Best of 2016

[KilgoreTrout]

I know we're a place devoted to love of the classics and films of an earlier era, but when I see top ten lists of years past or note recommendations from fellow users here, I do sometimes find myself curious about what modern films they like, how much our current tastes align, etc.

So since I'm an obsessive list maker who keeps a running tally of the year we now find at its close, I thought it didn't hurt to have one thread for people interested in sharing the best of what they saw in 2016.

 

Still need to see: Silence, Toni Erdmann, Nocturama, The Illinois Parables, Homeland: Iraq Year Zero, Fireworks Wednesday, Kaili Blues, Paterson, Evolution, Hyper Normalisation, Elle, Further Beyond, Kate Plays Christine, The Other Side, Staying Vertical, I Am Not Your Negro, Aquarius, Right Now, Wrong Then, Indignation, Peggy and Fred in Hell, Demon, I, Daniel Blake, Flag Without a Country, Kekszakallu, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, Sunset Song, A Bigger Splash, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Edge of Seventeen, among others.

BEST FILM
1.) Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
2.) Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
3.) La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
4.) The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
5.) H-o-m-o Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
6.) Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi)
7.) Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
8.) Jackie (Pablo Larrain)
9.) Thunder Road (Jim Cummings)
10.). Weiner (Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg)
11.) O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman)
12.) Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (Terrence Malick)
13.) Do Not Resist (Craig Atkinson)
14.) 20th Century Women (Mike Mills)
15.) Krisha (Trey Edward Shults)
16.) Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari)
17.) Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier)
18.) Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)
19.) Don't Think Twice (Mike Birbiglia)
20.) Everything Will Be Okay (Patrick Vollrath)
21.) 13th (Ava DuVernay)
22.) Dheepan (Jacques Audiard)
23.) The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer)
24.) In Transit (Albert Maysles & Lynn True & David Usui & Nelson Walker III & Benjamin Wu)
25.) Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)

Honorable mention: Arrival, Hail, Caesar!, Swiss Army Man, How Was Your Day?, Certain Women, Snowden, The Witch, Midnight Special, Tower, Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The White Helmets, Zero Days, Author: The JT Leroy Story, Cafe Society, Loving, The Trust, Demolition, Requiem for an American Dream, Killer, Orange Sunshine, The Invitation, Hunter Gatherer, Day One, Trump Rally

BEST DIRECTOR
1.) Damien Chazelle -La La Land
2.) Barry Jenkins -Moonlight
3.) Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi -Shin Godzilla
4.) Apichatpong Weerasethakul -Cemetery of Splendour
5.) Pablo Larrain -Jackie
6.) Yorgos Lanthimos -The Lobster
7.) Anna Rose Holmer -The Fits
8.) Park Chan-Wook -The Handmaiden
9.) Mike Mills -20th Century Women
10.) Robert Eggers -The Witch

BEST ACTOR
1.) Casey Affleck -Manchester by the Sea
2.) Jesuthasan Antonythasan -Dheepan
3.) Ryan Gosling -La La Land & The Nice Guys
4.) Denzel Washington -Fences
5.) Jake Gyllenhaal -Demolition & Nocturnal Animals
6.) Andre Royo -Hunter Gatherer
7.) Paul Dano -Swiss Army Man
8.) Colin Farrell -The Lobster
9.) Joseph Gordon-Levitt -Snowden
10.) Joel Edgerton -Loving

BEST ACTRESS
1.) Natalie Portman -Jackie
2.) Emma Stone -La La Land
3.) Krisha Fairchild -Krisha
4.) Kalieaswari Srinivasan -Dheepan
5.) Viola Davis -Fences
6.) Jenjira Pongpas -Cemetery of Splendour
7.) Amy Adams -Arrival & Nocturnal Animals
8.) Narges Rashidi -Under the Shadow
9.) Kate Beckinsale -Love & Friendship
10.) Royalty Hightower -The Fits

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1.) Mahershala Ali -Moonlight
2.) Alex Hibbert -Moonlight
3.) Lucas Hedges -Manchester by the Sea
4.) Jim Cummings -Thunder Road
5.) Alden Ehrenrich -Hail, Caesar!
6.) Tom Bennett -Love & Friendship
7.) Trevante Rhodes -Moonlight
8.) Michael Shannon -Nocturnal Animals
9.) Jared Harris -Certain Women
10.) Danny DeVito -****-Dog

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1.) Lily Gladstone -Certain Women
2.) Kristen Stewart -Cafe Society & Certain Women
3.) Michelle Williams -Manchester by the Sea
4.) Greta Gerwig -20th Century Women
5.) Jarinpattra Rueangram -Cemetery of Splendour
6.) Gillian Jacobs -Don't Think Twice
7.) Claudine Vinasithamby -Dheepan
8.) Cate Blanchett -Knight of Cups
9.) Rachel Weisz -The Lobster
10.) Elle Fanning -20th Century Women

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1.) Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou-The Lobster
2.) Kenneth Longergan -Manchester by the Sea
3.) Mike Mills -20th Century Women
4.) Apichatpong Weerasethakul -Cemetery of Splendour
5.) Mike Birbiglia -Don't Think Twice
6.) Damien Chazelle -La La Land
7.) Joel & Ethan Coen -Hail, Caesar!
8.) Jeremy Saulnier -Green Room
9.) Dan Kwan & Daniel Schienert -Swiss Army Man
10.) Jeff Nichols -Midnight Special

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1.) Barry Jenkins -Moonlight
2.) Hideaki Anno -Shin Godzilla
3.) Whit Stillman -Love & Friendship
4.) Kelly Reichardt -Certain Women
5.) Kieran Fitzgerald & Oliver Stone -Snowden
6.) Eric Heisserer -Arrival
7.) Park Chan-Wook & Chung Seo-Kyung -The Handmaiden
8.) Bryan Sipe -Demolition
9.) Tom Ford -Nocturnal Animals
10.) John Hodge -The Program

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1.) Linus Sandgren -La La Land
2.) Paul Atkins -Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
3.) Nikolaus Geyrhalter -**** Sapiens
4.) Diego Garcia -Cemetery of Splendour
5.) James Laxton -Moonlight
6.) Drew Daniels -Krisha
7.) Vittorio Storaro -Cafe Society
8.) Chung Chung-hoon -The Handmaiden
9.) Peter Suschitzky -Tale of Tales
10.) Emmanuel Lubezki -Knight of Cups & Last Days in the Desert

BEST EDITING
1.) Hideaki Anno & Atsuki Sato -Shin Godzilla
2.) Bret Granato, Maya Mumma, & Ben Sozanski -O.J.: Made in America
3.) Tom Cross -La La Land
4.) Sebastian Sepulveda -Jackie
5.) Nat Sanders & Joe McMillan -Moonlight
6.) Nels Bangerter -Cameraperson
7.) Julia Bloch -Green Room
8.) Eli B. Despres -Weiner
9.) Jay M. Glen -Demolition
10.) Craig Atkinson & Laura Hartrick -Do Not Resist

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
1.) David Wasco -La La Land
2.) Seong-hie Rye -The Handmaiden
3.) Jess Gonchor -Hail, Caesar!
4.) Santo Loquasto -Cafe Society
5.) Pichan Muangduang -Cemetery of Splendour
6.) Jean Rabasse -Jackie
7.) Tom Obed -Hunter Gatherer
7.) Dimitri Capuani -Tale of Tales
8.) Jacqueline Abrahams -The Lobster
9.) Jason Kisvarday -Swiss Army Man
10.) Shane Valentino -Nocturnal Animals

BEST SOUND DESIGN
1.) Chris Foster & Gillian Arthur -The Fits
2.) Adam Stein, Christopher Guglick, Jason Perreira, & Robert Turi -The Witch
3.) David Miranda, Vincent Cosson, & Jean-Paul Mugel -Jackie
4.) Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou, Andy Nelson, & Steven Morrow -La La Land
5.) Roland Vajs, Bob Chefalas, & Paul H. Maristas -Green Room
6.) Florian Kindlinger, Peter Kutin, & Alexander Koller -**** Sapiens
7.) Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Wales, & Csaba Major -Don't Breathe
8.) Luc Boudrias, Bernard Strobl, & Claudia La Haye -Arrival
9.) Richard Hocks -Cemetery of Splendour
10.) Jordan King -They Look Like People

 BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC
1.) Nicholas Brittell -Moonlight
2.) Justin Hurwitz -La La Land
3.) David Wingo -Midnight Special
4.) Daniel Bensi & Saunder Juriaans -The Fits & Last Days in the Desert
5.) Brian McOmber -Krisha
6.) Jo Yeong-Wook -The Handmaiden
7.) Johann Johannsson -Arrival
8.) Roger Neill -20th Century Women
9.) Andy Hull & Robert McDowell -Swiss Army Man
10.) Abel Korzeniowski -Nocturnal Animals

BEST DOCUMENTARY
1.) **** Sapiens (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
2.) Weiner (Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg)
3.) O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman)
4.) Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (Terrence Malick)
5.) Do Not Resist (Craig Atkinson)
6.) 13th (Ava DuVernay)
7.) In Transit (Albert Maysles & Lynn True & David Usui & Nelson Walker III & Benjamin Wu)
8.) Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
9.) Tower (Keith Maitland)
10.) Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (Werner Herzog)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
1.) Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi)
2.) Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3.) Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari)
4.) Everything Will Be Okay (Patrick Vollrath)
5.) Dheepan (Jacques Audiard)
6.) The White Helmets (Orlando von Einseidel)
7.) Shok (Jamie Donoghue)
8.) Homeful Bliss (Jan Van ****)
9.) Ave Maria (Basil Khalil)
10.) The Handmaiden (Park Chan-Wook)

BEST ANIMATED FILM (merely by default, don't care for any of them - need to see Kubo)
1.) Kung Fu Panda 3
2.) Sausage Party
3.) Zootopia
4.) Finding Dory

BEST SHORT FILM
1.) Thunder Road (Jim Cummings)
2.) Pleasantville: Black and White Vs. Color (Kentucker Audley)
3.) Everything Will Be Okay (Patrick Vollrath)
4.) How Was Your Day? (Damien O'Donnell)
5.) Day One (Henry Hughes)
6.) Killer (Matt Kazman)
7.) Shok (Jamie Donoghue)
8.) Homeful Bliss (Jan Van ****)
9.) Trump Rally (Sean Dunne)
10.) Good Luck with the Wall (Josh Begley)

 

Recommendations, thoughts, disagreements, and your own lists are welcome. No need to be as in depth as me if you just feel like putting a top 5 down or something.

[LawrenceA]

I'm slow to catch up on the newer films, and I only saw 3 movies in the theater. I enjoyed all 3, although I don't know if any will end up on my best of 2016 list when I catch up on more titles.

 

1)  Deadpool

2)  10 Cloverfield Lane

3)  Lights Out

 

I've seen 2 more theatrical releases via home viewing, and both were disappointments to a varying degree. Midnight Special got great word of mouth, but it left me wanting, and the style and structure were too similar to John Carpenter's Starman. The less said about Gods of Egypt, the better. Alex Proyas has done good work in the past (Dark City) but this fantasy action adventure ended up as CGI-overload with a script straight out of a videogame.

 

Rounding out my films of 2016 are 3 TV movies, Day of Reckoning, Shadows of the Dead, and The Night Before Halloween, all of which were abysmal. 

[Bogie56]

I'm just going to list my frontrunners at the moment as I have a lot of films still to see from 2016.

 

Film

Silence

 

Actor

Matthew McConaughey, Gold

 

Actress

Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

 

Supporting Actor

Ralph Fiennes, Hail, Caesar!

 

Supporting Actress

Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

[LawrenceA]

Steve Prokopy, aka "Capone", a Chicago-based film critic and contributor to Ain't It Cool News, releases an annual list of 40 or 50 best films of the year, as well as a separate documentary list. I don't often agree with his rankings, but his lists contain a nice mix of Hollywood fare, foreign films, and indies that may be overlooked by the average filmgoer. This year he has released a Top 60 list, as he felt there was a better than average output. Here's his list:

 

1) Swiss Army Man

2) Moonlight

3) The Handmaiden

4) La La Land

5) The Lobster

6) Manchester By the Sea

7) The Witch

8) Arrival

9) Green Room

10) Christine

11) Jackie

12) Don't Think Twice

13) Elle

14) Midnight Special

15) Fences

16) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

17) Train to Busan

18) The Wailing

19) Everybody Wants Some!

20) Love & Friendship

21) Hunt for the Wilderpeople

22) I, Daniel Blake

23) Kubo and the Two Strings

24) The Edge of Seventeen

25) Paterson

26) Pete's Dragon

27) In the Valley of Violence

28) Certain Women

29) Loving

30) Sing Street

31) A Bigger Splash

32) Nocturnal Animals

33) The Neon Demon

34) Hell and High Water

35) Captain America: Civil War

36) A Monster Calls

37) Deadpool

38) Don't Breathe

39) The Nice Guys

40) Blue Jay

41) Hail, Caesar!

42) The Invitation

43) The Eyes of My Mother

44) Miss Hokusai

45) Southside With You

46) American Honey

47) Into the Forest

48) Creepy

49) 10 Cloverfield Lane

50) Evolution

51) Toni Erdmann

52) The Love Witch

53) A Man Called Ove

54) Queen of Katwe

55) Born to Be Blue

56) The Conjuring 2

57) Under the Shadow

58) Doctor Strange

59) Zootopia

60) Eye In the Sky

 

Top Documentaries

 

1) Tower

2) OJ: Made in America

3) Cameraperson

4) I Am Not Your Negro

5) Newtown

6) Weiner

7) Under the Sun

8) Miss Sharon Jones!

9) Gleason

10) Life, Animated

11) 13th

12) Trapped

13) Author: The JT Leroy Story

14) Tickled

15) One More Time With Feeling

16) Zero Days

17) Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

18) Nuts!

19) Kate Plays Christine

20) My Love, Don't Cross That River

[kingrat]

For those of you who have seen Silence: the trailer for the film made it appear that everything was shot in the steel blue tones so inescapable today. Is this the case?

 

Secondly, how much torture or other gore is in the film? My tolerance for such is quite low. Otherwise, it seems like a film I'd want to see.

[Bogie56]

For those of you who have seen Silence: the trailer for the film made it appear that everything was shot in the steel blue tones so inescapable today. Is this the case?

 

Secondly, how much torture or other gore is in the film? My tolerance for such is quite low. Otherwise, it seems like a film I'd want to see.

 

I don't recall it being anything like the steel-blue Sweeney Todd type cinematography.  There is a lot of rain in it however.  While there is some heavy violence in the film I wouldn't say any of it is gratuitous.  You can't tell the story of Christ without the crucifixion.  My tolerance for violence goes up the more meaningful the film and I would say Silence is worthwhile.

[TopBilled]

Good thread. I've enjoyed reading the replies. I haven't seen many "new" films from 2016 yet. I usually wait till after the year ends to catch up. Usually I wait till after the awards season-- then I can sift through everything and pick what I normally like.

 

These comments are most helpful..!

[LawrenceA]

Good thread. I've enjoyed reading the replies. I haven't seen many "new" films from 2016 yet. I usually wait till after the year ends to catch up. Usually I wait till after the awards season-- then I can sift through everything and pick what I normally like.

 

These comments are most helpful..!

 

If you've still got Amazon Prime, I've noticed that quite a few titles showing up on the Year End's Best lists are available.