My Top 10 Favorite Films of 2016
Now that I’ve finally catched up on the movies I wanted to see from 2016, I’d like to share my thoughts on some of my favorites. In list form! Cause who doesn’t love a good list? This has turned out to be an incredibly lengthy and self-indulgent post, so whoever actually reads the whole thing gets a cookie.
Instead of explaining all the technical aspects of why these films are effective, I wanna just try and explain how and why they resonated with me. One of the things that has always interested me about film, and art in general, is how it can teach me things about people. How they think and feel. What their dreams are like. I’m tired of all the snobbery and talk of “objective” criticism in the world of film. I’m gonna try and avoid it as much as possible.
I’ll also add a spoiler section on some of these reviews for those who’ve either seen the film already or who just don’t care about spoilers. (It should be apparent that I recommend all these movies and that I think you should see them before having them spoiled, but not all movies are for everyone and I figure some might just wanna read my thoughts.)
One last thing, I don't wanna waste space describing the plot for each movie if I don't have to, so I have each title linked to its respective IMDB page if you want to find out more about the films.
One last thing, I don't wanna waste space describing the plot for each movie if I don't have to, so I have each title linked to its respective IMDB page if you want to find out more about the films.
So without further ado:
#10: Fences
I’m always fascinated by movies that can successfully hold my attention for two hours without having a lot of action or location changes. It’s just people talking. When a dialogue-driven film works. It really works. And Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington) is a fascinating character. He's really charismatic in the beginning and it's fun to watch him joke around and tell stories to his friends and interact with his wife, Rose (Viola Davis). Then, slowly but surely you see more of what’s going on beneath the surface. The writing is so nuanced that it’s hard to explain what the movie is about, exactly. For the whole first act, you’re just simply learning about the characters and watching them interact. But the plot sure thickens when it does, I’ll say that much.
This might be kind of a theme throughout this list, but I love stories about family. Ones that feel honest, complex, and raw, but not pessimistic. Seeing the dysfunction, but also seeing the beauty. A redemptive storyline. I’m always a sucker for those films. Troy does make some pretty fatal mistakes, though, but it’s fascinating to watch and interesting to see how his actions and words affect his sons. It seems like Troy is envious of the opportunities that they have and that he didn’t. All of that is under the guise of his demanding of loyalty to their family. There’s a lot more going on in this story than just that, but that’s just one thing. I don't need to write a full essay here. Solid little film though with a lot of depth.
#9: A Monster Calls
Spoiler Territory:
Some people have said this film is kinda predictable, but I disagree. Even though the monster basically explains to Conor the basic beats of the film’s plot (he’s gonna tell Conor 3 stories and then Conor’s gonna tell the monster about his recurring nightmare), each story has a surprising moral behind it or has an interesting real-world effect on Conor’s life. And I like how you think you know the truth behind Conor’s nightmare, which is shown to us at the top of the film: He’s holding on to his mother’s hand as she’s hanging over a giant gaping hole in the ground. His truth is that he feels like his mother’s life is slipping through his fingers, right? No, the truth is that he wants it to end. In his nightmare he actually let his mother go. He could’ve held on longer, but it’s just too hard for him to bear the pain of watching her suffer day in and day out, and he feels awful about it. In that way, he feels the weight and the guilt of her continually failing health as if it’s his fault that she’s getting worse. But by honestly coming to terms with that feeling and letting go of that guilt, he is finally able to come to terms with his grief. Deep stuff! I also really like Conor’s relationship arc with his Grandma (Sigourney Weaver). At first you think she’s gonna be this stereotypically snobby, condescending old lady character, but you end up sympathizing with her and you get to see her and Conor’s relationship strengthened by the end. Beautiful film.
#8: La La Land
Spoiler Territory:
But then the film throws some ideas at you that are kinda tough to swallow. Mia and Sebastian both end up fulfilling their dreams, but they have to split apart and sacrifice their relationship in order to achieve them, spending the rest of their lives wondering if they made the right choice. In the middle of the film, Sebastian tries to make some compromises in order to financially support his and Mia’s relationship, but then they both feel like he’s selling out. The movie doesn’t even really show you what their lives are like now that they have what they were striving for. It’s almost an aside that they’ve made it. And, when you think about it, it’s not really a sad ending. The two leads get everything they ever wanted except each other. That’s pretty good, right? They’re both alive n' all. There aren’t even any tears at the end. I mean, c’mon, there are much sadder endings than that! But I think that’s the point. The film is saying that you sometimes need to make sacrifices in order to achieve your dreams, but it forces you to not be totally okay with that. It suggests that the reason many of us dream in the first place is to connect with other people and the world around us and maybe, if that's why we dream, sometimes sacrificing a particular version of the dream in order to maintain a relationship is worth it. Maybe. I don't know, I could be reading too much into it, but since I'm finding myself invested enough to think this hard about it, I'm putting it as my 8th favorite film of the year.
#7: Silence
A long hard sit to be sure, but definitely one of the better movies about the Christian faith I’ve ever seen (though that’s not saying much). It’s not for everyone. I think Hacksaw Ridge might be a more crowd pleasing alternative, but I like this one better. It’s darker, more complex. This one also took me a couple viewings to better understand what was going on with the ending. I probably wouldn’t like the film as much if I wasn’t as interested in the subject matter, being a person of faith myself. I found it really interesting learning about this period in history and watching these two opposing ideologies go head-to-head. Not for the faint of heart, but I definitely recommend giving it a chance if you wanna see the complexities of faith presented in cinema.
Spoiler Territory:
The film asks questions more than it gives answers, but the answers it does give are ones I haven’t really seen expressed before in a movie. It suggests that laying down your life for the sake of others or for the sake of Christ doesn’t always mean laying down your physical life. That’s all I’ll say because it’d take up a lot of space for me to write out all the factors involved in Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Ferreira’s (Liam Neeson) predicament. It’s very muddy waters and I’m not sure if I totally agree with all the ideas the film is presenting, but I think it captures the idea of Christlike sacrifice in a very unique and compelling way.
Spoiler Territory:
I’ve always liked John Goodman, but I’ve never seen him be quite this intimidating. It was pretty awesome. There’s even some moments of dark humor with his character which I loved, such as the scene when they’re playing charades. I do also like how the film kinda lulls you into a false state of security for a brief period. It’s not just endless suspense. There are moments where you’re just watching the characters get a little comfortable in their situation. But boy howdy does the crap hit the fan when it does! The whole time you’re wondering whether there actually is an apocalypse outside the cellar or if Howard (Goodman) is just a psychopath. The film’s answer: Yes. I love it.
A somber little film. It feels very natural and realistic in it’s depiction of grief. It’s not glamorized. It doesn’t feel like Oscar bait, although it did end up receiving awards. And despite its heavy subject matter, it does find a faint glimmer of hope in the darkness. This is what I love about storytelling and art in general. It can help you find the magic and hope in the world. Even in the darkest or most mundane places. Another one of those raw family stories. I also love the minimalistically gloomy score by Lesley Barber (whose other notable credit is the Little Bear cartoon of all things). I often put it in whenever I’m feeling a bit melancholy. I find it oddly comforting.
Spoiler territory:
There are little moments in this movie that I find incredibly relatable. When Randi (Michelle Williams) is about to tell Lee (Casey Affleck) what she’s been wanting to tell him for a while, she kinda stares at the brick wall next to them for a moment, seemingly just trying to find the words. It’s just something you would do in real life when you’re about to really open up a wound in front of someone. It’s not just an explosion of emotion and tears and snot like in most dramas. On a personal note, I've had to face a bit of grief myself this summer when an old childhood friend of mine committed suicide. There are a few moments and experiences I've had during this season that have reminded me of this movie. One experience in particular really reminded me of a scene in this film. At first, Patrick, Lee's teenage nephew, seems to be handling his father's passing very stoically, not expressing a lot of emotion, even when seeing his dad's body at a morgue. Then there's one scene when he opens a freezer and some frozen meat falls out. As he stoops down to pick it up, he suddenly begins crying until he gets close to the point of being hysterical, saying "I don't want my dad to be in a freezer." Let's just say that I had an experience vaguely similar to that that kinda proved the film's authenticity to me a little more. Once again, there's a lot more going on in this movie, but I'm just pinpointing the things that stuck out to me the most.
Now, this thing did stuff that I had previously assumed no filmmaker could ever get away with successfully. It has an overstuffed plot with multiple story arcs and it shoehorns new characters into the mix late in the film, pandering to fans of the comics. But it somehow does all that stuff well and ends up being a coherent, intriguing, and surprisingly fun superhero movie; a genre that has sadly become a little oversaturated over the last few years. I’m feelin the superhero fatigue like many other people, but what makes me sad is that I used to love superhero movies when I was younger. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies were some of my favorites as a teen. Iron Man was one of my favorite movies of the year when it came out. However, it’s starting to feel like if you’ve seen one superhero movie, you’ve seen em all.
The action sequences were incredibly well directed, with a focus more on stunt work than an overreliance on CGI. Awesome. The motivations for each character were clear and understandable, which made it all the more heartbreaking to watch them all turn against each other. But, at the same time, it was also a fun movie. How the heck did they pull that off? They made a morally ambiguous “vs.” movie without feeling the need to force a false sense of grittiness to let the audience know they’re watching something dark and serious (*cough cough Batman v Superman). Instead, they were able to have some fun with it. And the humor worked. It never felt out of place or like it killed the moment. Overall, a solid film that kinda restored my enthusiasm about this genre and franchise.
#3: Lion
This movie hit me right in the feels. If you read the plot summary in IMDB or watch a trailer for this film, there’s not much more to the plot than what you expect, but it’s a darn moving experience. This is the kind of biopic that actually wants to draw your attention to the real life story and shed light on a real-world issue (In this case, homeless and abandoned children in India). Such intentions are always commendable, but, writing-wise, movies like that sometimes make me feel like I’m just watching a two-hour PSA with big-name actors. I think sometimes a documentary is a more suitable and effective medium for some of these stories because you don’t have that barrier of trying to portray everything believably. In this film, however, every person in it felt real to me. Sue and John Brierley (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham), the adoptive parents of Saroo (Dev Patel) and Mantosh, are vulnerable characters that don’t always know how to deal with certain situations involving their adopted sons. The film doesn’t shy away from portraying the hardships of adoption, even though it’s advocating it and raising awareness about it. I find that incredibly risky, but effective. In the end, it made these people far more admirable than they would’ve been if the movie portrayed a more idealistic scenario. At the end when it showed the statistics of how many lost and abandoned children there are in India, it actually made me start thinking about possibly helping the cause someday when I’m able. I’ve never had that experience before with a non-documentary.
I’m focusing a lot on the parents, but they weren’t the main emphasis of the movie. The main focus is Saroo’s journey, and it’s quite moving from start to finish. He felt very 3-dimensionally written as well. At times, he treats his adoptive family and his girlfriend kinda poorly as he becomes more and more obsessed over finding the village of his childhood in the hopes of reconciling with his biological mother and brother, but nevertheless, there’s redemption and forgiveness by the end of it. I’m not sure if I’m giving you an accurate picture of what the movie is about. I’m just highlighting the aspects of it that I felt made it special. The characters felt very real, and therefore, so did the emotions. It’s simply a poignant journey of things getting lost and becoming found again.
This film is simply my cup of tea. The trailers for this film didn’t interest me. I thought it was gonna be one of those whiny teen movies, but I’m really glad I didn’t skip this one. As someone who has always dealt with social awkwardness and low self-esteem, this movie resonated with me on a deep level, but so did most of the other movies on this list. The reason this movie is at number 2 for me is because, not only did I really connect emotionally with this film, but it also made me laugh a lot and left me feeling really good about everything. There were many moments in this movie that made me say, “Yes! I have done/said that exact same thing before,” and it helped me feel better about it.
This is my favorite kind of storytelling: When the characters and the situations feel authentic, but it manages to have fun at the same time and include a redemptive storyline. What I particularly liked about this teen film is how it didn’t romanticize Nadine’s (Hailee Steinfeld) struggle with depression and didn’t justify all her actions. Hurt people hurt people, so they say, and the film doesn’t shy away from portraying that, but at the same time the film makes you sympathize with her and enjoy watching her interact with all the other really well-written and off-beat characters in the movie. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, they all just felt real, but they were all very likable as well. Many of them reminded me of specific people I know. I love how her older brother, Darian, starts off as this guy who you expect to be this really 2-dimensional jock character, but you get to understand more about him throughout the film and his relationship with his mom and sister. The scenes with Nadine and her friend, Erwin, are really fun to watch and awkward in a good way. Her troubled relationship with her mom feels very realistic. They don’t understand each other, but they’re exactly like each other in many ways. And of course, a highlight of the film is Nadine’s interaction with Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson), her really blunt but friendly teacher. Everytime he opened his mouth, I didn’t expect what came out of it. This film just made me feel happy, I don’t know what else to tell you.
#1: Finding Dory
Yeah, I’m a little ashamed to admit this, but yep, this is my favorite movie of 2016. No other film spoke to me as deeply as this one did. I’m a ginormous Pixar fan. They were part of the reason I became interested in cinematic storytelling to begin with. Disappointingly, they’ve been a little hit or miss since Cars 2. So, I was a little skeptical going into this movie. A Finding Nemo sequel didn’t really seem necessary, but it was one of my favorites as a kid. Thomas Newman’s score was highly influential for me as well. This film is a bit different in tone from the first one, but that’s what I like about it. It’s definitely faster paced and more cartoony, but despite that, its emotional core is strong and I feel that it warrants its own existence. I love movies that make you laugh one moment, then make you cry the next. At least, when it’s done right. I haven’t found a whole lot of people that share my enthusiasm for this movie, so I guess it didn’t work for everyone, but, what can I say? The film moved me. It gave me all those nostalgic feels while also being its own thing. I also found Newman’s score to be pretty satisfying as well. It’s also different from the first score, there’s only 3 or 4 references to the old themes, but it feels like it takes place in the same soundscape. I’ve listened to it a bazillion times over the last year.
Spoiler Territory:
On a personal note, I don’t have the particular handicap that Dory has, but I’m very insecure about my abilities, including, but not at all limited to, my memory. Throughout last summer and this Spring, I was dealing with those fears of inadequacy a little more than usual. It may sound silly, and it is, but this film kinda helped me get through that season. There are a few moments in the film that resonate all too well with me. There’s one where Dory mutters to herself something to the effect of, “You just forget. That’s all you do is forget. That’s all you’re good for.” Also, the scene at the end when she finally finds her parents, only to tearfully apologize for forgetting them, wrecks me. I think the appeal of this movie for me was that the visuals and the music brought me back to one of my creative inspirations as a child, while simultaneously the story gave me a new piece of inspiration for today in my early 20s life. And the fun part is, this is all taking place in a movie that also includes an octopus in a car chase, which I think is just fantastic. I'm sorry.
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end! Thanks for letting me geek out.
Here's your cookie.
Until next year, or whenever I finish all the 2017 films that interest me.
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