2017 was the year of MoviePass. It was also the year I lived within walking distance of two movie theaters. A dangerous combination.
We all knew MoviePass wouldn’t last. Unlimited movies for $10 a month? Get in on that early before it inevitably goes bankrupt. The most surprising part of its 2019 shutdown was that it survived that long. Yet it left an enduring legacy, as every theater chain offers their own version of a subscription now.
I saw a whooooole lot of movies in 2017 thanks to MoviePass. Remember The Foreigner, the Jackie Chan/Pierce Brosnan political thriller? No? How about Battle of the Sexes? You know, tennis, Steve Carell, Emma Stone, kinda painful to watch post-election? Surely you recall Denzel’s Oscar-nominated performance in Roman J. Israel, Esq!
… The Book of Henry? Don’t play with me, I know you know The Book of Henry. We’ve all read The Book.
That’s the cost of business when you want to devour everything. Because you want the most accurate year-end top 10 list possible. And somehow you still end up with this:
Well, that could be worse. I don’t know about you, but one of these stands out to me like a neon light.
Did you know there was a sequel to Trainspotting? Did you know there was a sequel to Trainspotting set two decades later? The belated follow-up to the Gen X classic, about the middle-aged nostalgia of ex-junkies, somehow really resonated with college-aged me. (I’ve been told I have an “old soul,” but I don’t think this is what that means.) While I haven’t seen the movie since release, looking at clips and reviews I expect it would hold up. It’s a curious inclusion, but not one I would argue doesn’t belong.
Three Billboards, on the other hand, betrays how few list-worthy movies I actually watched in 2017. I don’t like Three Billboards. I didn’t like Three Billboards at the time. Its legacy is the trivia that Frances McDormand has three Oscars instead of two, because the Academy really wanted to give her another but didn’t know Nomadland was coming. That was transparent at the time. Why did I include it? Maybe I was just too cowardly to put something like I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore on the list.
The only other movie here that raises question marks for me is The Disaster Artist. This time I do recall really enjoying it in theaters. I also recall feeling conflicted about it in a way I still can’t quite pinpoint. Is it a genuine ode to independent filmmakers or a cynical cash-in on a notorious cinematic curiosity? I have to rewatch it to properly recall. Unfortunately, given revelations about James Franco, it’s become an easy movie to not rewatch.
Alright, penance paid. Time to brag about my good taste.
I might be the only person in the world for whom A Ghost Story is an annual watch. Seeing a movie do so much with so little reinvigorates my love for the medium. I always have to issue a warning whenever I recommend it, though: Put your phone in another room. It has a very slow start, but trust the film, or at least trust me. It’s doing something. And what it’s doing only works if you’re paying full attention, even when it feels like nothing is happening.
Lady Bird was an instant entry into the teenage daughter canon. Yet I wonder if I overrated it. The critical world fell head over heels for it and I think I let that sweep me away. It’s an excellent movie. My second favorite of the year? Probably not, especially after Greta Gerwig made the definitive adaptation of Little Women. But more on that in a couple weeks.
Quick hits:
- Wonderstruck has been completely forgotten, which is kind of its own fault for being completely forgettable. It’s charming. It’s charming and nothing more. I’m probably in the top 3% of people who think about Wonderstruck.
- With apologies to Punch Drunk Love, it was The Meyerowitz Stories where I punched my one-way ticket to Adam Sandler Is a Good Actor, Actually. Seeing the rest of the world catch up to me post-Uncut Gems has been vindicating.
- Like all of Denis Villenueve’s movies, I know intellectually that Blade Runner 2049 is very good even though emotionally it doesn’t inspire much reaction in me. Which is more important when making a year-end list?
- “Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan’s best movie” is a cool opinion to have, if you want to have a cool opinion. I probably don’t agree but I respect it.
- Atomic Blonde may not be top-10 worthy, but it’s a great time!
Come to think of it, my Top Films of 2017 of 2018, the year-after list where I catch up with the movies I missed, might be a better collection than this one.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- The Shape of Water
- Get Out
- Phantom Thread
- The Florida Project
- Mudbound
- The Breadwinner
- I, Tonya
- World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts
- Faces Places
With the exception of I, Tonya, I would defend every one of those picks tooth and nail. Get Out fully deserved to become the phenomenon it was, The Last Jedi would be one of the most important movies of the decade if its reputation wasn’t what it is, and The Shape of Water deservedly winning Best Picture was a bellwether that something about the Academy was changing. (I would say the exact same thing if Get Out had won.)
Well, let’s combine them. Here’s an estimate of what my 2017 list would be today:
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- Get Out
- A Ghost Story
- The Shape of Water
- The Death of Stalin
- Phantom Thread
- Dunkirk
- Lady Bird
- The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
- John Wick: Chapter 2
And there more 2017 movies I love but couldn’t squeeze into any of the above lists: The Post, Logan Lucky, Good Time, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Columbus… what a year.
The good news is, by 2017, I think the growing pains of being an amateur film critic were over. My 2018 list has much better picks… and some very intentional choices…