I mistakenly originally posted my personal lists in the thread for what was supposed to be the EOTY lists of various publications. Figured I'd start a thread here for movies, television, video games, books, comics, etc. similar to the EOTY thread over in the Music section. Personally can't do films yet because so many aren't out or aren't out wide yet. Probably won't be able to get anything posted until mid-January on that front. TV and Video Games I can do, though. Movies (TBD) TV 1. Better Call Saul Season 2 2. Mr. Robot Season 2 3. Silicon Valley Season 3 4. Preacher Season 1 5. Atlanta Season 1 6. Stranger Things Season 1 7. Halt and Catch Fire Season 3 8. Veep Season 5 9. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2 10. Vice Principals Season 1 HM. Game of Thrones, Westworld, South Park,The Good Place, Broad City, Bob's Burgers, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Archer, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Ash vs. Evil Dead, The People v.s O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Video Games* 1. Dark Souls III 2. Final Fantasy XV 3. Overwatch 4. Titanfall 2 5. Pokemon Sun/Moon 6. Dishonored 2 7. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End 8. Destiny: Rise of Iron 9. Tom Clancy's The Division 10. Doom *Didn't really get to play many indies this year, or really many games in general. Even of these top ten I have, I haven't finished all of them as of now. It's been tough but gaming has kind of been the thing I've started giving time up on more and more as school has ended and real life has begun for me.
According to Letterboxd, I've only seen 12 films that came out this year, 6 of them I enjoyed enough to start a list. Favorites, kind've unranked: Manchester by the Sea Everybody Wants Some Moonlight Edge of Seventeen Tickled The Nice Guys In terms of television: I still haven't finished Horace and Pete but nothing else has been able to touch it for me. Atlanta's first season was very impressive. The Night Of was pretty good until the laughable plot points in the last few episodes. I ran through all of You're the Worst and found, like most people, the second season to be the most impressive. S3 was very good, but lacked the coherence of 2. Westword was fun until it wasn't.
Films that I viewed this year for the first time and enjoyed: Blood Simple Phantom of the Paradise Blow Out Midnight Run Belly The American Friend Grizzly Man Terrorvision Down By Law Street Trash Summer School The Decline of Western Civilization The Last Picture Show Apocalypse Now I also managed to see Anomalisa early this year which technically was a 2015 release. That'd rank near the top of my list.
I still have to see Paterson, 20th Century Women, Fences, and Silence for 2016 releases that I'm really interested in. But for films, right now, I'd have a list of movies I really liked that looks something like: 1. Moonlight 2. Certain Women 3. Swiss Army Man 4. Manchester by the Sea 5. Everybody Wants Some!! 6. The Witch 7. A Bigger Splash 8. the Lobster 9. the Handmaiden 10. the Nice Guys 12. American Honey 13. La La Land 14. the Alchemist Cookbook 15. Sing Street 16. Hail, Caesar! 17. Green Room 18. Lemonade 19. Bad Moms 20. Nocturnal Animals 21. the Love Witch 22. the Invitation 23. Hello, My Name is Doris 24. the Edge of Seventeen 25. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Best Lead Performances Alex Hibbert/Ashton Anders/Trevante Rhodes, Moonlight Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea Tilda Swinton, A Bigger Splash Ralph Fiennes, A Bigger Splash Ryan Gosling, the Nice Guys Hailee Steinfeld, the Edge of Seventeen Amy Adams, Nocturnal Animals Samantha Robinson, the Love Witch Sally Field, Hello, My Name is Doris Tae-ri Kim, the Handmaiden Sasha Lane, American Honey Best Supporting Performances Mahershala Ali, Moonlight Naomie Harris, Moonlight Jaden Piner/Jharrel Jerome/Andre Holland, Moonlight Kristen Stewart, Certain Women Michelle Williams, Certain Women/Manchester by the Sea Kathryn Hahn, Bad Moms Glen Powell, Everybody Wants Some!! Daniel Radcliffe, Swiss Army Man Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals/Loving I didn't watch a lot of TV this year. My favorites were something like 1. Bojack Horseman 2. Horace and Pete 3. Silicon Valley 4. what I've seen of Atlanta 5. what I've seen of Lady Dynamite 6. Game of Thrones
Definitely can't do film until mid January and until I figure out whether I liked Neon Demon or hated it
@Nathan Mahershala Ali is almost certainly the best overall supporting performance I saw this year thus far. And I highly doubt anything yet to come out will touch it.
Anomalisa was fantastic. One of the most striking films of last year (even though I saw it early this year as well) and was one that stuck with me for a while after seeing it.
Yes! It's one of the most underseen films of the year, too. David Ehrlich wrote a really great piece on Fiennes/his performance if you're interested Ralph Fiennes’ Narcissistic Dance Moves Deserve An Oscar In ‘A Bigger Splash’ — Consider This
favorite movie might be green room since i've somehow seen it 6 times? The Witch was amazing The Neon Demon was great Swiss Army Man was wild, got to rewatch though Arrival was great but the ending was a little too much i got the point before like 10 minutes before the end feel like i'm forgetting a lot
Better Call Saul should win an award for that scene where Saul is in a kinkos because it's somehow more compelling than the entirety of Westworld
Not just the scene where he's in the Kinko's but also the scene at the end of the episode as he watches Chuck lose his mind over the fact that he can't get the Kinko's worker to admit that Jimmy was there doctoring the papers. It's just heartbreaking, tense, and horrible (on Jimmy's part) all at once. That season 3 cliffhanger was so damn effective.
well yeah obviously that scene is amazing and it's full of equally amazing if not more amazing scenes I was just using that scene as an example of how something as mundane as editing documents in a kinkos can carry more weight than western sentient robots taking over the world when done right lol
Still so many films I need to see before I can make an accurate list. I really don't want to post anything until after I see a bunch more films (Elle, Silence, Lion, 20th Century Women, a bunch more I'm certainly forgetting right now).
1. Elle (Paul Verhoeven) 2. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven) 3. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade) 4. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) 5. Krisha (Trey Edward Shults) 6. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook) 7. Things To Come (Mia Hansen-Løve) 8. The Club (Pablo Larraín) 9. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho) 10. The Witch (Robert Eggers) 11. Louder Than Bombs (Joachim Trier) 12. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) 13. Carnage Park (Mickey Keating) 14. Rams (Grímur Hákonarson) 15. Tickled (David Farrier, Dylan Reeve) 16. The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet) 17. Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari) 18. Weiner (Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg) 19. American Honey (Andrea Arnold) 20. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 21. Midnight Special (Jeff Nichols) 22. Joshy (Jeff Baena) 23. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie) 24. Hush (Mike Flanagan) 25. The Wailing (Na Hong-jin) 26. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) 27. Darling (Mickey Keating) 28. Everybody Wants Some (Richard Linklater) 29. Don't Breathe (Fede Alvarez) 30. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone) Still have yet to see Paterson, Manchester By the Sea and Arrival. While a couple are "2015" films, there was no way of me seeing some of them in 2015 outside of getting someone to drive me two hours so I consider 'em fair game.
I posted my favs in the other EOTY thread, but I'll double post here ha. I watched 150 movies in 2016, 96 of which were released or made available this year. I ranked them on letterboxd. I love blockbusters, so they tend to rank high on my list. No apologies ha. 2016 Films Ranked Excluding the big blockbusters, my top 10 would've looked like: 1. Arrival 2. 10 Cloverfield Lane 3. La La Land 4. The Witch 5. The Neon Demon 6. Everybody Wants Some!! 7. Swiss Army Man 8. Edge of Seventeen 9. Divines 10. Hunt for the Wilderpeople I didn't get a chance to see Manchester by the Sea, Moana, Moonlight, Fences, Elle, Toni Erdmann, Right Now Wrong Then, Aquarius, or Jackie. I suspect a couple of them might have ended up high on my list, but alas. Favorite TV shows: 1. Horace and Pete 2. Westworld S1 (HBO) 3. Game of Thrones S6 (HBO) 4. iZombie S2 (CW) 5. Stranger Things S1 (Netflix) 6. Better Call Saul S2 (AMC) 7. BoJack Horseman S3 (Netflix) 8. Atlanta S1 (FX) 9. The Americans S4 (FX) 10. Mr. Robot S2 (USA) HM: Black Mirror S3 (Netflix) Got deep back into video games this year after getting a PS4. Played through all these and thought they were varying degrees of fun to great: Battlefront South Park Stick of Truth Uncharted 1, 2, 3, 4 Last of Us (Remastered) Tomb Raider Modern Warfare / Infinite Warfare Oxenfree
Using 2016 premiere dates Best 1. Elle (Paul Verhoeven) 2. Aquarius (Kleber Filho Mendoca) 3. Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) 4. Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) 5. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) 6. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade) 7. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook) 8. Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Love) 9. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello) 10. Allied (Robert Zemeckis) 11. The Ornithologist (Joao Pedro Roridgues) 12. Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan) 13. The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi) 14 The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn) 15. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt) 16. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson) 17. The Dreamed Path (Angela Schanelec) 18. Yourself and Yours (Hong Sang-soo) 19. Werewolf (Ashley Mackenzie) 20. Operation Avalanche (Matt Johnson) Still waiting to see Silence and 20th Century Women for big releases, Slack Bay, Staying Vertical, and a good dozen other films from festivals. Worst Sausage Party Weiner-Dog The Lure Swiss Army Man Southside With You Joshy Ma Rosa Hell or High Water La La Land Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk New Discoveries 1. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) 2. Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996) 3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) 4. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) 5. La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991) 6. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) 7. Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003) 8. The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998) 9. The Forest for the Trees (Maren Ade, 2003) 10. Body Double (Brian De Palma, 1984) Revised 2015 list (bolded films weren't on the list last year) 1. Carol (Todd Haynes) 2. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo) 3. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick) 4. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) 5. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman) 6. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) 7. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach) 8. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 9. Taxi (Jafar Panahi) 10. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
I've seen more movies since my list, notable exceptions being Toni Erdmann, Elle, Aquarius, Personal Shopper, Always Shine, Cameraperson, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and the Fits. The order is approximate, not too carefully considered 1. Moonlight, Barry Jenkins 2. Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt 3. Swiss Army Man, Daniels 4. Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan 5. Paterson, Jim Jarmusch 6. The Handmaiden, Chan-wook Park 7. Silence, Martin Scorsese 8. Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater 9. The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos 10. The Witch, Robert Eggers 11. A Bigger Splash, Luca Guadagnino 12. The Nice Guys, Shane Black 13. The Alchemist Cookbook, Joel Potrykus 14. Hail, Caesar!, the Coens 15. 20th Century Women, Mike Mills 16. Green Room, Jeremy Saulnier 17. The Edge of Seventeen, Kelly Fremon Craig 18. The Love Witch, Anna Biller 19. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone 20. La La Land, Damien Chazelle 21. Sing Street, John Carney 22. American Honey, Andrea Arnold 23. Nocturnal Animals, Tom Ford 24. Shin Godzilla, Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi 25. The Invitation, Karyn Kusama I think Paterson and Silence are the two films from the year I think about the most, though granted they're two of the most recent viewings. Certain Women is probably the one I've talked about most all year in an effort to get as many people to see it as possible.
Partially, it's my preferred viewing experience when it's an option (Elle just started playing near me, not sure if any of the others will). But I've also been working and traveling.