Best Drama
- Darkest Hour – A powerful, and surprisingly moving presentation of Churchill’s (Gary Oldman) lovingly cranky leadership of Britain on the eve of World War II. The stirringly Capra-esque ending tugged unexpected tears from my eyes.
- The Shape of Water – A beautifully conceived and acted “adult fairytale” (translation: unnecessarily graphic sex), with an overly simplistic worldview: in the 60s pretty much all straight white men were evil. Nevertheless, it’s a wonder to watch.
- The Post – I’m not a huge docudrama fan, but this story of the Pentagon Papers scandal finds its heart in Florence Foster Jenkins’s (Meryl Streep) personal road to selfhood. A class act.
Best Comedy
- The Big Sick – A wonderfully offbeat mash-up of rom-com and meet-the-families. Hilariously and affectionately scripted, with some of the best ensemble acting in years.
- Coco – You have fun, you marvel at the animation, you laugh out loud, you hum along to the theme song, and then suddenly you’re crying like a baby. Does Pixar pipe something into the air?
- Lady Bird – An off-beat comedy-drama with nuanced, loving characterizations, subtly funny dialogue, and brilliant acting.
Best Action Movie
- War for the Planet of the Apes – A character-driven epic, and conclusion to one of the best action trilogies ever made. The mo-capped Caesar’s performance (Andy Serkis) is as richly subtextual as any inspired live actor’s.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi – So, apparently a lot of Star Wars fans were up in arms over Last Jedi’s character and story choices. Personally? I was thrilled to see the next generation boldly go where no Star Wars has gone before (yeah, I know, wrong franchise, so sue me) and stop recycling old plot elements.
- Logan – Wolverine and Professor X as we’ve never seen them before. This is not a “super-hero” movie, it’s a drama with Oscar-worthy performances.
- Wonder Woman – Proof that DC has finally figured how to combine wowie f/x with worthy thematic content (female empowerment, self-sacrifice, forgiveness)?
Honorable Mention
- Get Out – Not the slam dunk for me that it was for everyone else, but strikingly original. I’m looking forward to more from Jordan Peele.
- Dunkirk – I’m a longtime fan of Christopher Nolan, and enjoyed the tone, filmic look and old-fashioned air stunts. It just didn’t capture the character of the British people and the era for me the way Darkest Hour did.
- I, Tonya – A mean-spirited and not particularly funny dark comedy, held together by two phenomenal performances.
- Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri – Uniquely but unevenly scripted, with everyone, even a loving family, cheerfully overusing the f-word. Nevertheless, an engaging tome on forgiving and moving on.
- Blade Runner 2049 – I so wanted to love this film. But its terrific story is lost in the manatee-paced running time. They could have shaved off half an hour (of it’s almost three hours) just by trimming down on Ryan Gosling’s enigmatic stares.
- Brigsby Bear – One of the most original films in years, this dramedy about a boy-man raised in captivity delights until its uncharacteristically stock ending.
- Mudbound – Not perfect, but a passionately told parallel story of two families, one black, one white, both suffering from the ravages of racism.
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – It’s not a true sequel (it completely jettisons the tone and thematic content of the first Jumanji), and it’s formulaic. But the premise and execution are so fun, I just went with it.
- The Lego Batman Movie – Same frenetic energy, pop culture gags, and covert sweetness as the original Lego Movie. Those little plastic bricks have heart!
Totally agree about Darkest Hour vs. Dunkirik: I liked Dunkirk, but I loved Darkest Hour. I haven’t seen too many of the others: Coco I liked much more than I’d thought I would (still don’t think it’s great for young children).
I liked Dunkirk and can’t wait to see Darkest Hour when it comes out on DVD. Have not seen any of the other movies you listed.
You’re in for some treats, Bill.
Interesting to read and hear about. I don’t get to see films the way I once did. Except for toddler movies 🙂 Last really interesting things I saw in the theater were “Eye In The Sky” and “Arrival”, must be going on 2 years now. Both were really absorbing and well-done.
That’s why God gave us Netflix. ;>)
true — but he still gives us only 24-hour days 🙂
Right? How about 8 days and 8 extra hours each day just for sleeping. Or we quit our day jobs?
I was highly impressed with Darkest Hour as well. The art direction was stunning along with amazing performances. It opened my eyes to the inner Churchill. He really was the man of the hour.
I agree! Just saw it and loved it. Learned more about him too.
Great post. 🙂 My favorites last year included Logan, Thor:Ragnarok, Guardians 2, Beauty and the Beast, Lego Batman, and many others too. I see some here I haven’t watched yet. Will add! <3
Wonder Woman was my favorite 😊
Another great movie about Churchill is called: ‘Churchill’ I loved it.
The one with Brian Cox?
“…manatee-paced running time…” I love it! But hey… no “IT”? No “Thor”? Not that I saw either, but they seemed to garner a lot of buzz.
I enjoyed IT, but it didn’t make my final cut. Thor: Ragnarok was fun (I liked the buddy comedy vibe). But it introduced a completely one-dimensional bad guy with no clear motive or back-story, played by a world-class actress, no less (Cate Blanchett), so it lacked the sense of gravity I was looking for.
I appreciate good film reviews and have been curious about several of these. Thanks Mitch! And yes, thank god for Netflix 🙂
I enjoyed your reviews immensely. You and Michael Medved are critics I trust.
Aw, thank you, Lore. I’m not a real reviewer, I just play one on screen (my blog, that is).
Wonder Woman was hands down my favorite movie this year. I was sad to not see it get any Oscar mentions. I like your to-the-point way of reviewing here! Well done.
Yeah, that’s why I have three categories. Comedies and action movies rarely get Oscar love.
I’ve only seen Wonder Woman, AKA the movie that is making DC. I need to get out – I’ve only seen Wonder Woman, The Lego Batman Movie, and Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017.
Netflix!
Interesting and fun that you put The Shape of Water up there! My husband’s brother, Doug Jones, is the “fish-man” in that one. We got to see him sitting at the table during the Golden Globes!
I saw your husbands posts about that, Dawn. I remember Doug Jones’ work in Pan’s Labyrinth, as well. Too cool!
I loved Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, and The Post–saw The Post twice and may go again. Don’t get the critiques of it. Thought it was non-partisan.
I did too, Nancy.
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Mitch,
Lots of great movies out this past year.
Gary
I would add these movies on the honourable list as well: Between Worlds, Flatliners, The Man from Earth: Holocene, The Space Between Us, 2:22, Hostile, and Project Eden: Vol. I.
Seen quite a few of these and agree with your opinions. This settles my Darkest Hour vs Dunkirk quandary, I do enjoy a good war/period movie but it has to be good. If you enjoy the sci-fi I would suggest The Osiris Child, I was quite surprised by it myself.
Thanks! I’ll have to check out The Osiris Child.
I was excited to see It on the featured image, too bad it didn’t make any of your lists/honourable mentions. What were your thoughts on it?
I enjoyed It, but found the ending a bit of a let-down. Still, I am looking forward to seeing Part Two.
All four of your best action movies are already on my “Need to Watch” list.
I thought 10 Cloverfield Lane was interesting. I hate cliff hangers tho..
There’s a new Cloverfield movie (Paradox) on Netflix. But like the other two, it’s a stand-alone, not a direct sequel.
Bummer. I don’t have a Netflix account anymore.. I wonder if its on Vudu or Amazon?
Don’t know. It was produced for Netflix, so it may be exclusive.
Did anybody watch the movie ‘Brawl is cell block 99’? crazy movie. A little gory to say the least if not less.
I missed it. Not my type of movie, as a rule, but it got good reviews. And I’m curious about Vince Vaughan’s very atypical role in the film.
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Will do.
Very true about Jumanji. I loved it anyway though! Must have seen it in theatres at least three times.
Nice list! I wish I’d seen all of these, but those I did see I more or less agree with you on. The fuss about The Last Jedi made noooooo sense. I had some issues with that movie, but none of them lined up with the weird criticisms I was seeing from the nerdier corners of the internet.
I disagree about The Shape of Water having an overly simplistic view of straight, white men in the 60s. I’d say it was simplified, yes, but getting at a truth about the time and place – not that all white straight men were ‘evil’, but that the majority were complicit in a lot of social problems of the time, as we still are today (I barely qualify as straight, but enough to be complicit ha ha). Anyway, that aside, I strongly agree that it was a wonder to watch, and the performances were amazing! Has Michael Shannon ever played a mentally stable character? I can’t think of an example…
Shannon has done a few stable characters (does Elvis count?), but, yeah, with those crazy eyes…
good list
The movie I celebrated the most was the Darkest Hour, it holds a great intensity during the watch time and the performance delivered by Oscar Winner Gary Oldman complimented it at the very edge. Moreover, Jumanji seems a good movie, don’t know why was it being underrated before releasing.
Yeah, I loved The Darkest Hour. The Jumanji sequel was so different from the original (and so long after the fact) that the critics wrote it off as commercial junk; which is what I expected, too. Except that they hire some very clever people to make the film, and it turned out better than anyone expected it to.
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Have you seen The Florida Project? It’s my fave from 2017.
Neil S.
Yes. Not my cuppa tea, but I know a lot of people really liked it. I thought the kids were terrific, as well as the mom.
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