This year, cinema gave us the good (The Post), the bad (yet another Transformers disaster) and the ugly (the complete waste that was The Dark Tower). After sitting in a darkened theater — and booting up the trusty Apple TV — throughout 2017, here’s a countdown of the films that not only were of the highest quality but also stuck in the soul.
This slot came down to Hugh Jackman’s Western-tinged Wolverine swan song Logan and Tom Holland’s web-swinging, John Hughes-y delight, but the super-kid won out by being real: Most of us can’t relate to having claws popping out of our hands but have freaked out over a high-school date. The best stuff is when teen Spidey’s out of the costume, juggling whether to hang with his BFF or Iron Man, and finding his archenemy way too close to home.
Review: New Spider-Man swings to the head of the class with ‘Homecoming’
Taylor Sheridan’s snowy crime thriller got caught up in the Harvey Weinstein scandal, with the filmmaker having to wrestle back control of his movie from the Weinstein Company. It’s too bad, because the gripping mystery deals with real-life issues affecting Native American reservations and features career-best work from Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. The ending is bone-chilling, and Renner and Gil Birmingham will wrench the heart as two men powering through tragedy.
Review: Intense and thoughtful thriller ‘Wind River’ will chill you to the bone
The Netflix standout is a deeply affecting look at racism in the South, centering on a pair of World War II veterans — a white pilot (Garrett Hedlund) and a black tank commander (Jason Mitchell) — who return home to Mississippi. Both deal with PTSD and prejudice, struggle with the color divide, yet become friends, finding sorrow and hope in equal measure.
More: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ star Jason Mitchell gets gritty in ‘Mudbound’
A year in the life of a Catholic school girl (Saoirse Ronan) is a quirky, hilarious but also surprisingly deep journey about finding one’s own identity while transitioning out of childhood. Director Greta Gerwig celebrates being weird, the universality of outsiders, and how hard it is to be a parent — summed up in Laurie Metcalf’s glorious performance as a memorably opinionated mom.
Review: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf power funny, charming ‘Lady Bird’
Margot Robbie is a sequined force of nature as disgraced figure-skating champ Tonya Harding in the most bonkers biopic you’ll see this side of Sid and Nancy. The actress plays her from awkward backwoods teen to rebellious Olympic hopeful who wound up tapping into America’s love for celebrity trainwrecks before it was cool.
Review: Margot Robbie wins gold as the controversial subject of subversive ‘I, Tonya’
It’s totally not The Dark Knight, and therein lies the low-key brilliance of the animated Bat-flick. Lego Batman celebrates its hero (exquisitely voiced by Will Arnett) as a macho, metal-loving bro in love with punching bad guys and saving the day, yet wholeheartedly deconstructs the iconic character as a dude who can’t deal with having loved ones around.
Review: ‘Lego Batman’ offers a joyous take on the iconic Dark Knight
It was an embarrassment of geek riches with new Star Wars, Alien and Blade Runner movies, though the latter raised the bar on sci-fi cinema. 2049 took the noir storytelling and neon futuristic facade of the 1982 original and crafted an engrossing, sprawling epic that opened up the franchise’s mythology and fearlessly delved into themes of memory and revolution.
Review: ‘Blade Runner 2049’ outclasses the influential original with sci-fi spectacle
It’s the most indelible movie image of 2017: tears streaming down Daniel Kaluuya’s shocked, unmoving face as his character is taken into the “Sunken Place,” a metaphor for racism and one of the most creative and stunning aspects of director Jordan Peele’s masterful first feature. Wielding biting commentary, the movie manages to be funny, disturbing and rousing all in one.
Review: Give in to the fear factor of Jordan Peele’s satirical ‘Get Out’
Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy is full of small-town characters you wouldn’t quite consider likable: The heroine of the piece is a ornery, vengeance-focused mom (Frances McDormand) so irked by the investigation into her daughter’s murder that she firebombs the local police department. But as brutal as it is, Three Billboards is as much about needed redemption as it is righteous fury.
Review: Frances McDormand gives a brutally great performance in ‘Three Billboards’
David Lowery’s haunting drama is one of a kind — from its View-Master perspective to Rooney Mara eating a pie in tearfully cathartic fashion to Casey Affleck wearing a white sheet for most of the movie. The wildly nonlinear tale of a phantom stuck to the home he adored is also a poignant examination of life and death, everlasting love and how the world moves on long after we’re gone. The movie’s 87 minutes last in your mind far beyond when the credits end.
Review: Elegiac and moving, ‘A Ghost Story’ will haunt you
About Summ
Check Also
The best movies leaving Netflix, HBO, and more in March to watch now – Polygon
Use your Google Account Forgot email?Not your computer? Use a private browsing window to sign …