10. Elle
Men have been violently sticking it to women for so long that it almost seems like business as usual. But what if, in the interest of assimilating, a fiercely independent woman begins to morph into the leviathan that she has been endeavoring against?
9. Arrival
Time is a flat circle, and effective communication can bridge the gap between lost worlds.
8. La La Land
Emma Stone works hard; sometimes, too hard. This movie offers several winks and nods to classic Hollywood, and it arrives exactly five years after The Artist, which makes sense.
7. Everybody Wants Some!!
Viewers can feel the college throughout this movie in the same way that they could feel the high school throughout Dazed and Confused.
6. Zero Days
Jiminy Cricket! A future-present that even Orwell couldn’t have predicted.
5. Manchester By The Sea
Audiences will spend the first half of this movie wondering why the screenplay seems so fragmented. And then the answer will creep up and bite them like a snake. Manchester is the most well-acted movie of the year, thanks to Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Lucas Hedges.
4. Captain Fantastic
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get from one end of this life to the other with your integrity intact? This movie does, and, by all appearances, so does Viggo Mortensen.
3. Silence
Martin Scorsese’s 160-minute epic requires a commitment, but that commitment will be rewarded, and the questions that it inspires will stir inside of you for months.
2. Sing Street
This is the best musical of the year.
1. Nocturnal Animals
Selfish choices have dire consequences. The scars run deep and leave us cold.