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I voted 'other' so I could cast a vote for 'The Jungle Book,' a film that has been highly praised and bitterly demeaned. I love that Disney created a near-horror story in a children's film, but still very funny and gorgeously beautiful. I was enthralled. I am sure it probably won't be my favorite film of 2016, but we've seen only a half a year it was my favorite film so far.
I voted for The Witch. I adored the final scene's visual similarity to Francisco Goya's Witches Sabbath (1798), Witches' Flight (1798), and Witches' Sabbath from the Black Paintings (the murals in Goya's home). It was a wonderful visual nod back to the opening scene of the witch in her den and the scene's use of tenebrism to create a sense of foreboding. The film is a slow burn of tension for a family struggling with their faith and their surroundings. After the seeing the film, my friend and I went around and around about details like the significance of the mother's cup and the father's gun. We also discussed the elements about nature, religion, and history. It's a movie that we both want to come back to again and watch to see if we can pick up on other subtle details that we may have missed on a first viewing.
For the other movies, I keep missing the local showings near me of The Lobster, which I really do want to see but I may have to keep waiting. I haven't seen OJ: Made in America since I still remember watching the news and hearing the daily updates on the trial as a child. Everybody Wants Some!! is a movie I don't feel a strong urge to see since late '70s/early '80s dudes "bonding" in college over women and personal goals (even if it is Linklater). I enjoyed Captain America: Civil War, but I see it as a continuation of the ongoing Marvel franchise cinematic story. The film is fun (Black Panther! Superhero mega-battle! Yay!), but the movie relies heavily on the viewer knowing the backstory of every character from every previous movie in the franchise. Essentially, I feel like I've read a chapter instead of having a full story in one contained medium. So, The Witch has my vote for the best film of 2016 so far.
Oh man, I am so disappointed in the Filmspotting community. Civil War above Everybody Wants Some? - what kind of bizarro world have I stumbled into?
As far as I'm concerned, Everybody Wants Some!! is the best movie of the year. It managed to bottle the atmosphere of every half-baked frat-boy, college comedy and spin that lifestyle into something that actually looked appealing; that resembled a good time. The camaraderie that's on show, that feeling of carelessness that only comes with youth - college in particular - it's right up there on the screen for you to bask in. The second I left the cinema, I wanted to walk back in and re-live it all over again, I want those good times to roll.
As honourable mentions go, i can;t in good conscious vote for The Lobster or The Witch... because I actually saw them last year, so they're not 2016 movies for me. I would like throw out Son of Saul, which may technically be a 2015 movie but not one that arrived in cinemas in my country until this year, and I don't think it's been mentioned on the podcast but I'd love for it to be discussed at some point because I honestly think it's the best movie of the last two or so years. It's that good. Also, a shout out to Sing Street which is just pure bliss and the biggest surprise of the year so far (at least as far as movies that were on my radar).
i thought this year was weak but it's really starting to pick up. My local film festival is just around the corner too and I can't wait for a new Winding-Refn and Verhoeven in the same week.
Haven't yet had a chance to see the witch, green room or the lobster, so have to vote for the Handmaiden. One benefit of living in Asia means early releases of Chinese/Japanese/Korean films!
It's easily, for me, "The Neon Demon" and there's not even a question to it. I think of it as a 'layer cake' of films, in that thematically it delves into so many ideas and themes. Is it about the fashion industry? Sure. Is it about beauty? Sure. But what I think is the foundational layer, the most important idea in the film, is that it's about loneliness. Every character in the film is lonely. I won't spoil anything, but there are scenes that show how desperate certain characters are for ANY attachment, any at all. I really believe that the film, at its heart, is about loneliness and desperation. And of course NWR is a genius, and Elle Fanning turns in what should be -- but won't -- an Oscar winning performance. As does Jena Malone.
Easily the best film of the year, and it's only July.
2016 has been a year that saw the release of two really great supernatural horror films. I voted for The Witch, which in my opinion was an absolute force of filmmaking. I felt that Robert Eggers fully realized his vision in The Witch, and its stunning sequences puts it at the top of my 2016 list. Not to mention how beautifully shot the film was and its amazing child performances. I was blown away by The Witch.
I would also like to give a shoutout to Na Hong-Jin's The Wailing, which managed to contain its craziness in a pretty enjoyable 2.5 hour film.
This year seems to be devoid of very many really good movies. Because of the holdovers from last year and a very lackluster winter's inventory, March was half over before I saw a movie from 2016 I really can say I enjoyed. I named "Eye in the Sky" as the best movie released in 2016 (so far) but I would include that on a very short list with "10 Cloverfield Lane", "Love and Friendship", "Midnight Special", "The Lobster", "A Bigger Splash", and "The Jungle Book".
I loved Everybody Wants Some!! I went into it wanting a good sequel to Dazed and Confused, and left feeling that that's what I got. How great it would be to complete all of Boyhood, enter college, and then be transported through time. I was seven in 1980 and only wanted to be like my teenage cousins, so Linklater provided that childhood fantasy of mine.
I really had to giggle when I heard this list on the podcast. i thought "hail, caesar!", "everybody wants some!!" and especially "the lobster" were all huge let-downs when i watched them after listening to josh and adam's reviews.
"the witch" unfortunately never got a theatrical release in switzerland. "OJ: made in america" – isn't that a made for tv movie? and since when are those included in filmspotting-polls? and "captain america" was a fun comic book movie, but overally laughably overrated
which leaves me to vote for "other": "green room" by jeremy saulnier.
I voted for Everybody Wants Some!!, but I'd like to put in my 2 cents for the deliciously sinister Korean horror/thriller The Wailing. It's like Memories of a Murder meets The Exorcist/Rosemary's Baby. This movie knocked me out. I walked out of the theater in daze. This movie caused a spontaneous post movie urinal conversation between me and a stranger. Y'know, with our penises out and everything... If that doesn't demonstrate the power of cinema, then I don't know what would.
The Lobster has to be my favorite film of the year. Everybody Wants Some had me almost rolling into the aisles as well as marveling at Linklater's camera movement, and Hail, Caesar! brought me the movie experience that only the Coens could, but neither had the impact of The Lobster.
The Lobster is the first film since The Tree of Life that I had to really take a long walk around before getting in my car to drive away from the theater. Obviously one of these films has a much larger scope, and is the greater film (Malick's masterpiece), but the immersion that The Lobster had was profound. It was cold and detached, but unlike a Godard film, I also felt cold and detached after the film, in a way I could only describe as Kubrickian. Call it emotional manipulation, but the last scene, as well as the couple's encounter in The City involving an acoustic guitar performance, had me wincing more than any of the gore in Green Room. The Lobster is the closest thing we've got to a masterpiece this year, and only time will tell if it holds up as such.
PS: I was not hating on Green Room in the slightest, just showcasing how great this year has been!
Hirokazu Kore-eda's OUR LITTLE SISTER might not count for this poll as it only just came out (technically a July release, I believe), but it's the best 2016 film I've seen so far. It's such a rich film, so sympathetic to every character it portrays, whether that's the ostensible main character and defacto matriarch of her family who tries to do right by her younger sisters without receiving the kind of affection from them that she so obviously craves, or the old woman who runs the family restaurant down by the water and struggles with a secret illness that'll rob her of her business, or the young boy who befriends the titular little sister and starts a chaste flirtation. This film cares about its characters and it manages to be profoundly moving without any manipulative plotting or overwrought emotions.
People have been dismissing this as a minor film from Hirokazu Kore-eda, but if this is a "minor" film, that only proves that Kore-eda is such a major filmmaker, his minor work is still head-and-shoulders better than anything else cinema has to offer.
I can't believe that there isn't more love for Everybody Wants Some!! It was definitely one of the most purely enjoyable films I've seen in a long time, and I couldn't get the smile off my face for a good week after viewing.
From the list, it would be Hail Caesar, but I loved A Bigger Splash just a smidge more for the strength of the four central performances.
I chose other and wrote in Love & Friendship. Jane Austen + Whit Stillman was meant to be and Kate Beckinsale giving one of the best performances of the year. I had almost forgotten she came on the screen as a witty heroine in Cold Comfort Farm. I hope she's remembered later on with a bevy of awards.
I picked "other", because Love & Friendship is the best movie I've seen so far this year. Kate Beckinsale's ruthless antiheroine has to be seen to be believed; this is a con artist movie like The Sting, except transported to a world of manners, coaches, and gentleman callers. Stillman lets the camera linger on the servants' faces just long enough to underline the absurdity of this world the upper class have constructed for themselves, but then Emma Greenwell's desperation tips things back to the drama. It is a film that examines both meanness and kindness in equal measure, sometimes within the same sentence.
I went with "The Witch" as it delivered a cinematic experience unlike anything else I've seen this year so far. I have seen scarier movies in the past few years, but never been as unnerved as I was while watching "The Witch." The craft on display does not seem like that of a young filmmaker, much less a first time director. Mr. Eggers has made a film film that will not only disturb audiences upon its viewing, but one that will manage to stay in their heads tormenting them days after the credits have rolled.
Both The Lobster and The Witch make a good case for definitive article noun art-house films. Both tackle repressive societies with a fully realized sense of place. Despite the vast gulf between 17th century Puritan New England and a 1970s-ish(?) dytopian hotel, both deploy deeply observed details to great effect, from the way The Witch's muskets function to those wonderful matching dresses in The Lobster. Both also conclude somewhat controversial endings, but ultimately I have to go with The Witch for what I found to be a truly transcendent finale.
Colin, Chicago
I was thinking I hadn't seen enough movies this year, but throw in Zootopia and this looks a lot like my Letterboxd best-of list. So while there are still some I need to catch up with, thank you for the assurance that the good cinema of 2016 hasn't completely passed me by.
Although I have loved all the films on this list, I have to go with Sing Street for my best film of 2016 so far. The way this film subtly captured the joy of creative endeavor with the music and the way it formed a dynamic viewing of the search for identity especially during ones high school years drew me in all the way. But what really got me was the story of brotherhood in the midst of a broken home and a broken community--the way the older brother had lost something but loved his brother so much that he became a mentor to help him find what he himself never could. I left the theater in tears. Not to mention the perfect use of music, the melancholic cinematography, and the pitch perfect acting. I will revisit this film for many years to come.
I haven't seen enough of these films to give a truly educated vote, but I'm confident my choice would stay the same even if I had seen every movie released in 2016 thus far. It's Captain America: Civil War. I'm a superhero nerd, but this film is so great it transcends the genre. It's hilarious, got great action scenes and great performances with each character getting their due. Even more impressively, it dealt with its central conflict intelligently, making it one of the smartest, most intimate, most emotional superhero films ever.
Despite some excellent choices in Civil War and The Lobster, my vote will have to go towards Other with Sing Street. John Carney's musical brilliance shines through in his third fantastic feature. This and Once both have mad my list of all time favorites for their brilliant occupation of their target genre: those being cheesy 80s pop rock and coffee house acoustic respectively. This film actually exceeded the expectations I had for it, with simple yet lively music. The lyrics I could've written in my freshman yet in high school, but the tone they set blends brilliantly with the film itself. When compiled with the star making performances of Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Lucy Boynton, along with a surprisingly strong performance from Transformer 4's Jack Reynor, it makes for one hell of a good time and a theater experience I will never forget.
Even though I'm going with The Lobster by a whisker, if O.J.: Made in America is eligible (which is fine because it is a very good film) than Louis C.K.'s Horace and Pete gets my honorable mention. Check it out! It is definitely worth every penny!
I'm going with Swiss Army Man. It is one of the most original, most laugh-out-loud funny, most audacious, most assured, most insightful, most memorable, and most enjoyable films I have seen in a long time. The thing that really sold me on the entire movie was its ending. It takes a turn that I did not expect and was totally brave and true to the film's spirit. I loved every minute of this crazy thing, and I'm still singing 'Montage' days after seeing it. I really hope Adam enjoyed as much as I did, or had at least something close to my exuberant experience with it.
I have to go with The Lobster. It's a film that hasn't been able to get out of my head, one that is so brilliant with its sense of humor and subtlety, one with such strange yet fantastic performances, one with fantastic direction from Yorgos Lanthimos, one that even has fantastic costume design. That's something I would never care about in a film, but here it works so well! It's only real competition for me was Everybody Wants Some!!, which I had more fun at than Batman v Superman, Deadpool, and Captain America: Civil War combined, but The Lobster says something, and it says it so intelligently that I can't ignore it.
Enjoyed all the movies in the poll, but I've gotta go with Other. I saw Sing Street three times in the theater and its exuberance has no sign of letting up. It'll certainly be a rare blu-ray purchase for me. I've prattled on about it to the show in other methods already, and I hope a lot more listeners see it and do the same.
While you've given us some excellent options on the actual poll, my favorite film of 2016 thus far would have to be John Carney's magnificent Irish coming-of-age tale, SING STREET, which takes the music, fashion, and cultural upheaval of the 1980's in Britain and transforms them into the sweetest, most inspiring love story to come around since - well - the last time John Carney directed a film. Everything about this film rings as genuine and I've had more fun recommending it to friends than any film in recent memory - and no one has yet been disappointed. I have a fear this film is going to be forgotten as the year progresses, but everyone should experience it and leave the theatre - just like I did - singing these fantastic original songs.
Green Room is the best film so far and I'd be surprised if it's not still my #1 at the end of the year. It'll come up when the discussion of best films of the decade begins. I can't wait to see what Saulnier does next.
I would have gone with Hail Caesar! if it hadn't been for the high recommendation for The Neon Demon. After hearing the interview with Refn and Elle that was featured in your episode and I must say I was completely blown away. I have yet to see a movie this year with a more polarizing response from audiences. Forget the style vs. substance debate Refn take home gold in both categories.
From where I'm sitting, no film this year has worked quite as well as 10 Cloverfield Lane, especially considering the uphill battle it had. Director Dan Trachtenberg has such a firm grasp of how to control the tension throughout, and the claustrophobia persists until the third act, where everything changes. John Goodman delivers what may still be the best performance of the year as well, although Winstead and Gallagher carry more than their weight as well. I've seen the film three times now (twice in theaters, once on blu-ray the day it was released), and it doesn't get old at all.
with due consideration that I have only seen 8 2016 films - and no I don't count The Lobster or The Witch as 2016, but I'm sure there is some semi-rationale reason for including them in this list - the best film I have seen thus far is 10 Cloverfield Lane. The mix of genres, on the edge of your seat suspense and captivating performances by John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead just completely blew me away. Yes, it is amazing that they could make a film with a gazillion main characters in Captain America Civil War, but the screen writing achievement aside; no real villain and tedious infighting doesn't really make for entertaining cinematic experience.
Not completely sure it's my favorite of the year so far -- lots of movies in contention, including The Witch, Hail Caesar and Everybody Wants Some -- but I voted for a movie I just saw, Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It might be every bit as funny as What We Do in the Shadows, but with an exciting visual style and a moving and heartwarming emotional core. Best movie of the year so far or not, it's a must-see.
From Vancouver, BC
My vote goes to other, specifically to Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room. No other film has stayed so potently in my mind, no other sounds, no other images have stayed so vivid. Saulnier stripped his story of every ounce of fat, leaving behind a lean, grisly thriller.
I have a feeling i will be saying the same thing for the next six months, but whenever applicable, Green Room will be my vote.
Anyone who thinks Captain America: Civil War is the best film of the year needs to see more movies.
Oh boy, I must be way behind this year! I've only seen one of the six movies listed. But, of the movies I have seen, my favorites so far are:
1. The Nice Guys
2. 10 Cloverfield Lane
3. Zootopia
4. Hail, Caesar!
5. Deadpool
6. Finding Dory
I was tempted to vote for Captain America: Civil War which was great entertainment and storytelling, and I suspect that I might have voted for The Lobster had I had the chance to see it (which I haven't yet), but in my view the best picture of the year so far is 10 Cloverfield Lane. Much was written about The Hateful Eight's use of a single room, but 10 Cloverfield's similar use of a confined setting to generate suspense and tension among the characters trapped there was in my view even more impressive and effective. Combine that with the strongly-written character played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the sure-handed command over plot and tone, and the all-around excellent performances and you have the best film of 2016 so far.
The Lobster and Green Room were two of my favourites on the festival circuit in 2015, so far this year my favourite film is probably Indignation. The directorial debut of James Schamus is easily the greatest film adaptation of a Philip Roth novel (good luck Ewan) so far and one of the finest directorial debuts since Steve McQueen's Hunger. Which coincidentally, also hinges on a 20 minute confrontation that wrestles with free will and theology. Logan Lerman needs to star in every anachronistic book adaptation.
Although this year has had quite a few solid hits already, many of which are listed above, I had to choose other and go with Green Room. Jeremy Saulnier is quickly becoming one of my new favorite directors. Green Room stuck with me weeks after viewing it, and it's brilliance made the recent loss of Anton Yelchin even more tragic.
Although The Lobster, The Witch, and Caesar hold more arthouse appeal and will therefore probably get more votes from this crowd, at the end of the day I had to pick Civil War because its writers pulled off the near-impossible. As a screenwriting student, I know how difficult it is to plot out even a ninety-minute, single-protagonist drama, much less establish the ethical motivations of two lead characters, at least four major supporting characters, and up to twelve ancillary allies and incorporate it all into a two and a half hour plot--one that's still easy to follow, answers questions from previous movies, *and* set up future ones. I can't think of another film this year, or even very many from last year, that demonstrates such efficient storytelling craft. Especially when you put it up it against that other superhero movie from March that proved less than impressive, it's an incredibly difficult feat, one that will probably get less notice than it should because screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely made it all look so easy.