Top Ten Favourite Films of 2017

Well, like last year, in the real world 2017 was an absolute slog, but in the world of cinema, things are going strong.  Now while there have been dramatic revelations about many important figures (some of which have made me drop some films that would have been on this list otherwise, not naming anyone), overall though this has been an astonishing time for film, with this year my choices being very difficult.  I potentially could have a made a top twenty of the year.... but I'm fuckin' lazy, so, the traditional ten it is!



First, here's a look at what's having a punch-up in the car park for the 11th place...

Now for the list proper, starting with...

10. Raw

The issue of representation and treatment of women in front of and behind the camera has been a big one this year, and one particular place it was highlighted was in the horror genre.  We saw the release of the really fun anthology XX, then there was Alice Lowe's astonishing Prevenge, a film she wrote, directed, and starred in while about seven month's pregnant, and the microbudgeted but awesome Egomaniac, explicitly about being a woman in the field of horror films.  For my choice though, it's new feature director Julia Ducournau's tale of fresher's week at uni and cannibalism, an allegory for quite a lot of things.  You can see it as a coming of age tale, one about emergent sexuality, sibling rivalry, substance abuse...  Myself, what I took away from it is that it's kind of about that moment when you realise that your life is almost certainly not going to be anything like the way your parents intended it to be.  It does show in a bold, brash style, not holding back from it's taboo subject matter in the slightest, which did lead to incidents of audience members fainting in early screenings.  Wimps.

9. Wonder Woman

Marvel Studios lost Patty Jenkins from the director's chair for Thor The Dark World, and this year they got a real taste of what they lost.  Don't get me wrong, MCU had some solid titles this year, but in many ways this is an absolute game-changer.  Dropping almost all the Zach Snyderisms that have plagued the DCEU, this was a breath of fresh air, with fun characters, awesome action, a heroine specifically not filmed for the male gaze, and the use of WWI as a setting done with great sensitivity and meaning.  Gal Gadot continues to be an MVP to the DC films, bringing something truly unique and ethereal to Diana.  The No-Man's Land sequence I can see going down in history as something we will look back on the same as we do with say the first glimpse of Michael Keaton's Batman, or any original scene of Christopher Reeve as Superman.  One little bonus for me; between this and T2: Trainspotting, it's great seeing Ewen Bremner get really good high profile roles again!

8. Professor Marston & the Wonder Women

The same year Diana took the cinema by storm in blockbuster form, we also got a great look at what her daddy and two mummies were like.  Now this biopic has apparently been taken to task by some for playing a bit fast & loose with some key facts, and I say to those that have done it... you haven't really understood what a biopic is, have you?  This isn't a documentary, this is a tribute, to a group of extraordinary people who helped conceive the world's best known superheroine, and to the spirit that informed her early years, which recently the comics and the film to a degree have embraced once more.  Angela Robinson's best achievement in here is in normalising a relationship that's far from conventional, that society at the time does not approve of, but is constantly shown to be healthy and exactly what the members of it need.  Just for breaking ground in terms of displaying polyamoury and kink based relationships, and for how frank and funny it is doing this, it deserves all the respect.  Doing that, while at the same time having many a "Shakespeare in Love" style Easter Egg for comics fans is quite a bonus.

Also, I have to highlight Moviebob's brilliant opening gags for this one!

7. Brigsby Bear

Who'd have thought that mashing up Room (not that one!), Son of Rambow, and The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin would have worked so well?  This weirdly touching piece from some of the team behind the Lonely Island works as an ode to fandoms; that ultimately being a fan of almost anything can be good experience as long as one learns all the right lessons from it, and you let other people share the love too (something certain batches of real life fans could stand to learn).  It also shows that one should not just shut off all memories from a dark period in your life, but engaging with them in the right way can be a useful way to heal and move in.  The fact that it can do with via ridiculous sights as pretty much anything to do with the original show is truly something remarkable.  Incidentally, the cast for this includes Mark Hamill, who's had a busy time of it recently...

6. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Screw what all the troll brigade has to say, this is what the franchise has needed since it came back.  This takes all your fan theories and expectations you've developed since The Force Awakens came out, tears them to pieces in front of your face, pees on them, and then laughs at you for having them.  And you will love it for doing that!  If Star Wars as a franchise is to continue for years to come, it can't keep being about the same set of characters and ideas over and over again, so why not make the film especially around that?  Now not all the plotting is the most elegant that it could be, but the end thematic points we get as a result are so strong that it doesn't really matter.  Star Wars is now more open for a new generation, and new ways of doing things than ever, all summed up with a perfect final scene. It is though a bit heartbreaking knowing that this is the last we'll see of Carrie Fisher as Leia, especially since the film pretty heavily implies that she was going to be pretty central to Episode IX.  This note of melancholy, along with the presence of Laura Dern taking no shit in awesome hair, mean there's a surprising amount of overlap between this and...

5. Twin Peaks The Return

Look, if Sight and Sound can call it a film, so can I!  They're not the only ones; David Lynch himself that what we have with this series is essentially an almost eighteen hour series, split into episodes, and having seen it, I fully agree with that description.  In fact, there are many purely cinematic moments in here, such as the bulk of episode eight, so this has more of the feel of Fire Walk With Me rather than the original show (and thankfully nothing like the second half of the second season).  This is at times pure, weapons grade Lynch, the truly dangerous kind, who can make moments of awkward silence feel like you're spying on something with a large amount of raw emotion being held back.  An intricate puzzlebox of an achievement, that while it wraps up many matters left over from the series and the film, all new mysteries are raised, including a haunting final scene.  As I mentioned above though, there are sad moments, as not only does it note certain original cast members not with us anymore (It's clear that David Bowie was going to be a major part of this), but some that were in it, such as Harry Dean Stanton and Miguel Ferrer, have left us since filming.  Catherine E. Coulson, who played the Log Lady, got a particularly poignant departure in this, which must have been some of the very first footage they shot.  This really is a whole emotional roller coaster, from sadness, to off-beat comedy, to WTF?; in other words, a David Lynch production.

4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Just squeaking in since it's had screenings on Boxing Day, the latest from In Bruges director Martin McDonagh is a superb slice of Southern thrills, that's in many ways actively about disappointments in life, how we cope with them, and how we live with them.  Frances McDormand is the wronged mother at the heart of this tale, and she has a lot to be angry about, but the film wisely never really condones at least some of the places her anger takes her.  Likewise, Woody Harrelson as the sheriff the titular billboards call out is shown not to be the best at his job, but he does a lot more to him than McDormand's character is at first willing to give him credit for.  To say much more would be giving way too much away, but there are a tonne more angles and character's points of view to this tale that make it something really special.  I fully recommend catching this on the big screen when it's fully released come January, you won't be disappointed.

3. The Shape of Water

And here is where I cheat like all hell, as this isn't actually out in the UK properly until February, but I saw it at the London Film Festival, it's out in the US now, and I really want to talk about it.  Guillermo Del Toro's works in recent years have seen him bring the kinds of stories he's previously done mainly in his Spanish language work to life with English casts, and this is no exception.  This fairy tale of the turn of the fifties has a big cast of characters, many of whom are some manner of outcast, or those that are somehow marginalised, but the biggest props definitely go to our lead, Sally Hawkins.  Carrying the film in the lead while never saying a word, that's one achievement, but considering the fact that her storyline is explicitly about going into full Shadow Over Innsmouth territory, making a consummated love story between woman and fish-person work, that's incredible.  This is superb work from Del Toro, I'd go so far to say his best since Pan's Labyrinth, you must see it in UK cinemas come February, if only to say you actually got to see sweet sweet Deep One lovin' on the biggest screen you could find!

BTW, this year also saw Universal's proposed "Dark Universe" plan implode in on itself.  Do you suppose one big factor was that Del Toro beat them to a Creature from the Black Lagoon tale?

2. Get Out

Having a look, this is turning up on A LOT of best of the year lists, but not without good reason.  A political and proud horror tale that's not afraid to just come out and say what we've all suspected for years, white people are the source of all evil, it's 2017: The Movie.  Only it's enjoyable.  In fact, aside from the satirical side, for a genre feature film directorial debut this is astonishing; Jordan Peele has put this film together so well, you'd think he'd been making this sort of stuff for years.  It has a lot of building dread through little, slightly off details, it delivers on ideas of fates worse than death, and it does that thing I always love when horror films do it, of starting with a scene that goes "something really terrible is going on here, but don't expect us to tell you exactly what it is just yet".  It's also great to see Daniel Kaluuya, who's done great UK TV work over the years, get a starring role in a movie this successful.  Horror in general has had a major resurgence in the last few years, and it's great to see something of this calibre get the respect it deserves.  Yes by the way, it is horror, not "post-horror" or any "it doesn't really count" bullshit like that critics who still want to be snobbish about this!  Oh, and Golden Globes, putting this is in "Best Comedy or Musical"?  What the greasy fuck?

1. Their Finest

I will admit that like many critics I am an easy lay for films about filmmaking, but for me that's only one part of what I truly love about this one.  For a start it's timely; at a time when, as mentioned, women in and making movies is a big issue, we have a female written (based on a book by another woman), directed and starring film about women in the film industry, that couldn't have been timed better.  On top of that, it's not just about film making, it's about the unique powers it can have, especially in our darkest moments, paying tribute to an age of British cinema we've kind of lost track of not just the importance of, but artistic merit in.  It deals with how events presented as an ordered beginning, middle, end, can help us to make sense of a chaotic world.  Above all though, it's just beautifully done, with a look at living under the shadow of war, the unique issues that existed with this age of filmmaking, and one of the most emotional, yet quiet, climactic scenes of any film this year.  My one complaint?  Why didn't they go with the full title of the book, Their Finest Hour and a Half, that would sell what this one's about better!  Still, this is a gorgeous piece of work, and while I admit that seeing at least three of the major cast (Gemma Arterton, Bill Nighy, Eddie Marsan) at Mark Kermode's Live in 3D events at the BFI this year may make me a bit biased, I feel fine in calling this my favourite film of 2017.