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televisor-reviews · 5 years

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Top 10 Best Movies Of 2017!

2017, as a whole, was a pretty damn good year for film! Sure, it had a shit ton of crap, but I definitely think there was way more great films than terrible. Even the bad stuff, tended to have something likable about them (hence why there were mostly unfunny comedies on my worst of list). Meanwhile, the good movies, I generally really loved. I don’t think it’ll go down as one of the best years for film, but it’s a better contender than most. And these are what I believe to be the top 10 best! And keep in mind, even with the extra year, I still didn’t see everything: so as great as I’m sure The Big Sick & The Florida Project are, I never got around to them. For a comprehensive list of every movie I did see from 2017 (in order from best to worst), go here: https://letterboxd.com/animatorreviewa/list/every-2017-movie-ive-seen/

#10. Baby Driver In a few decades, Edgar Wright is going to be considered one of the best directors of all time. It’s going to be: Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Edgar Wright. Baby Driver, though not as energetic as Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World nor as hilarious as Hot Fuzz, is objectively his best directing project. How Baby’s mind boggling driving goes along perfectly with the music he’s playing looks incredible the entire way through, never relenting & always exciting! And if this was all it had, it’d still be an amazing movie but not “top 10″ worthy. But it has Oscar-worthy performances from Ansel Elgort, Jamie Foxx, & even Kevin Spacey (a terrible person with lots of talent), a gripping narrative, & amazing looking special effects that’ll make Transformers: The Last Knight blush! If anything, the reason why it’s only at #10 is because, at the end of the day, I’d still prefer to watch Shaun Of The Dead... again...

#9. Coco Pixar has been on a serious roll ever since they got through their shitty phase. Inside Out made my 2016 list, Incredibles 2 is probably going to make my 2018 list, & even Cars 3 was way better than it deserved to be! Coco is Pixar showing that not only are they back & going to stay, but could make movies that should suck & yet is still amazing! Every dumb movie cliche is on full force in this: the family that hates music but it’s the main protagonist’s passion & his family just doesn’t understand, but through a wacky & heart-warming adventure through his family’s history, maybe they’ll blah blah blah blah blah... It even rips off The Book Of Life to a good extent! Yeah, this movie isn’t great because of its twists & turns. It’s great because even though you know exactly what’s going to happen from beginning to end & yet it’s still gripping, interesting, & fun with gripping, interesting, & fun characters that you’d want to run around a million cliches with! It was a blast to watch in theaters & definitely worth sitting through Olaf’s Frozen Adventure to see.

#8. Get Out I’m not even going to pretend like I know what it’s like to be black in America. It’s pretty clearly not something I will ever understand as I can actually hide my minority-ness. So, a movie like Get Out, as great as it is, I find generally pretty hard to relate to what happens in them. But I will say that Get Out, as a film, is absolutely thrilling, exciting, & at times scary. I was worried about this character & concerned about what he was going through; when things start not making sense, I’m right there with him! That’s what a good horror movie should do & that kind of horror is in low demand nowadays. Even It, a movie that almost made the list, didn’t engross or engage me as much as Get Out did! The directing of Jordan Peele & the acting of Daniel Kaluuya are on full display & only makes this chilling movie even more so! A great start to a great comedian’s great directing career!

#7. Gerald’s Game Though, as a horror movie, I find Get Out far more engaging & engrossing than Gerald’s Game, I do think it’s far better made with a much better basis, story, & acting. What I really love about Gerald’s Game is how it tells its plot. It’s not new to tell your story out of order (Pulp Fiction, Mulholland Drive, every Christopher Nolan movie), but very few do so as well as this! From the beginning, its unique & universally horrifying concept makes sure you’re paying attention & holds on to it with equally unique & universally horrifying events told in the perfect order to have it make sense throughout but not entirely so until the very end. It starts off on the perfect note & holds it throughout! Fascinating & universal, Gerald’s Game is the perfect engaging drama!

#6. Molly’s Game A biopic that doesn’t tell the whole truth, just how much did happen & to whom is the whole reason why I found myself intrigued with Molly’s Game. The great story told fascinatingly with incredible performances is why I love Molly’s Game. The film itself feels like a particularly great poker game: just when you think Molly’s up, just as quickly, she can fall back down. At the end, you’re just concerned if she’ll end up broke by the end of the night! And just like a great poker game, it’s hard not to get engaged with every little thing that happens in this film & it requires Oscar-worthy performances from everyone, especially Jessica Chastain! Incredibly engaging & engrossing, it’s the perfect movie for critics!

#5. I, Tonya I already praised Molly’s Game for how it tells its mostly true story, but I, Tonya is about a famously inconsistent story from & about inconsistent people. I don’t know why, but I find that everyone in this movie has their own stories & they’re probably all lying very interesting & it makes for a great story. It’s kinda like if you took every good element from every Alice In Wonderland adaptation & put them all into its very own movie. Like if the story itself had a couple of decades to edit itself into the best version it possibly can be. Add in the marketing of it maybe being true: taking all the intrigue of a “based on a true story” of something so outrageous while not feeling like it disrespects its audience enough to think they’d believe it. And it helps that its story is based on one of the most interesting parts of modern American history & it has 2 of the best performances of the year (Margot Robbie & Allison Janney). Put them all together & you get the 5th best movie of 2017!

#4. The Shape Of Water Beauty And The Beast is one of the most timeless & universal stories ever told, hence why there is so many versions of it. Everybody can relate to the idea, feeling, & fear of being neglected, ignored, & hated & for many people at many points in history, that fear was a reality. The original story is so universal, it can be read as being a peasant at the turn of the 18th century just as much as it can be about being gay at the turn of the 21st century & that’s why it has persisted for so long. The Disney animated film of the same name from 1991 was revolutionary for many reasons, but its incredible story is largely why it became the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. So, The Shape Of Water actually winning with this story is not only deserving, but it’s probably my favorite telling of the classic. Guillermo Del Toro had already made a name for himself by directing the critically praised Pan’s Labyrinth, the audience pleaser Pacific Rim, & creating the hit series Trollhunters: Tales Of Arcadia. The Shape Of Water is plausibly his most praised work & possibly his best work. The chemistry between the 2 mute leads is incredible & it becomes even more so after you realize that it’s all without talking! And that fact makes the villain seem even more villainous when every little thing he says is hate filled. And the amazing directing of Del Toro is what brings it all together, making it a worthy Best Picture winner.

#3. The Disaster Artist Another biopic with a possibly untrue story, The Disaster Artist shows that James Franco & Seth Rogan don’t need cheap sex jokes or obvious drug jokes to be funny. In fact, they can make a movie about an already obscure film that only nerds know about & can make a decent hit! Hell, maybe they can also get it nominated for a few Oscars & make it on my Top 10 list! I was ready to call this duo dead after The Interview made only obvious jokes, The Night Before was ungodly uninteresting, & Sausage Party was straight up unfunny. But The Disaster Artist brought a breath of fresh air, a movie for movie nerds & not just the kind that Google what really happened in the Infinity War comics. Ones that keep up with Nostalgia Critic & Cinema Snob because they’re still pretty big guilty pleasures & hope that they’ll eventually review Where The Dead Go To Die. The kind that already knew that The Room exists, love the fact that The Room exists, were immediately excited when Greg Sestero released his book, & were even more so when James Franco said he wanted to make a movie about it! I do my whole shpeal about how true to life the Franco bros. performances are & how great the directing was. But really, the reason I put this above The Shape Of Water & I, Tonya is because I’m a nerd. That’s mostly it! It’s not even my favorite movie about movies, that’s still Ed Wood.

#2. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Stepping back & looking at the empire & universe Marvel has created, it’s impressive & incredible just how huge & lucrative it has become. And it wouldn’t have become so if it didn’t have the films to back it up. When the first Guardians Of The Galaxy came out, it was Marvel trying to send the message that they can make a film out of one of their most obscure properties & not only make it a humongous hit, but also make it so good that it ends up on the 1001 Movies To See Before You Die list! And with its sequel, they pumped up everything that made the original great tenfold, added in some heartwarming moments to make sure you don’t leave the theater dry, & a much more interesting villain! And by god is Ego such a fascinating & engrossing villain, especially compared to the nothing of a character that made up Ronan. The way it covers its themes of family & parenthood is clever & amazingly well done. You’re right there with Peter Quill, wondering when to side with his dad or his best friends; whether or not a few good deeds redeems the torture of a childhood he had thanks to Yondu. And that kind of inner thought process is largely thanks to the incredible writing & directing of James Gunn, who is irreplaceable. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is now my 2nd favorite Marvel movie & 2nd favorite movie of 2017. #RehireJamesGunn

Before we get to #1, here are a few runners up:

Wonder Woman I didn’t realize it until after the fact, but 2017 was a really good year for superhero movies. Spider-Man: Homecoming was an amazing comeback for my favorite hero, Thor: Ragnarok somehow made Thor more likable, even Justice League managed to not piss me off! But, arguably, the most important of these was Wonder Woman which showed that not only can female led superhero movies make money, but also be very good!

Paddington 2 2014′s Paddington surprised both critics & audiences with its genuinity, heart-warming-ness, & immensely likable lead character, gripping everyone. When Paddington 2 came out, it immediately got 100% on RottenTomatoes, & that is a serious rarity. To the point where I first thought it was a fluke, like it got almost entirely middling reviews resulting in a 100% on a movie that generally averaged with 6/10s. Leaving the theater about 2 hours later, I can agree that it not only deserves that 100%, but it’s way better than the first movie! And I love the first movie!

Call Me By Your Name This was actually a really good year for Oscar nominated films. Most years, I don’t even consider most of the nominated movies because they tend to be a little pretentious, long, & boring. Which does have a place, just not the type I tend to watch a million times like the films I do put on my lists. But this year, my list is filled with Oscar winners & I actually wanted to include more like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Dunkirk, & All The Money In The World. I think Call Me By Your Name is at least more interesting than most of these if only for the background of being about 2 bisexuals, one being a kid. It can get a little pretentious, long, & boring but definitely worth watching!

The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) Meyerowitz Stories is Adam Sandler’s stab at an artistic movie after nobody saw Ridiculous 6 & Punch Drunk Love continues to garner praise from just about everyone. It’s the beginning of a new kind of Sandler movies as he gets used to his new home on Netflix & realize what kind of movies that kind of audience wants to see. I really hope that he continues to make these kinds of movies in the years to follow!

John Wick Chapter 2 On the side of action movies that aren’t based on comics, the John Wick movies continue to be exciting, action packed, & most importantly, fun! I had fun when I watch these movies, which is something I don’t say about the darker side of modern action movies. I haven’t had this much fun watching an action movie like this since Die Hard!

mother! On the battle of is this movie pretentious garbage or exciting drama; nominated for both an Oscar & a Razzie; do I love or hate mother!... I actually fucking love these kinds of movies! The kind that makes no sense as you’re watching it but every sense after the fact. Movies like Black Swan, Mulholland Drive, & The Cure For Wellness. So I might be biased towards this kind of movie, but I loved it!

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Talk about toxic movie topic, I also really loved The Last Jedi! I actually thought it was a clever film that completely subverted my expectations at every moment. I love that Rae’s parents turned out to be nobodies, it’s such an interesting twist on this build up & arguably the most daring take they could’ve have after the millionth fan theory stated that it’s Luke & Leia. I loved where it left our heroes, at their bleakest moment, paralleling The Empire Strikes Back! I genuinely loved this movie & I’ll admit, I don’t totally get what all the hate is about! But whatever, my list, my runners up, nyeh nyeh.

Bill Nye: Science Guy Here’s my documentary entry... & it was a hard pick between this & Jim And Andy: The Great Beyond but I did inevitably pick this one because Bill Nye is a personal hero of mine. I’m a science dork, I’m subscribed to ASAP Science, I grew up with Bill Nye. I find his journey fascinating, this documentary very well made, & I can’t wait for the next season of Bill Nye Saves The World.

World Of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden Of Other People’s Thoughts I really hope Don Hertzfeldt catches on with more movie nerds. Just between this, the first World Of Tomorrow, It’s Such A Beautiful Day, The Meaning Of Life, Rejected, & every other film he’s created, he’s easily one of my favorite directors. Making some of the most thought provoking & intelligent films I’ve ever seen. If I included short films, this would be a serious contender for #1! Please watch this, just the phrase “The Burden Of Other People’s Thoughts” makes this worth watching!

Loving Vincent Fuck! I didn’t even get to include the pretentious animated film of the year? This is the only movie I can think of where literally every frame is a painting & it looks beautiful! Throughout, you can tell the people making this are genuinely passionate about Vincent Van Gogh & that’s what really drives the movie. I also want to take this time to mention My Little Pony: The Movie, which is my “I love this animated movie way more than most people probably should” of the year & I didn’t even have room in the runners up for it!

#1. Logan Last year, I was running around looking for a movie to beat Captain America: Civil War for Best Movie Of 2016. Luckily, I did find it in Arrival but the reason why I so desperately didn’t want Civil War to win out is because it just didn’t feel right. A fun & intelligent film for sure, but mostly surface level in a way the Marvel movies are able to be. For 2017, I saw Logan in theaters & instantly knew it should at least be on my year end top 10. At first it was just #5, but it did eventually climb up as the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. Before long, I was battling whether or not this or Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 should top the list. And though I do think I’ve seen GOTG2 more times than Logan, at the end of the day, Logan is the objectively & subjectively better made film. The action feels dark but in a real way, like this could genuinely be someone’s reality like Die Hard or John Wick. But this is way more clever, intelligent, & interesting than those movies ever were. This was the last film for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine & for his efforts, it was rightfully nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. What a way to go out...

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threeoutoffive · 6 years

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BEST OF 2017

It’s almost a new year which means it’s once again time for my personal Top Ten movies of the past twelve months.

There have definitely been some less-than-great movies this year from true turkeys such as The Mummy and Alien: Covenant to movies that didn’t quite live up to my own expectations such as Justice League and Jigsaw. I would also add Star Wars: The Last Jedi to this latter category as, whilst not a bad movie, it personally left me feeling a little underwhelmed and didn’t live up to The Force Awakens or even last year’s Rogue One, both of which made my Top Ten.

Without further ado, please enjoy my Top Ten of 2017.

10. LIFE

With sci-fi blockbusters Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Blade Runner 2049 smashing this year’s box-office, it would be all too easy for this sci-fi/horror released way back in March to be forgotten about. However, with a great cast and even better story, it would a real shame if this were to happen. Life is essentially “Alien meets The Blob” and follows a crew of scientists on a space station who are the first people to discover signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life in the form of a small one-celled organism. When the organism quickly begins to learn, grow and evolve, they realise that the organism could be far more dangerous than anticipated. Released in the same year as Alien: Covenant, it manages to be ten times scarier and a hundred times more necessary with a killer ending to boot. A must-see for any sci-fi fans.

9. LOGAN

Out of all the superhero franchises, the X-Men cinematic universe has always been the most willing to push the boundaries and step out of its comfort zone; see last year’s Deadpool and next year’s horror-themed The New Mutants for evidence of this. Even with this in mind, I don’t think anybody expected such a stunning, artistic piece for Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine. Jackman is fantastic as Logan at his most tragic (and violent) but I felt Stewart’s performance as the aged Professor X was a personal highlight and I would put the “psychic seizure” moments up there with my favourite scenes of the year. If this is definitely the last we see of this incarnation of Wolverine on screen - a high likelihood thanks to the recent Fox-Disney deal - there could be no better way to go out.

8. THE DISASTER ARTIST

I admit I am a sucker for so-called “bad movies” and followers of my yearly movie lists will know the Sharknado movies have appeared more than one occasion. Needless to say, when I originally watched The Room - often referred to as the “Citizen Kane of bad movies” - I was blown away in the best way. As it turns out, the behind-the-scenes story of The Room is as fun and outright bonkers as the movie itself. The Disaster Artist follows the story of director Tommy Wiseau and wannabe actor Greg Sestero as they accidentally make one of the worst films ever made. Those looking for answers to some of the most-asked questions (how did Tommy finance the movie? where is Tommy really from?) may be left wanting but, within the confines of the movie itself, Tommy’s question-dodging makes for some of the funniest moments of the movie. As well as being a great movie about filmmaking in general, it also manages to be one of the funniest films of the year. The Franco brothers are fantastic as the co-leads but I genuinely believe James Franco should be in Oscar talks for his spot-on portrayal of Tommy. Considering Tommy’s misguided belief that The Room should receive an Oscar, I feel it would be hilarious for The Disaster Artist to be nominated.

7. MOTHER!

This is likely to be the most controversial and divisive movie on my list this year but I personally thought it was absolutely great and had to be in my Top Ten. Aronofsky has made some strange movies in the past but it’s fair to say this movie is way more abstract and unsettling that any before it which is why it seems to have alienated some of its audience. The movie follows a young woman whose life starts to unravel when her poet husband invites a stranger into their home. Saying much more would mean going into spoiler territory and Mother! is a movie that greatly benefits from going in blind. There is a lot to be read from the movie which is essentially one big allegory but, even without looking for hidden layers, I found Mother! to be one hell of an unsettling psychological horror. One scene in particular towards the end - those who have seen it will know exactly what I’m talking about - truly shocked me and caused an audience-member I watched it with to actually cry out in horror. Any horror movie that causes such an involuntary, visceral response from anybody deserves a place on my list.

6. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Since his introduction to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) in Captain America: Civil War, I never thought for a moment that I would be disappointed by the new Spider-Man movie. That said, it managed to even surpass my expectations to become one of my favourite movies of the year. Tom Holland is an inspired choice for Peter Parker and I feel he manages to combine the characters of Peter and Spider-Man more seamlessly than either McGuire or Garfield before him. There were more MCU links that I’d expected and even more of Tony Stark than the trailers had suggested. However, rather than suggesting an lack of trust in the Spider-Man property, I felt that it actually grounded Spider-Man more in the universe the audience are used to and believe it would have actually been odd if they hadn’t taken this direction. Michael Keaton as The Vulture was another great choice and, even out of his mechanical flight-suit, he is a worthy opponent for the titular hero. Here’s to hoping for many more Spider-Man appearances in the MCU as, if they do it right, Peter Parker could soon become the real heart of the franchise.

5. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

When news broke that a live-action Beauty And The Beast remake was being made, most peoples’ first question was ‘why?’ The more negative critics said it smacked of unoriginality and cynicism on Disney’s part but, after watching it, it became clear that it better than the sum of its parts. For me, if the upcoming Disney remakes are half as good as Beauty And The Beast, I would be more than happy to check them out. It seems like the entire cast and crew had a blast making the movie but the stand-out performance is Luke Evans who puts his heart and soul into bringing the arrogant, villainous Gaston to life and clearly has fun hamming it up to the max. The general plot and songs are almost identical to the original animation and it’s clear the filmmakers have taken a “ain’t-broke-don’t-fix” approach but still add enough changes and a couple of original tunes to make it feel fresh. Possibly the most re-watchable of all the movies on my Top Ten this year.

4. PADDINGTON 2

When the first Paddington movie came out I went in with fairly low expectations. After all, how good could a quaint movie with a marmalade-loving CGI bear as its lead really be? However it managed to completely charm me in a way that I hadn’t expected and the sheer niceness of it and old-fashioned aesthetic totally won me over. Expectations were therefore high for the sequel and so I was pleased to find my expectations were more than exceeded. The story is so simple – Paddington wants to buy his aunt a present for her 100th birthday – but quickly escalates into a fantastic set of scenes where Paddington finds a job and eventually finds himself locked up in prison. The idea of throwing a young, idealistic character such as Paddington against tough, grizzled characters like the prisoners he is forced to live with is a touch of genius and the end result is more charming and heart-warming than any recent movie I can remember.

3. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

When Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was released in 2011, I wasn’t actually a fan of the original Apes movies. However I was quickly won over by the story of Caesar the chimp and have enjoyed every movie in the franchise since. The third in the rebooted series is very much the end of Caesar’s tale and focuses on him and his group of apes as they attempt to survive one final stand against a group of desperate human survivors led by Woody Harrelson’s Colonel. Whilst Harrelson is great in the villainous role, full kudos goes to Andy Serkis whose mo-cap genius truly brings Caesar to life and the story is so enthralling it is almost easy to forget what a technology marvel War really is. Many of the shots of Caesar (along with the other apes) are done in extreme close-up which, even in the prior Apes movies, would have not been possible or at least would not look as incredible as they do in this movie. Wherever the Apes series goes now, it’s safe to say that this is a fantastic, fitting end to the current story arc and one of the most emotionally moving stories of the year.

2. THOR: RAGNAROK

Just when I thought Spider-Man: Homecoming would be the funniest Marvel movie of the year, Thor: Ragnarok came along and became probably the funniest Marvel movie of all time! When it was revealed that Taika Waititi would be directing the latest Thor movie, some people thought his particular comedic style could steamroll the film and reduce any potential stakes set up by the existing MCU movies. It clear after watching the movie that this is not the case; I mean did anyway expect the total destruction of Asgard to occur in this movie?! Thor: Ragnarok is effectively a ‘buddy movie” with Thor and The Hulk teaming up, along with Loki and a ragtag group of warriors, against Hela the goddess of death. Whilst the stakes are as high as they have ever been, the comedy factor is the biggest take-away from the movie and I simply cannot review it without mentioning Waititi’s role as benevolent rock-creature Korg who acts as a vessel for the director’s comedic chops and is by far one of the funniest MCU characters to date. Whilst the big event lies with next year’s long-awaited Infinity War, audiences have been truly spoiled after receiving such great MCU movies this year. Here’s to many more ahead!

1. IT: CHAPTER ONE

As a fan of all things horror-related, there was no way IT wouldn’t be at the top of this year’s list. It took 31 years but they finally did it. They finally made an adaptation of – in my opinion – Stephen King’s magnum opus that is worthy of the title and a whole lot of fun to boot. The basic story follows a group of children who are forced to fight for survival against a supernatural, killer clown that is killing the townsfolk. However the tale has always been much more than that; a coming-of-age story, a slice of nostalgic Americana, a twisted “adventure” tale of sorts… Everything that the 1990 TV movie got wrong, the remake manages to get right, from the children interacting the way children actually act with each other (see the 90’s version for the very definition of overacting) to removal of the more schmaltzy moments. There have been some criticisms of the amount of CGI in the movie – required, I would say, to pull off many of the weirder scenes from the book – and the lack of true scares. Whilst I agree wholeheartedly that the movie could have been a lot scarier, Skarsgard’s performance of Pennywise the Dancing Clown manages to be extremely unsettling nonetheless and I feel it may even top Tim Curry’s from the original for me. IT has become the highest-grossing horror movie of all time and it’s great to see it’s been commercially as well as critically acclaimed. We have to wait until 2019 for It: Chapter Two but I have no doubt it’ll be worth waiting for...

Well that’s that! It’s been another great year of movies and it would be utterly dismissive not to add some honourable mentions for the likes of Wonder Woman, Get Out, Baby Driver, Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 2, Kong: Skull Island, John Wick 2 and The Lego Batman Movie, all of which were pretty damn great and made it very difficult choosing my Top Ten this year.

2018 looks to be a great year ahead in cinema with superhero big-hitters Deadpool 2, Black Panther, Ant-Man And The Wasp, The New Mutants, Aquaman and a little movie called Avengers: Infinity War as well as The Predator, Ready Player One, Insidious: The Last Key and, probably my most anticipated movie if next year Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

See you all on the other side!

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