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.

La La Land is magnificent, Chazelle delivering a musical that instantly ranks alongside my favorites of the genre and as such is a motion picture I’ll be almost certain to cherish and sing the praises of for decades to come.

Things to Come is astonishing, bringing delicate truths into the glaring light of day that are as timeless as they are universal, Hansen-Løve showing just how less can indeed be more when the hands sewing the pieces together into a seamless whole are as confident and as talented as hers are.

The problems with the script and its subsequent execution are readily apparent throughout, and as strong as the acting might be that wasn’t enough to warrant enduring this facile disaster any longer than was necessary. Collateral Beauty is a waste of time, and I just don’t see myself reassessing that verdict anytime soon.

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.

Beyond the Gates, while far from a masterpiece, is hugely entertaining if one is in the right frame of mind when watching it. Stewart has crafted a debut that looks terrific and sounds even better, while his ability to shock and startle with an increasingly awesome array of gore effects is impressive.

How Evolution transitions from its humbly mysterious initial sequences to its quietly disquieting final seconds, that’s its real glory, and the fact Hadzihalilovic can weave such an uncomforting spell as magnificent as this is cause for instant celebration.

Miss Sloane tells a story that feels like it was ripped right out of yesterday’s headlines, that coupled with Chastain’s magnificence helping make the film a gripping spellbinder worth seeking out.

When it is funny, Office Christmas Party can be a hoot, and it’s always nice to see firebrands like McKinnon getting an opportunity to strut their stuff so magnificently. But Gordon and Speck can’t hold it all together, things spiraling in so many different directions their bits of emotional pabulum that they toss in willy-nilly throughout fall achingly flat.