While a 65% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests a movie should be checked out, sometimes you wonder why the score isn’t higher. Allied, the Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, The Walk) World War II love story set in both Casablanca and London about two intelligence officers from opposite sides of the world says a lot. The movie, set in both Casablanca and London, has been loosely referred to as Mr. and Mrs. Smith (because of Brad Pitt) meets Casablanca. While I understand the reference, this is far from the truth. I was not too fond of either of these other movies. Casablanca is one of the greatest movies of all time (yawn), but I really enjoyed Allied.
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Category Archives: Top 10 Movie of 2016
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Almost perfect. While it may not even end up in my top five movies of the year, Tom Ford’s (A Single Man) Nocturnal Animals was almost perfect. I liked it so much in this movie, and Ford almost created a masterpiece, but the movie just felt short. An A- for sure. Maybe even an A. But it won’t be the 49th movie that I’ve seen that I would classify as an A+. Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs, Everest) is better than ever, and he could end up with an Oscar nomination for this film. In a perfect world, he would, especially since he very well may have been the odd man out both in 2015 (Nightcrawler) and 2016 (Southpaw) for a Best Actor Academy Award. But with four of the five slots pretty much locked up (Tom Hanks – Sully, Denzel Washington – Fences, Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Joel Edgerton (Loving), that leaves only one more nomination between Gyllenhaal, Ryan Gosling (La La Land), Warren Beatty (Rules Don’t Apply), and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge). And, to be honest, while his performance was great, it wasn’t nearly the performance he gave in either Nightcrawler or Southpaw. Ford’s chances for a Best Directing nod look even dimmer, and an impressive performance by Amy Adams (The Fighter, American Hustle) may be completely overlooked because she will likely receive a nomination (and may even be the frontrunner) for Arrival, a movie that was released just a week before Nocturnal Animals.
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Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Hacksaw Ridge > Saving Private Ryan.
After my theater viewing of Mel Gibson’s (Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ) newest film, that was my claim. I’ve since slept on this, but I really should have watched it again. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take away from Gibson’s film. Hacksaw Ridge was based on a true story, whereas Saving Private Ryan was not. For me, when all else is equal, it nods to the more factual-based one. Saving Private Ryan was an amazing movie. The Invasion of Normandy Omaha Beach to open the movie was one of the most captivating and memorable action sequences in film history. When I claimed that Hacksaw Ridge was a better movie, I almost inserted the caveat that “outside of the opening 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge is a better movie.” But that seemed like a copout. I couldn’t spoil it with some condition that limited my case. Continue reading Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights, Non-Stop) made his big-screen debut back in 2006, but a decade later, many moviegoers might not be able to pick him out of a lineup. However, that’s all about to change. The incredible The Birth of a Nation is about to launch Parker into the next tier of not just actors but also directors and screenwriters. I’ll be the first to say that I didn’t know who Parker was, but it might be time for me to go back and watch some of the movies on his filmography. Not only did Parker give an Oscar-worthy leading actor performance, but he also directed and wrote this film that, somehow, is flying under the radar. Parker knocked this movie out of the park. The 79% rating it is currently receiving on Rotten Tomatoes is quite respectable (especially for a movie based on a true event, but one that even Parker described as reality-based fiction), but I have seen almost no promotional materials for this movie. It opened the same weekend as Girl on the Train, which may have received as much publicity as any other movie released in 2016 so far.
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Sully (2016)
Two days after seeing the best lead actress performance I have seen so far in 2016 (Alicia Vikander – The Light Between Oceans), I saw the best performance by a lead actor so far this year in Tom Hanks’s (Forrest Gump, Captain Phillips) portrayal of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Clint Eastwood’s (American Sniper, Mystic River) Sully. While 2016 has been a major letdown for movies through its first eight months, Sully, at least, gives promise that you are guaranteed one fantastic film and hope that there will be many, many more as Oscar season approaches (Manchester by the Sea, La La Land, Fences, Nocturnal Animals, Loving, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk to name a few). 2016 has proven and will continue to prove that it is a year like no other since I began this blog back in 2010. Through its release date (September 9), Sully is, hands down, the best movie of 2016 and the only one that I feel 100% confident will stay in my top 10 after I’ve seen all of the big movies of 2016.
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