And also, I have to say just for clarification: these 15 films I'm about to list (and the order in which I list them) may not be what some would consider the BEST films of 2017; but rather, they are my personal FAVORITE films that, for one reason or another, impacted me as a student of film and as an aspiring filmmaker and that, in my opinion, speak in some way to the broader world we all live in. People's opinions on films are subjective, and especially now that we live in the era of Rotten Tomatoes where people who have dissenting opinions on films often get ridiculed and name-called, I feel like I have to make the distinction that these are my personal FAVORITE films of 2017, but they may not necessarily be the BEST. So, without further ado, here are my top 15 favorite films of 2017 from 15 to 1:
#15. The Book of Henry -- I just made a Facebook post about this a few days ago after I re-watched it last week, and I reviewed it in full back when it came out in June (you can read my review here), but like I've said repeatedly, this is (in my opinion) the most misunderstood and unfairly maligned film of last year. Most people know how rare it is to see an original, adult-oriented, character-driven drama come out in the middle of the summer amidst dumbed-down manufactured superhero films, so when I saw this, it was so refreshing and moving and invigorating that a film like this can still get made with big-name actors and a director who had just done Jurassic World two years before. You can obviously read more of my in-depth thoughts about the film at the two links above, but I still encourage people to seek this film out despite what they may have heard from others. It's a truly unique piece of art that demands to be seen and understood, since most film critics clearly did not understand it.
#14. Baby Driver -- The absolute best action movie of this year and the last several years. I first saw this film in the Spanish city of Logroño this summer when I was walking the Camino de Santiago, where it was dubbed in Spanish and my enjoyment of it was lessened considerably. However, I finally got to see it in English when I came back to America and it was everything I wanted it to be. Not only was this film chock-full of some of the best car chase sequences (plus an epic foot chase sequence) I have ever seen on film, but it also actually has brains and is really sweet and has a couple very emotional moments. After seeing Ansel Elgort play the moody pretty-boy love interest one too many times, it was definitely refreshing to see writer/director Edgar Wright cast him in a role where he was really able to prove himself as a serious actor, and Lily James (who's had a really good year with this and Darkest Hour), is just plain lovely as his love interest Debora. And while I know that one of the supporting actors featured prominently on the poster has been revealed to be a very very very problematic figure since the release of this film, I don't think that should sway people from enjoying it, especially with the sound cranked up as it also features one of the best soundtracks of the year. Seriously, the way that the action sequences in this film are edited to the music is unbelievably brilliant. So yeah, if you haven't seen this film, watch it and crank the sound.
#13. The Big Sick -- One of the most unabashed crowd-pleasers of the year, this film was quite a surprise for me when I came back from Spain this summer. A deeply personal film for its screenwriter/star Kumail Nanjiani (who plays a fictionalized version of himself in the film), you can feel his passion for the film and story in every frame, all the way down to how authentic his interactions are with his love interest Emily (a fictionalized version of Kumail's wife Emily V. Gordon, who co-wrote the screenplay with him, played empathetically by Zoe Kazan) and her parents (both played brilliantly by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter, the latter of whom deserves a Best Supporting Actress nomination). While I'm not quite as over-the-moon about this film as I was back when I first saw it, or as some people (namely my Dad) still are, I still think it's by far one of the best romantic comedies in recent years, and I can't wait to see how Kumail and director Michael Showalter follow this up.
P.S. The Big Sick also contains the hands-down funniest scene in any 2017 movie. I was literally in pain I was laughing so hard. All I will say about it is it involves Kumail's character going to a drive-thru, but that scene alone is enough of a reason to watch this movie if you haven't already.
#12. Columbus -- While this film was initially screened at the Chicago Critics Film Festival back in May, I didn't get a chance to see it until September when it played again at the Music Box Theatre with writer/director Kogonada in attendance, but I was so glad I did, because this is truly a quiet masterpiece of a film that is heavily influenced by Richard Linklater (one of my all-time favorite filmmakers) in all the right ways. The film focuses on two people in particular, one a Korean-born man stuck in Columbus, Indiana, where he's caring for his terminally-ill father, and the other a young woman from the town who is smart enough to leave but wants to stay. Being from a small town in Indiana myself (although one about three hours from Columbus), I found myself feeling like I knew the geography and the loneliness and isolation of the people there. The conversations between Jin (the Korean man) and Casey (the young woman from the town) are some of the most beautiful and authentic conversations I've seen on film this year. When I first saw this back in September, I posted that Haley Lu Richardson (who plays Casey) had given the best performance of 2017. While I wouldn't say that now, I do think she has given one of the top five performances of the year (which she won't be nominated for, sadly), and I do think much of the emotional strength of this film comes from her performance. I hope to see her in many, many, many films to come and she alone is enough of a reason to seek this film out.
#11. I, Tonya -- One of the quotes on the poster for this film that I think brilliantly sums it up is the one that reads "a hilarious tragedy," because that's pretty much what it is. I was lucky enough to watch this with a big crowd that was laughing one moment and stunned to silence the next. But unlike a lot of the people in that crowd, I knew next-to-nothing about Tonya Harding or the infamous attack on Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 (I was born in 1997), so I went into the film pretty cold. But as soon as the film started, with the recreated interviews featuring Harding (played by Margot Robbie), her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly (played by Sebastian Stan), and her wickedly evil mother (played by Allison Janney), I was instantly enthralled. And while there are definitely some hilarious moments and lines (an observation delivered by Bobby Cannevalle shortly after we see the attack on Nancy Kerrigan is in contention for Best Line of Movie Dialogue in 2017), the story itself is very tragic, just to see a woman who had been abused and hated her whole life finally get to a position where she's loved and admired, only to get abused and hated once again and to have everything she's worked for her entire life be taken away from her because of something she didn't want to have happen. Margot Robbie is absolutely astonishing as Tonya Harding, and Allison Janney deserves all of the Oscar buzz she's been getting for her turn as Tonya's hateful mother. I really hope Neon (the film's distributor) continues to go wider with this because more people need to see this film. Someone at the screening I went to said they think it's the best film Martin Scorsese never made, and I would wholeheartedly agree. It could very well be the Goodfellas for my generation.
#10. The Killing of a Sacred Deer -- I don't exactly know what I was expecting from this film when I saw it back in October, but it was not what I got. I had seen writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos' previous film, The Lobster, which I liked but didn't love, but this one is totally on another level above that film. This one is set in modern America (Cincinatti, specifically, and the surrounding suburbs) and it stars Colin Ferrel (again) as a renowned cardiovascular surgeon named Steven who is in a strange relationship with a teenage boy who we later find out has lost his father after Steven performed surgery on him some years ago. What follows could be characterized as a psychological horror film, a black comedy film, and a really twisted revenge film, but it is something that has to be experienced in order to even try to understand it. Colin Ferrel is stunningly great in this film as a man trapped in an impossible situation (there's a great scene midway through involving an allusion to Groundhog Day, a much lighter film about a situation not uncommon to the one Ferrel finds himself in), but the two standouts for me were Barry Keoghan as Martin, the teenage boy, and Raffey Cassidy as Kim, Steven's daughter. Keoghan in particular is so haunting and creepy and convincing that I think he deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance (which he won't get, sadly), and Cassidy, who I had previously seen in the underrated Tomorrowland two years ago, doesn't get a ton to do, but her scenes are some of the most memorable in the film, and I would actually pay to see a sequel to this film focused exclusively on her character. Since this is an A24 film, I really hope it comes up on Amazon Prime soon, because people (especially horror fans and fans of weird arthouse cinema) need to see this film. I personally can't wait to watch it again.
#9. Dunkirk -- While this list is of my personal favorite films of the year, if I were making a list of "Greatest Cinematic Achievements of 2017," this film might have to be #1 on that list. I have repeatedly said that Christopher Nolan is the best Hollywood blockbuster filmmaker working today, and when this film was released in theaters this summer, that fact was only cemented in reality. What Nolan has managed to achieve with Dunkirk is a film that provides both bells-and-whistles spectacle with a deeply horrific and emotional real-life story. Getting to see this in an IMAX theatre is an experience that will forever be frozen into my brain, as it allowed me to not only watch this war film, but to really feel it, to feel like I was on the beach at Dunkirk and on the water and in the air. This also marked the only time I have ever said I was glad at the lack of character development in a film, because the film didn't need it. Withholding backstory and individual traits from these characters allows the audience to see any one of them as themselves, or their son, or their brother, or their father, or their friend. It's truly a remarkable piece of art, one of the greatest war films of all time, and...yeah, it's a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan is a true master of big-budget filmmaking, and I can't wait to see what he does next.
#8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri -- I'll admit that I hadn't seen writer/director Martin McDonagh's other two movies before this one (In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, both of which I intend to watch soon), so I didn't really know what to expect from this, but what I got was one of the most brilliantly written and acted films I've seen in a long time. The way McDonagh blends pitch-black comedy and searing drama in this film is something to deeply admire, and the way he never gives you any hint at where the storyline is going is absolutely stunning. Frances McDormand doesn't quite match her Oscar-winning performance in Fargo, but she comes damn close, playing a woman who possesses such deep righteous rage that you can't help but be on her side. Likewise, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell both deserve to be in the conversation for Best Supporting Actor, with Harrelson playing the police chief character with such humor and sadness that you almost instantly fall in love with him, and Rockwell's performance is something else entirely, as he quite literally disappears into his role of a psychopathic racist cop with an almost-unsettling realism...and yet he's not just a one-dimensional villain, because that would be both boring and not realistic. He actually has an unexpected arc that helps bring the film to a really beautiful and perfect conclusion. So yes, I absolutely love Three Billboards, and I personally think it deserves an Oscar for its brilliantly written screenplay, which is one of the very best of the last eighteen years (at least).
#7. The Disaster Artist -- Oh, hai Mark. So, I'll admit, I hadn't seen The Room until just about a month ago, when my friend Will Ackerman let me borrow his Blu-ray copy of it to watch at home so I could see The Disaster Artist. And the 24-hour timespan in which I watched both The Room and The Disaster Artist for the first time was one of the most fun timespans of my entire 2017, and it just happened to fall during a week-long break from a feature film I had been working on. That last part is really significant in terms of how this film specifically impacted me because it's really a movie about filmmaking and the creative process. Watching Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero (brought beautifully to life by brothers/creative partners James and Dave Franco), two passionate aspiring artists, decide to make their own movie and fail spectacularly while attempting it, is one of the funniest and saddest things I've seen this year. While I in no way aspire to be the next Tommy Wiseau, there is still something to admire about a man who is so passionate about his craft and passionate about telling a story that literally no one understands except him. And while I know that James Franco has been revealed to be a very problematic figure in the last week or so, he still gives one of the best performances of the year in this film, disappearing into the role of Tommy Wiseau with such pinpoint authenticity that I forgot he was James Franco when watching it. His brother, Dave, is also terrific as Greg Sestero, serving as the POV character for much of the film. So while it definitely enriches the experience to watch The Room before seeing The Disaster Artist, I do believe the film works just on the level of being a hilarious and sort-of-sad look at filmmaking and the creative process, as well as a story of friendship and two people helping one another achieve their artistic dreams. So, this is pretty much a must-see film if you're a film student.
#6. The Shape of Water -- This is an absolutely magnificent work of art. Now, I admittedly haven't been the biggest supporter of Guillermo del Toro's work (I personally think Pacific Rim is a slightly-smarter Michael Bay movie and Pan's Labyrinth is a good but not great dark fantasy film), so I wasn't expecting to be nearly as blown away by this film as I was, but boy was I. What del Toro has really crafted here, beyond the initially off-putting premise of a mute janitor in Cold War-era Baltimore falling in love with a captured amphibian, is a story of loneliness and isolation, as well as human relationships and the ability (or lack thereof) to effectively communicate your feelings to one another. One of the first films that came to mind after I first saw it was Spike Jonze's Her, a film that also put some people off due to the unusual love story at the center of it. Sally Hawkins delivers one of the absolute best performances of the year (one that could/should potentially win her an Oscar) as the mute janitor at the center of the story, and all of the supporting performances are phenomenal as well, from Richard Jenkins' subtle but powerful role as the caring neighbor, to Octavia Spencer's comic relief co-worker role (she's awesome in literally everything), to Michael Shannon once again proving how effective he can be in villainous roles as the evil Colonel Strickland (although he can also be effective in, well, everything, because he's one of the greatest actors on the planet). del Toro has really crafted something special and beautiful in this film, and I am so glad it's getting as much attention as it has been this awards season. It deserves every bit of attention it gets.
#5. A Ghost Story -- I have to say, as much of an astonishing masterpiece as this film is, I really regret not being able to see it in a theatre. It really frustrated me when I was forced to miss seeing this at the Chicago Critics Film Festival back in May (a screening that my parents and a lot of my fellow DePaul friends got to go to and I didn't) and when it came and went from theatres this summer while I was in Spain. But when I did finally get to watch it (in my bedroom, on my laptop), I realized how it's probably one of the best movies I've ever seen about time and memory and the preciousness of life and how little time we all have. I've never seen a film that so beautifully shows how, when we're young, time moves so slow and it seems like we have infinite hours to spend in this life, but then as we grow older, everything moves so fast until we can't take it anymore. In some ways, it reminded me of a more expressionist take on Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," and specifically how that treats the transience of human life. There isn't much more I want to say about this film, as its truly something you want to watch knowing as little as possible, but I truly hope that I eventually get to see it in a theatre, because I do think it will have a much larger emotional and aesthetic impact when I have to sit in a dark theatre and watch it without any distractions or interruptions. Chicago theatre owners/people who do special screenings in movie theatres, please program this ASAP.
#4. Call Me By Your Name -- Can I please ask everyone reading this a favor? Strip away whatever preconceived notions you have about this film. Knowing about the controversy that this film has generated in some circles, I decided to hold off any judgment of it until I actually saw it, and when I did see it, I left the theatre overwhelmed with emotions. While I have not read the book that this film is based on, screenwriter James Ivory and director Luca Guadagnino have crafted a beautiful, emotional, and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of first love and coming-of-age set against the backdrop of Italy in the summer of '83. Having spent the better part of this past summer in a similar European country (Spain), I was instantly transported back there from the first frame of this film, as I remember the beautiful lush landscapes and the centuries-old houses and the cobblestone streets and the wine-and-cigarette-laden outdoor meals, and of course, the romantic longing that comes with being in your late-teens/early-20s and how much more vulnerable you become when you're an ocean away from home. While the central romantic relationship between Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer may be off-putting for people who only know about the film through headlines and ignorant judgments from certain pundits who haven't seen it, I'm here to say that it is entirely consensual and should not raise concerns from anyone. In fact, I thought that Chalamet and Hammer both had a lot of chemistry together and their scenes together (especially midway through the film) are some of the most romantic scenes of the year. In terms of the performances, I will just say right now that Timothée Chalamet in this movie gives my favorite male performance of the year (yes, even more than Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour and Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread). He embodies a teenager on the brisk of manhood struggling with first love and loneliness and isolation so beautifully and profoundly that I could feel his pain for much of the film, and the final shot of this film is one of the most heartbreaking final shots of any movie I've ever seen. If it weren't for Oldman and Day-Lewis, I'm pretty certain Chalamet would be a frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar. Armie Hammer has also never been better as Oliver, a man who projects all the confidence and attractiveness of the archetypal all-American hunk while hiding a lot of pain underneath, and Michael Stuhlbarg gives an incredibly moving performance as Chalamet's character's father, especially in the scene where he delivers hands-down the best movie monologue of 2017, one that hit me right in the gut. So like I said, please put aside whatever worries you might have about the content of this film, and please go see it. It is one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a long, long time.
#3. Phantom Thread -- I really debated on where to rank this film. On one hand, part of me thinks it should be #2 or #1 because it's Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis, and it's an absolutely gorgeous masterpiece of filmmaking, but on the other hand, part of me thinks it should only be like #4 or #5 until I get to see it again, because I know there's a lot of things I missed and it's only going to get richer with each viewing. But nonetheless, I'm ranking it #3 even though it might go up on my second or third viewing, not just because PT Anderson is one of the greatest filmmakers alive and Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors alive, but also because it's a brilliant film about craftsmanship and the creative process and the artist-muse relationship, brought equally to life by Vicky Krieps as Alma, the woman who upends the life of legendary British dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (played by Day-Lewis). While I expected Day-Lewis to be phenomenal as he always is, Krieps is really the revelation in this film, as she goes toe-to-toe with Day-Lewis in every scene of this film, and gives a performance that is 100% worthy of an Oscar nomination. But other than Day-Lewis and Krieps, the other main star that isn't on screen is Jonny Greenwood, whose hypnotic score adds so much to this film that he should get a credit right alongside the two leads. And of course, there's Paul Thomas Anderson, one of my two favorite living filmmakers (the other being Richard Linklater). He is just such a gift and inspiration to the craft of cinema, and while he has made his share of challenging films that might not be accessible to the casual moviegoer (*ahem* The Master), he has also made two of the greatest movies ever made in my opinion (Magnolia and There Will Be Blood) and is always someone who seems to be pushing the medium of cinema forward in various ways. And while Phantom Thread is definitely his most straightforward and accessible film of the last ten years, in that it actually has a linear narrative and also contains significantly more humor than his last several films, it's still very challenging in different ways, with its hypnotic mood and portrayal of a toxic relationship. I'm going to refrain from saying much more about this film, as it's truly something to be experienced (especially at the Music Box Theatre on 70mm), but please, please, please go out and support this film. Paul Thomas Anderson is a genius and a treasure to cinema, and his films need to be seen and supported. I can't wait to see what he does next.
#2. The Florida Project -- From the moment I saw this film in a special preview screening at the DePaul CDM Theatre with writer/director Sean Baker in attendance, I knew this had to be my #2 or #1, because for me, this film perfectly embodies one of my favorite Roger Ebert quotes, which is that "the movies are a machine that generates empathy." While this film doesn't have much of a plot to speak of, what it does have is incredibly compelling characters at its center, characters that may be fictional, but are too real in the people they embody. Our focus character, a six-year-old named Moonee, is a composite of numerous little girls just like her, living on the outskirts of society with a mother who can't properly raise her because she, too, lives and acts like a child. The numerous characters we see living at Magic Castle, a welfare motel outside of Walt Disney World, are real people, people who have been pushed to the brink by society and are doing whatever they can to avoid being out on the street, and a man named Bobby, who runs this motel and is essentially everyone's glorified caretaker, is a composite of the numerous men and women who are practically forced into these positions and are doing the best that they can. What Sean Baker has done with this film is no less of an accomplishment than what Christopher Nolan did with Dunkirk and what PT Anderson did with Phantom Thread; Baker has structured a beautiful and heartbreaking, but also entertaining and often funny, film around a real-world problem that most of society and the media likes to ignore, and thanks to his incredible writing and directing skills and the amazing actors he managed to recruit, he made it feel 100% realistic. The two actors in particular that carry this film are Willem Dafoe as Bobby (who I really hope wins his long-deserved Oscar for this; he is magnificent) and the adorable and amazing Brooklynn Prince as Moonee, who at the age of six has delivered a child performance for the ages. After I saw this film for the second time, I said that Moonee is the heart of the film, and Bobby is the soul. When these two are together on screen, serious cinematic magic happens that can put any "magic" in any Disney film ever made to utter shame. And not to forget about the film's other major discovery, Bria Vinaite, who plays Moonee's immature and childlike mother Halley in a tragically realistic performance. But seriously, everything about this film works in its favor. Even the ending, which some people have had issues with, is absolutely beautiful and profound and deeply moving, and I encourage everyone who may have missed this movie during its theatrical run to please go and seek it out. It's not an easy watch, but it's an incredibly necessary and important film that I think even has the power to increase awareness about the hidden homeless. It's a real problem, and I'm thankful that a powerful film like The Florida Project can be used as a tool to increase awareness. So go seek it out!
And...#1. Wonder -- As you can see from the rest of my list, there have been many, many great and powerful films that have come out of 2017. But, ultimately, one of them really stood out to me above the rest, and it took the second viewing of it for it to do so, and that is Stephen Chbosky's Wonder. When I first saw the trailer for this film, I was kind of worried about it. Granted, Chbosky had done only one film, and it happened to be one of my favorite movies of all time (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), but Wonder looked like it had a very cheesy after-school-special feel to it. But then I actually went and saw it during its first week in theatres, and wow, did it knock me for a loop. While it may not have the same prestige factor that The Florida Project and The Shape of Water both have, it is still very much of a profound film about isolation and loneliness, both social and familial. There are numerous, numerous smart choices that Chbosky and his screenwriters made that propel this film to the powerhouse of emotion and intelligence that it is, but one of their smartest choices was showing the audience the perspectives of the numerous characters that inhabit the main character (Auggie)'s life in some form or another. It really drives home the movie's central and most powerful trait: empathy. With this film and Perks under his belt, Chbosky has really shown himself to be a master of empathetic filmmaking, the best kind of filmmaking there is and the kind of filmmaking that I want to pursue because, at the risk of stating the obvious, there needs to be much more empathy in our culture. Like my friend/roommate Pat Stineman said, if everyone in the world saw this movie, the world would be a better place, and I don't think he's wrong.
The performances in this film are spectacular all across the board. Jacob Tremblay is continuing to prove himself to be one of the greatest child actors on the face of the Earth, and he embodies the role of a child with a facial deformity with such truth and compassion that you felt for him every single step of the way. Owen Wilson has never been more likable in a film than in this one, playing the role of the fun-loving father with a level of delicacy not seen in any movie with Owen Wilson since maybe The Royal Tenenbaums. Julia Roberts likewise plays the mother with a levelheadedness not seen in many recent Julia Roberts movies. But for me, the absolute standout performance here is from newcomer Izabela Vidovic as Auggie's sister, Via. I had never seen her in anything, but she is absolutely astounding in this film. While most of her performance is quiet and understated, you can feel her loneliness and isolation in much the same way you can feel Auggie's; obviously it's different, but it's still valid. But there's a scene just a little over midway through the film that takes place during a performance of "Our Town" that is absolutely devastating and that propelled Vidovic's performance as Via to be my favorite female performance of 2017. She is that phenomenal and if there were any justice in this world, she would have the Best Supporting Actress Oscar locked up.
So yes, I could continue to go on about why Wonder is my favorite film of 2017. But ultimately, a lot of it comes down to the fact that I have been struggling with loneliness and isolation lately and this film so beautifully and accurately captures what it's like to feel isolated. By the second time I saw it, I teared up probably four or five times during this film, which I can't really say about any other 2017 film (except maybe The Florida Project). But at the end of the day, Wonder is just a beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, important masterpiece of cinematic art that needs to be seen by every human being alive. Maybe once that happens, the world will become a better place.
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And, for anyone who's curious, here's a list of 15 runners-up, i.e. films that are really, really good (and, in some cases, great) that just missed the cut for my top 15, listed in roughly the order in which I thought of them (the ones that are hyperlinked are ones I've reviewed on here before):
- Last Flag Flying
- Wind River
- Mother!
- Coco
- It
- Get Out
- Good Time
- Brad's Status
- Darkest Hour
- Logan
- Lady Bird
- Patti Cake$
- Logan Lucky
- Blade Runner 2049
- The Blackcoat's Daughter
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