The 40 Films I Loved Most in 2016 - #20-11

20. Couple In A Hole
Director: Tom Geens, UK release date: 8 April

Eccentric drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife living like savages in a French forest. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb as the eponymous couple who have survived a tragedy but failed to cope with its emotional fallout. Geens' film falls away a little towards the end but otherwise this is a near-perfect blend of pitch-black humour and melancholy.

19. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau, UK release date: 15 April

Rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific, boasting as it does the likes of Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

18. Embrace Of The Serpent

Directors: Ciro Guerra, UK release date: 10 June

The story of an Amazonian shaman and his relationship (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with two European scientists - 40 years apart - as they descend into the great river's heart of darkness, searching for a mythical plant with great healing properties. Big themes, sumptuous cinematography and moments both disturbing and thrilling make for an intoxicating brew. 

17. Mustang

Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven, UK release date: 13 May

Oscar-nominated drama chronicling the lives of five orphaned Turkish sisters, imprisoned then forced into marriage by their conservative guardians. Its subject matter is dark but the film never slips into clumsy melodrama. Instead, it is hopeful, defiant and surprisingly filled with humour, as director Ergüven explores the clash between modern and traditional Turkish culture.

16. Author: The JT LeRoy Story
Director: Jeff Feuerzeig, UK release date: 29 July

The jaw-droppingly odd tale of Laura Albert, the 30-something US author who created and enjoyed enormous literary success as JT LeRoy, a fictional male alter-ego played in public by her sister-in-law. Beloved by celebrities and feted by the fashion world, LeRoy appeared to have the world at his/her feet... until the deception was discovered. Perhaps told far too much from Albert's perspective, Feuerzeig's documentary is nevertheless fascinating.

15. The Measure Of A Man

Director: Stéphane Brizé, UK release date: 3 June

A French companion piece to I, Daniel Blake (see #13), Brizé's film uses France's economic downturn to explore the effects of austerity on the male psyche; specifically how it can emasculate, humiliate and ultimately dehumanise even the most resolute. Veteran French actor Vincent Lindon has never been better as a former factory worker struggling to keep his family's head above water after two years of unemployment.

14. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Directors: Akiva Schaffe and Jorma Taccone, UK release date: 26 August
The Lonely Island's no-holds-barred mockumentary gives the Bieber generation the same kind of kick up the backside This Is Spinal Tap administered to the rock community 30 years ago. Like Tap, Andy Samberg (starring here as spoiled pop/rap megastar Conner4Real) and his compatriots understand that musical parodies only work if the songs themselves are actually good. And the songs here definitely are - they're also utterly hilarious.

13. I, Daniel Blake
Director: Ken Loach, UK release date: 21 October
The veteran socialist director's Palme d'Or winner dissects the UK government's war on the vulnerable in an impassioned and unapologetic polemic. After suffering a heart attack, Dave Johns (as Blake) feels the full force of state bureaucracy as he attempts to claim enough money to live on while being bullied and frustrated by a parade of jobsworths. The scene set in a food bank, in which a penniless young mum (the excellent Hayley Squires) eats cold baked beans straight from the tin, made me sob like an infant.

12. Spotlight

Director: Tom McCarthy, UK release date: 29 January

The Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into a local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. Its absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine. Authenticity and decency are unfashionable qualities but McCarthy's film exudes both.

11. Arrival
Director: Denis Villeneuve, UK release date: 10 November
Amy Adams is an eminent linguist with a tragic secret, recruited by the US government to communicate with a fleet of alien ships, newly parked up at various locations across the globe. As someone who knows his sci-fi, the film's big twist didn't kick me in the shins quite as hard as it did some, but was still exquisitely delivered. Villeneuve's eerie, elegiac movie absolutely nails the wonder and madness of first contact.

**Next up: the top 10**

My 20 favourite films of the year so far

Strange brew: The Witch is my film of the year... so far

To qualify for this list, films had to have had a UK cinema release between January 1 and June 30 2016. That some of these films were out in the States (or elsewhere) last year is irrelevant; it's only when they were released here - in the United Kingdom - that matters to me. I haven't included any movies that went straight to VOD, DVD etc - they will probably get their own 'best of' list at the end of the year. 

1. The Witch

Director: Robert Eggers UK release date: March 11

Eggers' debut feature is a masterful exercise in slow-burn horror which sees a 17th century Puritan family battling demons within and without. Impressively researched, unsettling and filled to the brim with palpable dread, The Witch is about as far removed from formulaic multiplex 'jump scares' as it is possible to get.

2. Victoria

Director: Sebastian Schipper UK release date: April 1

German crime thriller about a naive young Madrid girl led into criminality by a group of men on the mean streets of Berlin. An incredibly impressive technical achievement (the film was shot in one long take - no tricks, no shortcuts), that Laia Costa - the Victoria of the title - imbues with real heart and soul.

3. Son Of Saul
Director: László Nemes UK release date: April 29
We've seen the hell of the WWII death camps on film before but never quite like this. Set in Auschwitz in 1944, it tells the story of a Jewish Sonderkommando (a prisoner forced to help the Nazis dispose of dead bodies) trying to arrange a proper burial for a boy he believes to be his son. Profoundly moving and utterly heartbreaking.

4. Couple In A Hole

Director: Tom Geens UK release date: April 8

Harrowing drama about the terrible impact of grief on a husband and wife living like savages in a French forest. Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It) and Kate Dickie (The Witch) are both superb in a tale that perfectly blends pitch-black humour and gut-wrenching emotion. 

5. Spotlight

Director: Tom McCarthy UK release date: January 29

The Best Picture Oscar winner focuses on the Boston Globe's 2001 investigation into a local cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Its absence of directorial flashiness or melodrama allows an excellent ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton), sharp writing and methodical plotting to shine.

6. Embrace Of The Serpent
Directors: Ciro Guerra UK release date: June 10

The story of an Amazonian shaman and his relationship (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with two European scientists - 40 years apart - as they descend into the great river's heart of darkness, searching for a mythical plant with great healing properties. Big themes, sumptuous cinematography and moments both disturbing and thrilling make for an intoxicating brew. 

7. Hail, Caesar!
Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen UK release date: March 4
Slight but joyous love letter to Hollywood past with wit and charm to burn. Full of great performances (George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich) and clever pastiches of old movies, especially Channing Tatum's No Dames, an hilariously homoerotic song and dance number featuring a bar full of sailors.
8. Mustang
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven UK release date: May 13

Oscar-nominated drama chronicling the lives of five orphaned Turkish sisters, imprisoned then forced into marriage by their conservative guardians. Its subject matter is dark but the film never slips into clumsy melodrama. Instead, it is hopeful and defiant.

9. Welcome To Me
Director: Shira Piven UK release date: March 25
Kristen Wiig is a revelation as a bipolar woman who scoops $86million in the lottery and uses the cash to buy her own (bizarre) talk show. It's surreal, sad, funny and human but most importantly refuses to patronise or infantilise its protagonist.

10. Remainder
Director: Omer Fast UK release date: June 24

Tricksy but inventive memory-loss drama in which Tom Sturridge forgets vast swathes of his past when he is hit on the head by an object falling from a London office block. Constantly has you on the back foot as its plot shifts from downbeat melodrama to surreal crime caper.

11. The Big Short

Director: Adam McKay UK release date: January 22

A breathlessly entertaining dissection of 2008's global financial meltdown, seen through the eyes of the men who knew it was coming and got filthy rich as a result. Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling are all great and McKay must be applauded for the inventive, fun ways in which he explains some pretty tricky concepts. Smug? A bit. Smart? Most definitely.

12. Joy

Director: David O Russell UK release date: January 1

This unconventional biopic of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano has some interesting things to say about the entrepreneurial spirit and American capitalism - i.e. battling to get rich can harm your relationships, strip you of your innocence and play havoc with your dress sense. Jennifer Lawrence, in the title role, is as ridiculously charming as ever. 
13. Eye In The Sky

Director: Gavin Hood UK release date: April 15

Incredibly tense examination of modern drone warfare, which is also surprisingly complex and refreshingly even-handed. Boasts terrific performances from Helen Mirren and the late Alan Rickman, in his final screen role.

14. The Jungle Book
Director: Jon Favreau UK release date: April 15
Rich and rewarding adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's original stories that also pays fulsome homage to the beloved 1960s animation (The Bare Necessities, Trust In Me and I Wan'na Be Like You all get an airing). You'd be hard pressed to find more immersive CG anywhere and the voice cast is uniformly terrific (Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson).

15. Welcome To Leith
Directors: Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker UK release date: February 12

Chilling documentary about a group of neo-Nazis - led by notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb - attempting to take over a tiny North Dakotan town. The locals are initially caught on the back foot, but it isn't long before they organise a fightback in hopes of sending Cobb and his toy-town Gestapo packing. 

16. Zootropolis
Directors: Byron Howard and Rich Moore UK release date: March 25
A rabbit cop teams up with a criminal fox to unearth a massive conspiracy in Disney's utterly charming anthropomorphic adventure. Under the ubiquitous 'You can be anything you want to be' life lessons, there are laughs aplenty, seriously impressive world building and some surprisingly adult themes. Beautifully written and animated, this is a joy from start to finish.
17. Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures
Directors: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato UK release date: April 22
Fascinating documentary chronicling the life and controversial career of US photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS in 1989. As well as presenting an honest portrait of his many relationships (including with Patti Smith), it expertly charts the increasing sophistication of his work. There was an awful lot more to the man than a dozen or so notorious S&M shots.

18. Youth
Director: Paolo Sorrentino UK release date: January 29

Sorrentino's follow up to the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty is an eccentric, tragicomic meditation on old age, grief and regret. Michael Caine is reliably superb as the retired composer waiting for the end at an exclusive Swiss spa, while Harvey Keitel turns in his best performance for years as a movie director chasing past glories.

19. Everybody Wants Some!!
Director: Richard Linklater UK release date: May 13
'Spiritual sequel' to the director's superior Dazed And Confused, this time focusing on the members of a 1980 Texas college baseball team. Beer is downed, weed is smoked, trash is talked, and occasionally these likeable jocks get around to hitting a ball or two. Good clean fun bathed in enough rose-tinted nostalgia to float a battleship.
20. Goodnight Mommy
Directors: Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz UK release date: March 4

Unsettling Austrian horror about twin boys who become convinced their mother is no longer who she says she is. Directing duo Fiala and Franz build the levels of tension, paranoia and nastiness very nicely but I'm not sure the finale's big twist is entirely necessary.

The Forbidden Room and Midnight Special: Your Week In Film (April 4-10)

Midnight Special is this week's big new cinema release

Apologies for the lack of new reviews on the blog of late. Unfortunately, time is tighter than ever for me at the moment; not only are the kids off school for their spring break but I'm currently working on three graphic novel projects (two as writer, one as editor). Something approaching normal service should resume in a couple of weeks. Oh, and to update a previous column, there's still no sign of Krampus on Netflix UK. It's out on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD on April 25, if that's any help. Anyway, onwards and upwards...

TV, Radio, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and cinema picks for the next seven days...

Monday 4th: The Forbidden Room (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) is such a strange piece of work that it's easy to slip into hyperbole just trying to describe it. You know the kind of thing: 'So weird it makes Eraserhead look like Ride Along 2' or 'Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain is Get Hard by comparison'. Thing is, Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg) and Evan Johnson's film is every bit as challenging and surreal as such descriptions suggest. It is also a great deal of fun. There's no point me trying to outline the plot because it's all over the place, unlikely to prove much of a selling point, and probably irrelevant. No, The Forbidden Room's allure is all in its style and execution. In the film's more than two-hour running time, a series of roughly linked vignettes play out, all of which are one-part art installation, one-part B-movie pastiche. It goes off at ridiculous tangents, there are cameos from the likes of Charlotte Rampling, Udo Kier and Ariane Labed, and will frequently leave you scratching your head and/or smiling benignly at the sheer lunatic chutzpah of the thing. It's entirely possible you'll hate every minute but I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it. 

The Forbidden Room: A real head scratcher (trailer)

Sunset Song (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) is a film I missed at the cinema in the chaos of a busy pre-Christmas and have been looking forward to catching up with ever since. Directed by Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives), it's an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel about the impact of World War I on a rural Scottish family. It stars Agyness Deyn, a revelation in last year's criminally under-appreciated Electricity. Elsewhere, Arrow Video continues its series dedicated to the work of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder with The Marriage of Maria Braun and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (both Blu-ray). Both discs feature brand new 4K restorations of the films. Also from Arrow, Pam Grier and Margaret Markov star in women-in-prison exploitation flick Black Mama, White Mama (Blu-Ray). Like the company's other Grier reissues, it comes with a ton of extras and a 1080p HD presentation of the film.

Tuesday 5th: Some good stuff on today - take your pick from Terry Gilliam's still-marvellous Brazil (23:45, Film4), whip-smart Neil Simon comedy California Suite (18:55, Movie Mix), and Sidney Lumet heist classic Dog Day Afternoon (12:40, Sky Select). Al Pacino has rarely been better.

Pacino is electrifying in Dog Day Afternoon (trailer)

Wednesday 6th: Future Shock! The Story Of 2000AD (23:25, Film 4) is a must-see for any self-respecting fan of the 'Galaxy's Greatest Comic', which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Not only did the British weekly give the world Judge Dredd but a whole host of other influential stories and characters into the bargain. Paul Goodwin's documentary provides a refreshingly warts and all account of the publication's highs and lows, and talks to its original editor Pat Mills, as well as Neil Gaiman, Karl Urban (Dredd himself), and Lauren Beukes. From today, Netflix UK has Woody Allen comedy Match Point, vampire remake Let Me In, and Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams.

Future Shock! It's 40 years not-out for 2000AD (trailer)

Thursday 7th: MUBI are showing Peter Bogdanovich’s coming-of-age classic The Last Picture Show from today, while Amazon Prime Video debuts Steven Soderbergh's industrial espionage comedy The Informant! Francine Stock talks to director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust & Bone) on The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4) about his Palme D'Or-winning movie Dheepan, which finally opens in British cinemas tomorrow.

Friday 8th: Hitting your local multiplex today is Midnight Special, a Spielbergian slice of sci-fi from Mud director Jeff Nichols. The always excellent Michael Shannon (99 Homes) goes on the run with his eight-year-old son (Jaeden Lieberher) when the boy manifests extraordinary powers. Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton, Sam Shepard and Adam Driver complete an impressive cast. I'm also keen to check out Tom Geens' intriguing Couple In A Hole (in cinemas and on VOD), about a Scottish husband and wife who abandon their middle class existence to live in a cave in the French Pyrenees. Paul Higgins - who you may remember as the appalling Jamie from The Thick Of It - stars. Sanjeev Bhaskar and Robbie Collin sit in for the regular hosts on Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (14:00, BBC Radio 5 Live). Emily Blunt - talking about The Huntsman: Winter's War - is their special guest.

Midnight Special: A Spielbergian slice of sci-fi (trailer)

A husband and wife go wild in Couple In A Hole (trailer)

Saturday 9th: John McClane, Hans Gruber, Nakatomi Plaza, "Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.", "Yippee Ki Yay, Motherfucker". Yes, it's face-punching, bone-crunching action masterpiece Die Hard (22:00, Channel 4), starring Bruce Willis and the late, great Alan Rickman. Has there ever been a better hero/villain pairing in cinema history? Elsewhere, there's more action, this time of the four-wheeled variety, in The Fast And The Furious (21:25, ITV), while Rowan Atkinson does the bumbling spy thing in Johnny English Reborn (20:00, ITV), and Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in 1959 horror flick The Mummy (Midnight, BBC2).

Bruce Willis kicks terrorist bottom in Die Hard (trailer)

Sunday 10th: I definitely won't be watching family fantasy Bridge To Terabithia (14:30, Channel 4) because I don't want my children to see me sobbing like an idiot. Based on Katherine Paterson's children's novel, it is very good though. In a lighter vein, Mike Myers is Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (20:00, Comedy Central), and there's a choice of Kill Bills. Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1 is showing on Sky Atlantic at 22:00, with the director's Kill Bill Volume 2 scheduled on Syfy at the same time. 

Bridge To Terabithia will tear out your heart
and stomp on it (trailer)

The Last 5 Films I saw
1. Victoria (2015): Sebastian Schipper's crime thriller sees a naive young Madrid girl led into criminality on the mean streets of Berlin. Filmed in one long take, it really is something special and one of my favourites of the year so far.
2. Welcome To Leith (2015): Chilling documentary about neo-Nazis trying to take over a small American town and the locals who team up to send them packing.
3. The End Of The Tour (2015): Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg are both terrific in this sharp drama about David Foster Wallace, the acclaimed but troubled author of Infinite Jest.
4. The Club (2015): Bleak Chilean drama about a safe house for disgraced Catholic priests. Director Pablo Larrain doesn't pull his punches. 
5. Iona (2015): Ruth Negga (World War Z) is the best thing about this beautifully shot but ever-so-slightly dull melodrama set on the titular island. 

Laia Costa turns criminal in the excellent Victoria (trailer)

UK box office top 10
1. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice R
2. Zootropolis R
3. Kung Fu Panda 3
4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
5. 10 Cloverfield Lane
6. London Has Fallen
7. The Boy
8. The Divergent Series: Allegiant
9. High-Rise R
10. Deadpool R

R = Recommended