Movies of the year!

[Panayot Hitov]

Let's start doing this!

There are a lot of movies left on my list: Call Me By Your Name, Faces Places, Zama, Good Time, The Lost City of Z, Logan are all films I want to see soonish. (idk when Zama's coming out tho)

That Being Said, I really liked a few movies this year. Nocturama, Lady Bird, Get Out, The Shape Of Water were all great films.

Favorite scene: the black-and-white scene from The Shape of Water is incredible, and I can't imagine anything else passing that.

Sleeper pick: I thought Atomic Blonde was really fun, with a great soundtrack. I really hated the interminable long-take action sequence, tho, which multiple other people have said was the only part they liked

Also, I really loved this experimental doc that I saw called INAATE/SE. It was touring around, but I'm not sure if it's going to be available for purchase soon. Anyways, it's a really great film about decolonizing the history of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, if that's up your alley. (It's Shan Kothari approved!)

What were your favorite filmic experiences of the past year?

[El Salvadoreno]

For me this one is easy: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Come to watch the legendary Frances McDormand chew up scenery like she’s Ms. Pac-man.
Stay to see excellent performances from an all around great ensemble, and sharp black comedy. It was one of the few movies that managed to, plotwise, surprise me multiple times with well-written plot twists. The most original film this year and my all around favorite film of the year by a mile.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
Get Out was excellent: a wonderful mix of horror and satire from Jordan Peele.
Atomic Blonde was fun to watch, though it is on the overplotted side.
John Wick Ch. 2: The Reavesance continues with another great heavily stylized action bonanza with strong world-building elements
Logan: For me, competes with and maybe beats Dark Knight for best superhero film.
Wonder Woman: An excellent feminist epic that will almost certainly not be recognized during awards season, much to everyone’s chagrin.
The Last Jedi: Rest assured, The Last Jedi is as good as advertised, lead especially by Mark Hamill's and Carrie Fisher's (may she rest in peace) performance.
Spilt: A return to form for M. Night built on a brilliant performance by James McAvoy
War/Planet/Apes: Proof Andy Serkis is the master of MoCap
Wind River: Damn that easy not any easy movie to watch. But Taylor Sheridan proves he was one of the best scriptwriters and Hollywood today and Jeremy Renner kills it.
Thor: Ragnarok: All the MCU films were great this year, but Waititi's was the best of all. Hilarious, especially with Hemsworth's great self-deprecating performance.
IT: That opening scene is excellent, and the young ensemble delivers

Want to see:
Baby Driver: Long story why I did not see it when I got the chance.
Dunkirk: I like war movies so I am surprised I missed out.
Molly's Game: I love poker, and Jessica Chastain slays every role she is in.

I will probably come back and edit this list as I see fit.
Edit #1: added Split and War: Told you so.
Edit #2: Reviews for Wind River and The Last Jedi, added a few films I forgot came out this year, and forgot Molly's Game comes out in Dec. not Jan.

[The Stately Rhododendron]

I didn't see enough movies this year, but I did see Faces Places, and it made me smile more than anything I've seen in a bit.

[Ndg]

Lady Bird is not just my favorite movie this year, but one of the top few movies I've ever seen. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a close second. Both by turns utterly hilarious and deeply moving.

Wind River was also spectacular.

Atomic Blonde and Logan Lucky: both kind of dumb, but both tons of fun.

Baby Driver and The Big Sick also deserve mention.

[Who Cares About Nausinous]

I thoroughly enjoyed Baby Driver and smiled throughout the first few musical sequences. I was also a bit late to watching Logan because I do not follow the superhero film scene very closely, but I thought that was great too.

I look forward to seeing Ladybird and The Shape of Water in the very near future. I hear great things about the former, and I am a huge fan of del Toro's dark and fantastical stuff. Pan's Labyrinth is my favorite movie by a decent margin.

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

The best movie that I saw in 2017 was Your Name, but I guess that was out last year so it doesn't count.

I really liked Blade Runner 2049, despite the fact that the soundtrack was very weak and misused. I missed out on a lot of the big award movies this year, but am looking into getting in on this MoviePass thing in which case I'll try to catch as many Oscar rescreenings as possible.

[armitage]

Favorite scene: the black-and-white scene from The Shape of Water is incredible, and I can't imagine anything else passing that.

What a great scene from a great movie.

I watched Lady Bird, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I can't see what makes it so clearly "the best" in the eyes of so many people. It seemed much more mundane than, say, Moonlight. I wonder if someone can convey the magic to me.

[UlyssesInvictus]

To wax more on two movies already mentioned:

Blade Runner 2049 was much smarter than it had any right to be, and while it wasn't a perfect movie, everything imperfect seemed to fall into place in a way that I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Lady Bird's director (Greta Gerwig) described it as an attempt to make a Boyhood for women and IMO it feels "good" for similar reasons as Boyhood (except, like, not just for women)--it's relatable, the cinematography and editing combine to give a very suburban/high school feel that's for some reason really hard to capture otherwise without badly veering into some combination of Disney musicale, grossly satirical, or far too dramatic. It just felt just right. So I guess I'm saying it was good for subjective reasons? But subject reasons developed objectively.

edit: oh, and logan's already received plenty attention for being a worthwhile entry in the superhero genre that's not just another paint-by-the-numbers Marvel flick, but i'm mentioning it here because...well, it's worth mentioning again

[L.O.V.E.]

Here’s my top 10, although it’s missing quite a few that I haven’t yet seen:
Lady Bird
Good Time
Raw
Get Out
Three Billboards
A Ghost Story
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Meyerowitz Stories
Mother!

The most disappointing were I Am Not Your Negro and Okja. I had huge expectations for those and they turned out to be two of my least favorite of the year.

I’m yet to see, for various reasons:
The Big Sick
The Florida Project
Wind River
War of the Planet of the Apes
Your Name
Killing of a Sacred Deer
The Square
Call Me By Your Name
Shape of Water
Phantom Thread

Some of those, especially Shape of Water and Killing of a Sacred Deer have a high chance of moving into my top 10 once I see them.

[Rather Wild Indeed]

I thought Hitman's Bodyguard was a good fun movie.

[merv1618]

Spider-Man: Homecoming was better than Blade Runner 2049.

[Panayot Hitov]

Here’s my top 10, although it’s missing quite a few that I haven’t yet seen:
Lady Bird
Good Time
Raw
Get Out
Three Billboards
A Ghost Story
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Meyerowitz Stories
Mother!

The most disappointing were I Am Not Your Negro and Okja. I had huge expectations for those and they turned out to be two of my least favorite of the year.

I’m yet to see, for various reasons:
The Big Sick
The Florida Project
Wind River
War of the Planet of the Apes
Your Name
Killing of a Sacred Deer
The Square
Call Me By Your Name
Shape of Water
Phantom Thread

Some of those, especially Shape of Water and Killing of a Sacred Deer have a high chance of moving into my top 10 once I see them.

Adam Sandler was v good in the Meyerowitz Stories, but it kind of petered off after a while.

I forgot about I Am Not Your Negro! I really loved that film, and I love raoul peck. What turned you off?

[L.O.V.E.]

I forgot about I Am Not Your Negro! I really loved that film, and I love raoul peck. What turned you off?

It’s been about ten months since I’ve seen IANYN, but I remember thinking it was incredibly unfocused, possibly due to the scope of the subject vs. its 93 minute runtime. I did appreciate the archival footage of Baldwin, and the critical consensus makes me wonder if I should give it another shot. Also, I’m not familiar with any other works by Peck. Any recommendations?

[Panayot Hitov]

I forgot about I Am Not Your Negro! I really loved that film, and I love raoul peck. What turned you off?

It’s been about ten months since I’ve seen IANYN, but I remember thinking it was incredibly unfocused, possibly due to the scope of the subject vs. its 93 minute runtime. I did appreciate the archival footage of Baldwin, and the critical consensus makes me wonder if I should give it another shot. Also, I’m not familiar with any other works by Peck. Any recommendations?

Gotcha, I like Lumumba: La morte d'un prophete a lot, my kind of documentary.

[Mike Bentley]

One of my favorites this year was American Made, the film where Tom Cruise plays drug-runner Barry Seal during the time of the Iran-Contra affair.

I hope to see many of the films in Oscar contention over the next couple of weeks.

[women, fire and dangerous things]

A few good ones that haven't been listed yet:

The Killing of a Sacred Deer - not as fertile a text as Lanthimos' last few films, but still excellently made

Rat Film - really cool essay film about rat control and racism in Baltimore

Wormwood - typically great stuff from Errol Morris. Arguably not a movie since it's a miniseries, but it's also screened as a 4-hour movie, plus I don't really care. Dropped on Netflix just this weekend.

On the Beach at Night Alone - as possibly Quizbowl's biggest Hong Sang-soo stan, I'll rarely not recommend him, but this is one of his better films.

Loveless - Andrei Zvyagintsev's filmmaking is often cold and clinical, and this is no exception, but it's still worth a watch.

There's a cool documentary about Emma Goldman by Abigail Child called ACTS & INTERMISSIONS, but I don't know if it's widely available.

[InfinitePeng]

Plus one for Blade Runner 2049. As a huge sci fi fan it pretty much was incredible the whole way through and I'm saying this as a guy who's usually super cynical about film.

Also The Disaster Artist is one of the most hilarious yet poignant movies I've ever seen. It's so good.

[TaylorH]

Movies I loved from this year:

mother!
Lady Bird
A Ghost Story
Three Billboards
Coco
The Florida Project
Good Time

Movies I Liked from this year:

Blade Runner 2049
The Lego Batman Movie
The Disaster Artist
Baby Driver
It
The Beguilled
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Ingrid Goes West
The Big Sick
The Little Hours
Okja

More or less in order of descending preference.

I think The Florida Project was tragically underseen this year, since it was in theaters for what seemed to be about one week (even in Florida!) If you like Tangerine or really any well down comedy-drama about a cross-section of a really interesting segment of society, see it!

Ingrid Goes West was also a touching and often funny portrait of someone dealing with mental illness made worse by the constant presence by social media. That and The Little Hours were both great steps up for Aubrey Plaza

[CadenPetrosian]

My top ten:
1. A Ghost Story (David Lowery)
Watching A Ghost Story in theaters was the most spiritual experience I've ever had with a film and it was largely in part due to the state of mind I was in when I went to watch it. I may never see this movie again simply because I want nothing but that experience to remain. I've been trying to forget every detail about it so that I can rewatch it but also not because I want to get the tossup on it when it eventually comes up. Why must quiz bowl do this to me?
2. The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
Best ensemble cast of the year and also the best child performances I've seen in years. Patient and methodical. This and Call Me By Your Name are really close in my eyes but this one is more depressing so it appealed to my emotionally masochistic tendencies more and slightly edged out CMBYN.
3. Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)
Michael Stuhlbarg was robbed of his nomination. I love everything here from the beautiful Italian scenery to the chemistry between Elio and Oliver to the Michael Stuhlbarg speech to the lovely Sufjan Stevens songs. Also a fantastic ensemble cast.
4. Logan (James Mangold)
Yeah, okay this movie's very far from perfect but it captured the at times nihilistic, at times hopeful, tone of the Old Man Logan comic that I loved. Also, Unlike 90% of superhero films this one actually felt like it had consequences and tension. For someone who had given up on the genre by now, this movie hit me hard.
5. Happy End (Michael Haneke)
Haneke dark comedy that as you may imagine is far from its title adjective. Huppert and Trintignant are spectacular as expected. I don't really need to write a description. It's Haneke. Go watch it.
6. Detroit (Kathryn Bigelow)
Completely overlooked this awards season. The second act in this film is absolutely breathtaking. Will Poulter wold have been my pick for Best Supporting Actor. He is absolutely terrifying in this.
7.Womb (Scott Barley)
Cosmic short film with some utterly gorgeous imagery. I really want to see Sleep Has Her House.
8. 07/27/1978 (Zachary Johnson and Jeffrey Max)
Okay, I'm cheating a bit here. This is technically a Youtube video but it's an hour long so I'm counting it. Really funny. Check it out.
9. mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
Makes me want to annihilate all of reality forever.
10. Idizwadidiz (Isiah Medina)
Pretty inventive short film. Really explosive.

User was reminded to add a signature. -mgmt