The past year has been a cursed one. It began with the death of David Bowie and proceeded to get worse on every level: political hysteria, impending ecological doom, the creeping encroach of net-connected tech into every corner of our lives, and a blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality now known as "post-truth." It was not a great year for cinema — as the gazillion-dollar franchises increasingly shoved everything else to the margins — but the best films seemed both timely and truthful, speaking directly to the chaos of 2016.