The best (and worst) from 2016

Image courtesy Cohen Media.

Looking through this list the one thing that strikes is the breadth of options to pick from. The top film is about five sisters struggling in Turkey, and the rest of the collection incorporates a punk band under siege, a pair of pretty great musicals with wildly different themes and presentations, and a profile of one of the saddest politicians in recent years. Depth and variety are great things to have when hitting up theaters, and 2016 brought a broad palate to theaters.

The films below are all ones reviewed from 2016. I kept the list to the top seven to focus on the films most worth a second look, which cut out a few rather good films. Movies missing the cut include The Neon Demon, Pete's Dragon, The Nice Guys, Rogue One, Hail, Caesar! and Everybody Wants Some! So below are the best films I reviewed this year, along with the absolute worst film I laid eyes on in 2016.

No. 1: Mustang

This one was actually nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2016 Academy Awards, meaning that the film was up for competition among 2015 nominees. I'm keeping it though because the stateside release came in 2016 and to recognize it as the best film I've watched in the last 12 months.

Mustang is a tender and melancholy look into the lives of five sisters being thrown into marriages with little to no choice and a lot of implied violence. There is a hint of fatalism and a lot of danger if things go wrong, but in the end the little victories are what matter in this film. Mustang lifts and drops viewers on such a frequent basis that the relatively positive ending feels like rapture.

Image courtesy A24.

No. 2: Green Room

Director Jeremy Saulnier's follow up to his terrific revenge film Blue Ruin shocks viewers with its sudden bursts of violence between lulls of peculiar black humor. It's tough to find a film this balanced and this effective at what it wants to do; keep the audience on edge and with little clue of what’s really going on.

Despite the oddity of the premise – a punk band led by Anton Yelchin stumbling into a Neo-Nazi murder in the middle of the woods – everything feels natural and logical, the acts of violence ramping up in a strangely grounded fashion. This is one of the better horror films in recent years too, featuring one of the scariest boogeymen to come along recently in Patrick Stewart's Neo-Nazi leader Darcy.

Image courtesy Lionsgate.

No. 3: La La Land

A probable front-runner for a ton of awards, La La Land keeps its soulful analysis of the divide between romance and ambition hidden just underneath a sunny, musical surface. The cheeriness does just enough to disguise the film's true theme – although those sometimes sneak in through the lyrics – and the result is a complex, enchanting musical.

Writer/director Damien Chazelle deserves credit for folding in the tenants of musicals of the past – the big numbers and those little flirty bits of dancing – into a modern setting and doing so in a smooth, logical fashion. That Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both charming as all hell and showcase a rather engaging rapport just adds to La La Land's many charms.

Image courtesy IFC Films.

No. 4: Weiner

Somehow this film became even more noteworthy in the months after its release. The film didn't predict Anthony Weiner's role in the 2016 election, but it set the table for how the man could muck up enough to become entangled in that morass of awful.

What makes the film so engrossing is watching Anthony Weiner fall apart over the course of a few months and the tragedy of the self-inflicted crash. He is depicted in Weiner as a politician with his heart at least close to the right place, so his second fall from grace impacts a whole lot of people outside of himself and his family. The documentary ably captures his failings, his inability to handle his faults, and the fact that his personal foibles sink any chance of his message catching on.

Image courtesy Fox Searchlight.

No. 5: Jackie

Jackie is the film I hope proves to people that Natalie Portman is a terrific actress. She absolutely nails a difficult performance, being a woman who must show a pretty and calm face to the nation and still have enough verve to fulfill the legacy of her husband.

Even though Portman is the heart of Jackie, the film is strong enough independent of her performance to remain a worthwhile experience. It offers one of the more interesting glimpses into the John F. Kennedy legacy, playing around with the concept of Camelot while pointing out why that ideal was seized upon by the public. Kennedy's election came at a difficult time in American history, so a little romanticism worked to assuage the fears of the voters while pushing for vital changes.

Image courtesy Disney.

No. 6: Moana

This film and the next are pretty close to being toss ups, but I liked Moana a little bit more than the next one. For one thing, it has a great performance by the unfairly charismatic Dwayne Johnson, and that tends to push many films up a level or two.

Moana's real selling point though is the eponymous princess who takes decisive action to save her people even against the recommendations of her father. Even though the film sets things up to have her be Mad Max to Maui's Furiousa, it makes a quick and effective shift that is logical and important. Add that to some terrific vocal performances (particular Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho) and killer songs courtesy Lin-Manuel Miranda and the result is a wicked good animated film.

Image courtesy Disney.

No. 7: Zootopia

Like Moana, one of Zootopia's main selling points is a complex message delivered in a bright, often rather humorous fashion. This film addresses racial stereotypes and how easily those characteristics become ingrained in societal fabric, an important topic given how easy it is to ignore or miss such biases. The film doesn't offer any definitive answers, but it at least works as a gateway for understanding the issue and inspecting one's own biases.

The message wouldn't really work without the rest of Zootopia's charms, as it has so many jokes and clever references it is worth watching just on the surface level. Adding depth to it just makes for a more interesting and rewarding viewing experience.

Image courtesy Lionsgate.

Worst film: Norm of the North

The fun thing with this year's contenders for the worst film was the depth of the terrible. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice suffer from a terminal case of dourness and some tremendously asinine plot twists. Patriots Day is an insensitive, dumb film about a complicated moment Boston history. Dirty Grandpa has the great Robert De Niro at his nadir, while films like Sing and Zoolander 2 are obnoxious at best.

None of those films though fail on the same level as Norm of the North. This animated monstrosity is ugly to look at and is lacking narrative cohesion, talented voice actors (the awful Rob Schneider is the headliner), and any coherent themes. This film is a garbage dump of an animated flick that insults the intelligence of its young target. At least it seems to have drifted away from public eye in the last 12 months, fated to rest in the depths of online streaming services for some unlucky soul to stumble upon.

'Weiner' a portrait of a politician made for these times

Anthony Weiner on the campaign trail. Image courtesy IFC Films.

There's a stretch during the excellent documentary Weiner in which everything in the world is going right for eponymous former congressman Anthony Weiner. It’s highlighted with the politician sitting in a subway, getting nods of approval from New Yorkers reading articles proclaiming his pole position in the race to be New York City's next mayor. The train ride comes months after his first fall from office, and it's clear he's enjoying the serenity and validation from his potential constituents. In his own way, Anthony Weiner has very much earned this one moment in the sun. At least until the bottom drops out, because Anthony Weiner is constructed to self-destruct. He's a fascinating man, the rare loser who needs to win to add more height for his inevitable, self-inflicted falls from grace.

Weiner starts off as a comeback tale, devoting its first act to Anthony Weiner’s attempts at a political resurrection in 2013, two years after resigning from Congress in shame from a sexting scandal. Anthony Weiner’s a dreamer, following what for all intents and purposes is a quixotic quest to win New York’s mayoral race, despite his recent woes. And yet there he is, drawing the rabid support of crowds and getting audiences to boo candidates who crack jokes about his indiscretions. He's feisty, cocky and electrifying, especially when compared with the less than thrilling Bill de Blasio. Scenes in which Anthony Weiner dances during parades or talks back to rather condescending foes offers a glimpse as to why voters fell in love with him in the first place. Even at his worst, it’s clear he cares deeply for his constituents, his passion guided by good intentions.

Weiner posits its central figure as a man of his time, for better or for worse. His speeches in Congress, and the ones on the campaign trail, are short and fiery enough to draw viewers, as is his scrappiness and the stereotypical New Yorker persona that makes him oddly charming. The film outlines clearly why his star shone so bright in the first place. The man even married into American political royalty when he wed Huma Abedin; Hillary Clinton has essentially described her as a second daughter. That Anthony Weiner is able to earn an attempt at a second chance, and even spend a few glorious moments in the lead.

Anthony Weiner is a modern candidate in the worst ways too. His first fall started with an accidental Twitter posting he did not intend to go public, which spiraled into a much larger scandal. People are often capable of some forgiveness for one mistake, especially if the person shows at least a modicum of remorse as Anthony Weiner does on the campaign trail. But when the person makes the same mistake again, exposed via a tabloid website by a 23-year-old woman named Sydney Leathers, forgiveness takes a back seat to moral indignation and a flurry of tweets and mediocre comedic material courtesy Bill Maher.

Weiner elides over the candidate’s handling of the first scandal aside from a few denials and his resignation. Perhaps it wasn’t as interesting as what happened the second time, when Anthony Weiner couldn’t keep track of the occurrences and completely lost any contact with composure during a meltdown with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. The interview itself is a train wreck; that Anthony Weiner rewatches the train skid off the rails the morning after is painful and weirdly right. The description fits the tone of the film’s final two acts, whether it’s watching the candidate get into a yelling fest with a bigoted voter or, worst of all, the clear strain the situation is taking on his marriage with Huma Abedin. Directors Josh Kriegman, a former aide to Anthony Weiner, and Elyse Steinberg make it clear she’s hurting too, especially when she has to fend off attacks from media members speculating why she’d remain married to him, then criticizing her for their speculation.

Everything is almost too perfect to create a situation like the one belonging to Anthony Weiner. A man who can’t control his impulses (sexual or anger) cheating on his wife through texts, Twitter and Facebook, with a name that is at the root of the scandal in the first place makes him the perfect candidate for this level of failure. The danger though is when those scandals block out the wishes of the people, who are depicted in Weiner flailing for attention and asking the press to care about their needs, what they want from candidates. All they want is to hear his proposals, yet their voices are drowned by camera clicks and inane questions about a man’s idiocy. That’s the saddest thing about Weiner; the man could have done a lot of good, but he couldn’t get out of his own way to do it.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 96 minute

Genre: Documentary

 

Ask Away

Target audience: Political junkies and people interested in documentaries.

Take the whole family?: It wouldn't be that interesting to kids anyway, but this does not deserve an “R” rating.

Theater or Netflix?: It’s worth seeing at the cinema if you can.

Is Sydney Leathers a villain?: For a story in which the central figure commits career defenestration, there remains a bit of loathing toward Leathers, who’s given the code name pineapple. It boils over during her attempt to meet Weiner on election night is shown as a callous act from a person desperate for fame. The film does emphasize the fault lies with Anthony Weiner, but she doesn’t exactly come across as all that heroic. Funny enough, Leathers doesn't see herself cast in that role; rather, she (wrongly) believes Huma Abedin comes off worse, at least according to an underwhelming New York Magazine article.

Watch this as well?: Errol Morris' “The Fog of War” also offers an in depth look into a complicated man, in this case it's former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Also worth flagging down are a pair of documentaries by Barbara Kopple focused on people in the midst of chaos: “Harlan County U. S. A.” and “American Dream."