Best-of lists are plentiful this time of year, but IndieWire critic David Ehrlich’s top 25 is special, and not only because it comes in video form. Using music and editing, Ehrlich puts movies in conversation with one another rather than having them compete: In 23rd and 22nd place, Lemonade and Kate Plays Christine aren’t just ranked in successive spots but connected as two movies about women seizing control of their public image (or, in the latter case, trying to). “The Greatest Love of All” links American Honey’s voyage of self-discovery, Indignation’s sexual guilt, and Toni Erdmann’s existential crisis, and Popstar: Never Stop Stopping’s tongue-in-cheek “I’m So Humble” fits Weiner so well the directors should consider adding it to the documentary’s DVD. The countdown’s intro also finds room for memorable moments in movies that otherwise didn’t make the cut, like the M.C. Escher chase scene from Doctor Strange, and makes a compelling argument that 2016 was a great year for both on-screen smoking and swimming pools. Once you’re done with 2016, take a look at previous video countdowns from 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.
David Ehrlich’s Top 25 Movies of 2016
1. Moonlight
2. Sunset Song
3. Jackie
4. O.J.: Made in America
5. A Bigger Splash
6. Kubo and the Two Strings
7. The Fits
8. La La Land
9. The Lobster
10. The Love Witch
11. The Handmaiden
12. Toni Erdmann
13. Indignation
14. American Honey
15. The Witch
16. Hail, Caesar!
17. Silence
18. Swiss Army Man
19. Manchester by the Sea
20. Always Shine
21. Things to Come
22. Kate Plays Christine
23. Lemonade
24. High-Rise
25. Weiner
