The year was 2016.
That’s what the year was last year, because it’s now 2017. I won’t bore you with the mathematics behind that, so let’s get to the point. 2016 could be characterized by a lot of things, but the way I thought best depicted it was the “3-1” year. The year of comebacks. Yes, the Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals series to beat the Warriors. The Cubs came back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series to beat the Indians. The Patriots came back from a metaphorical 3-1 deficit in the Superbowl to beat the Falcons. Donald Trump came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat Hillary Clinton in the US Presidential Election.
Very much akin to the rest of the world in 2016, the movies of yesteryear had a similar “3-1” structure. I will say it here and now−ever since I’ve been documenting what movies I’ve been seeing every year, 2016 was the worst year for film to date. Not only did I see the most movies ever in my life in one year (a little over 50), most of them turned out to be incredibly “meh,” “alright,” or “okay.”
However, the power of “3-1” prevailed. Sort of.
Most of the best movies I saw were released within the last two months of the year. Had it not been for November or December, my list would have been incredibly different. I probably wouldn’t even have a top 10. While I would still say that this was my weakest list ever since I started doing this, it had a fair amount of gems and films that I could really write home about. With that being said, let’s delve into some honorable mentions before we get nasty.
Honorable Mentions:
Sully (Grade: B/80)
I find it hard for anyone to dislike Tom Hanks. I’m not a huge fan of him, nor can I say I’ve seen a ton of his movies. He’s just a solid actor and has the Oscar hardware to boot. He and Aaron Eckhart did a wonderful job fleshing out this movie about the real life events of the Miracle on the Hudson. For a movie about a plane crashing into a river, it surprisingly did not drag or feel boring. Clint Eastwood did a great job keeping the viewer intrigued throughout.
10 Cloverfield Lane (Grade: B+/81)
Girl wakes up in a bunker with her leg chained to the wall. Yep. I found this self-contained thriller to be really enthralling for its entire duration, with a good amount of mystery and suspense involved. I’m a fan of Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s acting and face, but John Goodman does a great job as the enigmatic caretaker of the bunker. This is definitely one of those movies that is better if you don’t know much about it, other than the fact that yes, it is in some way connected to the not-so-great Cloverfield movie.
Edge of Seventeen (Grade: B+/81)
This movie came out in November, so it’s the first of our 3-1 byproducts. This movie was surprisingly good! I remember seeing the trailer (woops) back in July, and thought to myself, “well this looks like just another teen flick.” Well, I wasn’t completely wrong. It is just another angsty teen movie, but it was done very well. Any movie can be “just another X movie” and be great, as long as it has quality direction and performances!
Hailee Steinfeld does a great job carrying the lead role, as she makes a very convincing high schooler going through a life crisis pondering her own existence. I particularly liked Woody Harrelson’s performance as Steinfeld’s stoic history teacher, although the stuff he says would definitely get him fired in real life. This movie captures the inner workings of high school social life well, without coming off as too cliche. It had a couple of moments that were really hilarious and made me laugh out loud.
Alright, here we go! Onto the top 10:
10. Jackie (Grade: B+/82)
Our first December movie. If you intend on watching this movie, prepare for a beautifully made, sorrowful depiction of Jackie Kennedy’s life after her husband was assassinated. The pacing of the movie is not for everyone, as it definitely feels longer than its 99 minute count. Natalie Portman really carries the movie with her excellent portrayal of Jackie (of whom I had no idea sounded so weird) through the stages of grief upon her husband’s assassination. There were some parts of the cinematography that bothered me, mostly the frequently uncomfortable close-ups. There are other shots that beautifully compose the loneliness she feels in preparation of stepping down as the First Lady and during the funeral.
I didn’t know much of Jackie Kennedy’s life, but based on what I saw in the movie it showed that she did her best to honor her husband in the best way that she knew how, even if it may have seemed foolish at times in the eyes of her peers and close friends. The movie was a great character study into how we cope with loss in different ways, along with the pressures of a nation on your shoulder. Again, Portman is very transformative in her role and submits her ballot as a strong candidate for Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards.
9. Captain America: Civil War (Grade: B+/82)
The fact that I’ve included a Marvel movie in my top 10 speaks to the fact of either how bad 2016 was for movies, or how good the third Captain America movie was. I’ll let you be the judge. To preface that statement, some of you might already know that I’m not a huge Marvel fan. No MCU movie (that is the Disney Marvel movies) has ever been in my top 10 for any year. Do I think most Marvel movies suck? Absolutely not. Do I wish DC Comics (my preferred comic book distributor) could pump out movies as consistently good as Marvel? Definitely. Do I think that once you’ve seen one Marvel movie, you’ve seen them all? For the most part, yes. I find that their strictly to-the-books formula of incessant witty banter, well shot action, dazzling visuals and consistently weak villains are prevalent in about 90% of their movies.
I’m not a huge fan of the shared universe construct for movies because it makes for none of the films to stand well on its own, but I think Civil War did a good job of doing so while integrating the lore of their franchise in a way that was very enjoyable. This movie is living proof that you can include a bunch of superheroes (some for the first time) in an all-out brawl and not suck. While I don’t think the stakes were raised very high for this so-called “War,” there was just enough drama and character development to keep me invested throughout. Take notes, Batman vs Superman.
8. Eye in the Sky (Grade: B+/83)
Similar to 10 Cloverfield Lane, this was a very well made, self contained thriller that kind of flew under the radar. I didn’t really have any expectations going into this movie but it ended up being very thrilling, very suspenseful and had great performances from the entire cast. Helen Mirren did a great job as the lead commander, and it was nice seeing Alan Rickman perform one last time (I believe this was his last appearance in a movie). This was also the first movie I saw with Aaron Paul post-Breaking Bad, and he did a great job as well.
The strength of this movie is that it does a lot with very little, and it creates a compelling drama that sheds an interesting perspective on the use of drone strikes in the battlefield. One decision requires the effort and approval of many, which I thought was fleshed out very nicely in this movie. The pacing was very fitting with the urgent and cautious tone of the narrative, and had a very thrilling finale.
7. Everybody Wants Some!! (Grade: B+/84)
I really enjoyed this movie.
This is probably the most controversial pick out of my top 10, as most of my friends that I recommended this movie to were not very fond of it. I spent a decent amount of time defending this movie, so I guess I’ll just reiterate here:
I’m a sucker for slice-of-life movies. This movie is the spiritual successor to Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, which is a movie about a bunch of high schoolers who party it up after graduating from senior year back in the 70s. Linklater’s name alone incites mixed reactions, as his divisive but critically acclaimed Boyhood managed to capture the nostalgia and hearts of viewers back in 2014 (including me, as it was #10 on my top 10 that year).
Similar to Dazed and Confused, the movie is about a kid entering college and spending a week getting to know his future teammates on the baseball team he got recruited to. Linklater does an amazing job setting the atmosphere of the 80s, which really drew me into his world and story. All the characters are quirky and funny in their own way, and the dialogue felt very natural and unforced. I loved the feeling that this movie gave me, of just being an outside observer and hangin with the bros for a weekend. While I can’t relate to their active pursuits of drinking and chasing girls at parties, the movie really emanates charm from each of their characters and shows an outlook on life I most likely would never have experienced for myself. At the end of the movie, I felt like I had spent a fun, interesting and enlightening weekend with a couple of dudes I met, and if a movie is capable of making me feel that immersed then I will definitely enjoy it.
6. Silence (Grade: A-/86)
Another December movie! After I initially saw this movie, I gave it a B+. Then I thought about the movie for an entire week. I usually don’t think about movies for that long, even ones I really really like. Silence is about a movie where Liam Neeson gets taken for once, and his two Jesuit disciples journey to the island of Japan to find him. This movie has a lot to say about how we perceive faith, religiousness, persecution and identity in our lives. After much reflection and discussion among my friends, I think it’s safe to say that this is NOT a Christian movie, but it is a movie about Christianity.
I myself am a Christian and grew up in a Christian household, so I felt like there was a never a moment in my life where I didn’t identify as a Christian. However, I still had to question my own identity, and my own faith, to make sure that it was mine and not something my parents instilled in me. While I don’t agree theologically with what I think Martin Scorsese is trying to say in this movie, I believe that he beautifully touches up on the aspect of faith and the cost of having faith in a world of persecution. This not only applies to Christianity but to all religions, so it’s not exclusive to my non-Christian readers.
In addition to the powerful themes and emotions that this movie evokes, it’s also a beautiful looking film. The shots of the island convey the vast reaches of nature, along with the loneliness that the protagonists face. Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver are both excellent in their portrayals as Portuguese Jesuit missionaries, although I’ll be honest I’m not sure how authentic their accents are. There’s a particular scene in the third act where Garfield is having a heated exchange with someone that I found to be deeply impactful and powerful. Overall I think this movie requires a watch from anyone who professes in a higher existence and purpose in life.
5. The Nice Guys (Grade: A-/87)
I think out of all the movies on my top 10 list, this was the one I had the most fun with. For those of you who don’t know, it is well documented within my close movie buff friends that I hated Iron Man 3. That’s what made this movie all the more surprising because the same director, Shane Black, managed to create this gem of a movie. This movie definitely evokes the same feeling of his previous written work for Lethal Weapon as it is also a buddy cop movie, although this time between Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Everyone in this movie gives a great performance, and it’s just absolutely hilarious. There’s also a decent mystery case that the two have to share, but the real entertainment lies in the relationship between Crowe and Gosling. I also have to give a special shoutout to Angourie Rice, the girl who plays Gosling’s daughter in the movie. Oh my goodness, she was so good!!! I really love it when kids have great non-annoying roles in movies.
The Nice Guys is a very rare movie in the film space of this day and age. We long for sequels, adaptations and comic book movies, but rarely do we get an original movie where it’s just two cops solving a mystery while hilarity ensues. Nothing about this movie sounds appealing, other than the fact that it’s GOOD.
4. Kimi No Na Wa (Grade: A-/88)
This was a surprising pick for me because I don’t really watch anime, and haven’t for the past ten years or so. I’ve fallen out of touch with Japanese culture, although I’m quite aware of their tropes and antics in movies and games, etc. With that being said, this is probably one of the best anime movies I’ve ever seen. Now be warned, if you are intrigued by this movie at all or have heard good things about it (recently overtook Spirited Away as the highest grossing animated movie of all time in Japan), this is a movie that you definitely do NOT want to know anything about. I was advised the same thing, and pretty much went in blind watching this movie.
If there’s anything that I can tell you, it’s basically a movie about how a small town girl meets a city boy in very peculiar circumstances. That’s about all I can tell you in terms of story. Outside of that, I can tell you that this movie had great chemistry between characters, great humor, a very intriguing story and overall just beautifully crafted animations. I’ve never seen an anime movie quite like it, and I think people will be talking about this movie for years to come.
3. Manchester by the Sea (Grade: A-/90)
Well well well, another November movie! I’m not familiar with Kenneth Lonergan’s work, but after seeing this I’ll definitely be tuning in to see what he has in store for the future. Manchester by the Sea was a beautifully made film about tragedy, fatherhood, and coping with grief. It definitely classifies as a slice-of-life type movie, as it surrounds Casey Affleck’s character looking after his nephew after finding out his brother passes away (not really a spoiler since it’s all in the very beginning). I personally don’t have much to relate to the characters in this movie, but all the performances by everyone really capture the tragic nature of loss in our lives, especially those close to us. Affleck gives a really amazing performance, and the best way I can describe it is in his subtlety. He doesn’t ham it up and go mega-grief mode, with epic crying scenes or anything, but you can tell that inside he is deeply conflicted and struck hard by the misgivings in his life. Lucas Hedges also gives a great performance as the nephew, and although I felt like some of his actions and motivations weren’t always exactly in line with how grief is typically manifested, I felt that his character was well realized and beautiful in his subtlety as well.
I think this movie is kind of a hard watch as well because of how closely this could hit home for any of us, at any moment. Sometimes sorrow is expressed in very different ways, and sometimes it is not expressed at all but bottled inside, waiting to explode. This movie does an amazing job of showing how often we take for granted the people in our lives, and the small moments that make us human. I wasn’t ever really a huge fan of Affleck’s acting, but I’m definitely on board now and have no problem hailing him as the superior Affleck actor (not that he had much strong competition with Ben anyway).
2. La La Land (Grade: A/92)
This film is the definition of movie magic.
It’s no surprise that this November movie has made it to the top of the list, as it has topped the lists of film enthusiasts worldwide. Now, if you haven’t seen it yet for some reason, don’t let all the accolades and heaping piles of praise that this movie has received distract you from how good it is. I think when movies get a little too much coverage, the hype can really bring down the enjoyment factor of a movie. However, I think it’d be nearly impossible for you to not feel the least bit of happiness watching this movie. Just go in expecting a good time.
I don’t think I need to say much of what’s already been said by thousands of people. Emma Stone gives an amazing and charming performance; Gosling is having his own version of Matthew McConaughey’s “McConnaissance” back in 2014, appearing in critical darlings like The Nice Guys and this movie. I’m on board the hype train for the “Goslingaissance,” as he really impressed me with his wit, charm, and freakin SICK SELF-TAUGHT PIANO SKILLS PRIOR TO FILMING THE MOVIE. Their chemistry together is so well done, as they’ve had practice seeing as how this is like their third romantic movie pairing. All the music is great and originally composed, the cinematography captures the beauty of the often nasty looking Los Angeles, and should be a treat for the eyes for my native SoCal viewers. This movie just makes you feel HAPPY, amongst a few other emotions.
I started following the Director Damien Chazelle’s work after he did Whiplash, which was my favorite movie of 2014. His eye for direction, editing, and composition when it comes to music-related movies is impeccable and just a visual feast for moviegoers. While thematically, La La Land is probably the polar opposite to that of Whiplash, it’s able to conjure up a feeling of epicness similar to his previous work. While I still prefer Whiplash as my favorite Chazelle movie, La La Land is a movie I’m glad people are talking about. It is well deserving of its praise and is a movie that is hard to not fall in love with.
1. Arrival (Grade: A/93)
Wow.
That phrase pretty much summed up my first viewing of Arrival, which is also the only movie that I saw twice in theaters this year. The last movie I saw more than once in theaters was back in 2012, so I think it’s kind of safe to say that I love this movie. This November movie was the first film I saw to really jump-start the 3-1 campaign for 2016, as it was an incredibly strong breath of fresh air amidst the long streak of meh movies I saw throughout the year.
This is a prime example of a movie where it’s best to know little to nothing about. Yes, it is a sci-fi movie and yes, it is about aliens. That is all you need to know. It didn’t take me much effort to avoid all the trailers for this movie, and man, did it pay off. Nothing can replicate the feeling of suspense and thrill I had when they encountered the aliens for the first time. This movie is so freakin well shot and so well directed, you’ll have forgotten that this movie has little to no action. I found that as I’ve gotten older, the need for explosive action in movies has become less and less of a factor of enjoyment for me, and the experience of having an enthralling story is way more appealing instead. And no, this isn’t because I’ve become more mature or think action in movies is childish, it’s actually more because I think action in video games is much greater realized and presented better (but maybe that’s a conversation for another day). However, I think that when it comes to the sci-fi genre, watching alien ships blow up and lasers screech across the screen gets kind of tiring for me. Surely there are better ways to represent aliens in cinema, right?
Arrival answers that question with an emphatic YES. Amy Adams give arguably my favorite performance of the year and definitely the best of her career (I still can’t believe she got snubbed for a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars), and the direction of Denis Villeneuve really made this an unforgettable movie. The story is so brilliant and complex, but somehow presented in a very palatable and simplified nature. The music is also brilliant and haunting at times, which made for a very atmospheric viewing. The way that this movie approaches an “alien invasion” is so refreshing to see, especially when it doesn’t invite the typical tropes of all-out war and explosions.
Don’t read about this movie. Don’t watch any trailers. Just go see it. If you enjoy sci-fi but more importantly enjoy a good story, this is a great choice for you. This movie tells a surprising tale of love, loss, and the human race. This was the movie that saved 2016.
No Trailers. 