2016 was an interesting year for movies. A number of big blockbusters came out, but it was the indie movies that were the real winners, though it appears general consensus is hard to pinpoint one particularly "big" movie.
In any case, here are quick thoughts and my rankings for the movies I saw circa 2016.
Favorites
Kubo and the Two Strings - Hands down favorite movie. Amazing craftsmanship, production design and musical score, among others, help overshadow any story or character issues. It's message on the importance of memory and storytelling is beautiful (especially compared to self-indulgent Hollywood stories).
The Handmaiden - Fantastic movie. It's like Hitchcock meets Paul Verhoeven meets feminism. Beautiful visuals and music.
Moana - Incredibly vibrant movie with luscious visuals and good humor, if occasional a little too post-modern. Enjoyable songs, with great messages and themes throughout the film.
Sing Street - It may be relatively cliche, but the overwhelming charm, 80s setting and fantastic soundtrack make it a near-instant classic. Also has probably the best song of the year: Drive it Like You Stole It.
Very Good, with minor flaws
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople - Great performances by Sam Neill(!), Julian Dennison (the kid!) and Rima Te Wiata (Bella!), with plenty of charm and goofiness. The dynamic between Neill and Dennison are great, losing only a little steam towards the end.
Don't Breathe - Great filmmaking throughout. Some excellent shots, interesting enough characters and solid tension.
Moonlight - Profoundly sad love story. Took a little time to fully sink in, but haunting.
La La Land - Didn't care for most of the musical numbers or Hollywood nostalgia, but loved the growth of the characters during the film. Great maturity.
Train to Busan - Doesn't add much to the zombie genre, but is a great ride.
Kung Fu Panda 3 - The weakest of the three, but still great music, visuals, style and message
Deadpool - Very fun characters and relationships help elevate the mundane plot, but is also helped by it being partly a satire.
The Mermaid - STEPHEN CHOW!!! It's a great return-to-form for Chow, plus more modern elements.
Swiss Army Man - Incredibly inventive film with some inspiring sequences, but it's weirdness may be polarizing - occasionally simultaneously good and bad.
Arrival - The philosophy presented in the film, combined with the direction, cinematography and music elevate an otherwise cheesy plot (global crisis) with hit or miss acting/characters.
Green Room - Not the most interesting characters, but once the film and tension gets going it does not let up. Even up to the last shot. Incredibly excellent job of tension.
Finding Dory - Incredibly well made, very sentimental, but also strangely almost completely superfluous
The Jungle Book - Gorgeous visuals help elevate an otherwise shallow nostlagia trip with some nice genuine emotional beats.
Zootopia - The relationship between the two leads plus social commentary help the film stand out, even if some of the jokes fall flat and the message is a bit garbled by the end. Zootopia is the more adult version of KFP3.
The Wailing - Interesting Korean horror regarding exorcisms and various religions. It starts as a comedy then slowly gets darker and darker.
Hell or High Water - Great relationships and dialogue save an otherwise paint-by-numbers plot. The movies screams TEXAS, but not in a bad way (similar to Fargo in MN). Nice commentary on land/history.
13th - Insightful documentary on the connections between slavery and the US prison system. The narrative could maybe have been structured better, but lots of information.
Enjoyed, but flawed
Batman vs Superman: Extended Cut - Acknowledging its made some disagreeable creative choices with regards to characters, the plot makes sense and may have received some undeserved hatred. Certainly better than Man of Steel or Suicide Squad.
Nocturnal Animals - Great cinematography, music, performances and ending, but it was missing something to really gel for me.
Star Trek Beyond - As the third entry, the film solidifies the series' direction of action-adventure. Entertaining, but fluffy, with zero new ideas (and a number of half-assed ones, like the new female character).
Captain America: Civil War - One of the more enjoyable Marvel movies, but very, very messy. Bit too self-indulgent at times.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - Crass and sophomoric, but knows what it is and has a number of funny (and cring-worthy) moments.
Under the Shadow - An interesting story, with nice visuals, but not as compelling as the comparable The Babadook.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping - Pretty much what you'd expect from an Andy Samberg/Lonely Island satire on pop music, but well done, with good creativity and music.
Sausage Party - An almost South Park-level of satire with great commentary on religion/faith, but significantly marred by an overly crude and sophomoric script.
The Siege of Jadotville - Pretty entertaining war-action movie telling a lesser-known perspective from a real-life event, though lacking a bit on story and character development.
Lights Out - Completely serviceable horror with nice visual design.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - It's fine. Not Burton's best or worst. Could have used more runtime and fleshing out of ideas/characters. Lead actor (Asa) could have been better and Sam Jackson could have been better utilized.
The Nice Guys - Somewhat closer to the "meh" side. Russell Crowe is a bunch of fun, along with the daughter (though she has a few off moments), whereas Ryan Gosling is uneven. The film borders on a boring, been-there-done-that Shane Black story, though has nice moments and ideas. A lot of great trailer moments don't actually fit in the movie. Needed better editing for story and film.
Doctor Strange - Inventive visual sequences weren't enough to elevate a cliched script and origin story. Benedict Cumberbatch didn't work for me as Strange, though he was great in the end credits sequence. Lots of forced humor that didn't work.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - A number of interesting ideas and elements weren't enough to save this from an odd, if not inconsistent, choice of tone (not a fan of Yates). I did love Colin Farrell as the villain (more roles like this please).
Didn't Enjoy
The Witch - Started very promising, almost like Kubrick, but I didn't care about any of the characters. Interesting ending, but fairly standard witch movie.
Keeping Up with the Joneses - Interesting characters and relationships aren't enough to save an incredibly cliched and predictable plot. There are some good ideas, for which I would be either open to a sequel or perhaps a TV series.
Gantz: O - Mostly impressive animation, though the humans are on the weaker side. The dialogue is very weak to average, with a number of dumb/forced creative choices. Also, it's pretty sexist.
War Dogs - Probably wanted to be Wolf of Wall Street, but failed. Too slowly paced with unlikable characters.
Midnight Special - This felt like an incomplete, pretentious movie.
High-Rise - Started interesting, then falls apart. Never quite achieves the highs it wants to.
50 Shades of Black - Funny, but forgettable and generic.
Ghostbusters - Starts out OK, but becomes less funny after the first-third. Unearned action sequence at the end, combined with a messy plot/bad writing hurt the movie. An unfortunate misfire for the talented lead actresses.
Now You See Me 2 - Better off rewatching the first, which was dumb-but-fun.
Batman: The Killing Joke - The original content is the most interesting part, then taking a big dive when it goes into an accurate adaptation of the comic. We never really follow any one character, which hurts.
Joshy - Forgettable indie melodrama.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - The weak characters prevented me from being invested in the story, which could probably shave a good 40 minutes and not miss anything.
Suicide Squad - Hard to care about any characters, let alone the plot. The tone is uneven and the editing is sloppy. Becomes more consistent towards the end, but it lost me by then.
Spectral - Found the film to be very flat and bland. The name of the villains made me roll my eyes.
X-Men: Apocalypse - Can't spell "Apocalypse" without "POS"
2016 movies I've yet to see, but want to:
Elle
Don't Think Twice
Hidden Figures
The Edge of Seventeen
20th Century Women
Tickled
Justice League Dark
Lion
Jack Reacher 2
Secret Life of Pets
As for TV shows, I didn't watch much, but here are the highlights:
The Expanse: Season 1 - It may have technically started in 2015, but this was a great first season. First few episodes move the plot forward quickly, then do a better mix of plot and character afterwards.
Luke Cage: Season 1 - Great style, characters and music. Really enjoyed this, even if I wish they had extended the first story arc a bit longer, if only to get more of one character.
Black Mirror: Season 3 - Easily the best season of the series yet. San Junipero is a great episode of television, though I did have issues with the two characters falling in love so quickly. The season opener was a bit weak, but each subsequent episode gets better and better.
Lady Dyanmite: Season 1 - Delightful. The season's a bit uneven, but the highs are incredibly high. The lows are fairly enjoyable, as well.
South Park: Season 20 - First two episodes were brilliantly hilarious, then the show got a bit too real for awhile, while also scrambling to match the then-current political events, but brilliantly picked things back up again towards the end
Westworld: Season 1 - I was compelled while watching, but ultimately ended the season underwhelmed. Some really great episodes, but the show mostly worked via storytelling gimmicks that fall apart upon reasonable analysis.
Game of Thrones: Season 6 - The last episode was the real money episode, otherwise it was a slow season (though certainly better than S5) with some nice moments scattered throughout.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 2 - While the first season had rough moments, it was pretty fun, on the whole. However, with season 2, I gave up after four episodes.
2016 shows yet to watch:
Atlanta
Insecure
