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thecinephale · 6 years

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Best Movies of 2017

I’m so excited that many of the great films this year did so well at the box office and are such a big part of the awards conversation. I’m grateful that every year brings great works of cinema, but it’s even better when a bunch of people actually get to see them.

This is the first year I’m not counting miniseries. The lines are becoming too blurred between TV and film and also nobody needs me to say again how much I love Jane Campion and Top of the Lake: China Girl.

Still need to see: All the Money in the World, Berlin Syndrome, Graduation, Happy End, In the Fade, Loveless, Lovesong, Prevenge, Princess Cyd, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, A Quiet Passion, Slack Bay, Staying Vertical, Thelma, Woodshock

If your favorite movie isn’t on this list maybe I didn’t see it because a sexual predator was involved or maybe it was just a really crowded year with a lot of really good movies!

Honorable Mentions: -Battle of the Sexes (dir. Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton) -The Beguiled (dir. Sofia Coppola) -Call Me By Your Name (dir. Luca Guadagnino) -Colossal (dir. Nacho Vigalondo) -Columbus (dir. Kogonada) -A Fantastic Woman (dir. Sebastian Lelio) -Good Time (dir. Josh and Benny Safdie) -Landline (dir. Gillian Robespierre) -Lemon (dir. Janicza Bravo) -Logan Lucky (dir. Steven Soderbergh) -Parisienne (dir. Danielle Arbid) -Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) -Wonder Woman (dir. Patty Jenkins)

15. Planetarium (dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)

The first two movies on this list got fairly bad reviews so take my opinions as you will. And I get why many struggled with this film. Not only is it dealing with a wide swath of issues, but it’s also doing so with a variety of different tools. It dabbles in the occult, but it’s not a horror movie. It’s a period piece, but feels of the present. It suggests romance, suggests betrayal, suggests familial tension, yet… But here’s what’s great. It’s gorgeous. With some of the best cinematography of the year (Georges Lechaptois), some of the best production design of the year (Katia Wyszkop), and easily the best costumes of the year (Anaïs Romand) it’s compulsively watchable. Combine that with Natalie Portman’s incredibly grounding performance and I was more than willing to go along with Zlotowski as she explored the history of images, the power of images, and the danger of images without committing to a conventional structure.

14. It’s Only the End of the World (dir. Xavier Dolan)

I don’t know how anyone could love Dolan’s other films and dislike this one. It’s such a perfect embodiment of Dolan’s career thus far. Dolan’s films are operatic because he understands that for individuals their problems are operatic. Pretty much every family has conflict, disagreements, scars, but that can’t be dismissed so easily when they are OUR conflicts, OUR disagreements, OUR scars. I love how much respect Dolan always has for that truth. The cast is filled with French cinema royalty and they fully live up to the material’s grounded melodrama.

13. The Lure (dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska)

There’s one key reason this vampiric Polish horror-musical retelling of The Little Mermaid works in a way that other adaptations fall short. Sure, the sheer audacity of that genre mashup makes for a fascinating and unique viewing experience. But what ultimately makes it work emotionally and thematically is that it’s about two mermaids. This was always intended as the initial concept was a horror-less, mermaid-less musical about the Wrońska Sisters (who wrote all the songs in this). But still Smoczynska and her screenwriter Robert Bolesto really manage to keep all that’s wonderful about the source material while contextualizing its complexity. I’ve softened on the Disney version over the years, but it still can be painful watching Ariel change herself for a man (especially when one of those changes is not speaking). Here the presence of her sister, sometimes judging, always worried, creates a circumstance that allows this film’s “little mermaid” to make the realistic mistakes of a teen girl in love with a boy and in hate with herself, without the filming giving its seal of approval. There’s no judgment one way or the other. It’s just real. All that aside this is a vampiric Polish horror-musical retelling of The Little Mermaid. Like, come on. Go buy the Criterion edition!!

12. The Rehearsal (dir. Alison Maclean)

This is the only film on this list that isn’t available to watch. I was lucky enough to see it at the New York Film Festival two years ago, then it had a one week run at Metrograph, then nothing. The real shame is that this isn’t some avant-garde headscratcher to be watched in university classrooms and backroom Brooklyn bars. This is a deeply humanistic, very accessible movie that almost demands wide conversation. And given its setting at an acting conservatory I especially wish all the actors in my life could watch it. Well, hopefully it pops up on some streaming site someday. But until then check out this early Alison Maclean short film that’s equally wonderful albeit wildly different in tone (this one is more like feminist Eraserhead): Kitchen Sink (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt58gDgxy9Q&t=1s).

11. Novitiate (dir. Margaret Betts)

The history of cinema is a history of queer subtext. But it’s 2017 and while it may be fun to speculate whether Poe Dameron is gay and I’d be the first to say “Let It Go” is a perfect coming out anthem, it’s no coincidence that the best queer allegories of the year ALSO had explicitly queer characters. This film in particular is so special because it’s both the story of a young woman’s repressed sexuality and a story about how faith of all things is comparable to said sexuality. Sister Cathleen’s mother does not understand her affinity for Jesus the way many parents do not understand their children’s sexuality or gender. While coming out stories are a staple of very special sitcom episodes, I’ve never seen one that captures the pained misunderstanding the way this film does. Part of this is due to wonderful performances by Julianne Nicholson and Margaret Qualley and part of it is that religion is oddly the perfect stand-in for queerness… even as it represses queerness within this world. The movie begins with a series of flashbacks that feel stilted and conventional in a way that’s totally incongruous with the rest of the movie. It’s unfortunate because otherwise this would’ve been even higher on my list. But this is Betts’ first film and the majority of it is really special. And while I do think she’ll make even better films in what will hopefully be a long career, this one is still really worth checking out. I mean, I haven’t even brought up Melissa Leo’s frightening and absurd (yet somehow grounded?) performance that makes Meryl Streep in Doubt look like Amy Adams in Doubt.

10. The Florida Project (dir. Sean Baker)

As marketing extraordinaire A24 has managed to spread this film to a wider audience, they’ve made a lot of fuss about this film’s political depiction of Florida’s “hidden homeless,” Baker’s approach of mixing professional and non-professional actors (shout-out to Bria Vinaite who deserves as much awards attention as Willem Dafoe), and how the film “feels like a documentary.” And while I’m glad this strategy has worked, I tend to balk at the tendency of marketers and critics alike to call any movie with characters who aren’t all rich and/or white “like a documentary.” But regardless of its realism which I feel in no position to comment on, it’s certainly a great film about childhood and fantasy and how sometimes it’s easier to be a parent to everyone except your own kids. And not to build it up too much if you haven’t already seen it, but the ending is truly one of the best endings in recent years, not only in and of itself, but how it contextualizes and deepens everything that came before.

9. Whose Streets? (dir. Sabaah Folayan)

This is an exceptionally well-constructed film. I feel like most documentaries in this style have great moments but show a lack of restraint in the editing room and/or struggle to find a clear narrative. But this film moves along at an exceptional pace while still feeling comprehensive. Every sequence feels essential even when the scope expands beyond the two central individuals. This can be credited in part to the editing, but the succinctness wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the footage captured. The intimate moments we’re able to watch are stunning and enhance the already high stakes of the surrounding film, the ongoing narrative of the country. This is an essential reminder of the humanity behind activism, the sacrifice behind news stories, and that for many people political engagement is not something to do with an open Sunday afternoon but a necessary part of survival.

8. Their Finest (dir. Lone Scherfig)

Easily the best Dunkirk-related film of the year, this is the rare movie about movies that doesn’t feel self-satisfied, but instead truly captures the joy of cinema and storytelling. It’s odd to me that romantic melodrama, a genre so celebrated when it comes to classic film, is often written off as fluff in contemporary cinema. Yes, this movie is romantic. Yes, this movie is wildly entertaining. But it’s also painful, it’s also telling a story of women screenwriters we haven’t heard before, it’s also showing how powerful art can be as an escape and a mirror in difficult times. If you’re interested in filmmaking and/or British people, check this out on Hulu. Gemma Arterton is really wonderful and Sam Claflin is good eye candy if you’re into that sort of thing.

7. Starless Dreams (dir. Mehrdad Oskouei)

This documentary about a group of teenage girls living in an Iranian “Correctional and Rehabilitation Center” is proof that sometimes the best approach to the medium is simplicity. Oskouei pretty much just lets the girls talk. But it’s truly a testament to his abilities as a filmmaker (and person) and the girls’ vulnerability and storytelling prowess that the movie remains compelling throughout. As the girls tell their stories it becomes clear that the center isn’t simply a prison, but also almost a utopic escape from the daily horrors they faced outside. Both options are so completely insufficient when compared to the lives these young women deserve this realization is enraging. And while the film takes place in Iran it doesn’t require a lot of effort to realize young women have similar stories and circumstances all over the world. This movie is on iTunes and I really, really recommend checking it out. The subject matter is heavy, but because the girls are allowed to determine the narrative it never feels maudlin or unbearable and at times is even quite funny and joyous.

6. Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau)

I really appreciated how Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl captured the all-consuming lust of teenagehood. So, um, think that movie, except cannibalism. A lot of cannibalism. I feel torn between being honest about how truly gross this movie can be and pretending otherwise because I really don’t want to scare anyone away. I’ll put it this way. It’s really, really worth it to watch this through your fingers if you even maybe think you could handle it. Because it’s just a really great movie about being a teenage girl, discovering sexuality, being away from home for the first time, having a sister, having a first crush, a first sexual experience, feeling completely out of control of your desires and needs. Hey, even Ducournau insists this isn’t a horror movie. So don’t eat anything beforehand, but definitely check this out.

5. Get Out (dir. Jordan Peele)

I hardly need to add any analysis to what has easily been the most talked about and written about movie of the year. But I just need to say that it makes me so happy that a socially aware horror movie (the best subset of my favorite genre) not only made a huge amount of money but is also considered an awards frontrunner. That is so wonderfully baffling to me and a testament to the greatness of this movie. Many great horror movies capitalize on people’s fear of otherness, but those who are othered in our society are much more likely to be victims than villains. That Peele managed to show this without ever feeling like he was exploiting real pain is truly an accomplishment. The tonal balance this film achieves is certainly something I’ll study when I make a horror movie writing back to Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Sleepaway Camp, etc.

4. Faces Places (dir. Agnès Varda, JR)

Agnès Varda has spent her entire career blending fact and fiction, opening up her own life for her art. But there’s something different about this film which is likely to be her last. While so much of her work places her vivacious spirit front and center this film feels almost like a cry of humanity. Oddly enough I’d compare it to Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky in that it seems to say, “Don’t fetishize my happiness, don’t mock my joy, don’t infantilize me, just because you can’t enjoy life like I can.” I look to Varda as the kind of artist (and person) I want to be in how open she always seems to be. But what this film made me realize is that part of that openness is how sad she can be, how angry she can be. Varda is often called “the grandmother of the French New Wave.” I guess this is the only way the film community knows how to contextualize a woman being the one to start arguably the most influential film movement. Varda is the same age as all those guys! She’s not the grandmother! She just happened to make a bold, experimental film about five years ahead of the rest of them. By ending with Godard, and pairing up with JR who is basically an incarnation of Godard and friends as young men, Varda is really exploring her place in film history and the world, and how difficult it is to be to be a pioneer. No country has more contemporary films directed by women than France and this is in a large part due to Varda. But being the one to create that path is exhausting. I realize I’m making what’s easily the most life-affirming, humanist film of the year sound like an angry, self-eulogy, but I think this aspect of the film and Varda’s career should not be ignored. If you’ve never seen anything by Varda, this film will read very differently, but still be wonderful (and honestly more joyous). I recommend seeing it, watching 20 of her other films, and then seeing it again.

3. The Shape of Water (dir. Guillermo del Toro)

The trailer for this film shows the main character, Elisa played by the always wonderful Sally Hawkins, doing her daily routine. Alarm, shining shoes, being late to work, etc. But even the redband trailer leaves out one of her daily activities: masturbating. Maybe it’s odd to associate masturbation with ambition, but the choice to show that early on and then repeatedly seems like a perfect microcosm of why this film is so great. It’s not afraid. Guillermo del Toro has made a wonderful career out of celebrating “the other” through monster movie pastiches, but this to me is his very best film because of how willing it is to be both clear and complicated. This movie is many things, but one of those things is a queer love story. And even though human woman/amphibian man sex is maybe even more taboo to show on screen than say eating a semen filled peach, this movie just goes for it. I’m not sure if this movie succeeds in everything it tries to do but I so deeply admire how much it tries. Not only is one of Elisa’s best friends gay, but we spend a significant amount of time getting to know that character and see that maybe his obsolete career hurts him even more. Not only is Elisa’s other best friend black, but we see how being a black woman affects her specifically in what is expected of her versus her husband. Fantasy and sci-fi often use real people’s struggles as source material for privileged protagonists, and while this film certainly does that, it works because the real people are still shown on screen. Also del Toro is a master of cinematic craft so this is really a pleasure to watch.

2. Lady Bird (dir. Greta Gerwig)

Before diving into this specific film it’s worth noting that this is one of six debut features on this list. It’s so exciting that we’re hopefully going to get full and illustrious careers from all of these people. But when it comes to Gerwig it feels like we already have. She has been proof that if the film community is going to insist on holding onto the auteur theory, they at least need to acknowledge that actors and writers can be auteurs. Gerwig is known for being quirky, but this really sells her talent short. She is clearly someone who has a deep understanding of cinema and, more importantly, a deep understanding of people. Part of being a great director is casting great actors and then trusting them and it’s so clear that’s what happened on this film (let me just list off some names: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges, Tracy Letts, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Lois Smith, I mean come on). They really make her wonderful script come alive. This is a great movie about female friendship and a great movie about mother-daughter relationships, but more than anything it’s a great movie about loving and hating a hometown. Even though I’ve only seen the film twice I think back on moments in the film like I do my own adolescent memories. They feel familiar even when I don’t directly relate to them. This movie feels big in a way only a small movie can.

1. Mudbound (dir. Dee Rees)

This is when my penchant for hyperbole really comes back to bite me in the ass. I use the word masterpiece way too much. But when I say Mudbound is a masterpiece I don’t just mean it’s a great movie I really loved that I recommend everyone see. I mean, it’s The Godfather. It’s Citizen Kane. It’s the rare movie that has a perfect script, perfect cinematography, perfect performances, is completely of its time, and will stand the test of time. If we ever get to a place where art by black women is justly celebrated it will be in the 2070 AFI top 10. It’s that good. Part of what sets the movie apart is its almost absurd ambition. It breaks so many movie rules (not only does it have heavy narration, but it has heavy narration from multiple characters), and yet it always works. I love small movies, I love weird and flawed movies, but there is something so spectacular about watching something like Dee Rees’ third feature. I’m so excited to watch this movie again, to study it, to spend a lifetime with it. I feel like it really got lost in the shuffle by being released on Netflix, but that also means right now it’s on Netflix and you, yes YOU, almost certainly have or have access to Netflix. So you could watch it. Right now. Watch it. Stop reading. Turn the lights off. Find the biggest TV or computer screen you have so you can really appreciate Rachel Morrison’s cinematography and watch it. It is perfection wrapped in a bow of perfection and I really must insist you watch it.

Television!

Still Need to Catch Up On: The Girlfriend Experience (S2), Queen Sugar (S2)

Honorable Mentions: -Big Little Lies -Broad City (S3) -Girls (S6) -Insecure (S2) -Master of None (S2) -One Mississippi (S2) -Orange is the New Black (S5) -Search Party (S2) -Shots Fired

10. Twin Peaks: The Return 9. Jane the Virgin (S3/4) 8. Transparent (S4) 7. Better Things (S2) 6. I Love Dick 5. The Good Place (S1/2) 4. Sense8 (S2) 3. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (S2/3) 2. Top of the Lake: China Girl 1. The Leftovers (S3)

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elgomoviereviews · 6 years

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The Top 10 movies of 2017

The Oscars are approaching and marking with them the end of the 2017 cinematic year. The least thing to say about 2017 is that it was one of the most un-special years for cinema, full of mediocre movies and forgettable efforts. I found it a little hard to pick 15 movies that I’d put in a top movies of the year list like I do every year, so I went with only 10 movies this time around. Here are my top 10 movies of 2017:

10- Lady Bird:

While nothing feels particularly special about Lady Bird on a first viewing, it certainly gives a pleasant effect that lasts for a while after you finish watching it. The movie takes us through Lady Bird (our protagonist’s self chosen name)’s last year of high school and the pressures of having to take big decisions for adolescents in this day and age. And while it feels like you’ve seen this kind of story a million times before, something about Lady Bird feels more authentic than any other coming of age story. Whether it’s the extremely well written dialogue or the subtle performances (especially by the 3-time Oscar nominated 23 years old phenomenon that is Saoirse Ronan) or the easiness the movie flows with that comes as a sign of a masterful director, it all results in an original entry that gives a breath of fresh air to an overly saturated, overly explored genre.

9- Okja:

The Netflix produced movie, released directly to the Internet. The movie follows the journey of Mija, a young South Korean girl who is willing to do anything to prevent an American company from kidnapping her special friend; a “super-pig” called Okja. While it looks and feels like the normal sad girl gets separated from pet movie in its first act, Okja turns out to be a movie that takes leaps and turns with every other scene. With such high level of unpredictability, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat, anticipating the other ways this screenplay would surprise, eagerly. Being written and directed by Joon-ho Bong (the visionary behind one of the most powerful post-apocalyptic thrillers, Snowpiercer), I wasn’t surprised to witness Okja gradually unwind to show how multilayered and deep it is, yet still be one of the most entertaining movies of the year. Only Bong can squeeze subjects as universally relevant as the evils of capitalism, animal cruelty and the misguidance of media in a coming of age tale of a girl refusing to give up to life’s burdens. The movie also never feels too dramatic or too sentimental for its subject matter, all thanks to the balance the director keeps between drama, adventure and comedy. Okja features many remarkable performances. From Tilda Swinton’s intricate portrayal of two very distinct twins, to Jake Gyllenhaal’s comical take on reality TV stars, to memorable cameos from Steven Yeun, Paul Dano, Giancarlo Esposito and Lilly Collins, all supporting cast paves the way Seo-Hyun Ahn to shine and have all the confidence she needed to play such a strong character. You might not have heard of Okja before, simply because it’s not a part of a well-known franchise or because it didn’t get the wide release other movies get, but it certainly is one of the most important movies on this list, simply because it showed us that internet-released movies can be of high cinematic caliber too.

8- Loveless:

Loveless is writer/director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s follow up to his 2014 masterpiece Leviathan, and it is as bleak and as shocking to say the least. Instead of a strong subject matter as of Leviathan’s flashy plot though, Zvyaginstev chooses to tell us a very conventional, simple story this time around; an eleven-year-old boy (Alyosha) disappears after witnessing a terrible fight between his divorced parents. And just like every other missing person movie, questions quickly begin to rise in your head, did Alyosha run away from him or did he get kidnapped? Is anyone else involved in this sudden disappearance? Are they ever gonna find him? But the most important question of all is, would he really wanna come back to live through the ramifications of such a failed marriage? What starts as a community search hunt for a missing boy, turns into a holistic study on modern relationships, the selfishness of the human race, and how we currently define success in life. Loveless is a perfect example of how universal art could get no matter what language it’s made in.

7- The Square:

The Square is probably one of the most unconventional movies of the year, and may be even of all time. It doesn’t follow any kind of specific narrative, it doesn’t have distinctive first and second and third acts, it is not about a major incident nor does it involve a character that goes through a major change or learns something new about himself or the society. In fact The Square never even sticks to one message or one way of telling its story, it keeps shuffling between what it wants to be at the moment, symbolizing how unpredictable, messy and sometimes, shocking, our day to day life could be. One could describe The Square as a satire on how someone’s normal life could turn upside down after taking a few very small terrible decisions, but by the end of it you’ll realize that this was a satire on life itself. How Christian (played by the highly charismatic Claes Bang) perceives himself and how his behavior around others usually contradicts those perceptions creates an irony that reminds us with how separated and segregated we all are from eachother. The Square is director Ruben Ostlund’s second movie to be nominated for best foreign language film after his 2014 masterpiece Force Majeure, another movie that tackles the idea of how small missteps could lead to life changing effects. Unlike Force Majeure though, The Square reaches new heights of ambition and doesn’t shy from criticizing almost all aspects of the average person’s life.

6- The Florid Project:

The Florida Project gives us a documentary like look on the daily lives of three children who live in the projects of Florida from the children’s perspective. Just a few buildings away from Disney Land, they live in the colorful motels that don’t feel or look so colorful on the inside. As I witnessed the lives of these kids unfold in front of my eyes, I couldn’t help but recall my own feelings as a child, how a child’s look on what’s important in life is totally different from what an adult could think and feel. This kind of instant connection to the children comes as a result of a brilliant director who understands the importance of right casting, of understanding the subject matter he’s dealing with and knows how get the best out of his actors. The movie features one of the most heartfelt performances in years from Brooklynn Prince (the 7-years old first time actress) in the role of Mooney, the leader of our group of kids. One can’t help but fall in love with Mooney from the moment we see her on screen, and the director understands that so much that he sometimes allows the camera to follow her around, giving her the freedom to improvise and be herself, which allows the audience to experience life literally through the innocence of a young girl’s eyes in one of the most memorable scenes of the year. The only A-list actor in The Florida Project’s cast is Willem Dafoe (who gives one of the best performances of his career and the movie’s sole Oscar nomination), along with a bunch of first time actors who are so good, they make you wonder whether if they are real actors or just normal people who get to be followed by a camera and have their lives watched by an audience.

5-Mother! :

Mother! is one of the most polarizing movies of the year. It’s a movie that’s been called one of the best movies of all time and one of the most tasteless at the same time. But whether you love Mother! or hate it, there is one thing that is certain about this movie, and that is you’ve never seen anything like it before. I wouldn’t say that I loved every choice that Darren Aronofsky (Pi, The Fountain, Black Swan, The Wrestler, Noah) chose to go with in Mother!. For example, the movie starts with what seems like a normal suburban wife and her artist husband, who can’t find inspiration in his boring life, but it’s very clear since the beginning that this isn’t just it, that this plot and those characters are symbolic of much broader ideas. But instead of leaving it for each viewer’s interpretation of such symbolism, Aronofsky decides to lay all symbolism aside and turn it to a very straightforward narrative, making it too easy and sometimes even forced on the audience to digest. On the other hand, Mother! features a third act that will remain engraved in my memory like no other in movie history. With using only close-ups through out the entire movie and setting a claustrophobic mood through lighting, Aronofsky keeps building up tension all through the first two acts duration, until it reaches the third act just to explode and multiply that tension till it reaches the roof. The last 20 minutes of Mother! are gut-wrenching to the least. One can’t even start thinking about how much effort went into the preparation of what you witness on screen, from the huge number of extras (that each needed different motives, costumes, motion around the camera and meanings to the movie), to the flawless camera movement that captured all that’s happening around it while keeping fluid enough to remain the tension and give sense of time passing, to the top notch sound mixing that was necessary in such a loud and full of action segment of the movie, it all goes down to a mastermind behind all that, by the name of Darren Aronofsky, who could pull one of the greatest directorial achievements of the year.

4- Blade Runner 2049:

When it was announced that director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario, Prisoners, Enemy) will helm the new installment of the Blade Runner franchise, I wondered why would such a talented director, who’d recently been nominated for a well deserved Oscar nomination last year, risk putting his name on a movie that could never surpass the critical success or the cultural status and reputation of its predecessor. But after watching the movie I didn’t only get why he would choose that, in fact I understood why he probably is the only well-known Hollywood director who could give us such a masterpiece right now. Villeneuve’s own passion for the project is clear through out each and every choice he went with in 2049 and that ultimately made it succeed on all fronts. Blade Runner 2049 works both a sequel as much as it works as a movie on its own. A sequel that kept the bleak spirit, the slow tone, the extremely detailed technologies and the essence of the premise of the original Blade Runner, and still built on it to give us a deeper exploration of the human condition in a bigger world than that of the original, a wider scope of events, a more touching plot and consequently a taut and heartfelt psychological sci-fi thriller that is really needed between what’s being offered nowadays. The mesmerizing cinematography by Roger Deakins created a feast for the eye with a unique visual philosophy that made it stick in my memory for weeks after watching the movie. Only great movies get to have such a lasting effect after just one viewing.

3- Get Out:

I’ve never been a fan of Jordan Peele. His humor is mostly safe and naïve. When I heard about his directorial debut, Get Out, I thought it’s gonna be a light comedy that offers nothing different from his usual efforts. Instead, the result is one of the most important horror movies in years. Peele (who also wrote this movie) , was aiming at writing his first horror, about a man waking up to find himself held captive in a house. But halfway through his writing process, he decided to turn his script into a discussion about modern day racism, the horrors of being a minority in America and the establishment of white supremacy in all aspects of their lives. The movie is a testament that even the smallest of ideas could turn into masterpieces when given to the right hands. With a micro budget of an independent film (4.5 million usd), and a cast of small-parts actors, the fact that Jordan Peele succeeded in making a movie that stayed the first on the box for three consecutive weeks (to end up with 255 million usd) and get nominated for 4 Oscars (including one for best picture of the year and a couple of nominations for himself for both writing and direction) was beyond the imagination of the biggest optimist. All this praise comes at no surprise after watching the movie though, it’s one of the fun experiences I’ve had in a movie theater in years, a movie that kept me invested in its world, as captivated as the protagonist, on the edge of my seat from beginning to end, all thanks to the massive talent of first time writer/director Jordan Peele.

2- Dunkirk:

Have you ever seen a PG-13 war movie that didn’t show a drop of blood? Have you ever seen a World War II movie without a scene inside the office of army generals while putting their tactical plan? Have you ever seen a war movie that doesn’t show you one soldier of the enemy’s army? Leave it to the one and only Christopher Nolan to break all walls and ceilings of a genre and turn it into exactly what he wants it to be. Only Nolan could direct a movie about the defeat and an evacuation of an army that everyone knows how it ends, and still make a gripping thriller out of it. You are taken through the journey of three different individuals, telling the story of the evacuation of Dunkirk through their eyes from the sea perspective, the land perspective and the sky perspective in a mere 106 minutes. In its core, it’s about scared kids who want to reach home and how home reached for them instead. There is no time in Nolan’s Dunkirk for forced patriotism or overly dramatized deaths. There is no time to even care about a certain character or cheer for a specific person to survive, you find yourself cheering for survival itself instead, desperate to find a way out of the trap you’re thrown in from the first minute of the movie. Whether it’s a pilot trying to break the glass of his drowning plane or stuck soldiers, gasping for air in a sinking ship, you feel as immersed in each situation as them, only thinking about a way out too. Hans Zimmer’s groundbreaking score (who created a sound illusion that aids in creating tension throughout the movie and built his whole score around it), Hoyte Van Hoytema’s magnificent cinematography (that captured the harshness of sea and air conditions like no other before, creating a horrifying, nearly monochromatic world), one of the best sound editing/mixing jobs in the history of filmmaking, and the masterful editing by Lee Smith, all helped Nolan in delivering Dunkirk in the mind-bending, intricately intersecting way that made it stand out between all war movies (if not all movies in general) of all time.

1-Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri:

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri might have the most interesting title for a wide release movie in years, but it also has one of the most uninteresting premises on paper. When I first watched the movie’s trailer in the summer, I thought that this might be another boring movie that I’ll have to sit through just for the sake of awards season, where it will be nominated for a couple of awards just for one of its star cast performances and that’s it. I mean, sure, the movie’s writer/director is Martin McDonagh, who once made a really good movie (In Bruges), but he followed that but a very messy and forgettable movie (Seven Psychopaths). The movie’s cheesy plotline (A woman puts up three advertisements on three billboards outside a small town, cursing the police chief for not finding the killer and rapist of her daughter) doesn’t help an audience in knowing what could follow that. Normally, this should be a character study about a strong woman who decided to stand against the police, only to lose the fight to no avail. We’ve seen such type of movie a million times before. Turns out what follows is one of the most exciting, fast paced and unpredictable movies of the decade. The brilliance of the screenplay lies in creating multiple unique characters and making them feel as realistic as possible. Nearly all characters have as many terrible traits as they have good ones. You wouldn’t find any good reason to root for any side of the chess game that starts in Ebbing between Mildred and the police station other than for the trauma that affected them but not for them personally. You will just enjoy watching this purely original story taking turn after turn, surprising and sometimes shocking you with each one of them. The movie features a plethora of incredible performances. Spearheaded by Frances McDormand, who gives a career best performance, even surpassing her iconic performance in Fargo, in one of the most demanding and complex female characters that come to mind in years, to cement her status as one of the best actresses alive right now in Hollywood, no wonder that Martin McDonagh had her in mind while writing the character in the first place. Woody Harrelson gives one of the most powerful roles of his career, if not his most powerful. We are used to Harrelson playing the funniest or the craziest character in a movie, but who’d thought he could outdo himself while giving such an emotional and heartfelt performance. Sam Rockwell is the one who steals the show though, who feels like he was born to play Dixon, the repellent, alienating, racist cop who somehow still feels believable as a “good man on the inside” as one of the characters describes him. Three Billboards may be introduces broad ideas, asks deep questions and puts you through a social dilemma, but what makes it different is that Martin McDonagh never forgets that his primary target is that to simply entertain his audience, to give them a great story and the best performances his actors could deliver. And for succeeding on all those fronts, it sure deserves to be called the best movie of 2017.

Honorable mentions:

-Baby Driver

-Wind River

-War for the Planet of the Apes

-The Insult

-Phantom Thread

-The Shape of Water

-Mudbound

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