Toward a Ten Best List for 2016

[Chris Knipp]

Toward a Ten Best List for 2016

This is what I have so far. I usually like to make a longer US or English language list and a separate foreign or "all the others" list plus a documentary list. Right now they are all mashed together. Top docs that come to mind are Zero Days, Tower, and Do Not Resist. Those are significant and made a difference to me. Some of the frequently praised ones, Wiener and Cameraperson, do nothing for me. I've heard I Am Not Your Negro is good; we'll see. I've seen with how much pleasure cinephiles remember Hail, Caesar and I realize it is a gem for its parts, especially Ralph Fiennes and the sudden It Boy Alden Ehrenreich, who quietly simmers in Rules Don't Apply too. This time I want to make some lists I actually mean for a few other categories, such as best actor and actress, score and editing.

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American Honey

Moonlight
Manchester by the Sea
Love and Friendship - Divines
Captain Fantastic
Toni Erdmann
American Honey
I, Daniel Blake
From Afar - Hacksaw Ridge
The Salesman - Christine
Loving
Hell or High Water
Hail, Caesar
Viva - Staying Vertical

[Chris Knipp]

Highly praised new films that I have yet to watch (this post hopefully will soon go out of date).


20th Century Women
I Am Not Your Negro
Jackie (out now, seen)
Julieta
La La Land (seen now, Dec.)
Paterson
It's looking like it will be hard not to love La La Land. Julieta and Paterson seem promising. Some doubts about Jackie. With Neruda, Larraín recently seems have become guilty of overreaching. I still like his first two films rooted in Pinochet Chile the best.

I'd like to see Nocturama (Bonello), in D'Angelo's top ten, but I see no US release date. Some often mentioned in Ten Best lists for 2016 that I think are overrated:


Cameraperson
The Handmaiden
Lobster
Neruda
Nocturnal Animals
Sing Street
Wiener
Camoerperson is just a grab bag of clips from a photographer's work; it doesn't merit consideration as a film. With Lobster Lanthimos has gotten name actors and wide distribution but this isn't better than his previous mind games, just meaner. Neruda seemed to me a tedious over-elaborate fantasy; maybe I came to it on a bad day, but I've preferred most of Larraín's other films, so why this one? Distribution. Nocturnal Animals is a beautiful but cold and silly film; it has no emotion or real point. Handmaiden is just a less energetic version of Park's "shallow" (Oscar) art of provocation. Wiener - really? With all the good docs, why single out this? Who should be interested in this idiot? Sing Street is sweet, but a bit wan; it lacks the originality and energy of the related, Swedish period girl band pic We Are the Best!

[Chris Knipp]

Additional notes.

The doc on James Baldwon's unrealized civil rights project I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) (Peck's Murder in Pacot (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3937-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2015&p=33487#post33487)I reviewed at the SFIFF last year) has got raves but it seems it opens in February 2017. I do have to watch O.J. Made in Ameriac, though.

[Chris Knipp]

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Film Comment's best list.

The house organ of the Film Society of Lincoln Center tends to heavily favor items featured by them. All of these debuted in New York at Lincoln Center and most in the NYFF.


Film Comment’s Top 10 Films Released in 2016:

1. Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany
2. Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, USA
3. Elle, Paul Verhoeven, France/Germany
4. Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/UK/France/Germany/Malaysia
5. Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt, USA
6. Paterson, Jim Jarmusch, USA
7. Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan, USA
8. Aquarius, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil/France
9. Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany
10. No Home Movie, Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France

Their unreleased faves.
Film Comment’s Top 10 Unreleased Films of 2016:

1. Sieranevada, Cristi Puiu, Romania
2. Hermia and Helena, Matías Piñeiro, USA/Argentina
3. Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello, France/Belgium/Germany
4. The Dreamed Path, Angela Schanelec, Germany
5. Yourself and Yours, Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
6. Kékszakállú, Gastón Solnicki, Argentina
7. By the Time It Gets Dark, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand/Netherlands/France/Qatar
8. Scarred Hearts, Radu Jude, Romania/Germany
9. The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz, Philippines
10. Austerlitz, Sergei Loznitsa, Germany Sieranevada, hernia and Helena, and Yourself and Yours were in the NYFF 2016 Main Slate. Sergei Loznitsa and Lav Diaz,, both of whose work has been known to be challenging, have been favored by the FSLC in the past. I don't know about the others.

[oscar jubis]

I have done a complete 180 from the time I used to list 60 movies to championing a few in a manner that would hopefully call attention to them. I have no clue as to the readership of these forums, but I hope that Chris Knipp has an ardent following that spills over here. He deserves it. I have dedicated the past few years to becoming better at teaching film studies; I have also become a bit of a specialist in film history; old films consume most of my viewing time. You may assume that I have not seen most of the films listed above. I have seen plenty though, to have an opinion, including some films that truly fascinated me and continue to intrigue me as much as films ever did. First off, a few titles from previous years that continue to impress me as special: The Immigrant: James Gray has gradually become one of the best US directors. I think now after a recent viewing that this is his masterpiece, although all his films (From Little Odessa to Two Lovers)are worthwhile. I continue to admire The Mill and the Cross, an adaptation of a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A film from 2015 that I have only recently experienced is Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa. I think this film is a major achievement.
As far as 2016 proper, I have two clear favorites. I have seen both
Heart of a Dog and
The Fits
several times, which is easy because they are well under 90 minutes and compulsively edifying and enjoyable. Other films I like a lot: Cementery of Splendor, Certain Women, Moonlight, Everybody Wants Some!!,Sunset Song, O.J. Made in America, Mia Madre. Let's hope these hold up well when I re-visit. (Chris, I am going to read some of your reviews. I will try to post again soon. I'm on vacation for a couple of weeks :-)

[Chris Knipp]

Your favorites are never my favorites, though I like Moonlight as you can see as does everybody else - except Armond White, of course; and he has some good arguments for his dissent, as usual.

I like James Gray a lot too! Because I was not granted admission to the majority of the NYFF press screenings this year (I could sneak into a few), I didn't get to see James Gray's Lost City of Z - and I am a big fan of Charlie Hunnam too. This is a disappointment. It's not coming out till April 2017, but NYFF attendees saw it Oct. 16, closing night, in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Whether The Immigrant is Gray's best is debatable. But his films are distinctive and grabbed me from the first, his connection with the Russian Jewish community of New York has made for fascinating and evocative films.

Again, we never agree much; so not surprising despite all the raves by critics I follow that Anomalisa leaves me by now with only a vaguely depressing feeling. See if it sticks with you. It does make an impact on first viewing, it's so unusual, and the stop-motion is remarkably successful. I agree with you on The Mill on the Cross. However, not a Ten Best of 2016 candidate. Heart of a Dog (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4022-New-York-Film-Festival-2015&p=33968#post33968) and The Fits were both Film Society of Lincoln Center events, Laurie Anderson a Special Event of the 2015 NYFF, and The Fits (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4120-New-Directors-New-Films-2016-Film-Comments-Selects&p=34480#post34480) in 2016 New Directors/New Films. I linked the titles to my reviews of those two on Filmleaf, should you want to read them. I would think it's impossible of at least ridiculously difficult to teach film history and film studies (whatever that may be) and at the same time stay abreast of all the new films both released and unreleasaed, popular mainstream and unusual and foreign, that are coming out in any given year. Although there are several people who attend all the big events at the FSLC, the NYFF, ND/NF, the Rendez-Vous, and others, and also teach film, but they probably don't try as hard as you do, and repeat the same courses year after year. If you lived in Manhattan, you have extraordinary access, but you probably wouldn't want to stint on your courses just to be au courant.

I'll stick by my personal 2016 Best List choices, for now.

[Chris Knipp]

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STELLAN SKARSGAARD

In Order of Disappearance.

Just remembered Hans Petter Morland's In Order of Disappearance (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4207-IN-ORDER-OF-DISAPPEARANCE-(Hans-Petter-Moland-2016)&p=34887#post34887). Came out in 2014 but released in the US this year. A deliciously entertaining Norwegian crime genre film. I have to include this somewhere. It was some of the most fun I had watching a movie. I reviewed it in August.

[Chris Knipp]

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KACEY MOTTET KLEIN

Being Seventeen.

Being 17/Quand on a 17 ans (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4225-BEING-17-(Andr%E9-T%E9chin%E2016)&p=35030#post35030) directed by André Téchiné.

This is an unusually simple, fresh, and authentic gay coming-of-age film, one of the best things Téchiné has done in years. It has to be on my list. It was one of the best movie experiences of the year. I wish I'd seen it in a theater - or in Paris! But it was a screener, so i was able to watch it twice - for free. With Kacey Mottet Klein, Corentin Fila, and a fine Sandrine Kiberlain, and written with Téchiné by Céline Sciamma, writer-director of Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood.

[Chris Knipp]

FENCES (a screen vesion of August Wilson's play).

Denzel Washington's Fences (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4263-FENCES-(Denzel-Washington-2016)&p=35185#post35185) perhaps can't be considered one of the greatest movies of the year; it remains a play. But it is such an essential play, so brilliantly acted, that it must be seen, and recommended. The class act of the Christmas releases.

[Chris Knipp]

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THE IDOL (Hani Abu-Assad 2015) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3365)

This film about the Palestinian golden voice who won "Arab Idol" against great odds, Muhammad Assaf, must not be forgotten. It's a moving story (and I'm a fan of Arab singers - he's been compared to Abdel Halim Hafiz, one of the all-time greats). Released in the US this past summer. Has to be on the Foreign list.

[oscar jubis]

Your favorites are never my favorites, though I like Moonlight (C.K.)
This is one reason we'd make a good duo in the tradition of Siskel & Ebert. Our tastes and perspectives are different, even though there's always a couple of films we both like. I also liked Being 17 for instance. And I doubt you did not enjoy Mia Madre (which I mentioned in the previous post), at least somewhat. It was, by the way, the "best film of 2016" according to Cahiers du Cinema. I will end up posting a proper 10 after I catch up with more 2016 films. By the way, I attended a performance of "Fences" on Broadway with James Earl Jones in the lead. A magnificent play indeed.

[Chris Knipp]

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Siskel and Ebert, yeah! That would be great, I'd be honored to argue with you on TV. You'd have to watch the new movies as they come out though, a tough job for both of us, though I come closer to doing it.

I'll have to post Cahiers du Cinéma's "ten best," I haven't always seen that. Surprised Mia Madre is the top. (It was the top of their 2015 list, not this year's. Cemetery of Splendor was last year's list too. ) Of course I do like Nanni Moretti but didn't think this his greatest success, thought John Turturro had a bad effect. I haven't seen OJ: yet, but mean to.

Here's the Cahiers list. It's great except Neon Demon (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3387) is crap, and I haven't seen the Bruno Dumont, Law of the Jungle or Claire Simon and Julieta isn't out yet, I haven't seen it but soon will. From reports it's going to be very good. I'm surpirsed Cahiers likes four of the films I like very much. Of all the AllCiné review citations, theirs is the most critical: they really seem to hate almost everything. Perusing their "Top" lists their choices seem to be an equal mix of the very eccentric and the completely conventional.



Top 10 des Cahiers du Cinéma 2016

1. Toni Erdmann - Maren Ade
2. Elle - Paul Verhoeven
3. The Neon Demon - icolas Winding Refn
4. Aquarius - Kleber Mendonça Filho
5. Ma Loute - Bruno Dumont
6. Julieta - Pedro Almodóvar
7. Rester vertical - Alain Guiraudie
8. La Loi de la jungle - Antonin Peretjatko
9. Carol - Todd Haynes
10. Le Bois dont les rêves sont faits - Claire Simon

[Chris Knipp]

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Closet Monster

Best gay films of the year.

In Out Armond White claims 2016 is the best year for gay movies ever. Doubtful but here is a list of some good gay movies or gay moments of the year. Any others out there?


Being 17
Moonlight
Spa Night
Viva
Staying Upright
Certain Women (the third, most touching, spisode)
Einstein in Guanjuato
Closet Monster (Haven't seen but everybody mentions it)
Will You Dance with Me (previously unreleased Derek Jarmon disco doc film I haven't seen)
The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues -Brazilian) - Haven't seen but sounds worthy; Locarno


Closet Monster has gotten great reviews. I have to watch it.

[oscar jubis]

How about King Cobra?

I've been catching up with contempo films; enjoying my time off best way I know: watching good films.

One older films I just re-watched: David Gordon Green's George Washington, one of a number of outstanding films (we might call them a cycle) that focus with various degrees of insistence on the life a black young male. Among them: Fruitvale Station, Ballast, and of course Moonlight.

I would like to see a listing of the top 50 films on Village Voice and IndieWire polls. It is a good list of films that might be good to watch since one cannot see everything. Recent viewing: a early 2016 release from Romania titled Aferim! that provides a picaresque adventure set in the early 18th century shot in b&w, and the documentary Meru, both are films I would not be surprised to find included in a Top 10 list. Both films demand theatrical screening which I'm so lucky to be able to indulge because these films offer breathtakingly spectacular vistas.

Mia Madre is Cahiers' #1 for 2015, not 2016.

[Chris Knipp]

King Cobra didn't sound interesting and I skipped it. Why do you ask about it? Critics didn't like it.

Let's look a those two critics polls. Yes, you should watch those movies I guess if you want to be up on what people liked this year. I have, most of them; I've missed more of the Voice list ones than the Indiewire ones, which seem more mainstream I guess. There are some really bad films in that list along the way, but most of the good ones are there too. I don't see how Viola Davis can be considered a "Supporting Actor." I often have trouble with this category. Still have got to see "O.J." Really want to see Nocturama.

Village Voice Their poll "top 50" here (http://www.villagevoice.com/filmpoll/cat/film/2016).

Best Film:
Moonlight (613 points, 87 ballots)
Manchester by the Sea (380 points, 51 ballots)
Toni Erdmann (376 points, 53 ballots)
Paterson (280 points, 43 ballots)
O.J.: Made in America (249 points, 35 ballots)

Best Actress:
Isabelle Huppert, Elle (148 points, 60 ballots)
Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann (57 points, 28 ballots)Rebecca Hall, Christine — (46 points, 25 ballots)

Best Actor:
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea (151 points, 62 ballots)
Adam Driver, Paterson (83 points, 40 ballots)
Colin Farrell, The Lobster (49 points, 27 ballots)

Best Supporting Actress:
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women (125 points, 51 ballots)
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea (93 points, 46 ballots)
Viola Davis, Fences (65 points, 26 ballots)

Best Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight (147 points, 61 ballots)
Tom Bennett, Love & Friendship (57 points, 26 ballots)
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water (44 points, 25 ballots)

Best Undistributed Film:
Nocturama (8 votes)

Best Documentary:
O.J.: Made in America (29 votes)

Best First Feature:
The Witch (18 votes)

Best Animated Feature:
Kubo and the Two Strings (22 votes)

Best Director:
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight (29 votes)

Best Screenplay:
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea (31 votes)

Worst Film:
Suicide Squad (7 votes)

Movie Everyone Is Wrong About:
La La Land (14 votes)

The Indiewire 50 top films of 2016 you'll find here (http://www.indiewire.com/gallery/the-50-best-films-of-2016/#!3/3lalaland/). It follows the unfortunate new idiot-friendly photo-centric structure of still plus titles that you have to scroll through one by one so there's no list you can scan, as far as I know.

[Chris Knipp]

Catching up on the 2016 top rated films.

I watched Closet Monster yesterday. It has a good young star in Connor Jessup. He's eye candy and he can act. The film is imaginative, to put it mildly: it risks being cloying or cutesy with its talking hamster (but it's voiced by Isabella Rossellini) and many surreal effects, but it curiously fumbles the ball at key moments, like when Oscar is finally lying in bed next to his dreamboat coworker crush Wilder (Aliocha Schneider, brother of Niels, who has been in Xavier Dolan films and is a bigger star); and at the end when he seeks a solution to not getting into the school of his dreams and going to NYC. It's all a bit familiar (as has been often noted) and it fades (as do most if not all gay coming of age movies) compared to Moreton's Edge of Seventeen - which has been reissued: rent it, watch it! Incidentally, Mike D'Angelo seems not to have watched Closet Monster. It is a Canadian film.

O.J.: Made in America just comes up on all the lists: here it is near the top of the Voice one - so that has to be my next must-watch (it's on Netflix streaming). Correction: it has to be rented on three DVD's - and if you wanted to buy it on Amazon it's out of stock.

[Chris Knipp]

The enigma of La La Land.

On the Indiewire 50 Best Films of 2016 La La Land is number 3. But in the Village Voice poll, it won only "Movie Everyone Is Wrong About." I assume that means it has been overrated, and some people I know seem to share that view with me, that it was a disappointment, wonderful looking and nice enough sounding, but lacking a solid core of satisfying action.

Actually La La Land's critical rating is through the roof - Metacritic 93% (aren't these ratings awfully high this year?), but I side with Amy Nicholson of MYV News: "If only the script measured up to the craft. La La Land gives us no reason to root for Mia and Seb’s romance, except for its blithe assurance that you will because you loved Stone and Gosling together in Crazy, Stupid, Love."

I have the feeling a lot of reviewers saw what they wanted to see, the musical satisfying in an old-fashioned way, and they walked out starry-eyed, curiously unaware of how the action had remained unresolved. This includes the evaluators of Metacritic - their work an art not a science, who call Rex Reed's review a 75% rating even though its title is "Good-Intentioned But Overrated, 'La La Land' Reeks of Mothballs." If it "reeks of mothballs," and he calls it in his first paragraph "overpraised, overrated and disappointingly mediocre," a 75% is just inconceivable. Metacritic has skewed their ratings in the movie's favor despite what the critics actually say. If you go through the Metacritic pull quotes for the top reviews, many are far too reserved for a 93% average to be possible.

The trailer made me eager to see the movie. It promised distraction from the gloom of war, economic problems, terror attacks all over, and two disastrous elections in the UK and US. But Abby Olcese in the magazine Sojourners (https://sojo.net/articles/la-la-land-dreamy-film-wrong-year)gets it right when she explains thatLa La Land doesn't, alas, live up to this expectation.
It’s been a hard year for everyone — and for movies. Between big-budget sequels that cried out for a fresh injection of imagination, and bleak dramas that seemed even darker in the midst of post-election malaise, we need a good dose of "movie magic" more than ever — the kind that lets you spend two hours in a darkened theater, losing yourself in another world.

On the surface, the new film La La Land looks like it could be that escape. Director Damien Chazelle’s modern musical is bright and colorful, with some joyful scenes that are direct throwbacks to classic movie-musicals of old, like Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

But sadly, like many of the two-dimensional sets wheeled through the film’s L.A. setting, La La Land doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. She then explains how it becomes hard to care about Mia and Seb's "problems" because they're hardly problems at all. But Olcese only begins to state the problem. She should have gone on to show how the couple don't even seem to have much of a romance going in the film's second half.

[oscar jubis]

King Cobra didn't sound interesting and I skipped it. Why do you ask about it?
In response to your query about gay movies. I thought of King Cobra, which I didn't see, and Summertime, which I did.
Thanks for the lists and links. I now realize that the Laurie Anderson film I love was released immediately after playing at the NYFF in 2015, so it would be in competition for top spot on my list with Son of Saul not The Fits.
Another 2015 movie I love is Brooklyn, and of course Anomalisa.

[Chris Knipp]

Well, Summertime (La belle saison) is certainly a joyous and beautifully acted French lesbian romance. Spa Night is a first film, by a Korean American, which may be autobiographical and a coming out of sorts to his parents. Being 17 (Quand on a 17 ans) is one of Téchiné's best films in years, one of his best gay films. too. Staying Vertical (Rester Vertical), also on my best list, is by a gay director and has a gay element in it. Lots of films do.

Closet Monster, a surreal Canadian gay coming of ager, got a lot of good reviews, and is well done in its way. (I've seen it through now: parts I had seen, but a lot of parts feel familiar anyway.) I mentioned Viva, a fine film about a Cuban cross dresser-performer and his macho ex-con dad, done amazingly by an Irish director. Others I may not have seen or weren't that amazing. The Advocate lists King Cobra as among the year's best gay movies. Rex Reed wrote "King Cobra is a cut above most homoerotic masturbatory screen fantasies, but not by much." That unfortunately is the trouble with a lot of American gay films. They are made too much with titillating the gay audience in mind.

And then there is Moonlight. Basically there are just great movies, and not great.

I don't know what you are getting at with your list of 2015 films, Heart of a Dog, Son of Saul, Brooklyn, Anomalisa. This is a thread in search of the best of 2016. Yes, The Fits was this year, introduced at New Directors/New Films. It has the indie virtues and authenticity, and a vivacious little girl protagonist, but I found it ultimately leaves one a bit flat. Story. Have a look at Mike D'Angelo's more cogent analysis on Letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/gemko/film/the-fits/). He thinks it would be great at 30 minutes or so but feels bloated even at 73, and that is also true. Again, story, and not enough development.

[oscar jubis]

I don't know what you are getting at with your list of 2015 films, Heart of a Dog, Son of Saul, Brooklyn, Anomalisa. This is a thread in search of the best of 2016.
I should look for the most appropriate thread and post there then. So The Fits fits? Now that I know all the other films I've admired recently are from 2015, The Fits is clearly the best 2016 release for me. I think it's perfect. I love the focalization on a single character, in particular the sound design and the way the sequence at the end finally links bits of sound and image she has previously experienced. I love how the plot falsely portends a pandemic or exciting competition to give us a very personal, and interior, moment of transcendence. I love the panning shots in this movie! And then Royalty is such a great subject for the camera! If I weren't so busy I would start talking about Heart of the Dog but I would have to look for the right thread first.

[Chris Knipp]

You're in good company with The Fits (out 3 Jun., limited; I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4120-New-Directors-New-Films-2016-Film-Comments-Selects&p=34480#post34480)it in ND/NF in late Feb.). The critics loved it in June, Metacritic 88%, and that's gone up to 91% now (and their #9 film of 2016). However it's around #27 on the Voice Poll (http://www.villagevoice.com/filmpoll/cat/film/2016) , which you pointed to as a good source of recent films worth catching up on. I'm working on that list, you might say, myself, because I still have to see Paterson, Silence, O.J.: Made in America and I Am Not Your Negro, all high up on that list.

I didn't know exactly why O.J.: Made in America, a mini-series, is included; but it's like Carlos, had some theatrical showings. This issue is taken up in The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/is-oj-simpson-made-in-america-a-tv-show-or-a-movie/509963/), which explains it showed in NY and LA theaters in May. Anyway, Netflix now has it in DVD form and I've just received disc 1 of 3 to start watching. I'm planning to see Silence by myself first and then later Paterson with a friend in San Francisco tomorrow, insha'allah. I'm doubtful that they'll push out any of my top 2016 movies but Paterson was a 2016 NYFF Main Slate film so I can add it to my post-facto NYFF coverage, and it's interesting that Adam Driver, the flavor of the month along with Kristin Stewart (both were honored with "An Evening With" Special Events in this year's NYFF), is in both these movies, and Andrew Garfield, whom I like, is in Silence. Makes me wonder if he has a penchant for punishing roles, given Boy A, Red Riding early in his career and Hacksaw Ridge and Silence this year. But he lacks the hipness factor Adam Driver has somehow acquired.

Kristin Stewart's "Evening With" signals her adoption by FSLC-admired directors: she was in three 2016 NYFF Main Slate titles: Reichardt's Certain Women, Assayas' Personal Shopper and Ang Lee's Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. And I haven't seen the film (booed at Cannes) Personal Shopper, either; but it's not an official 2016-release film (US release 10 Mar. 2017). Her second outing with Assayas, after Clouds of Sils Maria.

Oscar, I see you have seen Moonlight and O.J. . But have you seen (among my top rated) Manchester by the Sea, Love and Friendship, Divines, Captain Fantastic, Toni Erdmann, American Honey, Daniel Blake? I bet you've seen the Spanish-language From Afar? Farahani's The Salesman (me being more of a Farahani convert now) is fine, but I think I need to drop if from the 2016 list because it's coming out in January - I just got to see it earlier (a NYFF film). Toni Erdmann (great but not for everyone) is out (limited) since Christmas, but I got to see it last fall in Paris. There was a lot of buzz about it at Cannes, critics' choice and heralded by Mike D'Angelo whose Cannes coverage I've featured for a few years here. He put it at the top of his top 15 for AV Club.

So maybe next here should be a look at AV Club's 2016 best movie lists.

[Chris Knipp]

AV Club's 2016 best movie lists.

Mike D'Angelo makes good lists. His ratings are so careful and he's seen (nearly) everything. There are four I have not seen here, Right Now, WRong Then, The JT Leroy Story, London Road, and A Monster with a Thousand Heads.





Mike D’Angelo: 15 Best Films of 2016 (as published by The A.V. Club)

Toni Erdmann – Maren Ade
Right Now, Wrong Then – Hong Sang-soo
Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan
Tower – Keith Maitland
The Witch – Robert Eggers
Paterson – Jim Jarmusch
Author: The JT LeRoy Story – Jeff Feuerzeig
Indignation – James Schamus
London Road – Rufus Norris
Everybody Wants Some!! – Richard Linklater
Aquarius – Kleber Mendonça Filho
Divines – Houda Benyamina
A Monster with a Thousand Heads – Rodrigo Plá
Weiner – Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg
Arrival – Denis Villeneuve


AV Club's collective list.
1. Manchester by the Sea
2 Moonlight
3. Green Room
4. La La Land
5. Hell or High Water
6. The Handmaiden
7. Arrival
8. Toni Erdmann
9. Paterson
10. The Lobster
11. Elle
12 American Honey
13. Silence
14. The Fits
15 Everybody Wants Some!!
16. The Witch
17. Right Now Wrong Then
18. Midnight Special
19. Jackie
20. Louder Than Bombs

[oscar jubis]

Oscar, I see you have seen Moonlight and O.J. . But have you seen (among my top rated) Manchester by the Sea, Love and Friendship, Divines, Captain Fantastic, Toni Erdmann, American Honey, Daniel Blake? I bet you've seen the Spanish-language From Afar?
No I haven't seen any of these, including From Afar. I've seen Certain Women and Sils Maria and the latest by Jaco van Dormael (I'm a fan of Toto les heros. I don't like to speak unfavorably of any movie so I'll say that I watched The Handmaiden and it's just not my thing. I mean I enjoyed it but to a point.
I just watched Garfield again in 99 Homes, which is definitely "my thing", jeje. He's very good.

[Chris Knipp]

You must see From Afar (Desde allá (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4161-FROM-AFAR-(Lorenzo-Vigas-2015)&p=34776#post34776), which relates to Robin Campillo's Eastern Boys in theme (didn't you like that?), by the Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas, with great performances by a young actor I don't know and the great Chilean actor Alfredo Castro, who is so incredible in Pablo Larraín's early two films Tony Manero and Post Mortem. And it's also a gay movie, by the way.

I hope (though you were unmoved by Margaret doubtless not without reason) that you can see Lonergan's great Manchester by the Sea, still playing. I'd give that priority. Divines us on Netflix streaming, the others can be watched on some video form. American Honey is a visually gorgeous film though, great on big screen, I saw it at Landmark Sunshine in NY. Toni Erdmann should also still be playing somewhere.

I didn't list The Handmaiden. I didn't like it much, either. You mentioned not liking it before. D'Angelo didn't put it in his list. However it is #20 on his personal list, just before Neruda. Have you seen that? Another one of the critical rave films of the year that I didn't really go for at all, felt too contrived to me all through - Larraín overreaching lately, seems like.

Everything Andrew Garfield does is very relatable and touching, 99 Homes is really an issue film and it feels like he's personally involved. I love his work. Of course his new ones this year are: Hacksaw Ridge (which was damned because it's Mel Gibson) and Silence, which is praised (no doubt justifiably) because it's Scorsese. Both go-for-broke roles.

The Jaco van Dormael is good, provocative. I didn't list it though. I didn't warm to it.

[Chris Knipp]

Back to my list, which still stands, for now.


http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ppom.jpg
American Honey

Moonlight
Manchester by the Sea
Love and Friendship - Divines
Captain Fantastic
Toni Erdmann
American Honey
I, Daniel Blake
From Afar - Hacksaw Ridge
The Salesman - Christine
Loving
Hell or High Water
Hail, Caesar
Viva - Staying Vertical


Note I am sticking to mixing foreign and English language films and I mention six foreign ones. Despite its losing to Elle in the Golden Globes, I preferThe Salesman (Farhadi), which I guess does qualify. In a fuller foreign list I'd include Hong' Right Now, Wrong Then, Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho), as well as Verhoeven's Elle.

I've seen Paterson now. I like it a lot. I'd consider a place for it. I don't know why Arrival comes up so much, or The Fits, and Louder Than Bombs was a disappointment: I loved Trier's two earlier films (switching to English can e a watering down - those others where set at home in Norway). I've seen Silence too. I saw Adam Driver's oddball duo of that and Paterson in one day. But I'd not consider Silence real top ten material, in a good year.

I have started watching O.J.: Made in America. Cant say yet.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ppvvb.jpg

Metacritic's Best of 2016.

This a collation of their estimated greatest critical successes of the year's US theatrical feature releases. This is the first I'm seeing The Red Turtle up there. It is a Studio Ghibli etc. animated film by a Dutch director that came out in November but its wide release is in a couple weeks, I think. Fire at Sea is a little doc by an Italian about refugees. I cannot understand why the critics rave about Cameraperson. To me it is just a sloppy grab bag of a photojournalist's film work, and really terrible. It's amusing to note that somehow in their system Isabelle Huppert's two recent films (which I reviewed on the same day at a NYFF press screening), Elle and Things to Come/L'Avenir, come in one after another in this top list. Nine of the top twenty are documentaries: I Am Not Your Negro, O.J.: Made in America, Tower, 13th, Paths of the Soul, Newtown, Cameraperson and Fire at Sea. These may seem significant but I think some important ones are missing. I have not seen Paths of the Soul (something about Tibetans making a pilgrimage) or One More Time with Feeling - a doc about Nick Cave. Maybe I thought Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard's 20,000 Days on Earth (2014), also a doc about Nick Cave, was sufficient.


1 Moonlight 99
2 I Am Not Your Negro 97
3 Manchester by the Sea 96
4 Toni Erdmann 96
5 O.J.: Made in America * 96
6 La La Land 93
7 One More Time with Feeling 92
8 The Red Turtle 92
9 Tower 92
10 The Fits 91
11 13th 90
12 Paths of the Soul 90
13 Paterson 89
14 Elle 89
15 Things to Come 88
16 Hell or High Water 88
17 Newtown 87
18 Aquarius 87
19 Cameraperson 87
20 Fire at Sea 87

If you filter out the feature films you get a ten best out of those twenty:


Moonlight
Manchester by the Sea
Toni Erdmann
La La Land
The Fits
Paterson
Elle
Things to Come
Hell or High Water
Aqaurius

Unfortunately as usual of these could not be seen in the rest of America, only in a few sophisticated urban locations. I think Toni Erdmann is coming to the Bay Area soon. I hope people will see Manchester by the Sea and maybe La La Land will go wider with its prizes.

I'm finishing watching O.J.: Made in America. It's compulsively watchable once you get to the trial part, if not before - as was the trial itself, in 1994-1995. It spanned an 11-month period.

[Chris Knipp]

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/oj1.jpg

Last night I finished watching "O.J.: Made in America". It is by several listings the best thing shown on TV last year, an 8 hour documentary in 5 parts that puts the OJ trial and saga in the whole context of race in LA, OJ's whole life, high school, his football career, and his sordid finale, the crime that led to a punitive sentence. It is absurd: what he did was armed robbery, but he was only trying to steal back his own property, which was stupid, of course, but sentenced to 33 years in prison? The documentary does't go into all the details of the murder trial, but in keeping with its whole approach, it gives one an overall perspective on it. It still is a thing of such complexity one can never fully fathom it. And so is O.J. himself. In the last part especially, you realize what an unimaginably charismatic and charming individual he is (and handsome too - wow). People are sure that he committed a brutal double homicide, and yet they still like him - he's that magical. Afterward I found an hour-long interview-discussion with Ezra Edelman, the director of this documentary.* He is fiercely intelligent and articulate and that helped convince one of the depth and thoughtfulness of the film. This is a subject that has been gone over hundreds of times, but Edelman's treatment of it is truly epic and profound. It gives you a lot to think about.

*Here's the link:

Hour-long discussion with Ezra Edelman (Vulture). (http://www.vulture.com/2016/06/oj-made-in-america-director-ezra-edelman-ondisturbing-charm-of-oj.html)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/oj2.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

My 2017 Best List for Filmleaf appears as part of the Indiewiere critics poll.

http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4252-Toward-a-Ten-Best-List-for-2016&p=35225#post35225




2016 IndieWire Critics Poll: Chris Knipp
Indiewire Staff
Dec 5, 2016 8:21 pm


2016 IndieWire Critics Poll:

Chris Knipp

Filmleaf (http://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/best-movies-2016-critic-poll-results-1201757008/)

FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll

Best Film

1. Moonlight
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. Love & Friendship
4. Captain Fantastic
5. Hell or High Water
6. American Honey
7. I, Daniel Blake
8. From Afar
9. The Salesman
10. Loving

Best Director

1. Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
2. André Téchiné, Being 17
3. Matt Ross, Captain Fantastic
4. Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
5. Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake

Best Actress

1. Isabelle Huppert, Elle
2. Sonia Braga, Aquarius
3. Amy Adams, Arrival
4. Kate Beckinsale, Love & Friendship
5. Sandrine Kiberlain, Being 17

Best Actor

1. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
2. Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
3. Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
4. Shia LaBeouf, American Honey
5. Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

Best Supporting Actress

1. Chloë Sevigny, Love & Friendship
2. Edith Scob, Things to Come
3. Naomie Harris, Moonlight
4. Kristen Stewart, Certain Women
5. Helen Mirren, Eye in the Sky

Best Supporting Actor

1. Alden Ehrenreich, Hail, Caesar!
2. Ben Foster, Hell or High Water
3. Ben Whishaw, The Lobster
4. Timothy Spall, Denial
5. Chris Pine, Hell or High Water

Best Documentary

1. Zero Days
2. Tower
3. Do Not Resist
4. OJ: Made in America
5. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
6. Don’t Blink – Robert Frank
7. National Bird
8. Command and Control
9. 13th
10. Dancer

Best Undistributed Film

1. Divines
2. Staying Vertical
3. Réparer les vivants/Mend the Living
4. Poesia sin fin
5. Frantz
6. A Young Patriot/ Shao nian
7. Happy Hour

Best First Feature

1. Kaili Blues
2. Old Stone
3. From Afar
4. Do Not Resist
5. Spa Night

Best Screenplay

1. Elle
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. Christine
4. Being 17
5. Hell or High Water

Best Original Score/Soundtrack

1. American Honey
2. Love & Friendship
3. The Childhood of a Leader
4. Embrace of the Serpent
5. My Golden Days

Best Cinematography

1. Divines
2. Hail, Caesar!
3. Love & Friendship
4. My Golden Days

Best Editing

1. Moonlight
2. American Honey
3. The Salesman
4. Elle
5. Hell or High Water

FULL RESULTS: 2016 IndieWire Critics Poll (http://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/best-movies-2016-critic-poll-results-1201757008/)

[Chris Knipp]

Here are the results of the Indiewire 2016 Critics Poll: (http://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/best-movies-2016-critic-poll-results-1201757008/)


Best Film

1. Moonlight
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. La La Land
4. Toni Erdmann
5. OJ: Made in America
6. Paterson
7. The Handmaiden
8. Arrival
9. Hell or High Water
10. Jackie

Best Director

1. Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
2. Damien Chazelle, La La Land
3. Maren Ade, Toni Erdmann
4. Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Best Actress

1. Isabelle Huppert, Elle
2. Natalie Portman, Jackie
3. Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann
4. Emma Stone, La La Land
5. Sonia Braga, Aquarius

Best Actor

1. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
2. Adam Driver, Paterson
3. Colin Farell, The Lobster
4. Peter Simonischek, Toni Erdmann
5. Denzel Washington, Fences

Best Supporting Actress

1. Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
2. Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
3. Naomie Harris, Moonlight
4. Viola Davis, Fences
5. Tilda Swinton, A Bigger Splash

Best Supporting Actor

1. Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
2. Alden Ehrenreich, Hail, Caesar!
3. Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
4. Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
5 .Trevante Rhodes, Moonlight

Best Documentary

1. OJ: Made in America
2. Cameraperson
3. I Am Not Your Negro
4. 13th
5. Weiner
6. Fire at Sea
7. Tower
8. Kate Plays Christine
9. De Palma
10. No Home Movie

Best Undistributed Film

1. Sieranevada
2. Nocturama
3. My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
4. Hermia & Helena
5. Yourself and Yours
6. Una
7. The Lure
8. Austerlitz
9. Prevenge
10. Sonita

Best First Feature

1. The Witch
2. Krisha
3. The Edge of Seventeen
4. Swiss Army Man
5. Indignation
5. Kaili Blues

Best Screenplay

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. Moonlight
3. Love & Friendship
4. Hell or High Water
5. The Lobster

Best Original Score/Soundtrack

1. Jackie
2. La La Land
3. Moonlight
4. Arrival
5. The Neon Demon

Best Cinematography

1. Moonlight
2. La La Land
3. Arrival
4. The Handmaiden
5. Jackie

Best Editing

1. Moonlight
2. OJ: Made in America
3. La La Land
4. Cameraperson
5. Jackie

Best Overlooked Film

1. The Fits
2. Always Shine
3. Happy Hour
4. Krisha
5. Evolution

Most Anticipated of 2017

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Star Wars: Episode VIII
3. Dunkirk
4. Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Fashion Project
5. Baby Driver

*Note: At the time of initial publication, an error omitted “Tower” from the top results for Best Documentary Feature. That category has been updated to reflect the accurate final standings.