4. Hell or High Water

CBS Films

A magnificent neo-Western that understatedly captures the current economic moment and features powerful performances all around—in particular by Jeff Bridges.

5. The Lobster

A24

A stunning exercise in dystopian absurdism and pitch-black comedy. The English-language debut of Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos offers a precise and novelistic metaphor for love and couplehood.

6. Moonlight

A24

Tender and meticulously observed, Barry Jenkins’s film is a marvel of intimate portraiture. Mahershala Ali dazzles in a supporting role.

7. The Handmaiden

Amazon Studios / Magnolia Pictures

Director Park Chan-wook’s elegant story of lust and betrayal in Japanese-occupied Korea holds back at first before gradually allowing its perversion and depravity to rise to the surface.

8. Zootopia

Disney

Seamless noir mystery, moral fable and, yes, Disney animal cartoon, Zootopia is the best animated film of the year.

9. O.J.: Made in America

ESPN Films

Television series? Feature film? Ezra Edelman’s documentary may defy easy categorization, but its brilliance is beyond dispute.

10. Loving

Focus Feautures

Featuring an extraordinary performance by Ruth Negga, Jeff Nichols’s film about the marriage that led to Loving vs. Virginia movingly captures the trope that the personal is political.

11. Hail, Caesar!

Alison Rosa / Universal

A sharp, underrated offering from the Coens, and arguably their most compassionate film to date.

12. Sing Street

The Weinstein Company

A lesser cousin of John Carney’s great Once, this Dublin-based musical charmer about a teen boy and his 1980s-era band is one of the year’s genuine delights.

Honorable Mentions:

The Birth of a Nation; Captain America: Civil War; Don’t Think Twice; Elle; Elvis & Nixon; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; Fences; God Knows Where I Am; Green Room; Hacksaw Ridge; The Jungle Book; Kubo and the Two Strings; Life, Animated; Love & Friendship; Moana; A Monster Calls; The Nice Guys; Operation Avalanche; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; Tallulah; 10 Cloverfield Lane; Weiner; The Witch

And the Rest…

Best Use of a Song: Tommy James and the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now,” played in an underground bunker after a presumed extinction-level event, 10 Cloverfield Lane

Worst Use of a Song: Harry Nilsson’s “Can’t Live,” as special forces kill a group of terrorist insurgents, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

The Please Don’t Use “Fortunate Son” in Another Motion Picture Ever Again Award: (tie) Suicide Squad, War Dogs

The “Girl in the Title” Award for Novel-Based Thriller that Most Needed to Be Directed by David Fincher: The Girl on the Train

The “Seven Pounds” Award for Ugly, Cynical Will Smith Vehicle Posing as an Uplifting Holiday Charmer: Collateral Beauty

Longest Expository Voiceover: J.K Simmons, The Accountant

Most Overrated Female Performance: Natalie Portman, Jackie

Most Underrated Female Performance: Amy Adams, Arrival