As voted on by more than 200 critics participating in our annual Criticwire survey, here are the best films of the year.
“‘Moonlight’ transforms rage and frustration into unadulterated intimacy. In this mesmerizing portrait of a suffocating world, the only potential catharsis lies in acknowledging it as Chiron so deeply wishes he could. Despite the somber tone, Moonlight is a beacon of hope for the prospects of speaking up.” —Eric Kohn
“It’s Lonergan’s masterfully subtle writing, littered with awkward exchanges that speak far louder than any cohesive monologue, that gives ‘Manchester’ its humanity.” —EK
“La La Land”
Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek in “Toni Erdmann”
“First screened to raves at Sundance in January, the compelling narrative seamlessly takes us from Los Angeles in the ’60s, when Simpson was a star USC football player and the city faced the Watts race riots, through the aftermath of the Simpson trial.” —Anne Thompson
“Carried by an appropriately low-key Adam Driver and Jarmusch’s casual genius for capturing offhand remarks, ‘Paterson’ is his most absorbing character study since ‘Broken Flowers’ — and far more grounded in real life.” —EK
“‘The Handmaiden’ works as a form of historical fantasy in which love conquers all, but not in the ways one might expect.” —EK
“’Arrival’ is no two-hander; it is Adams’ film through and through. The actress makes a very strong lead, embodying the kind of swashbuckling language pedant whose eyes light with adventure when offered a particularly challenging conjugation.” —Ben Croll
“Just as it taps into a dying corner of American society, ‘Hell or High Water’ resurrects the power of western mayhem done right.” —EK
“For his English-language debut, director Pablo Larrain has taken that most impersonal of genres – the three-handkerchief biopic – and delivered something that is bracingly, gloriously and entirely his own.” —BC
“For his first French-language production — and his first feature-length film in a decade — the 77-year-old filmmaker has delivered his most contained work in years, a dark comedy about sexual urges and other passions closer in form to 1973’s ‘Turkish Delight’ than anything he’s made since.” —EK
“The cold, the distance, the arduous labor, the subtle class divisions, and the unwelcoming men… all of these help define why these certain women are the way they are.” —Noel Murray
“Cameraperson”
“‘The Lobster’ brings Lanthimos’ distinct blend of morbid, deadpan humor and surrealism to a broader canvas without compromising his ability to deliver another thematically rich provocation.” —EK
“Most films are domestic animals: cats or dogs. Some particularly beautiful ones might be horses or dolphins. But amongst the Fidos, the Fluffys and the Flippers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul‘s ‘Cemetery of Splendour’ is a Northern White Rhino, the most endangered species in the world.” —Jessica Kiang
“A slow-burn tale filled with beautiful imagery and understated performances, its elegance yields one of Scorsese’s most subtle efforts.” —EK
“‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ contains many of the best ingredients found throughout Linklater’s career: A carefree attitude about life paired with sneakier observations about its deeper mysteries.” —EK
“There’s vision here, clearly, and through the use of eye-catching frames and a standout score, ‘The Fits’ works like magic as an experimental performance piece.” —Nikola Grozdanovic
“American Honey”
“Writer-director Robert Eggers’ accomplished feature-length debut manages a tricky balance: On the one hand an elegant period piece about the dissolution of a New England family circa 1630, it’s also a genuinely unsettling horror movie about possession.” —EK
“Though Braga’s performance sometimes outshines Mendonça’s leisurely two-and-a-half hour narrative, in its better moments the two work in marvelous harmony.” —EK
“Has there ever been a purer match between author and adapter than Jane Austen and Whit Stillman?” —NM
“In almost every way Saulnier has upped his game with ‘Green Room,’ his bloody, impressive follow-up.” —Jason Gorber
“No Home Movie”
“But if Carney’s latest jam proves that he can’t change his spots, it also shows that he knows how to learn from his mistakes. For a filmmaker so fixated on the same story, that can be a far more valuable skill.” —David Ehrlich
“A big-hearted and bittersweet bear hug of a memoir, by far the most moving and mature of the four films he’s made to date.” —DE
“‘Things to Come’ is less a story of becoming than it is one of survival, but, as its relatively aged heroine begins to molt from the crust of her past and steel herself for the unwritten chapters of her life, those two goals begin to seem like one and the same.” —DE
“With ‘Loving,’ the director moves from the combination of otherworldly lyricism and genre storytelling in ‘Take Shelter,’ ‘Mud’ and ‘Midnight Special’ toward more conventional drama by exploring the intimate details behind its legacy.” —EK
“Nocturnal Animals”
“Hong not only finds an intriguing gimmick to play with, but then proceeds to use it for genuinely revealing purposes.” —Kenji Fujishima
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“Here is a movie that’s genuinely alive, plunging into theaters with the style of a swan dive and the impact of a cannonball. It’s a messy romp that’s funny, hot, and horrifying in equal measure; and if it squeaks a bit whenever it tries to shift gears, that sound just becomes another instrument in Guadagnino’s latest symphony of the senses.” —DE
“Filled to the brim with whispery voiceover narration, roaming camerawork and an unending collage of lush images to evoke its forlorn character’s desire to escape the clutches of vapidity, ‘Knight of Cups’ is always lovely to regard.” —EK
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Happy Hour”
“‘Krisha’ derives an extraordinary sense of mystery around the nature of the character’s problems — and whether she indeed possesses the ability to control them.” —EK
“The only certainty is Tsangari has delivered another intriguing and thoroughly original character study, which this time serves as an apt metaphor for Greece’s larger problems.” —EK
“The Coens deftly manage to have it both ways, playing their homage-y centerpieces straight in order to honor old-school filmmaking, and then punctuating them with artifice-destroying punchlines.” —Nick Schager
“Waititi, who’s been picked out by Marvel to direct “Thor: Ragnarok” this year, knows how to construct a tight movie with joyful, warm three-dimensional characters.” —Sam Fragoso
“There are a lot of farts in this movie.” —Russ Fischer
“A predictable bittersweet look at the bureaucratic impact of medical assistance on an ailing middle-class carpenter, the movie pulls off no fancy tricks in its straightforward, didactic approach. But that’s Loach in a nutshell, and anchored by a pair of convincing performances, marks his best film in years.” —EK
“Ava DuVernay’s documentary “13TH” has the precision of a foolproof argument underscored by decades of frustration.” —EK
“‘Sunset Song’ portrays a woman’s life during the harshest of times, invoking a magisterial ode dedicated to a country’s spirit.” —NG
“The best documentary about a political campaign ever made.” —EK
“Unlike so many documentaries about the refugee crisis that have been rushed into production in recent months, Rosi’s is a clear-eyed, sublimely made account of his heart-breaking, sometimes gut-wrenching subject.” —Demetrios Matheou
“Somewhere between a rebel yell and a lullaby, a primal scream and a Homeric lament, ‘Embrace of the Serpent’ is the kind of wildly original work that the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight sidebar was built in hopes of discovering.” —JK
“Now comes his most ambitious storytelling effort to date, ‘Neruda,’ which begins as a straightforward period piece before evolving into something far more intriguing: a meditation on the country’s mythological relationship to heroes and villains told from two sides at once.” —EK
“Despite a premise that could easily turn hokey or farcical — radical parent raises kids in the woods, then suddenly must face reality when he takes them back to civilization — ‘Captain Fantastic’ manages to inhabit the utopian highs of Ben’s unorthodox world even as it falls apart.” —EK
“Elegant, sensual, and blood drenched, this is a genuine NWR film on every level.” —EK
“Thanks to Hall, Shilowich and Campos, the life and times of an unfortunately infamous person now comes into sharper focus.” —NM
