Dale Robinette(NEW YORK) — La La Land, Moonlight and Arrival are my top 3; the rest are just simply the best, in no particular order:
La La Land
It will go down as one of the great musicals, and that’s because of writer-director Damien Chazelle, who handles its anachronistic style with ease. It helps that co-stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have better chemistry than Walter White. But La La Land is more than a movie musical: it’s a perfect Hollywood love story about the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect Hollywood love story. In that way, it’s one of the most subversive movies of the year.
Moonlight
The year’s best-directed film: nothing else comes close. The opening sequence alone is worth the price of admission. Moonlight is a devastating and nuanced film which uses every aspect of filmmaking to immerse you in a difficult coming-of-age story: a gay black man in South Florida is raised by a single, drug-addicted mother and struggles his entire life to feel comfortable in his own skin.
Arrival
Amy Adams is the face of one of the best sci-fi films ever made. It’s a twist on the good old alien invasion story, but with a brilliant, albeit controversial, ending. Arrival arrives and you just don’t want it to leave: it stays with you long after you’ve walked out of the movie theater.
Lion
Based on a true story, a barely-recognizable Dev Patel moves beyond Slumdog Millionaire with his portrayal of Saroo, an Indian man searching for his biological family 25 years after he gets separated from his brother at a train station. Equally as moving is Sunny Pawar, the boy who plays young Saroo. You will cry a Ganges river.
Loving
Also based on a true story, Loving tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple in Virginia who challenged the segregation laws that deemed their marriage to be illegal. It’s an understated and nuanced film with powerhouse Oscar-worthy performances from Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga.
10 Cloverfield Lane
It’s perplexing that there’s been no Oscar campaign for John Goodman, who’s fantastic in this small-budget follow-up to the extremely mediocre Cloverfield. It’s easily one of the most suspenseful films of the year, and that has everything to do with Goodman’s creepy and paranoid performance.
Nocturnal Animals
Fashion designer and director Tom Ford creates a searing and unique narrative about an art gallery owner who is consumed by a manuscript written by her ex-husband. At this point, almost anytime Jake Gyllenhaal is one of your lead characters, your film is likely going to be considered one of the best of the year. There’s also Amy Adams as the art gallery owner, plus Michael Shannon and a twisted tour-de-force of acting from Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
I initially wanted no part of this movie. Turns out — with deference to Episode IV: A New Hope, because it started it all — Rogue One could be the best Star Wars movie ever made.
Manchester By The Sea
Kenneth Lonergan writes and directs a film that perfectly captures the personal hell of Casey Affleck’s Lee Chandler, whose sudden loss of his beloved brother pales in comparison to another unimaginable tragedy. Over the years, Lonergan has proven his ability to understand and convey human behavior and characteristics while drawing out the humor and irony in uncomfortable and sometimes tragic circumstances. The performances in this movie are sure to garner a few Oscar nominations.
Moana & Pete’s Dragon
These films are both Disney products, and Disney is the parent company of ABC News. My parent company moved me to tears — twice — and it had nothing to do with the terrible smell coming from the cafeteria. (That’s a joke: our cafeteria is fantastic and smells great).
Sully
Perhaps the best sequence in any movie this year happens in this film: the recreation of US Airways Flight 1589 in its entirety. It’s one of the best attempts in cinema to convey the experience of commercial flying. Unlike his Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci code franchise flop Inferno, Hanks is brilliant here as Sully, the real-life pilot behind the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Perhaps even better is Aaron Eckhart as co-pilot Jeff Skiles. Clint Eastwood’s hands-off approach to directing allows this story to breathe and feel completely organic and awe-inspiring.
Silence
Scorsese’s exploration of religious persecution in 17th century Japan is a near masterpiece, daring and brutal in its scope and subject matter. Scorcese holds a clinic in moviemaking while following the mystery of a missing Christian missionary in a land — and time — when Christians were either tortured or killed if they didn’t renounce Jesus. Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver play priests and students of that missing missionary, motivated by Jesus in their mission to find their teacher. They’re spectacular in their portrayal of religiosity, faith and skepticism, and Scorsese’s eye for detail and symbolism has never been better.
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