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maltatoday, SATURDAY, 24 DECEMBER 2016 37 This Week The best and worst films of 2016 As per annual tradition, MaltaToday's friendly neighbourhood film critic TEODOR RELJIC rounds up the best and worst films that fell under his hammer over the past year – one whose many celebrity deaths and political upheavals appear to be matched in the frenzied and schizophrenic-in-quality releases we seem to have got during what promises to be the historically maddening year of 2016 London Has Fallen Oh boy! Few things in the world could have prepared us for this. Actually, a few things to happen since the release of this Gerard Butler actioner in 2016 could easily have predicted its woefully reactionary political stance – a tale of American exceptionalism run amok, as told by a half-Iranian director, bafflingly enough – and it's just a shame that the 90s action pastiche predates some of the year's most hair-scratching calamities by a few months. Come for the xenophobic Arab-thumping, stay for the crappy special effects! Hotel Dallas Shown at this year's edition of the Valletta Film Festival, this inventive mockumentary from Romania highlights the absurdity of the Ceausescu regime by fabricating a story of a millionaire who re-created a kitsch-tastic hotel inspired by the perennial American soap opera Dallas, and treats it like it's a real subject worthy of a documentary. The clincher here is that apparently, Dallas was the only American show allowed by the regime: a move that was supposed to ce- ment the American lifestyle as repellently decadent. Needless to say, the move had the opposite effect – an ironic twist that Sherng-Lee Huang and Livia Ungur's film explores (and explodes) through surreal musical numbers as well as some bona fide documentary techniques. THE WORST THE BEST 20,000 Reasons It feels a bit below-the-belt – to say noth- ing about plain unpatriotic – to rag on a well-meaning, low-budget local release and rake it over the coals once again in full public view. But Jameson Cuccardi's rom-com is frustrating precisely because Malcolm Galea's script has great – if low- brow – potential, and rookie mistakes like baffling sound glitches and some atrocious editing could actually have given us a mid- dling commercial property to shop around worldwide. As an equally unpopular local politician might say, shame on you! Arrival Director Denis Villeneuve and lead actress Amy Adams make good on their reputation for being two of the most reliable presences working in Hollywood at the moment with this emotionally resonant and visually poetic take on Ted Chaing's comparatively low-key tale of alien-human 'first contact'. Instead of landmark-exploding combat, establishing a secure line of communication is the main struggle here, and the fact that it's a linguist and not some military rookie who's our pro- tagonist for the journey is already enough to make it a cut above the rest. But it's the film's emotional arc that turns out to be the most cutting – and rewarding – pay off. 5 5 4 4 2 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows More painfully average than downright bad, this Michael Bay-produced sequel to an already middling franchise hits a G- spot of ineptitude: too adult for kids and too 'lame' for adults (with cartoony vil- lans and painfully punny jokes aplenty) its supposed appeal is spread far too thin. Tale of Tales Coming to us a bit late, Matteo Garrone's ad- aptation of Giambattista Basile's 'Lo cunto de li cunti' is a stunningly realized collage of three stories from Italy's answer to the Brothers Grimm. Varied in tone and presented in una- pologetic collage – a structure that more close- ly matches the experience of flitting from one short tale to the next in the gathered volumes – Garrone creates a fairy tale film for adults: one that doesn't shy away from violence and sexuality and that uses the fractured narrative to emphasise key motifs. Suicide Squad It could have been DC's Guardians of the Galaxy moment. Instead, Suicide Squad was a studio-smothered mess that tried to give audiences everything they may have wanted but in the end, only presented them with a botched omelette of a film drained of all flavour by an army of execu- tives confused about what their brand is supposed to represent. Rogue One Star Wars never quite looked or felt like this, and that's a good thing. The first in the stan- dalone 'Anthology' films accompanying the new installments of the saga-proper is a war film through-and-through, that succeeds in giving a necessary shade of grey to the pri- mary-coloured galaxy far, far away we have grown to love so much. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Thing is, Batman v Superman was pre- cisely the kind of DC Comics adaptation that Suicide Squad was struggling not to be: dark and dour in a way that feels 'mature' and essential only to a teenage audience, Zack Snyder's hero-on-hero slugfest got a lot of flack for casting Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman ahead of release, but that was the least of the over- long and tonally off-key film's problems. A Frankenstein's creature made up of trailer-friendly cool 'moments' that have no emotional weight or dramatic impact, 'BvS' is a childish film in the worst pos- sible sense of the term. Frantz This critic was lucky enough to catch Francois Ozon's delicate but politically potent tragedy in Rome, and here's hoping local audiences get to savour this between-the-wars drama of star- crossed lovers and protracted regret. Sure, it doesn't sound like a fun proposal on paper, but Ozon spins it all so beautifully, highlighting the humanity of characters caught in a turbulent historical moment in a way that can't help but feel emotionally redeeming. But this being the ever-playful Ozon, a twisty-turny second half sees our female protagonist turn detective, so that some narrative thrills are added to the the- matic poignancy of the whole thing. 3 3 1 1