Best Audio/Visual Entertainment of 2016 That Weren't Movies

There were plenty of great movies that came out this year and I look forward to writing about them but first I would like to talk about the ones that are films. These include Youtube videos, ads, a talk/news satire show and more.

1. Radiohead's music videos for their new album 'A Moon Shaped Pool'

Music videos are certainly not what they used to be, but thanks to Radiohead's new album they gave us some of the best in years. The headlining song ('Daydreaming') to their new album has its music video directed by six time oscar nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson. This music video is simple on the outside by when you dig deeper there's plenty of stuff to sink your teeth into (as highlighted in this 14 minute video). The series of videos isn't limited to PTA but some other very talented directors which include Ben Wheatly (High-Rise), Richard Ayoade (Submarine & The Double) and Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth & The Lobster).

2. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

In the year of Trump, Brexit, Rodrigo Duterte and more it was necessary for someone to take these issues seriously yet still make fun of them. John Oliver wasn't a reporter or a journalist (but he had a team of them behind him). What was he? He was above all, a man. A man who had the same worries and fears as us. He was the one telling us what some of us didn't want to hear. He was also one of the few people in the world that made us look forward to seeing what he did next.

3. Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell

While you could argue this is just an Australian version of John Oliver, you would be very wrong. First of all this was around for about two years before John Oliver and the structure of the shows are different. John Oliver is talking to you while Shaun Micallef talks to the fictional characters that he and his team have come up with that represent the contemporary political situation in a satirical manner. While John Oliver does do more than American problems (E.G. FIFA and Brexit), Shaun Micallef is purely Australian,

4. Kenzo World (Spike Jonze) (You can watch this one here)

Simply put Spike Jonze doesn't use a single convention of a typical perfume ad and by doing so he gives one of the most unique and memorable ads of the year. The morning when I saw this online I must have watched it about three times and several more times though out the following week. The ad proves that Jonze's idiosyncratic voice isn't only present in his movies but it's in everything he does (even before he started making movies as well).

5. Audi R8 Ad (feat. 'Starman' by David Bowie) (You can watch this one here)

David Bowie is a pop culture icon and his passing earlier this year only helped prove this. His music has been used in plenty of movies and ads before but I think this one does what a good score does to an already great movie which has so eloquently been put by Tarantino - "I don't believe in putting in music as a band aid to get you over some rough parts or bad film making. If it's there it's got to add to it or take it to another level". It's also worth adding when working in a cinema one might occasionally watch a trailer as they walk through the cinema but this was the one only ad worth staying for.

6. The last third of Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)

Yes I know this technically a film but I only want to concentrate on a third of the film so I think it's OK to talk about it here since it's not a whole film. The first two vignettes in this anthology film are good but they lack the emotional strength that the third one contains. Starring Lily Gladstone and Kirsten Stewart this third of the movie is a slow paced, off beat 'romance'. It's heavy on subtext and feeling which climaxes in one of the few sequences that I felt liked that I wanted to yell at so that the characters can get what they want this year.

7. FilmStruck (https://www.filmstruck.com/)

For those who don't know what FilmStruck is just watch this video here. So now that you have watched that it's basically Netflix for a people who really, really like movies (aka cinephiles). But wait didn't most of these movies come out before I was born and this list is celebrating the greatness of 2016? Well. A lot of movies come with introductions and it was assembled in 2016. It's a place where you can find that movie many people have talked about but it's impossible to find on DVD. If you like japanese cinema but because Netflix only has Seven Samurai and Sanjuro (but Sanjuro is a sequel to Yojimbo and they don't have Yojimbo) you might want to try FilmStruck because they have 95% of Kurosawa's films. Kurosawa is also just one of many directors whose inventory of work has been assembled for your binge watching pleasure (along with a lot of special features).

8. The Criterion Collection (https://www.criterion.com/)

While The Criterion Collection have been involved in getting FilmStruck up and running as well as contributing to its catalogue it's still going strong in the home market game. This year they have released titles from the Coen Brothers, Wim Wenders, Charlie Chaplin, Mike Nichols, Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Terrence Malick, Guillermo del Toro, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Richard Linklater, Akira Kurosawa, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Marlon Brando. All of these films have been restored to some degree and for the the directors that are alive they are director approved. Also every movie comes with plenty of special features that perfectly complement the movie and I think 2017 is going to be another great year for them. (There DVD covers make up this blog's cover picture)

9. Cinefix Movie Lists (You can watch them here)

While Watchmojo may still be up and running they're efforts are only dismal compared to Cinefix. These lists aren't held together by arguments that use rotten tomatoes scores and box receipts, there arguments are articulated based on the skill of the film makers. At the beginning of 2016 there videos were just their well argued opinions but throughout the year they developed to prove that they are just more than movie lovers but rather people who spoke cinema.

10. Nerdwriter (His videos are here)

For those who watch a lot of video essays online like I do you will notice the exclusion of 'Every Frame a Painting' but he only released three videos this year so I thought it would be better to include an essayist who has had a regular output. This year Nerdwriter has covered Star Wars, The Prestige, Mulholland Dr, Melancholia, Harry Potter 3, Vertigo, and the Truman Show. But the channel's output isn't limited to cinema, they've covered Edward Munch, Donald Trump, Brexit, the global economy, Bob Dylan (before he won a Nobel Prize), Picasso, and Facebook. Every video gives a comprehensive argument and one that is concisely established under 10 minutes.

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So what are your favorite audio/visual pieces of entertainment for 2016?

Let me know in the comments.