The Stake writers have selected our top 10 films of the year. We’ve compiled them alphabetically to represent the collaborative nature of the list. Links in each are to our reviews, though not all films on the list were reviewed at the site.

This is a top 10 list, but it comes with the usual caveats. Among the contributors here we’ve seen a substantial amount of the year’s offerings, but we can make no claim to completion. And being in Minnesota, we have not had the opportunity to see everything. Silence, for example, doesn’t come to Minneapolis until early January, while films like Toni Erdmann or Love and Friendship just slipped through the cracks.

So take this list as it is: the best films of 2016 that were seen by the film contributors at The Stake.

Arrival

That Arrival navigates this ground so adeptly is a testament to Heisserer, and director Denis Villeneuve’s, film. It speaks to the complexity of its story–a marriage of optimistic and unsettling narratives–and the emotional depth of its characters. … “The hope and optimism of Arrival might be needed more than ever.”

Green Room

“Saulnier is efficient in his storytelling and vicious in his violence. His performers are up to the part of getting sliced, shot, stabbed, and all manner of dead. Ninety minutes rarely felt this fierce.”

The Handmaiden

Park Chan-Wook’s lush, vibrant, epic love story The Handmaiden is cinema as only he can achieve. Perverse and subversive; technically proficient and thematically indulgent. It’s long, gorgeous and unrelenting.

La La Land

Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to the magnificent Whiplash is the seductive musical La La Land. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling give their all, but it’s Chazelle’s artistry that continues to set his work apart from his peers. Enchanting and immensely likable, La La Land could lift even the hardest hearts.

The Lobster

“While it is by no means a perfect film, The Lobster is an important one, as traditional definitions of relationships and marriage fall by the wayside with each passing generation. Is it better to be alone and independent, or to have a partner to perform the Heimlich maneuver or rub balm on your aching back”

Manchester by the Sea

Kenneth Lonergran’s Manchester by the Sea is relentless. In the storytelling, which refuses to concede to cheap resolutions. In its investigation of grief and pain. And maybe most importantly, in its ability to show that beauty still exists, even when we’re at our most wounded.

Moonlight

“Moonlight has no room for judgment, no room for falsity. It allows for complexity in character and turns corners that are believable yet surprising. Jenkins’ camera operates by the same principles as his screenplay: full exposure, close-up, never looking away.”

Mountains May Depart

“The collective effect of all of this visual and thematic information–the aspect ratio changes, the cinematographic choices, the documentary-style footage, and the disparate story pieces–is to leave audiences uncertain of how it all might connect. How does Tao’s life in the junk shop in 1999 lead to the alcoholic rich man collecting guns in Australia in 2025? Do these two things bear any connective weight? Jia asks in Mountains how our individual emotional choices are brought to bear on our national or economic identities. That’s a complex question.”

Weiner

“As far as political documentaries go, the fact Weiner exists at all is remarkable. Surely Weiner believed this crew would be documenting his rise from scandalized political artifact to Mayor of New York City. But it didn’t take long to realize that wasn’t going to happen. Directors Josh Kreigman and Elyse Steinberg are given incredible, intimate access to Weiner and Abedin, and at times I was left in disbelief that Weiner, and especially Abedin, let this film get released.”

Zootopia

“Zootopia is a wonderful film. It is empowering, full of sobering reminders, and brilliantly made. It is simply a joy to watch.”

 

Honorable Mentions:

Christopher Zumski Finke: Hidden Figures

Rachel Woldum: Nocturnal Animals

Joey Armstrong: The Witch.

Follow The Stake on Twitter and Facebook