2016: The Year in Review
What Happened to Me in the Dark
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
What can one say about this ridiculous year? It was a year in which some
of our greatest artists seemed to die off every few days. It was a year
in which most of our worst and most monstrous political nightmares came
wretchedly true. It was a year in which, in no uncertain terms, hate and fear won out over logic and compassion.
And it was a year in which there were very few movies to
recommend for the first eleven months.
At the very end, a few good
things finally came along, and I formulated a ten-best list that could
compare with past years, but it was a hard-won list, and one that
required the most work with the least amount of faith. Undoubtedly we
have some awful, appalling, testing times ahead, and the very fabric of
the world is at stake; maybe, as a result, the movies will be shaken up
in a good way, or maybe they will retreat into the shadows for good. But
this year was a shocking, dismaying turning point that ought to make all
of us — artists, writers, and viewers alike — sit back and take stock.
Let's hope and pray for better luck — or whatever force is out there in
the universe — next year.
Following my top ten films, please find my ten runners-up and my ten
honorable mentions, followed by great performances, my favorite DVD and
Blu-ray releases, and, lastly, my list of the year's worst.
- The Top Ten -
10. Loving
This kind of movie, based on a true story and documenting the bravery of
a few souls that became the first baby steps to overcoming racism in our
country, is usually the kind of thing that becomes an Oscar-contender,
full of white guilt and congratulations for not being as racist as the
characters onscreen. However, with Loving, director Jeff Nichols pushes
aside all the social and political hullabaloo and simply presents two
characters who, raised in a world where race was not terribly important,
loved each other very much. It's a small film, but profound and
moving.
9. O.J.: Made in America
This incredible documentary, running 7 and 3/4 hours, could have been a
re-hash of the interminable, soul-numbing media circus that was the
trial of O.J. Simpson, but director Ezra Edelman figured out how this
tabloid trash was actually the story of America itself, the story of how
racism and celebrity affects absolutely everything in our history.
Weirdly, O.J.: Made in America is even more relevant after an election
season that it could not possibly have foreseen.
8. Silence
This religious epic, a dream project of director Martin Scorsese that
has gestated for decades, has emerged somewhat difficult and unwieldy, a
bit gory, but also magnificent, beautiful, and masterful. Like his
previous, great films The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, Silence
is about a spiritual conundrum; it's about whether totems, oaths, and
duty is more important than simple, private faith. It's brave enough to
illustrate what religious belief looks like from different cultures and
angles, coming down to a possible suggestion that faith is more a
personal than a communal choice.
7. Certain Women
It always seemed like Kelly Reichardt was more of a filmmaker of short
stories, smaller and more intently focused on detail and atmosphere, and
so here she is, adapting three tales by the great, underrated writer
Maile Meloy. The stories in Certain Women were culled from two different
collections, and my brain still reels at just how Reichardt put them all
together, but she did, and magnificently. The stories are, on the
surface, different, but they are all about women who are searching for
something in the world, perhaps a place, or a little control, or just a
little bit of love.
6. Everybody Wants Some!!
This is the fourth film in a row from Richard Linklater to make my
ten-best list, and he doesn't even seem to be trying. His Boyhood was a
groundbreaking masterpiece, but Everybody Wants Some!! is merely a
really good comedy, zeroing in on characters who are feeling freedom for
the first time, celebrating their naiveté as well as their bad behavior.
The discussion is as much about identity as it is about girls and
sports, and it's positively immersive; it revels in time and place and
not a moment of it is wasted. I didn't want it to end.
5. Moonlight
For a time, it looked as if the African-American experience this year
would be represented by The Birth of a Nation; now, instead, it's
happily represented by Barry Jenkins's Moonlight, a film so poetic,
gentle, and simple that it has the power to feel universal to a wide
audience, and not just a lonely black, gay, black kid from Florida.
(Unfortunately, it's still a little too alternative for the Oscars.) The
film is presented in three segments and three time periods, and although
Mahershala Ali appears in only one, his presence is felt in all three;
it's a breakout performance of great compassion in a deeply
compassionate film.
4. Sully
The shortest movie ever directed by Clint Eastwood, Sully did not look
like much going in; it looked closer to a trifle than a feature film,
but the legendary filmmaker and screenwriter Todd Komarnicki turned it
into a complex meditation on the gray areas of heroism, perhaps even
simpler and more subtle than American Sniper. The brilliantly edited
movie dissects the story, looking at its different components from
different angles, and even the angle inside of Sully's head, as he
questions his own actions. To be sure, Tom Hanks gives a great
performance in the lead role.
3. Arrival
It might have been enough for Arrival to merely be a beautifully
accomplished film, with exquisite design, cinematography, editing, and
music, but there's more here. And certainly the up-and-coming
French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve generally gives a bit more to
his films (his Sicario found a place on my 2015 best-of list). The
screenplay by Eric Heisserer — who also wrote my favorite horror film of
the year, Lights Out — manages to overcome one of the toughest
storytelling stumbling blocks, by revealing the big "surprise" (i.e. the
reason the aliens are here), and then makes it more interesting. It's
also a film of genuine compassion, understanding, and empathy in a time
when such things are in frighteningly short supply.
2. Paterson
While watching Jim Jarmusch's previous film Only Lovers Left Alive, I
realized that I liked his films best when they were quieter; he does not
seem to be able to do excessively chatty well. So here comes Paterson, a
gorgeously quiet film in the tradition of Dead Man and Broken Flowers,
and the year's best American film. It's a movie about life at a
different pace, about observing. It observes things that are static, but
also things that are in transition, things that move in and out of our
lives, finding a zen-like acceptance of this flow. American actor Adam
Driver and Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani won't win any awards, but
their performances are among the most honest I've seen.
1. Cemetery of Splendor
The best film of 2016 is very simply a good film by a great director,
and one that did not warrant much attention. My choice is partly a form
of protest over the lack of distribution foreign-language films get
today (they all seem to be "official Oscar submissions"), but also over
the loss/lack of great directors from other countries. Someone recently
wrote that Apichatpong Weerasethakul's are difficult to describe, but
very easy to watch, and I found Cemetery of Splendor among the easiest
of his films; I think it's my favorite. So it may not feel quite as
profound as his big award-winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives, but I found it to be as deeply poetic as films by Ozu, Bresson,
or Bergman.
Ten Runners up (in alphabetical order):
Ten Honorable Mentions:
Great Performances
Michael Shannon (Complete Unknown, Elvis & Nixon, Frank & Lola, Loving, Midnight Special, Nocturnal Animals)
Amy Adams (Arrival)
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Joel Edgerton & Ruth Negga (Loving)
Adam Driver (Midnight Special, Paterson, Silence)
Kate Beckinsale (Love & Friendship)
Jeff Bridges & Ben Foster (Hell or High Water)
Michelle Williams (Certain Women, Manchester by the Sea)
Patrick Stewart (Green Room)
Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!)
Lily Gladstone (Certain Women)
Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Mykelti Williamson (Fences)
Susan Yeagley (Mascots)
Great DVD and Blu-ray Releases
I no longer review DVDs and Blu-rays with the same regularity that I once
did, and there were several worthy releases this year that I did not get a chance
to see. This list, while not comprehensive, comprises my favorites of the
ones I did see.
Guilty Pleasures & Little Treasures
The Year's Worst Films
- Warcraft
- Yoga Hosers
- London Has Fallen
- Anthropoid
- Clown
- The 5th Wave
- Term Life
- Lion
- Assassin's Creed
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
- Morgan
- Shut In
- Ma Ma
- Creative Control
Thanks, and sending wishes and prayers for a better 2017! -- JMA
