5. “The Lobster”
I almost don’t want to write anything about “The Lobster” by Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek king of subversive, surreal, and absurdist cinema, and let every uninitiated viewer dive into it cold without knowing a single thing about its many insane yet fascinating eccentricities, miraculously resulting in one of the most honest and playful studies on the nature of romance and coupling. Therefore, this is all I’ll write. Enjoy shooting that donkey on the field.
4. “Midnight Special”
As I mentioned above, 2016 has been a shit year, but I think we can all agree that Jeff Nichols is one of the best things to have happened to it. Along with “Loving,” his tender depiction of an interracial couple’s fight to simply love each other in a virulently racist society, he gave us “Midnight Special,” a somewhat-Spielbergian sci-fi/adventure that manages to be both grounded and awe-inspiring. The story of two parents, played with spectacular empathy by Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst, going on the run to protect their supernaturally gifted child from an overzealous cult and the paranoid government, the film strips the sci-fi elements to their core.
Nichols extracts as much of a realistic, character-driven drama out of this premise as possible, while making sure to deliver thrilling set pieces with just the right amount of special-effects grandstanding. This is how an indie director should handle straight genre material, especially when it comes to throwbacks that are always in danger of getting lost in a sludge of easy nostalgia. So despite the sci-fi elements, “Midnight Special” is ultimately about what it means to be a parent, and how far we’re willing to go to protect our children. This is succinctly encapsulated in a brief but powerful exchange: When the gifted child tells his father that he doesn’t have to worry about him anymore, Dad replies, “I like worrying about you. I’ll always worry about you. That’s the deal.”
3. “Pete’s Dragon”
If it was released in the 80s, or even the early 90s, indie up-and-comer David Lowery’s loose remake of “Pete’s Dragon” would have been instantly hailed as a heartwarming and awe-inspiring family classic, on par with “E.T.” and other Spielberg-infused mainstream kids’ entertainment that miraculously captured, without condescension and cynicism, a child’s imagination as it relates to their real life wants and needs. Alas, in our contemporary world where our ceaseless need for self-referential nostalgia and aversion to experiencing basic emotions without having to undercut them with irony made it inevitable for this downright lovely story to play second banana to the pretty but instantly forgettable “The Jungle Book.”
Lowery takes the core premise of the colorful and goofy original and turns the story of an orphaned child’s friendship with a dragon (spectacularly designed and animated in this version) into a simple yet effective study on a child’s inherent need for a family. By underplaying the film’s nostalgic elements (it’s an obvious period piece that doesn’t even clarify what year it takes place in), Lowery creates a bona fide example of the kind of old school family entertainment he clearly loves. In a way, the fact that it’s not an obvious throwback makes it the perfect throwback.
2. “Moonlight”
The most touching and beautiful romance in recent years happens to be about an introverted African-American kid trying to come to grips with his identity and his sexuality while struggling to survive the rough streets of Miami. Director Barry Jenkins sets up every single “ghetto movie” cliche in the book — the well-meaning black kid being enticed by the thug life due to a lack of other opportunities, the crackhead mother, the drug dealer mentor with a heart of gold — and knocks them all down with a fresh narrative approach full of stunning depth. None of the easy melodramatic tricks we expect from the story takes place. Instead we are left with a genuine human experience that’s haunting, enthralling, ugly, and beautiful all at the same time.
The cinematography is as close as we can get to visual poetry, the score is transcendent, and the performances are all top notch (Naomie Harris better get a goddamn Oscar nomination). The final act takes place almost entirely in an empty restaurant between two characters who are dying to express their feelings to each other, but can’t do so openly due to masculine mores, leading to intense sexual tension that’s communicated entirely through suggestive looks and body language. David Lean and Douglas Sirk would have been proud. Forget that Nicholas Sparks shit, this is the real deal.
1. “Arrival”
“Arrival” is nothing short of a cinematic miracle: a big budget mainstream Hollywood release with the passion and creativity of a plucky little indie. An adult story that doesn’t rely on easy and manipulative action set pieces and eye candy special effects, but instead opts to ask some hard questions about how us humans relate to the universe, to time, and ultimately, to ourselves. A hard science fiction opus that, like the best examples of the genre, uses seemingly clinical and dry science to dig deep into our existential connection to time and space. Who knew that the most human story of the year would come out of a movie about aliens?
If you’ve seen the trailers, you might have been intrigued by the story’s unique approach to yet another alien contact premise, showing it from the point of view of a linguist (Amy Adams) who struggles to communicate with the mysterious creatures. That’s an intriguing jumping off point, to be sure, but “Arrival” proves itself to be much more than the tiny crumbs that the film’s marketing brilliantly threw at us. The way that screenwriter Eric Heisserer adapts Ted Chiang‘s short story, gradually turning an epic global alien invasion story into a deeply personal yet universally potent study on the resilience of the human spirit as it relates to the choices we make while we deal with our limited time in this world, is nothing short of revolutionary. You can read my full review here.
Honorable Mentions:
2016 was a very strong year for memorable animated fare. “Kubo and The Two Strings” created a visually stunning adventure as it insightfully dealt with the importance of storytelling within the human experience. “The Little Prince” was a gorgeous and appropriately whimsical updating of the classic novella. But the biggest animated surprise of the year was “Storks”, which successfully combined creative Looney Tunes-style cartoon comedy with Pixar-level understanding of the emotional bond between its characters.
Shane Black’s “The Nice Guys” was a rollicking action/comedy throwback with hilarious chemistry between the two leads. “The Uncondemned” was a heartbreaking yet inspiring documentary about one of the biggest atrocities in recent history (You can read my review here). “High-Rise” was a hypnotic allegory about the evils of free market capitalism (My review).
I have to mention one more animated flick, even though it’s far from my best-of list: My 3-year-old toddler’s new favorite movie is “The Secret Life of Pets”, so I had to watch it literally every day since its’ release on home video. It’s an inconsequential piece of entertainment, a fun little “Toy Story” rip off. Yet I also have to admit that when a movie playing on a loop in the background 24/7 still hasn’t made me stab myself in the neck must be doing something right.