The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Director: Antoine Fuqua. Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Haley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard. 133 min. Rated R. Western.

They saw the Fast and Furious formula's success, and thought: "Let's pick a classic and do the same." So for the remake, instead of an all-white cast of seven cowboys in the 1960 movie, they plant a Latino gunslinger, a Native-American archer, an Asian knife-thrower (in the wild west!), all lead by a Black leader - and probably sell it as Hollywood's heroic struggle for equal opportunity and fight against racism. Considering the villains here are government officials, not sure what kind of violent upheaval message the movie is sending, at a time when America has subscribed to a tyrannical regime.

PS; With this and The Girl on the Train, Haley Bennett is the new star-in-the-making.

Mo says:

The Girl on the Train (2016)

Director: Tate Taylor. Cast: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramírez, Allison Janney, Lisa Kudrow. 112 min. Rated R. Mystery/Thriller.

The movie (and novel) that tried to win in the wake of Gone Girl's success. I'd read both novels before the movies, and knew the ending twists. In Fincher's case, I marveled at the superb job he'd done to reach that already-known ending; his viewpoint was ... "interesting". In the meantime, 'The Girl on the Train' novel, while memorable, was less engaging than 'Gone Girl', and Tate Taylor's movie even bogs that a few notches down. I didn't care for the characters, no matter how hard Emily Blunt tried to keep the film alive. Sequels (or pseudo-sequels) rarely out-do their originals.

Mo says:

Lion (2016)

Director: Garth Davis. Cast: Sunny Pawar, Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara. 118 min. Rated PG-13. Australia/USA. Drama.

Two brothers, travelling together. Usually the younger one gets lost, and we panic for his life. Here, the teenager gets lost, and since we relate to a 5-year-old's innocence, we understand his harrowing journey from Calcutta's perilous slums, to adoption in Australia. But he's detached from his identity - so decades later, he comes back, searching for his roots. The bitter truth of immigration is: the man would be extremely lucky to find anything familiar back home. Brooklyn was the last movie I remember playing out the cruelty of immigration. But any movie pales compared to this masterpiece of a story.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

I, Daniel Blake (2016)

Director: Ken Loach. Cast:  Dave Johns, Hayley Squires. 100 min. Rated R. UK/France/Belgium. Drama.

I've seen a few Ken Loach films, and never understood why the non-British are so crazy about him. His films are social commentaries, somewhat confined to the English community. But this was different, and that's not because it won this year's Palm d'Or. How the old cannot keep up with the rapid trends of globalization, and how the poor lose their identity and dignity even with an established social infrastructure, is a message everyone on the planet can relate to. With heart-breaking performances by both Johns and Squires, this is the story Dickens would've written if he was alive today.

Mo says:

Hidden Figures (2016)

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali. 127 min. Rated PG. Historical/Biography.

Don't get me wrong. This is an energizing story about how genius African-American women, against all racist odds, advanced NASA in the 60's, and helped get an American into orbit. But some scenes prove the writers enjoyed true freedom at dramatizing the material (Octavia Spencer walking up to the room-sized IBM and fixing it at a glance sealed the deal for me). I enjoyed this star-studded film, especially that watching Taraji Henson and Kevin Costner back in true form was a delight. But at the end, I didn't know which part of "based on a true story" to believe.

Update: Looks like there were quite a few liberties taken while writing the script.

Mo says:

Christine (2016)

Director: Antonio Campos. Cast: Rebecca Hall, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts. 119 min. Rated R. UK/USA. Biography.

Okay, let me commit some blasphemy by spoiling the ending: this is the true story of Christine Chubbuck, the 1970s TV reporter who committed suicide on live TV. I spoiled it, because this is not about that ending. It's about a person, whose opening scenes do not offer any forewarning of such a tragic ending, but by the end of the movie, you say: "Oh, of course she would commit suicide". And that plausibility arc solely rests on Rebecca Hall's powerful performance. This is her movie, and I hope this coming Tuesday, she's nominated for an Oscar for it.

Mo says:

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016)

Director(s): Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens. 95 min. Documentary.

A love letter to the mother-daughter relationship of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher - becoming ever more poignant by their sudden deaths three weeks ago, just one day apart. But I'm not sure whether this would've still received an astonishing 100% score on the Tomatometer, if the recent tragedy was taken out of the equation. After all, this shows a mother and daughter who only think and talk about money, material, and fame, and who cling onto one another, because nothing else concerns them. We never hear them talking about anything ... "important". Take-home message: never get close to your heroes.

Mo says:

Conspiracy (2001)

Director: Frank Pierson. Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci, Tom Hiddleston, Ben Daniels, Colin Firth. 96 min. Rated R. UK/USA. History.

In this historical drama, a who's who of all the actors who'll become famous in films and TV shows of the next 15 years, in 1942, when the tides are starting to turn against Hitler, high-ranking Nazi officers sit around a table in 12 Angry Men style, to come up with "the final solution": how to exterminate the millions of Europe's Jews as fast as possible. This will remind you of your workplace's business meetings, where the mandate has already been decided by the higher-up, and you're just there to approve (or else ...). Memorable performances, especially by Firth.

Mo says:

Queen of Katwe (2016)

Director: Mira Nair. Cast: Madina Nalwanga, David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o. 124 min. Rated PG. Biography.

Supposed uplifting real-life drama of a teenage Uganda girl who rises in the international chess arena. It's probably targeted towards younger audiences, so expecting conceptual or narrative complexities would be unfair. But not only does longtime director Mira Nair avoid taking any chances, she makes mistakes: we never learn how this girl affected the national conversation in Uganda (which must've been big) about women or the underdog, and the climactic sequence of the girl's final dual with another player is absurd, as you can't create dramatic tension by showing side-views of chess-pieces moving on a board - even for chess grand-masters.

Mo says:

Silence (2016)

Director: Martin Scorsese. Cast: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Ciarán Hinds, Yôsuke Kubozuka. 161 min. Rated R. Mexico/Taiwan/USA. History.

The priest-wannabe-turned-master-director Martin Scorsese updates the doubts he provoked in The Last Temptation of Christ. He first asks: "Why is God 'always' silent to our prayers?" (something I unashamedly declare is on every believer's mind), then raises the stakes by asking: how far will you go to sustain a belief system that is generally met with silence? Of course, everybody has a limit. But Scorsese's magic is, of all places, he sets his drama in 17th century Japan, with cinematography that'll take your breath away. Competes with Manchester by the Sea as my best movie of the year.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

American Honey (2016)

Director: Andrea Arnold. Cast: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough, Will Patton. 163 min. Rated R. UK/USA. Drama.

A teenage girl joins a door-to-door magazine sales group, crossing the country with her wild newfound friends. With all their delinquencies, these kids are fairly innocent, and therefore you expect something awful to happen to any of them any minute. And while I wasn't bored watching this near 3-hour road movie (with Will Patton popping up as a mid-movie charm), the heroes were hard to relate to, and there wasn't anything new or unexpected about such free-roaming people's lifestyles. The film's numerous Cannes and BAFTA wins and nominations are beyond me.

Mo says:

Seoul Station (2016)

Director: Sang-ho Yeon. 92 min. South Korea. Animation.

By the director of this year's smash zombie hit, Train to Busan, this is another zombie story set in Seoul that does not indicate any obvious relation to the movie, as it could be a prequel or a sequel to that movie, or even be happening during the movie's same timeline. As such, it doesn't add much to the zombie genre, and if you've seen Train to Busan first like I have, you'll notice the intense thrill of the movie is entirely lacking here. Long story short, you won't miss anything if you don't watch Yeon's animated feature.

Mo says: