So now that we are at 2016's halfway point, what films have managed to impress and touch us most? We put the question to the editorial staff, and 21 replied with a top 5, from which we cobbled together a top 10, and a list of 10 runners-up.
Mind, not all titles travel fast, so some films may be from last year, or will be released later but have been screened at festivals already. All in all, every contributor had at least some films on his/her list which were exclusive to that person. In total, we have 74 titles, and I would lie if I said I've seen most of those. Therefore, a complete list of all those titles can be found at the end of our countdown.
Click through the images, and check if your own favorites are on our list! Speaking of which, HAVE YOUR SAY and chime in, in the comments!
Let's start with the runners up: all these films would have shot into the top-10 if even one more contributor would have voted for them... and some did, last year already. So take the order of these with a grain of salt, and just see this as a big batch of notable titles:
20 - Raw
19 - The Alchemist Cookbook
18 - Our Little Sister
17 - Hail Ceasar!
16 - Deadpool
15 - Mountains May Depart
14 - High Rise
13 - Trivisa
12 - Chi-Raq
11 - Son of Saul (pictured above)
And now, on with the top 10!
10: Green Room
A band plays a bad venue and after accidentally witnessing a murder, they become the target of a VERY bad crowd. Jeremy Saulnier's follow-up (but not a sequel) to his impressive Blue Ruin has been on a victory tour around the world, and finally settled in US cinemas. In his review, Ryland Aldrich calls it an awesome, smart, assured and clever siege film.
9: The Neon Demon
A young and beautiful model encounters some arcane secrets, in Nicolas Winding Refn's newest, which is so new it's still shiny! Still, enough Screen Anarchists have seen and liked it already to make it appear in our top 10 list. In his review, Jason Gorber says the film is "Silly, sly, sexy and sordid..." and "...a dark little burst of joy."
8: Zootopia
Like last year, a 3D cgi animation has sneaked into the list, and again this one proves not to be exclusively kiddie fodder. Clever designs and some cheeky comments at political correctness make this film about buddy cops in an animal society an enjoyable one. In his review, Jim Tudor says it may make some people feel uncomfortable even, and praises it for "...a spark, a creative enthusiasm, that is magnetic."
7: The Lobster
With Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth, the new wave of Greek "weird" cinema became noticed worldwide. His newest film is in English and features a famous international cast, but is certainly no less weird or stirring than his previous films.
It's also a divisive film, with many of us here at Screen Anarchy actually having mixed feelings about it. Like Jason Gorber, who wasn't kind in his review...
6: Captain America: Civil War
While naughty Deadpool got himself into our runners up list, Captain America managed to wriggle his way into the top 10 itself. Kudos to the guardians of the MCU for making their most-boring-on-paper hero one of the most delightful characters to follow on cinema.
In his review, Pierce Conran explains why we all had so much fun with Cap's latest outing.
5: The Witch
Brutal. Unrelenting. Dire. Difficult. Unintelligible even. Many words have been thrown at Robert Eggers' debut The Witch. But mostly it has been met with admiration, and in his review Ryland Aldrich called it "more parts drama than horror." He also says: "...genre elements and a solid grounding in period source material will keep audiences engaged throughout the film's thrilling conclusion."
4: Embrace of the Serpent
Ciro Guerra's latest film, which deals with cultures clashing and disappearing, has received much attention and acclaim worldwide, especially for its stunning black and white depiction of a South America which exists no more. In his review, Patrick Holzapfel calls it "... a spiritual quest with a political regret."
3: The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino had himself some fun last year, nerding out with his favorite equipment and actors, and thankfully the end result was a very pleasant western, with a stellar cast and many great moments.
In his review, Jim Tudor provides eight reasons for loving it!
2: The Nice Guys
Sometimes a standard thriller just needs two leads with great chemistry to lift it to a far higher level, and that's exactly what happens with Shane Black's The Nice Guys, in which a stellar Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe chew the 70s' scenery to pieces.
In his review, Jason Gorber also says that "...there are enough moments of twisted surrealism thrown in to keep things off kilter while managing to tweak things enough to keep it fresh."
Mass appeal (and having been widely seen) almost got this film into the top position... but one other rules supreme, and it's on the next slide.
1: The Wailing
Korean director Na Hong-jin turned heads already with his thrillers The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, but the word-of-mouth surrounding his latest film is monumental, bordering on legendary. A horror film about a country policeman trying to solve a string of mysterious deaths in his mountain village, The Wailing racks up the tension until you expect anything, from a zombie apocalypse, to aliens, to World War III. That it still fully manages to deliver on that tension is a marvel, and it has won the film its top position in this list.
In his review, one of the most positive he has ever written, Pierce Conran calls it the best film to come out of Korea in ages, and "...a bone-chilling, thunderous descent into Hell."
Mis-quoting an old même: "All Your Titles Are Belong To Us."
As stated before, the best film of the year so far may simply not have been seen by enough people yet to properly register in our list. My personal favorite so far this year is Sato Shinsuke's zombie epic I Am a Hero (see the picture above and my review), which I'm sure would be high in this list if only it had seen a wider Western release yet.
So to make this article a wee bit more useful and fair, here we show every single list our contributors sent in. Have fun browsing!
In alphabetical order, the contributors were:
Kwenton Bellette:
1 - Port of Call
2 - High Rise
3 - Mr. Six
4 - The Nice Guys
5 - Anomalisa
Dustin Chang:
1 - Academy of Muses
2 - Cemetery of Splendour
3 - Mountains May Depart
4 - Kaili Blues
5 - My Golden Days
Brian Clarke:
1 - The Wailing
2 - Zootopia
3 - High Rise
4 - The Witch
5 - Sunset Song
Pierce Conran:
1 - The Wailing
2 - The Truth Beneath
3 - Creepy
4 - The Mobfathers
5 - The World of Us
Jaime Grijalba:
1 - The Alchemist Cookbook
2 - Operation Avalanche
3 - A Bride for Rip van Winkle
4 - Ta'ang
5 - The Son of Joseph
Kurt Halfyard:
1 (tie) - Chi-Raq
1 (tie) - The Neon Demon
3 - The Nice Guys
4 - Knight of Cups
5 - Midnight Special
Martin Kudlac (in no particular order):
- Endless Poetry
- I, Olga Hepnarova
- Malgré le Nuit
- The Plague at the Karatas Village
- Tikkun
Andrew Mack:
1 - Son of Saul
2 - Hush
3 - Green Room
4 - The Nice Guys
5 - The Neon Demon
Peter Martin:
1 - The Wailing
2 - The Nice Guys
3 - 10 Cloverfield Lane
4 - The Witch
5 - Zootopia
James Marsh:
1 - Embrace of the Serpent
2 - The Wailing
3 - A Bigger Splash
4 - Trivisa
5 - Fire At Sea
Stuart Muller:
1 - Embrace of the Serpent
2 - Aferim!
3 - The Lobster
4 - Datong (The Chinese Mayor)
5 - Patterson's Wager
Christopher O'Keeffe:
1 - Our Little Sister
2 - Captain America: Civil War
3 - The Hateful Eight
4 - The Neon Demon
5 - Tale of Tales
Eric Ortiz Garcia:
1 - The Lobster
2 - The Hateful Eight
3 - Son of Saul
4 - Hail Ceasar!
5 - Carol
Hugo Ozman:
1 - The Mermaid
2 - Zootopia
3 - Finding Mr Right 2
4 - Daylight's End
5 - The Bodyguard
Shelagh Rowan-Legg:
1 - Raw
2 - American Honey
3 - Chi-Raq
4 - The Wailing
5 - The Handmaiden
Daniel Rutledge:
1 - Green Room
2 - The Nice Guys
3 - Tickled
4 - Captain America: Civil War
5 - The Jungle Book
Jim Tudor:
1 - Sing Street
2 - Captain America: Civil War
3 - The Witch
4 - The Lobster
5 - Hail Ceasar!
Ben Umstead:
1 - Embrace of the Serpent
2 - Dark Night
3 - Louder Than Bombs
4 - Driftwood
5 - Tower
Loïc Valceschini:
1 - Trivisa
2 - Everybody Wants Some!
3 - Heart Attack
4 - Mountains May Depart
5 - El Sonador
Ard Vijn:
1 - I Am A Hero
2 - An
3 - Nowhere Girl
4 - Deadpool
5 - The Hateful Eight
Ernesto Zelaya Miñano:
1 - Spotlight
2 - The Hateful Eight
3 - The Witch
4 - Deadpool
5 - Creed
That concludes the list!
Rest assured we'll have a bigger one at the end of the year...