We're a little over halfway done with the year, so it's time to check out the best films that have been released so far. Due to my being unusually busier (and financially more unpredictable) than most years of my life, I haven't gone as regularly to the movies as I used to. Not to mention that most quality films won't come out until the fall for awards season, thereby giving me less motivation to go out in the first place. With that in mind, here is countdown of my top five choices and an honorable mention.
Honorable mention
THE NEON DEMON (coming to DVD/Blu Ray on Sept. 27)
As many of you know, I worked on this movie, so it's likely impossible I could give an unbiased opinion of it. But with Elle Fanning's portrayal of Jesse, a small-town girl finding the (horribly depraved and viciously) unexpected in the Big City, and with Nicolas Winding Refn spinning a giallo-influenced and genuinely subversive macabre fairy tale, I have great confidence that it would've been my favorite film of the year even if I wasn't on the crew. But in the interest of fairness, I'll leave it out of my top five.
5. THE REVENANT (available on DVD/Blu Ray)
Although I'll concede it's horribly overrated -- a B-movie survivalist story masquerading as Something Important because it had a troubled production, lofty dialogue, and showy cinematography and acting -- you have to admire it for the fact it's such a gripping and simple B-movie with little-to-no cheese. And it's very carefully paced. If it's a little pretentious and heartless, hey, it's still an art-house movie that was financed with $135 million and made over half a billion. That's fine by me.
4. ZOOTOPIA (available on DVD/Blu Ray)
We all know it from its hilarious teaser before "Star Wars," but it's a much darker and thoughtful film than you'd expect from a movie containing sloths working at the DMV. In its depiction of a small-town rabbit becoming a cop in the big city (it's "The Neon Demon"'s much more well-behaved cousin), "Zootopia" is one of the smartest movies about urban sprawl, drug addiction, and race relations made in recent years. And yes, it's a children's movie.
3. THE WITCH (available on DVD/Blu Ray)
It doesn't know what to do with all its untied strings in the last few minutes, but "The Witch" is still the kind of horror film that we're sorely lacking in the 21st century. I know I'm a pretentious art-house snob, but I think we can all agree that we can do away with these countless jump-scare horror movies, right? After all, just the thought of living in the middle of nowhere in the 17th century, when the perceptive line between the supernatural and the real didn't exist and you could die from, like, the flu, is pretty scary. When you add witchcraft -- plus great acting, cinematography, direction, score, and production design -- things get scarier. I wasn't personally terrified of the movie, but it was pretty damn good.
2. DEADPOOL (available on DVD/Blu Ray)
This one surprised me. I went in expecting a lazily improvised stoner comedy with action bits thrown in, one of those fantasy pitches made to out-of-touch execs in a board room that was only produced to make a lot of cash. OK, fine, all movies are produced with the intent to make money, and this one made a ton, but it's a lot tighter, funnier, and well-directed than what my expectations were. As the essentially immortal superhero Deadpool with a scarred face only a mother could love, Ryan Reynolds proves himself as a charming screen presence: that's not something I'd ever thought I'd say. And in stark contrast to the not-terrible-but-horribly-messy "Batman v Superman: Dawn of justice," "Deadpool" is a simple story with a nice and effective moral: It's not the outside that matters.
1. THE LOBSTER (available on DVD/Blu Ray)
It was actually released in Europe last year (and premiered in festivals even earlier), but because it didn't get American release until early 2016, it's on my list, and the best film I've seen thus far, this year. Yorgos Lanthimos' film is a rare breed: a high-concept art film. Colin Farrell plays a guy in a dystopian future where, if you're single past a certain age, you're sent to a hotel with 30 days to find a mate. If you don't, you're turned into the animal of your choice. Funny, sensitive, and genuinely weird in a way a lot of independent movies only try to be, "The Lobster" is an engrossing watch.
The other films I've seen:
YOUTH -- Didn't much like it, but there was enough in there that makes me want to revisit it. Maybe I'll like it better when I'm older.
THE HATEFUL EIGHT -- My second least-favorite Tarantino film to "Grindhouse". But that being said, it's still a hell of a lot better than most other movies.
CAROL -- Meh. I like the look of it and the acting, but it didn't grab me emotionally at all. And I'm a baby when it comes to love stories.
HAIL CAESAR -- Atypically unstructured for a Coen Brothers movie -- it's essentially a string of vignettes -- but it's light and funny.
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE -- It's not totally terrible, but it's empty in its profundity and confusing dark for the deep. And my god, it's a mess, with scenes totally disjointed and disorganized, not leading up to anything or going anywhere. Nolan's Batman films were dark, but they felt epic, awesome, and intelligent. This felt like a mediocre ripoff.
KEANU -- It's not unfunny, but I wanted to like it more than I did.
ELVIS & NIXON -- See my thoughts on "Keanu."
GENIUS -- It has good acting and cinematography, but I honestly thought it was a bit boring.
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL -- It has great acting, cinematography, score, writing, and direction, and shockingly, it still didn't really do it for me. Its own murkiness with the central mystery of the film got so tiresome I felt left out from the suspense of the film.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE -- Way better than I expected a film featuring Kevin Hart and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would be.
There's probably something else that I saw that I'm leaving out. If you want to know what I think about it, you know where to find me.
