13 Hours

Well-paced action thriller feels far shorter than its title implies. Brilliant performances and well executed action keep critics and insurgents at Bay and make for relatable characters in high stakes true story. Cleverly touches on larger political implications without being too heavy-handed. Suffers from occasionally confused lighting, cinematography, and government.

Zootopia

Perfect parallel to human world with incisive social satire and powerful political points. Brilliantly bold comedy and criticism intertwine in a film that plays like the social supplement to the internal Inside Out. Cleverly avoids specificity in allegory to broadly criticize bigotry (and smallotry) rather than attacking a specific group.

Captain America: Civil War

Two guys shy of an Avengers flick, Captain vs. Iron: Dawn of Cinema deals with identical themes of dreadful DC doppelganger but beautifully bolsters battles with empathetic characters, meaningful motivations, and plot logic. Even cinematic universe building blocks feel like more than just superfluous strands to expand Marvel’s dark web.