2016 might have been a bad year for many reasons but it was a great year for movies. For my 2015 list, for lack of choice, I couldn’t select more than 10 favorite movies, but this year, I have a list of TWENTY. There’re a lot more Hollywood movies in my list this year, and more some European ones. This year too, there are three (possibly four) musicals. This time the list has two documentaries and a biopic, and more horror than the last time. Interstingly a majority of the movies on this list feature female leads. But this time, again, there are TWENTY MOVIES. At the very end is the worst movie of 2016. Objectively the worst. If you liked it, you’re probably wrong. Anyway, the good movies:
20. Kabali
Campy fun reminiscent of Japanese Yakuza movies. I enjoyed the living hell out of it, and I can’t wait for Kabali 2. This almost didn’t make the list because of the phenomenally shitty post-ending ending, but I thought that I might as well round of 19 to 20. Rajini ROCKZZ No further comment.
19. Captain America: Civil War
I don’t know how the Russo’s do it, balancing the campy, lighthearted stuff, with the heavy, sad stuff. Excellent script, great direction and cinematography, and great cast. When the movie was announced, I was extremely skeptical. How do you pull off a war between ten people? The comicbook Civil War was huge, with hundreds of characters playing parts. Ultimately the war was fought over Bucky instead of some ideology. Sure, that was there too, but focusing on Bucky helped in bridging or at least hiding gaps in the ideology. I know a lot of people complain about how convoluted Zemo’s plan was, but I really liked him, and I’m glad they didn’t kill him off. Also, great action in this movie.
18. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Normally, when a franchise spinoff claims to be a crossover between genres, its a huge stretch (Winter Soldier wasn’t a political thriller no matter how much you’d like it to be). But this one really is a war movie that happens to be set in space. It plays out like a combination of Seven Samurai and the Dirty Dozen. All that was missing is the “where are they now” sections that these movies generally have before the credits roll. It oscillates between fun, tense and heavy, quickly but organically. It wastes several good actors though some others get a chance to shine (Donnie friggin Yen). All in all excellent, and may indicate a turning point in the way major companies (especially Disney) treat these spin offs.
17. 13th
An Ava DuVernay documentary, it highlights the history of racism against African Americans in the USA, and the subtle ways in which the United States government (and by extension other governments), use legislature to enable the police and the judiciary to racially profile people and target minorities. Racism is a nonpartisan issue that all sides of a government should agree upon as being a terrible thing, but this documentary highlights how both sides engage in profiling, very silently. Highly relevant documentary to the way things are today.
16. 10 Cloverfield Lane
I did not like Cloverfield, so I didn’t expect to like this. But most of my apprehensions eased when I heard it was not a found footage film and that John Goodman would be in it. Dan Trachtenberg, best known for the Portal short movie, and later, an episode of Black Mirror does an excellent job of easing and and increasing the viewers claustrophobia. The tension comes and goes in waves, and at one point, you’re lulled into such a sense of security you almost think that everything is going to be okay. And the ending (which I already knew because of the first movie) adds an excellent texture to the rest of the movie once you’ve seen it, because of how much they did in it that finally didn’t matter.
15. Green Room
This being a Jeremy Saulnier movie, you can go in with certain expectations, and he delivers on all fronts. A punk band plays a show in the middle of nowhere to a bunch of Neo Nazis at a club owned by main Nazi Patrick Stewart. Things go crazy when they witness a murder and they gotta fight their way out of the club. The best thing about this movie is its pacing. Uncomfortable jagged, it lulls you into a false sense of security, and then quickly murders likable and typically “safe” characters in startling jolts. Its also brilliantly shot, alternating between the hot and claustrophobically tiny club and the cool, pristine woodlands outside, lending credence to the characters’ feverish moods. Poor Anton Yelchin, who died horribly last year, does a fantastic job in the movie and will be sorely missed. I gotta point out though, he and Elijah Wood look alarmingly similar, and I kept expecting him to call for Sam in the movie.
14. Hidden Figures
This was such a delightful movie. It tells the story of three black women who worked at NASA, and were instrumental in getting John Glenn to Space and back, safely. It deals with the various challenges they faced, both racist and sexist in nature, and is an inspiring story of how perseverance and honest intentions can ultimately help achieve something. The cast kills it, and the movie nails the early 60s aesthetic. I especially love how this is a movie for all ages, and will appeal to a 9 year old just as much as it would appeal to a 40 year old. And movies like this are all too important in the age we’re living in.
13. Amanda Knox
This documentary follows the high profile murder of an American exchange student in Italy. Her roommate, Amanda Knox, and her then boyfriend were convicted of the murder. The documentary explores the various biases in the media and in the Police investigator responsible for the arrests, and how, ultimately, both of them were acquitted by the courts. Such a subversive and thrilling documentary. It quietly plays with your own biases and opinions as events proceed, gently tugging you along one direction, and then another, always keeping your interest.
12. Toni Erdmann
This was a long movie, but a very good one. It has well established character stereotypes; the happy go lucky, practical joking father, the ultrabusy corporate daughter with no FUN! in her life. While they have a strained relationship, its never a broken one, making it far more real than most movies. Director Maren Ade has a penchant for building and playing around with relationships, and let me tell you she has a ton of fun here. The characters are so real that the absurdity the father brings to the movie is as unsettling as it is funny. This movie probably also has the strangest and funniest nude scene of the year, and people cannot shut up about it so I thought maybe it warrants a mention.
11. Your Name
Anime! The director of this movie, Shinkai Makoto is often called the successor to Miyazaki. I don’t agree with this comparison. Shinkai is a trailblazer in his own right. The movie that starts of as a simple body swapping romance, between a city guy and a village girl. The first half explores their adolescence and plays out like a fun meet-cute, effectively building their characters, till one day the switching stops. They both try to find each other for real, only to realize that their circumstances are much more complicated than they thought them to be. Blending mysticism with typically Sci-Fi themes like time travel and parallel realities, this movie is a lot more fun and has a lot more emotional weight than most movies can manage. It draws obvious comparisions to Interstellar (no space travel, but the underlying theme of “love” being a guiding force), and I personally think Your Name is far better at getting that theme across to the viewer. Also, it has a killer soundtrack, courtesy the Radwimps.
10. The Lobster
A dystopian future where people who are single are turned into animals of their choosing, if they cannot find a partner to live with in 45 days. People are granted extensions depending on how successful they are at a weird Paintball like game where you run through the woods and tranquilize other people. Mad satire by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos in his English language debut. It spins the societal pressure of seeing people who don’t “get hitched” and settle down, as weirdos. They are encouraged to find a companion who shares a unique similarity with themselves, much like a dating app, but in person. Colin Farrell is excellent in it.
9. Captain Fantastic
Viggo Mortenson! Suddenly I get why people compare him to Johnny Depp. He plays a communist minded hippy who lives and raises his children in the wilderness, training them physically, and teaching them subjects in ways he believes the schooling system fails to. But when his wife dies, he’s forced to take his children down to civilization for her funeral, and reality comes crashing down on him, and the kids. The movie is light and fun throughout, and they absolutely nail the whole fish out of water thing. For his work, Matt Ross earned an Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Great movie.
8. Moana
I am partial to Disney animated movies, and this one being about sailing and the sea and everything was almost definitely gonna be on this list just for existing. But its a genuinely good movie about a young girl, a stupid hen, and a fishhook wielding demigod teaming up to beat a giant lava monster. This movie spends a lot of time making an argument for how responsibilities should never get in the way of your passion, and how following your passion will ultimately make being responsible easier. Its genuinely touching, and visually very exciting. Moana is, in my opinion, one of Disney’s best animated characters in recent years, and the movie is probably my favorite since the Lion King.
7. Silence
Martin Scorsese though. Two priests travel to Japan in order to rescue their mentor from torture at the hands of a cruel Vassal of the shogun. Instead they find lots of Japanese Christians who are in hiding out of fear of being persecuted. Things go South and they suffer. Everything about this movie is great. Garfield and Asano are excellent together on screen, and the contrast in their characters is fleshed out to a frightening degree by their performances. The cinematography is fantastic. The movie is so beautiful to look at. The soundtrack, and the carefully built atmosphere do wonders for the tension at breaking points in the plot.
6. The VVitch: A New England Folktale
This is a terrifying period piece that follows a Christian family in the early days of America, after they’re cast out of town and left to fend for themselves on a farm by the edge of a forest. Things start going terribly wrong very quickly, and the family struggles against a force that they can’t quite be sure is supernatural in nature. Robert Eggers does a splendid job for a first time director. Excellent performances, beautifully shot, with some frames almost seeming to be photographs till something moves. These still frames are never boring though - there’s so much to see in them. The fact that this movie was nominated for zero Oscars is criminal.
5. Creepy
Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s big return to his horror roots did not disappoint. He was in my list last year for Journey To The Shore, but this movie is so much better than that one. Absolutely surreal movie. With a narrative so twisted that the more you understand the movie, the less you understand it, playing out like a strange nightmare, which is Kurosawa’s favorite aesthetic. An ex-detective is drawn into two seemingly unrelated mysteries; the murder of a family in another part of town that happened many years before, and the unsettling behavior of his neighbor. Teruyuki Kagawa is one terrifying bastard. What an actor. Its amazing how this movie is somehow both clinically sharp and blunt and vague at the same time. As ever, Kurosawa delivers the mother of all bittersweet endings that kept me up for many nights. I am so glad that he’s making his weird, off-beat horror flicks again (not that his dramas were bad - they were fantastic). He’s an expert at manufacturing tricky frames that’re full of lies, setting them up almost like a staged play. Deliberate and real, but also make believe. You see what’s happening on the screen, but you’re also seeing something else, so you’re mostly just bewildered and shoved and horrified, even without a drop of blood being spilt on screen.
4. Under The Shadow (Zir-e Sayeh)
Babak Anvari’s feature length debut is fantastic. This movie follows a mother and her daughter living in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war. Very reminiscent of Babadook in the way it plays mother and child against each other, a djinn (or maybe djinns, plural) haunts them. Between the triple threat of air raids, and ballistic missiles and the djinn(s), various relationships are tested. It floats an idea that what may begin as innocent materialism may bring a person to great danger in the future. Both the mother and the daughter deliver excellent performances. Its backdrop makes it such a thematically unique horror movie. From adjusting to a normal life during wartime, to the effects of a conservative, oppressive regime on middle class families, the movie makes full use of its country’s circumstances to exacerbate its nightmarish premise. The color palettes in this movie are so damn perfect its not funny. Its various props and sets and extra characters are excellently picked out and expertly used. The creepy neighbor, the missing doll, the cracks in the ceiling, the poorly lit bomb shelter. I could go on. Fantastic movie.
3. La La land
Bright, colorful, crisp, and light. Damien Chazelle’s dream project sees two artists with dreams of making it big, one as a jazz musician and the other as an actress. They meet and fall in love, and sing and dance. Much like Moana, this movie makes an argument that your passion may get in the way of your responsibilities. Unlike Moana, it makes the point that following your passion requires sacrifice. I personally still think that this movie had a happy ending. Bittersweet at worst but mostly happy. The shot selection, the color palette, all scream celebration. And this movie is a celebration. Of music, love, life and Hollywood. “Here’s to the ones who dream” is its tagline, and it delivers, dream after dream after dream. I honestly thought that this would be at the top of my list, but the top 10 are quite interchangeable. You can read more about my thoughts on La La Land here.
2. Handmaiden
Directed by Park Chan-Wook, best known for Oldboy and as a producer for Snowpiercer, this movie follows two petty thieves involved in a long game get rich scheme. One poses as a Japanese business man attempting to woo the heiress to an old Korean household, in order to inherit its prized book collection and sell them for tons of money. The other poses as the lady’s handmaiden. Things get heated when both the conman and the conwoman fall in love with the lady. The movie plays through twice, once from the handmaiden’s perspective, and then from the lady’s perspective. Might as well be two different movies. The two actresses are phenomenal as their characters. The time period in which the movie takes place makes for a fascinating setting; a wonderful cross between traditional and modern, and its all fantastically brought to life. The movie twists and turns and murders its way through to the end, and it has a very unique conceit that’d confuse the way you feel about everything more than Gone Girl ever could.
1. Elle
(Trigger warning, please be sure that this movie will not upset you before you watch it)
I started this list by randomly jotting out all the movies I liked, writing blurbs about them, and then ordering them based on which movies I liked least from the selection. So I culled movies one by one, till I was left with this monster of a movie. Did not see it coming and I am not sure I am comfortable with it sitting here. But that’s just how this movie is. A terribly uncomfortable one. I cannot tell if this movie is a sick kind of drama or a very very dark comedy. To start a movie the way this one does and get away with it takes something special. The movie follows a writer turned video game producer, who is one day, brutally raped. Owing to past circumstances, she distrusts the police and refuses to call them, even when she finds out that the rapist is stalking her. Most of the movie is just her going about her life, but the viewer is left with an overbearing tension to carry, as it never fails to harken back to the stalker when you start getting comfortable. Somewhere close to the end the identity of the rapist is revealed, but that isn’t the movie’s shocking twist. What comes after is the shocker, and the progression through which she gains power over her attacker is jaw dropping. The worst thing about this is, it doesn’t shock you because you don’t see it coming, it shocks you because you probably will see it coming. Isabelle Huppert is brilliant and deserves the Oscar (she is a nominee).
Movies that almost made the list:
These came really close, but nothing on my list is replaceable by these movies.
Popstar: I do not know how I survived this movie, nearly died laughing.
Deadpool: Not gonna bother explaining this one
After The Storm: Not quite up to Koreeda’s standard. A light and easy watch nonetheless, with fresh takes on tired tropes.
The Invitation: Who doesn’t love it when a dinner party spirals out of control and your hosts reveal themselves to be members of a death cult
Spectral: Science ghosts. I demand a theatrical sequel.
Advantageous: Great sci-fi.
Movies that I liked but not thaaat much:
Batman V. Superman: It was good.
Pet: This was a good one, with interesting plot developments, but dragged down by its terrible leads.
Hush: Best final girl in recent history
Dr. Strange: Fun, visually stupefying, but just another superhero movie.
Now You See Me 2: Fun.
The Accountant: Fun.
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them: Good cast, good looking movie, but boring all in all.
Movies that I missed that might change the list a bit:
Forushande (NEED SUBTITLES)
Harmonium
Moonlight
Arrival (not actually desperate to see this one, but I’d still like to)
Hacksaw Ridge
Antiporno (will probably land up on next year’s list because of its 2017 wide release)
Daguerrotype (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, who also made 5 on the list, made a French movie, for reasons)
Jackie
Happy Hour (Too long for me to watch)
Train To Bhusan
Movies That I Couldn’t Give A Shit About Trying To Watch:
The Good Ones That I’ll Hate:
Manchester By The Sea
Patterson
Zootopia
Inside Out
Fences
The Bad Ones That I’ll Hate:
Passenger
Any Adam Sandler movie that came out last year
Movies That I Tried To Watch But Couldn’t Give A Shit About:
Right Now, Wrong Then: Much like its protagonist, this movie was intelligent but very boring.
Conjuring 2: This was a well directed garbage movie.
I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House: This was well directed, intelligent but also extremely boring and ultimately trash that amounts to nothing.
Movie that I couldn’t finish:
Birth Of A Nation: The depressing stuff was too depressing for me. Also heard that bad stuff about the director and gave up on trying to finish it altogether.
The Worst Movie Of 2017:
Suicide Squad! They should have just kept releasing trailers!
If I’ve missed anything, let me know. If you think I’ve mistreated any movie here (other than Suicide Squad), tell me why. Lets hope 2017 is as good as 2016 was. It looks like it will be.
