Winds up a slog, incorporating the driest moments of “Game of Thrones” sword-and-armor politicking with the dull rota of a history lesson.

These are the best films of 2016.

Hell or High Water is appropriately elegiac for its subject matter.

[xrr rating=3.25/5]The prison drama typically provides a series of expected elements, from brutal violence to a fleeting shot of redemption/rehabilitation for its principal characters. Starred Up, the latest by Scottish director David Mackenzie, doesn’t stray far from these tropes, but still delivers a frightening and visceral experience. It begins with the procedural sequence of the young Eric Love (Jack O’Connell) …

[xrr rating=2.0/5]If only Perfect Sense had been a film about a pair of assholes facing the end times together. Instead, the drama is played alongside hopeful scenes of humanity’s ability to adapt during overwhelming crises, forcing comparisons that surely neither director David Mackenzie or screenwriter Kim Fupz Aakeson intended. After a turgid opening of random images paired with graceless semi-poetic …