Delayed Reaction: Mudbound

The Pitch: There should be a movie about racism that also reminds people that farming is filthy work.

Two soldiers, one black, one white, return from WWII to the racial tensions in Mississippi.

I often talk about there being two ways to be a quality movie: innovation and effectiveness. History tends to remember the innovators, but there's nothing wrong with doing something familiar and doing it well. That's Mudbound. This is a movie made up of the two most common topics among American history films: World War II and southern Racism. It even relies heavily on narration. There's all sorts of forbidden love and friendship. I'm not sure there's a new idea in the movie, but it's so well made that it really doesn't matter.

It all starts with an excellent cast. On one side, there's Garrett Hedlund, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, and Jonathan Banks. On the other, there's Mary J. Blige, Jason Mitchell, and Rob Morgan. I'll watch anything with Carey Mulligan (and it's not all because I fancy brunette Brits). Jason Clarke is fine whenever I need a dirty Patrick Wilson or Matthew Rhys. As I mention any time I see Garrett Hedlund in a movie, I'm still trying to form an opinion of him other than "not Charlie Hunnam". Jonathan Banks is really good at playing a repugnant character. I forget that, because I like him so much in the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe. Mary J. Blige is getting the most press for her performance in the film. She's very good, although a part of me thinks she's getting extra-praise for successfully not playing Mary J. Blige, since she's mostly known for singing. It's kind of like when people wouldn't stop talking about Mariah Carey's transformation in Precious. Rob Morgan must have an exclusive deal with Netflix, because just this year, he's been in this, Stranger Things, Godless, and their Marvel shows (The Punisher, The Defenders). I was worried that Jason Mitchell, so good as Easy E in Straight Outta Compton, would have trouble fitting into this WWII setting. It turns out that fear was unfounded, because he is quite good in this too.

Perhaps the cast was a little too good, or rather, too large. The story is pretty diffuse. There are a lot of stories to juggle and there are times when the screenplay struggles to keep all the balls in the air. The relationship between Mitchell and Hedlund is the core of the movie, but the movie has to lay a lot of groundwork first. While the movie is mostly about Mulligan and Clarke and Blige and Morgan at the beginning, they fall to the background for much of the end. I think the ideal version of this would be a mini-series. As a two hour film, Dee Rees makes it work as well as possible.

Finally, I have a small gripe. The Ku Klux Klan makes the story way too easy, right? It's one thing for someone to be racist. You can question how resolute they are. Maybe there will be a character turn at some point. There's some ambiguity to it. As soon as someone puts the white sheet over his head, it's over. He become generic evil. It kind of takes away the agency of the individual in favor of the group. When the Klan got involved, I got a lot less interested in where the movie was going. It's like the message shifted to "Only this select group of white people are the problem in the South" rather than, "there's this systemic problem that's pretty complex". And, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe in that era the Klan was super prevalent and behind all the awful things. It sure felt like a narrative shortcut though: a way to make the issue not just black and white, but black and sheet white.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Bad Batch

The Pitch: Someone needs to make a Mad Max movie at half speed.

A woman is sent to and explores a dystopian desert wasteland, filled with cannibals.

This is a case of a trailer making me too curious to forget about a movie. The Bad Batch can be lazily written off as a Mad Max ripoff, and Ana Lily Amirpour would have a hard time arguing that she wasn't in some way influenced by those films. Once you accept that on a production design level, it's very much its own movie. Amirpour is in love with her visuals, and on some level, I can't blame her for that. They're some striking visuals. Suki Waterhouse, Jason Mamoa, and Keanu Reeves all look very distinctive and fit in this exaggerated wasteland. I didn't even recognize Jim Carrey until the third time he showed up. I love how random that cast is.

The thing I most like about the movie led directly to what I liked the least: there's only enough plot to get a character from point A to point B. I mean that literally. This movie is mostly just an exploration. Amirpour wants to show off the different locations in this world and these odd characters. I like good world building, so I'm happy to explore with her. Maybe not for two hours though. Anything over 90 minutes needs a bit more plot. After a while, I got to a point when I would look at the screen for a new scene, then look away for a couple minutes and wait until something happened before I looked again. The characters barely get fleshed out. The mysterious stranger idea is nice, but it went a little too far with Suki Waterhouse, who I still hardly knew at all by the end. That said, this laid a great foundation. If there was a Bad Batch 2*, I'd watch it.

*Or Badder Batch, B2: The Baddest Batch, The Below Average Batch (a prequel), or The Rotten Batch.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Movie Reaction: The Florida Project

Formula: Beasts of the Southern Wild / Disney World

Sean Baker is a filmmaker I've become familiar with unintentionally. I caught his 2012 movie Starlet, out of a curiosity with Dree Hemingway. For some reason, I find it really interesting that Ernest Hemingway's lineage has gone into movies. Then I caught Tangerine in 2015 after a wave of great reviews, some very dark horse Oscar hopes, and the novelty of it being shot on an Iphone. What's clear between those films and his latest, The Florida Project, is that Baker likes to focus on the people the rest of the world ignores.

I'm not sure I could've found a better palette cleanser between The Last Jedi viewings than The Florida Project. After all, this is a movie literally about living in the shadow of Disney. The film takes place in a motel called the Magic Castle on the outskirts of Orlando. The motel is mainly populated by people living there, although never long enough to legally set up residence. Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is a six-year old living with her mother, Halley (Bria Vinaite), who is unemployed (and arguably unemployable, thanks to her hair trigger temper and refusal to listen to authority). The Florida Project is what I call a "slice of life" movie. The plot is very loose. It's more of a collection of adventures while Mooney is on Summer break with a few through lines.

A movie like this lives and dies by how well it builds and populates the world it's creating. If I'm going to spend 90 minutes hanging out with characters, I better like them or at least want to be around them that long. The Florida Project has no problem with that. Brooklynn Prince is a special talent. Despite only being six years old, she carries the movie and never feels like she'd playing to the camera. Baker took a big risk relying so much on child actors like Prince and her friends, but it pays off. Bria Vinaite is not a professional actress. I believe she was found by Baker on Instagram. She's pretty fearless in front of the camera though. She's not a chameleon who can disappear into any role, but she's perfect for this one. The only established (or even professional) actor in the cast is Willem Dafoe, who plays the manager of the motel. I'm sorry to user a cliche, but he's the beating heart of the movie. He's the glue that holds it together; the savvy veteran the movie can turn to whenever the story gets close to spinning out of control. When he's the only person in a couple months getting Oscar attention for this film, it'll be justified.

What I liked the most about this movie is how everything is done without judgment or sympathy. By the numbers, Moonee has a pretty terrible life. She's surrounded by drugs and prostitution. Her mother never has enough money and Moonee never knows where her next meal is coming from. She had minimal adult supervision and constantly finds herself is risky situations. That's just her life though and it's not without its merits. There are a lot of people around her doing the best they can. Bobby (Dafoe's character) in particular refuses to give up Magic Castle and the people living there.

Part of the reason why the movie gets by with so little plot is because when you are dealing with kids, everything feels more perilous. I spent most of the movie tense, because I was worried something bad was going to happen to Moonee or one of the other kids. It reminded me of the scene in Boyhood when they are drinking and throwing the knife. Intellectually, I knew nothing was going to happen because it wasn't that kind of a movie, but the fact that it was dumb kids doing it made me very cautious. This film wisely resists the urge to sensationalize things. Anything bad that happens is more from cause and effect. It trusts the audience a lot.

Finally, the end of the movie. All I can say is that of course that's how it would end. Even if I saw that coming, doesn't mean it's the wrong way to end it.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend

Movie Reaction: Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

Formula: (The Empire Strikes Back * The ForceAwakens) / A New Hope

Note: I'm not going to read my Force Awakens reaction before writing this, by I expect I'll echo a few of the same thoughts if not exact phrases.

There's no way that I'm going to write a fully clear-eyed Reaction of a Star Wars movie. There's too much baggage. I'm a fan first and there's no getting around it. That's going to cloud everything. And let's be honest. No one wants to read the critical assessment of a Star Wars movie like it was something out of the Cannes Film Festival. Even the most ardent Star Wars fan would have to admit that none of the movies in the series are anywhere close to perfect in the way that, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the perfect adventure movie or Die Hard is the perfect action movie*. No, Star Wars is more of a glorious mess. People love it despite its shagginess. It's a space opera filled with big characters and even bigger emotions. Given that, I can safely say that with The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson and company have delivered a pretty spectacular installment in the series.

*Arguments for another day, if you want to have them..

Episode VIII picks up not long after the end of Force Awakens. Rey is still on Acht-To, trying to convince a very unwilling Luke Skywalker to help defeat Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren. Meanwhile, Poe, Finn, Leia, and the Resistance find themselves unable to shake a First Order assault. They are biding their time, looking for a way to escape before their resources, namely their fuel, run out. If I need to explain much more than that for you to follow, then I'd advise you to just watch The Force Awakens if not the whole series, since there's an assumed buy-in with this movie going in. What matters is that all the characters established so well in The Force Awakens are back and several new characters are integrated well.

The most notable character present is Princess Leia. Carrie Fisher was done with her filming before her death last year, so there's plenty of her. The Last Jedi does right by Leia, who didn't have much to do in The Force Awakens. I couldn't be more pleased with her final entry in the series. It was especially nice to see Fisher's humor on display. Also finding himself with more to do this time is Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac). He cements himself as the Han Solo of this trilogy, including a nod to the comparison during an exchange he has with Rey (that I am probably reading too much into). Poe is heroic and foolish. Despite his skills, the movie is happy to make him wrong as hell at times. Speaking of Rey, Daisy Ridley is just terrific. She really is Luke without the whining. The film works hard to explain the things in The Force Awakens that had many [not me] calling her a "Mary Sue". Rey is overflowing with raw potential, much like her counterpart, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and her struggle is learning how to harness it. A large part of the film involves Rey and Kylo Ren exploring a connection they have with one another, and Ridley and Driver do a wonderful job selling scenes that could be ridiculous with less capable actors (think, Smeagol in The Two Towers). Hell, just look at how great Ridley is a yelling. Seriously, there are a lot of close-ups of Rey screaming and it never comes off as silly. That's a skill. Kylo Ren also gets some context for how he acted in The Force Awakens. He's much more than the [intentional] Darth Vader impersonation he was when he was first introduced. That was just his way to understand his own strength. Finn (John Boyega) spends most of the film on a mission with the most prominent newcomer, Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), a Resistance technician looking to live up to her heroic sister. Finn doesn't get much development this time around. The Force Awakens built him up pretty well, and he mostly coasts on that for this episode. That's nothing against Boyega. It's just not his turn, like it's wasn't Poe's last time. More of that focus is on Tran's Rose who I came to like very quickly. There's obviously a lot more Mark Hamill this time. The film plays more to Hamill's strengths as an actor rather than trying to recreate the Luke Skywalker from the original trilogy. A lot of time is spent reminding everyone of the man, rather than the legend. The same could be said of having Hamill there at all. That still leaves Benicio del Toro as an underworld code-breaker and Laura Dern as a prominent Resistance officer among the new characters, not to mention the return of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), General Hux (Domhnall Gleeason), Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), Chewie, and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie). The cast is huge. There are so many characters to service, which leads me to some of my issues.

This movie tries to do too much. It's over 2.5 hours and feels like it. Similar to The Dark Knight or Django Unchained, there's an extra act that didn't feel all that necessary. Unlike those movies though, it's an awesome extra act with some of the most stunning visuals in an already great looking movie and one of the best badass moments of the entire series. But, by the time the movie gets there, I was feeling the length. Perhaps that means some of the middle could've been cut instead, like an adventure to a casino city/planet that seemed to exist only to underline some thematic points that could've been made elsewhere. Like a Lord of the Rings movie, I loved every second of The Last Jedi even as I was aware there was too much. If the choice is between more Star Wars or less Star Wars, my choice will always be "more", even if it would be the detriment to the movie.

And, I don't blame Rian Johnson for wanting to take on as much as possible. He gets how to make a Star Wars movie. Every new world, character, or piece of technology The Last Jedi introduces fits perfectly in the Star Wars universe. The movie goes after big, intense moments while cutting the tension with comedy just right. The big criticism of The Force Awakens was that it was mimicry and lacked anything really iconic. That's not a problem with The Last Jedi. Like any good sequel, it's the same but different and is packed with great moments: the kind that you immediately remember when you think about why you love the series.

I've seen the movie twice now. The word I kept coming back to after the first time was "elegant". I was really bothered because The Last Jedi isn't elegant at all. It's the kind of movie in which a bomb will go off and the only characters who get up are the ones with names the audience knows, and it feels no need to explain itself. Characters will speechify for no discernible reason. Master plans aren't all that clever and characters are left in the dark on them for nebulous reasons. I'm sure if there was a countdown, the clock would stop with exactly 1 second left. This bothered me for a while, then I remembered: That's Star Wars. As I pointed out earlier, it's a space opera. It's never been elegant. Everything is heightened and obvious. The central conflict is literally between the light and dark side of something generically called The Force. Star Wars is the ultimate escapism, and the highs I get from that make up for all sorts of ills.

Does The Last Jedi have indelible characters I can root for or against and who entertain me either way? Yes.

Does The Last Jedi have terrific, inventive action sequences that take full advantage of the enormous production cost? Yes.

Does The Last Jedi have clear themes delivered as earnestly as anything in this galaxy? Yes.

The Last Jedi is a great Star Wars movie.

After the Credits

(A few thoughts with spoilers)

-Two things didn't sit well with me at first. Both are tied to how the Force is used in The Last Jedi. The first is Leia surviving after the bridge is destroyed. The second is Luke's big fake out at the end. These both felt like too much, like the Force was being overextended beyond the established rules of how it worked. I mean, Leia isn't even a Jedi. I'm still not completely on board either instance, but after a second viewing and some additional consideration, I'm fine with them.

If dead Jedi can reappear as friendly ghosts and Sith can choke officers remotely from light years away, then, even if we haven't seen it happen before, hologram Jedi and a little space floating action isn't that big of a stretch. Besides, in either case there were consequences. Luke basically spent his remaining life force on his trick. With Leia, it's good to remember that the entire Skywalker family is strong with the Force and it isn't limited to the Jedi. Before the bridge is destroyed, the film cuts to Leia who does appear to be bracing herself for something. She protects herself first, not after the fact. And, it does take a lot out of her.

-Two things I'm really hoping for some more explanation of in episode IX: Snoke and the Knights of Ren. Even though Snoke is dead and was only a stop gap to get us to Kylo Ren as the lead villain, I'd still like to know his story. After Vader and Palpatine were killed, where did this quite powerful Sith lord come from? How did he come to lead the First Order too? As for the Knights of Ren, what happened to them? The Force Awakens mentions the Knights of Ren a couple times. The Last Jedi refers to Luke's pupils who joined Kylo Ren. Presumably they become the Knights of Ren. It's odd that we don't know more about them yet. I worry that we may never get a good explanation for Snoke, but it seems very likely that the Knights of Ren will be addressed in Episode IX.

-I'm really happy to find out that Rey's parents aren't special. While it was fun to speculate that she was somehow a Skywalker or a Kenobi or another manifestation of the Force with no lineage at all, I much prefer that she is just a woman who happens to be strong with the Force. There were plenty of non-Skywalker Jedi before Anakin, so there should be plenty after. This explanation actually makes her a lot more interesting to me. I don't enjoy watching things for the twist, so I'm glad this didn't encourage doing so. 

Delayed Reaction: The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

The Pitch: The Squid and the Whale, only everyone's older.

Three adult children try to escape the blast radius of their aging father's ego.

I guess there's no escaping it. I'm a Noah Baumbach fan. I've tracked down half of his movies at this point and I'm certain to get to the rest eventually. The only one of his films I've outright disliked was The Squid and the Whale, and most of that was due to how successfully it left a bad taste in my mouth. It's nice that I liked The Meyerowitz Stories though, because I was afraid that my Baumbach enjoyment was all Greta Gerwig-based (Greenberg, Frances Ha, Mistress America). The Meyerowitz Stories is much more similar to The Squid and the Whale than the Gerwig films. It's also about a self-obsessed father with two sons (and a daughter, this time), who are pretty messed up because of him. I guess it was just less toxic this time, or maybe more self-aware of it.

Perhaps it's the superb cast, which ranks much higher than the already strong Squid and the Whale cast. Dustin Hoffman is transparently, insufferably conceited. But, he's Dustin Hoffman, so he makes it work. I love that his alcoholic wife is played by Emma Thompson for a number of reasons. First: she's Emma Thompson, and Emma Thompson makes everything better. Second, I like that Hoffman and Thompson keep getting paired together since Stranger Than Fiction. It makes me think other people have watched and appreciated that movie as much as I have. I'm impressed by how Ben Stiller has made a career out of playing two extremes. He's either in huge character mode (Zoolander, Heavyweights) or he's an awkward everyman. This is the latter type, and he's positively flustered throughout. Elizabeth Marvel impressed the hell out of me as the always forgotten sister who gave up fighting it long ago. It's fitting that I don't remember seeing Marvel in anything else despite her appearing in several movies I've seen. Her low energy blasts through several scenes in the film.

Adam Sandler is great, and I'm kind of tired of hearing people say that as a surprise. We all know he can act. Punch-Drunk Love. Funny People. Spanglish. Reign Over Me. We've been through this before. Even in some of his Happy Madison (era if not under than banner) productions like The Wedding Singer and Big Daddy display some of that ability. The man just likes to be a clown and hang out with his friends sometimes too. I may not like those movies lately, but it doesn't mean he lost the ability to be good. The same goes for Tyler Perry, actually, but that's a-whole-nother discussion. It's not even news that he's taking on more serious roles again. Check out his filmography since 2014. Men, Women & Children, The Cobbler, Sandy Wexler, The Meyerowitz Stories. All more or less serious movies. Sure, he's had Pixels, The Ridiculous 6, and The Do-Over in that time too, but this is his highest concentration of seriousness ever. Baumbach does an excellent job of using Sandler's rage for comedic and dramatic effect. I love the running gag of ending scenes with him right when his in the middle of saying (or yelling) something. His relationship with his daughter is also very sweet.

Baumbach is really great at low boil humor. That's the kind of humor that makes you laugh in exasperation while shaking your head. It's not that you laugh at a specific joke. It's like when someone is frustrating you, and at some point, you give up and start laughing at them because there's no point in getting angry. It's a very specific type of humor: one that he's very good at.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: To the Bone

The Pitch: How skinny can Lily Collins get?

An anorexic girl moves into an inpatient house for treatment.

It's that time of year when I start tracking down all the Sundance movies from January to fit in before the end of the year. This one was a big curiosity because of Lily Collins. I've never really sought her work out. She sort of pops up though in things I'm seeing anyway. I don't remember her from The Blind Side. I mainly remember her in Mirror, Mirror because I'm oddly obsessed with the closing song of that movie. The Warren Beatty curiosity was mainly what brought me to Rules Don't Apply. Stuck in Love and the Amazon series The Last Tycoon sucked me in because of the whole ensemble. To the Bone I watched specifically for her, as it's a character piece centered around her. Partly, I wanted to know if she could really get any skinnier than she already was. The answer is "yes" and I wish I could unsee that now (although The Machinist is still the gold standard in horrifying skinniness). She's pretty good in the film. I was worried at first when she got the badass renegade introduction at the beginning. They tone that down as the movie goes on. It's clear after a while that her sarcasm and attitude are more of a defense mechanism, and Collins does a great job of knowing when and how to dial it back. She didn't move into "get her an Oscar, now!" territory, but she definitely proved she has some range and should continue to get lead roles in films.

I was impressed by the supporting cast too. Rhetta gets a small but surprisingly real turn as the head of the inpatient house. I've only ever seen her do comedy. This was a big departure and she did well with it. Leslie Bibb also has a limited role and brings some nice manic energy to it. Carrie Preston, as the stepmom, is sweet and annoying. Lili Taylor swoops in for some good scenes. I still am waiting for a Liana Liberato role that gives me an idea of what she can do as an actress. I've seen her pop up in a number of things. She's never a weakness, just kind of anonymous. Keanu Reeves as Collins' doctor is fine. I think we all need to accept that Reeves is not a master thespian. We all know that, but a lot of you need to get over it. He's more interesting for his ability to choose roles in fun or worthwhile movies than he is as an actor and that's OK.

This is a Sundance release though, and it feels like it as times, for better and for worse. At least it doesn't pretend it's a "dramedy". This is outright drama. The British love interest (while played charmingly by Alex Sharp) story felt a little contrived. That and the desert vision in the climax felt like they were included just to give the story a more traditional structure and familiar beats. The thing about Collins' Tumblr account somehow leading to a girl killing herself and really everything about Collins sort of being an  anorexia community icon was a little too convenient (nearing One Big Leap territory). While I liked the movie, it was a little too messy for me to say anyone needs to seek it out.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Colossal

The Pitch: It's like a monster movie as an obvious metaphor, then not so much an obvious metaphor.

A woman discovers that she has the ability to cause a monster to appear and attack Soeul.

I going to need more time to gestate my thoughts about this movie. My initial response to it was negative, but it was negative in a way that the movie kind of intended. I'm still unpacking how much of it is dislike and how much is a response to an effective movie.

I guess I'll start with this. I love that this movie doesn't care to explain much. The mistake that a lot of writers make with a high concept is the belief that they have to explain it. That's not always true. Harold Crick doesn't need to know how he's a character in Karen Eiffel's book (**). Tim doesn't need to know why the men in his family have the ability to time-travel (**). In Colossal, Gloria doesn't need to know why a lightning bolt (I guess) made a monster appear when she goes to a specific plot of land. My whole One Big Leap principle is built on the idea that I'm watching a movie, so I need to suspend my belief about something. Colossal smartly, doesn't get bogged down explaining the high concept. Anne Hathaway (and Jason Sudeikis) controls a monster. Fine. That's all I need to know, given what the movie becomes.

What writer/director Nacho Vigalonodo does with the premise is interesting. It's not quite a From Dusk Till Dawn fake out, but it's a pretty significant shift. It's really a story about damaged people and whether they let that damage ruin them. Hathaway's Gloria has a lot of issues. She wants to be better than those issue though. Sudeikis' Oscar doesn't care to improve. He's fine being controlled by self-loathing. My big issue with the movie is that I think it was more concerned with tricking the audience about Oscar than building a good character. It goes overboard to make Oscar the traditional "nice guy" early on, then goes equally overboard with his heel turn later on. I had a hard time buying the character from the beginning as the one at the end or what exactly was being said about the character. Enough else worked that I can forgive that. Sudeikis makes the character work with his performance in individual moment though. He's one of those SNL alums who doesn't always look like he's itching to play a new character or get a laugh. I've been waiting to see him play more characters with some menace.

Hathaway really makes the movie though. She's proven before that she can play a train wreck (Rachel Getting Married, good god!), so this was no surprise. She sells some moments that, when you think about them, are really ridiculous. The whole climax is a little silly, with her going to Seoul and miming what she's doing to Sudeikis. She dispatches of him in a pretty brutal way and responds to it accordingly.

I'm very undecided about the movie. I'm definitely in favor of it at this point. It's just a matter of how much. For now, I'm going to stick with saying that it's fun and clever, with a much darker edge than I expected but a little rough when the story turns.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend

Top 10 Movie of 2016

I like the idea of theming for these monthly top ten lists. October was an easy connection to horror. I tied my Disneyland trip to the top Disney movies in November. I was all ready to do it again for December with a list of Christmas movies. There's a problem though: I haven't seen enough Christmas movies to build a proper top 10 list. Nowhere close. That surprised me, but it's really hard to get to the 100 minimum that I set, especially since I define Christmas movies a bit more harshly (Die Hard would only be considered one if I was already at 99 and needed a 100th, for example). That's for the best though. Nostalgia drove my last list and would've driven a Christmas list as well. I like a little more variety than that. Besides, there's another obvious choice. I'll be making an overall ranking of the 2017 movies I've seen at the very end of the year. I might as well re-sort my 2016 list now that I've had a chance to reflect on the movies and fill in some gaps. I normally do this anyway, so this saves me the trouble.

Before I get into the list, I want to run through my guidelines. The standard rules still apply. I've seen well over 100 2016 movies, so that's not a problem. I'll include the full list of all movies I've seen at the bottom and in the post. If you think I'm missing a movie in my top 10 list and it's not in the full list, then I haven't seen it, or it isn't a 2016 movie. I'm defining the release year based on where it shows up on BoxofficeMojo. If it didn't get a theatrical release in the US, then I'll revert to the IMDB year.

Excluding the Oscar Shorts collection I saw in theaters, I've seen 130 so far from 2016. That's a lot. Certainly more than I expected. With so many movie, the first round of cuts was easy. I would like to note that I did not bother to rank all the movies 1-130. I started with groups of two movies, ranked those, then combined those with other groups. I kept doing this, until I got to groups of ten. At that point, anything in a group that ranked lower than 10th was cut entirely, since it had no hope of making the top 10 once I finished combining the groups. I point this out, to explain that not all cuts are equal. Not everything in my first group of cuts is something I like less than my second group of cuts. I'll stand by my sorted list of top ten and my unsorted ten honorable mentions. Beyond that, don't read too much into the groupings unless otherwise noted.

The first cut was easy. 50 movies, none that I'd really recommend. There's a few in there like Race, The Invitation, or Silicon Cowboys that have their charms. Nothing that needs to be singled out for positive reason.

1st Cut
Captain Fantastic
The Light Between Oceans
Search Party
American Pastoral
Rules Don't Apply
Satanic
Independence Day: Resurgence
Trolls
 Now You See Me 2
Alice Through the Looking Glass
War Dogs
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Nocturnal Animals
Race
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Finest Hours
The Invitation
All the Way
The Secret Life of Pets
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Girl on the Train
The Boss
Ice Age: Collision Course
Money Monster
Florence Foster Jenkins
Live By Night
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
Colonia
Get a Job
37
Blood in the Water
Central Intelligence
Jason Bourne
The Magnificent Seven
Storks
Nerve
 London Has Fallen
Demolition
Silicon Cowboys
Tallulah
Beware the Slenderman
Jane Got a Gun
Two Lovers and a Bear
Mojave
Ride Along 2
The Angry Birds Movie
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Lights Out
The 5th Wave
Inferno

An obvious fact that sometimes gets lost when I'm spending all my time dissecting every single movie I watch is that I like movies. I like way more than I don't. Otherwise, why would I spend so much time doing it? So, looking at my 2nd cut, there's a lot of movies I did enjoy. A couple, like The Birth of a Nation or Kubo and the Two Strings could've sniffed top 10 consideration if I was in the right mood. Still, this cut was pretty painless.

2nd Cut
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
The BFG
The Conjuring 2
Suicide Squad
Me Before You
Snowden
Author: The JT LeRoy Story
Blair Witch
The Lovers and the Despot
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Allied
Doctor Strange
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
Passengers
Keanu
20th Century Women
Hush
Green Room
Mr. Right
Kubo and the Two Strings
The Jungle Book
Deadpool
The Huntsman: Winter's War
The Birth of a Nation
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
The Witness
Elstree 1976
White Girl
Swiss Army Man
Star Trek Beyond
X-Men: Apocalypse
The Accountant
How to Be Single
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
A Monster Calls
The Lobster
Cameraperson
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Midnight Special

This is when it really starts to tighten. Deepwater Horizon was my go to "That was a lot better than I expected" movie of 2016. Christine was a nice, late discovery. Southbound is a horror movie with a lot of the DNA of the V/H/S movies which are all-time favorites of mine. Denial was a thoroughly enjoyable film I saw almost by accident. Moana, Finding Dory, and Civil War were a lot of fun. The toughest cuts in this group were Manchester by the Sea and Fences, probably. It's not  a surprise that they fell some now that I'm out of the award season bubble.

 

3rd Cut
Moana
Finding Dory
The Neon Demon
Patriots Day
Silence
Captain America: Civil War
Arrival
Ghostbusters
Christine
Pete's Dragon
Manchester by the Sea
Fences
Deepwater Horizon
Denial
Hidden Figures
Hacksaw Ridge
Love & Friendship
Sully
10 Cloverfield Lane
Southbound

If you are keeping track, the list is down to 20. At the moment I'm writing this, I feel pretty good about calling this my top 20 overall. Don't try to get me to rank 11-20 though. These are all high quality films that I value greatly. You can't go wrong watching any of them.

Honorable Mention

Don't Think Twice - Mike Birbiglia has made a movie about Stand Up comedy and now Improv Comedy. This guy gets me.


Hail, Caesar! - The Coen brothers are going right for the laughs with this one. If you can get through the "Would that it were" scene without laughing, then you are dead inside.

Jackie - I'll happily watch Natalie Portman kill it on screen for two hours with a strong supporting cast and a great score.

The Legend of Tarzan - I damn near put this in my top ten and figured out the rest from there. For some reason, I'm all in on the pulp entertainment of this.  

Lion - Better than Slumdog Millionaire by a wide margin. Bring the tissues.



Loving - A pretty perfect mix of tone and performance without letting the plot get in the way. I kept waiting for this to go off the rails and into melodrama and it never did.


Moonlight - A masterfully made movie. I'll admit that I'm still missing that last bit of connection that so many people had to it to push it over the top, but its quality alone secures it in the top 20.


Sing Street - A deliriously fun film with great music. As long as John Carney wants to keep making musical movies, I'll happily watch them and watch them again.


Tower - This is a really clever documentary about the 1966 University of Texas shooting. The mix of actual footage and animation is really unique and gives it some emotional heft that a more traditional documentary would lack.


Zootopia - Funny. Beautiful animation. Great message. Overflowing with energy. Disney Animation is on a roll lately.

Now it's time for the top ten. These are the ten best movies I saw from 2016. There's a decent amount of shuffling since my ranking at the end of last year. This looks more correct though. I feel like all of my genre sweet spots are represented. Horror. Coming of age. Buddy comedy. Balls out comedy. Tense stories. Relaxed paces. This is a pure ranking since the only commonality is date of release. I don't have adhere to any genre guidelines of pay attention to how well it represents some other qualifier. This is a list decided by value added to my 2016. In simplest terms, there are the 2016 films I'm most comfortable recommending.

Top 10

10. The Handmaiden
This Korean movie is very long and very foreign. From a screenplay standpoint, it is the most fun of any movie on this list. It's a wild ride that's worth the time investment and focus, I promise.

9. The Edge of Seventeen
I talked myself out of putting this in my top ten last year, because I was blinded by the awards buzz movies. If I check back next year, this might be even higher. Hailee Steinfeld is superb in the lead role. I love a good coming of age story and this is a great one.

8. Everybody Wants Some!!
God bless Richard Linklater. This movie is basically Dazed and Confused: The College Years and there's nothing wrong with that. There's barely any plot and almost no stakes. I just like hanging out with these guys for a couple hours. Sometimes it's nice to watch a movie that asks almost nothing from you.

7. The Witch
This is a damn fine horror movie. Or maybe it's just dark folklore. Whatever it is, it's great. The film is gorgeous is a gloomy way, and would rather beat you down with its dreary atmosphere that resort to a lot of jump scares. The Witch haunted me like no movie since Under the Skin.

6. Sausage Party
Look. I've loved the Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg partnership since Superbad. I don't love everything of theirs, but I did love this. It's unabashedly dirty, violent, and disgusting. It's not at all subtle. If it let up at all on the relentless jokes it would fall apart. I laughed pretty continuously throughout this movie and, I swear, it's not as dumb as it lets on.

5. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
I love Star Wars. It all comes down to that. This was a great test run for the non-saga movies, coming together great, despite a lot of behind the scenes turmoil. The final battle sequences alone secures it a spot in the top 10.

4. La La Land

Even last year I predicted that this wouldn't stay my top film. I love the music, the direction, the production design, and the two leads. The plot is undeniably pretty lean and I don't really care. The pure enjoyment factor I get out of watching it makes up for any of its shortcomings.

3. Eye in the Sky
I can't separate this movie from how much of a pleasant surprise it was for me. The script and editing are masterful examples of how to expand a story out and contract it back down efficiently and effectively. It's full of messages without being preachy. It's tense as hell (even during a rewatch) without getting melodramatic. It's a great "people doing their damn job" movie. I can't recommend it enough.

2. Hell or High Water
It's nice when a movie just works. On paper, this is a pretty standard cops and robbers movie. But, the rapport between both sets of lead characters is just perfect, Taylor Sheridan's script has a tremendous and confident ease to it, and David Mackenzie manages to shoot West Texas in a way that captures the spirit of it without feeling exploitative. Until you watch it, I really can't do it justice.

1. The Nice Guys
I feel like most top movie lists are like the quiz episode of Friends, when Ross asks for what Rachel tells people is her favorite movie (DangerousLisasons) then what her actual favorite movie is (Weekend at Bernie's). I don't care what you think you should say the best movie in a year is. I want to know what your actual favorite it. I try to be honest, and in this case, that means The Nice Guys. I laughed harder than anyone in the theater when I first saw it. I laughed hard watching it by myself in my room months later. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are a shockingly effective buddy cop comedy duo. The plot makes just enough sense to stay out of the leads' way.  And, between this, Inherent Vice, and recently Free Fire, I've discovered that the late 70s is a time period I like a lot. If I could only keep one more from this year, it would be The Nice Guys. Plain and simple.

Full List
#
 The 5th Wave, 10 Cloverfield Lane, 20th Century Women, 37
A
 The Accountant, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Allied, All the Way, American Pastoral, The Angry Birds Movie, Arrival, Author: The JT LeRoy Story
B
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years, Beware the Slenderman, The BFG, The Birth of a Nation, Blair Witch, Blood in the Water, The Boss
C
Cameraperson, Captain America: Civil War, Captain Fantastic, Central Intelligence, Christine, Colonia, The Conjuring 2
D
Deadpool, Deepwater Horizon, Demolition, Denial, The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Doctor Strange, Don't Think Twice
E
The Edge of Seventeen, Elstree 1976, Everybody Wants Some!!, Eye in the Sky
F
 Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Fences, Finding Dory, The Finest Hours, Florence Foster Jenkins
G
Get a Job, Ghostbusters, The Girl on the Train, Green Room
H
 Hacksaw Ridge, Hail, Caesar!, The Handmaiden, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, How to Be Single, The Huntsman: Winter's War, Hush
I
 Ice Age: Collision Course, Independence Day: Resurgence, Inferno, The Invitation
J
Jackie, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Jane Got a Gun, Jason Bourne, The Jungle Book
K
 Keanu, Kubo and the Two Strings, Kung Fu Panda 3
L
 La La Land, The Legend of Tarzan, The Light Between Oceans, Lights Out, Lion, Live By Night, The Lobster, London Has Fallen, Love & Friendship, The Lovers and the Despot, Loving
M
 The Magnificent Seven, Manchester by the Sea, Me Before You, Midnight Special, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Mr. Right, Moana, Mojave, Money Monster, A Monster Calls, Moonlight
N
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, The Neon Demon, Nerve, The Nice Guys, Nocturnal Animals, Now You See Me 2
P
 Passengers, Patriots Day, Pete's Dragon, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
R
 Race, Ride Along 2, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Rules Don't Apply
S
 Satanic, Sausage Party, Search Party, The Secret Life of Pets, Silence, Silicon Cowboys, Sing Street, Snowden, Southbound, Star Trek Beyond, Storks, Suicide Squad, Sully, Swiss Army Man
T
 Tallulah, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Tower, Trolls, Two Lovers and a Bear
W
War Dogs, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, White Girl, The Witch, The Witness
X
X-Men: Apocalypse
Z
Zootopia