With the last of the 2016 movies already available or nearly ready for home viewing, I have compiled a list of some my stand-out films of 2016:

1.Arrival

Instinctively, I got on board this quiet yet suspenseful science fiction thriller Arrival. It twists and turns and surprises. Looking between the lines, there appears to be a life affirming theme in there as well, despite the trappings that come with alien invasion films, that eerie psychic-honed mind reading.

2.Jackie

A quietly effective drama about coming to terms with losing a husband, Natalie Portman gets across the grief and loneliness of being a widow absolutely convincingly. Portman has very good support from John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard, and Greta Gerwig. Jackie takes you on a journey through Jackie Kennedy’s dark night of the soul and out of it.

3.Lion

Lion is a compelling drama about losing your birth family by accident and attempting to find them twenty-five years later. The loose ends of one’s life need resolving. Putting the pieces back together is what’s important here without offending the family who adopted. The lost Indian boy was adopted by an Australian family—and then sought what happened to his birth family.

4.Sully

Perhaps the matter of faith in a rescue mission is sidelined in Sully, but the movie is nevertheless a good dramatic recreation of the infamous yet famous landing of a plane on the Hudson River in 2009. The dangerous yet successful landing made many New Yorker’s day—during the height of an economic recession and a general lull.

5.Hello, My Name is Doris

This is an unconventional romance, and not a love story, that’s mainly set in the mind of a 60-something female office worker (played by Sally Field). Doris (Field) fancies her much younger supervisor and embarks on a fantasy that crosses into real life. It’s not exploitative, but sensitively and good naturedly handles the material.

6.Eddie the Eagle

This inspirational feel-good film is about taking on life though you may fail. Yet getting involved is better than thinking, what if?