2017 IN FILM

Of the 800+ titles I saw this year, these were my most favourite. A Top 30 & many many honorables. Also, my 2017 film ballot at the Wandering Image, highlighting the year's best in film by category. 

30.         THE VILLAINESS

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29.   BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99  

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28.          FACES PLACES

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                    EX LIBRIS:
27.NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

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26.        AFTER THE STORM

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25.       HERMIA & HELENA

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24.             MUDBOUND

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23.       THE DEVIL'S CANDY

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22.            BAD GENIUS

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21.        WONDERSTRUCK

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20.      THE BREADWINNER

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19.            HANAGATAMI

18.              THE LURE

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17.               FOXTROT

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16.   BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE)

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        LOOK & SEE: A PORTRAIT
15.      OF WENDELL BERRY

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14.     PERSONAL SHOPPER

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13.            NOCTURAMA

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12.             TEMPESTAD

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11.               GET OUT

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     WORLD OF TOMORROW EP. 2: 
        THE BURDEN OF OTHER

10. PEOPLE'S DREAMS

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9.               GOOD TIME

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8.       THE LOST CITY OF Z

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7.               BEHEMOTH

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6.           A QUIET PASSION

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5.           SONG TO SONG

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4.      THE FLORIDA PROJECT

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3. DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME

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2.                    OKJA

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1.         PHANTOM THREAD

*****

ALSO ESSENTIAL. NOT RANKED.

(the other titles of 2017 I loved that could've placed)

PRINCESS CYD

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QUEST

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL

SINKING INTO THE SEA

SPLIT

COLOSSAL

ON THE
BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE

LADY BIRD

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION

KEDI

IN TRANSIT

LOVELESS

THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

RAT FILM

CHASING CORAL

LOGAN LUCKY

MARJORIE PRIME

A CURE FOR WELLNESS

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO

THE GREAT WALL

STARLESS DREAMS

BRIGSBY BEAR

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

LUCKY

THELMA

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

GRADUATION

THE CHALLENGE

COCO

MA

STRONG ISLAND

ENDLESS POETRY

THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN'S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

WAR FOR
THE PLANET OF THE APES

DETROIT

FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER

THE FOUNDER

MAUDIE

JANE

YOUR NAME

THEIR FINEST

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: 

THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE

HUMAN FLOW

PERSON TO PERSON

CONTEMPORARY COLOR

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL

WONDER WOMAN

KUSO

I, DANIEL BLAKE

A GHOST STORY

MISTER UNIVERSO

SLACK BAY

SPIELBERG

LOGAN

IN THIS CORNER OF WORLD

GOD'S OWN COUNTRY

CHAVELA

LOVESONG

LOVING VINCENT

MENASHE

  

TAG

THE POST

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

THE SHAPE OF WATER

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES

(NEW AND SELECTED)

THE TRANSFIGURATION

I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY

LOST IN PARIS

FISH STORY

GIRLS TRIP

THE BIG SICK

THE LOVERS

****

recap

2017

1. PHANTOM THREAD (P.T. Anderson)
2. OKJA (Bong joon-ho)
3. DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (Bill Morrison)
4. FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker)
5. SONG TO SONG (Malick)
6. A QUIET PASSION (Davies)
7. BEHEMOTH (Liang Zhao)
8. THE LOST CITY OF Z (Gray)
9. GOOD TIME (Safdie bros.)
10. +WORLD OF TOMORROW 2 (Hertzfeldt) 12/29/17
11. GET OUT (Peele)
12. TEMPESTAD (Huezo)
13. NOCTURAMA (Bonello)
14. PERSONAL SHOPPER (Assayas)
15. LOOK & SEE: WENDELL BERRY (Laura Dunn)
16. 120 BEATS PER MINUTE (Robin Campillo)
17. +FOXTROT (Maoz)  1/24/2018
18. THE LURE (Smoczynska)
19. HANAGATAMI (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
20. THE BREADWINNER (Twomey)
21. WONDERSTRUCK (Haynes)
22. BAD GENIUS (Poonpiriya)
23. THE DEVIL'S CANDY (Sean Byrne)
24. MUDBOUND (Rees)
25. HERMIA & HELENA (Piñeiro)
26. AFTER THE STORM (Hirokazu Koreeda)
27. EX LIBRIS (Wiseman)
28. FACES PLACES (Varda)
29. BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (Zahler)
30. THE VILLAINESS (Byung-gil)

RUNNER-UP:
PRINCESS CYD (Cone), QUEST (Olshefski), MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING (Shaw), SPLIT (Shyamalan), COLOSSAL (Vigalondo), ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE (Sang-soo), LADY BIRD (Gerwig), KILLING OF SACRED DEER (Lanthimos), BAAHUBALI 2 (Rajamouli), KEDI (Torun), IN TRANSIT (Maysles), LOVELESS (Zvyagintsev), OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (Kaurismäki), RAT FILM (Theo Anthony), CHASING CORAL (Orlowski), LOGAN LUCKY (Soderbergh), MARJORIE PRIME (Almereyda), CURE FOR WELLNESS (Verbinski), I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (Peck), THE GREAT WALL (Yimou), STARLESS DREAMS (Oskouei), BRIGSBY BEAR (McCary), GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (Colm McCarthy), LUCKY (Carroll Lynch), THELMA (Joachim Trier), THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson), GRADUATION (Mungiu), THE CHALLENGE (Ancarani), COCO (Adrian Molina), MA (Rowlson-Hall), STRONG ISLAND (Yance Ford), ENDLESS POETRY (Jodorowsky), THE B-SIDE (Morris), WAR FOR PLANET OF THE APES (Reeves), DETROIT (Bigelow), FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (Jolie), THE FOUNDER (Hancock), MAUDIE (Aisling Walsh), JANE (Morgen), YOUR NAME (Shinkai), THEIR FINEST (Scherfig), CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS (Soren), HUMAN FLOW (Ai Weiwei), PERSON TO PERSON (Guy Defa), CONTEMPORARY COLOR (Ross bros.), BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL (Miike), WONDER WOMAN (Jenkins), KUSO (Flying Lotus), I DANIEL BLAKE (Loach), A GHOST STORY (Lowery), MISTER UNIVERSO (Covi), SLACK BAY (Dumont), SPIELBERG (Lacy), LOGAN (Scott Frank), IN THIS CORNER OF WORLD (Katabuchi), GOD'S OWN COUNTRY (Francis Lee), CHAVELA (Gund/Kyi), LOVESONG (Yong Kim), LOVING VINCENT (Kobiela/Welchman), MENASHE (Josh Weinstein), TAG (Sono), THE POST (Spielberg), CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Guadagnino), SHAPE OF WATER (del Toro), MEYEROWITZ STORIES (Baumbach), TRANSFIGURATION (O'Shea), I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY (Xiaogang Feng), LOST IN PARIS (Abel/Gordon), FISH STORY (CL Shackleton), GIRLS TRIP (Malcolm D Lee), BIG SICK (Showalter), THE LOVERS (Jacobs)

GOLDEN EXITS (Alex Ross Perry) 2018 release
LET CORPSES TAN (Cattet/Forzani) 2018 release 
HAVE A NICE DAY (Liu Jian) 2018 release
5-25-77 (Patrick Read Johnson) 2022 release

(festival films I loved that got no 2017 theatrical release & no distribution deal. 12/18/17)








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THE WORK (McLeary/Aldous), FOXTROT (Maoz), STRONGER (David Gordon Green), THE GIRL WITHOUT HANDS (Laudenbach), BIRDBOY: FORGOTTEN CHILDREN (Rivero/Vázquez), STAYING VERTICAL (Guiraudie), FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (McGuigan), MY HAPPY FAMILY (Ekvtimishvili), ESCAPES (Almereyda), WORLD OF TOMORROW 2 (Hertzfeldt), A FANTASTIC WOMAN (Lelio), THE HUMAN SURGE (Eduardo Williams), BEFORE I FALL (Ry Russo-Young), UNREST (Brea), ONE OF US (Ewing/Grady), FROM NOWHERE (Matthew Newton), LANDLINE (Robespierre), IN THE FADE (Akin), THE DINNER (Moverman), MANIFESTO (Rosefeldt), MOLLY'S GAME (Sorkin), WAR MACHINE (Michod), THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (Gracey), PROF. MARSTON & WONDER WOMAN (Angela Robinson), MIMOSAS (Laxe), NOWHERE TO HIDE (Zaradasht Ahmed), LONG STRANGE TRIP (Bar-lev), POP AYE (Kirsten Tan), SYLVIO (Audley), BLAME! (Hiroyuki Seshita), DUCKWEED (HanHan), IN BETWEEN (Hamoud), FOR AHKEEM (Levine/Van Soest), TRAGEDY GIRLS (MacIntyre), HARMONIUM (Kôji Fukada), THE WOMAN WHO LEFT (Diaz), MRS. FANG (Bing Wang), THE UNTAMED (Escalante), CAPTURE KILL RELEASE (McAnulty), FRANTZ (Ozon), THE COMMUNE (Vinterberg), FELICITE (Gomis), LET IT FALL: L.A. 1982-1992 (John Ridley), 1922 (Hilditch), OUR SOULS AT NIGHT (Batra), THIRST STREET (Silver), LAST MEN IN ALEPPO (Fayyad), MARK FELT (Landesman), SHOT CALLER (Waugh), CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY (Tyrnauer), I CALLED HIM MORGAN (Kasper Collin), SAMI BLOOD (Kernell), TA'ANG (bing Wang), IT'S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD (Dolan), THE MERCILESS (Byun), THE UNKNOWN GIRL (Dardenne bros.), WIN IT ALL (Swanberg), TAKE ME (Healy), TOO FUNNY TO FAIL (Greenbaum), DONALD CRIED (Avedisian), BUSTER'S MAL HEART (Adina Smith), GIRLFRIEND'S DAY (Michael Stephenson), HOUNDS OF LOVE (Ben Young), CATFIGHT (Onur Tukel), I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (Peck)