If there’s a thread that connects these best films of 2016, it’s the inevitability of change and our desire to cling to the old life we knew. Make of that what you will in a year of atomic shifts in government south of the border and abroad, of the loss of so many cultural icons and a general feeling that all is not well in the world. Even the Technicolor joy of La La Land and the furry cuteness of Zootopia were grounded in reality. But all that restlessness generated a wellspring of excellent filmmaking this year, both on the festival circuit and in the multiplex. So turn off that inflammatory news network and head to the movie theatre and enjoy some of the cinematic high points of 2016.
Best Drama: Manchester By The Sea
How to coax humanity back out of someone who has lost it: that is the crux of Kenneth Lonergan’s outstanding drama. Already lost in grief, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is sidelined by the death of his older brother and becomes reluctant guardian to his teenaged nephew (Lucas Hedges). The story of why Lee can’t return to his ex-wife (Michelle Williams) and the seaside town of Manchester unfolds with surprising humour and devastating sadness, aided by Lonergan’s effortless dialogue and a career-best performance from Affleck. Honourable mention: Fences.
Best Science Fiction: Arrival
The category is a bit of a misnomer, since Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival spends more time dealing with the fragile communication between humans than with the aliens who arrive unannounced, hovering above the earth in what appears to be a mammoth, smooth, black pebble. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguist sent to communicate and gauge the visitors’ intentions, both buoyed by this new discovery and hindered by grief and loss. Now if only she could get the boys to put down their guns and listen. An unexpectedly touching, time-bending film that demands a second viewing.
Best Coming-of-Age: Moonlight
It’s misery watching Chiron (played by Alex Hibbert then Ashton Sanders) navigate boyhood in the Miami projects with an addict mama and bullies waiting for him every day after school. He finds an unlikely ally in a local drug dealer (Mahershala Ali) but still hasn’t reconciled his identity and sexuality by the time he’s grown (Trevante Rhodes). Barry Jenkins wrote the screenplay and directs, but all hinges on the depth of the performances, which are fathoms deep across the board. Honourable mention: Hunt For The Wilderpeople.
Best Musical: La La Land
Who writes a contemporary musical? Damien Chazelle proved masterful with Whiplash; La La Land shows us he’s downright magical. Starring Emma Stone as an aspiring actress in L.A. and Ryan Gosling as a struggling jazz musician, the film is a riot of colour, song-and-dance numbers and stylish verve. The opening sequence in an L.A. traffic jam should be required viewing before your commute every Monday morning. Honourable mention: Sing Street.
Best Horror: The Witch
An otherworldly film about possession steeped in realism — right down to the 17th-century scripting — that will scare the bonnet off you. At the centre of Robert Eggers’ feature debut is a family banished from their New England community and left to starve or survive at the edge of a forest. That turns out to be the easy part as infants go missing, animals speak and religious zealotry cries witchcraft. Honourable mention: 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Best Western: Hell or High Water
David Mackenzie’s film is an old-style western dunked in contemporary issues: the Texas landscape has been ravaged by drought and subprime mortgage foreclosures, so when two estranged brothers go on a robbery rampage no one is shedding any tears for the bank. Tenuous family connections are examined amidst a world that is changing too fast. Chris Pine and Ben Foster play the brothers, Jeff Bridges is the grizzled Texas Ranger with one last case before he rides into the sunset.
Best Animated: Zootopia
It was a banner year for kids’ flicks but the best was Zootopia, the story of a peaceable kingdom where predators and prey live side by side in biblical harmony. That peace is shattered when some of the carnivores suddenly start reverting to their basic-instinct selves. While kids will love the spunkiness of rookie-cop Judy Hopps, adults can’t miss the sly race relations, politics and prejudice at play. Honourable mention: Kubo and the Two Strings.
Best Foreign: The Handmaiden
Another kinky offering from South Korean director Park Chan-wook, this one is a love story and revenge thriller set in the 1930s about a con man (Ha Jung-woo) who, with the help of an orphaned pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) marries a young Japanese heiress (Kim Min-hee) with a view to having her committed to an insane asylum, all in the name of fortune and revenge. But then the women fall in love, sort of. Nothing is what it appears to be, and the graphic sex and violence are just stops along a very twisty, decadent journey. Honourable mention: Elle.
Best documentary: OJ: Made In America
Officially a mini-series that also played on the big screen, the epic from Ezra Edelman chronicles the environment that created the handsome, superbly talented football star, the man who never wanted to be a symbol for his race. With never-seen archival footage and new interviews, Edelman takes a fresh look at events leading up to the trial that polarized the nation. Honourable mention: Life, Animated.
Best Period Piece: Love and Friendship
Part drawing-room intrigue, all sharp-tongued comedy, with a tour-de-force performance from Kate Beckinsale. Directed and written by Whit Stillman and based on Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan, the film looks at what one widow must do to survive in society with young fools and men who are “too old to be governable, too young to die.” Stealing every scene is Tom Bennett; Chloe Sevigny also stars. Honourable mention: Sunset Song.
Best biopic: Jackie
Pablo Larrain directed both top films in this category, Jackie and Neruda. His Jackie is an intimate portrait of the days between the shooting of JFK and his funeral procession through the streets of Washington. A frank conversation with a reporter (Billy Crudup) fills in the gory details — yes, motorcade shooting included — but a steely Jackie (Natalie Portman) insists on the Camelot legacy. Remarkable performance by Portman in a film that keeps us as off-kilter as the widow herself in those first few bleak days. Honourable mention: Neruda.
Best Whatever-You’d-Call-The Lobster
The weirdness and coal-black humour of The Lobster makes the list. After his wife leaves him, a man (Colin Farrell) tries to navigate a world where coupling is an imperative: single people are sent to an asylum where failure to find a mate in 45 days means you are turned into the animal of your choice, or you try to escape and be shot. Things get more urgent for the singles (including John C. Reilly and Ben Whishaw) until the man’s escape to the woods, where he meets another loner (Rachel Weisz). Unique, right to the unspeakably brutal — but weirdly romantic — ending.
