It’s that time of the year.
This is my Top 10 Movies of 2016 list.
This list is not exclusive to American cinema.
It includes films from all over the world.
Let’s begin
Kicking off at number 10 is … Captain Fantastic
You live deep in the jungle with your mom and dad, practicing mountain climbing, hunting
and other survival skills while also reading Fredrich Nietzche.
What happens when you are forced to reintegrate with the society?
That’s this story in a nutshell.
Captain Fantastic is an indie film, which probably many of you would not have seen.
Great performances, introspective story and relevant philosophy makes us forgive the
at times meandering screenplay.
No. 9 Midnight Special
Midnight Special is an American science fiction film that’s written and directed by
Jeff Nicholas.
It stars some really talented actors like Michael Shannon, Kristen Dunst, Joel Edgerton,
Kylo Ren … sorry Adam Driver and the little boy whose name I can’t spell.
Jeff Nicholas has already proved that he is a solid filmmaker through Mud and Take Shelter.
Midnight Special is a grounded science fiction film that offers a glimpse on what it feels,
to be near a person with special powers.
It very much reminded me of M.Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, with its low-key science fiction storyline
No 8 Sleeping Giant
Sleeping Giant is a Canadian drama that revolves around three teenagers.
It follows them through their summer in cottage country on the shores of Lake Superior.
Sleeping Giant is filmmaker Andrew Cividino’s debut film.
But he handled the heavy nature of the subject and its teenage actors like a veteran filmmaker
and it is certainly the best Canadian film of the year.
No. 7 Zootopia
I didn’t think that I would enjoy Zootopia as much as I did.
The animation and lighting was on par with Pixar films.
Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman completely stole the show as Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde
and I loved the fact that Zootopia could be any major city in the world and the lesson
would still be the same.
No 6 Violent Prosecutor
Violent Prosecutor is a Korean action comedy film.
After a brilliant lawyer is framed and convicted for a murder, he tries to catch the real murderer
from inside the prison with the help of a con artist.
Korean films are kicking ass this year and they are not leaving any genre unturned.
No 5 Demolition
Jake Gyllenhall is on fire.
I know this film was not received well at the box office, but I, loved it.
I loved the fact that a mainstream Hollywood movie with an A list actor talks about death,
not just at the surface but it dwelled deep into what it means to loose someone.
Topped with retro soundtrack and incredible editing you get a film in my Top 5 list
No 4 Aandavan Kattalai, also known as My Dear Visa
is a South Indian Tamil language comedy drama film.
It revolves around two friends from a small village who aspires to go to London, UK on
a visitor visa and work there illegally so that they can repay their loans.
It is safe to say that they never make it to London and the whole film is about the
comedy of errors while obtaining their visas.
It is so rare nowadays to come across a film that talks about real people and their real
problems.
This film did exactly that, while making me laugh so hard throughout the runtime.
No 3 Train to Busan
Train to Busan is a Korean Zombie horror film.
I told you, Korean cinema is doing some serious filmmaking.
Zombie horror used to be my favorite genre but now it’s been beaten to death with B
grade filmmaking and unimaginative storylines.
This film was a breath of fresh air.
Not only was it gory, it also managed to tell a good story with an underlying political
implication and a gut wrenching ending.
It started out as a commercial zombie film and it ended as a classic.
No 2 Arrival, yes, it is no more surprising to
see a Denis Villeneuve film in a top 10 list.
It seems like he is one of the Jesus Christs of Hollywood, the other one is Christopher Nolan
Arrival is based on one of my favorite books, Ted Chiang’s Story of Your life.
It is a book adaptation done right.
It talks about how language is going to be the next step in human evolution and even
after a couple of days, some deeper implications of the movie dawn on you, even when you are
sleeping.
That is just great writing.
No 1 The Holy Grail of 2016.
The best movie of the year … is …
The Wailing
Korean cinema is on fire
Hong Jin-Na’s The Wailing is a horror movie that took some time to find its footing but
when it did, it left me shaking, hours after the movie.
My friend and I came out of the movie theater well after midnight.
We walked miles discussing the movie, as we simply couldn’t contain the excitement as
we had found the best movie of 2016.
It is also in my Top 5 best movies of all time list.
Even the finest of American Horrors couldn’t come close to The Wailing.
If you are a horror fan and you didn’t watch The Wailing yet, close this tab immediately
and watch it.
I didn’t watch some of the movies that I wanted to watch and I probably wouldn’t
watch before the end of this year and some of these movies might or might not have ended
up in the list.
Films like Martin Scorsese’s Silence, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson etc.
If you like this video, consider liking, subscribing and sharing with your friends on social media.
It does help a lot.
I’ve also inserted a couple of videos that I did, discussing the movie Arrival, Language
and Evolution and a video analyzing Memories of Murder and Train to Busan.
You could click and watch if you are interested.
Thank you for watching and see you next week in another video.