Keith Simanton's Top 25 Films of 2017
I'm IMDb's Senior Film Editor and, though I haven't seen every film 2017 had to offer I saw a LOT of films. This list has changed over the year, as it should, and movies have surfaced and receded (and left!), often after a second viewing. But not these. by Keith Simanton, Senior Film Editor, IMDb -
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- DirectorGreta GerwigStarsSaoirse RonanLaurie MetcalfTracy LettsIn 2002, an artistically inclined 17-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California.#1 - Writer/director Greta Gerwig's sensitive, yet unsentimental, treatment of coming of age and of a parent/child relationship (as the child grows apart) is the only flawless film I've seen this year. Saoirse Ronan's makeup free/b.s.-free performance will make writers write roles for her for fifty years. Besides Breaking Away it's hard to find a film, or a TV show, to compare it to. You'd have to go to a novel for that.
- DirectorMartin McDonaghStarsFrances McDormandWoody HarrelsonSam RockwellA mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.#2- Just when you think you know writer/director Martin McDonagh, because of 7 Psychophaths or In Bruges, he comes along and totally surprises you. The same could be said for the main characters in Three Billboards. There's the grieving/infuriated/aggrieved mother Mildred, played with ferocity and humanity by Frances McDormand, and the sorrowful sheriff Willoughby, a tender, real Woody Harrelson, and the ugly, bigoted deputy Dixon, played by the thank-God-it's-his-time Sam Rockwell. All three take McDonagh's script, dropping the smart-alack stance of his former work, and transform it into a bridge into another person's wrecked world. Lovely and tough at the same time.
- DirectorMichael ShowalterStarsKumail NanjianiZoe KazanHolly HunterPakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family's expectations, and his true feelings.#3 - The film I've watched at least six times Sick is one of the best romantic comedies in years. Based on the true story of Kumail Nanjiani and his co-writer/wife, Emily Gordon there are few false notes. Holly Hunter & Ray Romano provide something unique to each of their characters and their relationship, which is one that matter. AND you get to fall in love with the effervescent Zoe Kazan all over again. Huge laughs, lots of sniffles Wow.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsFionn WhiteheadBarry KeoghanMark RylanceAllied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.#4 - Though I was shaken by the scope, the vastness, the emptiness, the terror of seeing this film the first time it was my second and third that solidified its greatness for me. The nature of how we experience the world, the first time raw, emotional and reactionary, is the first viewing, all noise and flashes and drive. Yet it's only upon reflection, a second viewing, if you will, that you get compassion, some depth of understanding and some perspective of events that happened to you. That perspective under-girds every frame of this incredible picture. It is Nolan's most meditative, his least plot-driven, and future film lovers may call it his greatest work.
- DirectorSean BakerStarsBrooklynn PrinceBria VinaiteWillem DafoeSet over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World.#5 - Sean Baker is one of a handful of filmmakers making films as if he were unaware that the '70s are over. The hardest sit of the year for me The Florida Project confronts you with your own backyard (or 15-20 miles away from it). Yet instead of a PSA it brings its characters alive by making them all too real, all too believable (petty, ungrateful and just plain mean). The ending is debated even among those who made it.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsHarrison FordRyan GoslingAna de ArmasYoung Blade Runner K's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former Blade Runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.#6 - The question of what constitutes humanity and human connection, one brought up in films as early as Metropolis to the original Blade Runner to A.I., are given a vigorous workout in Denis Villineuve's film. The richness of 2049's palate by cinematographer Roger Deakins and the stunning sets are like an edition of OMNI magazine sprung to horrible, terrible, inevitable life.
- DirectorLee UnkrichAdrian MolinaStarsAnthony GonzalezGael García BernalBenjamin BrattAspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family's ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.#7 - Family. They can be your legacy. They can be your genetic destiny. They can boost you up beyond your own belief in yourself. And they can be a huge pain in the posterior. No one has captured that in an animated film quite the way that co-directors Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), Adrian Molina and team have done with Coco. Of course, midst the music (is this Pixar's first musical?), the color and the atmosphere, that can easily be missed. Or maybe the filmamkers, much as best magicians, want you looking at the right hand so that the left one can perform the real trick.
- DirectorM. Night ShyamalanStarsJames McAvoyAnya Taylor-JoyHaley Lu RichardsonThree girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities. They must try to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.#8 - Confession first: I burst out loud laughing at an inappropriate moment in the theater in Unbreakable (it's something I've done only three times in my life). It's a certain scene where a child is pointing a gun at an adult). I laughed because it was ludicrous as I found a good part of that 2000 film. Unbreakable, like The Goonies, was seen by 13-16 year-olds who drug it into adulthood like a blankie. So I'm not one of that crowd. There is nothing ludicrous about Split, a lean and taut thriller with a bravura performance by Jame McEvoy, playing multiple aspects of a conflicted killer. There is also a tender and tough performance by Anya Taylor-Joy, one largely restricted to passivity. As we've seen in 2017 there are men we thought were normal enough, but who really were inhabited by spiritual demons. As far as relevance this could be the film of the year. Split puts Shyamalan back in the promising world he inhabited with Six Sense and Signs, a master of suspense for a new age. I'm surprised to say this, but, welcome back.
- DirectorMichael GraceyStarsHugh JackmanMichelle WilliamsZac EfronCelebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsVicky KriepsDaniel Day-LewisLesley ManvilleSet in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.#10 - A wicked, delicious film. Daniel Day-Lewis serves at the leisure of the character and becomes something else, yet again. An unexpected pleasure.
- DirectorJordan PeeleStarsDaniel KaluuyaAllison WilliamsBradley WhitfordA young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
- DirectorJon WattsStarsTom HollandMichael KeatonRobert Downey Jr.Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man, and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsJennifer LawrenceJavier BardemEd HarrisA couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
- DirectorLuca GuadagninoStarsTimothée ChalametArmie HammerMichael StuhlbargIn 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.In an odd way a counterpoint to Lady Bird. Here, the young protagonist, played by Timothy Chalamet (also in Lady Bird) is the knowing one in charge. His vulnerability stems from his youth but he is confident and in charge otherwise. He knows himself, what he wants and who he is, unlike almost everyone around him. Armie Hammer's older, more worldly character, however, is the one who is hemmed in by society and his own comfort.
- DirectorAndy MuschiettiStarsBill SkarsgårdJaeden MartellFinn WolfhardIn the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
- DirectorDavid Gordon GreenStarsJake GyllenhaalTatiana MaslanyMiranda RichardsonStronger is the inspiring real life story of Jeff Bauman, an ordinary man who captured the hearts of his city and the world to become a symbol of hope after surviving the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsAdam SandlerGrace Van PattenDustin HoffmanAn estranged family gathers together in New York City for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.
- DirectorDave McCaryStarsKyle MooneyJorge Lendeborg Jr.Matt WalshAfter being freed from his life in an underground bunker, a man sets out to make a movie of the only TV show he has ever known.
- DirectorNora TwomeyStarsSaara ChaudrySoma ChhayaNoorin GulamgausIn 2001, Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban. When her father is captured, a determined young girl disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.
- DirectorMike WhiteStarsBen StillerAustin AbramsJenna FischerA father takes his son to tour colleges on the East Coast and meets up with an old friend who makes him feel inferior about his life's choices.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerAfter 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie.
- DirectorEdgar WrightStarsAnsel ElgortJon BernthalJon HammAfter being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.
- DirectorTaylor SheridanStarsElizabeth OlsenJeremy RennerGraham GreeneA wildlife officer, who is haunted by a tragedy that happened because of him, teams up with an FBI agent in solving a murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation and hopes to get redemption from his past regrets.
- DirectorJames FrancoStarsJames FrancoDave FrancoAri GraynorWhen aspiring actor Greg Sestero meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
- DirectorMatt RuskinStarsLaKeith StanfieldNnamdi AsomughaNatalie PaulWhen Colin Warner is wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King devotes his life to proving Colin's innocence.
- DirectorJoe WrightStarsGary OldmanLily JamesKristin Scott ThomasIn May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
- DirectorDavid LoweryStarsCasey AffleckRooney MaraMcColm Cephas Jr.In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.