2017 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 2017:

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. The Fate of the Furious
4. Despicable Me 3
5. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
6. Spider-Man: Homecoming
7. Wolf Warrior 2
8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
9. Thor: Ragnarok
10. Wonder Woman

What are your top three films for 2017? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Zama
2. Western
3. First Reformed

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

Get Out was the rare mainstream hit that delivered. Call Me By Your Name and The Florida Project were very touching. Phantom Thread is good but it has never captured me as much as his other films. Let the Sunshine in was a really close 4.

 

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. The Florida Project
3. mother!

4. Get Out
5. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
6. World of Tomorrow Episode Two
7. Logan
8. Phantom Thread
9. You Were Never Really Here
10. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Also love War for the Planet of the Apes, Thor: Ragnarok, One Cut of the Dead, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Baby Driver, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Brigsby Bear, It Comes at Night, First Reformed, The Big Sick, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds, Gifted, Raw, Super Dark Times, Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water, Let the Sunshine In, A Ghost Story, Columbus, Good Time and Dunkirk.

 

1. Get Out
2. The Shape of Water
3. Happy Death Day

 

1. A Ghost Story
2. Zama
3. Get Out

Call Me By Your Name, Good Time, First Reformed, The Florida Project, Phantom Thread, Lady Bird, and Logan Lucky were great experiences. I connected with The Big Sick on a personal level so I do think back on that movie fondly. The Meyerowitz Stories was very good, one of Sandler’s best performances, but it wasn’t even his best performance of the year, which was Sandy Wexler. I liked the Post, maybe the third best of Spielberg’s 2010s. Knight of Cups was the first time I didn’t really love a Malick film, Song to Song I appreciated more. There were even two Disney owned blockbusters I liked in The Last Jedi and Thor: Ragnarok. Logan was better than both though as far as big IP movies from the year. Girls Trip made me and the theater I saw it in laugh a lot.

 

1. November
2. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
3. The Florida Project

 

1. Logan
2. Coco
3. Thor: Ragnarok

probably my most basic ballot yet

edited: swapped Coco for Lady Bird. Coco is the last thing to make me cry, so it feels wrong to not include it, haha

 

1. Thor: Ragnarok
2. Coco
3. Get Out

It was very hard for my history nerdness to leave Dunkirk out of hte top 3, but I love all 3 of those movies and get great re-watch value out of all of them so.

Also it was Ragnarok that actually "got me into" the MCU. I had seen most (but not all) of the movies and the only one I had previously gone to theaters to see was the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Knowing Ragnarok was supposed to be funny, and the cultural importance of the at that point upcoming Black Panther movie, and knowing that Avengers Infinity War was coming and having a vague sense of the overarching Thanos plot in the background, I knew if I wanted to keep up with it as all my close friends were pretty into it, it was time to jump in. So Ragnarok is where I finally became an MCU fan and man what a fun movie. Only MCU movie I haven't seen in theaters since then was Far From Home (and now Shang Chi and soon to be Eternals because I aint visiting a theater while covid still rages on)

 

Considering voting Ragnarok just to watch Tetra implode

 

1. Good Time
2. The Florida Project
3. Call Me By Your Name

 

1. Good Time
2. Dunkirk
3. Call Me by Your Name

Get Out is a brutal cut. Thor Ragnarok and the Last Jedi were both dope blockbusters. Lady Bird is excellent. Death of Stalin, Logan, Logan Lucky, Big Sick, and I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore were all good. Downsizing was very bad. Song to Song was like a Terrance Malick movie made by someone who absolutely hates Terrance Malick.

 

Really strong year, tough to rank. A lot of these could have ended up in the top 3.

1. Lady Bird
2. The Florida Project
3. Good Time

Honorable mentions:

Get Out
Phantom Thread
First Reformed
Blade Runner 2049
A Ghost Story
Dunkirk
Coco
Logan
Logan Lucky
Call Me By Your Name
Super Dark Times

Dishonorable mention to mother!, one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

 

1. Phantom Thread
2. Logan Lucky
3. Lady Bird

 

There have been worse films nominated already.

 

1. BR2049
2. First Reformed
3. Good Time

Really strong year. Also really enjoyed Phantom Thread, Get Out, Wind River, Only the Brave, The Death of Stalin, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Lady Bird, The Meyerowitz Stories, The Florida Project, You Were Never Really Here, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and yes, Paddington 2.

 

1. The Florida Project
2. Good Time
3. First Reformed

 

1. On the Beach at Night Alone
2. Microhabitat
3. Beauty and the Dogs

On the Beach at Night Alone is one of Hong Sang Soo's more autobiographical films (even if he is not centred in it). An actress reflects on her public affair with a famous director. The real life backstory is that lead actress Kim Min Hee and director Hong Sang Soo had an affair while filming his last film. Like all Hong films, it's self indulgent and self obsessed to a point, but always fascinating.

Microhabitat I thought was a brilliant little comedy / drama, about a young woman trying to find a place to live, while refusing to compromise her lifestyle, particularly her tastes for expensive whiskey. She exists between friends' sofas, all of them pathetic and tragic in their own way. Really charming, and a far less obnoxious version of Frances Ha.

Beauty and the Dogs is a really tough and intense Tunisian film about a woman raped by policemen and then stumbling through the night trying to find justice and / or medical care. The act is (thankfully) not shown at all, we just see the before and after, in a series of long takes. Deeply distressing, and horribly tense, but extremely powerful filmmaking.

Honourable Mentions;

A few really good animated films, Virus Tropical, an autobiographical film about growing up in Colombia, with a really charming "hand-drawn" art style, that really works well for the film. The Breadwinner is a moving film about an Afghan girl, trying to provide for her family by pretending to be a boy, so she can work and be out on the streets. Have a Nice Day is a fun Chinese animation that feels very much like a Coen's brothers film, with some larger than life characters on the lookout for stolen money.

From America, I thought First Reformed was solid, but had an exceptional last scene, which always helps for a film to end on a memorable note. Wind River, I saw knowing nothing at all about in the cinema, and that was an enjoyable thriller. You Were Never Really Here is Lynne Ramsey's haunting film about violence, clearly influenced by Taxi Driver, but not trying to remake it, Joaquin Phoenix also looks the spitting image of a fatter Roy Keane. Good Time, is a good tense and anxious Safdie Brothers film, and Death of Stalin, while it's not as good as some of Armando Iannucci's best, has some great lines in parts.

From around Europe, there's the incredibly darkly comic Under The Tree from Iceland, a comedy (just about) of a series of escalating arguments that spiral completely out of control. The Square from Ruben Östlund is definitely about 30 minutes too long, but there's some great moments and examination of the contemporary art world. The piece of performance art with the "ape man" is totally gripping. Ava is an outrageously French film about a 13 year old girl on a beach, who runs off with an older man, goes slightly feral and starts robbing tourists.

Some other good Korean stuff this year includes the highly stylised violent action film The Villainess. There's A Taxi Driver, starring the always excellent Song Kang Ho about the Gwangju massacre in 1980, that's gripping. There's also another Hong Sang Soo film, The Day After, a bitter and dark comedy, about awful men, a Hong speciality.

One Cut of the Dead is a fun low budget Japanese zombie movie, about making a low budget zombie movie. Playful and enjoyable, with the last half hour where it all comes together in particular.

My controversial film opinion (I guess...) for this year is that the Ghost in the Shell remake with Scarlett Johansson was good. It's unnecessary, but it was a good adaption, and worthy in it's own right.

 

Incredible year.

Phantom Thread
Blade Runner 2049
Call Me By Your Name (fuck Armie Hammer)

HM: Baby Driver, John Wick 2, The Shape of Water, Dunkirk, War for the Planet of the Apes, Get Out, Lady Bird, It, Coco, The Florida Project, Good Time, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, A Ghost Story, Paddington 2, Columbus, Brawl In Cell Block 99, Hostiles, The Rider, A Taxi Driver, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore

 

1. First Reformed
2. Zama
3. Call Me By Your Name

I love this Dad speech and I didn't like Baby Driver.

 

Absolutely amazing year.

First Reformed
Good Time
The Florida Project

EDIT - Because I came into this conversation midway through the decade, I should have understood the nuance to the discussion before chiming in on personal rankings. First Reformed would be number one on this list but didn't actually come out until early summer of 2018. When the 2018 thread pops up i'll dive deep into why this is one of the more emphatic films of the last 20 years for me personally, straight up monumental movie for me personally.

The Florida Project is also another monumental recent film for me, struck a true personal nerve as far as the experiences these kids went through. What an ending. I saw Red Rocket at MVFF a few weeks ago, and while it delivered wholeheartedly, The Florida Project is something so special.

Good Time--It was the perfect storm for this incredible piece of fiction that just seeps with grit. Pattinson is incredible, but Benny Safdie's performance is one of the best of the decade. Nuanced and hurtful. Amazing score.

Some of my honorable mentions--
Blade Runner 2049
Personal Shopper
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
A Ghost Story
The Killing of A Sacred Deer
Lady Bird
Get Out
John Wick 2
The Beguiled
The Lost City of Z
mother!
Beach Rats
I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore
Patti Cake$
All These Sleepless Nights

 

1. First Reformed
2. Zama
3. Good Time

 

We're just going by Letterboxd dates which is why people are classing it as a 2017 movie.

 

People can choose to celebrate a film in any year they want, but international release dates will be used for placement. It is the only thing that makes sense with a conversation of people around the planet.