2016 definitely wasn’t my first year of cinephilia, but it feels in many ways like the first concrete step towards it becoming my all-consuming passion. From joining and becoming immersed in Twitter to watching more and more to writing on here, Seattle Screen Scene, and Brooklyn Magazine, it’s been rather extraordinary.
The following list is formed from the reds, oranges, greens, and blues that I have seen at time of writing that were commercially released in New York City in 2016. It is woefully inadequate and incomplete, but nothing ever is in cinephilia.
1. Manchester By The Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
2. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
3. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
4. My Golden Days (Arnaud Desplechin)
5. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook)
6. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)
7. Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene)
8. Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (Stephen Cone)
9. O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman)
10. Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
11. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
12. Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve)
13. SPL II: A Time for Consequences (Soi Cheang)
14. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
15. The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
16. Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
17. Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
18. Sunset Song (Terence Davies)
19. The Shallows (Jaume Collet-Serra)
20. Sully (Clint Eastwood)
21. Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno)
22. Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
23. Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)
My Top 10 Discoveries During 2016 (for first-time viewings of films made before 2000)
- A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Edward Yang)
- Chungking Express (1994, Wong Kar-wai)
- Trust (1990, Hal Hartley)
- Wavelength (1967, Michael Snow)
- Manhunter (1986, Michael Mann)
- The Devils (1971, Ken Russell)
- Carlito’s Way (1993, Brian De Palma)
- Out 1 (1971, Jacques Rivette)
- Ran (1985, Akira Kurosawa)
- Days of Being Wild (1990, Wong Kar-wai)
In conclusion:
Taipei Mansions 