17. Suzume
A girl traveling around Japan with her talking, moving chair (who was once a boy, to be clear) is an eyebrow-raising setup for any coming-of-age fantasy film. But despite the silliness of that elevator pitch, Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume was a gorgeous, genuine treat of a film well worth seeing in theaters. While it’s maybe a bit too predictable in spots, its storytelling is so effective—hitting all the right emotional notes—that it’s hard not to get swept up in it by the end.
