Complicated subjects dominated cinema in 2016. Take The Lobster, a strange story about finding love (or not finding love) in the modern world, or Moonlight, in which director Barry Jenkins inspected the psyche of a gay black man growing up in poverty in south Florida. Our critics reviewed them all and picked their favorites, which are listed below by month and include their respective shortened reviews.
January
The Treasure
February
Cemetery of Splendor
Embrace of the Serpent
Knight of Cups
March
City of Gold
Everybody Wants Some!!
Fireworks Wednesday
Krisha
My Golden Days
River of Grass
Too Late
April
A Hologram for the King
Hockney
Sworn Virgin
The Tale of Tales
Green Room
The Jungle Book
Showman
May
Holy Hell
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Weiner
The Lobster
Love & Friendship
Sunset Song
Dheepan
Dragon Inn
Keep reading for more of our critics' picks for 2016.
June
Tickled
July
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Don't Think Twice
Into the Forest
Miss Sharon Jones!
August
The Land
Little Men
Hell or High Water
Ixcanul
Kubo and the Two Strings
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
Morris From America
Howard's End
Mia Madre
Morgan
September
Demon
London Road
Bridget Jones's Baby
Command and Control
Closet Monster
Deepwater Horizon
A Man Called Ove
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
October
13th
Being 17
Aquarius
Certain Women
Kevin Hart: What Now?
Tower
Fire at Sea
The Handmaiden
Moonlight
November
Loving
Arrival
Elle
Manchester by the Sea
Allied
Always Shine
Evolution
December
Fences
Hidden Figures
Silence