The 25 Best Films Of 2016 - Page 3 of 5

Michael Shannon Midnight Special15. “Midnight Special”
2016 has been a shit year, but I think we can all agree that Jeff Nichols is one of the best things to have happened to it. Along with “Loving,” his tender depiction of an interracial couple’s fight to simply love each other in a virulently racist society, he gave us “Midnight Special,” a somewhat-Spielbergian sci-fi/adventure that manages to be both grounded and awe-inspiring. The story of two parents, played with spectacular empathy by Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst, going on the run to protect their supernaturally gifted child from an overzealous cult and the paranoid government, the film strips the sci-fi elements to their core. Nichols extracts as much of a realistic, character-driven drama out of this premise as possible, while making sure to deliver thrilling set pieces with just the right amount of special-effects grandstanding. This is how an indie director should handle straight genre material, especially when it comes to throwbacks that are always in danger of getting lost in a sludge of easy nostalgia. So despite the sci-fi elements, “Midnight Special” is ultimately about what it means to be a parent, and how far we’re willing to go to protect our children. This is succinctly encapsulated in a brief but powerful exchange: When the gifted child tells his father that he doesn’t have to worry about him anymore, Dad replies, “I like worrying about you. I’ll always worry about you. That’s the deal.” —Oktay Ege Kozak

Annette Bening and Lucas Jade Zumann in Mike Mills''20th Century Women'14. “20th Century Women”
There’s a sensation of soft buoyancy about Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women.” Aerial shots of the Santa Barbara coastline, coupled with an airy, ambient score by Roger Neill, give the feeling of floating on the surface of a bubble before plunging into this microcosm of 1979 America. Coming on the heels of Mills’ equally masterful “Beginners,” which was inspired by Mills’ father, this is a tribute to his mother, whose proxy is the acerbic Dorothea, played oh-so-beautifully by Annette Bening. She corrals her herd — son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), his best friend Julie (Elle Fanning), and boarders Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and William (Billy Crudup) — with a wave of a cigarette and an arched eyebrow; every moment of Bening’s performance is both spot-on and a delightful surprise. It feels incredible that a film this knowing about women was made by a man, but Mills is an unusually sensitive and perceptive filmmaker. These women are seen through the observant eyes of Jamie, whom Zumann imbues with a preternatural sense of empathy. He knows these women, but there’s still an air of mystery and curiosity that surrounds them. It’s a deeply loving and respectful acknowledgment that he just might not ever fully understand them. Through the lives of the women we get to know, Mills is able to cover much of the evolution of women in the 20th century, with his singular ability to make his personal feel universal. “20th Century Women” is a delicate, rich tapestry of life — a true masterpiece. —Katie Walsh

isabelle-huppert-elle13. “Elle”
In a year filled with empty provocations, shallow shocks, and people crying foul at “political correctness gone mad,” one of cinema’s greatest provocateurs returned to the big screen to show everyone how it’s done. “Elle” sees Paul Verhoeven teaming up with living legend Isabelle Huppert for his first theatrical feature in over a decade, and their collaboration makes for one of the most entertaining experiences of the year, which is the last thing one would or should expect from a thriller centering on a rape. But in the hands of Verhoeven and Huppert, along with an excellent screenplay by David Birke, the film embraces the complexity and gravity of the situation while subverting every single expectation associated with portraying victims of sexual assault. That the film pulls it all off so effortlessly is because of Huppert, whose performance is one of the greatest balancing acts of the year, creating a woman who uses her intelligence, wit, and sexuality to gain back the control taken from her without looking like she ever lost it. 2016 needed Paul Verhoeven more than ever, and his latest work shows him at the top of his game, taking pleasure in contradictions and messy morals while daring us not to smile alongside with him. —C.J. Prince

Hell-or-High-Water-412. “Hell Or High Water”
One of 2016’s most unassuming pleasures and most unexpected critical hits, this Western/heist-movie hybrid is just as funny as it is thrilling. Even more surprising is that a film so purely West Texas at its heart as this was made by Scottish director David Mackenzie, but credit also goes to “Sicario” screenwriter — and native Texan — Taylor Sheridan. With these two talents, “Hell Or High Water” is a near-perfect melding of tone, setting, plot, dialogue and character, and each element perfectly serves all the others. Despite polar-opposite temperaments, two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) band together to rob the bank chain that foreclosed on their family’s land, while two Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham) are on their tail. Foster’s firecracker, ex-con brother and Bridges’ cursing, on-the-cusp-of-retirement lawman have gotten most of the praise, but it’d be a shame to overlook the quieter performances from the driven-by-desperation Pine and the long-suffering Birmingham. Mackenzie’s direction and Sheridan’s script make the seesaw between suspense and comedy look easy, while Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ score — alternately rousing and mournful — further settles us in the Lone Star State, taking up residence alongside those who are out of legal options, and those who will pursue them no matter how much their ideologies align. —Kimber Myers

OJ: Made in America11. “O.J.: Made In America”
There is no other way to describe Ezra Edelman‘s “O.J: Made in America” but as a towering and masterful achievement in documentary filmmaking. It is the film that we badly needed in 2016, a sort-of wake-up call with its in-depth investigation into America’s history of racism, misogyny and celebrity, and the way those three factors combined and conspired to create the rise-and-fall, glory-and-disgrace narrative of Orenthal James Simpson. The way Edelman weaves and shapes the interlocking themes and stories in his film is nothing short of amazing. This is psychology and sociology all rolled up into an eight-hour package that will make you rethink and assess your own personal beliefs and convictions, as the players on hand here — lawyers, agents, tycoons, athletes, wives, sons, daughters — make it a sort of ‘Iliad‘ for our time. It’s a sprawling, ambitious film that doesn’t just hold a mirror up to O.J,, but reflects all of us, all of society and forces us to ask questions of ourselves as Americans, and as human beings. What do you believe in? The fact that “O.J.: Made in America” might change your answer, and that it manages to tell a familiar story to us in fresh and inventive ways, is a testament to Edelman’s talents as a storyteller and to the fact that his film is built to last, and it will. —Jordan Ruimy