Favorite of 2016

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2017)

Lion was one of my favorite movies of the year. It made me want to travel, cry, write, and live. Dev Patel carries an incredibly vibrant performance of the true story of Saroo Brierley, who was lost as a child and then attempts to find his family in his 20's. Pair that with grand sweeping landscapes and the incredibly endearing Sunny Pawar, who shines despite the grit of 1980's slums of India, and it had everything I could have wanted in a hauntingly true film. This movie stuck with me days after leaving the theater and only deepened the lifelong crush I have been harboring on Dev Patel (which started in Slumdog and escalated in The Newsroom). I am in general pretty lukewarm on Nicole Kidman, but this is her at her best, and her maternal interactions seemed authentic without being romanticized. All in all, this was near perfect to me, and somehow managed to avoid landmine clichés that could have cheapened this standout of 2016. 9.7/10