My Top 5 Films of 2016

Yep, 2016, not 2017.

There are still a ton of films for me to see that came out in 2017, (I’m pretty excited for Lady Bird, I, Tonya, Phantom Thread, The Post, The Disaster Artist, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Shape of Water, Wind River, Call me by Your Name and many more) that’s why I think it’s impossible to say what my favorite movies are, that have come out in 2017. But since a year has already passed since 2016 ended, I now have seen nearly all of the films that I wanted to see that came out that year, hence I’m doing a list of 2016.

I’ve tried to narrow my list down to five movies, which means that a lot of movies have been left out. Here are some honorable mentions:

• Hacksaw Ridge
• Nocturnal Animals
• The Nice Guys
• Captain Fantastic
• Moonlight
• La La Land
• Swiss Army Man
• A Monster Calls
• The Edge of Seventeen
• I, Daniel Blake
• 10 Cloverfield Lane

Now here are my top 5 favorite films of 2016.

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Silence is Martin Scorsese’s epic tale about two priests sent to Japan, to find their mentor, who’s supposedly repented to Buddhism. It’s an amazing story, with some brilliant directing by Scorsese. Andrew Garfield was absolutely fantastic as one of the two priests and so was Adam Driver. While the film deals with quite a lot of religious themes, it never pushes you to believe in one or another, which I really appreciated. So if you’re an atheist, don’t be scared thinking this is religious propaganda ;).

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If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll probably have noticed that I’m a big fan of this film. It’s made an appearance in articles like Why pacing is important to film and Why characters are important to film. Taylor Sheridan wrote an amazing screenplay of which David Mackenzie was able to catch the magic and project it onto the big screen. Chris Pine was fantastic and so was Ben Foster as his troubled brother, but the chemistry between Jeff Bridges and his fellow cop stole the show. The film’s a brilliant example of a neo-western, a genre Sheridan likes to write in and also succeeds at writing something good in. I’m excited to see what Mackenzie and Sheridan will be putting out in the coming years. Mackenzie’s Outlaw King already sounds interesting and Sheridan’s Wind River is apparently really good, I’ve yet to see that one, though.

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It’s such a simple, yet beautiful film. It’s a film that probably not everyone will like because at the surface it seems that there is not a lot is going on and that is because there isn’t really much going on. It seems to be the cycle of an everyday man’s day and that’s because it is. But in that repetivity lies something beautiful. Something special. The film uses black and white to express said simplicity and repetitive nature brilliantly. (I go more in depth on that subject in The Brilliance of “Paterson”). There’s also some beautiful poetry involved, so if you’re interested in poetry, this is most definitely the film for you.

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It’s an emotionally gripping tale that’ll stick with me for quite some time. There’s not one film that has been able to have me that emotionally invested with the characters and story of a film than Manchester by the Sea. The characters were absolutely fantastic and performed extremely well by the whole cast, especially by Casey Affleck. He gave a heart-wrenching performance and was astonishing in my favorite scene of 2016, which you can see in the YouTube video linked below. It’s such a simple scene, but extremely powerful and filled with emotions. If you haven’t seen the film, I really recommend doing so, but watch out: it’ll make you sad.

Note: the clip below does contain spoilers.

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Arrival is such a beautiful film, both story-wise, but also visually. Denis Villeneuve knows how to tell a story, and more than shows it in this film. Amy Adams got snubbed big time at the Oscars last year. She even had two Oscar-worthy performances that year, in this film and in Nocturnal Animals, but managed to miss out on both. The soundtrack was also amazing to listen to and worked well with the film.

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Those were my favorite films of 2016. What are yours? Comment down below! And for those interested, here are my current favorite movies of 2017. These won’t necessarily be my favorite films of 2017 in a couple of months because by then I expect to have seen more films of the list named in the beginning.

5. Mudbound
4. Baby Driver
3. Blade Runner 2049
2. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
1. A Ghost Story