I’m sitting here at three thirty in the morning, and now the lyrics to The Thunder Rolls run through my head, thinking about this list for Comic Crusaders of the best films of the year that I’ve seen for the wonderful site. All in all in 2016 has been a good year for film. There have been some great movies that will stay with me forever and there are some films that just had me banging my head against the wall wondering why they got funding. All I can say is that for some movies the names attached to the films just carry more weight than the actual entertainment value of the film. But as I try to do with everything in life, when I look back at the past, I destroy the bad times and focus on the positive. Although, and I have to bring this up too, the worst film of the year for me will be mentioned briefly at the end.
So in no particular order, they are all good, and I won’t do numbers here is my list of ten great films from 2016 that you should try catch in a legal way so that the film makers, their cast, their crew, and everyone who spent time making the films, get the cash they deserve.
An anti-social girl is released from jail and must attend the funeral of her friend, but old habits die hard and trying to fit in again isn’t as easy as she thinks. Seana Kerslake outshone every single other performer in this beautiful film that made me laugh, cry, and leave a cinema with a smile on my face. What more could you ask for?
Musical romantic comedy that shines through the darkness of life and makes you want to tap dance down stairs. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are a on screen match made in heaven.
French language film telling the story of a relationship through the good times and the bad. Vincent Cassel goes from likeable rogue to hated cad in a heartbeat, and the ever amazing Emmanuelle Bercot offers a strong yet fragile woman who just wants the man she loves to love her in return.
Modern Western with a slash to give us a crime caper too. Chris Pine stars as a down on his luck rancher who must raise enough cash by the end of the week to save the farm, he enlists his loser brother to help him rob some banks. Meanwhile grizzled old time Texas Ranger Jeff Bridges is on his heals. This came out of nowhere for me and kept me gripped to the edge of the seat while forcing me to question the morality of both sides of the law.
Sam Niell and Julian Dennison brought this film of two people from very different backgrounds who needed to find each other, although neither would admit to that, on what I have to call one of the strangest yet unmissable adventures of the year.
I didn’t want to see this film, I thought it was going to be overly grim, and it was, but in the most beautiful and emotional way possible. The reality of the experiences of the characters and the performances just bring home how the horrid Government of Britain treats those who need help the most. I left this screening with tears falling down my face.
Italian crime drama which tells a few different stories that are connected through one man, known as The Samurai, he’s an enforcer for some pretty horrible people and feared throughout the underworld. This for me is a rival to any of the traditional gangster films we have from our past, filled with horrible characters that you want to see come out alive.
A man and his wife have taken their young children out to a small plot of land in a remote forest to teach them their beliefs and to make sure that they are not corrupted by the world. When the Mother dies it sends the family into a tailspin that will change it forever. Viggo Mortensen and a young cast of outstanding performers shine in this drama.
Two Teens from County Cork in Ireland embark on an adventure to retrieve some drugs from a shipwreck. This comedy deserves its place here on the list of my favourite films of 2016 because I laughed so hard through the whole thing. With the majority of the American comedies, which used to be so good, now in a downward spiral of terribleness, leaving me cold and emotionless, it was down to this magical Irish film to make me happy and it did.
Set in Cuba this is a story about acceptance. A young man who wants to work in a bar very similar to The Birdcage has his plans foiled when his macho Father is released from prison. The Father is dying and refuses for his son to be involved in the world of Drag Queens, but that is all that the son wants. The honest and wonderfully funny reconciliation of the Father and Son relationship along with the urban beauty of Cuba made this just a delight.
So there you go guys. These are not the best films of the year for everyone they are the best films that I found this year. There are more to be sure but when you whittle them down to just 10 then you have to leave some in the country and drive away, like you do with girlfriends, I hope I’ve been doing that right. Anyway 2016 gave more good than bad and if you get a chance to see these films then please do support them. Most of these didn’t have the budget of the major blockbusters and it’s only through paying to see them in some way do we support more thoughtful films rather than just explosion filled mayhem. Movies bring us together, in the same cinema people from every religion, every race, and every kind of thought come together to sit and be entertained. Each time a politician comes out trying to find another way of dividing us we find a film that brings us together.
Now you’ve read through everything and wanted to know what the worst film, as always in my opinion was this year. Well for me there was only one film that made me want set fire to a cinema so that rubbish could never be seen again, and there are a few of you out there that won’t agree with me.
I cannot for the life of me write a description about this film. It was over two hours of Christian Bale looking like he was in one of those awful aftershave commercials, standing on different sand in America looking intense. I honestly lost the will to continue on while watching this film. If someone tells me one more time that I just don’t ‘Get it’ or that the artistic value of a film is more important than the entertainment value I will follow them around Dublin and sing the Narwhals song in their ear for 72 hours straight. You cannot underestimate my resolve in this issue.
Well then, lets see what 2017 has to offer, and thank you for pretending to read.
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