December 12, 2016

Top 10 Films of 2016

1. "The Edge Of Seventeen" (Kelly Fremon Craig, USA)

2. "Ceux qui font les revolutions" (Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie, Canada)

3. "The Handmaiden" (Park Chan-Wook, South Korea)

4. "Manchester By The Sea" (Kenneth Lonergan, USA)

5. "Hacksaw Ridge" (Mel Gibson, USA)

6. "Love And Friendship" (Whit Stillman, USA)

7. "La La Land" (Damien Chazelle, USA)

8. "Tenemos la carne" (Emiliano Rocha Minter, Mexico)

9. "The Salesman" (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)

10. "Sing Street" (John Carney, Ireland)


Other great films:

10 Cloverfield Lane
13 Hours
13th 
Baby Bump (Poland)
Blush (Israel)
Early Winter (Canada)
L'Ecartee (Canada)
The Forest (Thailand)
The Girl King (Finland)
Graduation (Romania)
Julieta (Spain)
King Dave (Canada)
Life Animated
Lion (Australia)
Ma vie de courgette (Switzerland)
Powidoki (Poland)
Prank (Canada)
Rosalie Blum (France)
Rupture (Canada)
The Student (Russia)
Tanna (Vanuatu)
Victoria (France)
Wolyn (Poland)


Top 10 Guilty Pleasures of 2016:

1. "Toni Erdmann" (Maren Ade, Germany)

2. "Elle" (Paul Verhoeven, France)

3. "The Untamed" (Amat Escalante, Mexico)
4. "Kollektivet" (Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark)

5. "Aquarius" (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)

6. "Ma Loute" (Bruno Dumont, France)

7. "20th Century Women" (Mike Mills, A24)

8. "Nelly" (Anne Émond, Canada)

9. "Natasha" (David Bezmozgis, Canada)

10. "Below Her Mouth" (April Mullen, Canada)


Short Top 3:

1. "Dead Bait" (Lars-Erik Lie, Norway)

2. "Ennemis interieurs" (Selim Azzazi, France)

3. "E.W.A." (Gigi Ben Artzi, Ukraine)


Other great shorts:

Extremis
Frame 394 (Canada)
Hedone (Spain)
Her Friend Adam (Canada)
Mutants (Canada)
Ror mig (Denmark)
Silent Nights (Denmark)
Sing (Hungary)
Timecode (Spain)

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Space In Space" (Gigi Ben Artzi, Tiger Love)

2. "Formation" (Melina Matsoukas, Beyonce)

3. "Fade" (Eli Linnetz, Kanye West)


Other great music videos:

Side To Side

Top Commercial:

"Please Re-Elect Gerald" (Friends of Gerald Daugherty)


Other great commercials:



7. "Fleabag: Season 1" (BBC, UK) 

8. "Vinyl" (Martin Scorsese, HBO)

9. "Narcos: Season 2" (Netflix)

10. "Mr Robot: Season 2" (USA Network)

The Walking Dead: Season 7

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "Pear Cider And Cigarettes" (Robert Valley, Canada)

2. "Borrowed Time" (Andrew Coats, Lou Hamou-Lhadj, USA)

3. "Piper" (Alan Barillaro, Pixar, Disney)


Other great cartoons:

Mamie (Canada)
Shiny

Top VR film:

"Pearl" (Patrick Osborne, Google Spotlight)


Other great VR films:


Top Stand-Up Comedy Show:

"Iliza Shlesinger: Confirmed Kills" (Bobcat Goldthwait, Netflix)


Other great stand-up comedy shows:


Weak films of 2016:
Neruda (Chile)
Nitro Rush
The Northlander (Canada)
La Nouvelle vie de Paul Sneijder
Numb (Canada)
Old Stone (China)
Operation Avalanche (Canada)
The Other Half (Canada)
Pays (Canada)
The Prison In Twelve Landscapes
Race
Riverhead (Canada)
Rules Don't Apply
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Top Musical of 2016

"La La Land" (Damien Chazelle, Lionsgate)


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November 11, 2016

The Edge Of Seventeen (2016) *****

Superb coming-of-age comedy about an alienated 17-year-old girl having a hilarious nervous breakdown. Hailee Steinfeld gives a terrific, Golden Globe-nominated performance. This film really threads a needle between extremely serious themes and a very lightweight treatment of them, but it succeeds beautifully.
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Ceux qui font les revolutions (2016) *****

Full title: "Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n'ont fait que se creuser un tombeau", meaning "Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves". This quote from a radical 18th-century French revolutionary leader Louis Antoine de Saint Just misleadingly suggests that this film warns about the dangers of compromise and moderation among the revolutionary avant-garde, but in reality it is a very effective, smart and compelling counterrevolutionary masterpiece that strongly denounces and ridicules far-left fanaticism. Made in French Canada in the aftermath of an unsuccessful student revolt, it's a very unflattering portrait of the contemporary political counterculture.
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October 10, 2016

Love And Friendship (2016) ****

A superlative comedy of manners adapted from Jane Austen's most obscure novel, "Lady Susan".
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The Salesman (2016) ****

Iranian drama about an assault and its aftermath.
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Sing Street (2016) ****

Excellent Irish musical about a high school student who forms a musical band to impress a girl.
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King Dave (2016) ****

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Hacksaw Ridge (2016) ****

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