If you’re looking for a sweet breeze to lift your spirits or just a swift kick in the pants, IndieWire senior film critic David Ehrlich is back with his annual compilation of the year’s best movies. Maybe you’ve been reading too many thinkpieces about cinema being dead, maybe you’ve been personally let down by your local megaplex, or maybe you’re experiencing a general existential dread because of, oh, I don’t know, the future of civilization for example.
You can leave all angst at that at the door, because the sweeping exhilaration of sights and sounds cobbled together here is an antidote for anemia. Per tradition, David has stitched together scenes, flashes of imagery, and snippets of sound by seeking the common threads binding 2016’s movies (the riff on “Faith” connecting Key and Peele with Swiss Army Man and Scorsese is particularly nice), and the result is probably his best editorial work yet.
From the sonorous magical realism of Kubo and the Two Strings to the dance party fever of La La Land and A Bigger Splash, the supercut is also a great way to fill out the rest of your must-see list as we head into hibernation. New treasures to discover either at the theater or on whatever streaming service you like best.
At the very least, a triumphant look at cinema like this should be a slap in the face to any fool who believes that the art form is done for.
Image: A24
