Rollo Tomasi’s Top Ten Films of 2016: LA LA LAND, MOONLIGHT, JACKIE, & More

5. Loving

Loving was a drama that captured the struggles of living in a bi-racial marriage during a time of racial adversity in America. As a strong human drama, the Lovings were consistently battered by circumstances that would have rocked most couples apart. Ruth Negga gave a great performances and Joel Edgerton was great and consistent as always. Like the protagonist in Rudy, the viewer began rooting for the Lovings to persevere.

4. Hacksaw Ridge

Hacksaw Ridge was one of the most intense, human, and gritty war films that I have ever seen. I have seen most of top war films: Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, Braveheart, Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut, et cetera. Hacksaw Ridge is in that league. It’s not at the top (its towards the bottom end – it simply can’t touch Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut) but it tried to be with its mixture of human drama, romance, and visceral warfare. This is one of Mel Gibson‘s most impressive films and a return to Hollywood, as it were, for the beleaguered director. The narrative in this film was continuously surprising, with moments no one could have expected e.g. Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) helping an enemy soldier underground when they had every reason to hate each other.

4. The Witch

The Witch was a horror film of precision. Like the pioneering horror films before it, The Witch took the road less traveled. The Witch never shied away from setting up and executing the foulest of scenarios while keeping everything grounded within the bounds it setup at its outset. Like La La Land, the ending to The Witch was the apex of its narrative, the culmination of all that had come before it. In The Witch‘s case, its ending was even better than what had come before it because it revealed hidden elements that had been lurching in the narrative all along.

3. Jackie

Jackie contained Natalie Portman‘s best performance-to-date. Her character traversed an increasing complex array of emotions as the viewer was taken through key moments in Jackie Kennedy‘s life. During key traumatic and emotional moments in the film, the music swelled with a camera that picked shots and angles for maximum effect. Jackie was not an ordinary film about a historical figure. It was almost as if Jackie was trying to show the viewer who the real Jackie was (complex, thinking of perception and the future) while she was trying to discover that for herself during the worst moment in her life.

2. Moonlight

Moonlight was the story of transition and awakening anchored by the most unlikely and caring father-figure, at least for its first two acts. In its third act, the film was in the hands of Black (Trevante Rhodes), a person unintentionally imitating the person (his father-figure) that helped to destroy and transmogrify a large portion of his childhood. Moonlight‘s cinematography was top-notch but its story line and Mahershala Ali‘s performance made the film stand-out.

1. La La Land

Musicals are a rarity today. They are something from Hollywood’s past that many can’t connect with in the modern era. That was not the case with La La Land. The film had an opposites attract love drama at its heart, a heart that beat stronger as the film tap-shoed forward. La La Land‘s ending was its greatest accomplishment. La La Land‘s ending was a bittersweet nail driven home through love, loss, and suppressed sentiment that bubbled forth with life and vitality. Emma Stone‘s face during that moment said it all.

Honorable Mentions:

Anthropoid and Doctor Strange.

2016 Films I Have Not Seen

I can only rate the films that I have seen. I have not seen that: Manchester by the Sea, Train to Busan, Zootopia, Hell or High Water, Lion, Silence, and The Wailing yet.

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