Also, as always, this list was hard to trim down to a neat 10, but either because of an unusual glut of fantastic film in 2016 or just an unusual preciseness in my own watching habits, this year was particularly hard. I could have easily made a top 20 and still dismayed at leaving some on the cutting room floor. But such is the artificially inflicted pain of list-making.
Okay, I'll get on with the list now. Don't forget to tell me your own favorite movies, since this is nowhere near a comprehensive list of good 2016 cinema.
[As with my best 2016 music list, I'm linking to my original reviews for the films, provided I reviewed them. Unlike the music list, I'm writing short blurbs, too. It looked too bare without them.]
Favorite Movies
1. Green Room
It's not like a vicious conflict between urban leftists and rural fascists is in anyway relevant to this year. Nope. Can't see a connection there. Let's say there were a connection, though. This movie might be pretty brilliant, and not just for political posturing; it's the tightest thriller I've seen in years and a phenomenal piece of character drama, to boot. Every death is a blow.
[Read the original review here]
2. The Edge of Seventeen
I can't hype this movie enough. Steinfeld is Oscar-worthy. The characters are miles more human than those in most ostensibly adult-oriented movies. The depiction of adolescent obnoxiousness as an off-shoot of personal tragedy is spot-on. The stakes are perfect. I originally said I should wait for the theatrical high to wear off. Well, it has, and I'll say it still: this is one of the best coming-of-age movies of all time.
[Read original review here]
3. The Nice Guys
Nothing complicated going on here. This movie just makes me laugh very, very hard. Crowe and Gosling make a wonderful odd couple, and Gosling in particular shows a great capacity for physical comedy. It's so funny.
[Read original review here]
4. Kubo and the Two Strings
In a cultural moment that many have come to declare "post-facts," Kubo's message of the ability for story to override reality for both good and evil feels even more incendiary than it would have already. Even better, the animation is breathtaking.
[Read original review here]
5. Lemonade
Yes, I'm counting it as a movie. An awesome movie.
[Read original review here]
6. Moonlight
It's a structural experiment, sure, and a treatise on identity. But in practice, neither of those rather lofty aims end up feeling any loftier than the sand under these characters' feet. The drama of this movie's three vignettes is both profound and grittily tangible.
[Read original review here]
7. Hell or High Water
This movie hits its climax and then just keeps going. Normally, I'd reckon that as a fatal flaw; with a film as whip-smart as this one, though, it's what ends up making it great.
[Read original review here]
8. Eye in the Sky
The only way you'll have a tenser time in a movie this year is if you watch my #1. It's not a "fun" movie, not with its pained ambivalence on drone warfare, but it's a riveting one nonetheless.
[Read original review here]
9. Moana
Moana has a deeper bench of songs than any Disney movie in 20 years, and that's just one of its many pleasures. Really, the whole package is just so sweet.
[Read original review here]
10. Hush
Its "home invasion, but what if she was deaf?" premise should be gimmicky. But the execution is borderline brilliant. My review said that this would be fighting The Witch for the best horror movie of 2016, and, well, look who made the list.
[Read original review]
Appendix: Miscellaneous Movies Also Worth Noting
Other Best Horror Movie: The Witch—But seriously, The Witch is great, and I give it major kudos for committing to the Puritan language and nutso creepy ending.
Best Additional Evidence That This Was Just a Fantastic Year for Horror: Lights Out, Don't Breathe, et al—There were so many good horror movies this year, y'all.
Is It a Movie or a Miniseries? I Don't Know or Care Because It's Incredible: O.J.: Made in America—If I were more confident that this searing dissection of American celebrity and racial politics is a proper movie, it would rest easily at the #1 spot on the list. Instead, here it sits, with nothing to show for its excellence except my full-throated recommendation, regardless of the medium it belongs with.
Best Evolution from Old Fuddy-Duddy: Knight of Cups—Terrence Malick isn't exactly in dire need of update, but after the waifish To the Wonder, this high-concept urban-spiritual tale feels fresh and vital.
Best Same Old, Same Old from Old Fuddy Duddy: Café Society—Look, by this point, you know what you're in for with a Woody Allen movie and whether or not you're going to be into that territory. Me, I'm still loving all the incisive iterations of his stable of pet themes when he's able to craft movies as aching and gorgeous as this one.
Best Portrayal of People I Would Never Be Inclined to Give the Time of Day to in Real Life: Everybody Wants Some!!—Spending two hours with a group of athletes jumping from college party to college party as they try to impress ladies with their cleverness in an attempt to get laid sounds like "Michael O'Malley Repellent: The Movie." But lo and behold, we're instead graced with a funny and compassionate two hours that paints some of the most enjoyably idiosyncratic characters of the year. Willoughby for life!
Best Worst Cringe: Weiner—The most compelling tragedy of this riveting, excruciating documentary is not any of the many scandals that Anthony Weiner invites the camera to record but rather the knowledge that all us 2016 viewers bring to the table, which is that even these scandals aren't the last of the Weiner shenanigans!
Best Poignancy via Farting Corpse: Swiss Army Man—It really is poignant. And it really does feature a farting corpse (not even the most ridiculous this corpse does [cue Jurassic Park theme]).
Best Religious Work: Hail, Caesar!—By this time, I hope the characterization of the Coen brothers as nihilistic snarksters has been long put to rest, and if it hasn't, here comes Hail, Caesar! to try to tuck it in once more. A silly, sardonic movie, to be sure, but once that, like Inside Llewyn Davis and A Serious Man and No Country for Old Men and several more before it, is imbued with a sincere and even desperate quest for meaning within the universe.
Second-Best Religious Work: The Innocents—The Innocents is, honestly, a better movie overall than Hail, Caesar! But it's not better at being religious, settling on more humanist pursuits than the more sublimely focused Coens are. But it's still very good, compelling stuff.
Most in Need of Political Clarity: Captain America: Civil War—In theory, this is a movie about ideologies. But it does so little to flesh out the battling ideas of Captain America and Iron Man that it remains a movie about fists. We do get that kickin' airport fight scene, though, so it's not all a loss.
Best Eyeball: The Neon Demon—You'll know it when you see it.
Best Eyeball, Runner Up: The Lobster—You'll know it when you don't see it.
The "I Can't Believe I Haven't Talked About This Movie in This Post Yet" Award: Arrival—So very good. So very exploitative of linguistic theory. And here it is at the bottom of this post.
Best Non-2016 Movie I Saw For the First Time in 2016: Malcolm X—My original review gets at it best, but I haven't been so profoundly shaken by a movie since... well, I guess since I saw Make Way for Tomorrow last year.
Gotta stop sometime, so I might as well stop here. But I do so reluctantly! 10 Cloverfield Lane, Louder Than Bombs, Rogue One, Finding Dory, both Werner Herzog docs, Imperium, The Shallows, Love & Friendship, and like a bazillion other good-to-great movies from 2016 are still left unacknowledged. 2016 was a super solid cinematic year, and I'm sure all y'all out there have your own favorites that lie similarly neglected. So chime in! I'd love to hear from everyone.
Until next time!
Best Additional Evidence That This Was Just a Fantastic Year for Horror: Lights Out, Don't Breathe, et al—There were so many good horror movies this year, y'all.
Is It a Movie or a Miniseries? I Don't Know or Care Because It's Incredible: O.J.: Made in America—If I were more confident that this searing dissection of American celebrity and racial politics is a proper movie, it would rest easily at the #1 spot on the list. Instead, here it sits, with nothing to show for its excellence except my full-throated recommendation, regardless of the medium it belongs with.
Best Evolution from Old Fuddy-Duddy: Knight of Cups—Terrence Malick isn't exactly in dire need of update, but after the waifish To the Wonder, this high-concept urban-spiritual tale feels fresh and vital.
Best Same Old, Same Old from Old Fuddy Duddy: Café Society—Look, by this point, you know what you're in for with a Woody Allen movie and whether or not you're going to be into that territory. Me, I'm still loving all the incisive iterations of his stable of pet themes when he's able to craft movies as aching and gorgeous as this one.
Best Portrayal of People I Would Never Be Inclined to Give the Time of Day to in Real Life: Everybody Wants Some!!—Spending two hours with a group of athletes jumping from college party to college party as they try to impress ladies with their cleverness in an attempt to get laid sounds like "Michael O'Malley Repellent: The Movie." But lo and behold, we're instead graced with a funny and compassionate two hours that paints some of the most enjoyably idiosyncratic characters of the year. Willoughby for life!
Best Worst Cringe: Weiner—The most compelling tragedy of this riveting, excruciating documentary is not any of the many scandals that Anthony Weiner invites the camera to record but rather the knowledge that all us 2016 viewers bring to the table, which is that even these scandals aren't the last of the Weiner shenanigans!
Best Poignancy via Farting Corpse: Swiss Army Man—It really is poignant. And it really does feature a farting corpse (not even the most ridiculous this corpse does [cue Jurassic Park theme]).
Best Religious Work: Hail, Caesar!—By this time, I hope the characterization of the Coen brothers as nihilistic snarksters has been long put to rest, and if it hasn't, here comes Hail, Caesar! to try to tuck it in once more. A silly, sardonic movie, to be sure, but once that, like Inside Llewyn Davis and A Serious Man and No Country for Old Men and several more before it, is imbued with a sincere and even desperate quest for meaning within the universe.
Second-Best Religious Work: The Innocents—The Innocents is, honestly, a better movie overall than Hail, Caesar! But it's not better at being religious, settling on more humanist pursuits than the more sublimely focused Coens are. But it's still very good, compelling stuff.
Most in Need of Political Clarity: Captain America: Civil War—In theory, this is a movie about ideologies. But it does so little to flesh out the battling ideas of Captain America and Iron Man that it remains a movie about fists. We do get that kickin' airport fight scene, though, so it's not all a loss.
Best Eyeball: The Neon Demon—You'll know it when you see it.
Best Eyeball, Runner Up: The Lobster—You'll know it when you don't see it.
The "I Can't Believe I Haven't Talked About This Movie in This Post Yet" Award: Arrival—So very good. So very exploitative of linguistic theory. And here it is at the bottom of this post.
Best Non-2016 Movie I Saw For the First Time in 2016: Malcolm X—My original review gets at it best, but I haven't been so profoundly shaken by a movie since... well, I guess since I saw Make Way for Tomorrow last year.
Gotta stop sometime, so I might as well stop here. But I do so reluctantly! 10 Cloverfield Lane, Louder Than Bombs, Rogue One, Finding Dory, both Werner Herzog docs, Imperium, The Shallows, Love & Friendship, and like a bazillion other good-to-great movies from 2016 are still left unacknowledged. 2016 was a super solid cinematic year, and I'm sure all y'all out there have your own favorites that lie similarly neglected. So chime in! I'd love to hear from everyone.
Until next time!
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