My Top Ten Films of 2017

I didn't watch as many recent films for 2017 as I did in previous years, partially due to lack of time and partially due to suffering some burnout. However, I found plenty to appreciate. 2017 was a dramatic and tumultuous year for the movies in every conceivable way, from the plunging box office numbers to the #Metoo and #Timesup movements, to the ongoing cultural wars raging around prominent titles like "Wonder Woman" and "Get Out." For my part, I did my best to give movies featuring women and created by women more benefit of the doubt. There were some inescapable disappointments, but also plenty of surprises too.

My criteria for eligibility require that a film must have been released in its own home country during 2017, so film festivals and other special screenings don't count. Picks are unranked and listed in no particular order, and previously posted reviews are linked where available. The "Plus One" spot is reserved for the best film of the previous year that I didn't manage to see in time for the last list, because I've quit trying to wait for those last few foreign titles to finally hit home media. These lists are published late enough as it is.

And here we go.

Thelma - A Nordic supernatural thriller that takes a young woman's sexual awakening to some dark and uncomfortable places. This is director Joachim Trier's first foray into genre material, and it's a chilling one, full of potent nightmare imagery and haunting spiritual gulfs. I appreciate that the parents, typically the antagonists in this kind of story, are portrayed with unusual sympathy, leaving the audience to determine whether any party can be treated as truly innocent or monstrous.

Lady Bird - The magic of "Lady Bird" is that it gives us a view into the life of an average teenage girl, bored to death with her suburban surroundings, lets us sympathize with her, and then shows us how fleeting and precious her world really is. Greta Gerwig's directorial debut lovingly captures her hometown of Sacramento, the complexities of parent/child relationships, and the twilight time of late adolescence. It's all so painfully familiar, but presented with unusual insight and empathy.

Get Out - Accidentally the most topical movie of 2017, "Get Out" is a horror film about race relations and social anxieties that isn't afraid to confront its audience. It's so well observed and so efficient in its humor and commentary, deftly lampooning all the little hypocrisies and biases of well-meaning white folks. You'll never look at tea cups or Froot Loops the same way again. This is also one of the most entertaining films of the year, with a fist pumping, expectation-defying ending that lands perfectly.

Faces Places - A lark of a documentary, devoted simply to the act of making art and seeing its effects on regular, everyday people. The photographer and muralist JR and the beloved auteur Agnes Varda form an appealing odd couple, and eventually the film's rambling meta-narrative about their friendship and the bitterness of getting older turns up some great surprises. No other film this year was so full of uplifting, joyous creativity, inspiring and provoking the audience to look at the world through a new lens.

Phantom Thread - A sumptuous, elegantly executed film about terribly posh people that is hiding some downright scandalous material under its skirts. Of course Paul Thomas Anderson wouldn't make a romantic melodrama that didn't have some subversive elements in the mix, but the amount of nail-biting tension that results in the latter parts of "Phantom Thread" was delightfully unexpected. Both a nostalgic throwback and a very modern kind of love story, the movie is in a class by itself.

The Florida Project - Sean Baker's latest film is another painfully genuine examination of people struggling to survive on the fringes of American society. This time he looks in on several families living in Florida motels only a few miles away from the famous theme parks. However, what's remarkable is how little these circumstances matters to the kids at the center of the story, who are able to find adventure and excitement at every opportunity, and happily run amok in a world full of vibrant color.

Lady Macbeth - Director William Oldroyd and actress Florence Pugh are both new to me, and two of my favorite discoveries of the year. There's such a keen sense of subtlety and patience to their work here, as the twists and turns of this brutal period piece play out. Female antiheroes remain far too rare in cinema, and Pugh's Katherine is a fantastic one. Her transformation from victim to villain is frequently startling and always compelling, matched by Oldroyd's splendidly severe visuals and direction.

Blade Runner 2049 - Not just a worthy sequel to the Ridley Scott classic, but a considerable achievement in science-fiction filmmaking in its own right. Not everything works as intended, but there's such a wealth of interesting ideas in play, many of them executed with such care and craft. I'm glad Roger Deakins finally got his Oscar for this film. The worldbuilding is something that only a high budget studio production could achieve, and thus I suspect it may be a long time before we see anything like it again.

Maudie - A small, totally actor-driven feature that has some of the best work that Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke have ever done. Charting the life and career of Nova Scotian folk artist Maud Lewis, who suffered lifelong physical ailments, "Maudie" avoids most of the pitfalls associated with films about artists and films about the disabled. Instead, it comes across as a very rough hewn, but heartfelt romance between a pair of outsiders. The pretty pictures just feel like a bonus.

Dunkirk - The technical achievements and epic scope may have helped sell tickets, but what I found so impressive about Christopher Nolan's take on the Dunkirk evacuations was the way he managed to incorporate his usual time dilation tricks into the story - and it was to the film's benefit. Both broad and narrow in focus, cynical and idealistic, old-fashioned and daring, it's hard to do anything but sit back and be impressed. "Dunkirk" may have the earmarks of a prestige pic, but it doesn't behave like one.

Plus One

Bacalaureate - Cristian Mungiu continues his exploration of life in contemporary Romania through this domestic drama about a doctor and his family. What initially starts as a small crisis about exam jitters turns into a much more involved dilemma about morality, parenthood, the generational divide, and multiple systemic failures related to education, crime, and medical care. Full of uncomfortable questions and ghosts of the past, it's a riveting watch from start to finish.

Honorable Mentions

A Quiet Passion
mother!
Columbus
The Meyerowitz Stories
I, Tonya
A Ghost Story
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Mudbound
Happy End
A Fantastic Woman

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