1. Moonlight. A heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful coming-of-age story of a gay black man. Its formal innovations with several beautifully composed and stylized point-of-view shots perfectly enhance the story and theme. Matching the beautiful visuals are superb performances. Every one is a work of wonder. The film tells its narrative episodically and elliptically in three chapters where we see the protagonist as a boy, a teenager, and a young man. This is a film that will be watched and discussed in film studies classes for years.
2. O.J.: Made in America. A powerful, detailed, nearly 8-hour documentary on the trial of the century and the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson but also a history of institutional racism in Southern California and an examination of the failure of the American dream. We learn that O.J. was a man who chose to assimilate into the privileged white Brentwood society and cared much more about fame and money than his race or his family. We also hear and see video recordings that document the institutional racism of the LAPD. The film clearly shows how the police discriminated against African Americans and how the justice system favors not only white police officers but also famous rich people. Another major revelation is that the jurors either ignored or brushed off the overwhelming evidence of O.J.'s history of domestic abuse. This seems to suggest that the jurors, and by extension Americans, blamed the victim not the perpetrator. Finally, we are reminded of the egregious mishandling of evidence by the LAPD and how the prosecution lost its case partly because of the stupid decision to have O.J. try on the famous leather glove. (streaming on Hulu)
3. Son of Saul. I sometimes wonder if there have been too many Holocaust films--especially considering the relative dearth of other historical films on, say, American slavery or genocide in Cambodia. But two of the best films in the last couple of years (Phoenix and Son of Saul) have been films about the Holocaust, which tells us that there is still more to say about the Shoah. (I do look forward to more films about other historical eras, though). The Hungarian film Son of Saul is told entirely from the point of view of a Sonderkommando, a member of prisoner work group usually comprised of Jews. In the film, after other prisoners have entered the gas chamber, the protagonist and others check clothing for valuables and then discard the dead bodies. The protagonist discovers a boy who miraculously survives the gas chamber (at least temporarily) and the protagonist begins--for a reason that is never given--a quest to find the boy and give him proper burial rights. This is a totally original and emotional film that gets at the complexities of life and death and one man's attempt to control something in a world where nothing is in his control. And the semi first-person perspective places us in the middle of the dark, brutal, incomprehensible environment.
5. Cemetery of Splendour. A film by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (don't ask me how to pronounce his name). Like all of his films, Cemetery of Splendour ruminates serenely on the past and the way the past impacts the present. No one makes films like Weerasethakul. They are strange and surreal works of art.
7. Manchester by the Sea. Unlike The Lobster, Manchester is one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. A powerful and moving story about loss and the difficulties of moving past grief. Everyone has commented on Casey Affleck's performance as an emotionally scarred loner--and rightly so--but Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges are just as good. I felt the music was a bit heavy-handed in a few spots, but this was a minor problem in an otherwise superb story.
9. Kubo and the Two Strings. A stop-motion animated film set in an ancient fantastical Japan. So many animated films look exactly the same. Even Pixar's high-quality films don't have much variation in visual style. But Kubo tells a compelling story and it is visually distinctive and original. The all-white cast somewhat mars the film and I suppose that some might charge the film with a kind of cultural appropriation, but it does feature a cockroach samurai, so that sort of makes up for it.
10. Embrace of the Serpent. A poetic black and white film that tells the story of two European scientists in search of a rare healing plant in the heart of the Amazon. It's the story of the impact of colonialism.
Still trying to decide if I liked Nocturnal Animals, and I wish I could have like Terrence Malick's hyper-arty Knight of Cups more than I did.
