The strange, the weird, the beautiful (The Year in Review 2016, pt. 2)

Nocturnal Animals

A week out from the collapse of the American Empire, it's hard not to carry a lingering grudge against 2016. That said - and as we discussed in our last entry - there were some good, beautiful (and Better and Stranger) things produced in the past year.

That extends to the worlds of film and video games as well, and in this second part of our Annual Review, we take a look at lonely curators, hard choices, and - strangest of all - the success of a good ole un-ironic Hollywood musical. Spooky.

FILM

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is, above all else, an intelligent film. Yes, it is violent and disturbing, and it has moments that are hard to stomach. But that squeamishness is all in service of a sophisticated and well-observed psychological drama about love, loss, and loneliness. Indeed, one of the striking - and brazenly unusual - aspects of the film is the way it deploys an already thrilling form - the neo-Western - in service of a far more grounded story. That the viewer winds up caring more about the life of one lonely art curator (Amy Adams, stellar) than that of a gun-toting avenging duo (Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhaal, also excellent) speaks volumes about the artistry of director Tom Ford.

The sequel we didn’t know existed, TEN CLOVERFIELD LANE, which was filmed under an alternate title and a cloud of secrecy, is a remarkably thrilling entry in the growing Cloverfield universe. Where its Godzilla-like predecessor used found footage to great effect, this take is smaller, more claustrophobic, and way creepier. John Goodman is great as the survival nut who kidnaps a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), ostensibly to protect her from an unseen apocalypse happening outside. Buckle your seat-belts, this one's a thrill ride.

Oh, and LA LA LAND is great. Go watch La La Land.

VIDEO GAME

In what’s becoming a running theme here at Seven Seas, the best game of the year is THE WALKING DEAD: MICHONNE. Ostensibly a zombie horror game, it’s really a choose-your-own-adventure, but with the hardest choices you've ever faced. Who will you trust? Whose lives will you save? There are no correct answers, only the nagging feeling that you somehow did the wrong thing anyway.

It landed with a bang and a whimper, but for all its faults THE LAST GUARDIAN is still a wonderful game. I wrote more about it elsewhere, but the short version: it's exciting, breathtaking, and deeply flawed.

EDIT: BONUS "HEY GUYS IT'S YOUR FRIEND WADE WILSON HERE GETTING ALL UP IN BLOGSPOT'S BUSINESS BECAUSE APPARENTLY THIS IDIOT FORGOT TO INCLUDE A CANCON AWARD THIS YEAR SO I'M MAKING SURE MY GOOD FRIEND DEADPOOL (NO RELATION)'S MOVIE WINS THE ANNUAL OBLIGATORY AWESOMELY CANADIAN" AWARD

Deadpool is one of the funniest mainstream movies released in the past few years and I promise this sentiment is fully endorsed by the jerk who writes this blog.

p.s. isn't ryan reynolds so dreamy?