A year to remember: the best and worst movies of 2016

The year 2016 had reality beginning to resemble movies a bit too much. A crackpot was elected president, creepy clowns began to haunt towns and the Chicago Cubs actually won the World Series for the first time in more than a century. It all seemed a little surreal. That being said, Hollywood managed to churn out a fair number of blockbuster hits and flops, and here’s our rundown.

The best: “La La Land”: The whimsical tale of Sebastian and Mia, who are trying to navigate their way through the tumultuous field of performing arts, is perfectly romantic and witty. It portrays a bittersweet tale that is original and depicts the reality of ambition versus love.

“La La Land” manages to be artistic without being pretentious and harbors honest passion, despair and elation. Adding to the overall beauty of the movie, the soundtrack is a work of genius, combining classical Broadway styles with modern motifs. The score is as emotional as the movie, adding to the success of this modern cinematic musical.

The worst: “Suicide Squad”: For all of the hype that preceded this movie, the actual film was extremely underwhelming. The star-studded cast of Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne, among others, could not counteract the one-dimensional storyline and stiff acting. Unfortunately for them, no amount of special effects could make the overall picture any better, except for the soundtrack featuring Skylar Grey and Twenty One Pilots that slightly elevated our perception of the movie.

The best: “Zootopia”: It’s not often that a children’s movie resonates so profoundly with a large population of adults, but the movie’s universal themes managed to do just that. Under the guise of an uplifting tale of a bunny aspiring to become a police officer, “Zootopia” explores the topics of discrimination and legislative action based on uncontrollable factors such as race and background. “Zootopia” marked the transition of animated movies from meaningless plotlines to strong, applicable messages.

The worst: “Collateral Beauty”: It’s almost impossible to characterize just how terrible this movie turned out to be. Exploring the story of a man who writes letters to Love, Time and Death after he is struck by tragedy, the movie is like a pretentious and uninformative version of an AP Lang class.

As Time Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek said, “Every so often there comes a movie so tasteless, so nakedly pandering, so bodaciously ill conceived that you’ve got to see it to believe it.” Let’s just say that “Collateral Beauty” fits this description perfectly, and even after seeing it, we still can’t fathom how it could even be shown in theaters.

The best: “Moonlight”: This movie is an honest, heart-wrenching depiction of the truth behind the “War on Drugs” era. It does not hold back or sugarcoat the experiences of African-Americans during this time, rather creating a realistic and applicable storyline that continues to be relevant even today.

The average: “Ghostbusters”: Let us preface this by saying that we loved the original film, so the mediocrity of the remake hit us straight through the heart. Thirty years after the original “Ghostbusters” was released, this new squad of fiery, independent and hilarious women took on a new wave of paranormal activity. However, the comedy seemed forced, the irreverence not quite as natural as it was in the original movie. So, “who are you gonna call” for a only-OK movie? “Ghostbusters!”