2016 has been a pretty rough year. How bad was it? David Bowie died in January and that was just the beginning. This was such a bad year that the joke about 2016 being a terrible year got old by summer. This has been a year of riots, mass shootings, natural disasters, celebrity deaths, societal and political turmoil, and the world at large losing its collective shit. But there have been a few bright spots among all the dread, fear and paranoia, and one of those bright spots was a surprising amount of good movies. Sure, there have been a couple flops and failed franchises here and there, but there were tons of new talent, hidden gems and even a couple crowd pleasing blockbusters that made for some great viewing experiences. Thankfully I got to go see more movies in the theater than I normally get to, which means I was able to put together a solid year-end list for the first time in a while. Full disclosure: this isn't some definitive list, just a list of my personal favorites ranked in the order of how much I liked them. I'm not a professional critic, I'm just some random asshole from Cleveland who really likes watching and talking about movies, so my opinions only count for so much. Plus, since I just started this blog about two months ago, this list should give you a good idea of my personal taste. With that said, these are my top 10 favorite movies of 2016.
10. Green Room
Some movies set out to be topical, others have topicality thrust upon them. This suspense thriller from the director of Blue Ruin about a punk band that turns hostage to a group of neo-Nazis after witnessing a murder seems uncomfortably relevant given recent events, but even on its own, it's still a nasty, nail biting, bone crunching piece of white knuckle ultra-violence. A little too violent, some might say. Seriously, there were some moments that had me gasping out loud and I'm usually not the type of person who winces at gore. I'm only putting this at #10 because there were some really dumb decisions that the main characters made that were a tad bit frustrating, and there was one particular actor who I felt was a bit underutilized, but those weren't enough to bring the experience down for me, and hopefully it won't for you. This movie also serves as a sad reminder of what a great talent we lost with the death of Anton Yelchin, who died in a car crash just a few weeks after this movie's premiere. Green Room only got a limited theatrical release, but should be easy enough to hunt down on blu-ray. Do not miss this one.
9. Hacksaw Ridge
Speaking of ultra-violence, Mel Gibson took the cake and ran with it in this intensely brutal war film. In my initial review, I went on about how the violence in this movie works in tangent with its themes about faith and conviction, and I still stand by those statements. In fact, after writing my review I showed it to my grandfather, who was alive during the War and was even in the Air Force for a while, and he told me it was one of the most realistic depictions of World War II he's seen since Saving Private Ryan, and that should really tell you something. This is definitely Mel Gibson's return to fom. His directing was great, the script strikes a good balance between its spiritual themes and the horrors of war without one overpowering the other, Andrew Garfield gives a tremendous performance, hell, even Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington were good in this movie. It does drag its feet a bit towards the end and the first act was a little too schmaltzy for my taste, but those were minor missteps in what was otherwise a fantastic film.
8. Kubo and the Two Strings
This has been a solid year for animation. All three of Disney's films were really good, Sausage Party was better than anyone was expecting, there have been a couple great releases from Japan, even The Little Prince, which was pulled from theaters at the last second and released on Netflix, was phenomenal. But the MVP award has to go to Kubo and the Two Strings, the latest output from Laika Studios. It didn't quite blow me away on a narrative level like Coraline or ParaNorman did since the plot is basically just your standard hero's journey, but everything else from the animation to the characters to the art style to the execution more than make up for it. If you should know anything about animation, especially stop-motion animation, it's that it's a painstakingly long and arduous process. There were several moments where I kept asking myself “How did they do that?”, and there was even a sequence in the middle of the credits where they showed the process of one of their more epic scenes that left me with my jaw on the floor. If you're sick of your kids making you watch The Secret Life of Pets or Sing for the millionth time, pick this one up and shake things up a bit.
7. The Witch
A puritan family from early 17th century New England is exiled from their town and set up a farm on the outskirts of the woods. When their infant son goes missing and their crops start to fail, they all start turning on each other and accuse each other of witchcraft, oblivious to the fact that an actual witch and the Devil are behind everything. To me, The Witch joins the likes of The Babadook and It Follows in a new wave of independent horror films that forsake the cheap jump scares that have been plaguing the genre in favor of atmosphere, suspense, and letting the viewer's imagination do all the scaring for it. But at its core, The Witch is a family drama. The scares mostly come from watching this family unravel itself, from us questioning how these characters will react to whatever happens next and what will push who to turn on whom. The film also sports an insane amount of detail to make it as authentic to the time period as possible, with director Robert Eggers having reportedly spent five years researching for the script. (At first I thought it was spelled “The VVitch” to appear hip and edgy or to avoid some sort of copyright, but apparently that's how it was spelled at the time.) There are excellent performances across the board as well, even from the children, but special props have to go to whoever trained that goat. Man, was that thing creepy.
6. The Lobster
So here's the premise: In the near future, single people are taken to a remote resort and given forty-five days to find a new partner. If they can't find one within that time frame, they are turned into an animal of their choosing and released into the wild. The place is like a cross between a luxury hotel and a mental institution, where couples are made based on inane common traits, you can get time extensions by hunting escaped attendees, those who break the rules are given hilariously horrifying punishments, and that's all before you meet the people who escaped to the woods and reject relationships wholesale. This film's dry, deadpan, absurdist sense of humor drenched in symbolism is a bit of an acquired taste, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a multi-faceted satire on the arbitrary nature of relationships in the modern age. Is being alone really only bad because society says so? Why must we endure insipid rituals to find a partner when we only have one thing in common? What is the one animal that no one wants to be turned into? These are just a few of the questions that rolled around in my head upon seeing this film. It's witty, awkward, unnatural, cruel, and utterly unforgettable.
5. Deadpool
For all intents and purposes, this movie shouldn't even exist, let alone be as good as it is. People were worried at first since Ryan Reynolds' portrayal of the titular character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was... not good, but fans have been clamoring for a proper Deadpool movie for years and demo reels started making the rounds at Comic-Con to the point that that 20th Century Fox gave in and funded the thing... only to give it an incredibly small budget, demand several rewrites of script, kneecap the production at every turn and release it in the cinematic dumping ground that is the late winter season. And guess what we got out of it? A hilarious, true to the original comedy / romance / revenge story about what is essentially the ultra-violent superhero version of Bugs Bunny, the highest grossing R-rated film of all time, and just the shot in the arm that the overly bloated superhero genre needed. Ryan Reynolds was born to play this character, the script remains faithful to the source material, provides a million laughs and makes sure that there's never a dull moment. Just goes to show that if you give the people what they want, they will reward you in return. Let's hope they can keep up the momentum for Deadpool 2.
4. Arrival
Arrival provided an intrigue in the alien invasion genre that Independence Day: Resurgence tried and failed to produce. It was also one of many movies this year that took an existing genre in a direction that I hadn't seen before. I've went into detail in my review about how it explores our perception of language, time and memory, and I honestly feel kind of bad about spoiling the end as it's truly one of those movies that it's best to watch blind. A lot of the best movies about aliens aren't so much about the aliens themselves as they are about what the aliens teach us about ourselves, like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., and Contact. Arrival fits comfortably in that camp. But special props have to go to Amy Adams. She gave two amazing performances this year (the other being Nocturnal Animals), but I'd say this was the superior role since her character provided the perfect amount of humanity to bridge the gap between us and the extra-terrestrial visitors. Hopefully, this will also be the movie that wakes the world up to Denis Villeneuve's genius. After this, I definitely can't wait to see how he handles the new Blade Runner.
3. La La Land
Probably the greatest musical to hit the silver screen since Chicago, La La Land left me high on life by the time the credits rolled and cemented Damien Chazelle's new position as the master of marrying film and music. Even if you don't like musicals, this is still a masterclass piece of film-making with its intricate one-shot camera work, elaborate dance numbers, lush, vibrant cinematography, and Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling bringing movie star charisma to what are essentially everyday people. It pays respect to the past while also establishing its own identity. It's worth the price of admission for the ending alone, which pulls all the stops and becomes the magnificent amalgamation of everything that the movie is. Guaranteed to sweep the Oscars, and deservedly so.
2. Moonlight
Let's get this out of the way: Moonlight isn't my favorite movie of the year, but it's without a doubt the best. This movie got a lot of inevitable comparisons to Boyhood, both in its premise and its accurate portrayal of the turmoils of growing up, but despite all that the main character in Boyhood had to go through, he still had a fairly well off, privileged life. Not only does Moonlight not have to rely on a filming gimmick to get people's attention, but it makes its protagonist a million times more relatable by stacking the deck against him. Sure, not everyone who will see this movie knows what it's like to be black or gay or to grow up in a tough neighborhood (myself included), but everyone regardless of who they are or where they come from can recall the people and moments that shaped our identities. And that's basically the best description of Moonlight that I can give: a series of critical moments in the life of this one person. We'll be talking about this one for years to come.
1. Swiss Army Man
My favorite movie of 2016 is the one where Daniel Radcliffe plays a farting corpse. Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you are. Like The Lobster, your ability to enjoy this movie probably hinges on how much you can buy into its bizarre premise. In this case, Paul Dano plays the survivor of a shipwreck on a tiny desert island who's about to hang himself when he finds Daniel Radcliffe as a dead body that's still got a bit of gas in him, so he straddles him and uses his farts to ride him across the water like a jet ski to dry land. And it only gets weirder from there. At once a survival story, a heartfelt buddy comedy, a character study of a complicated mind, and body horror played for laughs, Swiss Army Man is quite simply one of the most original movies I've seen in a long time. That alone would've earned it a spot on this list, but what propels it to the #1 spot is its layers. Once you get past the ridiculous setup and the gross-out humor, it becomes an emotionally investing tale about loneliness, mental illness, and personal identity. As someone who has struggled with all three of those, this movie grabbed me with its rigor mortis grip. Trust me on this, Swiss Army Man may be a tough hurdle to get over, but there's a well of exploration and enjoyment for those who can make it to the other side of the wall.
Honorable mentions: 10 Cloverfield Lane, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Don't Breathe, The Edge of Seventeen, Finding Dory, The Little Prince, Manchester by the Sea, The Neon Demon, The Nice Guys, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Sausage Party, Zootopia
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