A while back, we got all excited about the number of great things we’ve seen at the cinema this year and ranked The Best Movies of 2016 (well, so far). That covered the first 3/4 of the year – and now we look ahead to some of the highlights still to come in the closing months of 2016. Read on as Flicks editor Steve Newall and Flicks writer Liam Maguren take each other – and you, dear reader – through their respective top five films still waiting in the wings…
Steve’s #5 – Nocturnal Animals
Steve says: Tom Ford’s debut A Single Man was devastatingly well-acted, gorgeously shot and an emotional kick right to the throat – at least that’s why I claim to have had a lump in it. The unlikely fashion designer-cum-director returns with a literary adaptation in more ways than one, led by Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, and veering between a main narrative and a story-within-a-story. In scoring a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Fest, Nocturnal Animals has me more excited than ever in its potential.
Liam says: I never saw A Single Man and I thought Tom Ford made cars, so this film was nowhere on my radar. But anything with Jake Gyllenhaal going back into anything that sounds vaguely Nightcrawler-ish automatically gets my interest.
First trailer for ‘Nocturnal Animals’
Liam’s #5 – Hell or High Water
Liam says: Let me hit you with some simple math: The writer of the vicious Sicario + the director of the destructive Starred Up x the Godly acting powers of Jeff Bridges = an insanely powerful filmmaking force that can only result in an excellent modern-day, morally-grey, bank robbery Western. If it’s anything less than that, then the maths is wrong and all logic in this world collapses.
Steve says: Oh man, I was sold on seeing this already – though not this high up my list – but that Starred Up connection makes me reconsider my life priorities. Yeah, Hell or High Water is pretty much must-see material.
Main trailer for ‘Hell or High Water’
Steve’s #4 – The Neon Demon
Steve says: Nicolas Winding Refn is polarising as hell, and I fucking love that. While you can make spirited defenses of all his films, I’m gonna come out and admit my love of his films may come from a contrarian point of view as much as wanting to be dazzled and challenged. With that said, an LA-set film about models seems a neon-drenched fit for the colour-blind provocateur.
Liam says: Polarising is the perfect word for Refn. If we were a coin, Steve, you would be heads and I would be a gigantic middle finger with the word “nooooooooope” tattooed on it.
Main trailer for ‘The Neon Demon’
Liam’s #4 – La La Land
Liam says: Whiplash was half a bar away from being my film of the year in 2014, so Damien Chazelle’s follow-up was always gonna turn my interested eyes into pointed daggers. When that first trailer for La La Land dropped, with its soothing song number and eye-massaging imagery, I was hooked in a way I wasn’t expecting: romantically.
Steve says: Over the years, I’ve managed to convince myself that I don’t like musicals. Well, that’s going to be put to the bloody test here, isn’t it? At the very least, I commit to watching this one, unlike its genre brethren. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m even a little excited…
First teaser for ‘La La Land’
Steve and Liam’s #3 – Doctor Strange
Steve says: Speaking of excited, look at us syncing up here! This mind-bending mage has long been a beloved Marvel character for me, and after Ant-Man’s great psychedelia and 3D, I cannot wait to have my mind caved in by this buzzy-as-all-hell looking pic. Plus, Mads freaking Mikkelsen as a baddie? Down.
Liam says: We’re both heads for this one, mate. I’m loving Marvel Disney’s work, and if they were to put a cape on MC Escher (a dream of mine that I never thought would be realised), it would look like what we’ve just seen in these trailers. This is the most excited I’ve ever been for a superhero flick. I’m getting sweaty.
Second trailer for ‘Doctor Strange’
Steve’s #2 – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Steve says: If last year’s The Force Awakens was a mix of huge excitement and immense relief, Rogue One is a massively unknown quantity. Yeah, we’re suffering a deluge of prequels and reboots right now, but this is different, dammit – a standalone Star Wars story that, as we’ve already seen, is rammed full of cool stuff like stormtroopers in the tropics, AT-ATs contending with rocket launchers, and a killer team led by Felicity Jones going up against an imperious Ben Mendelsohn. PS, hi again, Mads Mikkelsen!
Liam says: …looks like I’m tails again. I enjoyed The Force Awakens, but the experience of getting another Star Wars film stuck in my mind more than the actual film did. I can’t quite get fully excited for Rogue One given who’s directing it. I did not like Gareth Edwards’ critical indie darling Monsters and felt bitterly disappointed about his trudge-through-the-mud take on Godzilla. I’m hoping he can fly through my pessimism and slam dunk A Star Wars Story over my head.
Second trailer for ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’
Liam’s #2 – Hacksaw Ridge
Liam says: I’m jumping on this hype train. The only way I want to hear from Mel Gibson is through the movies he directs. Yes, he’s pushing a Christian message in this film too, but it’s a message that (seemingly) looks to appeal towards the decency in people and pacifism by contrasting it with the worst of people and violence.
Steve says: It’s tough to separate Gibson’s film work from his awful real-life personality, but it’ll be easier without his mug on screen. I’m with you in jumping aboard Hacksaw Ridge, though – he’s a bloody good, single-minded director, and even if we’re going to be on the receiving end of painfully real carnage, it sounds like this is in service of a probable, welcome, anti-war point of view.
Main trailer for ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
Steve’s #1 – Arrival
Steve says: Hopefully Denis Villeneuve doesn’t come unstuck from his recent strong run of films here – but that’s what can happen when swerving from a bit of a hot streak to an ambitious alien contact tale. Arriving (sorry) almost out of nowhere, it’s great to have avoided a year-long build up of trailers and behind-the-scenes info when all I want is to cut to the chase of this decidedly NOT Independence Day-looking tale. If Villeneuve can continue to wring more than expected out of familiar-sounding premises – Sicario, Enemy and Prisoners alike – we could be in store for something very special indeed.
Liam says: When it comes to ‘movies I loved this year’ lists, Villeneuve’s films come an inch short of a full bear hug. It’s frustrating, because I can never quite explain what holds me back. Nevertheless, I’m glad he’s taking on a film about humans attempting to understand an extraterrestrial language – a subject most sci-fis brush aside with some telekinesis bullshit or John Carter language juice.
Main trailer for ‘Arrival’
Liam’s #1 – Moana
Liam says: From fears of cultural appropriation to outcries of Maui not being sexy enough, I can understand anyone feeling hesitant about Disney’s pan-Polynesian princess tale. There are so many think-pieces deconstructing the film’s potential impact – both the profound and the problematic – that it can feel like overkill. But this is exactly the kind of reaction we should be generating about something that we’ve never had before: a blockbuster fantasy adventure with two awesome Polynesian heroes that you can take the whole family to. We react because we care, and this is the 2016 film I’ve been reacting to the most.
Steve says: Once the mere existence of this film, no matter how stereotyped, would have helped “put NZ on the map”. Cut to the present-day, where Disney are delicately making their way through a minefield, laden with good intentions, but still stumbling a little along the way. The path they’ve chosen isn’t easy, and Pasifika culture no guaranteed money-spinner, so perhaps there’s something commendable in this. But please, Disney, please don’t stuff up what could be a magical animated tale by making glaring cultural errors – it’d be a crying shame if Moana isn’t able to stand and be judged on its own merits. Cos it looks mint.
Full trailer for ‘Moana’
Click for the complete list of films coming soon
