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**

The Last 5 Films I've Seen (from best to worst)

Alienated: The Independence Day sequel is an ungodly mess

1.The Measure Of A Man (2015): Stéphane 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 (who I last saw a couple of years ago in Claire Denis's excellent Bastards) is Thierry Taugourdeau, a former factory worker struggling to keep his family's head above water after two years of unemployment. But even when he finally lands a job as a security guard at a supermarket, he struggles with the compromises his new position forces him to make. Comparisons to the Dardenne Brothers' Two Days, One Night and, I suspect, Ken Loach's forthcoming I, Daniel Blake are inevitable as all three films explore the human cost of the economic downturn. Lindon is quite brilliant here (he deservedly won the Best Actor award at last year's Cannes) and the whole enterprise is shot through with both authenticity and anger.  

Dirty work: Lindon is superb in The Measure Of A Man

2. Weiner (2016): Candid documentary chronicling the fall of disgraced US politician Anthony Weiner. The appropriately-named Democrat was forced to resign from Congress in 2011 after sending 'dick pics' of himself to women via social media. Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's excellent film picks up his story two years later with Weiner running to be Mayor of New York. Suffice to say, old habits die hard and it isn't long before he and his long-suffering wife - Huma Abedin, an aid to Hillary Clinton - are under siege from the media as his reputation is trashed all over again. You feel desperately sorry for her and a mixture of fury and frustration at Weiner himself, a talented, charismatic politician who could have gone far if he'd only learned to keep Weiner Jr in his pants. 
3. The Invitation (2015): Talking about The Witch on here recently I've mentioned how my favourite horror films are those that, instead of shouting 'Boo!' at you every five minutes, concentrate on creating an atmosphere of looming dread. Director Karyn Kusama's The Invitation (available now on Netflix UK) is one that does just that. Will and his girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner party thrown by his ex-wife Eden and her new man. It takes place at Will and Eden's old place in the Hollywood Hills, the scene of a family tragedy that drove the couple apart. The other guests are a mix of old friends and a couple of vaguely intimidating newbies. Devastated by grief, it quickly becomes clear Eden is no longer the woman Will married and that her new beau and his pals have sinister plans for the other guests. It builds beautifully - something feels off from the moment Will and Kira walk through the door and Kusama has enormous fun working with that to bring the sense of tension and paranoia slowly but surely to boiling point. The last 20 minutes - when everything goes batshit crazy - are well worth the wait.

Dinner crime: Murder's on the menu in The Invitation  

4. The Mermaid (2016): Barking-mad Chinese romantic comedy from Stephen Chow, who you just might remember from 2011's equally crackers Shaolin Soccer. Playboy businessman Liu Xuan buys up a wildlife reserve to further one of his evil capitalist schemes and scares off the local sea life with a sonar device that also lays waste to the area's population of merpeople. The survivors send mermaid Shan (Lin Yun) to assassinate Liu but instead the pair fall for each other. It's ridiculous, with CG like something out of a '70s episode of Doctor Who, but gets by on its breathless energy, madcap performances and buckets of charm. The highest grossing Chinese film of all time, too, apparently.
5. Independence Day: Resurgence (2016): I saw the original Independence Day again quite recently and despite the dodgy ending and iffy dialogue, I loved the way it built the alien threat slowly but surely, as it introduced us to a cast of intriguing characters. It also boasted some smart, ahead-of-its-time FX work, and the scenes set at the Area 51 base are all terrific. This unnecessary and inferior sequel, on the other hand, is an ungodly mess lacking any of the original's charm. Jeff Goldblum is as watchable as ever but there's a big Will Smith-sized hole here that the next generation of alien fighters never even comes close to filling. Best not make it a trilogy, eh?