FAVE FILMS 2017

2017 was an OK year for film if you knew where to look. I hope this note is evidence of that. If any of you find even one new film you love from one of my lists, I’ve hit one of my targets. I write these things to help remember my own experiences too. And it’s just a hobby. To put to use some of that writing talent I’ve been neglecting. I had a lot of trouble finding films for my list this year. I shucked open a lot of film oysters in 2017 and what I found was a seemingly all-you-can-eat buffet of slimy sea testicles, but very few pearls. Maybe my standards are too high. But everyone else seems to agree. But I also think it’s partly due to how I’ve been changing over recent years. But there were quit a few pretty good films. That’s why I’ve put together this list of my top 25 favorite films of the year.

It’s both easy and difficult to create a film that I absolutely love. You can show me something new and original that is amazing & I’ve never seen before or rarely seen or done better than when it was done. You can steal style or content from other films I already love & I might think, ‘well, more of that stuff to love!’ Or I might think, ‘I’ve seen that before when it was called ‘So & So’ and I’ll dismiss it as unoriginal. You can make a film that I’ve thought of making myself in daydreams & make it even better than I ever could have. You can make a film that I can relate to so closely that it’s as if you’ve withdrawn content from my own ‘soul’ & projected it on a screen. Whatever you do, you need to make something that I carry with me & think about or even dream about long after the film is finished playing. In short, you need to make a film that becomes me. Some of these are those kinds of films. Most of them aren’t. Most I just enjoyed watching & probably wouldn’t watch again.

I’m not separating genres this year. Except that all these films are fiction. I’m not doing documentaries again this year. I haven’t seen enough of them to have an informed decision. No separate horror films this year either. Last year was a fantastic year for horror. This year, not so much. But there are some notable titles mixed in.

I was going to do this alphabetically, but have decided to rise up to the challenge of doing it in order instead. Thanks to all of you who encouraged me to do so. This list starts with #1. Sorry for the lack of suspense. Here are my favorite 25 films of the year!

 

My favorite feature films

This list is in order

All my reviews are spoiler-free

 

RAW

Let’s call this my favorite film of the year. This was the first film I fell in love with in 2017. I’ve loved this film since I first saw it back in February of 2017. It’s been with me the longest and sat at #1 all year, waiting to be challenged, by any film. Nothing came close until December when most of the rest of the titles on this list started pouring in. One of my favorite adjectives to describe a film, & my response to it, is visceral. It’s one way of telling a powerful story but it takes a very talented director to do it without mishandling it and falling into exploitation or profanity. Director Julia Ducournau accomplished this masterfully & this is her first feature film.

This is one of those films that fucks with you & some people have left the cinema vomiting & passing out. One even in an ambulance because of I don’t know why but few films can do that. I didn’t notice anyone leaving Bio Oko when I saw it though. Any film with that kind of reputation that precedes it is one I always want to see in the cinema whenever possible. Sometimes these films are even good! RAW is fucking amazing & my favorite Horror film of the year as well.

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

This just might be my new favorite Yorgos Lanthimos film. A title held by DOGTOOTH since 2010. I’d say DOGTOOTH is still his ‘best’ though. It’s far more original and unique; not only a highlight, but the very origin of what’s known as the 'Greek Weird Wave' which Lanthimos spearheaded like Godard and Truffaut did the French New Wave. SACRED DEER still adheres to the weird and shocking nature of that movement, but owes a great deal of debt to the style of Kubrick. I mentioned earlier that a rare film can steal style and content from what I already love and I’m cool with it. DEER’S cinematography & sound design are at times seemingly copied & pasted THE SHINING. Right down to the disorienting, oscillating drum rolls & perfectly composed, one-point perspective tracking shots. And after 37 years, I’m perfectly willing to forgive this one film for that.

I know the story is absurd and never attempts to explain the reason of its sinister rhyme. Reason meaning the how of the plot, not the why. And I’m even cool with that. Because the psychological horror caused by its bizarreness is so overwhelming that we can grant the resulting desperation its own justifications. Which is, in the end, all these characters can do when this Greek Weird Wave finally breaks upon them. And I like DEER much more than last year’s THE LOBSTER due to my dislike of that film’s second half.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

From the great director Martin McDonagh who’d previously written & directed IN BRUGES & SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS. There is a vast range of emotions on display here. And the tone swings between drama and black comedy in unexpected ways. Every performance is outstanding & many are award-worthy. I got very excited when actor John Hawkes showed up (he plays Francis McDormand’s ex-husband) because I think he’s great and doesn’t get the respect he deserves. He starred in the under-seen 2015 film TOO LATE, which was one of my top-10 favorite films of last year.

THREE BILLBOARDS’ plot is a bit unorthodox which has put some people off. But I love how it unfolds in constantly unexpected ways. All the way to the end. I’m a little confused by Sam Rockwell’s character’s motivation towards the end of the film. His character arc is a bit sudden & I can’t relate to it very well. But I’ll take that as a personal problem instead of a criticism of the film. It’s inspired by a true story which occurred in Vidor, Texas in 1991, although it was the father of a murdered woman who put up billboards in real life. And life is even beginning to imitate this art as people are putting up billboards in the artistic style of this film to protest various things, such as Senator Marco Rubio’s anti-gun control stance in Florida.

A FANTASTIC WOMAN

Nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language film. And I hope it wins. This floored me. Chilian director Sebastián Lelio has made a heart-wrenching but beautiful statement about overcoming bigotry unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. As intimate, brave & accomplished as any Almodovar film & just as classic. Actor Daniela Vega should be winning all the awards for this intimate & vulnerable performance. Imagine going through what this character faces every day. It looks like Santiago, Chile isn’t as enlightened as it should be. At least in this film. Vega’s beauty & grace in the face of adversity is poignant and inspirational. I was just awe-stuck by every technical detail, as well as every emotional beat, of this film. There’s a splash of magical realism to the story, giving it a surreal element that I really liked. Dipping a bit into Buñuel territory. And I can’t get over how much the character Orlando looks like director Wim Wenders.

BLADE RUNNER 2049

Some people say this is better than the original. I would say the story is better. Because to be honest, the original BLADE RUNNER is really light on story & heavy on atmosphere. And of course it depends on which version you’re talking about. My preferred version is the 1992 Director’s Cut. Or as I call it, the ‘Fucker’ version. As opposed to the 2007 Final Cut, which I call the ‘Father’ version. Due to that line of dialogue being changed for the Final Cut. The original U.S. Theatrical version is the one to avoid. I also prefer the blue color grading of the Director’s Cut over the green of the Final Cut.

Which brings us to the year 2049. Director Denis Villeneuve created an amazing next chapter in this saga. His 2016 film ARRIVAL was in my top 3 fave films of last year. Roger Deakins’ cinematography is tied for my favorite of 2017 along with Hoyte Van Hoytema’s work on DUNKIRK. One of those two will win an Oscar this year. I could go on and on about my love for this film, along with a handful of criticisms, but I won’t here. This is Semi-Hard Sci-Fi at its best. Of course, any fan shouldn’t miss the 3 short films set between the original and 2049, all of which can be found on YouTube. It begins with the amazing animated short BLACK OUT 2022, directed by Shinichirô Watanabe, who I deeply love from his anime TV serial COWBOY BEBOP. The other 2 are NEXIS DAWN & NOWHERE TO RUN.

THELMA

This is an amazing, dark, coming-of-age story that could easily be set in the X-MEN universe. If it were an actual X-MEN film, it would be the best one actually. One critic wrote that it’s like CARRIE directed by Ingmar Bergman. It’s also been called, and I rather like this one, ‘the delayed expression of what Camille Paglia calls women’s “chthonian nature.”’ In this case, the subterranean forces threatening to emerge from Thelma are an attraction to another woman and dangerous psychic powers. Actress Eili Harboe gives an amazing performance as a young woman emerging from a Fundamental Christian upbringing of suppression & into a dangerous new world of accepting who she is and how that threatens those who love her, And there’s a great ‘nature as adversary’ motif, using snake & bird imagery as a symbol of her emerging sexuality and growing psychic abilities. Both mirroring each other as threatening forces which could tear her world apart.

I do have one major criticism with this film and that’s the ending. I think it undermines the story and all Thelma’s painful sacrifices which make her who she becomes. When you re-watch this, stop it after the scene with her family, specifically after she confronts her mother, as she walks out of the house. That way the film can retain the integrity & respectability it rightfully deserves. This is a great double-feature with RAW, which I’d watch second because it’s more intense. Joachim Trier is a Norwegian director who I’ve loved since his 2011 film OSLO, AUGUST 31^st, which I highly recommend, even though it’s kinda a remake of Louis Malle’s 1963 film THE FIRE WITHIN.

THE SHAPE OF WATER 

I watched this on a Friday night, with a bottle of Bohemia sekt, good food & with my appreciation for such a weird spell, I really loved this film's nods to classic films, the performances & general poignancy of it as a whole. And this story gets pretty dark, which I really was hoping for but didn't think this more mainstream-aimed art piece would dare to do. This is a contemporary master director at the height of his powers. This is Jean-Pierre Jeunet with AMELIE, Tim Burton with EDWARD SCISSORHANDS &, most importantly, this is (almost) Guillermo Del Toro with PAN’S LABYRINTH good. This is a classic, mature, R-rated, dark fairy tale film, which is extremely rare. In fact, this is a sub-genre so rarely great you can’t even create a top-10 list of outstanding or even really good ones, including this film. Here, let’s try (& I’ll even be really flexible with the word ‘fairy tale’): BLACK SWAN, THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, FREEWAY, HARD CANDY, THE SHAPE OF WATER, THE SWEET HEREAFTER, PAN’S LABYRINTH,... yeah, that’s all I’ve got in terms of great ones. You could force SLEEPY HOLLOW & TIDELAND (although I fucking hate the latter, I know some people really like it) on there if you want to, I guess (& we have very different ideas of what ‘great’ means), but you still don’t have 10. 

Other great, R-rated Fantasy films fall more into the Horror (A TALE OF TWO SISTERS), or comics (THE CROW). Or you have to include PG-13 or unrated films (entering Švankmajer and Cocteau territory). There was another dark fairy tale film last year, from Mexico, although unrated, called VUELVEN (or TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID), which I’m dying to see & I’ve heard is amazing.

Now, this film is not for everyone. I think many of you would enjoy it, but very few of you would love it nearly as much as I do. And that’s fine. I’ve already heard as much from a number of you. I normally like Guillermo Del Toro films but think they’re just OK for the most part. In fact, the only exceptions are this and PAN’S LABYRINTH. I would have loved to have seen his 2-film version THE HOBBIT, which almost happened. Of course Del Toro writes and produces a lot more than he directs, both in film & TV. He’s had his fingers in a lot of pies (and perhaps eaten his fair share as well). I appreciate him tremendously as a creative genius &, even though his own work often leaves me wanting, THE SHAPE OF WATER didn’t (maybe a little). This is Neil Gaiman’s favorite film of the year, FYI.

MOTHER!

MOTHER! is basically a 2-hour version of DJ Snake & Lil Jon’s Turn Down For What music video, LOL. It’s a pretty ham-fisted, religious allegory which aims to give the claustrophobic a very uncomfortable cinema experience. It’s also a Horror film with some very disturbing scenes and atmosphere. This is a film whose reputation preceded it before I watched it. I’d heard it was very divisive & you either loved or hated it. Well, I’ll tell you what. I really liked it. This is a film which has the balls to characterize ‘God’ (well, one of 3,000 arbitrary gods humanity has invented) as the fucking asshole ‘It’ is in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. I refuse to call the Christian god ‘He.’ That is an insult to Men.

I don’t blame you if you absolutely hate this film. But I will respect you a lot more if you at least watch this and criticize it knowingly. Jennifer Lawrence is amazing in this film. But I can see why she and director Darren Aronofsky broke up in real life. Apparently he’s an asshole too and he put J.Law through hell making this film. The script was written pretty quickly & this film had the potential to be better, had more time & effort been put into it I think. But this one really stands out and I find myself thinking about this film a lot. I’d never included a film nominated for a Golden Raspberry before on any of my previous Fave lists. The fact that this was nominated for worst actress, worst supporting actor & even worst director really pisses me off.

GET OUT

For the record, I think the title of this film would be a lot better with an exclamation mark at the end – GET OUT! Just like MOTHER! What did I say above? Show me something I haven’t seen before; something I can’t quite put my finger on or classify into a neat box. After I watched this for the first time, I said that I didn’t think it was a great Horror film. Some people interpreted this as me saying it wasn’t a great film. It’s an outstanding film. It’s just not only a Horror film. Most of the horror is psychological, until the end. The implications of the story are horrifying. The film just doesn’t limit itself to one genre to tell this great story.

Director Jordan Peele took inspiration from Kubrick’s THE SHINING (the 2nd film on this list to do so) in a number of ways which are quite subtle. The blue color of the titles is the same shade as Kubrick’s film & the fact that most of the horror is felt on a subconscious level. Spielberg’s JAWS was also a major influence. Of course it’s a powerful commentary on race relations in America and I regret I wasn’t able to watch it there with a diverse crowd. Peele apparently has 3 or 4 more socially conscious ‘horror’ films in the works (maybe they’re not all horror, I really don’t know) and I look forward to all of them. Of course Peele is also well known for his comedy acting on the Key & Peele.

A GHOST STORY

You will know before finishing the trailer if you will ever watch this film. It’s about as divisive as Bon Iver music. I like Bon Iver a lot so if you do too, give this film a shot. I’ve a theory there’s a cross-over audience between the two. I’ve already had five close, film-loving friends (and I’d bet not Bon Iver fans) tell me they have no interest in even giving this film a chance. It’s certainly not for everyone. But you’ll never know unless you try. BTW, there is no Bon Iver music in the film. Yes, the film was shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio which is amazing as it adds closeness and intimacy to every shot. It’s not douchey or ‘hipster’ because of that.

I’m not the only critic who’s put this film in their top-10. I gravitate strongly towards meditative, sophisticated & unorthodox works of film sometimes. Or maybe it’s Roony Mara I’m so attracted to. Well, that’s a given. She’s one of my favorite actors working today. During the pie scene, I was wondering what kind of pie it was. I know Mara is a vegan and I was thinking about whether or not it was gluten-free as well. That scene gives you a lot of time to think. I also really liked director David Lowery’s 2013 film AIN’T THOSE BODIES SAINTS, which also stars Mara and Casey Affleck. But I’m still not going to watch Lowery’s remake of PETE’S DRAGON. Mara was also great in Terrence Malick’s 2017 film SONG TO SONG, which I quite liked.

 

My next 5 favorite features

This list is in order

 

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

This is a rare gem of a film that can effortlessly sweep you up in a tale of love in the country regardless of your sexual preference. Director Luca Guadagnino’s film A BIGGER SPLASH made my top-10 list last year. Young actor Timothée Chalamet gives a brave, bold and honest performance and one of the best I saw all year. One handicap I have is that I don’t care much for actor Armie Hammer, who plays Oliver, in this film. I like him more towards the end of the film, after the relationship really gets going, but this detracted quite a bit from me emotionally connecting to the story when I should have done. The scene with the peach is one of the most unforgettable scenes of the year I think.

There’s already a sequel being talked about. This is based on a series of novels, which due to the powerful ending of this film, I’m apprehensive about. Unless you completely replace the Armie Hammer character. I’d love to see what young Elio gets on to in his life though. I’ve been a fan of the musician Sufjan Stevens since the early 2000’s. His video for Mystery of Love is the best trailer to this film. His Oscar nomination made me so excited. I hope he wins. His music sets the perfect tone to this film. His 2005 album Come On, Feel the Illinois! is my favorite album by him. I hope it brings you as much joy as it has me. It meant a lot to me in a relationship I had with a girl in the mid 2000s. Timothée Chalamet is amazing and I’m going to watch everything he does for years to come.

LOVING VINCENT

One of my favorite Matt Smith as the Doctor episodes of DOCTOR WHO is the one with Vincent Van Gogh. And the speech the art guy gives in that scene, which you can find on YouTube, pretty much sums it all up. So here’s a film, entirely painted by hand, by 100 different artists, in the style of Van Gogh’s paintings themselves, to give us a story of the artist’s final days. It’s a mystery that unfolds using a CITIZEN KANE trope of a plot device; a postman trying to deliver one of Vincent’s letters and interviewing folks along the way to show us pieces of a bigger story. It’s like Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novel The Shadow of the Wind in that it’s a mystery in search of the missing pieces of a sentimental story. The real actors were painted over like Linklater’s WAKING LIFE, but with real paint instead of digitally. It’s my favorite animated film of the year & absolutely one-of-a-kind.

20TH CENTURY WOMEN

I found this film very refreshing. What an incredible cast. From writer / director Mike Mills who hadn’t directed a film since 2010’s BEGINNERS, which I also really like. This film stars Greta Gerwig, who wrote and directed LADY BIRD. I’d say she’s had a pretty great year. That’s only one of many reasons you shouldn’t miss this film. In fact, this might be my favorite ensemble cast of the year. And yes, I liked this film a bit more than LADY BIRD. It casts a wider net & contains a broader scope of material which I found quite engaging. It’s nostalgic and sentimental, which will turn some people off. I have a newfound respect for Annette Bening who I’d never loved as an actress, very much anyway. I don’t know what else to say about this film. It’s not ‘edgy’ or ‘stylish’ or ‘provocative’ or any of the usual things which my favorite films of the year are. It’s probably the most accessible film to general audiences of any title on this entire list.

LADY BIRD

What is it about this film that everyone seems to love so much? It’s just a good story. It’s a true story. It’s an honest story. It’s based on writer / director Greta Gerwig’s own experiences. Actress Saoirse Ronan was born to play this part. I completely related to this story. I too grew up in a small town that I was desperate to get out of. I too felt I was destined for greatness but had no idea what I was meant to do. I too suffered from delusions of grandeur. I sometimes lied to my friends about some aspects of my personality & circumstances. But enough about me.

Relating to the story doesn’t mean this film is any good. The power of this film lies between every word. The empty spaces speak more loudly than the dialogue. The film is about not being able to articulate one’s emotions & struggling to find a way to do so. And all the pain, frustration & scars that this causes along the way. Or something like that. I don’t know. It’s funny. It’s emotional. I don’t particularly love the ending but I’m OK with that.

PERSONAL SHOPPER

This film overcame two major obstacles to make it onto this list. First, I’m not a big fan of Kristen Stewart. I’d never liked any film I’d seen her in & I didn’t like the way she came off in real life. Second, I tried watching this film at home & actually turned it off after about 10 minutes because I wasn’t hooked. But then around mid-December, I stumbled upon an article about someone’s favorite Horror films of 2017 & this was in their top five. And I read about the philosophical, sociological & psychological themes at the core of the story. At that time, I can’t even remember having seen the trailer (I’m sure I had though) and honestly didn’t even know it was a Horror film, even while I was watching it. So I committed to giving it a second chance. And, well, I like it enough to put it on this list.

It influenced me to watch some interviews with Stewart, about this film and other, unrelated stuff, most of them recent and after her buzz cut. I now have a lot of respect for the actress, even though I don’t like her work that much. She’s tried to dig herself out of that sparkly vampire business and has fought to be respected as a serious actor. And I admire her for that. This film won Olivier Assayas Best Director at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. On a side note, Assayas’ 1996 film IRMA VEP was the first film I saw in a cinema in Seattle after moving there from the suburbs in the Fall of 1997 to go to University and I really love that film too. ‘Irma vep’ is an anagram of ‘vampire’, obviously.

 

My next 10 favorite films

This list is in alphabetical order

 

ATOMIC BLONDE

I think I liked this film more than the last 3 James Bond films. I’m not saying that this is my ‘favorite’ comic book film of the year. But it’s my favorite non-superhero comic film of the year. Let’s just say that it’s a film I really enjoy and enjoy re-watching and it happens to be based on a graphic novel series, which I haven’t read. Director David Leitch was the co-director JOHN WICK and was the stunt coordinator on that film as well. ATOMIC BLONDE is his first directed feature film. I love the style and look of this film. It’s jam-packed with great action and the plot has many twists to keep you guessing. Another home run performance from Charlize Theron who can seemingly do no wrong and who is one of my favorite actresses working today.

THE BIG SICK

People who know me well know that I’m generally not a fan of romantic comedies. But this one really got to me. And the fact that it’s based on the main actor’s true story makes this a bio film. Which is how I rationalize my great respect and love for this story. Kumail Nanjiani has had one hell of a ride to get to where he is. How often does an actor play himself in a biography film? I’m sure just getting this film made was another story in itself. I also greatly enjoyed his small role in FIST FIGHT, which I watched on a whim because Charlie Day is in it. I said last year in my film review of THE MONSTER that Zoe Kazan (still the grandaughter of legendary film director Elia Kazan) was great and going places. She’s a rising star who I really like. The trailer’s pretty straight-forward but this one really took me by surprise.

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL

The 100th film directed by Takashi Miike, who I’ve met. Like many people, I was first introduced to Takashi Miike with his 1999 film AUDITION, his 31st film. He’s directed 69 films since. Fucking incredible. This is a great double-feature with 2010’s 13 ASSASSINS, which is a better film. Miike is hit-or-miss at times but if you have a love of twisted and violent Japanese cinema, look no further than this master. I’d be happy to give you a shortlist of where to start if you ask me. BLADE is certainly not one of the ‘best’ 25 films of 2017, but it’s one of my favorites. It’s like a fucked up Japanese version of LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL, if Leon was immortal. And killed people with swords.

COLOSSAL

The premise of this film might as well have come out of one of my daydreams. This film doesn’t have to become me because it’s already me. This is what my mind is doing while other people are just thinking about their jobs or whatever. I’m imagining giant monsters destroying things. I quite like Anne Hathaway but I don’t watch everything she’s in. Jason Sudeikis is usually in films I have very little interest in and I hadn’t thought of him as a ‘good’ actor before watching this. In this film he gets pretty fucking dark. And it’s shocking. There is a level of darkness underlying this story which is unsettling and amazing. This could have been a disposable film with many other actors playing these characters. This is the first film directed by Nacho Vigalondo (amazing name!) I’d seen except for his segment in V/H/S VIRAL. This is a film for lovers of Godzilla, stories about fucking up in life and trying to dig yourself out of a hole or bizarre genre films that can make you laugh one minute and feel like being slapped in the face the next.

DUNKIRK

This is the fourth Christopher Nolan film I’ve seen in Prague’s IMAX cinema. And if you missed out on this experience, well, you missed something incredible. I love how this story unfolds in a unique and unorthodox way. ’Non-linear’ stories are great and engage the audience, which I love. But it’s not difficult to follow. The timeline jumps around with a lot of events happening at the same time, or maybe at different times. I don’t really know. There seem to be some continuity errors weather-wise in the film but I didn’t mind that much. Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema’s work on this film is outstanding and tied for my favorite of the year (see BLADE RUNNER 2049 above). He’d also shot Nolan’s INTERSTELLAR. I’ve tried watching this at home on my computer but the effect isn’t the same. If this is the only way you’ve seen it, you really haven’t ‘experienced’ this film as it was intended and I’m truly happy I can’t say the same. One day I might own a big high-def TV and when I do I’ll give this film a re-watch. It just seems kinda pointless to watch this film in any other way at home.

I, TONYA

Margo Robbie redeems herself after SUICIDE SQUAD with this amazing, Oscar-nominated performance. Allison Janney’s Oscar-nominated supporting acting is also fantastic. I’m old enough to have lived through this story as it happened and remember it very well. But what really happened? The plot of this film makes it quite clear that we don’t really know. Not for sure. Regardless of how accurate this film is, and I think it embellishes a LOT of things, it tells a great story. A stupid and violent and funny story. I’ll tell you what though, I have a lot more sympathy for Tonya Harding after watching this film. And I never thought that would ever happen. Many bio-films aren’t accurate and that’s OK. It’s not a documentary after all. I didn’t know that Harding’s from Oregon. That detail somehow slipped past me all these years or I just forgot. The real Harding really likes this film BTW.

PHANTOM THREAD

A Henrik Ibsen-esque drama / romance framed by breakfasts. That is a sentence I never thought I would ever write. I didn’t realize how twisted this love story was going to be. And I love it. It’s a bit of a slow-burn at the beginning but the climax is wonderful. The cinematography is outstanding as well. P.T. Anderson didn’t hire a DP for this film and shot a lot of it himself. Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood once again composed the score, his 4th collaboration with Anderson, and has been nominated for an Oscar for this one. Daniel Day Lewis’ swan-song performance is subtle yet captivating. Actresses Vickey Krieps and Lesley Manville are also amazing. You might be thinking ‘what’s so interesting about a film about a guy who makes dresses?’ You’ll never know unless you find out for yourself.

PREVENGE

This is probably the funniest horror film I saw all year. It’s a black comedy though, not a LOL comedy. It’s dark and twisted and also a psychological mind-fuck. I have a minor issue with the pacing at times but can forgive it for that. I love actress Alice Lowe who also wrote and directed this film. She was fantastic in 2012’s SIGHTSEERS. Is her unborn child telling her to kill people? Or is it all in her head? You’ll have to watch to find out.

THE SQUARE

This Oscar-nominated film from Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who directed the great 2014 film FORCE MAJEURE, is a very strange 2 1/2 hour trip. This film takes aim at a number of topics and doesn’t quite hit the mark every time. But when it does, it’s amazing. I only love about half of this film but that half is amazing. This film is funny, shocking, bizarre, satirical, provocative, pretentious at times but seldom dull and certainly not for everyone. So you know, ‘art.’ It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year. The more I say about this film, the less surprised you’ll be when watching it. Plus, I am not intelligent nor stupid enough to continue trying. Attempting to write more about this film feels like I’d be dancing to describe architecture, as the saying goes.

THE VILLAINESS

Last, but certainly not least & continuing my streak of women-lead tales which dominated my love of cinema in 2017 is, original title, AK-NYEO. Like KILL BILL mixed with LA FEMME NIKITA but in South Korea. It begins with an incredible first-person action sequence shot like HARDCORE HENRY meets the corridor scene in OLDBOY. And if you’re not absolutely hooked after 10 minutes, you obviously don’t like action films very much. This film slightly beat out other note-worthy action titles I really liked from 2017, like JOHN WICK 2 (a story I didn’t love as much as the first one but which has a great ending) and BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (highly recommended).

There is some incredible cinematography and slickly-edited action sequences I’d never seen in a film before. Especially the incredible climax. By the end of the film, our no-nonsense anti-hero has abandoned all previously-given fucks and things get savage. Knives and a hatchet become her weapons of choice. This is director Byung-gil Jung’s second feature film, not counting one documentary. I’m really looking forward to what he does in the future.