Wendy joined Screen International in 2015 as a London-based critic. She is also a critic for The Observer and a freelance contributor to publications including Sight & Sound. Previously she was a critic for The Times.
More Screen critics’ top films of 2016
Top five
- Manchester By The Sea
Dir Kenneth Lonergan
Is there a more elegant dramatist currently working than Lonergan? This potent portrait of a man wrestling with unimaginable grief and guilt is impeccably structured, its reveal all the more devastating for the slow build of character detail. Even by his typically high standard, Casey Affleck’s performance is remarkable, his body hunched with misery, arms hanging awkwardly at his sides as if he doesn’t know what to do with them, or himself. An explosive scene with Michelle Williams is a showpiece moment, but it’s in the small gestures — involuntary winces and flinches — that the story unfolds.
CONTACT Sierra/Affinity info@sierra-affinity.com - Your Name
Dir Shinkai Makoto
A time-looping, body-swap teen romance, Makoto’s luminous anime blends sci-fi with a classical Japanese folk story.
CONTACT Toho Co y_kikuchi@toho.co.jp - Neruda
Dir Pablo Larrain
Formally daring, playfully unexpected, Neruda follows the Chilean communist poet and politician’s exile using a combination of fact and fiction.
CONTACT Funny Balloons pdanner@funny-ballons.com - Things To Come
Dir Mia Hansen-Love
Bracingly intelligent and unashamedly intellectual, this deft portrait of a woman at a crossroads showcases Isabelle Huppert at her best.
CONTACT Les Films Du Losange b.vincent@filmsdulosange.fr - Homo Sapiens
Dir Nikolaus Geyrhalter
This austere, wordless and strikingly atmospheric study of abandoned spaces left to rot has an eerie, apocalyptic beauty.
CONTACT Autlook Filmsales salma@autlookfilms.com
Best documentary
Notes On Blindness
Dirs Peter Middleton, James Spinney
Middleton and Spinney’s creative approach to the subject of sight loss makes this documentary, constructed around the audio diaries of blind theologian John Hull, a genuinely visionary experience. Like its subject, the film is wise, profound and spiritual; Hull’s beautifully articulated insights into his condition are explored with persuasive dramatic recreations.
CONTACT Cinephil philippa@cinephil.com
Undiscovered gem
Suntan
Dir Argyris Papadimitropoulos
Papadimitropoulos’ third feature is as confident as it is unflinching, detailing the mother of all midlife crises as fascinatingly as a slow-motion car crash. Sad-sack fortysomething doctor Kostis (Efthymis Papadimitriou) arrives on a resort island in the damp dead of winter, hauling a lifetime of disappointment along with his luggage. But the summer brings a hedonistic crowd of party people, among them 21-year-old Anna (Elli Tringou) who briefly permits Kostis entry into the in-crowd. Papadimitropoulos eloquently uses repetition — subsequent evenings in the same flesh-pit nightclubs are thrillingly decadent or repulsively crass depending on Kostis’ fragile state of mind.
CONTACT Visit Films info@visitfilms.com
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