Best Movies of 2016

Haha! I liked THE LOBSTER. Man, I was laughing a lot in that movie. Absurdity goes a long way with me. I was hysterical with laughter during BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and folks moved away from us in the theatre. (The scene where his fucking little puppets do TRISTAN & ISOLDE? I was crying.)

Malkovich is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love Spike Jonze's stuff, and figured that The Lobster would be right up my alley. It started out good, but then lost me early and lost me hard.

engelstein wrote: Malkovich is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love Spike Jonze's stuff, and figured that The Lobster would be right up my alley. It started out good, but then lost me early and lost me hard.

I felt almost the same way about The Lobster. It was very good for a while, but lost me later. For being an oddball film from last year, I think Swiss Army Man was better. Granted, very different style and tone to each of them. Swiss Army Man wasn't perfect, either, but worked its premise to more of a payoff.

I agree that Zootopia was better than both Moana and Kubo. I've said it enough previously, but Kubo was like a 12 in visuals but a 6 in story cohesion and didn't hit its emotional/narrative targets.

Saw Captain Fantastic again last night with the Viggo Q&A. (They ended it right before my Q!) Despite a few scenes that are a bit contrived, it is wonderful and firmly my #2 of the year (pending viewing of The Handmaiden). Have you seen that yet, Barney?

Not yet, no. I think I'm done with 2016 for now. Maybe it'll make my Mea Culpa section down the road !

The Lobster sounds awful. I can't take pretentiousness in film. Terrence Malik is dead to me.

Kubo is as high as it is because of the animation and just pure ART in it. I agree story is way better in Zootopia and characters as well. But honestly, Kubo is a beautiful and brilliant piece of art.

You know.... like the cinematography of Dances With wolves...

Man, The Lobster is not nearly as bad as a Malik movie (although I don't think I ever endured a Terrence Malik movie till the end). It is beautifully shot and has a sense of humor. I laughed at some bits. But it is not funny as a whole, and it does take itself far too seriously by the 3rd act. But it is not aimed to be a goofball movie, imho. Although it has a lot of homage/rip-off from Luis Bunuel movies, it is aiming more at dystopian. It very much reminded me of the old 451 Fahrenheit. Despite its failures, I kinda think this was the most interesting/original movie I saw this year and the one I'll most likely to remember 5 years from now. But I have no inclination at all to watch it again.

I liked Kubo a lot, too, and very happy it made your top 10 instead of Moana (which is good, but gives up a slight - yet distinct - smell of staleness). I swear I was very close to crying at the end with "My Guitar" and all, and it was a lot like "Eternal Sunshine", but in stop-animation.

Oh, and I agree with the tendency of watching Oscar-nominated dramas on Netfilx. I still can't forgive myself for going to a cinema to see "Spotlight" a year ago. And "The Big Short" (which is excellent, by the way, I just saw it again on Netflix).

The Lobster is a very problematic film, but also very good. I liked the first half a whole lot more than the second half; they're almost like two different movies. Comparing it to a Spike Jones film like Malkovich isn't fair to either. There are surface similarities in the absurdist humor, strange premises, and philosophical questions, but Lanthimos and Jones are flip-sides of a coin. Jones: more humor with philosophy on the side; Lanthimos: more philosophy with humor on the side. They both provide good fodder for discussion long after the film.

I feel like I've more or less given up on cinema as particularly immediate, relevant, or necessary, which is sad, I suppose, but compared to the best "TV" (can we even really call it "TV" anymore?), it often is just spectacle or hopelessly compressed.

I've also pretty much given up on the Marvel movies as anything but serviceable entertainment. 2015's Ant-Man was cute but slight, and 2016's Doctor Strange was an inferior Iron Man. (Inferior Iron Man would be a good comic, maybe.) Civil War was decent--better than Ultron by a good distance--but far enough below Winter Soldier that even the better "team" movies feel like exercises to me.) After subjecting myself to Man of Steel and, gak, Green Lantern I have no interest in DC at all and "missed" Dawn of Justice, as I will probably continue to "miss" the rest of them--though I did see Suicide Squad, which by its comparative superiority at least had the virtue of highlighting just how bad--as in "lacking all cinematic virtue"--X-men: Apocalypse is and how bad a director Bryan Singer has become. I didn't even get that much out of Rogue One, regrettably, which was, frankly, kinda boring till a Star Wars Armada game broke out.

There were some highlights for me, in no particular order.

Weiner: A great doc of a true twerp of a human being. I thought about that movie a lot, and my wife and I discussed it at length. I think I liked it more than she did because I had a bit more empathy for the guy, even though he brought on himself and his family (and, indirectly now, the nation) all the garbage that happened to him. It's not really to his credit that he allowed that film to be made--it's just another symptom of his narcissism--but it's still a good thing that it was made.

Swiss Army Man: If nothing else, it's a "different," memorable movie, even if it is weakened, in my opinion, by the apparent hope that we empathize with the main character.

Sing Street: A really phenomenally warm-hearted movie whose music and well-chosen cast enrich a slight, oft-told story.

The Edge of Seventeen: In a different time, this movie would've found its audience and have gotten the popular love that it got from critics. Instead, it's one that won't get the credit it deserves unless it gets a second (or even a first) life from streaming.

10 Cloverfield Lane: Having not seen Cloverfield at that point, I had no particular expectations for this, which was all for the better. It's a little rough around the edges, but the leads are solid and the mood is generally right. John Goodman proves again to be an actor worth appreciating.

Moana: Luminously animated and engaging on a story, emotional, and musical level. Probably not peak Disney, but appealing nonetheless.

I make no pretense to being comprehensive. I very much want to see La La Land but haven't yet, for example.

Jpat, you talk about giving up on movies but you aren't seeing the best movies. You took a big paragraph to talk about comic book movies. Surely seeing Sing Street reminds you about what's amazing about seeing movies in the first place ? That combination of being surprised and entertained all at once. Evoking feelings and emotions and all that?

I'm jealous you saw Edge of Seventeen, I really wanted to see that one

Yeah, I'm lame. We actually started out the year seeing better films, in part because we had a membership in a local small-film theater, and then tapered off. I'll try to make amends.

So, I watched The Handmaiden. I suppose this belongs in the other movie thread, but it definitely belongs here talking about the Best of 2016. And since Barney asked so nicely (I suppose you're no longer dead to me, Barney)...

I'd never seen any Park-Chan Wook films before, and only knew very little about this movie other than hearing a lot of praise for it. It ended up being quite the trip. I won't spoil anything, other than to say that if I had to describe it via more conventional comparisons, it would be like Tarantino filming Barry Lyndon set in 1930's Korea. And with input from Larry Flynt. No, that's going too far. It's not depraved in its depiction, though some kinky/depraved kinds of things are involved. It's also beautifully erotic and romantic in some scenes. And there is a pretty strong mystery/crime/puzzle element, shown from different sides, that runs through the narrative.

This is hard to comment more on without saying too much... but much as I appreciate it, I'm not sure I'm completely sold on it based on a certain factor. The ending makes it seem like a snake eating its own tail kind of thing, where we end up on the voyeuristic side of a story much like the stories that one of the main characters tells a group of men during the film. I suppose in a way that's brilliant as a meta commentary on the type of exploitation and power that's part of the story, but it's also super indulgent, and some scenes in the film seem to play into that. There could be some cultural influence/bias at play here, as far as that goes. Ahhhhhhh, there's something more I want to say, but can't without spoiling things. If you see it, Barney, we can discuss it more then.

Just a few minutes in and you'll be blown away with the beauty of the cinematography. It's a masterfully directed and shot film in that respect. And there are a lot of wonderful details and moments throughout, and some decent humor. It probably belongs on my 2016 top 10 somewhere, but it may have to be an honorable mention for leaving me just a bit cold and uncertain about some things. Still, I'd say it's a must-see for its many positives.

Finally completed my mission of seeing three major films of last year acording to this forum.
You guys have great taste, but I knew that. All were very special, all had things go awry. No spoiler tags, as I am late to the party.
LaLa Land was the weakest, maybe I was just hyped and thus then disappointed. Agree that it's not about actual people but about Hollywood, and that pissed me off somehow. I do understand that if a movie takes a stand on an issue it subsequently loses half its audience, but still. I saw a sad piece of film museum furniture longing for the golden past where everything was perfect and easy, but too lazy to think about change. Why put all those imperfections in a movie that expensive just to make a small point? A friend even said that as a fan of Ryan Gosling's singing (how? why? I guess there has to be every type of taste) she was put off by him deliberately singing badly. There is this thing very early on: everyone is dressed in monochrome and getting out of their cars, and suddenly there is this blue truck full of pittoresque immigrants, a samba band (of course), but they don't get out. Am I the only one who was reminded of how many people die in trucks every day trying to get into LaLaLand? Either make the point or shut up, don't give me this shit and sell it as art.
Which nicely brings me to Captain Fantastic, which was an amazing ride. Very to the point with great acting by everyone. The sons left a particularly strong impression. I reckon for most people (those that do not think that every action is a political one) it was rather strange on the outside, but on the inside it is a very US American thing about the value of family and how to reconcile ideals and reality. Several times one of us would snicker and say 'oh, my, these americans and their fetishes', but apart from minor things it can be translated to the old world. If that movie had been made in Europe though, religion might not even have been mentioned. Loved Frank Langella, I immediately knew where to put him. I found the last act a little weak, maybe, Aragorn growing up, but very much worth it.
Best marks for Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Actually, it's the other way round: this one is very formulaic and we have seen that story a hundred times, just never told that good and with so many layers. So hard to pull off all these heavy themes and horrible things and keep the whole thing lightfooted and funny. Laugh out loud funny. The only problem that I have to mention is how sweet the boy is. That kid is kind of unreal. I mean, Ricky really is an easygoing, friendly, smart, open kid. Not hard to like at all. On a side note, it's easy to imagine that story actually happening, just not in Hollywood. There would have been a lot less talking and more bodies.

Because I haven't gotten around to seeing Manchester and Sing Street, the best movie of 2016 is Big Hero 6 (rewatch from two years ago).

Arrival was complete dogshite.

This week I watch Cafe Society, Sing Street and La, La Land . While I really liked all three movies, me and my daughter came to the conclusion that somebody came up with 1 script and decided to they could make more money by created 3 movies with the 1 script. They made a musical, a foreign indy film and a Woody Alan artsy film. It's kind of like the studio deciding to stretch the Hobbit into 3 mediocre movies rather than 1 great movie.

In other news, I told my wife that I was really excited about May 5, 2017 and that I have big plans for that day and that I been exited about this day for over 2 years. (Note: May 7th is our wedding anniversary). Then I told her that's the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was May 5th . Only 95 days away!! Hey, we have an anniversary weekend every year but a new Guardians of the Galaxy movie only comes out every 3 years.

Sing street is vastly different than those other two. The only thing that La La Land and Cafe Society have in case common is Hollywood. Unlike The Hobbit here we have two great movies and one mediocre one.

At this point, I think I've seen all of the films that might have made the list, so I can now share my top 10 of 2016, which has been tested and found to be 14% more accurate than Barney's:

1. Sing Street
2. Captain Fantastic
3. La La Land
4. 10 Cloverfield Lane
5. The Witch
6. Arrival
7. Hell or High Water
8. Don't Think Twice
9. Genius
10. Lion

Liked a lot, but didn't make the list: The Little Prince, Swiss Army Man, Krisha, Zootopia, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Jungle Book, Hail Caesar!, The Nice Guys, Moana, Moonlight, The Handmaiden, Eye in the Sky, Fences, Manchester by the Sea, Sully, A Monster Calls, Deadpool, The Founder, Green Room, Kubo and the Two Strings, Silence, Hidden Figures, Train to Busan, Snowden, Dr. Strange