Top Ten of 2016

As it turns out, I never posted my top ten list for 2016. I had it mostly worked out at the time, but never got around to finalizing and posting it.

Very often, after a year has passed I come to regret certain decisions, but looking back I still think I can stand by this list.

10. El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent) dir. Ciro Guerra - This was Colombia's entry in the Foreign Language Film category for the 2015 awards year. It was nominated, but opened commercially in the United States in early 2016, hence its inclusion on this list. Stunning black and white cinematography and a sedate tone make this one of the year's best, a meditative adventure story that weaves Heart of Darkness themes into a quest to find a mystical life-saving and mind-altering plant.

9. Captain America: Civil War dir. Joe and Anthony Russo - This is the culmination of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that preceded it. If you go back and watch them, they were laying the groundwork for these themes as early as Iron Man 2. An ideological rift among The Avengers, one side grouping behind Iron Man, who wants to divest control over to the government with the other lining up for Captain America, who is leery of such a move, sets the stage for a showdown. The brilliance of the screenplay is that neither side is entirely right or wrong. They represent two sides of the same coin. It's the rare comic book movie whose ideas are on par with its action set pieces.

8. Lion dir. Garth Davis - A deeply affecting and moving story of a young man's search for his birth mother and brother in India after being adopted and raised by an Australian family as a boy.

7. The Handmaiden dir. Park Chan-wook - A weird wild erotic thriller that involves love, seduction, betrayal, double and triple-crosses.

6. O.J. Made in America dir. Ezra Edelmann - This is a sprawling seven hour documentary that examines the O.J. Simpson murder trial from every angle, beginning with the racial tensions that plagued L.A. in the decades preceding the trial. Edelmann catches up with nearly every major player involved in the crime, the getaway, the investigation and the trial and does due diligence in upturning every stone. You couldn't ask for a more comprehensive study of the subject. And at seven hours you'd think it would be full of bloat, but it's enrapturing through and through.

5. Jackie dir. Pablo Larraín -

4. Silence dir. Martin Scorsese -

3. I Am Not Your Negro dir. Raoul Peck -

2. Manchester by the Sea - dir. Kenneth Lonergan

1. La La Land dir. Damien Chazelle -