The year is half over and, thanks to this blog, I’ve seen more movies in the past six months than I normally get to see in a year. That means I get to put together a list of my favorite movies of the year so far. Things might change drastically by the time I make my official list at the end of the year, but for the time being, here are the highlights of movie-going experience in 2017.
10. Wonder Woman
This has been a pretty good year for superhero movies thus far, as you’ll see with the rest of my list, but one of the biggest surprises was how good Wonder Woman turned out, especially considering how disastrous the DC Extended Universe’s track record has been so far. Admittedly I was a big ho-hum on it with my initial review, but the more I rolled it around in my head, the more it warmed up to me. Gal Gadot was a perfect choice for the lead, Chris Pine was a great foil and got to show off more range than he’s usually allowed, some actors like Robin Wright and David Thwaites are a bit underutilized, and I’m still convinced that the only people are sucking up to this movie so much is because of how good it is compared to its brethren, but even then, it’s still a good time a step in the right direction for DC. Let’s just hope they learn the right lessons from this.
Two words, kiddies: tension and atmosphere. While this isn’t quite the indie horror darling that everyone was hoping it would be, It Comes at Night is still a small but fantastic survival story with a mastery over suspense. With its bleak cinematography and lingering, voyeuristic camera work, we watch as these characters slowly crack under their need to survive and the suspicion that they’re undermining each other. The movie follows the “show, don’t tell” rule of cinema, as most of the scares and paranoia comes from what we don’t know or see, leaving our imaginations to run wild. There are a few hanging threads, some left there intentionally, some not, but what it lacks in closure it makes up for in just about everything else. This movie also has the most depressing ending I’ve seen all year. Not quite what I was expecting, but still great.
With this, on the other hand, I knew exactly what I was in for and they did not fail to deliver. While it was lacking in the multi-layered genius of Phil Lord and Chris Miller that made The Lego Movie an instant classic, it’s still a manic hell’s-a-poppin’ comedy that satirizes the Caped Crusader’s grim and gritty present by embracing its campy past. There are jokes and references to just about every incarnation of Batman imaginable, from Batman v. Superman to the Nolan Trilogy to the Tim Burton movies to the animated series to the Adam West TV show, all the way back to his creation in the 40’s. Even Robin, who they played up to be an excitable fanboy, and who could’ve easily come off as annoying, works. But even if you’re not a Batman geek, there’s still a lot of great humor to be had and dresses down the brooding avenger incarnation we’ve been stuck with by reminding us that his adopted family (Robin, Alfred, Batgirl etc.) are just as vital to the Batman mythos as any of his enemies. Not bad for a movie about an unsupervised grown man who runs around karate chopping poor people in a Halloween costume.
And now we go from satire to sincere celebration. Guardians of the Galaxy continues to be an anomaly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, almost like a freak glitch in the system. The first one was a runaway hit that no one saw coming, and the sequel managed to break its sequelitis by being on par with the original, and even excelling it in some parts. If I were ranking these movies based on how much fun I had watching them, this and Lego Batman would be much higher, and while I had as much of a blast watching this as I did with the first Guardians, what made this more satisfying was the more character centric narrative and emotional core. All the characters bounce off of each other really well, the actors have slipped more naturally into their roles, and the new additions to the cast bring a lot to the table, especially Michael Rooker as Yondu, who was only a minor character in the first film but bumped up several ranks in the echelon of Marvel characters here. I mean, who doesn’t love a good redemption story?
6. Colossal
Some things should just not go together, yet somehow make a good combination. French fries with mayonnaise shouldn’t work. Justin Bieber and Slipknot should not work. Kaiju movies and dramedies should not work. Nacho Vigalando skates the same edge as Charlie Kauffman, in that the bizarre high-concept stuff serves as a metaphor for the realistic stakes, which are resolved by taking said concept to its logical extreme. In the case of Colossal, this little flick about a hot mess of a woman dealing with her alcoholism simulcast with giant monster attacks in South Korea that she’s the cause of serves as a not-so-subtle allegory for self-destructive behavior and addiction, and a subtler metaphor for toxic masculinity. Anchoring this movie are the performances by Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis, both clearly having a blast playing against type and bringing a lot of gravitas to some rather unlikable characters. By all means this movie shouldn’t work, and yet they found a way.
5. Raw
Man, do I wish I had the chance to review this in full. This French-Belgian film about a young woman’s new-found desire for human flesh is divisive by design. Either you’ll love it, or you’ll puke your guts out and curse me for recommending such filth. It follows a young vegetarian in her first year of veterinary school who develops an increasingly carnivorous taste after she’s forced to eat meat during a hazing ritual, gradually transitioning from shy and demure to feral and sex crazed in the process. What separates this from the likes of Silence of the Lambs or Cannibal Holocaust is how feminine it is. Director Julia Docournau films with delicate, methodical camera work and a muted color palette, and adds a healthy dose of female gaze. There’s also a great dynamic between our main character and her older sister, who acts simultaneously as a mentor and primary villain. There are many ways that the cannibalism can be interpreted. I’ve read comments that read the cannibalism in this movie as a metaphor for sexual awakening, the feminist concept of body ownership through sex, body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Raw is currently available on Amazon Prime, so if you if you want something to satisfy both the artiste and gorehound in you, this should do the trick.
4. Logan
While the X-Men franchise is largely responsible for getting the ball rolling on the whole superhero movie phenomena, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s had peaks and valleys in quality. Some were good, some bad, but mostly they’ve been mediocre. Even though it’s sixteen years late in the cycle, Logan is the only one in the series that can truly be called a modern classic. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart give not just their best performances as Wolverine and Professor X respectively, but some of the bes performances in their careers period. And that’s to say nothing of Dafne Keen who, despite only being 12 years old, shows an incredible amount of range as an actress. But what really drives this home is the story. Everyone thought that if we’re going to put this version of this character to bed, we might as well give him the send-off he deserves. Even though this is the most far removed installment of the franchise (besides maybe Deadpool), it feels like everything was building up to this moment. If 20th Century Fox does plan on rebooting Wolverine, I hope they at least wait a while and give this the proper respect it deserves. Don’t pull a Transformers: The Movie on us.
3. Baby Driver
When it comes to synergy between movie and subject matter, no one does it quite like Edgar Wright. In the case of Baby Driver, which is the greatest case of soundtrack as co-star since Guardians of the Galaxy, the music is so intrinsic to Wright’s kinetic filmmaking style, which utilizes some of the most exhilarating car chases in recent memory, that it’s impossible to separate one from the other. Watching this movie is like watching Buddy Rich play the drums, or watching Aesop Rock rap, or watching Girl Talk do one of his live mash-ups. While it’s not a straight-up parody like his previous films, Wright’s signature brand of humor is still intact, with the jokes coming at you as fast as the cars and bullets. This was the most fun I had in the theaters all year. Both times.
2. Get Out
It’s no secret that we’re living in turbulent times, especially where race relations are involved, but if you’re sick of seeing an endless ocean of Twitter avatars rehashing the same talking points over and over but still want to listen to someone who actually has something to say, then Get Out has you covered. The fact that it tackles a particular brand of racism that Hollywood has conveniently ignored up to this point would be enough to make it a snapshot of the current zeitgeist, but I wouldn’t put it on the list if that was all it had to offer. What really makes this so great was how it enhances the subject by perfectly meshing horror and comedy. Let’s face it: although it’s played straight, the plot does sound a bit like a lost Key & Peele sketch when taken out of context. Jordan Peele draws heavy inspiration from The Stepford Wives, taking a premise that could easily be the setup for either a comedy or horror (a black man visiting his white girlfriend’s parents for the first time) and takes it to its logical extreme. The result is equal parts frightening, hilarious, and cathartic. And in times like these, sometimes the best conversation starter is a pressure valve.
1. Your Name.
I labored long and hard about whether to include this on the list or not since this technically came out in 2016 but didn’t get an American theatrical release until this year, but at the end of the day, it made its case. This anime take on the familiar body-swapping plot goes in some unexpected directions and is much bigger in scope than the trailers would have you believe. It’s clever in its execution, gorgeously animated, and surprisingly romantic. I had been curious about it for a while as I kept hearing about how it made all of the money in Japan, with critics hailing the then relatively unknown Makoto Shinkai as the next Hayao Miyazaki. Having never seen any of his other works I can’t really confirm that assertion, but this movie deserves every bit of love it’s gotten and then some. There are moments where the plot would fall apart or the romance would come across as schmaltzy if were done by someone without the same sensibilities, and yet somehow, it all works. This is one of the hardest types of movies to write about because there’s so much about this movie that I love that can only be conveyed by seeing it for yourself.
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