TOP TENS OF 2016
THE TOP TEN FILMS OF 2016
By Grant Kanigan
Before we start: this is by no means the absolute best of 2016; it’s been a busy year, and I haven’t seen every film out there: Arrival, Deepwater Horizon, Loving and a great many others have been raved about, and I haven’t had a chance to see them. I’ll be coming out with a list closer to Oscar night that is a more comprehensive list of the year’s critical darlings; most ‘2016’ Oscar contenders don’t get screened to the public until later in 2017. I have a feeling Loving, Jackie, Arrival, Hidden Figures, Gold, Manchester by the Sea, La La Land, Fences, Kubo & the Two Strings, and some unexpected gems might make the list. But I haven’t seen them yet; so I shouldn’t ‘put the cart before the horse.’ All in all, just because a film didn’t make the list, doesn’t mean it’s bad; I probably just haven’t seen it yet. So, without further ado, here are the ten best films I saw in 2016:
10. Swiss Army Man
This independent flick from first time writer/directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert is one of the most unique films I’ve ever seen. A troubling tale of mental illness, longing, isolation, and flatulent existentialism is one of the only films I’ve seen that’s able to mix laugh out loud toilet humour with the deep and tragic throes of the human condition. Paul Dano, a severely underrated actor, (who has been brilliant in Prisoners, There Will Be Blood and the under-appreciated Ruby Sparks), is in fine form as the straight man to Daniel Radcliffe’s Oscar worthy performance as a literal human-Swiss army knife. It’s gross, funny, tragic, heartbreaking and inspiring, and not to be missed.
9. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
While I didn’t have too high expectations for this film, (it’s a spinoff of a seven-long film series, of which three were god-awful), this lavishly set, impeccably cast, and diverse set of characters made for a memorable, thrilling ride. Although it didn’t have the nostalgia and epic quality that made Force Awakens one of the most fun films of 2015, it traded nostalgia for intrigue, seriousness, and a sense of danger not felt since The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a shame that Rogue One was a one-time spinoff; the characters throughout were fascinating, unique and damn entertaining.
8. Barbershop: The Next Cut
It’s rare that a third film in a series is good, let alone watchable, (see Godfather III, Spider-Man 3, The Hobbit 3, The Hunger Games 3 pt. I and II), but Barbershop: The Next Cut is the proverbial exception to the rule. Mixing in the characters that made the previous, so-so entries so enjoyable; Eddie, Angie, J.D., (Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, and Anthony Anderson, respectively), with some new faces like Common and J.B. Smoove kept the dialogue fresh, (along with whip smart writing from Kenya Barris), and deciding to mix in the social commentary at the barbershop with current, important issues like police violence, gang-shootings and race relations in America made for one of the best films of the year, mixing comedy and drama seamlessly, and showing that Ice Cube is one of the strongest talents in Hollywood right now. From his groundbreaking performance in the cinematic masterpiece Boyz in the Hood, to his own brand of comedy in Friday, to his self-depreciating turn in the 21 Jump Street films and his oversight of one of 2015’s best films Straight Outta Compton, I think it’s about damn time he gets some recognition this awards season. Nobody expected Barbershop: The Next Cut to be one of the sharpest critiques of American society in 2016, but maybe that’s why it was. All in all, it’s one of the year’s, (and Ice Cube’s), best.
7. The Brothers Grimsby
Sacha Baron Cohen has long been known as the world’s greatest fool. Like the court jester of the world, (Cohen studied the centuries old style of Bouffon comedy as a young performer, in which the satire and mockery of those in power is supposed to border on the limits of decency), he isn’t afraid to grab the powers that be by their insecurities and show them on as big a screen as possible. He’s taken on racism in Borat, homophobia in Bruno, and fascism in The Dictator; with The Brothers Grimsby, Cohen turns his sights on his home country. Taking on elitism and classicism in the United Kingdom, Cohen’s turn as a low-class footy fan from small town England thrust into the world of international espionage is the breath of fresh air 2016 needed, in a year where elitism and the 1% became the ruling force on our planet. From giving Donald Trump AIDS, to mocking royalty, and the hypocrisy of a majority of “charitable” organizations, nothing was off limits. Whether it’s because it’s too close to home, too offensive to the powers that be, or because international distributors thought taking the piss out of class relations wouldn’t translate, Grimsby was a box-office flop. Seeing how it’s the funniest film I saw in 2016, I don’t think it’ll stay down; I can see it becoming a cult classic in the years to come.
6. War Dogs
Although it didn’t have the emotional power of Lord of War or the coked-out insanity of Scarface, Todd Phillips’ War Dogs was more like a Jon Oliver monologue; to the point, filled to the brim with interesting information about subjects that seem off limits, occasionally hilarious, and often disturbing. Showcasing the by-the-seat-of-their-pants attitude of the ‘best’ of capitalism, the shady dealings and ‘plausible deniability’ of the US government, and the throes of hubris, War Dogs was a takedown of millennials, using the methods taught to them by the capitalists and de-regulators who came before them. It may seem like just another Todd Phillips macho-adventure like The Hangover or Old School, but if you look closer, there’s a dark, unsettling warning beneath the façade.
5. Green Room
Just as he was hitting his stride, Anton Yelchin was killed in a freak accident. It’s a damn shame; although his role as Chekhov in the finale of the modern Star Trek trilogy Star Trek: Beyond was excellent, his role as a band member trapped in the Green Room of a neo-nazi club after accidentally witnessing a murder, was perfection. Alongside Imogen Poots and other soon-to-be-famous names, the ingenious band members have to face off against an Oscar worthy Patrick Stewart, in prime form as the personification of pure evil as a neo-nazi. Green Room wasn’t just a horror thriller – it was a film about standing and being counted, about facing and fighting evil, and discovering who you really are. It was a film about humanity; a film about unrelenting violence.
4. Hell or High Water
Like the brilliant Killing Them Softly mixed violence with socioeconomic commentary, Hell or High Water mixes themes of brotherhood, family, justice, social inequality and the fall of human decency in the face of the rise of pure capitalism. Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham, Ben Foster and Chris Pine all give career best performances in an original, infuriating, passionate and damning portrait of a world gone wrong. Illustrating the inability of man to settle conflict or live peacefully, David Mackenzie’s film is like a better acted, better shot and better written version of Terrence Malick’s Badlands.
3. Sully
Tom Hanks is in fine form, transforming into the enigmatic Chelsey “Sully” Sullenburger, who was thrust into the national spotlight and labelled a hero for saving the lives of everyone on board his airplane when it’s engines failed. Showing that the ‘miracle on the Hudson’ was no miracle but rather a shining moment of man and woman doing the right thing and saving others when the time was necessary, and a portrait of a single man making the right call at the right moment, Clint Eastwood’s run as a brilliant filmmaker just keeps rising to new heights. Exploring PTSD, personal struggle with unwanted fame, survivor’s guilt, and the habit of American society using the layman as it’s foundation without paying him his due are all prevalent themes translatable to a rocky social climate. Both deeply personal and explosively human, Sully is a high point in both Hanks and Eastwood’s long, exemplary, and important careers. Here’s hoping they get some recognition at the Academy Awards.
2. The Nice Guys
Shane Black has long been known as a great writer, and a pretty decent director. Penning the infinitely enjoyable Lethal Weapon quadrilogy, the edgy, self-referential Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and the underrated Iron Man 3, he’s pretty much got one trick, and he sticks to it. But damn if he isn’t good at it. Taking everything he’s learned and discovered in his previous films and jamming it into one film, getting two of the best actors of their respective generations, (Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe), using impeccable set design, perfect comic timing and a willingness to skewer itself by just the right amount while retaining it’s thrilling and serious tones, The Nice Guys is Black’s masterwork. One of the funniest films of 2016, featuring brilliant performances, and superb cinematography, Black’s Nice Guys has it all. Although it had some poor timing, box office wise, here’s hoping it finds a home on video and can make enough to see Crowe and Gosling’s characters return to the big screen.
1. Imperium
One of the toughest films to watch on this list, Daniel Ragussis’ Imperium follows Daniel Radcliffe’s Nate Foster, a young, hungry, and risk-seeking FBI agent who wants to infiltrate and take down some of the biggest names in American Neo-Nazi culture. With the help of his senior agent Angela Zamparo, (Toni Collette), he’s able to visit the deepest depths of the some of the most grotesque and ill-informed parts of human culture. Absolutely suspenseful, thrilling, infuriating, and deeply, deeply unsettling, Imperium takes no shortcuts, and leaves most questions unanswered. By the end of the film, even if Foster catches all of the criminals he’s after, is he really solving the problem? Or just cutting the head off of a white-supremacist hyrdra? Raising questions of moral and ethical responsibility, the pros and cons of free speech, inequality, education, and ignorance, Imperium is a, (tragically), timely film, in the wake of a hate filled 2016 US Presidential election where the term, “Alt-Right,” (which is a nice way to call a dumb person a Nazi), became a thing. Imperium, in today’s zeitgeist, is not only a brilliant film, but an essential one. It might make you uncomfortable, but so does reality. Radcliffe's performance is transcendent, and by and large the best of 2016.
Runners Up
5. Triple 9
4. The Invitation
3. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
2. The Finest Hours
1. The Jungle Book
The Top 5 WORST Films of 2016
And I can’t help but recommend you DON’T watch these awful abominations of cinema:
5. Florence Foster Jenkins: Following the Great Depression, a poor insanely rich white woman with delusions of grandeur and tone-deafness wants to sing at Carnegie Hall. The only problem? She sounds like an ape. Instead of telling her it might be embarrassing to buy a hall yourself and pay people to attend, her cheating spouse and a group of others manipulate her emotions, her mental instability and unsettling optimism to further their own careers and financial stability. What could have been a flawed story of love gone too far, privilege versus happiness, and the right to showcase your passion, even with lack of talent is traded for a damp rag of stuffy self-congratulation. You think us millennials are narcissists? Take a look in the mirror, old folks.
4. Batman Vs. Superman: I feel as if they took a half-decent film, with pretty good cinematography, and a long, convoluted script, but interesting characters, threw it in the garbage, added a bunch of rotting pastries to the mix, threw it in a blender, poured in some sewage, hit mix, melted it onto some celluloid and released it as “Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
3. Suicide Squad: So I understood Suicide Squad as this: a guy who owns guns, a drunk Australian, a Mexican stereotype, a Southern U.S. stereotype, an underwear model, a girl who can make quips and owns a bat, a lady who owns swords, a really cool, interesting native character who only exists to die as soon as he shows up, and Viola Davis’ character from How to Get Away With Murder all team up to fight themselves for absolutely no reason. Also Jared Leto is in it for some reason, to do his best impression of himself overacting, probably to distract us from the fact Common shows up for like 30 seconds. One of the most insanely idiotic, nonsensical films I’ve ever seen, that, although is so awful it’s hilarious, it’s also so dumb I think it might actually lower one’s IQ to sit through the entire thing. Seriously, David Ayer, you made Training Day, Fury, and End of Watch… What the fuck?
2. Captain America Civil War: Maybe it’s just that I hate almost all comic book movies, or that I find Chris Evans’ face disturbing in an ‘Uncanny Valley’ type of way, or that the whole movie makes no sense, but I didn’t like this movie. Sure, it’s entertaining and I didn’t mind sitting through it, but Jesus, it cost like the GDP of five small countries to make and it’s about a group of people who can’t die, fighting themselves because… they don’t like rules and they’re kind of fascists? Can we please have a break from these movies? Just for like a year? I know they make money, Hollywood, but people occasionally like using their brains when they go to the movies.
1. The Legend of Tarzan: Somebody get Alexander Skarsgard a sandwich! Son of famed Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander has made a name for himself doing both commercial and independent work that, while I don’t always enjoy it, is at least interesting. His work in The East, Melancholia, the misunderstood remake of Straw Dogs, and the immortal Meekus in Zoolander, is all enjoyable. Here, he looks like he’s struggling through starvation and malnutrition to remember lines that don’t make any sense. Add in Christoph Waltz giving his first boring performance ever, Djimon Hounsou doing an impression of himself, a script that hints at the throes of colonialism but then forgets that do cartoonish CGI stunts as we watch characters go on a mission, to stop… slavery? But they didn't? And Tarzan really only cares about his girlfriend? And there’s gold? And a gorilla? And really weird homoeroticism that comes off as unsettling and offensive instead of progressive and cute? Add the fact it looks like the CGI budget ran out halfway through the film, and you have one of the most boring, useless and unnecessary films of the decade. Tarzan is pure, unadulterated trash. At least Sam Jackson has some fun chewing the scenery and getting a pay check, and Margot Robbie continues to look pretty, but none of that is worth the skull crushing bore that is the “Legend” of Tarzan. And if Margot Robbie, one of the most talented actresses of her generation, keeps using her pretty looks as the selling point behind her movies, (like she also did in Suicide Squad), she might not be in many more movies. The Legend of Tarzan is the antithesis to a good time; it’s the Idiot’s Guide to Being Illiterate of movies; the Jar Jar Binks Prequel that never saw the light of day; a painting for the blind; fresh air for a fish... It has no reason to exist.
*[All Images are the property of their respective owners. They were sourced from their respective imdb.com pages]
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