the-fits-movie

Best Films of 2016: Honorable Mention

25. The Light Between Oceans, dir. Derek Cianfrance
This long, rambling ode to high-octane melodrama finds its way through tearful monologues to create a kind of lyricism. Performances from Alicia Vikander (a career-best, I’d say) and Rachel Weisz elevate this film’s penchant for tragedy into something meaningful. Director Derek Cianfrance and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw craft intoxicatingly beautiful shots around areas of Australia, set around this adaptation of M.L. Stedman’s novel. Michael Fassbender’s protagonist is a stoic figure, the light between the two oceans of Weisz and Vikander.

24. Certain Women, dir. Kelly Reichardt
Kelly Reichardt’s latest film is a soft, touching portrayal of three women as they attempt to live their lives despite many odds against them big and small. Whether it be occupational misogyny, familial resentment or unrequited love, Reichardt’s film showcases these hard luck stories through three exceptional performances from Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and the particularly exceptional Lilly Gladstone, whose heartbreaking portrayal of infatuation gives the film its most heart. Includes strong supporting performances from Kristen Stewart and Jared Harris.

23. 13TH, dir. Ava DuVernay
DuVernay’s incredibly important Netflix documentary is meant to be a document of America’s troubling problem of mass incarceration. Over the course of the film, we instead get a macro exposure of America’s long, storied history of demonizing its black citizens. Chock-stuffed with numerous talking heads espousing increasingly gloomy statistics and anecdotes, 13TH is a tremendous call to arms for social justice, but also a sobering reminder of our ever-increasingly injudicious reality.

22. Hail, Caeser!, dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
This is Burn After Reading level absurdity for the Coen Brothers, with their fierce satirical eye now pointed straight at Hollywood’s golden studio era. Josh Brolin plays Hollywood’s greatest fixer, a brilliant manager of various egos and gossipers, and a miraculously shrewd controller of message. In classic Coen fashion, various narrative strands collide in ways both unexpected and hilarious, culminating in a conclusion that only they could deliver.

21. Kubo and the Two Strings, dir. Travis Knight
The latest film from Laika Studios is their most cinematically and narratively ambitious. Using an age-old Disney tactic – appropriating cultural mythology and shifting it toward a more crowd-friendly tale – Kubo is both a gripping story and a miraculously crafted picture. With voice performances from Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron and Ralph Fiennes, Kubo and the Two Strings works the line between Disney-level sentimentality and Laika’s usual emotional distance with stunning results

20. Things to Come, dir. Mia Hanson-Løve
Isabelle Huppert’s work in Elle is getting all of the accolades, but it’s her turn in Things to Come that really won me over this year. Huppert plays a professor who’s successful life takes a tumble, and Mia Hanson-Løve’s splendidly modest film documents how she faces that tumble with grace and dignity. Huppert can play fierce, but here she’s more vulnerable, more fragile. Hanson-Løve makes a terrific film about life, getting older and falling in and out of love at any age. It’s one of the year’s most pleasant surprises.

19. Weiner, dir. Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg
What was meant to be the document of a raving public comeback, instead became a tale of political humiliation, overarching hubris, and the meticulous crumbling of a martial partnership. Anthony Weiner’s journey from legitimate candidate for New York City mayor to television pundit punchline is showcased in this cringe-worthy documentary about one politician’s fatal weakness. Come for the Carlos Danger jokes, stay for the heartbreaking commitment of Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin.

18. The Nice Guys, dir. Shane Black
The fact that this is basically a period piece version of his own 2005 film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang did little to quench my love for Shane Black’s latest film, a buddy cop comedy starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. The two play an odd couple trying to solve the mysterious disappearance of a young girl who may be involved in a malicious pornography ring. Black’s touch for comedic dialogue in the face of grave circumstance plays well with his two stars, who deliver that dialogue with great, hysterical timing. One of the year’s best comedies.

17. Captain Fantastic, dir. Matt Ross
The brilliance of Viggo Mortenson is on full display in Captain Fantastic, where he plays a father attempting to raise six children in a way that’s socially and politically pure. When the matriarch of the family dies, the family faces resistance from her outer family who disagree with the radical parentage. Fantastic raises thought-provoking questions about parenting in the twenty-first century, but more than anything, it is an incredible showcase for Mortenson, one of our greatest actors, who gives one of the best performances of his career.

16. Aquarius, dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho
Film critic turned filmmaker Kleber Mendonca Filho directs the brilliant Sonia Braga in this vast tale of gentrification and sexuality. Braga plays Clara, an influential music critic, who refuses on principle to move out of her generations-old apartment to make way for a new, expensive high-rise. Medonca Filho’s film is such a brilliant, expansive canvas of cultural corruption and emotional maturity, which touches on ageism, misogyny, illness and the creeping doom of a future without proper appreciation for its past. All led by Braga, giving one of the best performances of the year.

15. Arrival, dir. Denis Villeneuve
Cinematographer Bradford Young was given his first mainstream Hollywood job here, and his work with Villeneuve is incredibly striking and beautiful. Their beautiful filmmaking surrounds this tale of alien visitors, and the linguist (Amy Adams) who seeks to understand them as beings while various bureaucratic bodies seek to understand them as threats. Adams’ performance is a beautifully tempered portrayal of empathy in the face of rising fear, and Eric Heisserer’s screenplay is a well-penned piece on human ideals. As socially conscious sci-fi films go, this is probably the genre’s best since Cuarón’s Children of Men.

14. 20th Century Women, dir. Mike Mills
The amazing Annette Bening leads an incredible ensemble through Mike Mills’ beautifully measured study of feminism, sexuality, and coming of age in the late 1970’s. Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup and newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann round out this cast of bohemian Californians trying to make sense of life, love and death in a time of emotional and political unrest. A somber, sentimental companion to Mills’ 2011 masterwork Beginners.

13. The Fits, dir. Anna Rose Holmer
Anna Rose Holmer’s feature debut is an abstract, marvelously expressive tale of a young tomboy name Toni (Royalty Hightower) who wishes to join her school’s infamous dance troupe. When the girls within the troupe start becoming afflicted with a mysterious, epileptic disorder, Toni’s journey toward self-discovery becomes muddled. Concepts of self-assertion as a young women as well as within black society abound in this modest, beautifully-crafted coming of age tale. It even has time for a breathtaking musical number.

12. Louder Than Bombs, dir. Joachim Trier
This striking familial drama is so exact in its exploration of complicated feelings and deceptions within a family decimated by the death of its matriarch (Isabelle Huppert). A father (Gabriel Byrne), wanders through life trying to reconcile the resentment coming from his two sons (Jesse Eisenberg, Devin Druid) after their famed photographer mother dies in what could be a suicide. Great Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier weaves through various flashbacks and internal monologues to portray a family trying to rebuild their own lives in the face of mourning.

11. Little Men, dir. Ira Sachs
This gentle New York drama is another example of director Ira Sachs’ brilliant attention to the human experience. When the innocent friendship of two teenaged boys (Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri) is undermined by the in-fighting of the boys’ families, harsh truths about adulthood and parenthood come to light. Taplitz and Barbieri are supported by a great ensemble including Greg Kinear, Paulina García and Jennifer Ehle, that capture with great detail the emotional entanglements that compromise human relationships.