What's The Best Movie Of 2016 (So Far)? - Today's Debate
Our editors share their thoughts on the first half of the year.
Whether 2016's been a good year for cinema depends entirely on where you're looking (and what your pre-disposition to superhero versus movies is). We've already had many of the year's most hotly anticipated films and, bar some stand-out exceptions, most have been resounding disappointments, both with critics and at the box office. But there's also been a whole host of unexpected successes and big surprises (and I don't just mean the simple fact Cloverfield 2 was revealed and released in the space of two months); even the biggest cynic can't deny there's been some awesome films out there.
We've had weighty blockbusters, future classics from all-time great directors, spine-tingling horrors, and more. But what's the best of the lot? That's something we've been debating relentlessly at WhatCulture Towers this week, so to settle the argument here's our own hot takes (based UK release dates, of course).
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Alex Leadbeater's Choice - Bone Tomahawk
Most of the westerns in the genre’s recent resurgence - The Salvation, Slow West, The Revenant and The Hateful Eight (all great by the way) - have in some form been about the end of the era, a reflection on our current obsession with pasts long gone. Bone Tomahawk takes a different approach; fitting how unflinchingly violent it is, this is a movie about futility and our fear of death that presents no clear answers and instead forces you to face your own mortality. That it does this through native Americans with razor-sharp weapons made of human bone only adds to the fun.
After a gory opening reminiscent of the foreboding prologue to Game Of Thrones, we're seemingly in for standard fare - the first half is just following Kurt Russell (grizzled sheriff who's more varied than standard Russell), Patrick Wilson (faith-driven and emotional), Matthew Fox (a cynical bachelor) and Richard Jenkins (a clueless back-up deputy) on a rescue mission - yet there's no escaping the mounting dread as they trek across the stark landscape thanks to S. Craig Zahler's subtle direction and the morose, reflective dialogue.
It's scary with seemingly little effort, all building up to the show-stopping sequence where the group finally make it to the native American's cave, which is so horrific words can barely convey it; it's envelope-pushing body horror, made all the more hurtful by a vain attempt on Russell's part to console the victim as he's torn in half. Get that out of your mind.
Bone Tomahawk is both a flinchingly violent B-movie that will make you gag and a measured reflection on life with more weight than this year’s Oscar contenders. Incredible.
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James Hunt's Choice - Spotlight
Not all heroes wear capes. Some sit in dingy rooms, shirts creased, ties askew. Spotlight isn’t a superhero movie, but it does involve a team of talented, brave, and moral people coming together to take down an almighty villain; in this case, the Catholic Church.
Spotlight’s highly-sensitive subject matter - an investigation into the years of abuse carried about by Catholic priests in Boston - could’ve easily weighed it down, but this film handles it deftly.
Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo, neither strangers to playing superheroes, lead an incredibly strong ensemble cast, but there’s nothing showy in their performances. Save for one big speech for Ruffalo, each actor remains as a steady presence throughout the film, gradually peeling back the layers of their characters.
The same can be said of Tom McCarthy’s direction, which shows superb (and all-too-rare) restraint. There’s nothing overtly stylish here, instead he lets the dialogue speak for itself, and it’s impossible not to listen.
Despite this being a ‘talky’ film with a heavy subject, it positively zips along, carrying viewers as the scandal unfolds, and the true scale of it is revealed. The title cards at the end only serve to heighten this, and truly convey the shocking events that took place. By that time, however, you’re already outraged.
Cinema should make you feel something, and Spotlight does that more than any other film of 2016 (so far); an emotional, angering journey that also features some of the best direction, writing, and acting you’re likely to see, a worthy (if surprising) winner of Best Picture at the Oscars, and the best movie of the year to date.
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Scott Tailford's Choice - Captain America: Civil War
Can you remember the last time you were genuinely, completely giddy with excitement in a cinema? Because Captain America: Civil War did that to me in the most ludicrously perfect way possible.
That opening with the whole team doing their thing, the debut of Tom Holland’s Spidey in that outfit with those eyes - that whole entire airport scene, you know what I mean? Stark vs. Cap on the evolution of the 2006 original’s core question of freedom vs. security, the Russo Bros. immaculate direction, the costumes and integrated CG all looking spot on. I could go on, and I will for the rest of my life.
What the Russos have achieved with both The Winter Soldier and now Civil War is history in the making. The culmination of a handful other films and storylines, plates being span at a stunning rate of knots for years upon years, now - somehow - being brought together in the most fan-pleasing way possible.
People say that Hollywood have ran out of ideas - and I’m inclined to agree - but you need only look at the genuine cinematic achievement that is the MCU in all its glory, to see a decade’s worth of planning working flawlessly.
Captain America: Civil War is everything we imagined as youngsters when playing with our toys, or growing up reading comics and visualising what happens in between the panels. It’s absolutely, unequivocally, perfect.
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Simon Gallagher's Choice - Zootopia
It’s so easy to say that Captain America: Civil War is the best film of the year so far. Lazy, in fact. It’s certainly the most spectacular and probably the most impressive in terms of scale and scope. But in a marketplace that has offered precisely no competition to it (in terms of tentpoles), it probably looks better by that lack of comparable quality.
Far more impressive is Disney’s Zootopia (unnecessarily renamed Zootropolis - ruining the pun of the title - in Europe). The original property raked in more than a billion, launched a new franchise and ranked in the top 5 Disney classics of all time, all without being a sequel of an adaptation. That’s not just impressive, it’s astonishing.
Built on a strong foundation of good characters and a compelling - surprisingly noirish - story, it’s a hilarious, heart-warming yarn that was as entertaining as it is politically important. It was also steeped in Disney lore; nostalgic at the same time as forward-looking and multi-layered in a rich, rewarding way.
And the final testament to its brilliance comes courtesy of the fact that it managed to outdo not one Paul Rudd film (in Civil War), but two (thanks to the brilliant, touching The Fundamentals Of Caring). That’s worth a couple of Oscars alone, right there.
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Adam Clery's Choice - The Nice Guys
6 months is a pretty long time. According to the laws of the United Kingdom, if i was prosecuted for failing to stop after an accident, manufacturing and selling flick knives, or just running a brothel, I’d already be back on the street. It’s also time enough to watch plenty of movies.
And watch plenty of movies I have. From the big, to the bad, to the noisy and the nostalgic (Hiya Jeff Goldblum!) I’ve had my rear end parked in cinema seats for ages in 2016. However, without doubt, the most enjoyable of those experiences was when I parked it for The Nice Guys.
Ryan Gosling’s never really had a thing, in my opinion. He’s alright at drama, he’s alright at romance, he’s alright at action, but ultimately if it weren’t for memes he’d be considerably further down the food chain. Fair play to him, because acting ability is pretty much irrelevant in 2016 if your abs are equalled only by your strong views on feminism.
However in The Nice Guys, taking up a part-slapstick, part-desperate, part-Big-Lebowski part as a Private Eye in 1970s Los Angeles, he perfectly embodies a movie that is simultaneously all over the place and perfectly put together. A resurgent Russell Crowe heads up a fantastic cast of supporting characters, across a story that is brilliant in its nonsense and still solid in its plot. It also easily has the best hit-rate for jokes I have seen in a movie in years.
I quote our own Film Editor on this one: it’s simultaneously a classic of the genre, and a pastiche on it. Just like the film itself, I don’t fully understand that quote, but it’s really, really good.
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Who do you agree with? Or did we miss your favourite entirely? Join the debate down in the comments.