To put it lightly, 2016 was a year that most people would characterize as a seemingly endless horror movie where many artists and trailblazers we admired were taken from us all while the world around us seemed to be going crazy. There aren’t many nice things to say about 2016 and all of its dreadfulness, save for one thing: it was an absolutely great year for cinema.
From blockbuster films taking insanely wonderful risks to independent cinema exploring humanity in a year where it often seemed to be lacking, a magical array of films served as a steady crux for all of us who looked to escape into a world beyond our own. These are the films that best guided us along that fantastical journey.
10. “10 Cloverfield Lane” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (Tie)
A tightly crafted thriller about a woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”) who awakens from a car crash to find herself trapped in a bunker with a doomsday prepper (John Goodman, “The Big Lebowski”) who tells her the world has ended, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a beautifully haunting mixture of classic survival horror and character drama. The acting is superb, the writing sharp and the film’s central twist only one of many memorably shocking moments. As of late, few thrillers are as effectively constructed, and it certainly helps that it offers the unique pleasure of turning Goodman (one of Hollywood’s loveable teddy bears) into a complete monster. It’s a trip into the dark imagination of old genre films and one that you’ll find hard to let go of.
Just as splendidly crafted, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” takes the gritty dreams of many “Star Wars” fans and turns it into a vividly realized reality. In ways that last year’s excellent “The Force Awakens” could not, “Rogue One” captures that lived-in feel of the original trilogy and uses it to make a highly entertaining, but poignantly dark war story. It thrives on everything that makes “Star Wars” great: an excellent and diverse cast of characters, stunning visuals and a healthy dose of remarkable world building. Making the film was a risky experiment for Lucasfilm and parent company Disney, but never tell them the odds: this is a bet that paid off.
9. “Midnight Special”
A criminally overlooked release from early in the year, “Midnight Special” is a gripping homage to the days of Spielbergian science-fiction blockbusters. Both a quietly beautiful road film and a slow-burning thriller, the film is anchored not only by director Jeff Nichols’ (“Loving”) patient direction but also by a typically committed performance from Shannon, who is simply mesmerizing to watch. Add those two elements to a treasure trove of supporting players and a fascinating script and you have one of the best tributes to 80s cinema in recent memory.
8. “Silence”
Master director Martin Scorsese’s most personal film yet, “Silence”, is a difficult film that nevertheless contains an artistry that cannot be ignored. The story of two priests (Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network” and Adam Driver, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) sent to Japan in the time of Christian persecution to find their forsaken mentor (Liam Neeson, “Taken”), the film is a relentlessly brutal and harrowing meditation on what it means to be an individual of faith, a topic the Catholic Scorsese is no stranger to. It’s not an easy film to get through, with a long run time and sometimes repetitive violence, messaging and plot devices, but its importance and haunting beauty cannot simply be left behind in the theater. It may not stand amongst Scorsese’s finest work, but it is still an unforgettable and well-crafted film that earns its place on this list with astonishing patience and wisdom of the cinema that’s come before it.
7. “The Lobster”
A magnificently profound satire, “The Lobster”, easily contains the most original film plot you’ll hear in quite some time: after finding out his wife has had an affair, a meek man (Colin Farrell, “In Bruges”) is sent by law to a hotel where he has 45 days to fall in love again or else be turned into an animal of his choosing. It’s every bit as strange as it sounds, but Farrell and company sell it completely. The film is an endlessly intriguing and harsh look at the superficial and drab world of modern romance, taking its darkly funny and ultimately disturbing script and letting its actors have their way with it. It accomplishes a feat few comedies can achieve these days: having something to say and being hilarious while doing it.
6. “La La Land”
Every old-fashioned cinema lover’s dream, “La La Land” is a modern musical love letter to the dreamers that populate not only Los Angeles, but the world of art itself. Crafted by new Hollywood whiz kid Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash”) and starring the effortlessly chemical Ryan Gosling (“Drive”) and Emma Stone (“Easy A”), the film fills its world with swirling stages of color and sound, an adoring nod found in every number and throughout every landscape. The film isn’t original and perfect as some would have you believe, with pacing in the second half sucking some of the life out of the film, but its brilliant ending makes up for it with an unforgettable scene that highlights all the highs and lows of committing yourself to your dreams. By the time the house lights go up, it’s clear that this is exactly the kind of film dreary 2016 needed.
5. “The Witch”
Horror films enjoyed a sort of continued renaissance this year, and the deeply unsettling “The Witch” played no small role in it. Following a radically Puritan family of settlers as religious paranoia and terror destroys them from within, the film plays like the best kind of disturbing old play: menacing dialogue, harrowing performances and a pervasive sense of dread combining to bring our deepest nightmares to life. There hasn’t been a horror film this willing to play with the limits of its audience’s expectations in some time, crafting a most disturbing chain of events that surpasses the sometimes overzealous conventions of the genre. Not to mention, it has the most memorable and gloriously insane goat you will ever see on the silver screen. Just make sure you don’t have any camping trips planned after watching this one.
4. “Hell or High Water”
Quietly released in the usually blockbuster-laden summer months, “Hell or High Water” is actually far more riveting than any of the cash grab pictures that surrounded it while being just as exciting to watch. The story of two bank-robbing brothers (Chris Pine, “Star Trek” and Ben Foster, “Warcraft”) looking to lift themselves out of the poverty that the unfair system they’re robbing from created, it features—without a doubt—the best dialogue of any film released this year, giving its actors a gift of meaty material to work with. Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, who penned last year’s equally excellent “Sicario,” pairs these memorable lines with a notably bleak modern view of the American West: an ancient world dying under the weight of financial hardship and environmental struggle. Pine, Foster and Jeff Bridges (‘The Big Lebowski”) all put in perhaps career-best work, turning their character’s rough and rugged personas into achingly human and complex pastiches. It all makes for a film that makes one miss for the slow but mystifying character studies of old.
3. “Green Room”
Imagine if you could capture a music scene in a bottle, shake it up and piss it off and let it live out its worst fears. What you’d have is “Green Room,” a punk rock survival horror film with blood in its mouth and smoke in its bones. The story follows the Ain’t Rights, a down-on-their-luck punk band who plays a neo-Nazi club to earn some final cash before they call it quits. Unexpectedly witnessing a murder, the band is then forced to fight for their lives against the brutal cult who owns the club, led by a perfectly cast Patrick Stewart (“X-Men”). The film does right by the music that inspires it, capturing that kinetic energy that only punk can inspire while being unafraid to take risks—chiefly addressing the fringe members of the movement that thrive on violence and hatred. It’s a bleak, cynical affair; but like punk itself, it finds nuance in the chaos.
2. “Arrival”
Probably the most surprising film of the year, “Arrival” takes what seems like a simple alien invasion premise and turns it into an unspeakably beautiful and profound cinematic meditation on the nature of grief and time. Following a linguist (Amy Adams, “Nocturnal Animals”) as she seeks to decipher the language of newly arrived extraterrestrials, the film explores otherness and purpose through a refreshingly subdued lens. Both the acting and visuals speak volumes without saying much at all, as the film stands tall as quiet examination of things that seem beyond our control. In a year of distressingly loud and self-indulgent science fiction films, “Arrival” takes the time to bring maturity and wisdom back to the genre. 2016 is all the better for it.
1. “Moonlight”
In a year where hatred has dominated national conversation and forced many into the corners of their own minds, “Moonlight” arrived to explore the fear of expressing one’s own feelings and desires. It is a compellingly timely tale—a life in three parts following a young gay black man growing up in impoverished Miami, trying to find himself in a world that cares little for emotional honesty. Its importance as a film is nearly indescribable, giving a voice to the voiceless with a special brand of nuance. Writer-director Barry Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”), who paints this harsh world with striking hues and enormous persistence, gives everything room to breathe and tell the story on its own terms. Supporting players Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris give the best supporting performances of the year, giving humanity to lives too often disregard in modern America. For a film this passionately daring, this utterly humanistic, to arrive in times like these is nothing short of a miracle. There is no film this year, perhaps in many years, that captures the heartbreaking poetry of life in the shadows to such a powerful degree as this. “Moonlight” is everything an American film should be: elegiac, questioning and unabashedly authentic.
