Hello! It’s that time again – the obligatory end of year list-athon (I’m aware this sentence in itself is also cliche). I thought this year it I’d be a bit more old school and also fair in my end of year recommendations. In previous years, I’ve listed the best seen and that found that most are films from various festival circuit that have way off or never-to-be-theatrically released dates, which becomes confusing for both readers and myself when I’m trying to whittle down my favourites again the next time round.
For this year, I thought I’d be diplomatic and focus solely on UK releases of 2016, which led me to an interesting research tangent where I discovered I had seen 137 2016 releases – 98 of which where viewed in cinema/screening rooms (only a small percentage were festival screenings). As my canny Canadian friend of Here There Everywhere fame pointed out, practically a third of my year was spent in the darkness of a cinema. At first I was somewhat proud of this ‘achievement’, I mean much of that time was spent being paid to do what I loved. But then I started to worry that I might have a problem, as a considerable amount of that time spent is also free time, when I should be out socialising and stuff (isn’t that what the kids do?) But then I switched back to being fine with it because, hey, with a year like 2016, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive and it’s as I was always alone, I went to the cinema with people. I just like my cinema-going etiquette to be followed to the tee. From first opening credit to the last. A small ask, no?
This might be no interest to anyone else but myself, but here are the films I saw within the 2016 release window*. The list also includes repertory re-releases. There are also a couple of repeats especially within the January/February awards period. A couple of these I’ll conceed (Room), I saw in 2015 but others including Spotlight and Victoria, I watched again in 2016.
Key: Green – I liked very much
Gold – I loved
Chi-Raq/Dir. Spike Lee (USA)
Nocturnal Animals/Dir. Tom Ford (USA)
Chocolat/Dir. Roschdy Zem (France)
Arrival/Dir. Denis Villeneuve (USA)
100 Streets/Dir. Jim O’Hanlon (UK)
The Innocents/Dir. Anne Fontaine (France)
Dog Eat Dog/Dir. Paul Shrader (USA)
In the Heat of the Night/Dir. Norman Jewison (USA) (1967)
Paterson/Dir. Jim Jarmusch (USA)
War On Everyone/Dir. John Michael McDonagh (USA)
American Honey/Dir. Andrea Arnold (USA)
Kate Plays Christine/Dir. Robert Greene (USA) (DOC)
I, Daniel Blake/Dir. Ken Loach (UK)
The Queen of Katwe/Dir. Mira Nair (USA/Uganda)
Doctor Strange/Dir. Scott Derickson (USA)
After Love/Dir. Joachim Lafosse (France) Read my review here
Burn Burn Burn/Dir. Chanya Button (UK)
Ethel & Ernest/Dir. Roger Mainwood (UK)
Further Beyond/Dir. Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor (Ireland/US)
Train to Busan/Dir. Sang-ho Yeon (S. Korea)
Theo and Hugo/Dir. Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau (France)
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople/Taika Waititi (New Zealand)
Set the Thames on Fire/Ben Charles Edwards (UK)
Sour Grapes/Dir. Jerry Rothwell & Reuben Atlas (USA) [DOC]
Two Women/Dir. Vera Glagoleva (Russia)
Aloys/Dir. Tobias Noelle (Switzerland)
Baden Baden/Dir. Rachel Lang (USA/France)
The Girl With All the Gifts/Dir. Colm McCarthy (UK) Read my review here
Courted/Dir. Christian Vincent (France)
Under the Shadow/Dir. Babak Anvari (Persia)
Sweet Bean/Dir. Naomi Kawase (Japan)
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words/Dir. Stig Bjorkman (Sweden) [DOC]
Valley of Love/Dir. Guillaume Nicloux (France)
The Wave/Dir. Roar Uthaug (Norway)
Black/Dir. Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah (Belgium)
The Childhood of a Leader/Dir. Brady Corbet (USA)
David Brent: Life on the Road/Dir. Ricky Gervais (UK)
Nine Lives/Dir. Barry Sonnefeld (USA)
Swallows and Amazons/Dir. Philippa Lowthorpe (UK)
Tickled/Dir. David Farrier & Dylan Reeve (USA) [DOC]
Gary Numan: Android in La La Land/ir. Steve Read & Rob Alexander (UK) (DOC)
Ab Fab: The Movie/Dir. Mandie Fletcher (UK)
The Mafia Kills Only in Summer/Dir. Pierfrancesco Diliberto (Italy)
Oueen of Earth/Dir. Alex Ross Perry (USA)
Bayou Maharajah/Dir. Lily Weber (USA) [DOC)]
Weiner/Dir. Josh Kreigman & Elyse Steinberg (USA) [DOC]
Ghostbusters/Dir. Paul Feig (USA)
Baskin/Dor/ Can Evrenol (Turkey)
Closet Monster/Dir. Stephen Dunn (Canada)
The Hard Stop/Dir. George Amponsah (UK) [DOC]
Men and Chicken/Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark)
Summertime/Dir. Catherine Corsini (France)
The BFG/Dir. Steven Spielberg (UK)
Jason Bourne/Dir. Paul Greengrass (USA)
Author: The JT LeRoy Story/Dir. Jeff Feuerzeig (USA) [DOC]
Barry Lyndon/Dir. Stanley Kubrick (UK) (1975)
The Commune/Dir. Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)
The Nice Guys/Dir. Shane Black (USA)
Race/Dir. Stephen Hopkins (USA)
Fire At Sea/Dir. Gianfranco Rosi (Italy) [DOC]
Learning to Drive/Dir. Isabel Coixet (USA)
When Marnie Was There/Dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Japan)
Cemetery of Splendour/Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)
Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case/Dir. James Wan (USA)
Down By Love/Dir. Pierre Godeau (France)
The Girl King/Dir. Mika Kaurismaki (Sweden)
The Long Way North/Dir. Remi Chaye (France)
Tale of Tales/Dir. Matteo Garrone (Italy/USA)
Where You’re Meant to Be/Dir. Paul Fegan (UK)[DOC]
Adult Life Skills/Dir. Rachel Tunnard (UK)
The Secret Life of Pets/Dir. Chris Renaud & Yarrow Cheney (USA)
Evolution/Dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic (France)
Florence Foster Jenkins/Dir. Stephen Frears (UK)
The Sky Trembles…/Dir. Ben Rivers (UK)
Green Room/Dir. Jeremy Saulnier (USA)
Mustang/Dir. Deniz Gamze Erguven (Greece) Read my review here
Our Kind of Traitor/Dir. Susanna White (UK)
Chicken/Dir. Joe Stephenson (UK)
Journey to the Shore/Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan)
Sing Street/Dir. John Carney (Ireland)
Alice Through the Looking Glass/Dir. James Bobin (USA)
The Daughter/Dir. Simon Stone (Australia)
Love & Friendship/Dir. Whit Stillman (UK/USA)
Read my review here
Money Monster/Dir. Jodie Foster (USA)
The Streetdance Family/Dir. Debbie Shuter & Adam Tysoe (UK) [DOC]
Eddie the Eagle/Dir. Dexter Fletcher (UK)
Victoria/Dir. Sebastien Schipper (Germany)
The Absent One/Dir. Mikkel Norgaard (Denmark)
Dheepan/Dir. Jacques Audiard (France)
Hardcore Henry/Dir. Ilya Naishuller (Russia/USA)
Midnight Special/Dir. Jeff Nichols (USA)
Criminal/Dir. Ariel Vromen (UK/USA)
Despite the Falling Snow/Dir. Shamim Sarif (UK/Russia)
Eye in the Sky/Dir. Gavin Hood (USA)
The Jungle Book/Dir. Jon Favreau (USA)
Our Little Sister/Dir. Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan)
Bastille Day/The Take/Dir. James Watkins (UK/France)
Miles Ahead/Dir. Don Cheadle (USA)
Captain America: Civil War/Dir. Anthony Russo & Jon Russo (USA)
Hail, Caesar!/Dir. Joel & Ethan Coen (USA)
Time Out of Mind/Dir. Oren Moverman (USA)
Truth/Dir. James Vanderbilt (USA)
Anomalisa/Dir. Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson (USA)
Next to Her/Dir. Asaf Korman (Israel)
The Witch/Dir. Robert Eggers (UK)
10 Cloverfield Lane/Dir. Dan Trachtenberg (USA)
High-Rise/Dir. Ben Wheatley (UK)
Marguerite/Dir. Xavier Giannoli (France)
Speed Sisters/Dir. Amber Fares (Palestine) [DOC]
Welcome to Me/Dir. Shira Piven (USA)
Power in Our Hands/Dir. Angela Spielsinger (UK) [DOC]
Janis; Little Girl Blue/Dir. Amy J Berg (USA) [DOC]
Deadpool/Dir. Tim Miller (USA)
A Bigger Splash/Dir. Luca Guadagnino (Italy/UK)
The Iron Giant: Signature Edition/Dir. Brad Bird (USA) (1999)
Welcome to Leith/Dir. Michael Beach Nichols & Christopher K Walker (USA) [DOC]
Bone Tomahawk/Dir. Craig S Zahler (USA)
Freeheld/Dir. Peter Sollet (USA)
Orthodox/Dir. David Leon (UK)
Triple 9/Dir. John Hilcoat (USA)
BAFTA Shorts 2016 (UK)
The Secret in Their Eyes/Dir. Billy Ray (USA)
Joy/Dir. David O Russell (USA)
The Hateful Eight/Dir. Quentin Tarantino (USA)
Partisan/Dir. Ariel Kleiman (Australia)
A War/Dir. Tobias Lindholm (Denmark)
Creed/Dir. Ryan Coogler (USA)
The Revenant/Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (USA)
Room/Dir. Lenny Abrahamson (Canada)
The Assassin/Dir. Hsiao-Hsien Hou (China)
The Big Short/Dir. Adam McKay (USA)
Our Brand is Crisis/Dir. David Gordon Green (USA)
Spotlight/Dir. Tom McCarthy (USA)
Youth/Dir. Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
Bamboozled/Dir. Spike Lee (USA) (2000)
The Unknown girl/Dir. Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (France)
Green White Green/Dir. Abba Makama (Nigeria)
To Sleep With Anger/Dir. Charles Burnett (USA) (1990)
So there you have it. A lot of film was seen by these eyes, that has resulted in my eyeglass prescription getting stronger (used exclusively for watching films). In amongst the seeming lunacy of 2016; in such a way that people have started to refer to it as The Year That Shan’t Be Named, there’s a part of the cultural vulture that I am that thinks 2016 should be revered. At least for its creative output. 2016 has been great for cinema – from sophomore or debut filmmakers (Adult Life Skills, After Love and Next To Her) as well as established figures rediscovering their genius (Paterson, Spotlight, Love and Friendship).
There was so much to like in what I saw over the year, even if they didn’t make the coveted Green coding. The Green films set them a little higher in my estimation as I had a great experience watching them. But Gold? The Gold titles were the films that made 2016 bearable and in terms of the ongoing debate about the state of the film industry, instilled in me the belief that film isn’t a failing art but a just touched upon world of potential. In my previous posts about LFF, I see 2017 continuing to build upon this idea and that the gems of cinema may or may not be in the blockbusters we love to bash but in the smaller films waiting to be discovered. I for one can’t wait for you guys to experience the magic of Moonlight, Certain Women and Toni Erdmann.
SIDE NOTE: 2016 in general was banging in terms of artistic output. Music-wise we had so much goodness to consume with the likes of Knowles sisters (Solange beats Beyonce to the pip IMO) the late and very great David Bowie’s Black Star, Michael Kiwanuka, Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead and Blood Orange. AND TV! Phew! Atlanta, Insecure, Search Party, Line of Duty, Stranger Things, The OA, Catastrophe and FLEABAG! Oh and the reading of the books – go read the Manbooker Prize winner The Sellout! Not to mention the theatre – I loved One Night In Miami at the Donmar Warehouse
Honestly, if I had to relive 2016 again – I don’t actually want to, so please don’t make that happen – I would just be all about re-gorging myself on all this culture and say forget about the rest!
And with that folks, I just want to wish you all:
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!WE CAN DO THIS! MAKE THE 21st CENTURY GREAT AGAIN!
*This list is not exhaustive. And also doesn’t include everything else I watched that has been released and is to be released.
THE STATION AGENT SPEAKS 