15 Most Critically Adored Films 2016 - Ranked

Subjectivity plays a huge part in how highly people rate a movie. After all, one man’s Citizen Kane is another man’s Transformers: Age of Extinction and very rarely will a film be beloved by film critics, movie buffs and casual moviegoers alike.

In a sense, this makes things like Rotten Tomatoes ratings, Metacritic rankings and perhaps even film critics themselves kind of redundant. Nevertheless, they’re still a useful barometer for judging the general quality of a film and, to give film critics their dues, they do watch an awful lot of movies so their opinions must have some validity.

If you presume that a lot of this year’s most critically adored film are arty, pretentious affairs you’d be wrong. Yes, there’s a few arty flicks but they rank alongside surprising additions like superhero movies, kid-friendly animations and comedies too.

If Rotten Tomatoes definitive ranking of the year’s critical successes is anything to go by, it looks like film critics snobbery could be on the out.

But how do the Freshest movies of the year rank?

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98% (128 reviews)

A searing critique of the devastating impact of Western colonialism on unspoilt lands and indigenous cultures, Colombian director Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent was released to a shower of almost universal critical acclaim and went on to win the much-coveted Directors’ Fortnight Art Cinema Award at Cannes.

Set in the Colombian Amazon, the film follows two different narratives in two different time periods led by the same character – native shaman Karamakate, the sole survivor of his otherwise extinct tribe, as he guides two Westerners on expeditions deep into the rainforest to find a rare and sacred plant.

Non-professional actors and native Amazonians Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolivar (who funnily enough is one of the last few remaining members of his own tribe, the Ocaína) give raw and haunting performances as Karamakate, while its stark black and white cinematography perfectly captures the harsh beauty of the Amazon Rainforest.