Apologies all around for not posting this sooner (at least before the Academy Awards, as is my usual goal). While other critics have been saying there were more than ten good movie in 2016, I struggled to fill-out my list! All of the buzzed-about Best Picture nominees (that I saw) had one flaw or another that left me ambivalent.
I believe it is my shortest Best Movie list EVER. But more importantly, this is the first year in the last five that a Jessica Chastain movie does not appear anywhere on this list (the streak is over). I have high hopes for 2017.
TOP NINE MOVIES OF 2016
1. LION
2. MOONLIGHT
3. ARRIVAL
4. SILENCE
5. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
6. HELL OR HIGH WATER
7. TONI ERDMANN (Germany)
8. JACKIE
9. LA LA LAND
Honorable mention:
Love & Friendship (UK)
Neruda
Saw & Enjoyed:
The Birth of a Nation
Cafe Society
Midnight Special
Suffragette (UK)
Sunset Song (UK)
AND TWO DISHONORABLE MENTIONS:
The Lobster & Nocturnal Animals (gag and gag!)
That's all, folks!