2016's Underseen Gems

By Sarah Soliman, Marketing Assistant

“Best of” lists are a permanent fixture in film criticism towards the end of each year, and there is a ubiquity not just of the lists themselves, but of the specific titles found on those lists. In 2016 you know you are likely—and with good reason—to find Barry Jenkins’s exquisite Moonlight, Damien Chazelle’s gorgeous La La Land, and Kenneth Lonergan’s devastating Manchester by the Sea, included in nearly every critic’s top 10.

But best of the year lists almost always contain surprises as well. One of the joys of cinephilia is discovering lesser known and underseen films that you connect with, and at the Burns we love screening those films for our audience as much as we love watching them ourselves. It’s been a truly exceptional year of movies, in particular for films that haven’t gotten as much attention as they deserve. We’re proud to have screened these underseen gems, and especially so in cases where we were one of only a few theaters that made them available.

This year the Burns screened such memorable films as Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, Jonathan Demme’s concert documentary, which screened as a special preview as part of Sounds of Summer, Kaili Blues and Neon Bull, both of which Mr. Demme handpicked for his curated series, Rarely Seen Cinema, and Aferim! and Sieranevada, titles from Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema. Read on to see what critics said about these, and other films that are worth seeking out.

Aferim!

“For one thing, its rugged humor, high adventure and ethical seriousness pay tribute to an enduring and often misunderstood genre. For another, it takes up the moral and political problem of slavery (in its Balkan rather than its Southern manifestation) with unsparing honesty and startling nuance.”—A.O. Scott, New York Times

Aquarius

“Unembellished yet jovial, Aquarius is deep down a celebration of life—a life filled with invigorating Queen songs, Dionysian girls’ nights out, and loving family reunions…[M]ost memorable of all is the ravishing [Sonia] Braga’s magnetic and unflinching performance. Achieving an uncanny blend of fragile serenity and ferocious intensity, Braga embodies a woman of all seasons: a poised and affectionate grandmother as much as she is a ruthless and sultry warrior. This icon of Brazilian cinema abandons herself to Mendonça’s camera with the generosity and enthusiasm of an actress who has been waiting for this role her entire life, and in the process lets us into Clara’s, and her own, multifaceted and inspiring soul.”—Yonca Talu, Film Comment

Cemetery of Splendor

“Weerasethakul is utterly unique among filmmakers, the kind of director who makes films so singular it’s impossible to think of how you would even go about mimicking his …[T]he mood Cemetery evokes, a sense of alien wonder that seems not to sink in from the outside but to spring from the bass-deep pit of your own stomach, came to me as perhaps the purest expression of cinema as it was meant to be seen.”—Jessica Kiang, Indiewire

Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids

Jonathan Demme’s concert films are already a magnificent archive, and “Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids”, documenting the final show of the pop megastar’s two-year tour, is one of his best… Demme’s filmmaking is so immersive that for the final 15 minutes of the film I was practically in tears I was so swept away, so caught up in the emotion that was on that stage and out in the audience. And that’s on Demme to create, to translate: the feeling in the room MUST be made palpable to those who were not there. Demme does that like almost no other.—Sheila O’Malley, The Sheila Variations

Kaili Blues

“Overflowing with daring technicality (there is a 40-minute long take that ranks as one of the year’s most absorbing screen moments) and dreamlike beauty, “Kaili Blues” finds director Bi Gan blending the past and present to startling effect. The story concerns a local doctor as he interacts with people from his past and present while traveling the countryside in search of his nephew. Bi Gan, making his feature debut, creates an otherworldly atmosphere that strikes the viewer with a fantastical haze full of existential reckoning.” —Zack Sharf, Indiewire

Life, Animated

“It’s a surprising story with a little bit of sharp humor, but mostly it’s just deeply personal and unique. Williams’ access into Suskind’s life makes the film intimate and approachable, but there’s a larger story here — about how we relate to the world through art, about how everyone sees different things in familiar cultural touchstones, and how the simplest things can become lifelines when they speak to one person in a specific and much-needed way.”—Tasha Robinson, The Verge

My Golden Days

“ [D]irector Arnaud Desplechin beautifully transcends the usual romantic clichés with a deeply moving, exquisitely directed tale of young love and the lessons never learned.”— Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Neon Bull

“The astonishing second feature by the Brazilian documentarian director Gabriel Mascaro, is…an intoxicating reflection on the interconnection of taste, scent, instinct and desire, the film…immerses you in the intensely pungent world of vaquejada, a rodeo sport popular in northeastern Brazil. Neon Bull is a profound reflection on the intersection of the human and bestial.”—Stephen Holden, New York Times

 Sierenevada

“It’s a highly persuasive portrait of family life, replete with intimacies, special alliances, tensions, resentments and reconciliations, but also a revealing study of how that may reflect developments in the wider world. [Puiu’s] expert orchestration of themes, moods and tones is as subtle and resonant as his virtuoso choreography…”—Geoff Andrew, Sight and Sound