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Film Flashback 2016

Written By Adelaide Spence Dylan Vanthuyne, Caleb Boatman, Tyler Burch and Kaiser Huang

Welcome everybody to a new multi-article series we’re gonna be doing with the Multiblog! In this first edition of Film Flashback, some of our lovely writers have come together to share with you some of their favorite films of 2016! In future installments in this series, we will be able to go back, decade by decade, hopefully turning you onto some great films from six’s past to celebrate the start of this new year!

Adelaide: 

My Life as a Zucchini is a beautiful French stop motion film about a child in the foster system, following his time befriending the children he lives with and the police officer who continuously checks in with him. The film itself is one that deals with very complex and layered emotions, which it is shockingly deft at explaining and handling despite a runtime barely over an hour. So much humanity is squeezed into so little film, and not a minute is wasted. Beyond Zucchini, our protagonist, much love is given to the difficult situations all of the other foster children have gone through. All of them have suffered different tragedies that brought them here and the film, featuring a wonderful script partially written by “Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s” Celine Sciamma, is able to hold space for all of them without shifting the film into true ensemble territory. It constantly tugs at your heartstrings without feeling like it shifts into truly manipulative territory, letting you love all the kids and empathize with the difficulties of their young lives. Even amongst all the sadness, it allows itself to be funny as well. Through this humor, the movie reminds you just how strong these kids are, their resilience buried in their humor, just another element that binds them together as they collectively fight to get through to the lives they deserve. Just a beautiful little movie. 

Dylan: 

If you have spoken with me about film, you would probably know that I’m a big fan of Jim Jarmusch, and at the end of 2016 he released one of the best movies of his entire filmography. Paterson is an odd film in that it is simultaneously the most extreme version of his laid-back plot-allergic style and yet I’d argue that it is also one of his most accessible. The term “slice of life” gets thrown around a lot, but very few films embody that phrase more than this movie considering it’s literally just a random week in the life of a bus driver as he goes to work, walks his dog to the bar, and writes (somewhat mediocre) poetry. You’d be forgiven for saying that sounds boring, but it’s actually incredibly charming, funny, and earnest in its depiction of artistry and inspiration. It’s a film that proves that everything can be cinematic. Also Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani are one of the most adorable couples in movie history. Oh and speaking of adorable, Nellie the bulldog won the coveted Palm Dog award at the Cannes film festival for her performance as Marvin, and she deserved it. We salute you Nellie.

Boatman: 

Don’t Think Twice. I’ve always been fascinated by the behind the scenes of the comedy industry, as evidenced by my obsession fascination with 2024’s Saturday Night, but 2016 delivered a fantastic fictionalized look at the industry. The film centers around a struggling improv troupe that is tossed into further chaos when one of them (Keegan Michael Key) finds minor success on an SNL style sketch show. First of all, I love the angle that the "successful" one doesn’t become famous, but just gets a minor break. A break that theoretically could lead to stardom, but let’s be real, there’s been far more Jim Bruers and Devon Walkers than there are Eddie Murphys. So many films that do this arc take the “sell out” route, making the audience side against the character who gets their break for being snooty or “leaving his friends behind.” While there’s some of that, the film is far more nuanced and holds Miles’ (Mike Birbiglia) feet to the fire for his chronic jealousy. I love getting a look into the psyche of a lifelong “also-ran” in the comedy scene. Someone who has been barely successful enough to tread water, but never made it out of a comedy club, despite larger aspirations. Gillian Jacobs, the only member of the main cast without an improv/standup background, went to improv boot camp before the film, and you’d think she came straight from SNL because her impressions are gold. She’s the focus of the emotional climax of the film, and it provides a satisfying resolution without feeling too cheap. Overall, Don’t Think Twice finds a lot of drama within the comedy.

Tyler: 

Not since Edward and Jacob have we had such a dilemma as the decision to support freedom loving Captain America or a pro-government oversight Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War. Unofficially dubbed Avengers 2.5, the Russo brothers make a demo reel for Avengers: Infinity War by bringing together more characters than we have ever seen on screen at this point. The duo decided to up the ante by introducing major characters like Black Panther and Spider-Man 3 to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although the introduction of Spider-Man is well-done and creates the beginnings of a character we will see grow in the future, he is not the stand-out. It is actually T’Challa who we are introduced to as an arrogant and brash prince who goes on a quest for revenge and ultimately learns there is another way. As the villain for this conflict, we are introduced to future Dancing with the Stars Champion Helmut Zemo who thrusts Bucky Barnes back into the spotlight after the destruction of Hydra in the previous film. What I have always appreciated about this film is its dedication to creating an emotional core instead of just embracing the spectacle of seeing our favorite action figures fight each other. It is a story of loss and how these losses have shaped the actions of the characters today in the form of Helmut Zemo’s terrorist extremism, Bucky Barnes’s operations as the Winter Soldier and Iron Man’s desire for a familial attachment. All three come together to create a conflict strong enough to rip apart the Avengers in a way not possible by the world ending threats of Loki or Ultron. 

Kaiser: 

I have a reputation within this community of enjoying bad movies. This article will reinforce that, because I chose to write about Independence Day: Resurgence. This movie is bad in so many ways - multiple annoying characters, cringey dialogue, done-to-death cliches amongst many others. All those are undisputable even for me. But! Jeff Goldblum is funny about 50% of the time in the movie, but when he hits he actually did make me laugh. Emmerich clearly dumped a lot of half-baked ideas in this movies, like the African Warlord, the Charlotte Gainsbourg linguist, the Sphere etc., they didn’t all work but kept the movie engaging. Plus, I will always credit Emmerich as a filmmaker who tries, and I think the amount of ideas he attempted to explore here is sufficient evidence of that. The real reason I enjoy the movie though, comes down to the characters, specifically the pilots. Liam Hemsworth, Jessie T. Usher, Maika Monroe, Angelababy form the emotional core of the movie, all playing pilots with genuinely great chemistry with one another, their banter was nice to watch.  (Maika’s relationship with Bill Pullman is also the one parent-child relationship that is genuinely moving) They have all gone on to do better projects, but it was so much fun to watch them altogether at once. I’m truly a sucker for these types of movies. If you’re into this very specific subgenre of sci-fi with a lot of dumb dialogue, bad effects and general stupidity, but are willing to look past that to see the goodness and clear effort underneath, then I urge you to give this movie a chance.