lost level

Michael Fassbender in Alien: Covenant (2017).

Arrival 

Moonlight

The Daughter

The Nice Guys

Midnight Special

American Honey

Notes on Blindness

The Magnificent Seven

Rouge One: A Star Wars Story

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Honourable mentions and good things that don’t quite meet the criteria:

Dope

Violent

The OA

Stranger Things

The Edge of Seventeen

Amy Adams & Jeremy Renner in Arrival (2016).

Sasha Lane in American Honey (2016).

In the continuation of movies with the prefix ‘American’ comes American Honey. I confess I wasn't expecting this it caught me off guard for some reason I prepared myself for something obnoxious only to find the sublime amidst it. Some characters would have easily been written off if handled differently but like real people even some of the apparent deplorables have hidden depths. It all felt rather authentic (whatever that is) and that cinematography (by Robbie Ryan) was exceptional. 

Asa Butterfield & Ella Purnell in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).

You remember the last time you went to see a Tim Burton film blind ignoring reviews & previews before hand... yet this time even with a default grumpy disposition you didn't leave disappointed. 

I confess I found myself grinning like an idiot. It did a lot of things right and was quite adept at world building without too much clunky exposition (see Vampire Academy for example).