2016, The year that was...

Film of the Year

MI: I seriously struggled with this as I almost gave up on the film industry this year.

I know, I didn’t see every film made in 2016 and there will be a number of good ones out there, but to be honest I watched way more TV.

This is a complete reversal from my usual viewing habits, when I think about it the transformation from film to TV has been building over the past 3-4 years.

To try and get some assistance I did a pole of 3 people to get their opinions, they were of no help what so ever.

In the end I’m going for a feature documentary, 13th, it was informative, shocking, unbelievable, and totally worth watching every minute.

I was gob smacked after watching this, although why I’m surprised about the abitlity of the human race to totally exploit each other is crazy. I’m a pessimist at the best of times.

If you haven’t seen it, you owe yourself a viewing

CR: I couldn’t agree more. No other ‘film’ this year affected me like The 13th. Ava DuVernay really outdid herself with this. I tried to spread the word about this as much as possible – you’re right, everyone needs to see it.

J.A: Definitely agree with 13th. Undeniably the most moving and captivating film of the year. Unbelievably stunned at the information in the film.

Honourable mentions

MI: Tarantino’s, Hateful Eight, more out of nostalgia than anything else. Also, Nicolas Winding Refn keeps capturing my attention, sometimes uncomfortably, but he's still making me watch. Check out his latest visual feast Neon Demon.

CR: It’s Taika Waititi’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople as the other big one for me. I really enjoyed seeing Aotearoa on screen, with the sweeping shots of Te Uruwera, Julian Denison, & especially Troy Kingi. Not much else stood out for me – I really liked 100 Streets with Idris Elba.

J.A: I have to agree with Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Funniest film I’ve seen all year and a NZ film at that. The cinematography was amazing, captivating the beauty of our country.

TV of the Year

MI: This I found difficult for the complete opposite reason as the film section, so much good content to choose from.

In the end I’ll go with what I chose in our previous article (http://www.chewie.co.nz/single-post/2016/09/30/Chewies-Top-5-TV-Shows-of-2016)

The OJ Simpson documentary series. It had me riveted and I binged the shit out of it.

CR: The ESPN OJ series was definitely the best thing on TV all year.

J.A: This one’s hard for me. I loved the OJ Simpson series. I knew nothing about OJ Simpson before I watched this other than the fact that the whole world thinks “OJ did it” but it’s equal with ‘The Night Of’ for me. Both spectacular and riveting. Both thought provoking. Both with the same ending. No conclusion. No real answers. Both highlighting the judicial system that we all rely on to bring us justice.

Honourable Mentions

MI: There’s a bunch, most of which you will have heard of; GOT, Narcos, Mr Robot, Westworld etc.

The one I really want to push though is, Atlanta. I loved this series, the writing, the acting, the soundtrack, all of it was awesome. The way they took social issues and subtly bashed you about the head with them was genius.

Donald Glover for me is a mixture of Will Smith & Bill Cosby (without the sick fuck abusing woman part), only he’s not trying to please a white audience. He's telling black stories without bias. Kia kaha e hoa!

CR: The other obvious picks for me were Game of Thrones finally picking the pace up, & Westworld (which I’ve recently written about here on Chewie http://www.chewie.co.nz/single-post/2016/11/22/Reading-Way-Too-Far-Into-Westworld). I also enjoyed Love on Netflix, Insecure, & of course The Night Of on HBO.

J.A: Game of Thrones. Absolutely deserves a special mention. I anxiously await each episode per week. Shameless was a guilty pleasure of mine.

Here's a look at a visually stunning promo for Season 7...

Sporting moment of the Year

MI: Being that we live in NZ I should be choosing an All Black moment or, as it was an Olympic year a gold medal winning performance, F*%$ that, I’ll leave that to the Halbergs

I’m choosing LeBron James and Cleveland’s come back from 1-3 down to beat the cocky Warriors. Watching Draymond lose was spectacular and to be honest I was happy for LeBron, he deserved to win one for his hometown crowd. Despite what you think of him personally, he’s an absolute sporting freak. Big, powerful, skillful, and a work ethic most players dream about.

If any of you were struggling to remember who the best 2 way player in basketball is....

CR: It’s definitely a toss up between Cronulla winning their first ever premiership (50 years!), or the Cavs with that amazing comeback from 1-3 down…or I could go with Scotland getting the draw with the Kiwis in the recent Four Nations. As a lifelong, diehard Kiwis fan, it was a rough day, but you had to admire how hard the Scots played for the entire 80 minutes, & how much they rattled the defending champions. Very unlucky not to get the win. Scotland did what Samoa, France, PNG, & Wales couldn’t do in previous tournaments.

J.A: I'm not a huge sporting fan. I am however a Vodafone Warriors fan. I was surprised at how poorly they performed this year considering the addition of great players, Isaac “Bully” Luke & Roger Tuivasa Sheck. Hopefully next season with the addition of Kieran Foran, they’ll get a better result.

Honourable Mentions

Leicester City winning the English Premiership was farking mental. Also The Chicago Cubs ending 108 years of torment and winning a baseball title, JA as a Warriors fan you've got nothing to compain about.

Oh and the All Blacks won some games as well....

Music of the Year

MI: The biggest thing in music for me this year was not albums or songs but the death of some of the biggest names to ever grace the stage.

Prince, Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Maurice White (Earth Wind & Fire), Glen Frey.

There’s some serious talent right there.

I’ll leave the actual song/album thing up to Casey, he’s far more informed than I.

CR: A few legends passed away – Phife Dawg, Sean Price, & the others you mentioned above, so it wasn’t awesome in a time when there’s so much rubbish music coming out every day – especially in the “hiphop” category - it’s easy to miss the good stuff. Apollo Brown & Skyzoo dropped what is my favourite album of 2016: The Easy Truth. It’s just straight up New York at it’s finest

I’m anticipating the new J Cole album as well, which you can watch a little documentary on here:

& the most plays in my iTunes library:

J.A: I agree with the passing of legends as opposed to the music that was released this year. Prince was one of my absolute favourite musicians. Paige Dawg from my favourite group ATCQ. I listen to new music via Casey. Nothing great has stood out for me this year.

Honourable Mentions

MI: Bit of nostalgia in my first pick, Radioheads new album A Moon Shaped Pool, was on high rotation. Plus even before she hit the headlines with her comments at the NZ Music Awards, I was praising Aradhna’s Brown Girl Album, nice work.

CR: This is where I should talk about the new offerings from both A Tribe Called Quest & De La Soul…I didn’t love the ATCQ album, & I deleted all but 1 track of the De La album off of my iTunes. Both groups I’ve loved for a good quarter of a century. Crazy.

Randomly, I loved this from the TV series Vinyl:

Jam.

J.A: I became a fan of Yuna this year. One of her tracks in particular “crush” such a beautiful song.

WTF moment of the Year

MI: Hard for me to go past Americanvoting in Donald Trump, I mean seriously, what the actual FUCK people???????

The World is upside down man.

CR: Yeah, you can’t go past that for a true what the fuck?! Moment. Still processing that a country of 325,141,003 would want a person of that quality (or, lack thereof) in charge of everything. The nukes, the military, international relations, education, womens rights(?), race relations, foreign debt, etc, etc, etc. You Americans are nuts.

J.A: I think Donald Trump becoming president may be the WTF moment of the decade. Gob smacked by it.

Merry Happy.....