10 Movies Released Last Year That I Really Liked, 2017 Edition
a.k.a. the last ‘Best Movies of 2017’ list you’ll read this year
1. Get Out
Jordan Peele decides it might be fun to make a movie and knocks it out of the park on his first try—thanks to a rich, layered screenplay, an exceptional cast and a Kubrickian knack for composition. Most great horror films are also “social thrillers,” and this is undoubtedly both. The Sunken Place means many things to many people, but it is probably the best metaphor we have for what life was like in 2017.
2. Phantom Thread
One of the unexpected downsides of MoviePass? Seeing the same trailer 20 times, day after day, free movie after free movie. I’m sure I saw the Phantom Thread trailer at least 15 times, each time thinking I had no interest in a costume drama/battle of wills. Holy fuck was I wrong. Paul Thomas Anderson crafted this movie with the same precision and confidence Woodcock constructs a dress. Look close and you might just spot a secret or two hidden inside the lining.
3. The Florida Project
Sean Baker’s Tangerine was my 3rd favorite film of 2015, so it seems fitting that his latest fill the same slot. Baker is among the most empathetic of modern American filmmakers, imbuing his fully-realized characters with a grace that can only come from love, despite of—or perhaps because of—their tragic flaws. Which is why I completely adore The Florida Project, even if it doesn’t quite stick the landing.
4. Faces Places
Agnes Varda, an 88-year-old Nouvelle Vague icon, and J.R., a 33-year-old street artist, climb into a camera-shaped truck and head across the French countryside to create art in celebration of the locals (and locales) they encounter. 2017 sucked, but for 90 glorious minutes this doc restored my faith in humanity and in the healing power of art.
5. LA 92
A quarter-century may have passed, but the story of Rodney King’s beating at the hands of police and the riots/civil unrest/uprising that followed, are just a few #BlackLivesMatter signs away from feeling like today’s news. LA 92 directors Dan Lindsey and T.J. Martin amplify that sense of urgency by constructing their film out of archival clips, without narration or talking heads to pull us out of the moment. As events unfold, the film offers a pulse-pounding immediacy (aided, almost too well, by some dramatic scoring), as though we were watching a live feed. Alas, we can’t change the past—but it’s not too late to shape the future.
6. Lady Bird
This film reminds me of when I was a teenager in Sacramento in the early 2000s. Oh wait, I wasn’t any of those things then, but Greta Gerwig’s storytelling is so sharp, so universal in its specifics, that I feel like I was. Let’s arrange for all the money that was going to go to future Woody Allen and Louis C.K. films to go to Gerwig. Cool? Cool.
7. Logan
2017 was an excellent year for superhero movies—Spider-Man: Homecoming more than delivered on the promise that was Spidey’s brief appearance in Captain America: Civil War; Thor: Ragnarok was a giddy dose of Taika Waititi weirdness in the midst of Marvel’s most moribund franchise; and Patty Jenkins’ proved that DC Comics films don’t all suck, with a Wonder Woman both fanboys and fangirls can celebrate. But James Mangold’s Logan was operating on another level. Building off the decade and a half Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart have invested in these characters, Mangold and his screenwriters crafted a passing-the-torch elegy that was equal parts soul and spectacle, proudly flaunting influences as diverse as Shane, Beckett’s Endgame and Little Miss Sunshine.
8. Manifesto
This one’s a cheat, #sorrynotsorry. Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto was an honorable mention on my 2016 list when I saw it as a multi-screen installation at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. I still think about it all the time, so now that it’s been transformed into a proper, linear film, it’s been promoted to the top 10. Plus, a baker’s dozen Cate Blanchetts can’t be beat.
9. The Shape of Water
I had a tough time narrowing down five or six titles into the two that filled these last spots. Catch me on another day and I might be singing Aronofsky’s praises here instead of del Toro’s. I’m giving the slot to Guillermo because I feel he’s raised his filmmaking up a level with this lyrical, romantic cold war monster movie. Crimson Peak, for all of its shortcomings, was never less than gorgeous; here, del Toro illuminates his character’s souls with as much artistry as he does their setting.
10. Raw
First time writer/director Julia Decournau starts with a well-observed story about a young woman’s self-discovery away from home and parents in her first year of college, then layers in a story about the complexities of sisterhood…and, finally, brings on the horror in a tide of blood. Fearless, authentic and legitimately scary, Raw is a gristly little tale with teeth at the top and a sharp twist at the end.
Honorable Mentions
- November, a sweet, funny, weird black and white 19th century Estonian folk tale of young lovers, old tricksters, witches, ghosts, the devil and “kratts,” monsters made from animate farm tools and spare parts. I saw it at Tribeca and loved it. Oscilliscope is releasing it sometime in 2018
- mother!, which was a tough first watch—the camera never leaves a put-upon Jennifer Lawrence as she suffers, boy does she suffer!—but has burrowed into my brain and merits a rewatch. Probably a masterpiece.
- The Square, an arch satire of the hypocrisies and pretentions of the world of museums and fine art, whose many sly pleasures include a tug-of-war with Elisabeth Moss for a used condom.
- Good Time, a gut punch of a crime movie whose real depth only hit me in the film’s final moments.
- A Ghost Story, which has the misfortune of casting a serial sexual predator, but the good sense to stick a sheet over his head for most of its runtime.
- The Big Sick, which made me laugh and cry, dammit. And Holly Hunter is a national treasure.
- Twin Peaks: The Return, because who knows where the line between television and movies is anymore? Whatever it was, that ending still gives me chills.
- Dunkirk and Call Me By Your Name are both worth your time, too. But you already knew that.
Movies My Friends Made So I Can’t Be Objective But You Should Totally Watch Them Anyway Because They’re Great (Honestly)
- The Dancer (choreographer Jody Sperling)—A luminous biopic of pioneering dancer/multimedia artist Loïe Fuller at the turn of the century, about the fire that fuels (and sometimes burns) boundary-pushing artists.
- Most Beautiful Island (writer/director/star Ana Asensio, produced by Jenn Wexler) — A day in the life of a determined undocumented woman in New York, who unwittingly follows a path that sends her in way over her head.
- Psychopaths (writer/director Mickey Keating, produced by Jenn Wexler)—A fever dream of pretty bad people doing bad, pretty things.
- The Transfiguration (co-starring Chloe Levine)—An outcast young man in a tough neighborhood bonds with the troubled girl next door—while struggling with the conviction he may be a vampire.
- Unrest (director/subject Jennifer Brea, with Omar Wasow)—An inspiring, fearless journey from debilitating illness to awareness to activism, and a beautifully told, urgent story of an invisible epidemic.
Bonus: Best Horror Films of 2017 (Because You Know I Care)
In addition to the aforementioned Get Out, Raw and mother!, I also liked (in no particular order) Split, The Devil’s Candy, Super Dark Times, My Friend Dahmer, Gerald’s Game, It and A Dark Song.
Didn’t Get To See But Probably Should Have
The Darkest Hour, Mudbound, B.P.M., Happy Death Day, Hounds of Love, Personal Shopper, Logan Lucky, The Lure, The Work
