[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It’s January. You know what that means: It’s cold out (at least where I live). But January is also the month where I deliver the much anticipated list that a handful of people ask me about each year for lack of a better topic of conversation. Yes, I’m referring to my Top 10 Movies of 2016, which is not telling you anything you don’t already know since you’re reading a post titled “Top 10 Movies of 2016” at this very moment. Before you get started, my usual disclaimer: These may not necessarily be the best movies that hit theaters in the last year, but they were certainly the ones that I liked the most.

So without further adieu, here are my Top 10 Movies of 2016.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”733″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]10. Nocturnal Animals. Once you get past the bizarre opening credits — which I’m certain I’ll never forget for as long as I live, for better or for worse — Nocturnal Animals delivers an unconventional but gripping psychological thriller, with much of the drama taking place within the unpublished novel that Jake Gyllenhaal’s character has written and delivered to his ex-wife. Amy Adams is said ex-wife, and she is exceptional as an icy art gallery owner who becomes enthralled with the manuscript, providing a dark but compelling escape from the emptiness of her present life. The fictional story within the film — which also features Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, rounding out an outstanding cast — follows a husband (also played by Gyllenhaal) who becomes consumed with a need for revenge after the murder of his wife and daughter. Nocturnal Animals is not without its detractors — for some, the subtle ending will feel like a cop out — but the riveting performances were more than worth the price of admission.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”674″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]9. The Lobster. This film was made for a specific subset of the population that possesses a pitch black sense of humor, and I happen to be a member of that target audience. This is certainly not for everyone. The Lobster introduces us to a dystopian reality in which single people are remanded to a hotel where each of them has 45 days to find a partner, otherwise they’ll be transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into the wilderness. Loners who have managed to escape the hotel live in the woods, where there are frequent headphone dance parties but also strict rules forbidding romantic relationships. This is satire at its most absurd, taking aim at a society fixated on forcing people to pair off or face the prospect of dying alone. And the casting of Colin Farrell against type as a schlub sent to the hotel after his wife leaves him for another man is a stroke of genius.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”670″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]8. The Nice Guys. Writer-director Shane Black made a name for himself — and redefined the action genre — with 1987’s Lethal Weapon, for me nothing quite compares to his directorial debut, 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It’s a neo-noir Christmas classic about a thief pretending to be an actor preparing for the role of a private detective, with pre-Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. in the lead role. See it, if you haven’t already. The Nice Guys isn’t quite up to par with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but they’re cut from the same cloth, including Black’s trademark sense of humor and affection for rich dialogue. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are Holland March and Jackson Healy, a private investigator and an enforcer, respectively, who form an unlikely partnership in pursuit of a missing girl. But the real coup here is the casting of 14-year-old Angourie Rice as a young girl who appears to be more of a gumshoe than March, her father.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”668″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]7. Deadpool. I dare you to watch the opening credits without at least cracking a smile. This film is an absolute blast from start to finish. Deadpool has received a lot of praise for offering a refreshing dose of meta self-awareness in an era inundated with superheroes who often take themselves much too seriously. But for me, the reason Deadpool succeeded is because the creative team had obvious affection for the material and were allowed the freedom to create a film worthy of the character. If not for leaked test footage, this film might never have even been greenlit. Fortunately, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, director Tim Miller, and leading man Ryan Reynolds were able to deliver a confident and unrestrained film adaptation of Marvel’s Merc with a Mouth. The final product speaks for itself. There are some who will turn up their noses at the lowbrow humor, but I’m not one of them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”666″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]6. Star Trek Beyond. I grew up on Star Wars, but I’ve come around on Star Trek, in large part due to J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the franchise — even though 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness proved to be a false step. With Abrams vacating the director’s chair to take the helm of the Millennium Falcon, director Justin Lin stepped in to right the ship and Star Trek Beyond accomplishes exactly that. Whereas Into Darkness was too caught up in trying to re-imagine a tale that didn’t need to be retold, Beyond is able to offer the franchise a second wind while tapping into what made the original series so fun and compelling. Kirk and Spock are front and center as per usual, but this outing is more of a team effort, with the entire crew marooned on an uncharted planet after a vengeful alien despot lays waste to the Enterprise. The ensemble cast is terrific, and Star Trek Beyond represents a welcome return to form for a series that often gets overshadowed by a certain other franchise from a galaxy far, far away.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”673″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]5. Hell or High Water. Look out for Taylor Sheridan. The former television actor — you might recognize him as Deputy Chief David Hale if you’ve watched the first couple seasons of FX’s Sons of Anarchy — has reinvented his career as a screenwriter, first with 2014’s Sicario and now with Hell or High Water. This has the feel of a modern Western, complete with Chris Pine and Ben Foster delivering outstanding (and understated) performances as two brothers — one of them a divorced father and the other an ex-con — who are robbing small town banks in West Texas as part of a scheme to save their family’s ranch. Jeff Bridges is the soon-to-be retired Texas Ranger tasked with putting the brakes on their crime spree. But Hell or High Water is more than cops and robbers. It’s far more concerned with the institutions that control our lives and threaten to trample the kind of people who built this country.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”664″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]4. 10 Cloverfield Lane. This one had me from the first trailer. I maintain that J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions are masters of modern marketing, and the decision to reveal nothing about the film until two months before the release date was a calculated risk that worked beautifully. But while the marketing is what led me to the theater, what held me there were the lead performances, in particular Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman. Winstead’s Michelle wakes up after a car accident to find herself in the fallout bunker of Goodman’s Howard, who leads her to believe that he saved her from a cataclysm that has laid waste to the outside world. The question of whether or not Howard is telling the truth sets the stage for a tense battle of wits between Michelle and Howard, and where 10 Cloverfield Lane stands apart is in crafting a female protagonist who is more of a formidable heroine than a helpless victim. This claustrophobic thriller is also an impressive directorial debut for Dan Trachtenberg.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]These next three films are a cut above the rest. To be honest, each made a compelling case for the top spot, and I struggled to rank one over the other. Twenty years from now, I might still be questioning these same choices, but for now this is what I’m going with… I think.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”676″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]3. La La Land. For a long time, I avoided musicals. I think I can count on one hand the numbers of musics that I’ve actually seen (The Wizard of Oz counts, right?). But when I heard about a modern musical from Damien Chazelle, the writer and director of 2014’s Whiplash, I wasn’t about to let a lifelong aversion to song-and-dance routines keep me from the theater. La La Land has been described as a love letter to the city of Los Angeles, but this is also the tale of two dreamers — one a struggling jazz musician and the other an aspiring actress — whose career aspirations, and the sacrifices required to be successful, threaten to upend their whirlwind romance. Despite an undercurrent of melancholy throughout, La La Land is fun and refreshing — a welcome respite from a recent trend towards gloom and cynicism. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been listening to the music almost nonstop since I saw it.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”660″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]2. Manchester By The Sea. There is an unimaginable tragedy at the heart of Manchester By The Sea — one that I won’t spoil here, in large part because I subscribe to the belief that the less you know about a film before seeing it, the better — but the film’s tortured protagonist never speaks of it. You keep waiting for him to break down and spill his guts, but aside from a few cracks here and there, the moment never comes. And that places an enormous amount of pressure on the performance of Casey Affleck, who delivers career best work as a janitor forced out of self-imposed exile when the sudden death of his older brother leaves him the legal guardian of his teenage nephew. But aside from Affleck, what stood out the most about Manchester By The Sea for me was how it captured those authentic moments of awkward and unintentional humor that can crop up when coping with grief and loss.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”658″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow”][vc_column_text]1. Arrival. Twelve alien spacecrafts have descended upon the Earth, but rather than watch as the invaders eviscerate the White House as part of your standard issue plot to wipe out mankind, we follow Amy Adams’ linguist Louise Banks as she attempts to communicate with a pair of extraterrestrials who don’t understand a single word of English. But Arrival is about so much more than aliens. The drama comes not from a conflict with these interstellar travels, but from the conflict we create amongst ourselves when confronted with the terror of the unknown — when we allow fear and paranoia to give way to our worst instincts. At a critical point in history when mankind has never been more divided, Arrival offers a glimmer of hope for humanity, as long as people are willing to open their minds and their hearts.

Arrival also serves as another reminder that Denis Villeneuve is fast becoming one of the finest directors in Hollywood. This is a superb follow-up to 2013’s Prisoners and 2015’s Sicario, and I can’t wait to see next year’s Blade Runner 2049. If Villeneuve is in the director’s seat, I’ll be watching.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Just a Bit Outside (in alphabetical order): The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Captain America – Civil War, The Conjuring 2, Doctor Strange, Don’t Think Twice, Fences, Midnight Special, Patriots Day, Pete’s Dragon, Rogue One, Sausage Party, and Zootopia.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]