Ridley Scott‘s All The Money In The World screens today for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but the rest of us will be on hold until, I’m presuming, next week. This aside I’ve seen almost everything (not all but most) and so here, almost finally, are HE’s Best Films of 2017 — chosen not on the basis of award-season heat but for their own engaging qualities, finessed and shaded in their own particular way. Certain films in the ’17 Oscar Derby will do a fast fade after 3.4.18, but a good percentage of these will stir some level of interest 10, 20 or even 50 years hence.
Top ten: (1) Luca Guadagnino‘s Call Me My Your Name, (2) Chris Nolan‘s Dunkirk, (3) Greta Gerwig‘s Lady Bird, (4) Darren Aronofsky‘s mother!, (5) Ruben Ostlund‘s The Square, (6) Matt Reeves‘ War For The Planet of the Apes, (7) Oliver Assayas‘ Personal Shopper [2016 holdover], (8) Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick, (9) Steven Spielberg‘s The Post, (9) Cristian Mungiu‘s Graduation [2016 holdover], and (10) Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s Loveless.
Honorable fraternity: (11) Martin McDonagh‘s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, (12) Edgar Wright‘s Baby Driver, (13) Sean Baker‘s The Florida Project, (14) Guillermo del Toro‘s The Shape of Water, (15) David Lowery‘s A Ghost Story, (16) David Gordon Green‘s Stronger, (18) Fatih Akin‘s In The Fade, (19) Brad Pitt‘s War Machine, (20) Joseph Kosinski‘s Only The Brave, (21) Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Phantom Thread, (22) Jordan Peele‘s Get Out, (23) Denis Villeneuve‘s Blade Runner 2049, (24) Patti Jenkins‘ Wonder Woman, (25) Taylor Sheridan‘s Wind River, (26) Steven Soderbergh‘s Logan Lucky, (27) Geremy Jasper‘s Patty Cake$ and (28) John Curran‘s Chappaquiddick (saw it in Toronto, opening in April ’18).
