(FROM THE ARCHIVE) BEST MOVIES OF 2017

2015 and 2016 were posted on Unreelflicks.com back in the day and are sadly gone, I may post drafts or re-assessments after the decade is done.

kind of fill up my blog thing before I really start kicking, and centralize my stuff, I am going to be posting my best of lists from the past few years. I am going to copy and paste them froom my Facebook Notes, without editing. So some opinions have definitely changed, but these were my thoughts at the time.

Enjoy!

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Here it is! My long unawaited best of 2017! I finally got one out before the Oscar Nominations are announced, even if its only by a few hours. I’ve seen around 145 2017 released films, but even so, I missed out on a huge number of 2017 contenders out of a combination of a lack of availability, time, or interest. Movies that I wasn’t able to see include biggest regrets Faces/Places, In God’s Own Country, and Song to Song.

Otherwise I also missed out on:

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Your Name, Marjorie Prime, Lucky, My Happy Family, The Death of Louis XIV, Last Flag Flying, Brad's Status, T2 Trainspotting, The Ornithologist, The Salesman, After the Storm, The Lovers, Jim & Andy, Staying Vertical, Maudie, Behemoth, The Lure, Slack Bay, Whose Streets, xXx: Return of Xander Cage (landed on THREE best of the year lists), Person to Person, Chasing Coral, Icarus, Wonder Wheel, Lost in Paris, Stronger, Donald Cried, City of Ghosts, The Hounds of Love, Planetarium, The Zookeeper's Wife, Pokot (Spoor), The Wizard of Lies, Lovesong, The Untamed, The Limehouse Golem, American Assassin, Cries From Syria, Victoria and Abdul, Pervert Park, Easy Living, LA 92, 47 Meters Down, Una, On Body and Soul, Slack Bay, Gook, Happy death Day, Some Freaks, The Hero, From the Land to the Moon, Found Footage, The Glass Castle, Mark Felt The Man Who Brought Down the White House, Newton, The Commune, Dark Night, Love, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, LBJ, My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea, Only the Brave, Novitiate, and Ex Libris.

Many of the foreign language releases will probably count as 2018 movies for me as they aren’t receiving their Canadian release until February and March in many cases (Foxtrot, A Fantastic Woman, The Insult…).

That’s pretty much my “To-Watch” list for the rest of 2017’s movies. So rather than swing wildly at getting more of those in before giving up exasperatedly and releasing this at an arbitrary date, I’ll just go by my annual ideal deadline that I always miss, The Oscar Nominations!

BTW I really like doing this.

Best Picture of 2017

1. Phantom Thread

2. A Ghost Story

3. Get Out

4. BPM (Beats Per Minute)

5. Wind River

6. Raw

7. The Big Sick

8. I, Tonya

9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

10. Call Me By Your Name

11. Personal Shopper

12. The Work

13. The Killing of a Sacred Deer

14. Lady Bird

15. Coco

16. The Shape of Water

17. Nocturama

18. Florida Project

19. The Lost City of Z

20. Loving Vincent

Honourable Mentions: The Square, Thelma, Okja, The Lost City of Z, Ingrid Goes West, Patti Cake$, A Dark Song, Frantz, War for the Planet of the Apes, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

Notes: Though there are probably about 40-50 movies I’d say are good, very few blew me away in their entirety. Get Out did that, and by the end A Ghost Story as well. Phantom Thread just keeps growing in my mind, like ivy wrapping itself around my brain I can’t stop thinking about it and I think I’d consider that Number One material. BPM was absolutely fascinating and was able to perfectly balance the documentary elements of the subject with the sheer humanity of it’s subjects. I immediately wanted to go back and explore all of the Campillo/Canet movies. There’s a little drop off from 4-5. I love Wind River, I recognize it doesn’t explore a ton of new ground in terms of film as a craft, but it is about as perfect a genre film as you can ask for. Setting it in a rarely explored and underrepresented area while treating the place and its people with respect makes it feel even more significant.

The Big Sick is another film that kind of perfects a genre, but it does play with conventions, undermining and reversing them. It is also the home of a great script and a fantastic cast. I, Tonya is a novel approach to the biopic, playing the line between truth and fiction while never losing sight of humor and heart. Call Me by Your Name didn’t sweep me off my feet immediately like it did others. The languid pace and eternal place-setting slowed my attachment to the point that the film was pretty much over by the time I was pulled right in. However, the way in which it wraps up is extremely effective.

The outlier in the top 10 is Star Wars. I just need to admit that I loved it. I like Star Wars in general, I’m not a super-fan or anything, but I’ve liked the series since I was pretty young and saw the Return of the Jedi re-release in the late 90s. As much as I’ve enjoyed the original trilogy (including the unfairly maligned Return of the Jedi) Last Jedi is head and shoulders above all of them as a film. There is so much to admire and think about, and that doesn’t slow down the pace, or the brilliant action at all. It’s a great film.

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

1. Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread

2. Robert Pattinson – Good Time

3. Nahuel Pérez Biscayart – BPM (Beats Per Minute)

4. Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out

5. Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name

6. Claes Bang – The Square

7. Colin Farrell – Killing of a Sacred Deer

8. Harris Dickinson – Beach Rats

9. Kumail Nanjiani – The Big Sick

10. Andy Serkis – War for the Planet of the Apes

Honourable Mentions: Charlie Hunnam – The Lost City of Z, Jeremy Renner – Wind River, Adrian Titieni – Graduation, Chadwick Boseman – Marshall, and Joel Edgerton – It comes at Night

Notes: DDL is reliably magnificent in Phantom Thread. Seeing as the film is all about characters and their relationships I don’t want to explain too much, but he plays Reynolds Woodcock as a great onion. All these layers of artifice to hide who he is and it’s a joy to watch them unravel in the most understated ways possible.

Robert Pattinson is definitely not understated, but is also great. He has been working to redeem his image after the Twilight films, and I think he’s done it. He was out of place in Cosmopolis, too broad in The Rover, but it was progress. Then in this year’s Lost City of Z, he was someone else. He hid his looks and his charisma to just be a guy and it worked extremely well. Then he blew my mind as the fast-but-not-exactly-smart-thinking Constantine Nikas in Good Time. It’s a nonstop adrenaline burst of a performance, but we never lose sight of his drive and goal, or his struggle as he digs himself deeper and deeper as he tries to climb out. It’s a great, great performance.

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

1. Margot Robbie – I, Tonya

2. Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water

3. Kristen Stewart – Personal Shopper

4. Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

5. Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird

6. Vicky Krieps – Phantom Thread

7. Garance Marillier – Raw

8. Cynthia Nixon – A Quiet Passion

9. Danielle Macdonald – Patti Cake$

10. Florence Pugh – Lady MacBeth

Honourable Mentions: Aubrey Plaza – Ingrid Goes West, Catherine Walker – A Dark Song, Ellie Kendrick – The levelling, Jenny Slate and Abby Quinn – Landline, Seo-Hyun Ahn – Okja, Haley Lu Richardson – Columbus, Salma Hayek – Beatriz at dinner, Jessica Chastain – Molly, Kirsten Dunst – The Beguiled, and Melanie Lynskey – I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore

Notes: One thing I’ve loved about expanding my horizons and the film world expanding opportunities, is finding how many great actresses there are. Hopefully that keeps going because I really like having an overflowing list of female performances.

It’s extremely difficult to rank these because they’re all so good in their different ways. I think I give an edge to Margot Robbie for being able to present a woman at different stages of her life, and really let us feel the change across those years. Sally Hawkins is a joy in The Shape of Water, and she is a lot of the reason the film works. It’s a little unwieldy and I think some of Del Toro’s impulses could have been reigned in a little, but the light that emanates from Sally Hawkins’s Elisa is undeniable.

Kristen Stewart has kind of been lost in the shuffle since Personal Shopper has been kicking around for so long, but it’s hard to forget her grieving-but-kind-of-in-performance in Personal Shopper. There are some dramatic highs in the movie for her to play that she nails, but it’s the quietness that really shows off what she can do. There is a long section where her performance is just reacting to text messages and it never loses any steam. She is great.

Frances McDormand is a powerhouse, Saoirse Ronan brings such deep empathy and authenticity to what could be a very unlikeable character, Vicky Krieps stands toe-to-toe with DDL and does not blink, Garance Marillier changes herself to the core throughout Raw, I mean, I can keep going on and on. Such a good year.

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

1. Willem Dafoe – The Florida Project

2. Sebastian Stan – I, Tonya

3. Michael Fassbender – Alien: Covenant

4. James Franco – The Disaster Artist

5. Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

6. Lucas Hedges – Lady Bird

7. Ben Stiller – The Meyerowitz Stories

8. Armie Hammer – Call Me By Your Name

9. Bill Nighy – Their Finest

10. Steve Carell – Battle of the Sexes

Honourable Mentions: Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name, Adam Driver and Mark Hamill – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, and Michael Stuhlbarg – The Shape of Water, Jason Sudeikis – Colossal, Ray Romano – The Big Sick, Terry Notary – The Square, Robert Pattinson – The Lost City of Z, Christopher Plummer – The Exception, Ben Mendelsohn – The Darkest Hour, Colin Farrell – The Beguiled, Jason Mitchell – Mudbound, Matt Bomer – Walking Out, Benny Safdie – Good Time, Paul Walter Hauser – I, Tonya, Tracy Letts – Lady Bird and The Post, Mamoudou Athie and Siddarth Dhananjay – Patti Cake$

Notes: Who can watch Florida Project and not just love Willem Dafoe? Just a decent man doing his best. He’s the only professional actor in the film and helps ground it. A couple of underrated performances fit in at 2 and 3. Sebastian Stan is always solid, but he’s great in I, Tonya. He does a good job of showing how so many abusers get away with what they do for years, he’s a fairly charming guy, but riddled with insecurities and he takes those out on his wife. Michael Fassbender is in the wrong genre at the wrong time of year with Alien Covenant, but he deserves a lot of respect for what he accomplishes there. He gives two distinct thoughtful performances as two versions of the David android. He was the best part of Prometheus, and is the best part of Covenant too.

Considering the recent allegations, I kind of don’t want to acknowledge Franco, but he’s really good in The Disaster Artist. He seems to thrive when he can throw himself deep into a character, with this moving beyond a simple impression. If it is fair to disqualify him for grossness, then add any of the honourable mentions to the 10 slot, they are all absolutely terrific.

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

1. Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird

2. Alison Janney – I, Tonya

3. Zoey Kazan – The Big Sick

4. Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread

5. Holly Hunter – The Big Sick

6. Nicole Kidman – The Beguiled

7. Betty Gabriel – Get Out

8. Beanie Feldstein – Lady Bird

9. Ella Rumpf – Raw

10. Edie Falco – Landline

Honourable Mentions: Rebecca Spence – Princess Cyd, Glen Close – The Girl with All the Gifts, Bridget Everett and Cathy Moriarty – Patti Cake$, Joana Bacon and Annette Bedland – A Quiet Passion, Julianne Nicholson – I, Tonya, Kate Hodge – Beach Rats, Alison Williams and Catherine Keener – Get Out, Mary J. Blige – Mudbound, Janet McTeer – The Exception, Carrie Coon – The Post, and Carmen Ejogo – It Comes at Night

Notes: Between two veteran actresses playing overbearing mothers, I give the slight edge to Metcalf because her character is less of a capital ‘C’ character. That is not to denigrate the great work Janney does in I, Tonya, because it is in perfect concert with the film’s style and tone, but I think Metcalf has something a little harder to do in Lady Bird. She has to play a flawed and in many ways unlikeable mother, who we still understand, respect, and sympathize with, and she absolutely nails it. Zoey Kazan is an unsung hero in The Big Sick, she is so charming, but lays in enough of her characters quirks and issues along with a strength of mind, that we buy the unexpected turns at the end that could have been very hard to pull off. Of course Holly Hunter is also terrific, as we see the source of that strength in Kazan’s character’s mother. The trio at the head of Phantom Thread is completed by Lesley Manville as Reynold’s protective sister Cyril. It’s a marvelous performance that, again, I don’t want to touch on too much.

Best Director

1. Paul Thomas Anderson – Phantom Thread

2. Jordan Peele – Get Out

3. Robin Campillo – BPM (Beats Per Minute)

4. The Safdie Brothers – Good Time

5. David Lowery – A Ghost Story

6. Julia Ducourneau – Raw

7. Olivier Asayas – Personal Shopper

8. Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird

9. Scott Gillespie – I, Tonya

10. Rian Jonson – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Honourable Mentions: Bertrand Bonello - Nocturama, Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman – Loving Vincent, Taylor Sheridan – Wind River, Luca Guadagnino – Call me By Your Name, Reuben Ostlund – The Square, Yorgos Lanthimos – Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina – Coco, James Gray – The Lost City of Z, Matt Reeves – War for the Planet of the Apes, and Geremy Jasper – Patti Cake

Notes: People always seem confused by the separation of Best Picture and Best Director, many believe that the best picture is logically the one made by the best director, or vice versa. I totally understand that, but I think there’s something to be said about what is being accomplished. I loved The Big Sick, but the real star of the film is it’s script. It’s also one that could have been directed by many and still been great, same goes for Wind River. But looking at Phantom Thread, Get Out, BPM, Good Time, A Ghost Story, Raw, Personal Shopper, Lady Bird, I, Tonya, those are all films constructed and driven by a certain sensibility that I don’t think could be duplicated. Jonson of course gets a ton of credit for creating maybe the first truly great Star Wars film. Part of me also wants to add Nolan to the Honourable Mentions section for Dunkirk, the technical achievement of that film is astounding, and moment to moment can be intense and thrilling. The problem is his decision to scatter the narrative, to have almost no characters in the film at all (thought he only plotline where we do get to know the characters is easily the weakest), rob the film of a lot of its power.

Best Original Screenplay

1. Jordan Peele – Get Out

2. Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon – The Big Sick

3. Paul Thomas Anderson – Phantom Thread

4. Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird

5. Taylor Sheridan – Wind River

6. Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor – The Shape of Water

7. David Lowery – A Ghost Story

8. Robin Campillo and Philippe Mangeot – BPM (Beats Per Minute)

9. Julia Ducourneau - Raw

10. Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie – Good Time

Honourable Mentions: Olivier Asayas – Personal Shopper, Rian Johnson – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Adrian Molina and Matthew Aldrich – Coco, Bertrand Bonello – Nocturama, Elizabeth Holm and Gillian Robespierre – Landline, Geremy Jasper – Patti Cake$, Joseph Cedar – Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Bong Joon-Ho and Jon Ronson – Okja, Liam Gavin – A Dark Song, and Matt Spicer and David Branson Smith – Ingrid Goes West

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Steven Rogers – I, Tonya

2. Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

3. James Ivory – Call me By Your Name

4. Sofia Coppola – The Beguiled

5. Mike Carey – The Girl with All the Gifts

Honourable Mentions: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost – Thor, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers – Spiderman: Homecoming, and Allan Heinberg – Wonder Woman

Notes for both Categories: So few adapted scripts are actually good this year. Even with I, Tonya and Killing of a Sacred Deer (both based on previous things though not credited as such), are stretches as adaptations. Luckily we got three good superhero movies this year, though the only reason they show as honourable mentions is the total lack of competition. Looking at the original screenplay category: goddamn.

Best Cinematography

1. Hoyt Van Hoytema – Dunkirk

2. Andrew Droz Palermo – A Ghost Story

3. Paul Thomas Anderson – Phantom Thread

4. Roger Deakins – Blade Runner 2049

5. Sean Price Williams – Good Time

6. Reuben Impens – Raw

7. Steve Yedlin – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

8. Jeanne Lapoirie – BPM (Beats Per Minute)

9. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – Call Me by Your Name

10. Mikhail Krichman – Loveless

Honourable Mentions: Dan Lausten – The Shape of Water, Philippe le Sourd – The Beguiled, Toby Oliver – Get Out, Darius Khondji – The Lost city of Z, Bojan Bazelli – A Cure of Wellness, Nicolas Karakatsanis – I, Tonya, Bryce Fortner – Ingrid Goes West, Alexis Zabe – The Florida Project, Jakob Ihre – Thelma, Thimios Bakatakis – The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Nobuyasu Kita – Blade of the Immortal, Drew Daniels – It Comes at Night, Yorick Le Saux – Personal Shopper, Michael Seresin – War for the Planet of the Apes, Janusz Kaminski – The Post, and Matthew Libatique – Mother!

Notes: PTA didn’t credit himself as DP on Phantom Thread, but the movie is just so gorgeous and special.

Best Editing

1. Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie – Good Time

2. Gregory Plotkin – Get Out

3. Robin Campillo, Stephanie Leger, and Anita Roth – BPM (Beats Per Minute)

4. Tatiana S. Riegel – I, Tonya

5. Dylan Tichenor – Phantom Thread

6. Bob Ducsay – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

7. Jean-Christophe Bouzy – Raw

8. Olivier Bugge Coutté – Thelma

9. David Lowery – A Ghost Story

10. Marion Monnier – Personal Shopper

Honourable Mentions: Joe Beshenkovsky – Jane, Arturo Santamaria – The Work, Yorgos Mavropsaridis – The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Sean Baker – The Florida Project, Jack Price – Ingrid Goes West, Brian A. Kates – Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, and Yorgos Mavropsaridis – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Notes: I never know how to compare Doc editing with Fiction editing, but I wanted to make sure that Jane and The Work both got recognized. Jane is put together from hundreds of hours of silent film and they create an engaging story. The Work takes four days of therapy and built beautiful emotional arcs for the characters. Those are two premier works in film editing.

Best Production Design

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

2. The Shape of Water

3. Thor: Ragnarok

4. Phantom Thread

5. The Lost City of Z

6. War for the Planet of the Apes

7. Dunkirk

8. A Dark Song

9. Wonder Woman

10. Wonderstruck

Honourable Mentions: Blade Runner 2049, The Girl with All the Gifts, A Cure for Wellness, Beauty and the Beast, Brawl in Cell Block 99, The Square, The Devil’s Candy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Dave Built a Maze, It, Their Finest, and Alien Covenant

Notes: Snoke’s Chamber, The Salt Planet, Skellig Michael, these are just a few of the many iconic locations and images the Production Design for Last Jedi created. There are so many world’s created this year in such great detail, big and small, but I think the most lasting and immersive may be The Last Jedi’s.

Best Costume

1. Phantom Thread

2. The Beguiled

3. Thor: Ragnarok

4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

5. The Shape of Water

6. The Lost City of Z

7. Wonder Woman

8. War for the Planet of the Apes

9. Beauty and the Beast

10. I, Tonya

Honourable Mentions: First They Killed My Father, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Battle of the Sexes, Good Time, The Exception, The Promise, Detroit, Their Finest, Blade Runner 2049, and Blades of the Immortal

Best Hair and Makeup

1. The Shape of Water

2. Good Time

3. BPM (Beats Per Minute)

4. Raw

5. Phantom Thread

6. Thor: Ragnarok

7. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

8. A Cure for Wellness

9. I, Tonya

10. The Lost City of Z

Honourable Mentions: Ingrid Goes West, Battle of the Sexes, Detroit, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Murder on the Orient Express, The Disaster Artist, Mudbound, and Blades of the Immortal

Best Original Score

1. Johnny Greenwood – Phantom Thread

2. Daniel Hart – A Ghost Story

3. Phillip Glass – Jane

4. Daniel Lopatin – Good Time

5. Alexandre Desplat – The Shape of Water

6. Dan Deacon – Rat Film

7. John Williams – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

8. Hans Zimmer – Dunkirk

9. Michael Giacchino, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Robert Lopez – Coco

10. Jim Williams – Raw

Honourable Mentions: Clint Mansel – Loving Vincent, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Wind River, Michael Abels – Get Out, Michael Giacchino – War for the Planet of the Apes, Jason Binnick and Geremy Jasper – Patti Cake$, and Jon Brion – Lady Bird

Notes: It’s kind of an embarrassment of riches this year in terms of film scores. There are some that carry you through the film on a beautiful wave (Greenwood, Hart, Desplat), and some that can make moments land with ferocity (Williams).

Best Original Song

1. Mystery of Love (Call Me by Your Name)

2. Remember Me (Coco)

3. Visions of Gideon (Call me by Your Name)

4. I Get Overwhelmed (A Ghost Story)

5. Tuff Love Finale (Patti Cake$)

Notes: This is usually a nonsense category at the Oscars, but there were just a bunch of wonderful songs this year so fuck it!

Best Use of Non-Original Music

1. I, Tonya

2. Lady Bird

3. Call me By Your Name

4. Okja

5. Raw

6. Thor: Ragnarok

7. The Shape of Water

8. Good Time

9. Beauty and the Beast

Best Visual Effects

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

2. Dunkirk

3. War for the Planet of the Apes

4. Blade Runner 2049

5. Okja

6. The Shape of Water

7. Spiderman: Homecoming

8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

9. Thor: Ragnarok

10. Beauty and the Beast

Honourable Mentions: Wonder Woman, Thelma, Blades of the Immortal, American Made, The Girl with All the Gifts, A Cure for Wellness, and Logan

Best Sound Effects and Editing

1. Dunkirk

2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

3. Jane

4. Get Out

5. The Shape of Water

6. War for the Planet of the Apes

7. Raw

8. Wind River

9. Phantom Thread

10. Good Time

Honourable Mentions: Okja, BPM (Beats Per Minute), A Dark Song, Nocturama, Patti Cake$, Thelma, The Devil’s Candy, It Comes at Night, and The Lost City of Z

Notes: I am essentially a sound philistine with a tin ear, but there are definitely a few movies that stood out to me. The Last Jedi has at least one moment where the use (or not) of sound is breathtaking. The work to create sound from scratch for the hours of beautiful footage in Jane is impressive, and sound plays such a key role to the tension built in Get Out, Raw, Wind River, Phantom Thread, and Good Time. Over all, however, is the Nolan’s incredibly detailed and immersive work on Dunkirk. It just feels too real not to recognize as the best.

So that’s it! Thanks for reading.