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Evan’s Best of 2016
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The Watchlist host and professional movie watcher Evan Arppe breaks down his top 10 films of 2016.
1) Paterson
This is kind of cheating because this movie doesn’t actually come out in Canada until February but I saw it in September so I’m counting it. Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson affected me like no other movie this year. It’s beautiful, poetic, thoughtful and unpretentious. It’s a full-throated call for living a simpler, kinder life, but it’s never preachy. It’s got charming performances from Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani. And it features one of my favourite things in film that is so rare: a realistic portrait of a loving and supportive marriage. I felt like I walked out of this movie change, more aware and more in tune with the world. It’s hard to describe, just go watch Paterson. My favourite film of 2016.
2) La La Land
Shocker I know, but there is nothing not to like about this film unless you don’t like fun or having feelings. Sure it’s a little show-offy and grandiose but that’s like calling Lebron James a show off, he’s the best he’s allowed to show off. As someone who has never been a big fan of musicals or of Emma Stone, this movie converted me on both fronts (I needed no converting on Ryan Gosling). The music is great, the story is an honest look at the pains of being an artist, but really this thing is all about the craft of filmmaking because Damien Chazelle does something extraordinary with nearly every scene in this movie. And it has the best ending of year, yes better than the Sausage Party orgy.
3) Arrival
I love a good puzzle movie and Arrival is the best one I’ve seen in a long time. A Denis Villeneuve film is as sure a bet as any filmmaker working today. He’s like the Canadian David Fincher, and like Fincher he always seems like he’s challenging himself. Arrival is a clear example of what makes the best sci-fi: human stories set against the inhuman. A new perspective on life afforded by a mysterious other. Here that other is a giant black contact lens. Also Amy Adams is basically the only character in this movie and she carries the hell out of it. Give that woman an Oscar.
4) Moonlight
You have never seen a film like Moonlight. That’s as big a compliment as I can give Barry Jenkins film. It is singular. It’s also the most important film of the year. Every performance is so on point and the story just wrings the sympathy from you like a an angry babushka with a washcloth. Sometimes you see a movie that you know is going to mean the world to a lot of people out there. That speaks to people who feel lost, or different and shows them that they’re not alone. This film is like a guiding light in the darkness. Some sort of moon…light.
Chan-wook Park wins the prize for the most bonkers film of the year, a prize he’s won just about every year he’s made a movie, but The Handmaiden is his best in a while. There are a lot of words I want to use to describe this film. I mean, I want to say…opulent? Also bonkers. It’s a twisty-turney erotic thriller with larger than life characters, set pieces that mix the bizarre with the beautiful and of course a scene or two that just make you say “what the f***?” One of them involves an octopus…this is Chan-wook Park.
Shane Black goes back to what Shane Black does best: neo-noir comedies that scratch at the dark underbelly of the American mythos. With Kiss Kiss Bang Bang he essentially revived the career of Robert Downey Jr. With The Nice Guys he gives Ryan Gosling maybe…maybe his best role ever? Sorry Derek Cianfrance. The screenplay is a masterclass of dialogue, Russel Crowe and Angourie Rice are tremendous and the story is just believable enough to keep the whole crazy mess afloat. Sometimes you just want to have a good time at the movies, and The Nice Guys is that.
Do you like crying? I hope you like crying. Manchester By The Sea is a gut wrenching portrait of grief, presented with none of the easy-answers or grand redemptions that we’re used to from Hollywood weepers. By focusing on the frustrating minutiae of dealing with a death in the family, and the often incommunicable barriers that separate us from those we hold closest, Kenneth Lonergan has made a masterpiece of human storytelling. The fact that the film has you laughing through your tears is a testament to his screenplay, which has to be considered among the best of the year.
8) Christine
Maybe it’s because I work in television, but I found Antonio Campos’ Christine to be one of the most intriguing and overlooked films of 2016. Beyond the Oscar calibre lead performance by Rebecca Hall the film features a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at local news production in the (not so distant) days of super 8 and Beta tape, an honest and intimate portrait of mental illness, and a subtle peak into a moment in television history when news and entertainment began to irrevocably merge.
9) Into The Inferno
The number 9 film, and the only film on this list that I watched on Netflix, is Werner Herzog’s Into The Inferno. This film was a delightful surprise. Though Herzog is always a safe bet I didn’t expect a documentary about volcanoes to hit so hard. That’s probably because it’s not really about volcanoes, and more about how they serve to remind us of our own mortality. Though it sounds grim Herzog has the amazing ability to capture individual people and cultures with a wonder and enthusiasm that feels entirely free of slant or motive. Does that mean the film meanders a little? Yes. But it always remains interesting.
10) The Salesman
At number 10 is Asghar Farhadi’s kitchen sink drama The Salesman. The Iranian director’s films are almost a genre unto themselves, taking the form of small, domestic mysteries that unravel and expand with expert timing and precision. The Salesman follows a husband and wife who are forced to move into an apartment with a dubious history after their building is condemned. A morality tale painted in shades of grey, Farhadi’s film brilliantly asks us “what would you do” and then shows us why that’s probably wrong. Another cheat, this one is due out in Canadian theatres in February.
