My Favourite Movies of 2017

There is no need for a preamble at this point, although I have to say I am glad I took the time to compile this list after a certain amount of time. I got to see more of my anticipated and important films - with one exception, but that couldn't be helped... sorry, Agnès Varda - but the rest of this list has been prepared to the best of my abilities and for the sake of your enjoyment.

My absentee list still includes ten titles, but they'll be finished eventually, I'm sure.

A Fantastic Woman
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Faces Places
Foxtrot
Loveless
Mary and the Witch's Flower
Obit
Patti Cake$
A Silent Voice
Thelma


And the honourable mentions... I was really tempted to just list all my other options, considering how when I compiled my shortlist of all the films I gave 4 1/2 to 5 stars from 2017, I had 24. But since I'm drawing this out long enough, I'll just give you these ones which I feel 'mattered' most... in a particular order, but not necessarily one that's due to ranking:

Logan Lucky
This was a riotously fun heist to watch in theatres, and it deserved more of an audience than it got. At the same time, rather bizarrely, every time I thought about movies that I gave five-stars to, this one always came ups last. Maybe it's a great entertaining time while watching it, but not life-changing.

Loving Vincent
I consider it a privilege to have seen this film in the cinema and to be overwhelmed its artistry as the first ever hand-painted animated film. What a beautiful film and a very sincere tribute to one of the most influential artists of the 19th century. I had the smallest hint of a tear as the end credits played.

The Square
Once again, we have a five star film that didn't quite make it because I don't have as personal a connection to it. That said, this savage satire of the high and mighty art community is so hilarious that it needs to be seen. Terry Notary alone should earns this film a win for Best Foreign Language Film.

Wonder Woman
I want all of you to revisit this film, and consider how important it is for our time. To have Diana Prince be brought to life after decades of waiting and to have the final product be one that respects her as a character and as an inspiration for men and women, that needs to be honoured. We need a hero like Wonder Woman now more than ever. Is it a perfect movie? No. But I love it regardless. Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins, I salute you both.

And... Hhh...

Dunkirk
I'm as shocked as you are. Dunkirk is an astounding film; thrilling, tense, brutal, masterfully shot, edited and scored, and stunning to watch on an IMAX screen. However, more than any of Nolan's other recent films... I've nitpicked this film the most. There are small technical things that bother me that don't make the film a Dark Knight Rises, but also prevent it from being an Inception. I'm talking stuff like the simple characters, Kenneth Branagh's limited dialogue, and a sunset that defies continuity. These are more mild distractions than anything else. Dunkirk is still Nolan's most visceral film in terms of a theatre going experience, if not quite his most challenging or emotionally strong.


And now:

My Top Ten Favourite Films of 2017


10. The Shape of Water



This is weird, right? This film? This director? These actors? This many Oscar nominations? This 'low' on my list!? I can't deny what I've already said in my review for this film; I still find a lot of similarities between this film and Guillermo del Toro's previous masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth. I was a little more lenient on Crimson Peak when I recognized elements from The Devil's Backbone, but when I'm this much a fanboy of del Toro when he does something new, seeing things pop up so consistently in his films does wear down the excitement a little bit. Where everyone is absolutely right about The Shape of Water, however, and where I have the strongest emotional connection to it is in the relationships between its characters, especially those who are outcasts from their society. Each of them is a distinct personality that is true to del Toro's sensibilities, and they all live their own very sincere and very beautiful lives. There's no question that the true stars of this film are those that don't even speak at all. Sally Hawkins as Eliza and Doug Jones as the Asset are absolutely flawless, flawless in their design, flawless in their physicality, and flawless in their emotionality. Their romance is beautifully realized, and you feel as they feel every second they are together. It's a gorgeously mounted and respectfully written tale of desire and reliance among people of all backgrounds, orientations and species; I may nit-pick it to death, but I shall never disrespect it.


9. A Ghost Story



I struggled to decide whether or not to include certain films on this list. We're facing a challenge in our current atmosphere: how much credit do we give to one person for a film's success, and how much does their current reputation changes your perception of the film? I cannot, however, leave A Ghost Story off his list and denounce the incredible work by everyone else involved in this production. This is not Casey Affleck's film; he is a player in it, but for the majority of the film, his rudimentary but honestly very effective costume does his emoting for him. This is David Lowery's film, and for a particular 20 minutes, it's Rooney Mara's film. That film is remarkable. No other film from 2017 looks and feels so cosmic and so intimate at the same time. While the soaring musical score by Daniel Hart immerses you in the ornate web of time, the film's visual presentation, shot in the style of an old-fashioned home video, give it a sense of simple authenticity. Actually, those two words summarize this film beautifully: simple and authentic. With these virtues supporting it, you don't need any kind of dialogue to explain theme or character, you just need a mood. In fact, when there is a particularly long speech set in the middle of the film, it's actually jarring and is probably not that necessary. That still doesn't detract from how much my emotions welled up in me during the entire experience; by the end of this film, I was legitimately tearing up. Please seek out this simple and authentic film for yourself. David Lowery deserves an audience. He will make you feel things for a spirit you never expected to feel.


8. My Cousin Rachel



I am literally the only person who has this film on their list! And I am damn well defending that! There is very little reason why I would expect anything spectacular from My Cousin Rachel. I had never read the original novel by 'Rebecca' scribe Daphne du Maurier, nor had I seen the original adaptation staring Olivia de Havilland. Directed by Roger Michell, who at the time I saw this film I had forgotten had directed Peter O'Toole in Venus, the only thing that this film had going for it was that Rachel Weisz could do no wrong. So what made me turn around? Probably all of those things combined! With no previous exposure to the material, I allowed myself to be riveted by the suspense at the centre of this film, which starts out as a tense murder mystery and then evolves into a very intriguing deconstruction of very modern perceptions of masculinity, supported by elegant cinematography, costume design and score. And just so I can say so one more time for affectation, Rachel Weisz can do no wrong! She's wonderful as ever, as are Iain Glen of Game of Thrones fame and Holliday Grainger, whom more people should know about except nobody else watched The Borgias before it was very rudely cancelled. This would be my pick for the most underrated film of 2017, but I'll get back to that in a second. In the meantime, I implore you to give this a chance. If you're like me and know nothing about this before hand, I promise this is one mystery that will not stop nagging at you.


7. The Breadwinner



We must now appoint Studio Ghibli's successor. And there is only one traditional animation studio with a 3-for-3 track record of animated masterpieces. An Irish-Canadian coproduction that's also nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards this year, The Breadwinner is the latest from Cartoon Saloon, who also created the magnificent Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells. If you haven't seen either of those films, that must swiftly be remedied. The Breadwinner takes their aesthetic and applies it to the story of Deborah Ellis's acclaimed children's novel about a young girl trying to support her family while evading the gaze of the Taliban. The result is the most thematically mature children's films to be released by any studio in this decade. This kind of film has not been done successfully since the early 1980s, when films like Watership Down and the early Don Bluth films challenged what it meant to be a family oriented animated film. The Breadwinner is also incredibly honourable for giving a nuanced depiction of the culture at its centre, showing both the brutality of the Taliban, but also the innocent Afghan people trying to earn their living in their midst. The film is not overtly graphic, but its thematic material, the often frightening atmosphere and the acts of violence are probably best suited for audiences of about eight-years-old and above. It's up to parents to decide how much they think their children should experience this, but if I had any say in it, this should be required viewing; it deserves to be taught in schools, just as the original novel is. No other animated film has earned this kind of praise for being this thought-provoking and challenging. There will always be a place for the big animated studio films that people will go to see in the theatre more readily; The Breadwinner stands on a very different ground, and for that, it deserves to be seen by many more people.


6. Lady Bird



I have comparatively less to say about Lady Bird, not because I think less of it, but because I feel like its near universal appeal speaks for itself. Greta Gerwig's directorial debut has swept innumerable people off their feet, giving them a female main character whom any teenager can understand and connect to in some way regardless of background. However, she also manages to subvert a lot of clichés associated with the teen dramedy, especially the disagreeable parents trope. The way the film presents the mother-daughter relationship, you can clearly see where each of them can speak very sincerely to each other while also showing their rough edges; you can see where each of them draws the line when discussing very personal and very volatile emotions. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf have been awarded their fair share of praise already for their portrayal of that relationship, and playwright Tracy Letts should also be mentioned for playing the more well-meaning father. This script finds the absolute right balance in depicting the kind of angst, enthusiasm, disappointment and sincerity all associated with teenage-hood. All of it is funny, endearing, frank, and thoroughly entertaining.


5. Get Out



Yes... It really has been that good... for this long. What's remarkable about Get Out is how much people connected with all of its genre bending style. I saw this movie twice in theatres in very different contexts. At both screenings, the film was a wild success, with people laughing riotously at its very potent satire and squirming at all its tensest moments of horror. There was even audible applause at the exact same moment during both screenings. That said, the second time I watched it, I also saw a panel discussion hosted by Black Space Winnipeg immediately afterwards, where the panelists discussed how the film reflects a lot of the black experience. Spoilers: the discussion was not very funny. I can't claim to know anything about the emotions of that experience, but hearing that kind of discussion from very honest panelists gave Jordon Peele's movie a lot of context. You've heard enough discussion about how thrilling, entertaining and provocative this film is, and I'd be surprised if you hadn't seen it by now. It's a brilliant, creepy and powerful ride down into the Sunken Place, whatever that may mean to you.


4. The Florida Project



I shouldn't say anything about this movie... I should and I shouldn't... All that matters is I should have seen it sooner so that I could have complained that it wasn't nominated for more Oscars. After Sean Baker surprised many with Tangerine - the feature film shot entirely on an iPhone, for those of you unawares - he surprised and invigorated many more with the release of this heartfelt and often beautiful portrayal of unconventional people living on the fringes outside Disney World. Throughout the film, I could not help but draw parallels to the kind of heightened realism associated with early Federico Fellini. My emotional experience practically mirrored that of seeing Nights of Cabiria for the first time, as The Florida Project meshes elements of childhood whimsy, adult harshness, a lot of sarcastic wit, and a very profound honesty. The film is beautiful to look at even when the locations in the film look more broken and tattered than the city of Detroit. Brooklyn Prince is ingenious as the precocious 6-year-old protagonist Moonee, and Bria Vinaite is just so lively and unpredictable as her mother Halley. Willem Dafoe has outdone himself. The motel manager Bobby Hicks is an amazing character and Dafoe captures every subtle nuance to him; he loves and cares for the female leads, but is always on the verge of cracking under so much pressure on every front. I will protest if he does not win the Oscar this year... very, very quietly protest... without even going outside my house... but I will protest nonetheless. If you're not sold on this film by this statement or by the trailer... I don't care, watch it anyway. It is as wondrous as it is real.


3. It Comes At Night

Man, A24 had a boss year!  And no, I'm still not posting the trailer for this film, because I am assuming that most people who hated this film did because they saw the trailer first and did not go into the film blind and with an open mind! I still see angry responses everywhere to this film, which contrary to popular belief is not a horror film in the typical sense. It Comes At Night relies on the absence of a physical threat to truly build tension, as a family of survivors attempt to live by the set rules of their household in a vaguely apocalyptic world. Even my review of it, where I tried to give my personal take on what I thought the titular 'It' was, I couldn't really capture how awesome, tense, and raw this film was if viewed without any prior knowledge. Everyone involved with this film is completely committed to keeping the real source of fear in this film a secret, and the film succeeds because of it. Trey Edward Shults' writing and direction, Drew Daniels' cinematography, the performances by Carmen Ejogo, Joel Edgerton and Kelvin Harrison Jr., they all burrow into your brain and gnaw away at it as the film continues to disturb and intimidate you days afterwards. That's how it made me feel anyway, and I hope that more of you take the chance to see it with unprepared eyes. You will not want to go out at night for a long time afterwards.


2. I, Tonya



I went wild during this movie! In fact, everyone in the theatre went wild during the movie! I, Tonya is the best hyper-active biopic that has followed in the wake of The Wolf of Wall Street, which seems only fitting, since it was produced by and stars the real breakout of that film. Give Margot Robbie an Oscar! Give her an Oscar now! She is, as always, a genius comedien, but her transformative performance as Tonya Harding goes beyond being wildly funny and comes to encapsulate every tricky, weird and determined quirk people associate with the character. But the script is much smarter than to simply indulge one specific perceptive on Harding's life, giving a very powerful case for her defence while simultaneously reminding you that you can't take everything the film shows you at face value either. There are so many ironies and so many moments that are bewildering in how insane each characters' perceptive could get. The casting in general is ingenious, including Allison Janney in a role that will likely win Best Supporting Actress this year as Harding's mother, as well as Sebastian Stan as her husband and Paul Walter Hauser as her bodyguard, characters who are often brilliant in their idiocy. If your opinion of Tonya Harding as a public figure is set in stone, I'm not sure if this film will change your mind. What it does provide, however, is a wildly inventive, potent and spectacular interpretation of the events and certainly one that I want to see again. The discussion that can come from this film is just as exciting as the film itself.


1. Phantom Thread



What were you expecting? Anything else? I said the moment I finished watching Phantom Thread for the first time that I wanted to see it four more times in the cinema... Sadly, the underperforming box office was of a different mind... I'm ever so slightly disappointed in everyone who did not heed my advice. That said, even though I only saw it once more before it disappeared, that one time was enough to confirm that nothing from 2017 compares to Paul Thomas Anderson's latest masterpiece. This gorgeously designed, impeccably written, flawlessly acted, masterfully directed film enveloped me from its opening shot all the way through its methodical 130-minute runtime. The incredibly artful and cinematic fashion by which Anderson deconstructs and critiques a one-sided relationship between artist and muse is unlike any other romance I've seen, and earns it all of my respect and appreciation. No doubt people will remember this as the last film that Daniel Day-Lewis made before his retirement - assuming that it will be - and this performance is more than worthy of that honour. He may not transform his voice as many people expect him to, but as he always does, he finds the character in dialogue, posture and expression, and thus becomes the character of fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock - yes, that name is meant to be funny, as are a lot of things in this film. Vicky Krieps meanwhile earns her star making role as said muse Alma, and Lesley Manville may just give my favourite performance of 2017 as the fashion designer's soft-spoken but all-seeing sister Cyril. By the time the film was finished, all I could do was sit in stunned silence, listening to Jonny Greenwood's elegant score and allowing all of its elements to wash over me one more time. I went so far as to use the word 'transcendental' in my initial review, and I'm about to break that ground again. This film managed to reach a tier that no recent film has reached since the release of Inception: Phantom Thread is in my Top 20 of All Time!

You may not agree with me, and if you can defend your opinions well, I shall respect them. But to quote Cyril: "Don't pick a fight with me, you certainly won't come out alive. I'll go right through you, and it'll be you who ends up on the floor. Understood?"


Thank you all for your patience.  I'll speak to you all about my predictions soon.

"He's a wild creature. We can't ask him to be anything else." - The Shape of Water

Directed by Guillermo del Toro
U. S., 2017
123 minutes

Titular quote by: Richard Jenkins as Giles


Happy Valentine's Day.

This was not planned in advance, it's just taken me this long to really dive into this review - 'dive' hehehehehehe- I'm sorry. Two viewings and several Oscar nominations later, I can summarize all of my rather unusual opinions about The Shape of Water, a movie which everybody loves at the moment, including myself... only I seem to love it just the slightest bit less than most people would expect me to. This is the burden of fanboying about a director so much. Even if the latest film from Guillermo del Toro has compelling characters, a strong narrative, stunning aesthetics and, most importantly, very sincere emotions... if I was to rank this film based on his previous filmography... it's approximately in 4th place... and could very well be in 5th (Could somebody please mail me the Criterion edition of Cronos!? Please!?) This is my preliminary warning regarding obvious bias based on loving someone's work too much. Allow me be a nit-picky fanboy this one time before I tell you how much I love this fantastical romance regardless.

Eliza Esposito cannot speak. Not for lack of trying to connect with people, though she does not have many friends. She is physically unable of using her voice. In her everyday life in 1960s Baltimore, she is able to get by. She enjoys watching black-and-white films with her next door neighbour Giles, eats well enough, and works the cleaning shift at a government laboratory with her coworker Zelda. She may have a life, but it is still lonely without anyone she can truly express herself to. Then the Asset arrives. A strange fish creature, captured in the Amazon and transported to the United States for study, at first appears to pose a threat to her. Gradually, though, she begins to connect with him; in many ways, she fall in love with him. The government does not see in this creature what Eliza sees in him, instead only intending to brutally exploit his features in the hopes that they will help them beat the Russians in the space race. When such a frightening but elegant creature's life is on the line, though, the people who have grown emotional towards him must act in order to save him.

I'm going to give you my main issue with this film as a fanboy before I get on to the more critical points about the film. This movie, Crimson Peak, and del Toro's book/TV series The Strain make me a little worried about del Toro potentially copying himself. I mentioned in my critique of Crimson Peak that I noticed similarities to his excellent early film The Devil's Backbone. This was something similar to what happened when I read The Strain, and noticed similarities in design between the vampires in that series and the mutant vampires in the del Toro-directed Blade II. This did paint my expectations in anticipation of The Shape of Water, as the only logical step would be that he may start referencing Pan's Labyrinth, my favourite film of all time.

Well... this suspicion was not unfounded.

The Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth are not exact analogues, but there is a certain amount of familiarity in the basic structure of the story. There are character types that are similar, story beats that are similar, lines of dialogue that are similar, and even shots that seem to exactly echo shots from Pan's Labyrinth. Even the major conceit of this film, the thing that many people are making fun of, bears a striking resemblance to an early draft that del Toro indulged on the commentary track for Pan's Labyrinth. This film was made with a different crew and shot in a different country, but has enough elements that I recognized that it seemed more like an issue with the script by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor being somewhat familiar. If you are as much a fan of del Toro as I am, that probably will paint your impression of what you see in the film and how much you can look past it.

So... did I look past it?

...

Is Crimson Peak still on my Top Ten of 2015?

As much as I did notice the similarities more readily in The Shape of Water, I was more than willing to embrace the elements that were so very true to del Toro's aesthetic, as well as the elements that did distinguish it enough from its predecessor. While the story beats are at times familiar, the thematic material for both films is very distinct. Pan's Labyrinth explores ideas of Choice vs. Obedience, the subversion of authority, and the simultaneous attraction and danger of fantasy. The Shape of Water is a parable on behalf of the outcasts, both literal and figurative. The heroes of this film are people on the fringes of society, not for lack of trying to live with what they have, though. For whatever reason, society doesn't appreciate them; their desires, their struggles, their pains, their voices, none of them are being heard or embraced. To live in the world that they live in, they can only rely on each other, as none of them can judge the other.

Sally Hawkins is simply amazing as Eliza. In many ways, her character is one that del Toro has been desperately trying to give life to for a very long time, as he has often expressed his love of silent storytelling. Without her voice, Hawkins can only rely on her ability to express herself through facial and body language. The result is a flawless, purely emotional performance. No other performance by an actress this year matches this one in terms of its versatility and its sincerity. Even in movies that I find to have a greater whole than this one, none of them possess the exact same quality as this one performance. Hawkins is perfect.

By contrast, nearly every other actor in this film uses dialogue to express their emotions, which both surprises me and makes total sense. It builds on the isolation that Eliza feels in this society. Even when they are being more explicit in saying what they feel, the writing on its own is really exceptional, full of double meanings and often great tension, and the actors give real weight to those feelings. Richard Jenkins is excellent as Giles, a genuine friend with hidden feelings of his own. A particular scene in a diner between Giles and the waiter marks the most potent emotional scene between two humans in the entire film.  Octavia Spencer also does fine work as Zelda, a character in a somewhat familiar vein of her last two Oscar nominated roles, but made distinct by keeping her constantly on edge. She's trying to get by without causing any trouble at all. Can you blame her when she's being threatened by a madman with a cattle prod and two rotting fingers? Colonel Strickland may be the most interesting parallel to Pan's Labyrinth of them all, though again made distinct. Where Vidal is the absolute representation of Fascist dictatorship and dominance, Strickland is constantly struggling to maintain that dominance over his family, over his inferiors, and in the face of his superiors. It's easy to find Vidal the more memorable entity as a result, but Strickland, largely thanks to Michael Shannon, is the better fit for this movie. He certainly succeeds in dominating the scene whenever he's in it.

Did I say that Strickler was the most interesting parallel? Maybe... but it's not the one that impacts me the most. One thing has never changed about my feelings towards del Toro. Regardless of what story he tells, one thing remains consistent: You always know how the monsters make you feel. I want to understand Santi. I want to converse and be friends with the Faun. I want to go on adventures with Hellboy. I want to fight the Kaiju.

I felt seen when I met the Asset.

The creature in The Shape of Water is the most empathetic creature del Toro has ever created... again... having not seen Cronos... I am sad. With that limited perspective, however, I felt more connection to the amphibious man than any other monster in del Toro's films. Doug Jones once again dons the elegant and frightening skin of the creature and inhabits a character who is one part Creature from the Black Lagoon, one part the Beast from Cocteau's La belle et la bête, and in one powerful image, Quasimodo himself. Jones and del Toro know how to make a creature feel like a classic Universal monster, but more than that, they have created one with a personality all its own. He does not speak. He does not comprehend human behaviour. He does not try to be anything other than himself. His character is almost entirely reactionary, but every one of his reactions is felt deeply. This is simplicity of character at its finest. They're no question why he and Eliza are absolutely meant to be together onscreen.

I have grown simultaneously very critical and very indulgent of del Toro's work in the last four years. I've grown to expect a great deal of innovation every time I see his latest film, but over the last few years, I've also come to expect some things that are more familiar. Nearly every director falls into these kind of situations if they mean to or not, and it's the fan's decision whether or not they can accept that or not. I accept The Shape of Water; to be more exact, I embrace it. I embrace it because it is just as confident and just as emotionally gratifying as any of del Toro's previous films. It brings out astounding work from some exceptional actors, two of which belong on a high pedestal for their ability to convey pure feeling without saying anything. And it goes without saying, the aesthetics of the movie are flawless. Art direction, cinematography, editing, score, sound, costume, they're all astounding; there isn't a single image that isn't stunning to behold. As a fan of del Toro, I do hope that his next film will be one that is distinctly different from anything else he's done before. He's always been at his best when he make the audience witness the unfamiliar. That said, there are still plenty of unfamiliar elements to this film on its own, with the relationship at its centre speaking more volumes than most human relationships in modern films. At its heart, The Shape of Water is a simple, beautiful, endearing story of outcast people finding solace in one another; how fitting for a man who has made his career out of telling stories about the relationship between humans and monsters.


**** 1/2 out of *****