Your Name is really fun to watch, and takes more risks than I would have expected it to. I may not be blown away, but I am still very impressed.
Landline (Robespierre, 2017)
If this had been less predictable, I think it would’ve gotten more attention than it has. That doesn’t mean it’s worth forgetting. Far from.
The Death of Louis XIV (Serra, 2016)
Does anyone nowadays care how Louis XIV died? I certainly didn’t. Nevertheless, Albert Serra imagines the event as though it were a slowly deflating balloon in a burnished Baroque painting.
The Lego Batman Movie (McKay, 2017)
Everything is… not so awesome this time around, I’m afraid.
Battle of the Sexes (Dayton & Faris, 2017)
A number of people whose opinion I value didn’t much care for Battle of the Sexes. I decided to give it a go all the same, in case there was something in it they weren’t seeing. I’m sad to say that they were right.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Waititi, 2016)
Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople is so precious. I don’t mean that negatively—it’s just a really cute film that you want to give a warm hug to.
Swiss Army Man (Kwan & Scheinert, 2016)
Whoever came up with this premise deserves a raise and more chances to pitch ideas, because I found this film refreshingly original. A breath of fresh air with some gassy odours mixed in, so to speak.
Kate Plays Christine (Greene, 2016)
Kate Plays Christine is all about the ethical concerns of this kind of memorialising. It wonders aloud why Christine Chubbuck mattered if not for the way she died, and the answers are hard to come by.
Life, Animated (Williams, 2016)
This is not just a documentary about a boy with autism. It’s also a film about seeing the world through film, and that’s something we can all attest to.
Captain Fantastic (Ross, 2016)
This is one of those films that’s quirky for the sake of being quirky, with a family of survivalists subsisting in a forest and living something of a utopian lifestyle where questions are always answered, debates encouraged, classic literature consumed, and campfire music-making a mainstay.
Indignation (Schamus, 2016)
Indignation is handsomely mounted, an old-school picture without pretensions of being anything else, and still it breathes and heaves with all the pinpoint accuracy and dribbling irony of Roth’s pen.
The Witness for the Prosecution (Jarrold, 2016)
Wilder’s version is already a classic, and while this BBC adaptation is not quite at that level, it succeeds in doing a great deal with very little.
Kubo and the Two Strings (Knight, 2016)
Undoubtedly the best animated film of 2016 in the way it combines superlative stop-motion with an engaging, thoughtful story.
Everybody Wants Some!! (Linklater, 2016)
So… I’m in that group that went into this movie not expecting to like it much, but ended up really liking it/borderline loving it. This is a testament to Linklater’s gifts.
The Eyes of My Mother (Pesce, 2016)
Goodness is this film gruesome. There’s death, there’s torture, there’s kidnapping, there’s psychosis—and it’s all elegantly framed and put together with a tastefulness that seems at odds with the story.
The Lonely Film Critic 