The Top 10 of 2016

I can delay no longer – the time has come for my “Top 10 of 2016.” Now, as a film reviewer of a decidedly non-professional nature, I’m limited in what I see in a given year by time, budget, and preference (yes, there’s a certain amount of pre-screening each year that saves me from having to see films like A Dog’s Purpose), and so I make no pretensions about this being a “Greatest Films” list. I’ve missed more than a few films that are on other critics’ lists. Instead, it’s more of a “Favorites,” the ten films in 2016 I liked the most, the films I’d recommend above all.

We present, then The Cinema King’s “Top 10 of 2016,” with quotations from the original review, as well as a few words about the film in perspective.

Honorary Mention: The Founder
 “Keaton is wolfish as Kroc, with that lean and hungry look with which Shakespeare fixed ‘yon Cassius’ in Julius Caesar; his impish winks and raised eyebrows speak volumes in unflinching close-ups that revel in the character lines on his face.”

I’m not wholly convinced this was a 2016 release, but it’s still a magnificent picture with a dynamic central performance by one of the underrated greats. A week later, and I’m still craving a cheeseburger.

10. Fences
 “It comes as no surprise that Denzel Washington is the very picture of commanding; he’s one of a select few actors who can swing the pendulum from exuberantly gregarious to crushingly emotional without feeling anything but natural, and Troy Maxson is a perfect vehicle for Denzel to show us what he can do.”

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a devout disciple of Denzel Washington, and Fences is an apex presentation by a master craftsman giving a performance that, for my money, ought to earn him his second Best Actor trophy.

9. Silence
 “At 74 years old, Scorsese has a clear and unapologetic reverence for the source material and the thematic content of Silence, and as Rodrigues undergoes his trials, we can sense something of Scorsese’s own wrestling with his faith amid the apparent silence of God.”

Scorsese is usually guaranteed a spot on the Top 10 of any given year, but one senses Silence is the film he’s been working toward for much of his career. It’s a sobered and somber take on religion, faith, and persecution, but it uses its “endurance test” quality to help audiences understand the trials of its central protagonist.

7 (tie). Hail, Caesar! -&- The Nice Guys
 “I’m personally delighted to see more of the madcap mania the Coens have turned into a personal brand because it’s not something I get anywhere else at the cinema. No one does horseplay like Joel and Ethan Coen.” “The Nice Guys goes for the comedic jugular and left me wheezing with laughter throughout much of the picture.”

I just couldn’t choose between these two blasts of hilarity, certainly the funniest films of the year and likely the funniest in recent memory. They’re somewhat of a piece – one a Hollywood farce, and the other a satire of 1970s Los Angeles – and a guaranteed good time for all.

6. Hell or High Water
 “It’s truly riveting stuff, a two-hour trip that flies by despite its fairly small scope and tight narrative focus. The key is the well-crafted screenplay, as precise as the bank heists and wisely funny in a way that the trailers didn’t let on.”

The neo-western is fast becoming a new favorite film genre for me, with Hell or High Water as a worthy successor to the mantle of No Country for Old Men. Equal parts contemplative and comedic, here’s a film that feels like a throwback but which still has so many pressing things to say.

5. Arrival
 “There are moments in Arrival that feel a bit as though Stanley Kubrick is directing an adaptation of Wuthering Heights in which Heathcliff is an immense being at which we can only marvel, slack-jawed, while we attempt to comprehend.”

Amy Adams was viciously robbed of a Best Actress nomination in this thoughtful science fiction film that takes the impossibilities of the genre as a way to represent that which is unthinkable – to change our paradigm of thinking by changing the ways we think. Less puzzle box and more slow unveiling, Arrival is that rare science fiction that treats its audience with respect.

4. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
 “Maybe I’m a little more forgiving just because these are ‘my’ genres, movies that feel made for me. But Rogue One is, I think, a great Star Wars movie that does everything a Star Wars movie ought to do.”

We’re getting into the “genre shill” portion of the Top 10, but there’s no way I wasn’t going to include a new Star Wars film on the list, especially when it’s as fresh and diverting as Rogue One. Padded out by a ground-level take on Star Wars with more than a few rousing action sequences, Rogue One has what might be the best finale of the year, with an unforgettable five-minute closing act that’s equal parts terror and hope.

3. Captain America: Civil War
 “Civil War manages to be both sweepingly epic and deeply personal, with far-reaching consequences stemming out of what is essentially a clash of personalities, a philosophical difference of opinion about the nature of individual power.”

One day I’ll get around to updating my ranking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Civil War is easily top three at this point. While not quite as self-contained or effortlessly perfect as The Winter Soldier, Civil War is the big-screen equivalent of a superhero crossover comic, replete with all the big-budget action of a Marvel movie, the reliable filmmaking on display, and the subtle treatment of nuanced moral questions. On top of it all, Civil War is a rousing good time.

2. Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice [Ultimate Edition]
 “Batman v Superman takes the claim that superheroes are modern mythology to its logical extension – this is comics mythology writ large, in which men and women stand shoulder to shoulder with gods, do battle, and discover something about both god and man.”

On principle (and for one other reason), I couldn’t give BvS the number one spot on the list because it’s actually the non-theatrical release that emerges as the stronger film. But it’s certainly the film I’ve thought about the most in 2016, the film to which I keep coming back. BvS takes itself as seriously as I take this stuff, and it rewards multiple viewing in a cerebral way lost on most other blockbusters.

1. La La Land
 “La La Land embraces the aesthetic of the musicals of the 1950s (though in color, there are also affinities with the Fred-and-Gingers of the 1930s), lamenting the way that reality all so often fails to live up to the romanticized spectacle of a big Hollywood musical. Reality can be sweet, La La Land posits, but it’s got nothing on the polish and image surfaces made on a movie studio backlot.”

Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are that my #1 film of the year isn’t the one with Batman in it. La La Land represented something of an emotional sucker punch, one that still hits me if I think about it too hard or listen to the soundtrack in the right mood. It’s a film that does everything I want a film to do, in a formally integrated way, with a confidence and grace that too many other films lack. I’m proud to take this moment to announce that it’s my 66th Personal Canon film, and like the 66th book of the Bible, La La Land is a real revelation.

How about it, folks? How does my Top 10 stack up to yours? What’s missing? Sound off in the comments below.