A profound drama that transcends cultural barriers in ways that are recognizable and poignant, the film’s power is lasting, pure and decidedly genuine. Graduation casts a spell that is impossible to break, the shattering impact of what ultimately transpires a universal call to action that’s brutally clear no matter what language is being spoken.

By the time it comes to an end, Frantz has made a permanent imprint, the hope for a better tomorrow after a cataclysmic yesterday striking chords of promise that make even the harshest of injuries feel as if they someday can be healed.

This is a rich, aggressively dynamic piece of horror cinema, one that goes way beyond genre to a point bordering on magnificence, The Devil’s Candy a terrifying heavy metal treat worth savoring.

There is something about director Pablo Larraín and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim’s deeply fascinating character study Jackie that allows it transcended melodramatic conventions and become something far more potent and enduring. The level of searing, unflinching insight is extraordinary, all of it anchored to a performance by star Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy that might be the best work of her entire career.

With Rogue One, Edwards doesn’t attempt to redo what has come before, isn’t interested in any already established template. He and his team have crafted a film that exists inside a known universe yet still manage to plant their own idiosyncratic stamp upon it. This is a marvelous piece of entertainment, as wondrous as anything I’ve seen in 2016.

Moonlight is a masterpiece.

A breathless entertainment, as simple and as straightforward as it is austere and ephemeral, Certain Women is a tale of life, of how that life is lived and of the connections that are made as one travels down its mysterious road.

Under the Shadow cannily uses a fairly standard, if also expertly staged, ghost story to obsess over a character-driven story arc involving issues of marriage, motherhood, religious fundamentalism and feminism in ways that feel raw, visceral and altogether groundbreaking.

Not only is Hell or High Water just a great, character-driven thriller that busts through genre conventions, forcing the viewer to take notice of what is going on and why in the process, it also happens to be one of 2016’s best motion pictures. It is a masterful effort that grows in power and depth as it moves along, building to a shattering, hauntingly destructive conclusion that had me sitting on the edge of my seat breathlessly excited to discover what was going to happen next.