As is our end-of-the-year custom, starting this week we're running a lot of moviegoers' lists of films of the almost-over year. This will continue on our blood, dirt & angels blog (blooddirtangels.com) until we either run out of lists or get bored.
Why? Because people like lists. And the beginning of the year is a notoriously slow time for the movies. (Nothing new is opening this week.) And some people are looking for recommendations for their weekend or their Netflix queue.
We're starting out with lists from contributors to these pages and blood, dirt & angels blog, but in the coming weeks we'll be running lists from other especially interested moviegoers (if you're an especially interested moviegoer please feel free to send your list and comments to the address at the end of this column. No guarantees, but maybe we'll print yours in the newspaper and make you famous).
As you might deduce from the various lists, I have few rules about these end-of-year lists -- I ask for a Top 10 but if I get eight or 12, that's OK. Comments are welcome but not mandatory. A film that was technically released at the end of 2015 but showed up in Arkansas in 2016 (or didn't show up in Arkansas at all, for that matter) is eligible. Films that haven't been commercially released yet are eligible, so long as the listee has seen them (I've actually seen people -- no one on our panel -- list films they hadn't seen but "just knew" were going to be good).
My list, by the way, ran in last Sunday's newspaper, but in case you missed it, I'll reprint it (without comments) at the end of this column.
Joe Riddle, copy editor extraordinaire, font of cinematic history:
Eight Films
I can only come up with eight films for 2016 as I have yet to see Loving, Jackie and La La Land.
In no particular order: Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Hell or High Water, Deadpool, Florence Foster Jenkins, Maggie's Plan, Youth, Zootopia.
Karen Martin, Home Movies columnist, critic, MovieStyle founder and associate editor in charge of our Sunday Perspective section:
Top 10
1.Manchester by the Sea, 2. Nocturnal Animals, 3. Moonlight, 4. Loving, 5. Hell or High Water, 6. Sully, 7. Certain Women, 8. The Lobster, 9. Love & Friendship, 10. Maggie's Plan.
Dan Lybarger, film critic:
Top 10
(in no particular order)
Manchester by the Sea -- Anchored by an engrossing performance by Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea is a dark but oddly uplifting look at grief and self-destructive behavior. There's something strangely beautiful in this story about surviving worst-case scenarios.
Hell or High Water -- A heist movie with social commentary and Texas-size thrills. That sounds too much like a pull quote, but go rent it anyway.
O.J.: Made in America -- Yes, it runs for several hours (7 hours and 47 minutes to be exact), but not a second is wasted. Through Simpson's story, we see how America changed during his life and how far we still have to go.
Moonlight -- Like Manchester by the Sea, this is both heartbreaking and hopeful. It's loaded with troubled but involving characters whose struggles seem consistently real.
Love & Friendship -- Writer-director Whit Stillman and Jane Austen make for an astonishingly compatible pair in this side-splitting adaptation of one of her unfinished books. Don't let the dainty surroundings fool you. There's a wonderfully icy heart to this movie.
Loving -- Arkansas' Jeff Nichols takes what could have been a dull "based on a true story tale" and gives the historic couple and their legal case the movie they deserve. There's a refreshing lack of Oscar clips in this one.
Deadpool -- Rarely has a guilty pleasure had so much of the latter that one forgets the former.
The Handmaiden -- South Korean director Park Chan-wook's movies have so much kinky material that I worry for his sanity. That said, I eagerly await his mind-bending films.
Kubo and the Two Strings -- There's enough imagination and wonder in this one to easily fill two or three movies.
La La Land -- Writer-director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) creates a new type of magical realism by creating mesmerizing musical numbers while acknowledging that the artistic life and even life in general can be oppressively challenging.
Piers Marchant, critic:
Best (Worst) 2016
Released 2016: 1. Manchester by the Sea, 2. La La Land, 3. Always Shine, 4. Under the Shadow, 5. The Fits, 6. Loving, 7. Cameraperson, 8. Kubo and the Two Strings, 9. A War, 10. The Handmaiden
Honorary: Little Men; Kate Plays Christine; Burden; Author: The JT Leroy Story; Hell or High Water; Arrival; Presenting Princess Shaw; Toni Erdmann; I Am Not Your Negro; Sherpa; Weiner; Zootopia; Love & Friendship
Released from previous lists: The Witch
Forthcoming releases: Personal Shopper; Graduation; The Unknown Girl; Salesman; Starless Dreams; Nerdland; Free Fire
The worst: Alice Through the Looking Glass; 50 Shades of Grey; Tomorrowland; The Neon Demon; The Light Between Oceans; The Secret Scripture; Insolvent; Allied
Most disappointing: Hail, Caesar!; Everybody Wants Some!!; The Neon Demon; Missed the Boat; The Eyes of My Mother; Moonlight
Sam Blair: blood, dirt & angel's armchair critic:
Best Dozen
(Haven't seen Martin Scorsese's Silence.)
- Manchester by the Sea -- Beautifully acted depiction of coping with loss. If the poignant Casey Affleck-Michelle Williams encounter on the street doesn't shake you, you haven't got a heart.
- Moonlight -- A three-act black Boyhood in the Miami projects. The superb ensemble cast defies stereotypes. Naomie Harris is a standout as the mother.
- Loving -- One of local writer/director Jeff Nichols' best yet: quiet and low-key like its unsung heroic subjects, Virginians Richard and Mildred Loving.
- La La Land -- Two appealing young stars in an homage to the Hollywood musical. This take on "the ancient conflict between ambition and love"-- and growing up -- builds slowly, but be patient; by the end, it soars.
- Hell or High Water -- No Country for Old Men meets Bonnie & Clyde. Its fine screenplay has Texas Ranger Jeff Bridges tracking two brothers on a crime spree.
- Eye in the Sky -- Miniature, highly sophisticated drones you didn't know existed raise tense ethical questions in modern warfare. Helen Mirren, as always, elevates her material.
- Nocturnal Animals -- A white-knuckled story within the story provides tension in this well-crafted movie, along with another strong supporting role for Michael Shannon.
- The Handmaiden -- In 1990 we had The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. This erotic thriller, worthy of Hitchcock and set in Japanese-occupied Korea, presents the con-man, the sadistic uncle, the heiress, and her maid.
9. Krisha -- A standout at the last Little Rock Film Festival in 2015, this low-budget picture brings a new twist to the family Thanksgiving from hell movie: It really happened.
- (tie) Fences -- Faithful reproduction of August Wilson's talky but moving play, with Denzel Washington and the incomparable Viola Davis in their Tony-winning Broadway roles.
- (tie) Paterson -- Adam Driver's unassuming blue-collar poet/bus driver is one of the year's memorable movie characters. You'll either be bored to death or totally charmed.
- (tie) Little Men -- A little indie movie that resonates: Two gangly Brooklyn adolescents are inseparable until a financial lawsuit between their families threatens their friendship.
Runners-up -- Jackie; Arrival; Toni Erdmann; Elle; Hidden Figures; The Red Turtle; Lion.
Best documentaries: O.J: Made in America; Command & Control; Lumet
Philip Martin, big shot movie man:
Top 10
1. Loving, 2. Manchester by the Sea, 3. Moonlight, 4. The Lobster, 5. Nocturnal Animals, 6. Hell or High Water, 7. The Fits, 8. Rams, 9. Zootopia, 10. Kate Plays Christine.
Email:
pmartin@arkansasonline.com
blooddirtangels.com
MovieStyle on 12/30/2016