I can confirm this bug, and that changing the video output to "OpenGL GLX video output(XCB)" as per comment #15 appears to work around the issue (thanks epoxy!).
My system: Ubuntu 16.04 Kernel 4.4.0-31-generic Acer Aspire F15 laptop CPU Intel i7-6500U (Skylake) Nvidia GeForce 940M (probably not in use) VLC media player 2.2.2 Weatherwax (revision 2.2.2-0-g6259d80) VLC version 2.2.2 Weatherwax (2.2.2-0-g6259d80) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X, which is subscribed to xserver-xorg-video-intel in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1537053 Title: vlc screen always on top, buggly. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1537053/+subscriptions _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat Post to : ubuntu-x-swat@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp