2016 in Movies: The First Six Months
THE TOP 5
1. The Revenant (review)
"Iñárritu follows up last year’s best picture (and Best Picture) Birdman with yet another memorable, ingenious, and engrossing film. Its extended tracking shots, the fog of warm breath clouding the lens, and exclusive use of natural light in unforgiving locations (the untouched forests of Argentina and Alberta) suck you into the film and refuse to let you go."
2. Room (review)
"Room is as expertly-crafted as any film this year. It’s a monumental achievement, showcasing not only Larson’s phenomenal range but also the incredible depth and poignancy of a mother’s love for her child.”
3. Finding Dory (review)
"Not only is it Pixar’s best effort in five or six years, it might actually be better than Finding Nemo. (Blasphemy, I know. But there it is.)”
4. Love & Friendship (review)
"Love & Friendship is about as perfect a film as you could ask for, so long as you're asking for a period comedy with corsets, bustles, and dialogue so droll that it takes a beat or two for the hilarity to hit you. (And it will hit you.)”
5. The Jungle Book (review)
"On the surface,The Jungle Book is a visual masterpiece, full of eye-popping scenery and the best CGI animal work since, well, ever. But then when you realize the entire movie was shot on a sound stage in Los Angeles, and that every mountain, tree, blade of grass, frog, elephant, river, and rock is computer-generated, it’s even more impressive.”
THE REST
6. The Nice Guys
7. Central Intelligence
8. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
9. The Fundamentals of Caring
10. Keanu
11. Hail, Caesar!
12. Deadpool
13. 10 Cloverfield Lane
14. Kung Fu Panda 3
15. 13 Hours
16. Me Before You
17. Captain America: Civil War
18. Demolition
19. Zootopia
20. The Finest Hours
21. The Hateful Eight
22. Alice Through the Looking Glass
23. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
24. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
25. London Has Fallen
26. The Shallows
27. The Angry Birds Movie
28. Money Monster
29. The Lobster
30. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
31. The 5th Wave
32. Ride Along
THE BOTTOM 5
33. The Boss (review)
"There are Cormac McCarthy novels that are easier to follow and more coherent than this thing.”
34. X-Men: Apocalypse (review)
“We get prolonged moments of mind-numbingly dull talking, mixed with scenes of melodrama that would make Sarah Bernhardt cry uncle. And it’s impossible to shake the feeling that talented actors like Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and McAvoy would have avoided this franchise like the plague, had they only known where it was headed.”
35. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (review)
“Interminably long, mind-bogglingly dull, and incredibly silly, BvS lands with an deafening thud and, along the way, reminds everyone how far ahead Marvel is in the Great Comic Book Movie Wars.”
36. Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (review)
“Had I not been sworn to uphold my solemn and sacred duties as a movie critic, there’s a very good chance I would have walked out of Neighbors 2. And it probably would have happened right around the time that a particularly obnoxious gaggle of pseudo-sorority sisters assaulted Rogen and Byrne’s house with a barrage of freshly-used tampons.”
37. Independence Day: Resurgence (review)
“The aliens have come here to bore down into the Earth and suck out its molten core. I won’t give anything away (oh heck, sure I will), but they come within a minute of doing it. Apparently those screenwriters have no clue how volcanoes form. They should look it up, though. It’s pretty interesting.”
