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1. MOONLIGHT
2. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
3. THE WITCH

1. Hail, Caesar! (2016)
2. Saul fia (2015)
3. Dheepan (2015)
4. Elle (2016)
5. The Circuit (2016 TV Movie UK, sharon horgan)
6. Horace and Pete (2016)
7. The Survivalist (2015)
8. The Gift (2015)
9. Que Horas Ela Volta? (2015) "The Second Mother"
10. Special Correspondents (2016 gervais)

Also:
Complete Unknown (2016)
High-Rise (2015)
Masterminds (2016)
David Brent: Life on the Road (2016 gervais)
Too Late (2015)
The Trust (2016)
Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015)

as of 1/1/17 I've only seen 18 2016 films, but with yesterday's viewing of La La Land I finally have enough films to comprise a top ten. on the other hand, at this point, I doubt more than the top three will remain after I've caught up on all the 2016 films I've missed.

2016 was a low year in films for me, only 169 total films seen, I did, however, finish the Eclipse series, watched all the Ozu films on Hulu I'd not seen that are also not on disc in the USA, and I'm finishing the year with no blind buy criterions in my unwatched pile--so three huge personal film-watching goals met this year, even with the low amount of films seen

edited 1/12/17 - now out of 21 films seen
edited 2/19/17 - now out of 30 films seen


1. Moonlight
2. La La Land
3. Arrival
4. O.J. Made in America
5. 13th
6. Hail, Caesar!
7. Lion
8. Hidden Figures
9. Silence
10. A Monster Calls


casualties
Zootopia
Confirmation
The BFG
Deadpool
Moana
Rogue One
Manchester by the Sea


yet to see and plan to see: Loving, Fences, Finding Dory, Kubo, Jungle Book, Hell or High Water, Toni Erdmann, Elle, American Honey, Sully, Love and Friendship, handmaiden, Certain Women, Midnight Special, Birth of a Nation, the Fits, Captain America, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Captain fantastic, Rules Don't Apply, Hacksaw Ridge, Edge of Seventeen, 20th Century Women



total criterion+eclipse+filmstruck+hulu watched in 2016: 100

1. A Bride for Rip Van Winkle
2. La La Land
3. Silence
4. The VVitch
5. Toni Erdmann
6. The Handmaiden
7. Moonlight
8. Swiss Army Man
9. American Honey
10. Arrival

Last edited by ng4996 on Feb 09, 2019

1. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
2. Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
3. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
4. Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
5. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
6. Krisha (Trey Edward Schultz)
7. Silence (Martin Scorsese)
8. Jackie (Pablo Larrain)
9. The Handmaiden (Park Chan Wook)
10. The VVitch (Robert Eggers)

1. Toni Erdmann (Ade)
2. O.J.: Made in America (Edelman)
3. Knight of Cups (Malick)
4. Rules Don't Apply (Beatty)
5. La La Land (Chazelle)
6. Weiner (Kriegman & Steinberg)
7. Kubo and the Two Strings (Knight)
8. Jackie (Larraín)
9. The Jungle Book (Favreau)
10. Deepwater Horizon (Berg)

Top 10:

Toni Erdmann (Ade)
Nocturama (Bonello)
The Lost City of Z (Gray)
The Death of Louis XIV (Serra)
Staying Vertical (Guiraudie)
Aquarius (Filho)
Creepy (Kurosawa)
Yourself and Yours (Sang-soo)
20th Century Women (Mills)
Personal Shopper (Assayas)

Still haven't seen A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery or The Woman Who Left (Diaz)

Year is determined by the date of the world premiere, i.e. IMDb rules.

Films Seen: 55

Top Ten:
1) Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade - Germany) - *****
2) Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie - US) - ****1/2
3) I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach - UK) - ****1/2
4) O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman - US) - ****1/2
5) Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford - US) - ****1/4
6) Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman - Ireland) - ****1/4
7) Moonlight (Barry Jenkins - US) - ****1/4
8) Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd - UK) - ****1/4
9) Grave // Raw (Julia Ducournau - France) - ****1/4
10) Kedi (Ceyda Torun - Turkey) - ****1/4

Saw 262 films last year. Horrible waste of time!

Only two films I'd recommend like-minded folks keep an eye out for are:

1. Fliegauf, Lily Lane - in which a young mother tortures her son with gripping, terrifying, tales of her own (disguised) youth.
2. Huezo, Tempestad - a Mexican art-doc about human trafficking and the government's pathetic attempts to address it.

I also liked chunks of: The Bride of Rip van Winkle, Toni Erdmann, Untamed, Neon Demon.

Still haven't seen Anno's Shin Godzilla, which trustworthy sources, surprisingly, regularly cite as one of the best of the year. Resisted watching it on various planes. Japanese blu comes out next month, so ...

High profile dishonorable mentions: La La Land, Personal Shopper, Silence
Literally unwatchable: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Birth of a Nation
Major disappointments: Hail, Caesar!, Ma loute

If you saw 262 new films last year and only liked two of them, the problem clearly is on you, not the films

The more films you see, the more you won't like, but 2 out of 262 seems like he should give up watching films and move onto something else.

1. Silence - Martin Scorsese
2. Moonlight - Barry Jenkins
3. The Lobster - Yorgos Lanthimos
4. La La Land - Damien Chazelle
5. Hail, Caesar! - Coen Brothers

It usually takes me a while to see everything I wanted to, but I'll edit this as I catch more. Very excited for The Death of King Louis XIV to screen at the Walker Art Center in May.

Carol [Haynes]
Paterson [Jarmusch]
Toni Erdmann [Ade]
Certain Women [Reichardt]
La mort de Louis XIV [Serra]
Everybody Wants Some!! [Linklater]
Nice Guys [Black]
Right now, Wrong then [Hong]
A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery [Diaz]
Spotlight [McCarthy]

domino harvey wrote:If you saw 262 new films last year and only liked two of them, the problem clearly is on you, not the films

I have the "problem" that I like nearly everything I see because I choose what to watch and am generally delegated the responsibility of picking when with friends and family. You need the odd piece of awfulness to make you appreciate all the good stuff.

Can't imagine hating my favourite interest that much though.

TMDaines wrote:

domino harvey wrote:If you saw 262 new films last year and only liked two of them, the problem clearly is on you, not the films

I have the "problem" that I like nearly everything I see because I choose what to watch and am generally delegated the responsibility of picking when with friends and family. You need the odd piece of awfulness to make you appreciate all the good stuff.

Can't imagine hating my favourite interest that much though.

I think you guys are being a bit rash. There is a marked difference between the type of films being made today, and when I became interested in film. The style, prevailing topics, stars and directors no longer appeal to my old man mind. Add to that the endless well of home media options, and there is little reason that one cant "live in the past". I went a step further and didnt see any movies of 2016 (that I can remember), but I imagine my experience would be similar. Still doesnt disqualify someone from having an interest in film. I do agree that its a bit worrying that Yoshi didnt stop after only 100 poor experiences, but perhaps he is just an eternal optimist.

But again the problem with you than with contemporary cinema. I guarantee that the best of today will stand the test of time with the best of the past.

Additionally, I would argue that cinema today is superior to that of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, as technology has removed the barrier to entry for filmmaking, which offsets the loss or decline of so many great filmmaking industries around the world.

I've participated in the year-end awards thread, but none of these b/c I'm always watching older films.

1. Moonlight. Deserving of all the accolades.
2. American Honey. So under-the-radar, yet incredibly engrossing. My fave of 2016 before I watched Moonlight.
3. Arrival. Smartest sci-fi in some time.
4. Embrace of the Serpent. Others have already said this, but basically what would happen if Herzog decided to direct in b&w. This one stuck with me more than I expected it to.
5. The Handmaiden. Occasionally too show-offy, but otherwise great.
6. Captain America: Civil War: My brother is the true comic-book aficionado, and from all the reading I did back in the day, Captain America was never my favorite. That said, the Captain America movies have been consistently ahead of the pack. Although this one is still a bit heavy-handed in the moral quandary it explores, it's still markedly better than most of its genre.
7. The Lobster. Still trying to make sense of it, but I LOL'd through a lot of it. And yes, I find that fact disturbing.
8. The Nice Guys
9. Aferim!. In terms of subject matter, an interesting departure for "Romanian New Wave."
10. Green Room. A nasty little genre picture, incredibly coherent.

1. Paterson
2. Silence
3. American Honey
4. The Love Witch
5. Little Sister
6. Moonlight
7. 20th Century Women
8. Nocturnal Animals
9. Hypernormalisation
10. White Girl

1. Voyage of Time
2. Silence
3. Francofonia
4. Manchester by the Sea
5. Embrace of the Serpent
6. Arrival
7. Paterson
8. One More Time with Feeling
9. Star Trek Beyond
10. The trailer for The Fate of the Furious

1. O.J.: Made in America, dir. Ezra Edelman
2. Toni Erdmann, dir. Maren Ade
3. Moonlight, dir. Barry Jenkins
4. Certain Women, dir. Kelly Reichardt
5. Paterson, dir. Jim Jarmusch
6. Jackie, dir. Pablo Larrain
7. Fences, dir. Denzel Washington
8. Cemetery of Splendor, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
9. Hunt for the Wilderpeople, dir. Taika Waititi
10. Sunset Song, dir. Terence Davies

1. Toni Erdmann
2. Nocturnal Animals
3. Arrival
4. Jackie
5. La La Land
6. Graduation
7. Certain Women
8. The Wailing
9. Things to Come
10. Moonlight

Honorable Mentions : The Witch, The Lobster, Paterson, The Handmaiden (extended cut), 10 Cloverfield Lane, Don’t Breathe, 20th Century Women, The Nice Guys, Manchester by the Sea.

Others Seen: Silence, Jack Reacher 2, Rogue One, The Conjuring 2, Jason Bourne, Deadpool

1. Paterson
2. Love & Friendship
3. Masterminds
4. Julieta
5. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
6. Voyage of Time
7. Kubo and the Two Strings
8. Edge of Seventeen
9. Hail, Caesar!
10. 10 Cloverfield Lane

01. Personal Shopper
02. Certain Woman
03. Nocturama
04. Sieranevada
05. A Quiet Passion
06. Paterson
07. Toni Erdmann
08. Staying Vertical
09. Graduation
10. La La Land

11. American Honey
12. The Unknown Girl
13. The Lost City of Z
14. 20th Century Women
15. Arrival
16. Moonlight
17. Creepy
18. The Edge of Seventeen
19. Yourself and Yours
20. Aquarius

Next Tier: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki; Jackie; Silence; Hail, Caesar!; Everybody Wants Some!!

Documentary: Hypernormalisation; Cameraperson; O.J.: Made in America; Risk; The Voyage of Time; Lo and Behold: Reveries of a Connected World

Decent: Wiener-Dog; Love & Friendship; I, Daniel Blake; Loving; Christine; The Love Witch; The Untamed; From the Land of the Moon; Things to Come

Not a fan: Manchester by the Sea; Elle; The 13th; The Salesman; Slack Bay; The Handmaiden; Julieta; The Death of Louis XIV; Cafe Society

Rubbish: It's Only the End of the World; The Neon Demon; Ma' Rosa; The Last Face; Mascots

1. 20th Century Women
2. The Neon Demon
3. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
4. HyperNormalisation
5. Silence
6. Shin Godzilla
7. Terra Formars
8. The Light Between Oceans
9. All The Ways of God (aka All The Ways of Man)
10. Nerve
___

Other 2016 films seen: This House Has People In It, Sully, The Void, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Kubo and the Two Strings, Pet, Raw, Weiner, Zootopia/Zootropolis

Disliked: Ghostbusters


Previous lists: 2015, 2014, 2013

1. La La Land
2. Toni Erdmann
3. O.J.: Made in America
4. Certain Women
5. The Salesman
6. Elle
7. Graduation
8. Arrival
9. Harmonium
10. Paterson