Jessica Kiang
Overrated: “Sausage Party”
Let’s face it, we’re not fooling anyone when we strain for polite euphemisms like “baffled,” “flummoxed” and “confused” to describe our reaction to the consensus opinions on certain films — what we actually mean is, “Are you guys stupid or nuts or what?” Which is why it’s hard not to come across as prissy or smug or sniffily superior in this feature, especially when talking of what’s “overrated,” because clearly you, and only you, have the sharper critical faculties required to discern that this certified Van Gogh is, in fact, a fake. Now, no one, not even the venerable AO Scott of the New York Times who put the film on his top ten of 2016 (baffled, flummoxed, etc.) is trying to tell us that “Sausage Party” the R-rated animation from directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan and the writing gang of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and co., is “Starry Night.” But here’s the thing that makes me feel like dropping to my knees and bellowing WHY at the heavens when I see the film’s 83% RT score: it’s not just not-good, it’s bad, and it’s not just bad, it’s getting away with it. “Sausage Party” is in many ways the ultimate 2016 film because it dupes us into believing its renegade, anti-political-correctness exterior contains a rich, iconoclastic vein of deeply woke intelligence. Which it does not. But it is also such a work of unassailable, equal-opportunities vulgarity that getting onside is almost a badge of DTF cool, a kind of “look how prudish I’m not! I liked ‘Sausage Party’!” But I guess I am just proudly prudish (and smug, prissy, etc.) because admirably ambitious though it might be to have a gross-out, bad-taste cartoon sex comedy try its luck as a religious allegory, it doesn’t make a flying fuck of a difference if the allegory doesn’t work. Instead, we get 88 minutes of eye-gougingly ugly animation, as racist caricatures trade woeful grocery puns (“virgin olive oil” for virgins! The villain is a literal “douche”!) before apparently solving everything with an orgy, because Lord knows no one’s prejudiced if they have sex outside their own ethnicity or, uh, food group.
Underrated: “Shelley”
It only got minuscule distribution, and a day-and-date internet release in the U.S. so it’s perhaps not surprising that so few people picked up on first-time feature director Ali Abbasi’s pregnancy horror “Shelley.” What’s maybe more surprising is how many of those who did see it rather shrugged it off, but then again that’s possibly because if you’re marketing to the cheapie foreign horror audience they might not find a lot to satisfy their more sensationalist cravings. For a non-horror-purist such as myself, though, “Shelley” scares much more effectively for being such a well-performed character portrait. Ellen Dorrit Petersen (so great in Eskil Vogt’s “Blind“) is almost animalistically ambivalent as the childless woman desperate for a kid, while Cosmina Stratan‘s warm, engaging and rounded performance as the hired Romanian help who agrees to become her surrogate, would be a revelation if she hadn’t already won Cannes Best Actress for her debut in Cristian Mungiu‘s “Beyond the Hills.” It resorts unnecessarily to some rather predictable turns by the very end but for the most part this is an unsettling meditation on isolation, female friendship and motherhood, both natural and not-so-natural — an atmospheric and chilly tale of good deeds that, as the saying goes, never go unpunished.
C.J. Prince
Overrated: “Krisha”
I can understand finding something to admire in Trey Edward Shults’ “Krisha,” but I remain baffled as to why such a ho-hum melodrama managed to garner so much high praise from critics. Perhaps it was because it was easier for them to rattle off facts about the movie (Shults worked for Terrence Malick! He shot it in nine days! He cast his own family!) rather than actually talk about what the movie does, which isn’t much. Aside from a good performance by lead actress Krisha Fairchild (remember, that’s Shults’ real-life aunt, so this movie is basically Cassavetes), the film amounts to little more than a series of arguments, freak outs, and other overdramatic interactions, with no proper context or development to make them feel like anything more than hollow screaming matches. Combine that with a series of annoying and indulgent formal tics (can someone explain to me why this thing needed three different aspect ratios?), and you get a mediocre showreel made by someone who only understands drama in the broadest sense. “Krisha” only knows how to grab people’s attention on the most basic level, and it’s disappointing to see how that alone is enough to qualify it as great cinema.
Underrated: “Ouija: Origin of Evil”
Here’s a little known fact: Mike Flanagan is one of the best horror filmmakers working today, and before you go spouting off someone like James Wan in response, go watch “Absentia” and “Oculus” to see what I mean. 2016 saw Flanagan return with two films (technically three, if you count “Before I Wake” whose release remains in limbo): the fun home invasion thriller “Hush” and “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” a prequel to the 2014 crapfest “Ouija.” Taking on the follow-up to a forgettable Hasbro adaptation looks like a confusing choice on paper, but Flanagan — who was given carte blanche by producers — fully commits to his work, crafting a geeky ode to ‘60s-era horror filmmaking (using split diopters and even inserting fake cigarette burns to simulate reel changes) that’s both genuinely creepy and tragic. But it’s not just the impeccable craftsmanship that elevates this prequel above other studio-backed horror films. It’s the rare horror movie that actually cares about its characters, and its three lead actresses (which includes an incredible performance by Lulu Wilson) commit just as hard as their director to help elevate the proceedings to something far better than the source material ever deserved. Those of you missing out on Flanagan’s work should start catching up as soon as possible.
Kimber Myers
Overrated: “Manchester by the Sea”
Before you get out your whetstone, I’m not saying that Kenneth Lonergan’s drama is a bad film. “Manchester by the Sea” is an often moving work, honest in its portrayal of grief and its profound effect on Casey Affleck’s Lee Chandler. It’s the second-most-lauded movie for 2016 on Metacritic, and it came in at #7 on The Playlist’s top films of the year. But for all of its efforts, it brings little new to the table. Even within the director’s relatively short filmography, it shares a number of thematic beats with its predecessors “You Can Count on Me,” and “Margaret” and it’s not entirely dissimilar from another Massachusetts-set film that credits an Affleck and Matt Damon (who produces here): “Good Will Hunting.” Critics complain about the lack of originality in big-budget films, but it can extend to their darlings as well. While watching Lonergan’s screenplay unfold, I was engaged by his characters and the strong performances, but it’s not a movie I felt like shouting about from the roof about afterwards. It never evoked a sense of wonder at the medium or its creator’s craft. Further dulling my enthusiasm for the picture are the sexual harassment allegations against Affleck, who will likely win an Oscar for the role. It’s hard for me to join in the celebration of the actor and his performance with that history being quietly shoved into the background.
Underrated: “Miss Sloane”
Though it boasts a Golden Globe nomination for Jessica Chastain’s portrayal of a steely Washington lobbyist, this political thriller has been a financial failure. Its fate at the box office almost feels as though it could have been a plot point within the film itself: a proudly pro-gun-control movie does historically low numbers and demonstrates the strength of those who oppose its message. Headlines at Breitbart, Fox News and other conservative outlets cheer its defeat, with a glee often reserved for their real-world victories. But “Miss Sloane” isn’t just a message movie, and to declare it as such takes away from how it is simultaneously smart and an utter joy for the audience, regardless of political stripe. From his clever dialogue and the film’s progressive politics, first-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera seems like someone who has taken Aaron Sorkin’s screenwriting class. However, this is a darker, more cynical look at the Beltway and the way that issues are handled, not only by politicians but by the lobbyists driving their causes forward. As the titular power broker, Chastain elevates the film, adding nuance to a character whom other actresses might have solely created around her power and drive to win. “Miss Sloane” is fast-moving and fun, a tense film that leaves the audience a little breathless while it barrels toward its conclusion.
Oliver Lyttelton
Overrated: “Nocturnal Animals”
I was legitimately excited for “Nocturnal Animals.” I’d found Tom Ford’s first film, “A Single Man,” to be rather beautiful, its meta-fictional take on the crime thriller seemed intriguing, I’d been intrigued by the trailers, and the reviews had been pretty good on the whole. About fifteen minutes into my screening, someone managed to spill coffee over my trousers. And somehow, that was actually one of the better things that happened in the film’s running time. Ford’s film juggles two plotlines: a sort of sub-Peckinpah revenge thriller whereby Jake Gyllenhaal tries to avenge the rape and murder of his wife and daughter, and Amy Adams reading that story, written by the ex-husband (also Gyllenhaal) she dumped twenty years ago for dickhead banker Armie Hammer (that Hammer would have been aged ten twenty years ago doesn’t appear to have crossed Ford’s mind). And yes, it’s all very beautiful, in the way that there’s beauty when you leaf through the first forty pages of ads in Vogue, but it’s just as empty and banal. In fact, it’s worse than that: it’s an unpleasant, cruel piece of work, one that actively seems to hate its characters, and basically everything: Fuck Amy Adams for her vacuous art and materialism! Fuck meta Gyllenhaal for his weakness! Fuck ex-husband Gyllenhaal for his terrible writing, misogyny and vindictiveness! Fuck you, bourgeois audience member, for paying money! Fuck me, Tom Ford, for making this jumped-up perfume ad! Beautiful nihilism isn’t any more appealing than any other nihilism, however many good Michael Shannon performances you might include to gild the lily.
Underrated: “How To Be Single”
We’ve been told for years now that the romantic comedy is essentially dead, but at times that seems like willful ignorance on the behalf of the thinkpiece industrial complex, given that a movie like “How To Be Single” was quietly and modestly successful earlier in the year, despite being sniffed at by most critics. It is actually one of the better studio attempts at the genre in a long while, even if it falls into the fairly bleak sub-genre of movies based on “What To Expect When You’re Expecting”-type self-help books. It’s loosely centered on Dakota Johnson’s newly uncoupled college grad, along with her relationship-shy pregnant older sister (Leslie Mann), and best pals Rebel Wilson and Alison Brie, as they negotiate singledom, sex and relationships. Not exactly reinventing the wheel, and there are times when it sort of tips into movie bullshit — the giant apartments and hospital-dash finale feel like they’re from a lesser movie, for instance. (Also, while we’re picking flaws, it does paint a pretty heteronormative world, and also don’t cast Anders Holm, Jake Lacy, Colin Jost and Nicholas Braun in the same movie and expect us to be able to tell them apart…). But on the whole, the scripting by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein and Dana Fox, has an honesty and messiness that’s rare for this sort of thing, making it the unusual mainstream movie that feels like it’s actually somewhere close to what dating in your 20s feels like. The performances, especially by Johnson, are uniformly very good, and director Christian Ditter makes it all look quite nice without tipping into being overly glossy. It’s not “When Harry Met Sally,” for sure, but damn if I didn’t have a better time with it than with most studio movies this year.
So who’s your new Playlist BFF and who’s your new Worst Critic Ever (or, indeed, have the above opinions merely confirmed your previously held low opinions)? More importantly, what are the films that you feel got the most unfair shake — positively or negatively — in the year of our Lord 2016? Tell us in the comments, and check out the rest of our 2016 coverage here.