My Top Ten Films of 2016

Posted on December 29, 2016 at 3:16 pm

In my opinion, the best film of 2016 is “Fences,” with a screenplay by August Wilson, based on his Tony and Pulitzer-winning play, directed by and starring Denzel Washington, with Viola Davis.

Copyright 2016 Paramount

As usual, the rest of my list is all tied for second place:

“13th”
“Everybody Wants Some!!”
“Hell or High Water”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“La La Land”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”
“Sing Street”
“Zootopia”

Runners up: “Eye in the Sky,” “Don’t Think Twice,” “Southside With You,” “Finding Dory,” “Moana,” “Love & Friendship,” “Arrival,” “Loving,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Keanu,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “The Meddler,” “Hello My Name is Doris,” “Weiner,” “Zero Days,” “Command and Control,” “I, Daniel Blake,” “Little Men,” “A Monster Calls”

My friends at Rogerebert.com have compiled a great list of other critics’ top ten lists. Thanks for including mine!

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Critics

Tribute: Debbie Reynolds

Posted on December 29, 2016 at 9:41 am

Copyright Debbie Reynolds 2000

This is a very sad time. One day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds suffered a fatal stroke and now, suddenly, she is gone too.

Debbie Reynolds could do it all. She sang, she danced, she acted, she wrote, she produced. She was up for anything, always game, the ultimate show-must-go-on girl, and if she was not the girl next door, you wished she was.

Reynolds is one of the last of the classic era of movie stars. She has been an essential part of American culture since she was a teenager, starring opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the #5 American Film Institute classic “Singin’ In the Rain” and keeping up with them tap for tap and an overturned sofa to boot.

No star ever showed more pure joy in performing. We see Gene Kelly fall for her and we happily join him.

She was best known as the all-American sweetheart with a series of sometimes sugary musicals and romantic comedies like “Tammy” and “The Singing Nun.” Here she is in “The Affairs of Dobie Gillis” with two more of the greatest dancers in movie history, Bobby Van and Bob Fosse.

In that movie, she sang a slow and sweet version of the same song she sang in “Singin’ in the Rain,” “All I Do is Dream of You.”

She co-starred with Frank Sinatra in the very retro “Tender Trap.”

She was a standout in the all-star cast of “How the West Was Won,” and she was perfectly cast in the title role of the brash musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” which she said was her favorite role.

I am especially fond of “The Mating Game,” with Tony Randall and Paul Douglas, about a happy-go-lucky farm family that lives on the barter system and the IRS auditor trying to investigate them.

She was a gifted dramatic actress, as we see in “The Catered Affair,” a gritty drama where she plays the daughter of Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine.

I think one of her best performances is in the neglected gem “Divorce American Style,” a biting satire with Dick Van Dyke, Jason Robards, and Jean Simmons.

She was magnificent in the title role of Albert Brooks’ “Mother.”

She played Debra Messing’s mother on “Will and Grace” and Liberace’s mother in “Behind the Candelabra.” And she had an adorable cameo as herself in another neglected gem, “Connie and Carla.”

In addition to movies, Debbie Reynolds performed in nightclubs, theater, Las Vegas, on television, and had hit records and wrote best-selling books. She provided voices for “Rugrats,” “Kim Possible,” “The Family Guy,” and the title role in the animated “Charlotte’s Web.” She tried for decades to create a museum of Hollywood memorabilia and she was a tireless fund-raiser for good causes.

May her memory be a blessing.

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Actors Film History Movie History Tribute

Daily Beast: Best Overlooked Movie Performances

Posted on December 28, 2016 at 1:36 pm

At The Daily Beast, Marlow Stern has an excellent list of the most overlooked movie performances of the year, including Ryan Gosling in “The Nice Guys” (a masterpiece of comic timing and physical grace — great work from everyone in that film), Ralph Fiennes in “A Bigger Splash” (he said he took the role because of the dance scene, and he clearly has a blast with it), and Craig Robinson in “Morris from America.” All worth watching at least twice.

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