan’s work in college while acting in scenes from This is Our Youth and then later when directing scenes from Lobby Hero. It took me a little while to come around to understand the true brilliance of this man. He writes real life, the dirty, the misunderstood, the lost so deftly and with so much kindness that it feels less like a work of dramatic fiction and more like an honest documentary made with actors. His direction of Sea was my highlight in direction this year. Lonergan understands shot composition much in the same way that 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen does. Both understand that the truth in filmmaking isn’t putting bows on scenes or directing moments that are “oscar worthy.” The true essence of filmmaking lives in the minutiae of everyday life. I laughed as much as I cried watching this film and I applaud both the Writer/Director Lonergan and stars Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, and newcomer Lucas Hedges.
2. Arrival
I have already written a review of Arrival that you can read in a previous post. As a recap, this was less of a movie going experience and more of a religious baptism. Something happened to me in that movie theatre that I may never be able to fully explain. At one point in the film, Jeremy Renner says to Amy Adams, “Are you dreaming in their language?” This line perhaps can sum up the film for me. I started to watch the film as if I was inside the film and I spoke and thought the same words as the character. Very trippy, very out of body, but entirely needed and spiritual. I am thankful for Arrival and the brilliant work of director Denis Villenueve. I cannot wait to see his sequel to Blade Runner.
1. Hell or High Water
In 2015, I watched Sicario and was incredibly critical of the film. While I found the cinematography stunning and beautiful, I didn’t love the script. I remember thinking that the screenwriter needed a lot more work before trying another film. Two years later and the director of Sicario is the director of Arrival and the screenwriter is the writer of Hell or High Water. As I said in the open, time changes everything. Hell or High Water is a western noir that details a family drama with the backdrop of the recession and the south. The setting for this film is as much a co-star as any actor in the film. I loved this movie. Going into it, I expected a simple bank robbery movie but what I got was a passionate film about the depth of love that lives within us all, the destruction of the South and the agrarian economy, and a look at the banking crisis all packed into a crime thriller. The final scene of this film between Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine can rival anything that is in No Country for Old Men. Taylor Sheridan (writer) and David Mackenzie (director) have crafted a masterpiece in storytelling. One that tells three significant stories simultaneously without the audience realizing they're watching more than one. I applaud the significant contribution this movie brings to the history of cinema and I am proud to name it my best picture of 2016. 
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