A mostly very late Film Fight 2016 comes to an end in time. As per my permanent caveat, Film Fight is done in a knock-out style: it’ll let me select my favourite film of the year, but with no guarantees about second place.
First, the honourable mentions. Films that didn’t win their month but were good enough:
- The Hateful Eight
- The Revenant
- Creed
- Spotlight
- Trumbo
- Deadpool
- Anomalisa
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- Zootropolis
- Midnight Special
- Captain America: Civil War
- Everybody Wants Some
- Star Trek Beyond
- Rebirth
- Arq
- Swiss Army Man
- Mascots
- Nocturnal Animals
- Before The Flood
- Sully: Miracle on the Hudson
- Star Wars: Rogue One
And now the monthly winners:
- January: Room
- February: Hail, Caesar!
- March: High-Rise
- April: Miles Ahead
- May: Green Room
- June: The Nice Guys
- July: Born To Be Blue
- August: Jason Bourne
- September: The Girl With All The Gifts
- October: War on Everyone
- November: Arrival
- December: Bleed For This
Looking at the winners, most deserve a place with only a few getting very lucky (Jason Bourne).
Two biopic films about Jazz musicians (Miles Ahead and Born To Be Blue) inexplicably got wins, and both deservedly so. They each deal with addiction and fame in interestingly different ways. Worth seeing.
The Girl With All The Gifts is worthy of a special mention: I didn’t know what to expect and what I got was marvellous. Incredible world-building, decent action, good performances, brutal moments, and dark humour. If you missed it, it’s worth finding a copy when it comes out for a home release next month.
In Green Room we got an exciting and well-written thriller, with some unexpectedly brutal moments and Patrick Stewart playing very against type. In Room we see a horrific situation played out through the eyes of an innocent child, and then we get so much more. Arrival plays with structure in strange ways, revealing a bittersweet and heartbreaking story.
As always, it’s tough to pick a winner, especially between Room and Arrival, but I think the best film (though not the easiest watch) is Room. Brie Larson absolutely deserves her Oscar for a fantastic and nuanced performance, helping bring out a surprisingly good performance in her child actor counterpart, Jacob Tremblay. Room is horrific and beautiful, and manages to do far more than the premise would seem to allow. A worthy winner.