A generous look at identity beats out glitz and glamour at the movies
E often call movies an escape, and that’s never felt truer or more necessary than this year. In contrast to the endless series of sucker punches that was the news cycle, cinema’s best offerings were mostly thoughtful, leisurely and generous of spirit. There are no gunfights in this list, no kingdoms that rise or fall, there’s nary a car chase or even a grand romantic gesture (I remain unmoved by critical favorite “La La Land,” an ode to the self-regard of Los Angeles). Here are 10 stories that turn not on conflict between heroes and villains but on the inward struggle of identity. What does it mean to be human? Howdoyou become a decent one? What if who you are isn’t what the people around you want you to be? How do you build bridges that connect you to others? “20th Century Women,” my top choice, takes a joyful philosophical dive into the intersection of feminism and masculinity, while “Arrival” puts the question of humanness on a much larger scale: How might we learn to communicate with the ultimate other — a visitor from another world? “Moonlight,” the toughest watch of the bunch, is a deluge of psychological tormentment shot through with glimmers of sheer joy, givgiving voice to the experience of growing up African-AmeAmerican and gay in the projects oof South Florida. “The WitcWitch,” released in that early-yeayear period I call Horror Movie Season, takes the Puritanical fear of the femininenine —— the same kind that gavegave uus the Salem WiWitch Trials — and brbrilliantly mashes i it straight-up with aheada scary movie. The dystopian satire “The Lobster,” meanwhile, takes dead aim at our cultural obsession with coupledom.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” which should finally put NewZealand director Taika Waititi on everyone’s radar, is the comic story of a tough-talking, love-starved foster kid on a nature foray with a reluctant father figure. Yeah, it’s funny: That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it seriously.
“American Honey,” the most unruly film on my list, is a nearly three-hour travelogue about a vanful of working-class teenagers selling magazine subscriptions, which manages to zoom in close on American poverty and make Shia LaBeouf likable.
I struggled with including “Manchester by the Sea,” whose star, Casey Affleck, has been dogged by stories of past alleged mistreatment of women. Should an actor’s reputation affect how you view his work? I have argued that it should, but I can’t deny this devastating drama a place on this list — it’s that good.
There’s another man here whose moral failings are indisputable, and that would be the subject of “Weiner.” Howonearth did documentarians Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman finagle this much inside access to the meltdown of a once-promising political dynamo? Sheer hubris, of course, and their film is a brilliant monument to it. Finally, “Hidden Figures” is a much cheerier monument to three unsung heroes of NASA’s glory days: African-American women once known as “computers in skirts” who did the math that enabled us to get into space.