Top Ten Films of 2016
By Kyle Osborne
This is probably my least conventional list in years. There’s a super hero flick, a film that was “Rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.com, and two foreign releases. Whatever, I don’t care—these were the films that moved me the most in 2016.
- Manchester By The Sea
A tough call since I loved Moonlight almost as much, but I have to go back to that night in the theatre when the movie ended and I thought to myself, “That was a perfect movie.” There isn’t one thing that might have been done better. The performances, the dialogue, but mostly the balls that writer/director Kenneth Lonergan displayed by having his characters do what was realistic. We want the characters to behave a certain way that would make us (the audience) feel better about everything. And most films would sell out and do just that. Not this one. Maybe the most honest film I’ve seen in memory. Casey Affleck was perfectly cast. Michelle Williams breaks your heart.
- Moonlight
Director Barry Jenkins used three different actors of varying ages (grade school, high school, adulthood) to tell the story of one boy growing up poor, black and gay in the rough part of Miami. Jenkins takes our expectations and turns them upside down. The best example of which is making a drug dealer character (played with authentic humanity by Mahershala Ali, who will win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor) not just a “bad guy,” but rather a mentor of sorts for the film’s protagonist. A tender scene where Ali’s character teaches the young boy not to fear the ocean water tells us more than 50 pages of dialogue would have. It’s a brave film.
- Sing Street
This little Irish indie about an outcast kid in 80’s Dublin reminded me of the John Hughes films of my youth, which is to say that it portrays teenagers as actual fully formed humans—capable of thought, humor and heart, in addition to the usual angst. The story about a group of friends who start a band is unapologetically sentimental, it’s packed with newly composed songs that capture the spirit of the era, and I was charmed the whole way through. I love leaving the theatre feeling lifted by the previous two hours.
- Fences
Denzel Washington and Viola Davis reprise their Broadway roles in the August Wilson classic. Washington, who also directed, doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s filming a play—the setting it small, finite. Doesn’t matter, though—this tale of an embittered father and his inability to connect with his son is poignant and powerful. I’d love to see Denzel win Best Actor, and here’s why: here’s a man who’s been a movie star for a quarter of a century. You know him—you know his facial expressions and the way he slows down and speeds up his delivery just so. In Fences, all of that disappears. Through lengthy monologues, Washington displays unrivaled acting chops and he totally disappears. The movie star is gone—you are looking at someone you recognize as real. That cannot have been easy to pull off. Viola Davis will win Best Supporting Actress and deservedly so. There is one scene that seals the deal—you’ll know it when you see it.
- La La Land
The storyline is admittedly thin, but from the first seconds of writer/director Damien Chazelle’s homage to old Hollywood musicals, the candy-colored visuals and jaw-dropping choreography pull you in. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, surely the most likeable pair you could imagine casting, seduce us into falling for them and the film, in spite of its narrative drawbacks. They sing, they act and they dance their asses off. At their best, films transport you to a place you never see or experience in your daily life. Done and done.
- Hell or High Water
A low key but superb cast, a real sense of time and place, and that good ol’ West Texas location made for this excellent cops and robbers flick (okay, a Sheriff and 2 bank robbers). Jeff Bridges fits into his role like a well-worn Cowboy boot. He almost makes it look too easy. But the big surprise is that Chris Pine isn’t just a pretty boy who knows how to wear a Star Trek uniform. He does his thing.
- Elle
A French movie icon, a Dutch director and a Hitchcockian thriller. Isabelle Huppert just won the Golden Globe for Best Actress, which is fine by me (I’m not buying into the Natalie Portman thing—more on that below). At 63 years old, Huppert is sexy, authoritative and the smartest character onscreen in this rather commercial whodunit. Paul Verhoeven has directed some stinkers in his storied career, but this feels like a comeback for him and a never left for Huppert.
- The Accountant
So sue me. This action thriller reached a peak approval rating of only 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s one of those films better suited to general audiences than critics. I saw it twice and paid my own money the second time—just to be sure that I wasn’t overly praising it. I wasn’t Ben Affleck plays an autistic man who is a whiz with numbers, but also a crack shot with a rifle. He cooks books for crooks and doubles as an assassin. Actually, as I write this out, it does seem a bit ridiculous, but I would argue that it’s no more far-fetched than the average Bourne or Jack Reacher flick. In fact, I like it much more than those other wheezy franchises.
- Deadpool
No one is more tired of super hero movies than I. So imagine my delight in a Marvel Comics film that comes out of the chute kicking ass and successfully going for a highly unusual (for the genre) “R” rating. Ryan Reynolds is fab as the foul-mouthed crime fighter with the best possible motive: revenge. It’s really funny. And violent. I love it when those two things mix.
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
Hey filmmakers, we know what you can do with a 100 million dollar budget. What can you do with a few rooms in a basement for 90 minutes? This thriller slowly peeled back layers, letting the viewer know, gradually, why a woman was kidnapped and is being held in a well-appointed basement belonging to John Goodman. Yeah, it’s just a popcorn picture—but it’s the kind that makes you talk to the screen, verbally warning the characters. There was just no way to remain aloof from the jump-scares. It’s witty and fun, and scary. John Goodman remains an underrated treasure.
I Just Don’t Get It…
Arrival-beloved by most, a pretentious empty bag for me. I also saw this one twice, just to make sure I wasn’t being too harsh. I wasn’t.
Jackie and Natalie Portman- apparently the odds makers have already awarded Portman the Oscar (and noms haven’t even been announced) but I thought the performance was too mannered, the attempt at impersonation too eager. The art direction of the film was terrific, the pacing feels like the art-house under-performer that it really is.
Andrew Garfield- love this guy as Spiderman, but he was a distraction for me in two big releases this year: Hacksaw Ridge and Scorsese’s Silence. He really overdid the Gomer Pyle thing in the former and kept falling in and out of his accent in the latter. He’s still too much of a boy to play a man.