I could open this list with a cynical diatribe of what a
miserable year 2017 was, but I won’t. Why? Because A. I already did that last year, B. I don’t want to start the year off with a bunch of doom and gloom, and
C. for all the bad stuff that went down, there was still some good stuff to
help balance things out. One of those things being that, thanks to this blog, I
got to see enough movies that I can make an actual top 10 list where I don’t
have to scrape from a really small pool. There were some very painful cuts that
I had to make, but in the end, I’m satisfied with my picks. Keep in mind that I
didn’t get to see everything that I wanted to, so if you’re wondering why Good Time, The Florida Project, Loving Vincent, A Ghost Story,
Mudbound, John Wick: Chapter 2, Phantom Thread, Call Me by Your Name or I, Tonya aren’t on the list, that’s why.
Regardless, these are the Top 10 Movies of 2017 (in my opinion).
10. Logan Lucky
A good heist movie is like watching a Rube Goldberg machine:
it’s an elaborate chain of events where one error could derail the whole
mechanism, and watching it unfold is more satisfying than the end result. But
the greatest trick in Logan Lucky’s arsenal
is how it uses everyone’s (including, and especially the audience’s)
underestimation of the main cast to their advantage. We think we’re in for a
bunch of country bumpkins way in over their heads who only get away through
sheer luck, but there’s a lot more heart and soul to it than that. Their
motivations are simple, straightforward and relatable, luck is anything but on
their side, and these characters are way smarter than what we give them credit
for. It’s funny, exciting, heartfelt, and has a heapin’ helpin’ of good ol Southern
charm.
9. Coco
Pixar knows what works for them, but since they’ve been one
of the driving forces in feature-length animation for the past 22 years, you
can’t blame them for being set in their ways. The themes of Coco may seem familiar to anyone who’s
seen more than one Pixar movie before, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t the
best at what they do. This is one of the funniest, most colorful and poignant
films they’ve made in a while, and deserves to be ranked among their best. The
characters are memorable, the themes of death, mortality and memory are
touching, the music is fantastic (“Remember Me” has the Best Song category at
the Oscars on lockdown. You heard it here first), and the last 15 minutes are
an absolute emotional gut-punch. Not even that obnoxious, overlong Olaf short could bring it down.
8. Dunkirk
I may have my issues with Christopher Nolan, but I’d be a fool
to deny that he has the following he has for a reason. If Logan Lucky was like watching a Rube Goldberg machine made from
junk lying around in your dad’s garage, then Dunkirk was like watching the gears turn in a Swiss watch. It has
all the same efficiency, but hardly any of the same human touch. That’s not a
knock against it (it is rated higher than Logan
Lucky after all), but it does leave more room to show off how it masters
different time compressions, it has enough faith in its audience to follow what’s
going on, and it shows bits of humanity where it needs to. Surprisingly, for a
movie with so many casualties, this has to be the most bloodless war movie I’ve
ever seen, with all the deaths being due to drowning, boat sinkings,
plane crashes, starvation and cold. With bold camera work and masterful sound
mixing, it’s a truly immersive film as well. Break out your best speakers for
this one.
7. Logan
The X-Men movies were never really my thing. In fact, it
took them nearly ten years for them to grab my attention, and the timeline reset in
Days of Future Past has allowed more
freedom to expand and do better things. Last year we got the ultraviolent
cartoon ride of Deadpool, and this
year we got a somber modern western in the form of Logan, which doubles as a final farewell for Hugh Jackman’s
incarnation of Wolverine. Director James Mangold manages to make something that
looks like no other superhero movie, and create an emotional continuity with
the overarching themes of Logan’s character arc: pain, aging, and the struggle
between his status as a living weapon and a hero. Jackman and Patrick Stewart
give some of their best performance not just in the X-Men franchise, but in
their entire careers (If the Oscars give Jackman a Best Actor nomination for The Greatest Showman instead of this, I will run out naked into the snow.), but it’s Dafne Keene who steals the spotlight and shows a ton
of promise. I couldn’t think of a better final chapter for this character. Let’s
just hope that Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox doesn’t
screw it up.
Anger can be a powerful
motivator, but it’s what we do with that anger that makes the difference
between righteous fury and wanton destruction. Three Billboards is without a doubt the angriest movie I’ve seen
all year (and also one of the funniest), and since there’s plenty to be angry
at right now, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Frances McDormand, here
giving the best performance of her career since Fargo, is wholly justified in waging her one-woman war against the
small-town police force who made no progress in the case of her daughter’s
murder, but the movie isn’t so much about her getting justice as it is about how
her crusade has affected the entire town. The characters have multiple layers
to them that prevents things from being presented in a black and white manner.
Even one character, who by all means should be the most unsympathetic character
imaginable, has a surprisingly organic heel-face turn.
5. Raw
One of my biggest regrets regarding this blog was not giving
Raw a full review when I had the
chance. Very few movies have been stuck in my head as much as this one. There
were very few movies that I revisited as much as I did with Raw, and even fewer where my affection
for it grew with each consecutive viewing. This was the one movie I was itching
to discuss with someone, but couldn’t because I couldn’t find anyone else who
had seen it. But I aim to change that. There are two movies on this list that I
urge everyone reading this to seek out as soon as possible, and this is one of
them. Go in blind and let it surprise you. It’s on Netflix now, so you have no
excuse. Just don’t eat any meat before watching it. (Also, when the hell is this thing getting a blu-ray release?)
4. Get Out
Nearly every Hollywood movie that deals with racism in
America (white-on-black racism in particular) covers the same handful of historical bullet points: slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, police
brutality etc. But Get Out is the only
movie I can think of that tackles a very modern, ill-acknowledged, more
sinister brand of racism. That alone would’ve made it a stand-out, but what
makes Get Out so special is its execution,
specifically in how it seamlessly melds its message with suspense and humor. A
lot of controversy rose when Get Out was nominated for Best Comedy by the Golden Globes, and while I can see why
people were so upset, I’d argue that the movie wouldn’t be nearly as popular or
as effective if not for its comedic, satirical moments. (Just compare the theatrical ending to the much more depressing alternate ending.) But even if you take the
message out of the equation, it’s still a master craft of filmmaking,
especially coming from a first-timer who isn’t even a director by trade. This is the movie that best encapsulates this specific point in history. We’ll
be talking about this one for years to come.
Guillermo Del Toro is one of the few directors whose
presence can mean the difference between a mediocre film and a great one. It
really speaks to what a high-caliber filmmaker he is that a movie can land somewhere in the middle of his filmography, but still snag a #3 spot on a
list of overall movies of that year. One of the most beautiful and romantic movies
of the year, The Shape of Water is at once magical and visceral, strange and
familiar, human and alien. Sally Hawkins gives one of the best performances in
a while without a single word, with the rest of the cast standing neck and neck
with her. Even if you know where the story will end up, getting there is still a hell of a journey. Not bad for a movie in which a woman has sex with a
fish monster.
2. Baby Driver
One of the factors I consider when making year-end lists is
how much fun I had watching the movie. If I was judging solely on that basis,
then Baby Driver leaves most of the
films I’ve seen this year in the dust. Much like Guillermo Del Toro, Edgar
Wright is a filmmaker who lets you know exactly what you’re getting with him,
and is one of the very best at what he does. Every time I watch it, I notice something new. The action scenes and car chases are expertly
choreographed. The editing and pacing are super kinetic. The synergy between
the action and the soundtrack is so perfect that the film is practically a musical.
(Apparently Edgar Wright came up with the soundtrack first and built the movie
around it, which is a pretty risky move.) Is it perfect? No. Does it have the
most original story? No. Were there movies this year that were technically “better”
than this? Yes. Is it awkward seeing Kevin Spacey here in the wake of the
sexual accusations against him? Yes. But execution is everything, and in that
department, Baby Driver is a well-oiled
machine.
1. Your Name.
Technically this came out in 2016 and didn’t get an American
release until this year, but even if I didn’t agonize about whether to count
this or not, it was just too good to ignore. Ever since I first
saw it on that fateful April day, it shot right to the top of my list and held
steadfast for the next eight months. It's usually pretty hard for a movie to get an emotional reaction out of me, and no movie this year made me feel the same way this one did. I adore this movie. I adore the unique twist
on its played-out premise (a city boy and a small-town girl suddenly wake up in
each other’s bodies and must learn to live their lives as each other). I adore
the gorgeous animation. I adore the relationship that our two leads develop
over the course of the film despite not meeting face to face until the very
end. I adore the music (especially these songs). I adore that trippy scene where the animation goes
completely bonkers for a minute. I adore how even thinking about the moment
where Mitsuha finds out what was really written on her hand never ceases to
make my heart melt. This is the other movie on the list that I encourage
everyone to see. Experience it for yourself, and let it envelop you like the
embrace of a long lost loved one. And let’s hope JJ Abrams doesn’t fuck up the remake.
Honorable Mentions:
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (My #11 pick)
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