best of 2016

Favorite Films of 2016

Favorite Films of 2016

My top 10 list this year contains a 45-minute IMAX film and an 8-hour ESPN documentary. My list also includes films from some of my favorite directors: Terrence Malick, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, Kelly Reichardt, Andrea Arnold, Denis Villeneuve, Jeff Nichols, Jim Jarmusch. It was a year in which established directors took risks and up-and-coming directors reached new heights. It was a year which saw a first in the history of cinema: two films by Terrence Malick released in one calendar year. It was a year that gave us not one but two nostalgic musicals (Sing Street and La La Land)

Favorite Books of 2016

Favorite Books of 2016

One of the truisms that has guided me in my writing life and which I am more and more convinced of is this: good writers are good readers. Any creative person who hopes to produce something meaningful simply must be regularly filled, provoked, challenged and inspired by the works of others. For me this takes many forms (see my favorite music of the year here, and next week my favorite movies)

Favorite Music of 2016

Favorite Music of 2016

A few months ago I noticed that every hipster bar, coffeeshop and eatery I entered was playing a very specific type of music: songs that were good between 1995-2010. Hipster music and pop hits of the recent past. Early Arcade Fire. TLC's "No Scrubs." The Fugees. "Ghetto Superstar." Radiohead's "In Rainbows." I never heard any current music being played. It's as if the proliferation of good music in the Spotify Age has rendered it exhausting to even try to filter through the glut

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