39. *tie* Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor Ragnarok
The Marvel machine keeps on humming, and while neither the new Spider-Man or Thor flicks reached the heights of their canon, they both serve as further proof as to the viability of their house formula, as well as their impeccable casting.
38. Mudbound
A tale of woe set in the yesteryear south,
Mudbound is a throwback to an old school style of grand, emotional filmmaking with a great performance from Jason Mitchell.
37. Wonderstruck
I can't really see many children vibing with this Todd Haynes 'kid flick,' but the story of two deaf children divided by decades in an ever-changing New York tugs at heartstrings while its director remains as formally inventive as ever.
36. It
More of a roller coaster than a standard movie, this September smash was perhaps the most fun film to watch in a packed theater of the entire year, going for a scare about every two minutes while the audience laps it up through their screams.
35. Song to Song
Terrance Malick's latest was largely panned coming out of the festival circuit, and while I can understand how all the waxing poetic, rolling around of the ground, and sleeping with everyone in sight might turn off some viewers, I for one was taken with the sheer movie-star charisma of Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, and Natalie Portman, as well as cinematographer Emmanuel Lubeski's electric trip through the Austin music scene.
34. Logan Lucky
Steven Soderberg's return, nicknamed '
Ocean's 7-11,' is a silly, funny, and stylish tale of a perpetually unlucky pair of brothers (Channing Tatum and Adam Driver) attempting to pull off a big heist in the shadow of a local NASCAR event.
33. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
American self-righteousness walks through a hall of fun-house mirrors in writer-director Martin Mcdonagh's latest dark comedy, featuring fiery performance from Frances McDormand as a mother who wants justice for her murdered daughter at any cost.
32. The Beguiled
Another entry into Sophia Coppala's ongoing exploration of privilege, this remake stars Colin Farrell as a wounded Union soldier who is taken in by an all-female boarding house in the deep south, deriving both delight and intrigue from just how the likes of Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning react to his presence.
31. War for the Planet of the Apes
Another Apes movie, another giant leap in special effects grandeur. Entirely straight-faced, and more of a prison movie than its explosive-sounding title might suggest, it's a somber capper to one of the better trilogies in recent times, and another stunning motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis.
30. Personal Shopper
How's this for a movie premise; a young woman (Kristen Stewart) takes on the film's titular role for a famous model so that she can remain near to the place of her twin brother's recent death, waiting for a sign he promised to send from beyond. Kooky as the set-up may be, the film's of writer/director Oscar Assayas remain ever enigmatic, tucking secrets away in quite corners of rooms, and filling the screen with faux-gothic atmosphere.
29. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
No one loves a sick joke more than writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos, and with the help of an ancient greek tragedy, he dreams up a hell of one to tell here. After befriending the doctor (Colin Farrell) who performed the surgery that his father never woke up from, a teenage boy (Barry Keoghan) casts a spell of sorts on his family, promising deterioration and death for all unless the MD kills one himself. It's darkly hilarious, gorgeously shot, and features a coming-out party of a performance from Keoghan.
28. The Post
Another Oscar season, another Steven Spielberg politically-themed time capsule that's as sturdy as a wall.
The Post does nothing to reinvent the wheel, but confidently tells the engrossing story of the Washington Post's decision to print the Pentagon Papers amid an avalanche of pressure coming from all sides, and features the rare Meryl Streep performance where we watch her become a lion, instead of just starting out that way.
27. Split
M. Night Shyamalan's name hasn't exactly been synonymous with quality in the recent years, but he finally gets his mojo back with
Split, a thriller about three young girls kidnapped and held hostage by Kevin (James McAvoy), a man who takes split personality disorder to a completely new level. It's tremendously trashy popcorn theater, and McAvoy bites into the challenge of playing 23 different people like he's an attack dog.
26. The Lego Batman Movie
Up-ending the dichotomy established by
The Dark Knight, this toy-told tale of the caped crusader features a Joker (Zach Galifianakis) hell-bent on evil-doing not as a means to torment Batman (Will Arnett), but rather to simply gain his respect as a peer. A sequel of sorts to 2014's
The Lego Movie, this superhero-infused, blisteringly-paced edition features almost as many dazzling visuals and gut-busting punchlines as its predecessor.
25. The Shape of Water
I still can't truly get behind the story of a mute janitor (Sally Hawkins) falling in love with a mutant man-fish in 1960's Baltimore, but it's every other element on hand that has the Academy singing this movie's praises. Director Guillermo del Toro oversees this ravishing spectacle, featuring incredible set design, gorgeous camera work, and songs and sounds that never fail to massage the ears.
24. The Big Sick
Written by the couple upon which the film is based,
The Big Sick tells the story of a comedian from Pakistan (Kumail Nanjiani, playing himself) who falls for an American girl named Emily (Zoe Kazan) while failing to tell her that his parents will only accept an arranged marriage. His plan to let her down easy implodes when Emily winds up in the hospital and put under a coma, forcing him to both grow and re-evaluate his choices. Sweet, smart, funny, and filled with great performances, it's the rare romantic comedy that has no problem dealing with issues greater than white people problems.
23. John Wick Chapter 2
A complete and utter triumph of style over substance,
John Wick Chapter 2 outdoes the original not by diverting from the formula, but rather by blowing it out to completely absurd extremes. After failing to make good on a marker that was given to him by... oh who cares? We're all just here to watch Keanu Reeves kick some ass and shoot some guns, captured with sleek, stylish mayhem shot, edited, and directed to pulse-pounding perfection.
22. A Ghost Story
Floating along in near silence like the bed-sheet spirit that this movie calls a protagonist,
A Ghost Story sees a young couple's romance ripped away by untimely death, resulting in the dead man's post-life presence quietly haunting the home of his former lover (Rooney Mara) even long after she's gone. A meditation on time, space, death, loneliness, and grief, writer/director David Lowry's film says a whole lot with the utmost minimum of words, and leaves a whole slew of mysteries in its wake.
21. I, Tonya
Some have described
I, Tonya as the
Goodfellas of figure skating movies, and while that simply has to be true given the genre's limited canon, it gives entirely too much credit to the film's goons, and no where near enough sympathy to its protagonists. Intercut with reenactments of real interviews given by most of the key players in Tonya Harding's life story, the movie takes us on a journey through childhood to victory and eventually down into disgrace, relaying a whale of a (likely un-true) true story while affording Margot Robbie the role of a lifetime.
20. The Lovers
The long-awaited feature film return of wildly underrated writer/director Azezel Jacobs,
The Lovers tells the story of a husband (Tracy Letts) and wife (Debra Winger) both engaged in affairs and heading toward divorce when their affection for one another suddenly reappears, complicating matters for everyone. Brilliantly acted and cleverly constructed, it's a movie about the difficulty and pain of letting go of a long-time partner, no matter how toxic the relationship has become.
19. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Somehow most people's third favorite Marvel movie of the year,
Guardians 2 is a ruckus time at the flicks, and might be every bit as beloved as the first were it not for lacking the original's freshness. It might as well have been renamed
Daddy Issues: The Movie, but the cast is still winsome, the jokes still work, the soundtrack still kicks, and there are more than a few visual feats that have embedded themselves in my head for good.
18. Star Wars-The Last Jedi
Many people's problem (including mine) with
The Force Awakens was its complete and utter lack of originality, so leave it to the internet to take a hatchet to Rain Johnson's latest for trying something new. In a last ditch attempt to save the Resistance, our heros all go their separate ways and experience lively, eyeball-pleasing adventures that further their characters, but none more so than Rey (Daisey Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), a battle of wills that's quickly become the best in all of franchise film-making.
17. Call Me By Your Name
In the sun-soaked Italian summer of 1983, a Jewish-American teenager named Elio (Timothée Chalamet) meets Oliver (Armie Hammer), a graduate student brought in by Elio's professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg) to study for a few months. A romance blossoms, sumptuously captured by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who forgoes all forms of camera trickery in favor if immaculate lensing and pitch-perfect lighting. Sensual and almost tactile,
Call Me By Your Name has a visceral way of awakening your senses.
16. Baby Driver
"What if you could turn a
Fast & Furious movie into a musical?" wondered no one ever... that is besides writer/director/visual genius Edgar Wright. The tale of Baby (Ansel Elgort), a getaway driver forced to constantly listen to his earbuds in order to drown out a case of tinnitus (and whose musical selections shape just about every second of the film) and his attempts to exit the game. It's not exactly the deepest flick in the known universe, but
Baby Driver is an absolute blast, clarifying, once again, that no one else on earth can make a movie quite like Wright.
15. Kong: Skull Island
First off, let me just admit personal bias; Big Monster is among the cinematic itches I most frequently find myself in need of scratching, but the new Kong joint has a spirit all its own to admire. In a not-so-subtle
Apocalypse Now-themed 1973, a tracker (Samuel L. Jackson) and a crew he assembles set forth to map out an island in the Pacific Ocean, only to find themselves prey to 1933's favorite giant ape. A mega-budget remake that treats itself like the goofiest of B-movies, the new Kong is big, gaudy fun from start to finish, and honestly gave me two or three of the biggest laughs I had all year.
14. mother!
While we're on the subject of me taking up for films that most cinephiles regard as poison, let's talk about
mother! Darren Aronofsky's much-maligned horror/biblical allegory stars Jennifer Lawrence as the wife of a famous poet (Javier Bardem) who's suffering from writer's block until a pair of visitors (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer) show up to their largely isolated estate and shake things up. Yes,
mother! is not as smart as it thinks it is, and no, this certainly isn't a movie for everyone, but I gobbled up almost every minute of it, from the stressful first passages to the spooky goings-on, and the utter madness of the climax.
13. Wonder Woman
It's simple and rather small-minded to cherish
Wonder Woman because it's the first superhero flick of the modern era with a female in the title role; the movie's sense of feminism is more philosophical and ethical than it is merely practical. Gal Gadot plays our hero, who travels from her mythical homeland of Themyscira to help vanquish evil in World War I. In many ways a throwback to the
Superman movies of yore in its avoidance of either the darkness or tongue-in-cheek sarcasm that define modern superhero movies, Patty Jenkins' film takes time to explore both the ideological differences between men and women, and the manner in which a female who had never grown up in the shadow of patriarchy might greet the world. And then it also kicks some ass.
12. Last Flag Flying
Richard Linklater's entire filmography has one unmissable theme running through it like life blood: time.
Last Flag Flying tells the story of three Vietnam veterans (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Lawrence Fishburne) who, after decades apart, reunite in order to attend the burial of one of their sons, who was killed over in Iraq. While this synopsis might make the movie sound as straight-faced as possible, Linklater's script (co-written with Darryl Ponicsan) makes time for just about everything; reminiscence, laughter, pain, distrust, release, and even bawdy humor. Time has changed all these men, but some bonds (and resentments) can resurface in a heartbeat.
11. Good Time
Some movies are defined by plot; the way all the information matters, characters are built up and fleshed out, and everything clicks together in the end.
Good Time is that rare example of the complete opposite, a movie with all the sudden appearances and occurrences and departures that make up life. Not to say that the time we spend with Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson) is exactly normal; after a failed bank robbery lands his mentally handicapped brother (Benny Safdie, who also co-directs) in jail, Nikas sets out on a nightlong quest through the underbelly of New York to find the money to set him free, abusing the trust of everyone he can find along the way. Splattered with neon amazement by cinematographer Sean Price Williams and featuring a career re-shaping performance by Pattinson, this is the 'feel bad' movie of the year, complete with queasy-making thoughts on race that linger just below the surface.
10. Colombus
One of the year's smallest movies is also among its very best, a decade-and-a-half later spiritual sequel to
Lost in Translation with all that movie's silence and mystery and life. In the surprising architectural wonderland of Columbus, Indiana, a young woman named Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) is giving up on her dreams to stay with her recovering addict mother. Into her life walks Jin, (John Cho) a Korean-born business type who proceeds to question her life choices while she inspects his. Stunning in its still compositions by cinematographer Elisha Christian,
Columbus is a soft-spoken, emotional marvel, a sign of good things to come from first time writer/director Kogonada.
9. Lady Bird
If you haven't let
Lady Bird into your heart by now, I'm not exactly sure how you made it this far down the list. Marking Greta Gerwig's first foray into directing, the movie stars Saoirse Ronan as the titular teen, tracking her final year at a Sacramento Catholic school, and all the happenings therein. Loosely based on her real-life experiences, Gerwig fleshes out her characters with patient insight and wheel-deep empathy, from the boys that cross through Lady Bird's life (Lucas Hudges and Timothée Chalamet) to the friends, family, and faculty that inevitably shape a young person. But no one proves as important as her mother (Laurie Metcalf), the relationship between the two ringing true in a way we hardly ever get to see mothers and daughters on screen. Sharp, funny, poignant, and honest in its every move.
8. The Square
You'd be forgiven for hearing that there is a two-and-a-half-hour long movie from Sweden about the art-house business, and expecting a rather dull affair, but in the hands of mischievous writer/director Ruben Östlund, this couldn't be further from the truth. Christian (Claes Bang) is the curator of a prestigious museum in Stockholm preparing to launch his next big exhibit when a thief pickpockets him, setting him on a quest for revenge with plenty of consequences, both personal and professional. More a collection of scenes than a proper narrative,
The Square is strange, unsettling, thought-provoking, but above all absolutely hilarious. Playing out like an episode of Saturday Night Live as written and directed by the folks at the Criterion Collection, this is a blast of fresh air and oddity that I can't wait to see again.
7. Coco
The gold standard that Pixar has established for themselves has put them in a bit of an undesirable situation, where even their good films are seen as lesser, and their bad ones are met with scorn. I have to tell you, the abominable, endless
Frozen short that opens the film, paired with
Coco's chaotic opening passages, had me worried as well, but I'm here to tell you that this one goes in the vault. Young Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) lives with his extended family of she-makers in Santa Cecilia, Mexico, but dreams of being a famous musician. After abandoning his family on Dia de los Muertos, Miguel suddenly finds himself in the ravishingly-animated land of the dead, and embarks on a journey to return home, learning more about his family lineage along the way. Heartening for its representation of both cultures and faces that animation so often ignores,
Coco is a massage for both your eyes and ears, and has the most emotional conclusion of any movie I saw last year.
6. The Florida Project
An ode to finding the beauty within the grim, writer/director Sean Baker's
The Florida Project balances whimsy with despair in a way the feels completely original. Set in the economically devastated shadow of Orlando's Disney World, the near-plotless, utterly lifelike movie follows six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), a firecracker who stirs up all hell with her similarly aged and impoverished friends, her trouble-making largely supported by her rebellious young mother (Bria Viniate). Pitched as a modern day Little Rascals, Baker uses almost all untrained actors (with the notable exception of a fantastic Willem Defoe), causing his depiction of the lower class to seem less judgmental or condescending than it is celebratory and matter of fact. What might look like rundown apartments to our eyes become a candy-colored wonderland in Moonee's, all the bright shades of cheap paint telling lies of mirth and ease. Though not always easy to watch,
The Florida Project is an essay in empathy, and a tribute to the troublemaker in all of us.
5. Phantom Thread
For writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, considered by many to be the defining American cinematic voice of his generation, the most obvious way of looking at a thing is always the least interesting. Masquerading as a proper English period drama,
Phantom Thread tells the story of Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), a London-based dressmaker in the 1950's with a fussy sensibility and an eye for detail. A chance encounter with a waitress named Alma (Vicky Krieps) blossoms into a romance, but their dynamic becomes a push-pull of wills, each demanding something that the other is reticent to provide. A think-piece on the chasm between the way that men and women think and yearn,
Phantom Thread also manages to be ravishingly beautiful in both sights and sounds, as well a laugh-out-loud funny. Much has been made about this being Day-Lewis' reported final performance, but his greatness is matched by both Krieps and Lesley Manville, forming a three-pronged power dynamic that never proves less than fascinating.
4. Blade Runner 2049
It's certainly not difficult to see why
Blade Runner 2049 flopped in early October, with its elongated runtime, molasses pacing, and over-reliance on pent-up demand for a sequel to a movie that came out more than three decades earlier. Don't let the naysayers fool you; the long-belated follow up to 1982's sci-fi classic is a towering achievement of aesthetics, mood, and spectacle. Tasked with hunting down and disposing of an older class of replicants in a future Los Angeles, 'K' (Ryan Gosling) discovers evidence that the cyborgs might have been able to reproduce, sending him on a quest for answers. Clocking in at 164 minutes,
2049 is an exercise in audience domination, director Denis Villeneuve employing languid pacing and moral quandary to force viewers into submission, where our brains become more alert, and our senses more enlivened. And while the plot twists and philosophical ruminations are more than worthy of praise, it's the world-building that sets this one apart, from immaculate production design, awe-inspiring special effects, and yet another masterclass from cinematography legend Roger Deakins, who might just finally win his long deserved Oscar tomorrow night.
3. The Lost City of Z
Having banked only a meager 8.5 million at the US box office before seeming to fade into oblivion, the average movie-goer would be forgiven for having never heard of
The Lost City of Z; it is, in every conceivable way, a movie out of its time. Set in the 1920's and based on real life events, the film follows Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), a British explorer sent on a mission to map the Amazons who comes across proof that civilized culture might exist within the enormous expanse, and dedicates his life to its discovery. Writer/director James Grey's movie is not only set in a time and interested in a subject that sees precious little exposure on modern day screens, but also carries itself like a David Lean epic from a time long since passed. This stayed nature and yesteryear paradigm might well have kept modern audiences away, but anyone with a love for the grandly mounted, unapologetically enormous adventures of olden cinema ought not miss this foray into the jungle, and all the softly whispered, gorgeously captured mysteries therein.
2. Get Out
I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie trailer cause quite as much confusion as
Get Out's did at the very start of 2017, prompting people to wonder whether this was a comedy, a horror flick, a social commentary, or if it was even a real movie. The answer, it turns out, is all of the above, especially the last one. A demented twist on the 60's classic
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, a young black man named Chris (an extraordinary Daniel Kaluuya) sets out for a weekend trip to meet his white girlfriend's affluent parents, and while things start out on an awkward foot, there's no predicting the length to which they descend. In his feature debut, writer/director Jordan Peele is already in complete command of the form, his movie proving ruthlessly efficient in the pacing of its story, and the building of its tension. The cast come up all aces as well, but the biggest takeaway here is one of the most brilliant, confounding scripts you've ever seen put to film, cramming all sorts of different mismatched genres into a blender and somehow never missing a step. Humorous, terrifying, and thought-provoking,
Get Out is that rarest of things; a bonafide instant classic.
1. Dunkirk
In a world where the film medium is increasingly relegated to comfortable home viewings with HD TVs and the ever-present temptation of the pause button,
Dunkirk proved to be a monument to the magic of a theater-going experience. Stranded on the beach of the film's namesake, allied forces from Belgium, England, and France attempt an evacuation that involves the aid of soldiers and citizens alike. Many have decried writer/director Christopher Nolan's film for its near-complete avoidance of character development, but don't we have enough war movies where our heros are just 'fighting to get back home to my girl?'
Dunkirk is a mercilessly visceral experience, putting viewers right on the front line as chaos abounds from all sides, an assault on the senses that quickens your pulse like you just ran a marathon. It's a film that finds the heroism in merely trying to survive and do your part, all while being sumptuously shot, exactingly edited, and intense enough to make your heart pop out of your chest. No,
Dunkirk is not the thinking-man's movie of the year, but it is undoubtably the most cinematic experience of 2017, as well as Christopher Nolan's masterpiece.
