2016 SLEEPERS
                                                        Part 4

Here are five more pretty good movies from last year that didn’t get much attention. Perhaps you will find one you would like to try...
Miss Sloane is a cautionary tale for our times. Jessica Chastain plays a very rough and unprincipled lobbyist. She refuses to work for the passage of a gun control bill and instead works for its defeat. She is hailed before a Congressional committee alleging improper practices. She has to decide whether to take the fall and take down a crooked Senator, which means her own indictment. This is Chastain’s film and she carries it well, assisted by veteran John Lithgow and newcomer Gugu Mbatha-Raw. (No, I did not make up that name). 
Mustangs is a strange but entertaining French-Turkish collaboration about a strict Muslim family with five young daughters. A couple of them have a lark playing in the water with some boys, completely innocently, but this results in their virtual house imprisonment. But these are feisty girls and they try various methods to fight against their lot, including sneaking out to meet boys. The plot gets a little complicated because there are so many stories, but there’s a nice ending twist involving two of the sisters. 
The Family Fang features Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman and Christopher Walken in a very weird film about a very weird family. The parents enjoy putting on “performance art” pieces, in which they try to fool onlookers. Later the children are drafted to add to the fun. They fake robbing a bank, giving a concert, and other crazy things. Then the children disappear and leave graphic evidence they were abducted and killed. But is it just more performance art? This film is much stranger than I have outlined here, but I think probably worth it.
Don’t Think Twice is a very fun movie about an improv comedy troupe. Their performances are worth the price of admission, as they are all very clever and extremely quick-witted and funny. Their signature opening line to the audience is, “Has anyone had particularly bad day?” And they riff on the audience response. There is no one in this film I’ve ever heard of, but that could be a plus! What happens when one of the group is auditioned for a role on Saturday Night Live? Watch and see!
City Of Gold is a very entertaining documentary about Los Angeles food critic Jonathan Gold. Contrary to most food critics’ approach, Gold makes no secret of his identity (it wouldn’t work anyway- just look at him!). He samples all sorts of interesting cuisine in his home city and takes us along. He is, I think, the only food critic to ever win the Pulitzer Prize. 
Well, I realize on looking back that this is an extremely unusual bunch of movies, all of them far from the mainstream. But-I enjoyed each one or I wouldn’t be telling you about them!
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. The last one is OK for kids, but I doubt they would like it.