10. Sully
Sully tells the true story of the US Airways flight that successfully landed on the Hudson River with no casualties. I have to admit I was inclined to dislike this movie. But Tom Hanks was great as always. The part I liked most of all was the courtroom drama that played out over most of the movie. As an administrative hearing in front of a regulatory body (a quasi-court), it was a much different setting than pretty much every other courtroom drama on screen. I can't think of another similar example in cinema.
9. 10 Cloverfield Lane
I reviewed 10 Cloverfield Lane a few weeks ago (click here to read it). It's a scary movie that constantly has you (and the main character) questioning whether she has been put in this bunker by a psychopath or whether she has been rescued from an apocalypse. In addition, it avoids the horror trope of the helpless, stupid girl blundering into danger; Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character is smart and takes calculated risks to try to save herself.
8. Moana
Moana is a chief's daughter destined to become chief when he is gone. But when destruction is facing the island, her father's fear of the ocean overcomes him, leaving Moana to try to save her people by seeking out the demigod Maui. It would have been easy to turn this into a movie about Moana facing danger to find Maui and then having him fix everything. What makes this movie so great, however, is that in the end, Moana ends up being the hero and fixes everything herself– she doesn't need a man to save her. Add gorgeous animation and songs that will stick in your head forever and you've got a pretty great addition to the pantheon of Disney princess movies.
7. Hail, Caesar!
Hail, Caesar! is the Coen brothers' tribute to classic Hollywood. It's a witty comedy set during the McCarthy era when everyone in Hollywood was afraid of being labeled a communist. George Clooney's character is a mostly clueless actor who ends up assisting in his own kidnapping. The director, fearful of a scandal, arranges to pay the ransom and a boy scout like Western star gets involved too. There's a little bit of everything, including Westerns, musicals, sword-and-sandal Biblical epics, and even hints of film noir. I think it is probably being overlooked at the Oscars because it came out so early in the year, but it's funny and well worth your time.
6. Captain America 3: Civil War
Most of the Marvel movies don't have a whole lot beneath the surface besides spectacle and witty one liners. (Don't get me wrong – I love every single one of the MCU movies. There's nothing wrong with spectacle; it's one of the main things cinema can do that other mediums can't.) But Captain America 3, while having the requisite spectacle and witty one liners, also poses a moral dilemma represented by Captain America and Iron Man, namely, should superheroes be allowed to continue to use their nearly unlimited power in the way that they see fit or should they be required to have oversight. Unfortunately, I don't think the debate was really framed well in the movie because the accords that Iron Man supported were kind of a bad deal. But while I started being in favor of oversight (and still am), I found myself constantly shifting in my position between the sides in the conflict. To me, this is some masterful storytelling, because I'm not inclined to be on Captain America's side even without this issue, and even less so with this issue. But by the end of the movie, I was very conflicted because Cap was made such a sympathetic character.
5. Eye in the Sky
I almost forgot about Eye in the Sky for this list because I saw it over the summer (even though I reviewed it here) and mostly because IMDB listed it as a 2015 movie. But it wasn't released in theaters until 2016, so I think it counts for this list. And since my opinion is really the only one that matters on this blog, here it will remain.
Eye in the Sky is a powerful movie about the use of drone strikes against terrorists. Some of the decision makers support making the attack because the terrorists are building a bomb and will almost certainly use it very soon to kill many civilians. But attacking the terrorists will almost certainly kill the innocent child standing outside the building selling bread. The rest of the movie is spent trying to decide which of these approaches should be taken. The movie recognizes that both of these are powerful arguments and doesn't brush one or the other under the rug, but gives them their due. This is one of Alan Rickman's final performances and doesn't disappoint.
4. Sing Street
I had this third on the list until last night, when I watched it for the second time. I loved it just as much as the first time, but I had to admit that it ought to be below that other movie. But Sing Street filled me with delight, despite the moments of darkness throughout the movie. Conor falls for a girl who claims to be a model, so he decides to start a band to win her over. In the process, he finds that his band becomes much more than a means to get the girl; it becomes part of him. The darkness is real, whether it is bullying, economic hardship, Conor's parents separation, a priest that has determined to make Conor's experience at school miserable, relatives on drugs, hints of incest and child molestation on the part of Raphina's father, and the general difficulty of going through adolescence. But the characters are able to take all of this pain and chaos in their lives and apply it to their music and make art. Probably my favorite moment of 2016 film is in this movie. The group is making a music video and Raphina jumps into the sea, despite being unable to swim. Conor immediately jumps in and pulls her out and begins to scold her for doing it. "So why did you do that?" he demands. "For our art, Cosmo. You can never do anything by half." That line has stuck with me over the past month since I saw the film for the first time.
Besides the story, Sing Street also has great music. There are some 80s bands that they listen to throughout, such as Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, and The Cure. However, most of the songs are original. What's amazing is that they are both true to the sound of the period and actually good. I've had "Drive It Like You Stole It" going through my head nearly daily for a month.
3. La La Land
All the praise that has been heaped on La La Land is well-deserved. It is colorful, funny, romantic, and beautiful. As soon as the opening dance scene started on the Los Angeles freeway, I knew that I was going to love it. This is a movie jam-packed with nostalgia, both for older styles of music and film. La La Land is daring in both its willingness to try out an "outdated" movie genre and the twist ending. I can't wait to see this one again. I absolutely loved Ryan Gosling's character and his dedication to music, even if it's a kind of music that isn't popular today. There were so many great shout-outs to previous movies such as Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, Bringing Up Baby, Rebel Without a Cause (which like Mia, I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen) and all the Astaire and Rogers dance movies as well as to great musicians such as Wynton Marsalis and Hoagy Carmichael. I recently watched an interview on PBS where they showed clips from Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Gene Kelly and it reminded me once again why I loved this movie so much –– It's because I love the material it is honoring. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to do so.
2. Love & Friendship
By all rights, I probably ought to put this below La La Land. But this indie flick is a Jane Austen adaptation, and I am particularly weak to Austen adaptations (so long as they don't have Keira Knightley in them). I've now seen Love & Friendship three times and I enjoyed it all three times. The first time I saw it was in a theater with a large crowd from a local assisted living home. The laughter was contagious and I laughed pretty much from start to finish. Kate Beckinsale is perfect as the witty and charming seductress Lady Susan; despite her being a terrible person and horrible manipulator, you can't help falling under her spell a little yourself. Tom Bennett steals the show every time his fairly minor character is on screen. It's great fun and the perfect antidote to the temptation of Austen adaptors to over-romanticize. For Austen, humor was always the main goal in her books. "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?"
And finally,
1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Like I said, I'm a sucker for Jane Austen adaptions. Just kidding, this one was kind of terrible (although I must say that Matt Smith makes a great Mr. Collins).
1. Arrival
While I could have probably rearranged the top five on this list based on my mood for the day, Arrival is pretty solidly at the top. It's the story of a linguistics professor trying to solve the puzzle of an alien language so that first contact can go successfully. When you first start learning a language, nothing makes sense, but then you think you've got it when really you haven't. Gradually though, you really do have it and you suddenly realize that you get it. That was the effect that this movie had on me. I felt like my understanding was constantly being challenged and that things I thought I understood at first turned out to be a misdirection, but I gradually understood more and more until suddenly, just before the end, it all clicked. Like all good alien movies, Arrival is really about humanity. There is a real question as to whether humanity will be united or divided by the alien arrival. It's hard to talk about it without giving away spoilers, so I'll just say that Arrival is hard science fiction done right.
Honorable Mentions
Any list like this is going to have to leave off some films that other people probably loved. In fact, I loved some of these films too, just not as much as the ones on my list. I had to ask myself which movies really impacted me and which really stuck with me over time (which admittedly gives an unfair advantage to movies I recently saw). Here's some others I really liked but for whatever reason, didn't make the cut.
A Monster Calls almost made the cut and would be number 11, I guess. It's the story of a boy whose mother is dying of cancer. He lashes out at everything and everyone around him and is visited by Liam Neeson in the form of a tree monster to teach him. What I loved was that every adult, while disappointed in his behavior, does not try to make him stop being sad, but recognizes the importance of grief. I highly recommend checking out Alissa Wilkinson's review for Vox for a more in-depth treatment of it. Dr. Strange had great visuals and Benedict Cumberbatch, but ultimately was unable to distinguish itself from the mass of previous MCU movies. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children also almost made the list, but Burton, one of my favorite directors of all time, wasn't quite up to par. As is unfortunately often typical for him, I thought he got distracted by the brilliant and creepy aesthetic he was creating and let the story get away from him. Similarly, Kubo and the Two Strings was absolutely beautiful stop-motion animation but the story did little for me. Zootopia was fun and had a great anti-racist message, which unfortunately was undercut it by the events in the movie (in my opinion). And of course, I have to mention the much anticipated Rogue One, which I enjoyed a lot but which ultimately didn't sit that well with me. Likewise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a lot of fun but an unnecessary addition to the Potter-verse.
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