I'd like to imagine that when the screenwriters Tony Gilroy and Chris Weitz sat down to write the first ever Star Wars spin-off, they said, "I always found the plot hole in Star Wars IV A New Hope so annoying, y'know, the whole thing about why the Empire would put an easily accessible vent on the Death Star through which Luke Skywalker could shoot and blow up the whole thing - what if we explain why it's there?" That's obviously not anywhere close to what happened, but without spoiling the movie, I can definitely say that Rogue One does deliver a very satisfactory explanation to said plot hole. It also delivers much more than that of course. Rogue One is a rollicking good time, an action movie that just flies by, and the first since the original trilogy that can truly be classified as first-rate matinée entertainment (and I mean that in the best possible way). The director is Gareth Edwards, the Englishman who brought us the wonderful reboot of Godzilla some two years ago, and the cast is a great collection of international actors as disparate characters who must work together to steal the plans for the newly constructed intergalactic weapon of mass destruction known as the Death Star. Although the film may lack somewhat in character development, you won't find the adventure to be lacking in any other department. Plus you'll get some surprise cameos along the way that should make you cream yourself if you're a fan of the franchise. I am, and the first trailer for Star Wars VII The Force Awakens brought tears to my eyes, which the previews for Rogue One did not, unsurprisingly. Simply because by now, the cat's out of the back, so to speak, and we all know that the current Star Wars franchise is going to be excellent, come what may. But this may very well turn out to be one of the best when all is said and done, at least when it comes to heroic Rebels and galactic spaceship battles, even if it is a stand-alone feature.
THE HANDMAIDEN
2016 was a very good year for some of cinema's greatest auteurs, as my selection will prove. Of course, as always, my list does not cover even a small part of the best films of the year, but it's meant to be somewhat of a representation, with as many different examples as possible, a sort of multi-faceted cherry-picking. That said, Park Chan-Wook's latest feast for the eyes and the mind, The Handmaiden, would merit a mention on any criteria, being without a doubt one of the greatest treats of the year and a true work of genius. After his disappointing English-language thriller Stoker in 2013, Mr. Park has returned to South Korea, bringing with him an English novel, the hit Victorian crime thriller Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which he has translated to his native country, and turned the clock forward to the 1920's, a time when Korea was a Japanese colony. The film's reputation for explicit lesbian sex is slightly exaggerated, in fact it's almost modest compared to Blue Is the Warmest Colour, but it's undeniably good advertisement. The film is actually at its sexiest when the tension between the handmaiden (who is really a pickpocket) and her mistress (who also has her fair share of secrets) is not acted upon, except for dressing and washing with heavy breathing and slight skin contact. For the most part, The Handmaiden is an intelligently sexy puzzle, full of twists and tricks, that reveals its fiendish plot piece by piece through multiple perspectives.
PATERSON
Paterson is in many ways the complete opposite of The Handmaiden, because, like many of Jim Jarmusch's films, it is more or less devoid of plot. Yet it is utterly beautiful, compelling, at times laugh out loud funny and kind of mysterious as well, albeit without any mystery. The USA that Jarmusch depicts in most of his films is exactly the kind of USA I'd like to live in, a world where the sudden appearance of a gun is a frightening and unusual sight, even if it's a toy gun, where every conversation on the bus is fun to eavesdrop on, where everybody likes poetry and where your beautiful wife is a whirlwind of creativity. Adam Driver is at his best here, playing an ordinary working class guy, a bus driver who lives a life of repetitive routine and writes lovely poetry in his "secret notebook." Yet, like Jarmusch himself, he is a man who finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the surreal in the real. And Driver often hints ever so slightly at the man's hidden depths and deep emotional issues, which is something of a forte of his (just look at his Kylo Ren in Star Wars VII The Force Awakens). However, if you're completely turned off by poetry, this simply isn't for you.
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
In 2016 we were also treated to an entirely different fantastical and magical USA, this one courtesy of J.K. Rowling. In its best moments, Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them brings to mind the wonderful cozy feeling of magic that the first Harry Potter film had, but which the others lacked, in my opinion. The fun of seeing the familiar old wands and spells in the hands of adults cannot be overstated, and Eddie Redmayne gives his finest performance to date as the oddball Newt Scamander. He's abetted by perfectly cast supporting actors and some topnotch sets and costume design (which rightly earned the old Tim Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood her fourth Academy Award). The fact that Rowling's wizardry world is framed by all the socio-political aspects of New York City during the Depression, with prohibition, racism and religious fanaticism all taking place in the fringes of the magic story, only hightens the film's quality as far as I'm concerned, seeing as how that background is always interesting and, arguably, even relevant in today's climate. Happily, Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them has since turned out to be the beginning of a beautiful franchise.
ELLE
Very cool to see that the old fox Paul Verhoeven, who's nearly eighty, is still going strong and still got it! Elle is just the kind of weird and entertaining thriller that only Verhoeven can pull off, and luckily it's French, a country that is open to a film with this kind of controversial content. Isabelle Huppert is of course perfect for the part of Michèle, a rape victim who develops a strange cat-and-mouse game with her assailant after she starts to seek revenge for what happens to her at the beginning of the film. Another great aspect of Elle is that despite its subject matter, it's very funny, in a tasteful way. Even the violence, formidable as it is, is presented rather tastefully. Elle is in fact many things, and one of them is undeniably and simply an incredible movie!
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
There was no shortage of brilliant family entertainment in 2016, among the best being Disney's Moana, Pixar's Finding Dory, Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets and Spielberg's Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG. My favourite, however, was Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings, from the stop-motion animation studio that brought us the now classic Coraline (together with ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls). As a huge fan of anime and Japanese culture in general, it is no surprise that it won me over. Aside from the jaw-dropping art, it has a story that is honestly heartbreaking and heartwarming. And after hearing Matthew McConaughey's fine deep voice once again in Sing, I'm convinced he could successfully stick with voice acting from now on. Here he voices a beetle-human-hybrid Samurai who is brought to life to help Kubo, the hero of the story, and Kubo's friend, a talking snow monkey, on their quest to find Kubo's father's armour, which he will need to battle the Moon King, who stole his eye when he was a baby and is now coming for his other eye. The plot is better on screen that what it sounds like when described like this, particularly since I'm rubbish at conveying film plots. The film is also unusually deep and spiritual for an American children's film, though children who aren't old enough should stay away, they might get scared every now and again.
HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE
There are enough films out there about grumpy old men who warm up once they meet and spend some time with unusual children (or similar uplifting partners) to warrant a genre of its own. I guess those types of films already fall into the category of "buddy comedies," but the kiwi masterpiece Hunt for the Wilderpeople is so much more than a simple buddy comedy. The newly coined word "adorkable" is a word that always springs to mind in relation to the works of Taika Waititi, particularly his breakthrough Eagle vs. Shark, but also to some degree with his sophomore effort, the vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. This is so far his best piece, thanks to a very imaginative script, some trippy '80's music on the soundtrack and the beautiful chemistry between veteran (and often underrated) actor Sam Neill and newcomer Julian Dennison, who become targets of a manhunt after a misunderstanding and end up in hiding out in the jungles of New Zealand. A true feel-good movie and one of the sweetest and most unique films of the year. DOCTOR STRANGE
2016 was the year when magic in blockbusters once again became a thing, as some of my previous choices on this list and now this, the fourteenth film of the Marvel movies, testifies to. It was also the year when Eastern philosophies and culture was appropriated in Hollywood entertainment, as it has often been before in film history (which Netflix's Iron Fist is also proof of). Unlike most critics and moviegoers, I am of the opinion that this was a very good year for the superhero franchises; in my eyes Captain America Civil War, Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice, X-Men Apocalypse and Suicide Squad were all great. But the best was undeniably Doctor Strange, with the always agreeable Benedict Cumberbatch as the cynic and self-obsessed star surgeon Stephen Strange, who comes into contact with magical forces in Nepal after losing his hands in a car accident and turns into a superhero-wielder of magic powers. Neither did I have a problem with seeing a Caucasian white woman in the role of the Ancient One, in fact I thought it was pretty cool that she was a Celtic mystic rather than the more stereotypical old Asian master we've seen before. The only letdown was Mads Mikkelsen's villain, whose role was much too brief and underdeveloped, because a good superhero is only as good as its archenemy. But of course Doctor Strange's unique selling point is the unbelievable visuals effects, some truly trippy far-out hallucinogenics influenced by kaleidoscopic Hindu art.
GREEN ROOM
You could say that indie films are overly represented on this list, and you would be right, because here comes another one. But that is only because there were so many remarkable ones this year that they very nearly merited a list entirely of their own (which is the case with the horror films, a list that is coming soon). The highlights for me, apart from the ones mentioned here, were The Lobster, Swiss Army Man and I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, all films of true originality. Another one was Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room, about a struggling punk rock band who find themselves having to fight for their lives after they accidentally witness a murder backstage at a Neo-Nazi club. The casting choice of Patrick Stewart as the Nazi leader is genious, and he is truly chilling in the role. The fact that lead actor Anton Yelchin died in a tragic and bizarre accident outside his home not long after the film was released also adds another layer of creepiness to the viewing experience of Green Room. It's also very unusual to see an American film that so vividly and brutally manages to convey how fucking horrible violence actually is, which is perfectly personified by the film's Neo-Nazis, a group of people whose very existence, like terrorists, is defined by violence.
10 CLOVERFIELD LANE
In the time of "preppers" and survivalists, Dan Trachtenberg's spiritual successor to Matt Reeves' found footage monster movie Cloverfield is great timing indeed. 10 Cloverfield Lane started out as an entirely different movie altogether, but was for some reason tied into what has now become a franchise, when in fact it bears little resemblance to said alien invasion film, apart from its last ten minutes of screen time. The rest of the film plays out like a claustrophobic kidnapping drama with only three people, played with great chemistry by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr. It's taut and unpredictable, well-written and all in all, a great sci-fi or thriller or both. And it has an indie feel to it as well, although it's produced by J.J. Abrams.
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