My Favorite Movies of 2016 (so far)

FAVORITE FILMS OF 2016 (so far, in no particular order)

It's summer and I have more time to watch new movies than during the rest of the year because I only teach one course this semester. So, here's a list of new movies I've seen this year that I found enjoyable, meaningful, and/or edifying. The Ghibli movie is not new but it's being released for the first time in America.

The Club (Argentina)
Dheepan (France)
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia)
Everybody Wants Some! (USA)
The Fits (USA)
Francofonia (France/Russia)
The Lobster (Greece/Ireland)
My Golden Days (France)
Only Yesterday (Japan)
Sunset Song (UK)
Wiener Dog (USA)

An interesting list. I'm surprised you make it so soon - you used to be the one who didn't make your year's list at all till months into the next year! Or did you always start soon? The one I haven't seen is Only Yesterday. It showed at IFC Center in January. I saw The Tale of Princess Kaguya last year. I prefer to see animations in the original language, usually. Now, the French animation Phantom Boy, which is so charming in French - and has some great French actors doing the voices - has now been dubbed in English, like this one.

You remember accurately. I'm the one who used to post my top 10 two months late. Now I'm surprised that I have managed to watch enough new movies to make a list at all. People change and habits change. Now the percentage of fiml-watching of brand new releases is small. I also have a preference for Hollywood studio films of the 30s and 40s above anything else. It was "the Golden Age". I have also stopped reading film reviews, almost completely. Instead I read academic criticism that aims to explain and interpret rather than praise or dispraise.A lot of my film watching involves films I've already seen. So I know less films that others but the films I know, I know very well :-) Some films I know very well because I use them in my teaching to illustrate a concept, theory, or technique. Some films I know expertly include: Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton/1924), Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges/1941), Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock/1946) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott/USA-UK/1982), Nightjohn (Charles Burnett/1996), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer/Germany/1998), Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron/Mexico/2001), Raising Victor Vargas (Peter Sollett/2003), Elephant (Gus van Sant/2003), Maria Full of Grace (Joshua Marston/USA-Colombia/2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry/2004), A History of Violence (David Cronenberg/2005), Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro/Mexico-Spain/2006), Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck-Anna Boden/2006), Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik/2010), Tomboy (Celine Sciamma/France/2011), A Separation (Asghar Farhadi/Iran/2011), Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson/2012), Snowpiercer (Joon Ho Bong/USA-UK-So. Korea/2013), The New Girlfriend (Francois Ozon/France/2015), Ex Machina (Alex Garland/2015)

Pretty much a mixed bag but some good ones to be sure. I don't see that list has anything in common other than you teach it and they're movies you've liked. I cringe when I hear an academic has "stopped reading" anything. Narrowing down is what they do as it is. If you read reviews you'll find out what the good new movies are. You have not apparently seen the two best new American movies of the summer, LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP and CAPTAIN FANTASTIC.

I don't see what a reader has to gain from claims that anything is "the best". I prefer longer essays that explain, define, and interpret rather than shorter pieces full of superlatives and pejoratives that teach me nothing other than the biases of the writer.I am more interested in understanding how a movie works, which I usually don't get from consumer reviews. Longer pieces about movies I've already seen are more substantial reading, for me. I access these journals from the school's library, but there is good writing online. I like David Bordwell's website, for instance.

I don't say this to start a polemic with you, just to explain my current experience with film and film criticism (which may be reason enough for some, perhaps you included, to deem my lists as totally worthless).At least, it's a way for me to opine and say hello to my old filmwurld pals :-)

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Originally Posted by oscar jubis

FAVORITE FILMS OF 2016 (so far, in no particular order): The Club (Argentina),Dheepan (France), Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia), Everybody Wants Some! (USA), The Fits (USA), Francofonia (France/Russia), The Lobster (Greece/Ireland)My Golden Days (France)Only Yesterday (Japan)Sunset Song (UK)Wiener Dog (USA)

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These 11 were my favorite movies released in the first half of 2016, and I still like them. However, a year and many viewings of other 2016 films later, only THE FITS and MY GOLDEN DAYS claim a place in my 2016 top 10. I don't remember if I already mentioned that I think of the former as a female, contemporary, American companion to the great Australian film PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975). MY GOLDEN DAYS was authored by Arnaud Desplechin, perhaps my favorite living director from France (not named Godard. Wait, is JLG Swiss or French?). I have a direct affinity with Desplechin that includes the influence of the work of American philosopher Stanley Cavell and other cultural points of reference. I love the shaggy quality of his narratives and their consistent allusiveness. If there is one film directed by Desplechin that has been unjustly maligned in this country is his English-language Esther Kahn(2000), a near-great film about acting.

Other films of 2016 that would receive consideration for a place in my top 10 would include an obvious choice: MOONLIGHT reveal that I have a special place in my heart for Moonlight because it's a movie that transforms my city into a character in a more interesting manner than just about any other movie that has tried (or pretended) to do so.

The 2016 documentary that had the biggest impact on me was not the O.J. one but the one directed by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck about author/activist James Baldwin and provocatively titled I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO.

I liked several Latin American films released in 2016 such as Neon Bull, Ixcanul (from Guatemala, where I vacationed in 2016)as well as The Club, Embrace of the Serpent and others. However, I don't think any 2016 Latin American film I have watched belongs in my Top 10. Granted, I have some catching up to do. A second viewing of The Lobster did not expand or confirm my hopes for it. Still, a very interesting film some of my friends like more than I do.

Under top 10 consideration: PATERSON. Jim Jarmusch displays such warmth and compassion for his characters in this movie and depicts something of a rarity: the nuances of a marital relationship that works. Truly a lovely and loving piece of cinema. Two achievements that would make my top 20 not my Top 10, as of now, are: 20th Century Women, Certain Women, Indignation, maybe Fences.

What makes the Top 10 is CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR. I love the way Apichatpong Weerasethakul uses the elements of cinematic style to create a diegesis in which spirits cohabitate naturally with the living, and the way his new movies echoes his previous ones going all the way back to [I]Blissfully Yours[/I, his second feature. The most recent 2016 release that merits consideration as a truly extraordinary achievement is Maren Ade's TONI ERDMANN. There is a remake planned, with Jack (Nicholson of course) coming out of retirement after 8 years to play the role of a father who impersonates a fictional character of his own invention to insinuate himself back into the life of his corporate lackey daughter. The only possible complaint I can imagine about the German original is that some scenes go on for too long; that a 2 hour version cut to the speed of a younger or an impatient audience would have made the film even more enjoyable. My experience is that the protagonists are so interesting that every moment of the film is justified. It's a movie I plan to rewatch. Toni Erdmann is also a film about acting and about theatricality, like Esther Kahn, and I look forward to see it again.

So, my Top 10 has only 7 movies! No problem, I need to leave room for films yet to be discovered. Talk soon, Oscar

Was thinking of you because I saw Zama day before yesterday wonderfully projected at Alice Tully Hall. You can see my review in the 2017 NYFF reviews of Filmleaf. I discovered that an English translation of De Benedetto's novel was only published early this year and J.M.Coetzee's long NYRB review of the translation helped me, only it was too much. I don't know if I'd ever like this film but I can appreciate its exotic and sometimes beautiful images. Anyway... a lot could be written about it. I don't find as much to say about Call Me by Your Name, also a big film at the NYFF seen last night, except to compare it with the book. I found it very well done, very touching, the chemistry between Hammer and Calmamet amazing, and I'll probably see it again, but it didn't shake me to the core the way Brokeback Mountain did, maybe it'll resonate more later.

I hated The Lobster. I think it's really nasty. We'll see The Killing of a Sacred Der when it comes out in early Nov. I'm still curious. I liked Paterson a lot. Loved My Golden Days and have seen it several times. I will see Ismael's Ghosts in the NYFF too, but it sounds like a stinker to me and several (French) friends saw it in France and didn't like it at all. Your other choices sound great to me for a change except The Fits, I was somewhat underwhelmed by that.

This is more "common ground" than our usual critical responses. It's great that you've seen Zama. I'll see it in March probably. I watched Manchester by the Sea and continue to admire Kenneth Lonergan's writing and directing. However, like Margaret and You Can Count on Me, his latest film will remain just outside the top ten. A talented man he is, no doubt. I look forward to more films from him in the future. I will be showing The Killing of a Sacred Deer but I can't say I terribly excited about it. I plan to rewatch Kieslowsky's Dekalog now that it's available on Bluray. That'll keep me busy for a while. Thanks for all the work you do for this site. I'm sure a lot of people appreciate it. I am also reading philosophical books lately, when time permits, and watching baseball with my Dad. He's a Yankees fan and they are in the playoffs. The new movie I want to watch the most is the new Agnes Varda documentary. Ciao!

Thanks for the response and, as always, I wish you had time to contribute more to the site as you used to early on. We'll see what the rest of the year holds in new releases. There are some promising ones from the NYFF, coming out now or early next year. I just saw Chloe Zhao's The Rider, a very touching docu-drama about a young cowboy which I didn't realize was bought by Sony Pictures Classics at Cannes.

I feel deprived that I haven't had a chance to attend Oscar Jubis's class. I would really have been excited and enthralled to hear about many of the movies that he has listed that I have included in my top movie list:

*Blade Runner (Ridley Scott/USA-UK/1982)
*Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer/Germany/1998)
*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry/2004)
*A History of Violence (David Cronenberg/2005)
*Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik/2010)
*Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson/2012)

Personally, I'd replace Ex Machina (Alex Garland/2015) with The Machine (Caradog James/2013).

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Originally Posted by Chris Knipp

There are some promising ones from the NYFF, coming out now or early next year. I just saw Chloe Zhao's The Rider, a very touching docu-drama about a young cowboy which I didn't realize was bought by Sony Pictures Classics at Cannes.

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You can always trust the NYFF selections. The relatively low number of films screened when compared to other festivals means that even if you don't like a film you are watching at the NYFF, you know that you are watching something many consider to be a high achievement. Sony Classics will release The Cowboy in April of next year. Thanks for introducing it to us.
As far as 2016 films, I recently watched HELL OR HIGH WATER and I highly recommend it to all readers of these forum. It's certainly a consistently enjoyable, well acted movie that is justifiably mentioned in lists of the best films of 2016 (#8 in Rosenbaum's list). Like MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, another film in indieWire's 2016 Top 10 of the year, it doesn't quite have the impact on me that MOONLIGHT, MY GOLDEN DAYS, THE FITS, PATERSON, I AM NOT YOPUR NEGRO and CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR have. I recognize that some of the reasons I hold these movies in high esteem are entirely personal.

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Originally Posted by tabuno

I feel deprived that I haven't had a chance to attend Oscar Jubis's class.

Personally, I'd replace Ex Machina (Alex Garland/2015) with The Machine (Caradog James/2013).

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You are very kind and I thank you. I wish we could meet and talk movies in person. I am enjoying my teaching, even though it's very hard to make ends meet with the paltry remuneration I get. It's fun though. For example, I'm preparing a course for next semester titled "Visual Communication" that would allow me to incorporate material about the historical development of technique in the art of painting. This is quite a challenge for me because I've focused exclusively on cinema up to now.
I had not heard about The Machine and I am interested in watching it. Thanks for mentioning it.

I would put Manchester by the Sea above the indeed enjoyable Hell or High Water. Just watched Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Best thing he's done in a while. Speaking of painting, you ought to see Loving Vincent, animated using rotoscoping or motion capture and paintings by Van Gogh. French version I saw was all in French (better - since it takes place in France) and it was called La Passion Van Gogh.

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Originally Posted by Chris Knipp

I would put Manchester by the Sea above the indeed enjoyable Hell or High Water. Just watched Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. Best thing he's done in a while. Speaking of painting, you ought to see Loving Vincent, animated using rotoscoping or motion capture and paintings by Van Gogh. French version I saw was all in French (better - since it takes place in France) and it was called La Passion Van Gogh.

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Loving Vincent aligns perfectly with my current intellectual explorations. So I am buying the BlueRay as soon as it's released in January. I am currently watching a series of 24 lectures about the greatest paintings in Western Art released on dvd in 2010 by a company named The Great Courses. I recently finished the course on Greatest Ideas of Philosophy. so much to learn.

Glad you're making good use of the film, Loving Vincent. Those courses must be most edifying. I've enjoyed art and philosophy courses.
Amherst is a good school.

The Effect of Cheap, High-tech CGI on the Current cinema: the case of Captain Fantastic

Rapid technological innovation of systems to generate images in the computer has a substantial effect on televisual as well as cinematic production. The relative low-cost of sophisticated technology is a major reason for stylistic blending or perhaps amalgamation of the aesthetics of TV and Cinema. There used to be a clear difference between them because of budget and screen size. Now it's easier to do TV that requires special effects because they are cheaper and easier to carry out. And the most popular shot in movies is the TV-friendly "tight single" (a close view of a single character) that lasts only a few seconds and is captured with a roving camera. David Bordwell coined the term "intensified continuity" to refer to this "contemporary conventional" style so well suited for legibility on small screens by spectators with short attention spans.

One of the lesser but still consequential effects of cheap, high-tech CGI is the use of special effects for purposes of generating spectacle, often at a cost I may qualify as "artistic", if you think of art as having relation to the imitation and examination of nature or reality or truth. These thoughts come to mind following a screening of Captain Fantastic, a well regarded 2016 theatrical release that had all the makings of a film I would like, and it remains a film of merit and hence worth mentioning but certainly a "mixed bag" for me. I find myself reacting incredulously to a few scenes that challenge the verisimilitude of the narrative and characterize the protagonist as a madman. The weight of his ideas take a beating because they are made to seem so extreme and irresponsible. I noticed that these ill-advised scenes exist because CGI make it possible to show realistic-looking scenes involving such phenomena as the removal and consumption of a beating deer heart and kids scaling a vertical cliff like pros. There is an element of flamboyant hysteria at play, like in the scene when a dramatic confrontation between the survivalist, “hippie” captain and his bourgeois father-in-law resolves with the latter shooting an arrow close to the head of the protagonist as he scurries away. Captain Fantastic is terribly uneven and it feels like a wasted opportunity because a substantial number of scenes are effective, engaging and thoughtful.

I loved Captain Fantastic. It's a meaningful, emotionally satisfying film and one of my favorites of the year, bar none. Didn't see those flaws. Don't think CGI mars the movie, and think Ben's (Viggo's) excesses are intentional and based on Matt Ross' actual experience of utopian communities. Much of the fun has to do with the ensemble work of wonderful band of child and youth actors, not any physical effects. The cast underwent rugged training, and the interesting thing is that they actually do a lot of the challenging feats depicted in the film, not that they are falsified with computers.

They are falsified by computers though. The director may have witnessed rock climbing, but the film shows little kids on a computer-generated vertical cliff that would give pause to the most experienced adult climber. Other scenes also show a lack of restraint that seems to parody the whole idea of alternative lifestyles and resistance to the status quo. Still I also enjoyed the ensemble work in several scenes.

Then I watched Love & Friendship, the adaptation of Jane Austen's "Lady Susan" by Whit Stillman. Because the novel is epistolary, the adaptation involved a thorough transformation. The most peculiar and challenging aspect of the film is that it introduces by name about 15 characters in the first 5 or 6 minutes. However, the film is the shortest of all Austen adaptation to film that I know. It moves too fast at first, but then it settles into a peppy but more reasonable pace. Love & Friendship exhibits a respect for words and idiomatic phrases and for the performative aspects of language, as it should. It is also rather cynical in its worldview compared to other better-known, beloved selections from Austen's oeuvre. There's nothing warm and fuzzy about Lady Susan's machinations and strategies to procure herself and her daughter with suitable husbands. Not a great film, but certainly a good one.

I still have only 7 films in my 2016 Top 10, with the addition of Toni Erdmann to the 6 above mentioned.

I saw the director at an extensive Q&A in San Francisco at the Kabuki Cinemas and read a lot about the making of, and the kids in Captain Fantastic went through extensive training together and learned outdoor skills. I don't know specifically about the rock climbing, though. However Matt Ross made a big effort to be realistic, actually, while making the action also fun. I don't understand why you undercut this delightful and thought-provoking film. I'm a huge Whit Stillman fan for obvious reasons given who I am. As I said in my review a Jane Austen adaptation by Stillman is a bit redundant since his early films are full of dialogue that is closer to Jane Austen than any contemporary movie. Love and Friendship is surely more than merely "good" though I'd agree it falls short of "great" but so do most movies in most years.

My Best Lists for 2016 as given on Indiewire are HERE. Love and Friendship and Captain Fantastic are numbers 3 and 4 on my top ten list, respectively.

Love & Friendship provides a rather extreme example of concentrated exposition, a narrative strategy to present a great deal of plot information and introduce all the important characters rapidly at the very beginning of the text. I don't have strong feelings or fandom towards Stillman. I think the device is used rather clumsily here because it's done in a way that fosters confusion. I also think he often writes great dialogue. We can agree on that, and your Jane Austen allusion. I'm sure all the films on your list are worth seeing. I always have an affection for the films of Ken Loach, by the way, which reflects the love the filmmaker conveys towards proletarian characters like Daniel Blake (on your list).

FROM AFAR won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2015 and received an extremely limited theatrical run by Strand Releasing in 2016. The film had a US box office of $30 thousand. That's it. It's a Venezuelan film about the relationship between a middle-class 50 year old guy and a 20 year old hoodlum. The film presents a challenge to the spectator because of distancing devices, an elliptical and fragmentary narrative structure, and a dearth of dialogue that explains behavioral motivations. Divisiveness is a typical effect of films that defy conventions about filling information gaps in the plot in order to provide resolution closure. No matter how brilliantly executed and performed, there is a segment of the critics and audiences who reject art that is challenging to consume conventionally (as we have been socialized to do). Director Lorenzo Vigas can now join other directors who practice a cinema often regarded pejoratively as "minimalist": Lucrecia Martel, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Julia Loktev, Lisandro Alonso, Albert Serra, Pedro Costa, and others. FROM AFAR is fascinatingly open-ended; engagingly partial and on the verge of becoming something else with every cut. It's one of the Top 10 Films of 2016, but few have seen it.

From Afar - I did review it, you know, right HERE I liked it quite well and was not among the great unwashed you allude to who are too unperceptive to appreciate it. Those other directors you list seem to have nothing in common except that you think they are cool. "Minimalist" isn't really a school of filmmaking as it is in Seventies art (Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, Agnes Martin, et al.)

Thanks for the link to your review.

How do you define a "school of filmmaking"? What do you mean by bringing it up? I stated that these filmmakers get called "minimalist" by critics who don't like them ("pejoratively"). I took a look at the film's reception an

I'm glad you liked From Afar. One think I like about it is its potential to elicit interesting discussions about the nature of sexual desire, and about class issues too. Did it make your Top 10? I don't recall. I should post a Top 10 of 2016 by now. I don't think I have done that. Anyone interested? It's hard to ascertain what readers think because no responses are allowed except by the 5 or 7 of us who signed up a long time ago....

Don't accept "minimalist" from "those critics" if it's "pejorative," and using it for a list of directors suggests, to me, a school, which it is not. No such thing exists. I'm glad it's not your definition, but so then why not just drop it? As for From Afar and my lists:

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2016 IndieWire Critics Poll: Chris Knipp



Dec 5, 2016 8:21 pm
2016 IndieWire Critics Poll:
Chris Knipp
Filmleaf
FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll
Best Film
1. Moonlight
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. Love & Friendship
4. Captain Fantastic
5. Hell or High Water
6. American Honey
7. I, Daniel Blake
8. From Afar
9. The Salesman
10. Loving

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Thanks for the list. I'm reaching the conclusion that I've largely "caught up" with 2016. American Honey is thinly movie from your list I haven't watched yet. I am going to write a journal essay that goes into the narrative strategies of From Afar as well as Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet and Martel's Zama. I have a great deal of interest in the reception of From Afar in particular. One can learn quite a bit from it. Issues of narrative comprehension and closure are salient. The ending totally surprised me, and I have see Breathless recently.

Procrastinator's Special.
I am ready to officially announce my 2016 Top 10 (or so) ...drum roll...It comes well into 2018. I think I did a better job of keeping up with the 2017 films than the previous year. But here, finally, it feels right to list the films (officially?) released in 2016 in the US that had the greatest impact on my life and constitute great achievements in the art of film.

2016 (Alphabetical)

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR
THE FITS
FROM AFAR
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
THE MEASURE OF A MAN
MOONLIGHT
MY GOLDEN DAYS
PATERSON
TANNA
TONY ERDMANN

Highly recommended: Arrival, Everybody Wants Some!!, The Salesman, I,Daniel Blake, Manchester by the Sea, Hell or High Water.

That's 9 in the Top 10, I know. I am tempted to include Arrival because it's great but also too commercial for critics to list even though they grant it "universal acclaim" (81 points) at metacritic and 94% "fresh" at Rotten Tomatoes. But I'm going to stop being too liberal (wink wink) and leave it out for now. Actually I thought that the films directed by Denis Villeneuve that I had previously seen (Incendies, Sicario) were interesting but certainly not quite as great as claimed by many critical evaluations. The success of Blade Runner 2049 proves his greatest fit is tinkering with the conventions of science fiction drama.

I've finally watched a 2016 release that impressed me enough to merit joining the 9 movies I listed years ago. It's TANNA, the "based on real events" romantic tragedy that resembles a South Seas version of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. TANNA is beautiful and unexpectedly inspirational. It has an ethnographic genesis, but it moves me with great melodramatic power because the quality of the acting facilitates it.