20 Best Movie Moments Of 2016

Already boasting a few Golden Globe nominations under its belt and a hotly tipped Academy Award contender too, British director David Mackenzie’s gritty neo-western Hell or High Water was released to a shower of critical acclaim this year and quiet rightly so. Though bank heists and violence are at its core, the film is also a fascinating character study of its four main protagonists – bank robbing brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) and the Texas Rangers, Marcus (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto (Gil Birmingham), hot on their heels.

The film closes not in a bullet-showered showdown but in an intense exchange between Toby and Marcus after the cat and mouse chase between them has come to end with losses suffered on both sides. Bridges and Pine are on form and though no guns are drawn, it’s a scene that bristles with tension and menace and quite possibly one of the most finely acted scenes of the year.