The Best Movies Of 2017

Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, A Ghost Story

1. Dunkirk, director Christopher Nolan

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan returns to perfect, masterful form in his film about the World War II retreat and rescue that kept the British fighting on. Once again drawing upon his ability to fuse structure and editing with his movie’s themes and emotional core, as he has done with Memento and The Prestige, Nolan breaks Dunkirk down into three separate stories and carefully plays with time to not only ratchet up the tension but to also keep the audience bewildered, on edge, and fully in the heads of the threatened characters. The film’s structure and editing separate the action of the soldiers on land, the pilots in the air, and the civilians coming to their rescue via personal boat, yet keep them fully intertwined and show the cause and effect of each element of the rescue effort in order to demonstrate a heart swallowing show of patriotic unity that has never before been put on the screen. No war film, or war documentary, or war VR game, can ever put the viewer in the boots of the characters like Dunkirk. Their sympathy is won the instant the faceless, and practically invisible, enemy soldiers shower their prey with posters reading “We Surround You.” With harsh and epic cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytema, a nail-biting, race against the clock score from frequent Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer, photo realistic visuals, and a powerful ensemble performance from its cast (my favorite being Tom Hardy as a heroic yet ultimately doomed fighter pilot), no movie ever again will see war the same as Dunkirk.

Also, points to Fionn Whitehead for the best reading of Churchill’s “we shall never surrender” speech put to film in 2017.

2. Get Out, director Jordon Peele

What can really be said about Get Out that hasn’t been said since a year ago when it first stormed the box office? Jordon Peele brings us a film that is not only a brilliant and intense piece of horror satire, but a truly thought provoking look at violence towards African Americans, and how wealthy white people profit off of their imprisonment. Peele’s script, which might be the best of 2017, not only distorts common horror movie conventions but also builds a rich mythology and sense of history, and is also smart enough to trust that the audience will be able to connect the dots. Daniel Kaluuya gives a masterful breakout performance and proves that he is destined for movie stardom.

3. Blade Runner 2049, director Denis Villeneuve

Probably the most brilliant legacyquel to ever come to screen, Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Prisoners, Enemy) teams up with original Blade Runner screenwriter Hampton Fancher, and reunites with the most brilliant cinematographer of all time, Roger Deakins, to bring us a movie that cares very little for answering the first film’s questions and instead expands on the original’s world and continues in the most poignant direction. Ryan Gosling stars as loner Blade Runner, and replicant, K, and Harrison Ford returns, in one of his finest performances in years, as Rick Deckard. Completely unconcerned with whether or not Deckard himself is a replicant, Villeneuve and team focus more on raising questions of identity and whether family is united by biology or by one’s own state of mind. The study of the legitimacy of artificial intelligence versus the genuine article has never been more personal. Boasting the most impressive visuals and production design since the original, Blade Runner 2049 is an instant classic and a worthy addition to the mythos.

4. A Ghost Story, director David Lowrey

David Lowery reunites Ain’t Them Bodies Saints alumni Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara for a mind boggling and melancholy study on grief and loss, and why we live on long after we’re gone. Affleck spends most of the film underneath a sheet, but Mara gives a heart shattering performance as a woman whose life comes to an utter halt when her husband is unexpectedly killed. A minimalist script speaks an epic worth of volumes as the main character dies, returns to his home, and witnesses a millennia of change as he fails (or refuses) to move on. A fantastic portrait of how the number one goal of human nature is to be remembered, whether through what we create or the loved ones we find, A Ghost Story is a dazzling and emotional otherworldly experience.

5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, director Martin McDonagh

In a year rife with political and social activism united against sexual assault, it is no surprise that a movie about a mother seeking justice for the rape and murder of her daughter has clicked so perfectly with audiences. But writer and director Martin McDonagh isn’t interested in giving us easy heroes to root for. Rather he focuses his film on the anger and frustration surrounding injustice, something Americans these days are all too familiar with, and gives us the message that sometimes being a good person means more than just defeating evil. Because sometimes evil isn't punished, so what happens next? Frances McDormand is a powerhouse as the film’s protagonist, who puts up the titular billboards as a way to motivate the local police department into finding her daughter’s killer. But McDormand and McDonagh are doing much more than simply creating an inspiring heroine. Mildred is all rage and hopelessness, and the film is surefooted enough to avoid becoming a simple revenge drama and asks how far will humans allow their anger to take them.

6. Personal Shopper, director Olivier Assayas

A film about how grief can be a catalyst, and an excuse for, one’s own state of arrested development, Personal Shopper stars Kristen Stewart (in one of the best performances of the year) as a young medium who is trying to connect with her deceased twin brother in order to prove that he is at peace. She is also stuck working as a celebrity’s personal assistant, a job she is desperate to escape from (and yet not too desperate). Whereas Get Out twists common horror tropes, Personal Shopper avoids them altogether to allow Stewart to flesh out her performance and character. Although truly terrifying at moments, the film chooses to be more intimate and heart wrenching than scary.

7. The Shape of Water, director Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro is always at his most passionate when it comes to finding the humanity in monsters, and the monstrosity in humans, but here he has achieved a masterstroke in melding period fantasy and fairy tale with a timely study of both racism and the beauty in scientific curiosity. While maybe taking a more classically structured look at race identity than Get Out, del Toro’s film is concerned with how one’s own sense of self, in this case symbolized by a merman (and mermaid), is endangered by the American military mindset (symbolized by an always frightening yet human Michael Shannon). Exploring history and the swan songs of specific milieu is another passion of del Toro’s and in The Shape of Water we see that reinforced in his use of a classical, romantic score and old Hollywood musical tropes (complete with black and white merman dance number). Sometimes the fairy tale outweighs the message but a new film from del Toro is always a visionary and emotional gift.

8. Alien Covenant, director Ridley Scott

While many viewers were (unjustly) turned off by 2012’s Prometheus and Ridley Scott’s desire to explore themes of parenthood and religion rather than just crank out a straight Alien prequel, Alien Covenant finds that perfect balance between deepening the original film’s premise while also delivering the iconic sci-fi horror fans of the series were hoping for. Michael Fassbender is back in top form as android David (and Walter!), while Katherine Waterson is perfect as a modern day Ripley. She’s both the smartest character on the ship (In Alien movies, the women are always right) and an absolute bad ass. Complete with horrifying and jaw dropping action scenes, Alien Covenant paired with Blade Runner 2049 solidifies 2017 as the year for amazing Sci-Fi legacyquels.

If only another certain franchise had just played ball too...

9. Mother!, director Darren Aronofsky

Many have called the film an allegory for Christianity while Aronofsky himself saw it as an allegory about humanity’s treatment of our planet Earth. But ask any true film and Hollywood gossip fan and they’ll be damned if Mother! isn’t an apology from Aronofsky to ex-wife Rachel Weisz. Javier Bardem plays a struggling poet who gradually goes from becoming an overnight (quite literally overnight) success to full-fledged messiah. Jennifer Lawrence plays his wife, who has to put up with the utter chaos that follows. A film that exists entirely within its own world, the house is built in the middle of nowhere, the story is told strictly from the point of view of Mother herself as she struggles to deal with her husband’s uninvited guests. The film begins as a tense, taut suspense drama….and then explodes into balls-to-the-wall bat shit insanity. Definitely not a movie for everyone, or really anyone at all, but no one can deny that it is an absolutely fascinating ride.

10. Phantom Thread, director Paul Thomas Anderson

It’d be simple to say that Phantom Thread is about the way egotistical male artists treat their wives as muses for their own creativity and not as partners (very similar to Mother!), but a Paul Thomas Anderson movie is never easy to boil down to one message. The film cares less about exploring concrete themes and more about studying a relationship we’ve never seen before, one between celebrity fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock (another iconic performance from acting legend Daniel Day Lewis) and Alma (Vicky Krieps, who manages the impossible by not only holding her own against D-Day but actually outshining him for most of the film). Unconventional always being the name of PTA’s game, Phantom Thread isn’t as intentionally inaccessible as The Master or Inherent Vice but rather is a very intimate look at a particular marriage and how romances are never straight line paths.




Best Actress

Kristen Stewart, Personal Shopper

1. Kristen Stewart, Personal Shopper
2. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread
4. Jessica Chastain, Molly's Game
5. Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Best Actor

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

1. Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
2. Michael Fassbender, Alien Covenant
3. Jeremy Renner, Wind River
4. Ryan Gosling, Blade Runner 2049
5. Daniel Day Lewis, Phantom Thread





Best Supporting Actress

Rooney Mara, A Ghost Story

1. Rooney Mara, A Ghost Story
2. Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
3. Elizabeth Olson, Wind River
4. Laura Dern, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
5. Tilda Swinton, Okja




Best Supporting Actor

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

1. Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
2. Tom Hardy, Dunkirk
3. Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. Idris Elba, Molly's Game
5. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name





Best Director

Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk

1. Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
2. Jordon Peele, Get Out

3. Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049

4. David Lowery, A Ghost Story
5. Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Top 25 of 2017

The Best of 2016

My Top Twenty Favorite Movies of 2016

The Top Five


1.  Arrival
Director: Denis Villeneuve

 Evocative of early Christopher Nolan work where editing style and structure reflect the film’s themes, Dennis Villeneuve’s Arrival is an intelligent, brilliantly constructed, and emotional genre piece which easily earns a slot among the greatest Science Fiction films of all time. Mesmerizing cinematography by Bradford Young, a tight script by Villeneuve and Eric Heisserer (adapted from the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang), and top notch performances by Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Amy Adams (the Academy committed a felony by not nominating her for a Best Actress Oscar), tell the story about mysterious aliens arriving on Earth and the struggles faced by the world’s scientists in an effort to decipher their language. A story about how learning a new language teaches you more about a culture than just their words, the importance of peace and cooperation over war, and why trying to understand those foreign to us must always be our first reaction instead of fear.

2. La La Land
Director: Damien Chazelle

An absolute sucker punch and emotional roller coaster, so few musicals have ever spoken with an audience on such a human level as Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. The film is hailed by critics a magical throwback to the musicals of yesteryear but the cast, writing, and direction find so much more heart to raise it higher than just a fun nostalgia trip (unlike 2011’s Best Picture Winner The Artist). Chazelle, Emma Stone, and Ryan Gosling take a familiar story of struggling artists to whom success means everything and infuses it with real drama, creating something we have never seen before. Truly beautiful music, choreography, and cinematography (including an opening dance member consisting of one long tracking shot filmed ENTIRELY ON AN L.A. FREEWAY), La La Land will make your eyes light up and your feet dance, but man that ending will hit you harder than all of the Oscars this film is about to win.

3. Hail, Caesar!
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen

It’s safe to say that no one working today understands the mechanics of Hollywood better than the Coens, the ones who have made a career of creating work both for and outside of the system of Tinsel Town. In Hail, Caesar! the brothers have created a genuine piece of satire on the Golden Age of Film Studios, where actors and actresses were no more than assembly line workers churning out products to be sold. But there is no mean spirited cynicism in the film. Rather, the Coens personify their love for the movies in the character of Josh Brolin’s Eddie Mannix, crafting the message that being an artist for a living is no less honorable (and no less important) than working within a practical trade. With long time collaborator Roger Deakins (whose cinematography here still proves he’s the best in the business) and a loaded chamber of former Coen alumni and newcomers such as George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson (and introducing future star Alden Ehrenreich, who drives the funniest scene of 2016), Joel and Ethan Coen remind us time and time again that they are the true heart of modern cinema.

4. Nocturnal Animals
Director: Tom Ford

While most of 2016 belonged to Marvel and DC, November and December belonged to Amy Adams. She is the star of Tom Ford’s complex psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals and gives her second Oscar worthy performance of the year. In fact, writer and director Ford leaves so much off of the page that he has to entirely rely on Adams to tell his emotionally wounding story, which she does with grace, subtly, and pain. Kubrickion in its style and completely unconventional in its structure, half of the movie is a fictional novel (written by the protagonist’s ex-husband, played by an equally compelling Jake Gyllenhal) read through the lens of Adams. Michael Shannon has received the only acting nod from the Oscars this year, playing the novel-in-a-film’s fictional detective who embodies the metaphorical anger and frustration of his creator, and I will always appreciate the Academy for recognizing how brilliant of an actor Shannon is in almost any role. But the supporting nomination should have gone to Gyllenhaal, for playing up the strength (and bitterness) in a character branded as weak and for also essentially giving two different performances (and in a way, they’re the same performance). But ultimately, the film belongs to Adams and Ford (who should have at least received an Adapted Screenplay nomination). Nocturnal Animals is about how society and people define weakness versus strength, but also about how art and creativity can be used to heal oneself…and hurt the ones who’ve hurt us.

5. Silence
Director: Martin Scorsese

Easily the most important religious movie ever made, and one that every Christian needs to see, Martin Scorsese’s decade-long passion project affected me in a way that I never believed a movie about faith ever could. Adapted from the novel by Shusaku Endo, Silence is a period piece where Scorsese and his production design team completely immerse the audience into Seventeenth century Japan. Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, Ciaran Hinds, and Tadanobu Asano are just a handful of this film’s multitude of talented supporting cast members. Andrew Garfield is perfect in the lead role of Father Rodrigues, his youth being ideal in representing a naive mind engrossed with the institution of Christianity until he finally sees what the world looks like outside of the Church. But Issei Ogata steals the show as Inquisitor Inoue, whose one goal is to convince Rodriques to break his faith and assimilate himself into Japanese culture. The decision Rodrigues ultimately makes is painful, but one that is the difference between what makes someone a Christian in name and what makes them a Christian at heart. 

Runners Up


6. Hell or High Water
Director: David Mackenzie

7. The Lobster
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos 

8. The Neon Demon
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

9. Everybody Wants Some!!
Director: Richard Linklater

10. Midnight Special
Director: Jeff Nichols

Honorable Mentions 



11. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 
Director: Gareth Edwards 

                         




















12. Manchester By The Sea 
Director: Kenneth Lonergan

     




















13. Hunt For The Wilderpeople
Director: Taika Waititi

     




















14. Jackie
Director: Pablo Larrain

       




















15. The Nice Guys
Director: Shane Black

   




















16. Fences
Director: Denzel Washington

        




















17. Kubo And The Two Strings
Director: Travis Knight

 




















18. Sing Street
Director: John Carney

 




















19. Moonlight
Director: Barry Jenkins

20. Right Now, Wrong Then
Director: Sang-soo Hong

         





















Best Director

Denis Villeneuve for Arrival    

      
Runners Up

Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Joel and Ethan Coen for Hail, Caesar!
Tom Ford for Nocturnal Animals
Martin Scorsese for Silence




Best Actress

Amy Adams for Arrival

Runners Up

Emma Stone for La La Land
Natalie Portman for Jackie
Viola Davis for Fences
Elle Fanning for The Neon Demon




Best Actor

Ryan Gosling for La La Land

Runners Up

Andrew Garfield for Silence
Josh Brolin for Hail, Caesar!
Michael Shannon for Midnight Special
Chris Pine for Hell or High Water




Best Supporting Actress

Rachel House for Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Runners Up

Lucy Boynton for Sing Street
Kate McKinnon for Ghostbusters
Rachel Weisz for The Lobster
Jena Malone for The Neon Demon




Best Supporting Actor

Issei Ogata for Silence

Runners Up

Alden Ehrenreich for Hail, Caesar!

Glen Powell for Everybody Wants Some!!

Mahershala Ali for Moonlight

Donnie Yen for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story