The Best Film of Summer 2016

See my answer to the latest IndieWire Critics Survey.

This week, IndieWire’s David Ehrlich asked a bunch of us critics to name the best film of the season, an obvious challenge because this was a pretty awful summer at least for mainstream releases. Below is my answer, including a film that actually just opened plus an extra more mainstream highlight, and I encourage you to visit IW’s full post on the survey for my colleagues’ picks.

The best film of the summer is about to close out the season with a tragic bang: Robert Greene’s “Kate Plays Christine.” Whatever you want to classify it as, this take on the true story of on-air suicide Christine Chubbuck presents a complex and compelling investigation into a life as well as its portrayal. The best Hollywood movie, though, was “The Nice Guys,” which started off the season and offers a detective story of a different, funnier kind.