Best Movies of 2016

THE HANDMAIDEN

Park Chan-Wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ fantastic romantic novel Fingersmith moves the action from Victorian England to 1930s Korea, and brings in the obsession with bloody revenge that Park explored in Oldboy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, and other films. But it’s still a remarkably close adaptation. Park preserves the surprise romance, the creepy mystery, and the startling twists, as a young Korean criminal agrees to help a con man seduce a rich, sheltered shut-in. But Park plays up the erotic horror, and the pain and satisfaction of first loves, until the tension becomes nearly unbearable. The performances are elegant and startling, and the composition is endlessly striking — this is a lavish banquet of a film — but the compelling story is what makes all the agony and ecstacy meaningful.

AMERICAN HONEY

The story behind Andrea Arnold’s American Honey is just as compelling as the film: She assembled a cast of young amateurs she found by haunting Walmart parking lots and spring-break hangouts, then took them on a road trip across America, filming as she went. The results are loose-limbed and easygoing, and entirely immersive. First-time actress Sasha Lane plays a trailer-trash runaway who joins up with a crew of magazine peddlers run by a mercenary monster (Riley Keough) and her pet sales head (Shia LaBeouf), and all three vie for dominance during the cross-country trip. Music, alcohol, the uncomplicated affection of pets, and the complicated affection of hookups all loom large in the story, which tracks how people with no money and no future find pleasure in the moment. American Honey is thorny and wandering, but it’s a pure pleasure itself.

THE LOBSTER

Yorgos Lanthimos’ endlessly bizarre fantasy takes place in a world where single people are rounded up and confined to an eerie hotel for 45 days, then changed into animals if they don’t fall in love before their time runs out. It’s a strange premise fit for a fairy tale, but Lanthimos plays it straight-faced and tragic, using strange metaphors and a dose of looming inevitability to mock the ways society judges people who aren’t in relationships, and enforces a limited set of norms around what “relationship” means. Colin Farrell gives the kind of egoless, flashless performance that tends to confuse awards voters — his charisma and self-awareness are entirely buried under the doughy, desperate surface of his frustrated protagonist. Like his performance, the entire film around him is precise, thoughtful, and subdued. It’s one of the year’s most uncomfortable films, but one of its most surprising, creative, and compelling as well.

THE WITCH

Robert Eggers’ carefully planned and plotted directorial debut The Witch shows an astonishing level of attention to detail. But it all serves as a backdrop to a tremendously tense thriller about an exiled Puritan family trapped in the wilderness with a malevolent witch — or possibly, just with their own suspicions and judgments. Initially billed as a terrifying horror film, The Witch frustrated theatergoers who were expecting Don’t Breatheand got something closer to an Ingmar Bergman movie. But The Witch remains one of the year’s biggest and best surprises. It’s an almost unbearably gorgeous movie, soaked in dread and anticipation, and brought across by actors who make 17th-century dialogue sound natural, and religious awe and horror feel like a default way of life.

QUEEN OF KATWE

A terrific cast, a terrific real-life story, and a thoughtful angle on the usual underdog sports journey all help make Queen Of Katwe one of the year’s most uplifting and winning films, while keeping it from descending too far into familiar tropes. The story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi has its predictable share of triumphs and setbacks, but it isn’t about the Big Match, or some jerky rich rivals who need to be put in their places. Director Mira Nair (The Namesake, Mississippi Masala) draws out a more thoughtful plotline, about what it means for a poor kid from a Ugandan slum to step into an international spotlight, experience luxury and acclaim, and then have to go home again. Nair doesn’t try to turn Mutesi into a perfect poster child: She lets her be fearful, frustrated, and even bratty as she navigates growing up along with growing into her role as Uganda’s chess ambassador. Lupita Nyong’o as Mutesi’s mother and Selma’s David Oyelowo as Mutesi’s chess coach each get their own arcs, which helps give this story some depth to go with its programmed but thoroughly satisfying uplift.

MOONLIGHT

Director Barry Jenkins and playwright Tarell McCraney have made one of the year’s most celebrated movies in Moonlight, but it’s one of the year’s most startling and artful as well. Told in three chapters, with a gay black protagonist finding his way in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, it’s part coming-of-age story and part love story, but it’s far moodier and more reticent than that description implies. Jenkins gets tremendous force out of his unusual soundtrack choices, wide framing, slow motion, and especially his casting, which ties together the movie’s segments by making his protagonist soulful, sad, and silent at all three ages. It’s an absorbing and empathetic experience, with some startling moments of physical and emotional violence, and a lived-in feel that comes from McCraney’s personal experience.

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE

Writer-director Taika Waititi is fresh off What We Do In The Shadows and currently hard at work on the Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok. The distance in concept and scope between those two movies and his 2016 film Hunt For The Wilderpeople is mindboggling, but Waititi is somewhat of a specialist in working his own angular sense of humor into different kinds of stories. Loosely inspired by a popular New Zealand kids’ novel, the film is about as different as it gets, which is much of the charm. Julian Dennison stars as a fat, lonely Maori kid regarded as a juvenile delinquent both before and after he goes on the lam through the bush with his adoptive father (Sam Neill), a crotchety loner who regards his new ward as a pain in the ass. Much as with What We Do In The Shadows, Waititi’s humor here is all about perverse good cheer in the face of self-created crisis, impotence in the face of disaster, and straight-faced laugh-out-loud surprise humor that frequently comes from unexpected places. It’s a wacky little charmer of a film, unpredictable and amiable at every turn.

MORRIS FROM AMERICA

Chad Hartigan’s charming new movie Morris from America feels like a minor movie next to the sturm und drang of the year’s big prestige films, with their big, performative wallowing in pain and grieving. This is just a story about a black teenager navigating the cultural alienation of life in an all-white German town, where his single dad (comedian Craig Robinson, who is terrific here) is a soccer coach. Casual racism, general teen disaffection, the inevitable crush and crash, and the usual journey toward identity all play a part in the story. But Hartigan finds unusual, surprising ways to navigate them all, and he keeps pulling the story away from expected routes, and onto paths that give his protagonist (played by Markees Christmas) a unique and specific identity. There’s some significant and touching dads-and-sons drama here, and some autobiographical humor (inspired by Hartigan’s adolescent forays into hip-hop and how Robinson’s own dad navigated the friend-vs.-father divide), but what stands out is the way Hartigan veers away from pat drama and pathos, and dives into his characters’ relatable day-to-day humanity instead.

LIFE, ANIMATED

Roger Ross Williams’ documentary about autistic 23-year-old Owen Suskind feels a little like a too-good-to-be-true ad for Disney magic. Suskind withdrew from the world at age 3, then learned to speak and relate to the outside world through the intermediary of animated Disney movies, which helped him relate to people, absorb dialogue, and understand the emotions he saw reflected back on other people’s faces. Williams follows Suskind as he attempts to live alone for the first time, but he also tracks how the Suskind family relates to Owen, how they used Disney as a teaching tool and a bridge, and how Suskind’s childhood fantasies gave him a self-image and a sense of the world. It’s a surprising story with a little bit of sharp humor, but mostly it’s just deeply personal and unique. Williams’ access into Suskind’s life makes the film intimate and approachable, but there’s a larger story here — about how we relate to the world through art, about how everyone sees different things in familiar cultural touchstones, and how the simplest things can become lifelines when they speak to one person in a specific and much-needed way. 

Source: The Verge

Best Movies of 2016

THE HANDMAIDEN Park Chan-Wooks adaptation of Sarah Waters fantastic romantic novel Fingersmith moves the action from Victorian England to 1930s Korea, and brings in the obsession with bloody revenge that Park explored in Oldboy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, and other films. But its still a remarkably close adaptation. Park preserves the surprise romance, the creepy mystery, and the startling twists, as a young Korean criminal agrees to help a con man seduce a rich, sheltered shut-in. But Park plays up the erotic horror, and the pain and satisfaction of first loves, until the tension becomes nearly unbearable. The performances are elegant and startling, and the composition is endlessly striking this is a lavish banquet of a film but the compelling story is what makes all the agony and ecstacy meaningful. AMERICAN HONEY The story behind Andrea Arnolds American Honey is just as compelling as the film: She assembled a cast of young amateurs she found by haunting Walmart parking lots and spring-break hangouts, then took them on a road trip across America, filming as she went. The results are loose-limbed and easygoing, and entirely immersive. First-time actress Sasha Lane plays a trailer-trash runaway who joins up with a crew of magazine peddlers run by a mercenary monster (Riley Keough) and her pet sales head (Shia LaBeouf), and all three vie for dominance during the cross-country trip. Music, alcohol, the uncomplicated affection of pets, and the complicated affection of hookups all loom large in the story, which tracks how people with no money and no future find pleasure in the moment. American Honey is thorny and wandering, but its a pure pleasure itself. THE LOBSTER Yorgos Lanthimos endlessly bizarre fantasy takes place in a world where single people are rounded up and confined to an eerie hotel for 45 days, then changed into animals if they dont fall in love before their time runs out. Its a strange premise fit for a fairy tale, but Lanthimos plays it straight-faced and tragic, using strange metaphors and a dose of looming inevitability to mock the ways society judges people who arent in relationships, and enforces a limited set of norms around what relationship means. Colin Farrell gives the kind of egoless, flashless performance that tends to confuse awards voters his charisma and self-awareness are entirely buried under the doughy, desperate surface of his frustrated protagonist. Like his performance, the entire film around him is precise, thoughtful, and subdued. Its one of the years most uncomfortable films, but one of its most surprising, creative, and compelling as well. THE WITCH Robert Eggers carefully planned and plotted directorial debut The Witch shows an astonishing level of attention to detail. But it all serves as a backdrop to a tremendously tense thriller about an exiled Puritan family trapped in the wilderness with a malevolent witch or possibly, just with their own suspicions and judgments. Initially billed as a terrifying horror film, The Witch frustrated theatergoers who were expecting Dont Breatheand got something closer to an Ingmar Bergman movie. But The Witch remains one of the years biggest and best surprises. Its an almost unbearably gorgeous movie, soaked in dread and anticipation, and brought across by actors who make 17th-century dialogue sound natural, and religious awe and horror feel like a default way of life. QUEEN OF KATWE A terrific cast, a terrific real-life story, and a thoughtful angle on the usual underdog sports journey all help make Queen Of Katwe one of the years most uplifting and winning films, while keeping it from descending too far into familiar tropes. The story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi has its predictable share of triumphs and setbacks, but it isnt about the Big Match, or some jerky rich rivals who need to be put in their places. Director Mira Nair (The Namesake, Mississippi Masala) draws out a more thoughtful plotline, about what it means for a poor kid from a Ugandan slum to step into an international spotlight, experience luxury and acclaim, and then have to go home again. Nair doesnt try to turn Mutesi into a perfect poster child: She lets her be fearful, frustrated, and even bratty as she navigates growing up along with growing into her role as Ugandas chess ambassador. Lupita Nyongo as Mutesis mother and Selmas David Oyelowo as Mutesis chess coach each get their own arcs, which helps give this story some depth to go with its programmed but thoroughly satisfying uplift. MOONLIGHT Director Barry Jenkins and playwright Tarell McCraney have made one of the years most celebrated movies in Moonlight, but its one of the years most startling and artful as well. Told in three chapters, with a gay black protagonist finding his way in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, its part coming-of-age story and part love story, but its far moodier and more reticent than that description implies. Jenkins gets tremendous force out of his unusual soundtrack choices, wide framing, slow motion, and especially his casting, which ties together the movies segments by making his protagonist soulful, sad, and silent at all three ages. Its an absorbing and empathetic experience, with some startling moments of physical and emotional violence, and a lived-in feel that comes from McCraneys personal experience. HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE Writer-director Taika Waititi is fresh off What We Do In The Shadows and currently hard at work on the Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok. The distance in concept and scope between those two movies and his 2016 film Hunt For The Wilderpeople is mindboggling, but Waititi is somewhat of a specialist in working his own angular sense of humor into different kinds of stories. Loosely inspired by a popular New Zealand kids novel, the film is about as different as it gets, which is much of the charm. Julian Dennison stars as a fat, lonely Maori kid regarded as a juvenile delinquent both before and after he goes on the lam through the bush with his adoptive father (Sam Neill), a crotchety loner who regards his new ward as a pain in the ass. Much as with What We Do In The Shadows, Waititis humor here is all about perverse good cheer in the face of self-created crisis, impotence in the face of disaster, and straight-faced laugh-out-loud surprise humor that frequently comes from unexpected places. Its a wacky little charmer of a film, unpredictable and amiable at every turn. MORRIS FROM AMERICA Chad Hartigans charming new movie Morris from America feels like a minor movie next to the sturm und drang of the years big prestige films, with their big, performative wallowing in pain and grieving. This is just a story about a black teenager navigating the cultural alienation of life in an all-white German town, where his single dad (comedian Craig Robinson, who is terrific here) is a soccer coach. Casual racism, general teen disaffection, the inevitable crush and crash, and the usual journey toward identity all play a part in the story. But Hartigan finds unusual, surprising ways to navigate them all, and he keeps pulling the story away from expected routes, and onto paths that give his protagonist (played by Markees Christmas) a unique and specific identity. Theres some significant and touching dads-and-sons drama here, and some autobiographical humor (inspired by Hartigans adolescent forays into hip-hop and how Robinsons own dad navigated the friend-vs.-father divide), but what stands out is the way Hartigan veers away from pat drama and pathos, and dives into his characters relatable day-to-day humanity instead. LIFE, ANIMATED Roger Ross Williams documentary about autistic 23-year-old Owen Suskind feels a little like a too-good-to-be-true ad for Disney magic. Suskind withdrew from the world at age 3, then learned to speak and relate to the outside world through the intermediary of animated Disney movies, which helped him relate to people, absorb dialogue, and understand the emotions he saw reflected back on other peoples faces. Williams follows Suskind as he attempts to live alone for the first time, but he also tracks how the Suskind family relates to Owen, how they used Disney as a teaching tool and a bridge, and how Suskinds childhood fantasies gave him a self-image and a sense of the world. Its a surprising story with a little bit of sharp humor, but mostly its just deeply personal and unique. Williams access into Suskinds life makes the film intimate and approachable, but theres a larger story here about how we relate to the world through art, about how everyone sees different things in familiar cultural touchstones, and how the simplest things can become lifelines when they speak to one person in a specific and much-needed way. Source: The Verge