Joe’s Top 16 of Everything in 2016

2016 at the movies got off to a great start with the Coen Brothers’ old-Hollywood screwball extravaganza Hail Caesar, and while Channing Tatum did his level best with a tap-dancing-sailors production number to steal the show, the MVP ended up being the unassuming angelic face of Alden Ehrenreich. Heretofore undervalued despite delivering a knockout leading-man audition in the YA flip Beautiful Creatures, Ehrenreich got his moment to shine as a naive actor working in cowboy pictures who gets cast in a drawing-room comedy of manners. The resulting scene, wherein Ralph Fiennes tries to give Ehrenreich a line reading, was some of the most screamingly funny stuff of the year.

Where to stream 'Hail, Caesar!'

Now that Civil War is on Netflix, you can enjoy this goodness for yourselves. The general crappy level of quality of the big studio summer movies was a quicksand that sucked the latest Captain America movie down with it, which is too bad, because this one was up there with the nest of the Marvel Universe movies, packed to the gills with characters but streamlined effectively into a small handful of storylines that hit the Avengers where they live and altered the makeup of the group as the MCU hurtles towards Infinity Wars.

Where to stream 'Captain America: Civil War'

Speechless, the best new comedy of 2016, presents a family of low economic means but fierce determination to get the best for eldest son J.J., who has cerebral palsy. And while the whole DiMeo family is wonderful, my heart lies with Ray (Mason Cook), who longs for the normalcy of a “regular” adolescence, only to continually find himself stymied. While he’s often the family punching bag, Speechless keeps a near-perfect balance between sharp-edged comedy and well-earned heart.

Where to stream 'Speechless'

Issa Rae’s Insecure enjoyed a remarkably assured and accomplished debut season on HBO, and that all started with a great pilot that set the tone for Issa’s frank, sexy, self-depricating search for satisfaction. The jewel of that pilot was when Issa took an open-mic stage and started freestyling, eventually landing on some material about her best friend’s unsatisfactory vagina. Not only was the notion of a rap about a broken pussy — reclaimed in all its glory — outrageously hilarious, but Issa’s nervous-then-increasingly-confident is a reliably entertaining trope of a beloved genre: the karaoke scene.

Where to stream 'Insecure'

American Honey was a dazzlingly photographed, sun-kissed trek across America’s economic underbelly, and director Andrea Arnold was a fascinated and compassionate eavesdropper. In the movie’s best scene, the van full of vagabond teens starts singing along to the radio, Lady Antebellum’s song that lends the movie its title. Taking a break from some of the film’s more intense scenes, it’s an interlude of humanity and harmony.

Where to stream 'American Honey'

Few movies ended up being as flat-out likeable as John Carney’s Sing Street, where one disaffected British teen at the heigh of New Wave sets out to start a band in order to impress the pretty girl down the street. Simple concept, utterly charming execution, particularly the songs and music videos, which perfectly thread the needle between age-appropriate amateurism and that sprinkle of magical realism that makes movie teens just a smidge more talented.

Where to stream 'Sing Street'

The most powerful scenes in Other People involve Molly Shannon as the lead character’s mother, dying of cancer. But what was so underrated about writer/director Chris Kelly’s debut film was the varied picture of gayness, from the self-consciousness of Jesse Plemons’ character to John Early’s funny earned wisdom. But the movie most oddly wonderful scene belongs to young J.J. Totah, playing the half-brother of Early’s character, whose exuberant grade-school queerness gets put on phenomenal display in the form of an at-home drag show. Too few movies offer a dialogue between different corners of the gay community, and Other People did so with humor, panache, and intelligence.

Where to stream 'Other People'

Veep‘s fifth season was perhaps the series’ best, which came as a relief as the show passed reins from Armado Ianucci to David Mandel. But the high point of the whole year was the thrillingly vulgar verbal assault that Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, winning another Emmy) laid upon a Congresswoman who dared to try and press an advantage. Selina’s wrath was vicious, colorful, and wildly inventive; almost breathtaking in its cruelty. In other words, Veep at its finest.

Where to stream 'Veep'

Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s series often throws out more than the audience can keep up with, but in “Kimmy Gives Up!,” the show delivered a musical that was in keeping with the show’s central lunacy. None of the songs that Titus performs are real, but they all sound close enough that his stories about their origin are funny in their familiarity. And then he breaks out “Just Go On,” an unexpectedly moving ode to leaving behind what isn’t working for you, appropriately just as Kimmy needs it.

Where to stream 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'

For a show like Black Mirror that’s known for its bleakness, an episode like “San Junipero,” with its open (if sad) romanticism was always going to stand out. But it was more than just a change of pace; “San Junipero” took a clever concept and let the technology take a back seat to the incredibly beautiful relationship between characters played with such great humanity by Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. The Belinda Carlisle-infused ending had enough uplift to counterbalance a dozen other Black Mirror downers.

Where to stream 'Black Mirror'

Nobody’s going to give Angela Bassett a screen role worthy of her immense talents this year? Fine. She’s just gonna get interviewed by The Root and lay down a Shakespeare monologue — on NO NOTICE — guaranteed to rattle the bones of anyone who darest watch it.

No horror movie was scarier. No comedy was funnier. Ben Affleck’s appearance on the series premiere of Bill Simmons’ ill-fated Any Given Wednesday was maybe a bad omen right off the bat. But really, who could’ve known that inviting the Academy Award-winning actor/director/New Englander on to talk about Boston sports could’ve become what it did. Given the slightest provocation, though, Affleck took off on an impassioned, aggrieved …. maybe homophobic (that lisp!), certainly slurry rant about Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady and his persecution by NFL officials. Who knew that the year’s clearest depiction of white-male impotent rage would’ve come from this?

Where to stream 'Any Given Wednesday'

Of all the bright, funny, creative things about The Good Place‘s vision of the afterlife, the most consistently delightful has been Janet, the automated fact-adminstering humanoid played by D’Arcy Carden with eager helpfulness. The showrunners obviously knew what a good thing they had in Janet because she’s become more and more a part of the fabric of the show as it’s gone on. She’s been a perfect sidekick for Ted Danson’s Michael as the season has unfolded. The episode where Eleanor and Chidi need to kill Janet in order to keep Eleanor’s secret was simultaneously harrowing and hilarious.

Where to stream 'The Good Place'

HBO’s transfer of the web series High Maintenance was an unqualified success. While it may not have broken viewership records, the show was a bastion for half-hour slice-of-life observational dramedy. Its best episode was its season finale, and in particular the performance of character-actor Michael Cyril Creighton (who was so impressive in a small role in Spotlight last year) as a quasi-shut-in who accepts a delivery of weed just for the company. After he’s encouraged to go out into the world while high, we follow him on a sweet, funny, incredibly touching expedition.

Where to stream 'High Maintenance'

This year wasn’t the first time that Survivor started with a dunderheaded premise and ended up with a great season anyway. “Millennials versus Gen-X” was an idea that sounded bad in theory and worse when the season started with Jeff Probst straining at every turn to use the thinnest premises to contrast the generations. But as the season wore on, it became ever more clear that this group of contestants was the best group of all-new Survivors in years, and combined with their hyper-aggressive gameplay added up to a massively addictive season, full of everything from thrilling double-crosses to legitimately heartbreaking scenes like the moment Adam confessed to Jay that his mom was dying of cancer.

Where to stream 'Survivor'

Two of the best horror movies of the year, Robert Eggers’ The Witch and Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, also delivered the two most bone-chilling endings of the year. In both of them, our darkest fears came shockingly, unbelievably true (appropriate for 2016, to be sure). The devil is real. And his followers are roaming the hills.

Where to Stream 'The Witch'

Where to stream 'The Invitation'