The best (what there was) of 2016 from George Thomas

By George M. Thomas

"La La Land" is a full blown, retro musical worth the time.

For years I’ve tried to avoid slapping the “best” label on a list of films at the end of the year. The reasons are numerous, the primary one: I’m not a filmmaker.

There’s too much craftsmanship that goes into making a film for me to completely understand what goes on behind the scenes.

I do, however, know what I like. Oddly enough it usually dovetails with the stuff a lot of critic-types eventually put on lists at this time of the year. Call it 50-some odd years of watching warmed over cinematic hash.

Nocturnal Animals

By George M. Thomas

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon in Nocturnal Animals.

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is a deft, intelligent, and twisty rumination on relationships and the expectations that come with them.

Hitchcockian in design, director Tom Ford crafts a suspenseful tale blending several story elements, all of which grab the viewer in a way that makes them wonder from where, exactly, this story will arrive.

Through it all, everyone in the cast provides compelling performances as Ford takes the audience through several worlds; one cold, austere and filled with loneliness, another alive with hope and potential, and a third that’s scarier than hell.

Amy Adams, in her second award worthy performance of the fall, stars as Susan, an art gallery owner with a seemingly successful husband (Armie Hammer) who appears to have it all. The reality is something altogether different.