When Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582 (*wikipedia-exhale of exhaustion*), did he envision all the BEST OF lists that would be churned out as early as November? I can’t think of anything more arbitrary (in every sense of the word) than the word BEST and using it almost like an expiration date. BEST MOVIES OF 2017. TO BE CONSUMED WITHIN 365 DAYS. Yum.
That being said, and in direct contradiction of the above paragraph’s stuck-up nose, here are my FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2017. I would say TOP 10 or TOP 5 or whatever, but I don’t know how many there will be yet, so I’ll let you know at the bottom.
(*begins*)
1: God’s Own Country
This was the best movie of the year, all the others can go home. Bye!
Kidding. But really, it’s the only movie I’ve seen this year that has stayed with me. When I was thinking about all the movies I saw this year, this was the first one that came to mind, and for a good few minutes, the only one I could think of. Every once in a while I’ll remember something from the movie – a specific scene, an image, one of its many subtle messages – and feel a little squeeze of how much I loved it. It’s the kind of movie that instantly claims an authority out of the space between knowing exactly what it wants to be and knowing exactly what you expect it to be, and commanding your attention, pulling you through images that each have their own gravity and, as far as I’m concerned, images that I’ve never seen before in my life (let alone on film), but ones I’ll remember forever. It helps that the directing is effortless, the scenery is gorgeous, the acting is without ego, and where there is little there is more and where there is more there is little, if that makes any sense.
And in context of this year’s gay cinema round-robin, what with Call Me By Your Name (which, in my opinion [see: blog, domain name] is a far inferior movie), God’s Own Country feels more accomplished, subversive, and politically relevant than anything else released this year. Right now, it can be viewed through a lens tinted (tainted?) with Brexit, Trump, and the nullifying of the self those two comet craters created this year, but I hope that years from now, I’ll be able to watch God’s Own Country again and feel it propel me through a whole new series of lessons and emotions, and with just as much dramatic intelligence as it does now.
2: The Party
Another movie that was just made good and lets you trust it all the way through – until the end, though, which is devastating only because it ends too soon. I could have done with one hour more, two hours more, three, just give me more, and I’ve never ever wanted a movie to be longer. It’s addictive. It helps that it’s one of those real-time, kitchen-table-dramas that I love, and could be just as good performed live on stage, but it’s not, and you get to be up close with Patricia Clarkson’s face and let it pinch and scold you all the way to the end. She has her own orbit.
There were other comedies I saw this year that I wish were more like The Party. Baby Driver comes to mind, maybe even Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but I don’t know how they could begin to fix themselves. Have more fun? Be more bonkers? The Party outdoes it all.
3: mother! and The Killing of a Sacred Deer
It’s a tie for these two. In both of them: Allegories galore. Gore galore. Madness teetering on drivel, flirting with pretension, but coming out on top in the end. If I had to choose one to see again, it would be mother!, and that’s mainly for Jennifer Lawrence, not for the riddle it’s trying too loudly to get you to guess. I like what both of these are trying to say with their darkness, but after The Killing of a Sacred Deer, or more specifically, when said allegorical sacred deer is quite literally killed at the end of the movie, I left the theatre wondering just how much you can justify using extreme violence to get your point across. On the other hand, I left mother! almost… admiring? the violence. Don’t quote me on that, no I did not admire the violence, but I admired the daftness (note: not the deftness) of it. Both of these movies are shouting into the wind and maybe, hopefully, there will be an expiration on the need to do that. But for now, let ‘er rip.
Other stuff:
Lots of disappointments this year. I’ve wanted to see the original Blade Runner since high school and I finally did the deed and rented it, then saw Blade Runner 2049 probably too soon after and it was all sort of an epic deflating. I spent the whole time wishing Robin Wright had been given Ryan Gosling’s part and wishing the story would zoom out better. It zooms out enough and does the right amount of world building, but just not in the right way. Whatever artistry was there (“Stick your hand in this beehive for a while, Ryan!”), was corrupted and muddy from the false-start.
The Beguiled was the second best thing I saw Nicole Kidman in this year, right after Big Little Lies, and before The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Top of the Lake.
Call Me By Your Name wasted a lot of space in my head but I’ll happily give Sufjan Stevens some coins whenever I can.
Everyone should have been fired from Murder on the Orient Express except for Judi Dench and Olivia Colman.
Crispy M&Ms mixed with popcorn are OK.