I think everyone has pretty much acknowledged by now that 2016 was a little bit shit. The human suffering in the Middle East doesn’t seem to be abating, there was a pretty dodgy referendum vote in the UK, many of our favourite pop and movie stars have passed away (Bowie, Cohen, Prince, Carrie Fisher…) and as for America, the less said about that the better! The rise of hatred and fear so close to home is a genuine worry and 2017 will probably turn out to be this year’s hangover.
What we have all needed is escape and thankfully (I think at least) this has been one of the best years for movies in a while. 2016 has not been all bad, honest! I am a huge fan of genre films as anyone who follows my twitter would know, and this year has been a stellar year. 2016 has given us gems such as Bone Tomohawk, Hateful Eight, High Rise, Green Room, The Girl With All The Gifts, Don’t Breathe, 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Witch. We have had some good arthouse movies too, not least American Honey, Paterson, Nocturnal Animals, there have been some good major releases including Room, Spotlight and the Revenant at the start of the year. We also got the biggest laugh for ages from the hilarious Deadpool.
There have been some good music releases too and even though I am always a bit behind on the times when it comes to music, I have enjoyed the new albums from Parquet Courts, Car Seat Headrest, Angel Olsen and PJ Harvey. There were some good gigs in Dublin and we got to see Suede, Neil Young, Mitski, Dinosaur Jr and Danny Brown. After a year like this it will be interesting to see where film and music will go: I imagine darker, but who knows. Maybe we will instead clamour for more love, happiness and understanding as the real world is already dark enough.
My 15 favourite movies:
Managed to see a good portion of films released in 2016 thanks to Irish Film Institute membership and a Cineworld Unlimited Card. I also ended the year binge watching a lot that I had missed. The only rule for this list is that the film had general release into the cinemas in 2016, here are the 15 best I picked out:
1.Embrace of the Serpent
2.Green Room
3.Hell and High Water
4.Bone Tomohawk
5.The Nice Guys
6.10 Cloverfield Lane
7.Victoria
8.Hunt for the Wilderpeople
9. When Marnie Was There
10.The Revenant
11.Nocturnal Animals
12.Anomolisa
13.Room
14.Everybody Wants Some
15.High Rise
My 10 favourite albums:
I always end up listening to the best releases from a certain year too late to make a meaningful list but below are the albums I enjoyed the most. Special shout out to new albums by A Tribe Called Quest, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean which I am currently listening to and enjoying, but haven’t heard enough to make a meaningful judgment.
1.Angel Olsen – My Woman
2.Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial
3.Mitksi – Puberty 2
4.Danny Brown – The Atrocity Exhibition
5.Parquet Courts – Human Performance
6.PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
7.The Avalanches – Wild Flower
8.Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
9.Solange – Seat At The Table
10.Nao – For All We Know
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