Best movies of 2017

[Chris Knipp]

Metacritc's current year's best list, by critical ratings, but some are 2018, not 2017; and they managed to forget one better than these, Christopher Nolan's DUNKIRK - Metacritic raging 94. Call Me by Your Name, which everybody loves, is a great success, and so are some of the others, in what still seems a somewhat thin year somehow.



1 96 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Luca Guadagnino)
11/24/2017
2 95 FACES, PLACES (Agnès Varda)
10/6/2017
3 94 A FANTASTIC WOMAN (Sebastián Lelio)
11/17/2017
4 94 LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig)
11/3/2017
5 92 THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker)
10/6/2017
6 91 EX LIBRIS: The New York Public Library (Fred Wiseman)
9/13/2017
7 9 PADDINGTON 2 (Paul King)
1/12/2018
8 88 LOVELESS (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
12/1/2017
9 88 YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Lynne Ramsay
Feb. 23, 2018
10 88 RAT FILM(Theo Anthony)
Sept. 15, 2017

[oscar jubis]

Metacritc's current year's best list, by critical ratings, but some are 2018, not 2017; and they managed to forget one better than these, Christopher Nolan's DUNKIRK - Metacritic raging 94. Call Me by Your Name, which everybody loves, is a great success, and so are some of the others, in what still seems a somewhat thin year somehow.

The ones I've seen are Varda's impossible-to-dislike, crowd-pleasing yet undeniable FACES PLACES and The Florida Project. I read your review. I have not seen Tangerine but it doesn't seem to me apt to call the director a "humanist" based on his latest film, a tough piece that is brutally honest and uncompromisingly caustic toward underclass, single mothers. This film confronts the parenting crisis head on. It's quite an achievement to make it so hard for the spectator to decide whether the child is better off under State custody. My friends, a cinema manager and a print film critic, didn't like it BECAUSE of the director's lack of compassion towards the mom figure. I thought that the scene where she punches her best friend in the face repeatedly for calling her a cock sucker tipped the balance of the characterization too much into unfavorable territory.

[Chris Knipp]

You cannot be realistic as Sean Baker is and sugar-coat the characters. But I would still call him a humanist, for even bothering to depict this world, and his treatment of the kids, arguably his real subject. Tangerine is another example you need to see, which I found visually beautiful - the colors. Maybe my conception of humanism is different from yours. It's not "liberalism" and portraits that are realistic shouldn't be seen as "tilted" into "favorable" or "unfavorable" "territory". Territory is a good word, but it's neutral territory. I also repeat that this film reminded me of Andrea Arnold's American Honey, an exciting, disturbing film whose characters from the American white underclass ("poor white trash") are full of incredible life, but some of them are definitely not nice or right in any way, they make you feel uneasy and sort of soiled. Andrea Arnold is a humanist too, and watch her amazing Fish Tank, Perhaps Michael Fassbender's best role, where he is a really awful character, but it's a realistic look at these people's lives, and she gives you an intimate look at what he does.

I agree with you on Faces, Places. It seems a bit thin, but it is beautifully put together, and she is an icon now, and very remarkable given her age (89! - how does she do it?). Have you really not seen Dunkirk? If so that is really too bad, because it was essential to see it in IMax and/or (I saw it in both) 70mm. About half the people didn't get it. Varda is the darling of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. This is not realistic at all, nor does it show any of the dark or problematic side of the rural France she and JR go through. It's just a show they put on. But it's so slickly done, you have to admire it, and her repartee with JR is so slick and pleasing. I didn't really feel anything though.

[oscar jubis]

I edited the post so it's "lack" of compassion", not "like". I love the skewering of the Brazilian bourgeois newlywed bride in The Florida Project. My friend says Baker is a "miserablist". I think it's an exaggeration. But there's maybe two moments in the film when I feel the same way. Still, a memorable film for me. As far as contemporary films, I am going to watch Wonderstruck next. Currently, rewatching Dekalog and Ozu's I was born but..". I spend A LOT more time re-watching movies than watching new ones. I'm more interested in getting to know a few films deeply than dabbling in many ones.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm not dabbling. It's more scouring. Dabbling is pejorative but I know you may not realize that.
Don't expect too much from Wonderstruck.
No, Baker's not a "miserablist". See Tangerine.
I'm a huge fan of Dekalog and it can't be watched too often. Admire Ozu but don't watch him enough. However, I think one has to both watch great older films and the new ones, all the time.

[Chris Knipp]

Metacritic now has a new version of the page I started with. Dunkirk has been put it its rightful place. It changes all the time and it's a bit hard to see the logic of the readjustments, and they may not be too reliable, but you have to realize they have 6 pages going up to over 550 films. I have not seen the much admired Columbus, and I see it's now easy to watch it online so I may have to. Yesterday I saw Margaret Betts' debut filmNovitiate (which she wrote and directed) about a young nun in training and a troubled Mother Superior in the key year of Vatican II, 1964, which includes an Oscar-nomination performance by Melissa Leo as the Mother Superior. Metacritic 73%, not a top contender, but very interesting if you're interested in Catholicism and debut films and Oscar supporting performances.



1 96% CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Luca Guadagnino)
11/24/2017
2 95% FACES, PLACES (Agnès Varda)
10/6/2017
3 94% A FANTASTIC WOMAN (Sebastián Lelio)
11/17/2017
4 94% DUNKIRK (Christopher Nolan)
7/21/2017
5 94% LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig)
11/3/2017
6 92% THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker)
10/6/2017
7 91% EX LIBRIS: The New York Public Library (Fred Wiseman)
9/13/2017
8 90% I CALLED HIM MORGAN 2 (Kasper Collin)
1/12/2018
9 89% COLUMBUS (Kogonada)
8/4/2017
10 89% UNCERTAIN( Anna Sandilands and Ewan McNicol)
Sept. 15, 2017

[oscar jubis]

I'm not dabbling. It's more scouring. Dabbling is pejorative but I know you may not realize that.
Don't expect too much from Wonderstruck.
No, Baker's not a "miserablist". See Tangerine.
I'm a huge fan of Dekalog and it can't be watched too often. Admire Ozu but don't watch him enough. However, I think one has to both watch great older films and the new ones, all the time.

I am having the distinct pleasure of watching DEKALOG on a theater screen , on Criterion BluRay. I will definitely watch Tangerine.

Susan Sontag, among others, has talked about the "excess" or "plenitude" of cinema, meaning that it's impossible to attend to everything available for perception in any second of cinema; so many systems of signification working conjointly and consistently that I often feel I am dabbling when I am experiencing a movie for the first time. I cannot honestly claim to have more than a superficial understanding of the movie. What I ask from a movie is to compel me to watch it a second time so i can explore how it does what it does.

It has often been said that camera movement and editing are (the) elements of film style that are uniquely cinematic, but film reviews typically ignore them (understandably perhaps, to concentrate on genre, plot and character development)because it seems natural to use available time and energy on story construction and take for granted the stylistic or aesthetic aspects. I notice that my students often forget that everything they see and hear results from decisions about how to manipulate the viewer's perception, attention, thoughts and feelings. Often part of the enjoyment is to disregard the cogs and wheels and stratagems and become immersed into the diegesis. Then you watch it again to understand the experience. So, the term dabble was descriptive of my experience and the fact that the writing about film I prefer is the kind derived from repeated acquaintance with the film under consideration.

[Chris Knipp]

Very well but "dabble" means "take part in an activity in a casual or superficial way" and hence sounds pejorative as applied to writing movie reviews, which are superficial compared to deep analysis of films based on many repeated viewings and analyses but can be intelligent and even perceptive on many levels.

Ironically, when you were probably still a child I published an essay in my college (Amherst) Literary Magazine called "A Film Critic's Hornbook" enunciating the same principles: that conventional critics focus in the diegetics of movies when, I argued, they would do better to examine the uniquely "filmic" aspects, and otherwise are treating a film no differently than if it were novel, play, or poem. As you know, though, for the needs of everyday viewers - without whom there would be no films shown in cinemas, and nothing would have been made for academics like you to examine - the diegetics are what need to be written about. So I've wound up going against my own undergraduate essay.

[Chris Knipp]

Correction: it was probably before you were born.

[oscar jubis]

Amherst is a great college. One thing I'd hate if I wrote movie reviews is not to be able to analyze resolution and closure. A couple of years ago,I turned down a gig writing reviews for a weekly. The guy they got is very good though, a friend of a friend. I watched The Florida Project again and my admiration for it keeps increasing. I love how the ending yanks the rug from under the viewer. It's jarring and I had to think about it and discuss it with peers to come to a final decision about its appropriateness.I'm watching Dunkirk next week, finally.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. Hope you like Dunkirk. Recently I really liked Kaurismäki's Other Side of Hope and Novitiate is worth watching especially if you're interested in Catholic history. Big role for Melissa Leo too. People are talking about McDonagh's Three Billboards a lot, Frances McDormand always gets a lot of attention. You mentioned turning down the reviewing job; obviously it would not be to your taste.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/pp9m.jpg
DAVE AND JAMES FRANCO IN THE DISASTER ARTIST

New movies this weekend, Dec. 1, 2017 (NYC):
The Darkest Hour (Joe Wright) 11/22/17 - Metacritic 74%
Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino) 11/24/17 - Metacritic 95%
The Disaster Artist (James Franco) 12/2/17 - Metacritic 76%
The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki)- Metacritic 84%
The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro) Metacritic 85%
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) - Metacritic 53%

Also showing in NYC :

Thelma (Joachim Trier, at Village East) - Metacritic 74%
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo), at the Metrograph - Metacritic 80%
6-film K Aki Kaurismäki retrospective, at Film Forum
Naples '44, new doc at Film Forum
The Florida Project (Sean Baker) Metacritic 92%
Three Billboards. . . (Martin McDonagh) Metacritic 87%
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) - Metacritic 94%
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos) Metacritic 73%


http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/p8m.jpg
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND KATE WINSLETT IN WONDER WHEEL

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/33TP.jpg
HANKS AND STREEP IN THE POST

They're talking about (Dec. 22nd release). . . a production whipped off "at warp speed" partly by a bare novice screenwriter, now ready to grab top honors. See Variety's (http://variety.com/2017/film/awards/steven-spielbergs-the-post-named-best-film-of-2017-by-national-board-of-review-1202624800/) recent "in contention" story.
The Post
Coming Soon
In theaters wide January 12, but it will qualify for 2017 Oscars. It has been named Best Film by the National Board of Review.


Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson | See full cast & crew (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6294822/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm) »
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.

Definitely not the best movie of 2017 but it will win the Oscar and I'm okay with that, says one writer. So Call Me by Your Name is pushed out and once again a great gay movie won't get top honors in straight Hollywood. I guess I was dreaming. But Timouthée Chalamet is winning breakthrough performance awards.

[Chris Knipp]

The Indiewire poll and Indiewire lists for 2017.
'
A file to check against to see if a certain film qualifies as a 2017 US release is Mike D'Angelo's list of all New York City 2017 Commercial Releases, which he has on his site HERE (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/nymaster.html). (Received from Indiewire today 12/4/2017.)

Indiewire also has a Best Undistributed category, where you can list or find any films shown at festivals or public screenings but not theatrically released here. Indiewire's poll also has a category at the end (TV series not being allowed otherwise) for "anything from the year in moving images that you'd like to highlight." In that category I'd certainly have to list the outstanding Norwegian teen TV series "SKAM," whose four seasons I watched this summer, up to their end-day June 24, 2017.

Indiewire's Dave Erlich already has his top 25 list (http://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/david-ehrlich-best-movies-2017-video-compilation-edit-1201903497/) out:


1. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
2. DUNKIRK
3. A GHOST STORY
4. PERSONAL SHOPPER
5. THE FLORIDA PROJECT
5. COLUMBUS
7. LADY BIRD
8. FACES PLACES
9. THE POST
10. PHANTOM THREAD
11. A QUIET PASSION
12. OKJA
13. WONDERSTRUCK
14. GOOD TIME
15. THE BEGUILED
16. GET OUT
17. THELMA
18. THE BIG SICK
19. FOXTROT
20. A FANTASTIC WOMAN
21. LADY MACBETH
22. MOTHER!
23. BABY DRIVER
24. THE LURE
25. ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

I think I should see Columbus. I've been meaning to. This also reminds me of some movies I've almost forgotten, like The Lure.Even though D'Anglo walked out of it. I can eliminate many of these titles either because I haven't seen them, or because I didn't like them.
Haven't seen:
COLUMBUS, THE POST, PHANTOM THREAD, FOXTROT, A FANTASTIC WOMAN.
(I may bet to see The Post and Phantom Thread before year's end though.)

Actively disliked, or couldn't even bear to watch:
A QUIET PASSION, OKUJA, WONDERSTRUCK, GOOD TIME, THE BEGUILED, MOTHER!
Don't think I could really list among the very best of the year, probably (but not sure yet):
FACES PLACES, THELMA, BABY DRIVER, THE LURE.
Definitely consider among the best:
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, DUNKIRK, PERSONAL SHOPPER, THE FLORIDA PROJECT, LADY BIRD, GET OUT, LADY MACBETH, ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. So that last is, for now, my partial default list.

Other films that are being mentioned this end of year:
KEDI, EX LIBRIS

[Chris Knipp]

Vanity Fair's2017b 10 Best List. (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/best-movies-of-2017-list) From VF film critic Richard Lawson.
1. B.P.M.
2. FACES PLACES
3. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
4. THE LOST CITY OF Z
5. GET OUT
6. PHANTOM THREAD
7. PERSONAL SHOPPER
8. PRINCESS CYD
9. A GHOST STORY
10. BEATRIZ AT DINNER
I haven't seen PT Anderson's Phantom Thread yet but probably will on Christmas Day in NYC when it officially comes out. I haven't seen Princess Cyd and didn't know what it was. (Lawson's description isn't very helpful either.) I'm glad to be reminded of The Lost City of Z, and think it's worth mentioning. I respect James Gray a lot, and am a fan of Chrlie Hunnum. However I don't think he they hit it out of the park.

[Chris Knipp]

SKAM.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/EVAK.jpg
"EVAK" - ISAK AND EVEN ARE BOYS IN LOVE IN SEASON 3 OF THE SERIES, "SKAM"

Today I wrote:
Indiewire also has a Best Undistributed category, where you can list or find any films shown at festivals or public screenings but not theatrically released here. Indiewire's poll also has a category at the end (TV series not being allowed otherwise) for "anything from the year in moving images that you'd like to highlight." In that category I'd certainly have to list the outstanding Norwegian teen TV series "SKAM," whose four seasons I watched this summer, up to their end-day June 24, 2017.

So tonight I was inspired to write this IMDb "Comment" about the 2015-2017 Norwegian teen TV series, "SKAM." It moves and was one of my year's best experiences but it's not a movie.

(See also Variety film critic Boyd van Hoeij's excellent essay about the series for The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/the-norwegian-teen-drama-series-loved-around-the-world/532008/).)

I discovered this amazing and unique Norwegian series, "SKAM," pronounced "scum" and meaning "shame" (I never figured out why), directed by Julie Andem, set around an Oslo high school, this summer (2017) with S3 (Isak & Even), which got more global attention and was published on more platforms and more commented on by fans because of its appealing and destined-to-be-classic gay teen coming-out love story, and then watched S1 (Jonas & Eva) & S2 (Noora & William), moving on just in time for the current, ongoing S4 (Sana) up the the end, seeing the final episode of S4 on its actual final real-time day The Eid (Eid al-Fitr ) June 25. The real-time, of- the-moment quality was essential to the authenticity of the series and its proximity to the present teenage generation. (We are told that the series was made up as it went along, with input from teens, and nobody knew during S3 who was going to be featured in S4.)

Amazingly all this that I watched was not officially published but local fans' artisanal publications on various platforms with homemade but spot-on idiomatic English subtitles (including all the text messages and explanations of wordplay, maybe the best subtitles ever). It was easy to get hooked and hunt for more and more wherever you could find them. There was nothing like it ever. It was so good and these kids and their talk were so fascinating it made you study the texts and want to learn Norwegian (which I loved the sound of, but found pretty baffling). All this came at kind of a serendipitous time right after I'd devoured all but the last not yet translated of Karl Ove Knausgård's addictive 6-vol. series of autobiographical novels, "My Struggle," so I was used to living vicariously in Norway.

Besides being innovatively naturalistic with its real-time scenes and online broadcast, heavy use of SMS etc., it also boldly covers a social range using appropriate actors, notably Tarjei Sandvik Moe as "Isak," who became a global gay heartthrob, yet was a an actual 15, 16, 17-year-old student at the Hartvig Nissens high school featured in the series. And what a compelling, watchable young actor he is! We live through his lies and dodges, double-takes and self-discoveries moment by moment.

Each of the 4 seasons is the love story of one couple, all connected with the others through the school. S1 is an ordinary (cute) couple, and the boy, Jonas (Marlon Langeland of the imposing eyebrows) spoils their love through excessive jealousy of the beautiful Eva (Lisa Teige). S2 is a screwed-up couple, a snobbish, particular girl and a rich, spoiled, damaged top dog. Noora's and William's story is painful and as true as Isak & Even's. When N & W finally connect, it's super-intense, but also fragile. S3 is Isak, the gay-questioning boy who has to come out to himself, while pursued by the older, more sure Even, who yet has psychological issues. Their first dates are romantic, a scene based on Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet. Then, after the requisite heartbreak and Isak's difficult coming out to his (totally accepting) pals, who sort of knew it all along, as did Emma (Ruby Dagnall), the girl he was stringing along and using as a facade, "Evak" wind up moving in together and being the most loving and stable couple of all, a pearl of a romance cultivated in adversity. Also interesting, a microcosm of the school social groupings, is Isak's loyal little posse of Jonas, Magnus and Mahdi and himself, who talk of nothing but sex though only one, Jonas, of S1, may know anything about it so far. Maguns is the one who has to get laid.

S4, though it continues with all the former characters, focuses primarily on the most baddass and arguably the most complex and interesting character, the Muslim, hijab-wearing Sana (the excellent Iman Meskini), who as time goes on very much finds a boy she loves, Yousef, who's from a Muslim family, but sadly, her religious beliefs don't allow her to be with him when she discovers his attitude to God.

The joyous party at the end both celebrates the young actor's esprit-de- corps and underlines that "SKAM" is throughout very much an ensemble piece, with no minor characters, because they all count, Chris, Vilde, Isak's gay roommate and scold Eskild, the bus groups, the top dog boys, everybody. Mostly to these kids, adults don't count that much, and mostly are seen only from the neck down, till we get to Sana's parents, who do count for her - we can't forget the hilarious, wise school "nurse", more an offbeat counselor, Dr. Skrulle, whose little scenes of totally sui generis advice-giving are priceless.

I confess, I have watched some episodes three, four, or more times, and each time gets better and I marvel more at the wit, adorableness, and how, say, Isak and his posse play off each other when they're together. These kids are incredible. You may think of the UK series "Skins," which is remarkable in its own way, but it is totally different, bent on grimness, and dark humor and absurdity, and not as real and true, or as helpful. Because watching "SKAM" can be healing and enlightening, as well as touching and fun. And it's basically about togetherness and love.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/EVAK2.jpg
ISAK AND SANA IN BIOLOGY

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/EVAK3.jpg
GIRL POSSE NOORA, VILDE, SANA, CHRIS AND EVA

[Chris Knipp]

CHRIS KNIPP'S BEST MOVIES OF 2017 LISTS.

This is a work in progress. Or maybe in decline. Lists become exhausting after a while, don't they?


http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/pol9.jpg
Still from Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

BEST FEATURES
1. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
2. Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)
3. The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki)
4. The Son of Joseph (Eurène Green)
5. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
6. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
7. BPM (Beats per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
8. Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve)
9. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)
10. The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
__________________________

11. Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman)- in the French version, "La passion Van Gogh"
12. Ghost Story (David Lowery)
13. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
14. All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak)
15. Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd)
16. Menashe (Joshoa Z. Weinstein)
17. The Lost City of Z (James Gray)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES (alphabetical)
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (Steve James 2017)
The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani)
City of Ghosts (Matthew Heineman 2017)
Cries From Syria (Evgeny Afineevsky)
Human Flow (Ai Weiwei)
I Am Not Your Negro ( Raoul Peck)
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk)
Jane (Brett Morgen)
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (Griffin Dunne)
May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio)
Strong Island (Yance Ford)
Whose Streets? (Sabaah Folayan)

BEST FOREIGN (alphabetical)
4 Days in France (Jérôme Reybaud)
Clash (Mohamed Diab)
L'enfant secret (Philippe Garrel) [1979]
Graduation (Cristian Mungiu)
Heal the Living (Katell Quillévéré)
The Nile Hilton Incident (Tarik Saleh)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)
The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues)
Slack Bay (Bruno Dumont)
The Square (Ruben Östlund)

BEST UNRELEASED (alphabetical)
Barbara (Mathieu Amalric)
Le Carré/Plot 35 (Eric Caravaca 2017).
Let the Sunshine In/Un beau soleil intérieur (Claire Denis)
The Rider (Chloe Zhao) (Apr. 2018 release)
You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) (Apr. 2018 release)

NOT ABLE TO SEE BEFORE THE INDIEWIRE POLL (& DATE SEEN)
Columbus (Kogonada)
Darkest Hour (Joe Wright) 12/10/17
The Disaster Artist (James Franco) 12/12/17
Downsizing (Alexander Payne) 12/22/17
Ex Libris (Frederick Wiseman)
A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)
Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz)
Happy End (Michael Haneke) 12/26/17
Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo) 12/23/17
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) 12/25/17 rewatched 12/30/17
The Post (Steven Spielberg) 12/23/17
The Shape of Water (Guillermo Del Toro) 12/16/17
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) 12/10/17
Wormwood (Errol Morris) - 6-part TV series

WORST OR MOST OVERRATED (alhabetical)
Good Time (Josh & Benny Safdie)
The Human Surge/El auge del humano (Edoardo Williams)
mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/plpok.jpg
Oliver (Armie Hammer) meets Elio (Timothée Chalamet), Call Me by Your Name

Comments to go with Chris Knipp's Best Movies of 2017 lists.

This didn't seem to me such a great year as many are now declaring. There wasn't a whole list of five or ten films that I'm really excited about. Only the top couple of films awoke real feeling for me. I was most excited by Dunkirk. It seems to me a work of absolute genius, outwardly familiar perhaps, but in fact wholly original. I now know what all the fuss is about: Chris Nolan is brilliant and his films are enormous works.

Call Me by Your Name is different, just a richly satisfying film and an enjoyable and accomplished one, and it brings together all Guadagnino's capacity for lush physicality in spades and is his best yet, he's at the top of his game. The collaboration with James Ivory on the screenplay from André Aciman's novel is a triumph. Everyone seems to love this movie (except I assume, homophobes, since it's a gay love affair).

After those two, though, less excitement. Kaurismäki's film though seems just deeply good, morally. LIkewise The Son of Joseph, though some are just put off, or think the boy is mean; he only starts out that way, but it's about moral development. I have hated or been left cold by Yorgos Lanthimos, but this one is bold and thrilling. You have to love Lady Bird because it's an exceptionally warm and specific girl's coming of age movie. Greta Gerwig has a generous spirit and is a talented writer. BPM records a beautiful moment, like the moment recorded for US (New York) ACT UP in David France's documentary, How to Survive a Plague. But by this point I'm really not as moved or excited. Blade Runner seems like a really good job, lacking the panache of the original, also too long, but very beautiful, and I love Harrison Ford in it; in his few scenes he blows away Ryan Gosling, who seems wimpy next to him. Faces Places is an amazing performance. How old did you say Agnès Varda was? She's unstoppable, and this is a smooth, seamless effort. It seems a tiny bit fake to me, not showing the underside of the places visited. As for The Florida Project, my inclusion is a homage to the majority of film critics who have listed it in their top ten and usually higher up. It is distinctive; it really sticks in you mind. Or is it craw? But Sean Baker is good, and an original.

Going down to the Best Foreign, I loved the Egyptian films. Actually The Nile Hilton Incident is by a guy born in Sweden, and not really shot in Cairo but, alas, in Casablanca, but it is in Egyptian Arabic - and got a very warm critical reception in Paris. Clash truly, amazingly, was shot in Egypt; who knows if that can be done again, the way things are going there. I am a fan of Bertrand Bonello, and each time he does something cool and new. So, Nocturama, which even is bold because it could offend locals. Of the other lists: the one thing I've got that others don't is that every fall I spend a few weeks in Paris, and see as many new movies as I can. So, I can list Barbara which probably won't go over well here, but is a unique film, and the new Claire Denis film, which is excellent - but that was shown in the NYFF - and Le Carré, and Lynne Ramsay's amazing You Were Never Really Here, another Joaquin Phoenix virtuoso display, released in France about six months before the US release. But mostly I saw mediocre to good French films that won't play well here. It is still easier and more fun to see movies in that particular part of Paris than it is in Manhattan.

P.S. Don't forget that we're also in a new Golden Age of TV. Too many series to watch, but I loved the Norwegian teen series "SKAM (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4414-Best-movies-of-2017&p=36349#post36349)," a global hit online, which I recently wrote a long comment on (see the link); and I richly enjoyed the first season of the new David Simon (and George Pelecanos) "joint" "The Deuce," and am working my way through the dark,moody, paranoid 3rd Season of "Mr. Robot," which a friend commented is like "The X Files." Only up-to-date, and its paranoia more terrifyingly justified.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/ppl9.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

The San Francisco Critics Circle nominations.

This is a pretty standard list. My choices as far as I can make them from the options are indicated by an asterisk.
Their choices are marked by a -.


Best Picture
*CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
-THE FLORIDA PROJECT
GET OUT
-THE SHAPE OF WATER
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best Director
Sean Baker – THE FLORIDA PROJECT
-Guillermo del Toro – THE SHAPE OF WATER
Greta Gerwig – LADY BIRD
*Christopher Nolan – DUNKIRK
Jordan Peele – GET OUT

Best Actor
*Timothee Chalamet – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
James Franco – THE DISASTER ARTIST
Daniel Kaluuya – GET OUT
Gary Oldman – DARKEST HOUR
-Andy Serkis – WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

Best Actress
Annette Bening – FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL
Sally Hawkins – THE SHAPE OF WATER
Frances McDormand – THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
-Margot Robbie – I, TONYA
Saoirse Ronan – LADY BIRD

Best Supporting Actor
-Willem Dafoe – THE FLORIDA PROJECT
*Armie Hammer – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Richard Jenkins – THE SHAPE OF WATER
Sam Rockwell – THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Michael Stuhlbarg – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Best Supporting Actress
Holly Hunter – THE BIG SICK
Allison Janney – I, TONYA
*Melissa Leo – NOVITIATE
Lesley Manville – PHANTOM THREAD
-Laurie Metcalf – LADY BIRD

Best Foreign Language Film
-BPM
A FANTASTIC WOMAN
FRANTZ
IN THE FADE
THE SQUARE

Best Animated Feature
THE BREADWINNER
-COCO
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE
*LOVING VINCENT
YOUR NAME

Best Documentary
BRIMSTONE & GLORY
*CITY OF GHOSTS
DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME
-FACES PLACES
JANE

Best Cinematography
-BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Roger Deakins
*DUNKIRK – Hoyte van Hoytema
THE FLORIDA PROJECT – Alexis Zabe
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Dan Laustsen
WONDER WHEEL – Vittorio Storaro

Best Production design
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Dennis Gassner
*DUNKIRK – Nathan Crowley
PHANTOM THREAD – Mark Tildesley
-THE SHAPE OF WATER – Paul D. Austerberry
WONDERSTRUCK – Mark Friedberg

Best Editing
-BABY DRIVER – Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Joe Walker
*DUNKIRK – Lee Smith
THE POST – Michael Kahn
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Sidney Wolinsky

Best Screenplay (original)
THE BIG SICK – Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon
-GET OUT – Jordan Peele
*LADY BIRD – Greta Gerwig
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI – Martin McDonagh

Best Screenplay (adapted)
THE DISASTER ARTIST – Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
*-CALL ME BY YOUR NAME – James Ivory
MOLLY’S GAME – Aaron Sorkin
MUDBOUND – Dee Rees and Virgil Williams
WONDERSTRUCK – Brian Selznick

Best Original Score
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch
*DUNKIRK – Hans Zimmer
PHANTOM THREAD – Jonny Greenwood
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Alexandre Desplat
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES – Michael Giacchino

Special Citation (for that underappreciated indie gem)
-BRIMSTONE & GLORY
COLUMBUS
THE OTHER KIDS

[Chris Knipp]

Mike D'Angelo's Top Ten and more list.

It is in progress (it started months ago), so you should consult it again here (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/2017.html) for updates. He notes now he jut added Phantom Thread to the top ten, which I well may when I see it. You also have to consult his page for his numerical ratings, which go from 85 down to 62. I included more than the ten to show The Riderr and Lady Bird, which I like, and others like The Death of Stalin that I might like if I got to see them.


2017 Top Ten List
mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
A Gentle Creature (Sergei Loznitsa)
The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (S. Craig Zahler)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Wormwood (Errol Morris)
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Félicité (Alain Gomis)
Lean On Pete (Andrew Haigh)
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)

Additional 2017 Films By Rating
PROTOTYPE (Blake Williams)
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (Travis Wilkerson)
Let the Corpses Tan (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani)
Who We Are Now (Matthew Newton)
The Rider (Chloé Zhao)
Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo)
American Made (Doug Liman)
Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)
Lucky (John Carroll Lynch)
Molly's Game (Aaron Sorkin)
This Is Our Land (Lucas Belvaux)
The Death of Stalin (Armando Iannucci)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)

[Chris Knipp]

Golden Globe nominees - movies.

Here it is at last, the big, definitive list. The Musical or Comedy list is very weird this year. Good luck with getting a lot of laughs out of any of those, or music.


Best Motion Picture, Drama
Call Me by Your Name
Dunkirk
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
The Disaster Artist
Get Out
The Greatest Showman
I, Tonya
Lady Bird

Best Director, Motion Picture
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Ridley Scott, All the Money in the World
Steven Spielberg, The Post

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Jessica Chastain, Molly’s Game
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Meryl Streep, The Post
Michelle Williams, All the Money in the World

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture
Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Hong Chau, Downsizing
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Tom Hanks, The Post
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel Esq.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Steve Carell, Battle of the Sexes
Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver
James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture
Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, The Post
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game

Best Original Score, Motion Picture
Carter Burwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water
Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
John Williams, The Post
Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk

Best Original Song, Motion Picture
"Home" — Ferdinand
"Mighty River" — Mudbound
"Remember Me" — Coco
"The Star" — The Star
"This is Me" — The Greatest Showman

Best Motion Picture, Animated
The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language
A Fantastic Woman
First They Killed My Father
In the Fade
Loveless
The Square

[Chris Knipp]

Golden Globe nominees - television.

I've actually watched some of these series: Stranger Things, The Deuce, The Young Pope, and Mr. Robot. I should have watched Twin Peaks, and might like to check out The Good Doctor. But no desire to watch the others named here, that I know of.


Best Television Series – Drama:
The Crown
Game of Thrones
The Handmaid’s Tale
Stranger Things
This is Us

Best Television Series – Comedy:
Black-ish
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Master of None
SMILF
Will & Grace

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama:
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This is Us
Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama:
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
Claire Foy, The Crown
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce
Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy:
Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick
William H. Macy, Shameless
Eric McCormack, Will and Grace

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy:
Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Alison Brie, Glow
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Issa Rae, Insecure
Frankie Shaw, SMILF

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Big Little Lies
Fargo
Feud: Bette and Joan
The Sinner
Top of the Lake: China Girl

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Robert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies
Jude Law, The Young Pope
Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks
Ewan McGregor, Fargo
Geoffrey Rush, Genius

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Jessica Biel, The Sinner
Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Jessica Lange, Feud: Bette and Joan
Susan Sarandon, Feud: Bette and Joan
Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
David Harbour, Stranger Things
Alfred Molina, Feud
Christian Slater, Mr. Robot
Alexander Skarsgard, Big Little Lies
David Thewlis, Fargo

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:
Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale
Chrissy Metz, This is Us
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard of Lies
Shailene Woodley, Big Little Lies

[Chris Knipp]

Film Comment has reported on their poll

Film Comment’s Top 10 Films Released in 2017:
1. Good Time Josh and Benny Safdie, USA
2. A Quiet Passion Terence Davies, U.K./Belgium
3. Personal Shopper Olivier Assayas, France
4. Get Out Jordan Peele, USA
5. Nocturama Bertrand Bonello, France
6. Ex Libris: The New York Public Library Frederick Wiseman, USA
7. The Death of Louis XIV Albert Serra, France/Portugal/Spain
8. Faces Places Agnès Varda and JR, France
9. The Lost City of Z James Gray, USA
10. Lady Bird Greta Gerwig, USA


And the next ten:
11. The Human Surge Eduardo Williams, Argentina
12. The Other Side of Hope Aki Kaurismäki, Finland
13. The Florida Project Sean Baker, USA
14. Dawson City: Frozen Time Bill Morrison, USA
15. Phantom Thread Paul Thomas Anderson, USA
16. On the Beach at Night Alone Hong Sangsoo, South Korea
17. Wonderstruck Todd Haynes, USA
18. Mudbound Dee Rees, USA
19. BPM: Beats Per Minute Robin Campillo, France
20. The Square Ruben Östlund, Sweden


[BEST] FILMS WITHOUT DISTRIBUTION [in the US] IN 2017
1. The Nothing Factory Pedro Pinho, Portugal
2. A Gentle Creature Sergei Loznitsa, France/Germany/Lithuania/The Netherlands
3. Streetscapes [Dialogue] Heinz Emigholz, Germany
4. Milla Valérie Massadian, France
5. Tonsler Park Kevin Jerome Everson, USA
6. Mrs. Fang Wang Bing, France/China/Germany
7. Spoor Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik, Poland/Germany/Czech Republic
8. Le Fort des fous Narimane Mari, France/Algeria/Greece/Germany/Qatar
9. 3/4 Ilian Metev, Bulgaria
10. The Venerable W. Barbet Schroeder, France/Switzerland

Rankings #11-20
11. Golden Exits Alex Ross Perry, USA
12. Mrs. Hyde Serge Bozon, France
13. The Wandering Soap Opera Raúl Ruiz & Valeria Sarmiento, Chile
14. Life and Nothing More Antonio Méndez Esparza, Spain/USA
15. Until the Birds Return Karim Moussaoui, France/Algeria/Germany
16. Good Luck Ben Russell, France/Germany
17. Distant Constellation Shevaun Mizrahi, Turkey/USA
18. The Quartet (Elohim, Abaton, Coda, Ode) Nathaniel Dorsky, USA
19. Drift Helena Wittmann, Germany
20. Untitled Matthew Glawogger & Monika Willi, Austria
This is the magazine of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. They live in a relatively secluded world and these are offbeat lists. Their faves include three of the films I found most overrated, Good Time and Human Surge and A Quiet Passion. I'm also beginning to wonder if maybe Get out is starting to feel like one of the most overrated. It's basically just a horror film with a clever gimmick, not a great movie.

[Chris Knipp]

The Sight and Sound poll
This "global" survey includes some that are last year's for us, some not out yet, and the ineligible TV series, "Twin Peaks." But 98% of these titles have been on this thread already,or I've reviewed them (Zama, Western) and I like the list, just not quite the order.
It shouldln't really have "Twin Peaks" - that's TV!

1. Get Out, dir: Jordan Peele
2. Twin Peaks: The Return, dirs: Mark Frost, David Lynch
3. Call Me by Your Name, dir: Luca Guadagnino
4. Zama, dir: Lucrecia Martel
5. Western, dir: Valeska Grisebach
6. Faces Places, dir: Agnes Varda, JR
7. Good Time, dirs: Ben and Josh Safdie
8. Loveless, dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev
9. Dunkirk, dir: Christopher Nolan
10. The Florida Project, dir: Sean Baker
11. A Ghost Story, dir: David Lowery
12. BPM, dir: Robin Campillo
13. Lady Macbeth, dir: William Oldroyd
14. You Were Never Really Here, dir: Lynne Ramsay
15. God’s Own Country, dir: Francis Lee
16. Personal Shopper, dir: Olivier Assayas
17. The Shape Of Water, dir: Guillermo del Toro
18. Strong Island, dir: Yance Ford
19. I Am Not Your Negro, dir: Raoul Peck
20. Lady Bird, dir: Greta Gerwig
21. Let the Sunshine In, dir: Claire Denis
22. Moonlight, dir: Barry Jenkins
23. mother!, dir: Darren Aronofsky
24. Mudbound, dir: Dee Rees
25. The Other Side Of Hope, dir: Aki Kaurismaki
26. Silence, dir: Martin Scorsese

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/rerd.jpg
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out

The Indiewire poll (that I mentioned much earlier) based on 200 critic inputs.

This makes no sense as an expression of individual taste; it's just a poll. It's surprising that Get Out keeps bouncing back. It just seems a clever novelty item, but in its rubbing the itch of racialism so persistent in America, it touched a nerve others didn't, perhaps.


GET OUT (713 points)
LADY BIRD (673 points)
DUNKIRK (549 points)
PHANTOM THREAD(368 points)
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (348 points)
THE SHAPE OF WATER (324 points)
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (312 points)
PERSONAL SHOPPER (296 points)
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (245 points)
THE POST (140 points)Get the rest of the 2017 Indiewire poll HERE (https://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/best-movies-2017-critics-films-performances-get-out-phantom-thread-lady-bird-1201909032/2/) including Best Acor, Best Actress, etc. .

[Chris Knipp]

Metacritic's current top movies of 2017 (critics)
With the release date. See it HERE (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/movies/score/metascore/year/filtered). As of 12/24/2017. Merry Christmas, everybody!



1- 95
Faces Places
October 6, 2017
2- 94
A Fantastic Woman
November 17, 2017
3- 94
Dunkirk
July 21, 2017
4- 94
Lady Bird
November 3, 2017
5- 93
Call Me by Your Name
November 24, 2017
6- 92
Foxtrot
December 8, 2017
7- 92
The Florida Project
October 6, 2017
8- 92
Phantom Thread
December 25, 2017
9- 91
EX LIBRIS: The New York Public Library
September 13, 2017
10- 90
I Called Him Morgan
March 24, 2017
---------
11- 90
Loveless
December 1, 2017
12- 89
Columbus
August 4, 2017 b
13- 89
Uncertain
March 10, 2017 b
14- 88
In Transit
June 23, 2017
15- 88
Rat Film
September 15, 2017
16- 88
Quest
December 8, 2017
17- 87
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
November 10, 2017
18- 87
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan
May 24, 2017
19- 87
The Farthest
August 11, 2017
20- 87
Jane
October 20, 2017
---------
21- 87
My Journey Through French Cinema
June 23, 2017
22- 86
The Shape of Water
December 1, 2017
23- 86
The Red Turtle
January 20, 2017
24- 86
My Happy Family
December 1, 2017
25- 86
Chasing Coral
July 14, 2017
26- 86
I Am Another You
September 27, 2017
27- 86
The Big Sick
June 23, 2017
28- 86
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi
December 15, 2017
29- 86
City of Ghosts
July 7, 2017
30- 86
God's Own Country

[oscar jubis]

Merry Christmas, everybody!
...and a Happy New Year!
(in the style of Citizen Kane)

It is quite rare that this time I should have a lot to say about the 2017 movies because I have seen 4 out of the top 5 from the IndieWire poll and the one with the top Metacritic score. At the moment though, I'm most inclined to post that I will also remember 2017 not only for new movies such as Faces Places, A Quiet Passion and Lady Bird but also for movies I knew from previous years that got better with age, in a manner of speaking, or revealed more, or seemed more like unique achievements after watching them again in 2017.

Perhaps at the top of this "rediscovered" list would be 2 Lovers, written and directed by James Gray. His new movie is titled The Lost City of Z and I haven't watched it. 2 Lovers (2009) takes the protagonist from Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "White Knights" and confronts him with scenarios from Krystof Kieslowski's A Short Film About Love and Philip Roth novels. The ending is perfectly ambiguous, suggesting a variety of things without settling on any one because it knows precisely when to cut to black for the last time. Gray is a careful, deliberate filmmaker and his films have long gestation periods. But 2 Lovers went from pitch to finish in months. Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix said yes and were available right away and their casting secured ample financing. Gray and Phoenix have developed one of the most fruitful actor/director collaborations in recent decades, and now I think this is their masterpiece. I'm interested in hearing comments from my female students when I show it (I never have before) because I think it speaks from a rather masculine place and I want to hear what women think about, for instance, the depiction of the female characters.

I plan to say more about new films in future posts, but I want to salute 2017 for the "old" films I discovered or rediscovered this year.

Post Data
As I estimated, 2 Lovers is the film directed by James Gray that is preferred by IMdb users and the average, of course, male vote is substantially more favorable to the film than the female vote.

[Chris Knipp]

CHRIS KNIPP'S BEST MOVIES OF 2017 LISTS.

Reposting my lists with updates as of Jan. 1, 2018.New top films: Phantom Thread (Best Features) and On the Beach at Night Alone (Best Foreign). Checking off more that I have now seen.


http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/pol9.jpg
Still from Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

BEST FEATURES
1. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
2. Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki)
5. The Son of Joseph (Eurène Green)
6. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
8. BPM (Beats per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
9. Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve)
10. The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
_________________________

11. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR)
12. Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman)- in the French version, "La passion Van Gogh"
13. Ghost Story (David Lowery)
14. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
15. All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak)
16. Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd)
17. Menashe (Joshoa Z. Weinstein)
18. The Lost City of Z (James Gray)

BEST DOCUMENTARIES (alphabetical)
Abacus (Steve James, Mark Mitten and Julie Goldman 2017)
The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani)
City of Ghosts (Matthew Heineman 2017)
Cries From Syria (Evgeny Afineevsky)
Human Flow (Ai Weiwei)
I Am Not Your Negro ( Raoul Peck)
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk)
Jane (Brett Morgen)
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (Griffin Dunne)
May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio)
Strong Island (Yance Ford)
Whose Streets? (Sabaah Folayan)

BEST FOREIGN (alphabetical)
4 Days in France (Jérôme Reybaud)
Clash (Mohamed Diab)
L'enfant secret (Philippe Garrel) [1979]
Graduation (Cristian Mungiu)
Heal the Living (Katell Quillévéré)
The Nile Hilton Incident (Tarik Saleh)
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo)
The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues)
Slack Bay (Bruno Dumont)
The Square (Ruben Östlund)

BEST UNRELEASED (alphabetical)
Barbara (Mathieu Amalric)
Le Carré/Plot 35 (Eric Caravaca 2017).
Let the Sunshine In/Un beau soleil intérieur (Claire Denis)
The Rider (Chloe Zhao) (Apr. 2018 release)
You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) (Apr. 2018 release)

NOT ABLE TO SEE BEFORE THE INDIEWIRE POLL (& DATE SEEN)
Columbus (Kogonada)
Darkest Hour (Joe Wright) SEEN! Dec. 10. Liked it, especially Gary Oldman as Churchill, of course.
The Disaster Artist (James Franco) Seen Dec. 12. Mixed feelings, but it's worth seeing.
Downsizing (Alexander Payne) Seen Dec. 22. I HATED it.
Ex Libris (Frederick Wiseman)
A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)
Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz) - Actually March 2, 2018 US release.
Happy End (Michael Haneke). Seen Dec. 26. Not worth it, bad Haneke.
Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo). Seen and reviewed at MoMA Dec. 23. I LOVED it.
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson). Seen twice as of Dec. 30th. Moved up to high in my year's favorites.
The Post (Steven Spielberg). Seen Dec. 23. It's good, but numbingly unadventurous.
The Shape of Water (Guillermo Del Toro) Seen Dec. 16. It's good, but I just don't get it at all.
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) Seen Dec. 10. Forgettable but for me, watchable. Kate Winslet shines.
Wormwood (Errol Morris) - 6-part TV series

WORST OR MOST OVERRATED (alhabetical)
Good Time (Josh & Benny Safdie)
The Human Surge/El auge del humano (Edoardo Williams)
mother! (Darren Aronofsky).
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies)

[oscar jubis]

I'll use your lists as recommendations to follow. You watch a lot of movies Chris. I have a lot of catching up to do. The last masterpiece I watched came out exactly 2 years ago and won the Golden Globe and the Oscar. Nothing I've seen since SON OF SAUL feels like the experience is changing my life

[Chris Knipp]

Few cinematic experiences are as intense and stunning as Son of Saul but I hope some of my listed films will stay with you, as Phantom Thread does with me now. And as Dunkirk thrilled me with a sense of genius, and as Call Me by Your Name filled me with lush warmth and the sense of a rich novel gracefully adapted.

[Chris Knipp]

FOXTROT (Samuel Maoz 2017) This is one on best lists I've not seen and really want to; US theatrical release still coming though technically it got released in NYC Dec. 8.

Opens March 2, 2019 at Angelika Film Center, NYC.

The trailer (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1351&view=next) focused only on a solider at a remote Israeli roadside post qualifies as the wittiest dance ever performed with a rifle on film. Boy can this kid move! This could qualify as my favorite trailer of the year as well.

Maoz's 2009 Lebanon (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&s=&postid=23012#post23012)(Filmleaf NYFF coverage) was a claustrophobic tour de force staged entirely inside an Israeli tank in enemy territory.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/uuuyh.jpg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTHQhMW5iIE)


ABOUT
Grand Jury Prize winner at the Venice Film Festival and Best Film winner from the Awards of the Israeli Film Academy, Samuel Maoz's FOXTROT follows a grieving father as he experiences the absurd circumstances around death of his son, in this visionary critical reflection on military culture.
DIRECTED BY
Samuel Maoz
WRITTEN BY
Samuel Maoz
CAST
Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler, Yonaton Shiray
LANGUAGE
Hebrew with English subtitles

[oscar jubis]

I've been meaning to say something about your post dealing with "one of your best experiences this year but it's not a movie". The question "What is a movie?" continues to get more and more complicated. It is entirely possible that one would find that a video game was among the top 10 narrative experiences of the year. As far as TV series, film critics have been listing them for about four decades. The first one that I listed was "Berlin Alexanderplatz" at the beginning of the 80s and I would have to list the 2017 "Twin Peaks" among my "best experiences", except that I wouldn't know where in the list to put it, not yet.

I'm not a film critic so I don't have any deadlines to meet. I'm not in a hurry to appreciate a film right when it comes out (or before) but I do want to contribute to this beloved site. I am assuming that it is a form of contribution to list the films that I found most memorable or that constitute achievements in cinema even though I have yet to see a lot of them. Some films I liked a lot that would probably not stay in my Top 10 after I watch more of the movies Chris listed, and other movies in lists Chris posted would be: Graduation, Get Out, After the Storm, and Lost in Paris (I would love to keep this one in the Top 10 because it is under-appreciated; the most under-appreciated movie of the year I would say).

3 movies seem perfect to me: Faces Places, Lady Bird and Dunkirk. The most politically urgent movie I saw was The Florida Project, and I wish I had more time to elaborate on this statement. I'll just say: The movie is set in an small area in the outskirts of Orlando that strikes me as symptomatic of what "America" has become after decades of crass consumerism and cultural "dumbing down". "The Florida Project" is a companion to writer/director Sean Baker's "LA project":Tangerine, in which East Hollywood serves a similar analogical purpose. These movies are ugly for a reason, ugly with righteous purpose. I would be tempted to list The Florida Project ahead of the perfect movies because I think it is more important.

[Chris Knipp]

I wasn't questioning what is a movie. I said one of the best experiences and it wasn't a movie. Experiences of art, entertainment. Great experiences in reading count too as best experiences of the year - Knausgaard's Struggle books the past two years (waiting for the English translation of the 6th and last book), but we know books aren't movies. There is a gray area, maybe, between series and sequences of films, take "Dekalog," presented originally on television. Surely "Twin Peaks" is TV, though, despite David Lynch being the creator. Someone told me late at night she hasn't the time or energy for a feature film and doesn't want to watch one in segments, so then a short episode of a TV series is just right.

A list is always relevant no matter when you make it, it's just that people may have lost interest or don't remember some of the movies any more. I have gotten stuck on some of the 2017 NYFF Main Slate films. They are accessible online now but I can't face them or in the case of Mudbound got stuck in the middle, so my "completist" approach is frustrated when I haven't had access to the press screenings. If I had, I could have sat through anything. But at home, special motivation is required. However Oscar I hope you can catch up on my lists and wish you happy viewing.

It is better to watch a movie with an audience, ideally perhaps even an audience committed to it in some way.

[tabuno]

My Top 2017 Movies (Tab L. Uno)


1. The Battle of the Sexes (2017). Sports. The true-life story of the epic event between tennis great Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). This brilliant movie incorporated the perfect balance of the sensitive treatment of the Ms. King and Mr. Riggs in their raw and deeply personal lives as well as the momentous social justice event that their tennis match portrayed. An Oscar-worthy effort. [Reviewed 10/1/2017]. 10/10.

2. The Beguiled (2017). Period Drama. Sophia Coppola’s period thriller drama about a Union soldier’s encounter with a Confederate home full of women. Colin Ferrell, Nicole Kidman, and Kirsten Dunst perform in this richly moody and atmospheric movie that has finely nuanced psychological and sensual resonance. [Reviewed 7/4/2017]. 9/10.

3. Ladybird (2017). Golden Globe winner Saoirse Ronan for her performance in Ladybird, Ronan is able to capture the emotive and playful, wrenching, and gripping nature of a screenplay that offers a truly stunning coming of age drama. Lady winner of Golden Globe best director, without overly dramatizing the typical adolescent angst, this movie incorporates the multi-dimensional experience of mother-daughter relationships, friendship, the evolving sharp wit and adolescent dream of independence and ferocious highs and lows of the developing mind. With great pacing, dialogue, and relational performances, Ladybird exudes a truly captivating fusion of events during an eventful year in the life of a female teenager, from religious questioning and scandalous behavior to a reckoning of real life and consequences this movie is parents, about community, and about an American dream. [Reviewed 1/7/2018]. 9/10.

4. Residue (2017). Horror. This creepy, occult, film noir mystery thriller involves a down trodden detective who is tempted to read a rotten, spoiling book that propels him into a hallucinogenic mind twisting world of evil and possible redemption. An engaging and quite engorging with brilliant delivery of a decent storyline involving both the detective and his teenage daughter. [Reviewed 10/20/2017]. 10/10.

5. Before I Fall (2017). Occult Young Adult. A serious dramatic version of Groundhog Day about teenagers for everybody with important message about living each day to the fullest. [Reviewed 3/5/2017]. 9/10.

6. The Shape of Water (2017). Having to overcome the more dated sleazy image of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Shape of Water makes its own more artful humanistic debut. Using a glamourized period artistic style of the 1940s and 1950s director Guillermo del Toro of Chronos (1993) and Hellboy (2004), has built upon the retro silent movie cinema of The Artist (2011) with the delightful period elements of the romantic comedy Down with Love (2003). This is a whimsical but also penetratingly stark reflection of the social divides that resonated and still persist in America today such as depicted in Hidden Figures (2016) and The Help (2011) which both also starred Octavia Spencer that is in this movie. Towards the end of the movie, like the delightful romantic comedy, Shape of Water also includes an elegant surrealistic period sequence. The only glaring discord arises with a most difficult to portray verbal thoughts of the mute star of the movie when director del Toro resorts to having Richard Jenkin’s character having to literally repeat Sally Hawkins’s character’s important speech scene. At times much darker than typical expected, this sci fi/monster movie offers up a revealing and perhaps profound statement about prejudice and humanity as also depicted in two other small, independent movie pieces Wavelength (1983), an engaging early sci fi movie about children’s attempt to save captured space aliens and Artic Heart (2016) which just happens to be a contemporary synthesized creature version of Shape of Water. Shape of Water is a meaningful, romanticized fantastic fairytale of the darker aspects of American society. [Reviewed 1/1/2018]. 9/10.

7. Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Science Fiction. A luscious, extended sequel to the 1982 original that maintains the mystery but at the same time loses some of its distinctive greatness incorporating the theme of holography and artificial intelligence, and human factor all presented on a visually stimulating, and perhaps too large of a gigantic canvass. [Reviewed 10/8/2017]. 9/10.

8. The Space Between Us (2017). Sci Fi. This sci-fi love story with good pacing, editing, and musical accompanying keeps its focus on relationships with a good performance by Gary Oldman. A boy is born on Mars and somewhat attempts to adapt to the strange world of earth and this foreign concept of superficial façades and human love he has never known. [Reviewed 2/7/2017]. 9/10.

9. Ghost in the Shell (2017). Sci Fi. live version of the animated 1995 Japanese Oshii movie offers up a much more coherent and visually stunning experience of the robotic human hybrid genre. Shirow Masasume the writer for the original anime gets to improve on his original script as well as incorporate various scenes from his first work where various set designs and scenes bear a striking resemblance with an enhanced, vibrant, and dazzling updated version. Scarlett Johansson stars in this stunning sci fi movie with a character that humanizes the animated version and somewhat softens her character somewhat from Lucy (2014). What sets this movie apart from most of the other cyberpunk movies is its infusion of emotional and moral questions regarding human life and its intersection with the man-made, electronic existence that are only suggested in Phillip K. Dick’s script for breakthrough of Total Recall (1990) and attempted later in Isaac Asimov’s inspired I, Robot (2004) and Robocop (1987) that was influenced by Blade Runner. The few weaknesses if that’s what they are is the Major (Johansson) striking resemblance to her character in Lucy and the ease in which she appears to be overcome in two scenes that don’t mesh with her character as a perfect military weapon. Overall, this movie succeeds in its depiction of a possible future with its amazing vibrant and exciting visuals, and futurescape as well as offering a coherent and morally and humanly sensitive reflection what makes us important. [Reviewed 4/5/2017]. 9/10.

10. Colossal (2017). Fantasy. Ann Hathaway stars in this dark fantasy with whom she has an apparent psychic connection with a monster terrorizing Seoul, South Korea. A dangerously challenging, original drama involving the trauma of the past, alcohol abuse, and relational challenges all that manages to propel the audience into a weirdly emotional wrenching, realistic drama. [Reviewed 4/16/2017]. 8/10.

11. The Great Wall (2017). Period War Drama. An epic collaboration between China and America with the American Matt Damon learning some valuable Chinese lessons in his principle position of helping the Chinese defend the Great Wall against a horde of terrible, and grotesque creatures. The sweeping landscape and Chinese vistas, the beauty of the thousands of Chinese colorful warriors makes for a sustained immersion into a fierce battle of both one’s individual existential identity and the mindfulness of courage. [Reviewed 2/28/2017]. 9/10.

Honorable Mention

2307: Winter’s Dream (2017). A sci fi movie about a permanent winter on earth with humanoid slaves and humans living underground and the hunt for a rebellious humanoid that supposedly threatens their existence. This is a decent counter-point to the same-day release of Blade Runner 2049. [Reviewed 10/15/2017]. 8/10.

The Babysitter (2017, Netflix). This is a er…R-rated Pulp Fiction (1994) for adolescents. This very dark comedy has graphic violence and verbiage. It begins relatively benignly almost like the original Spider Man (2002) with Tobey Maguire. Then suddenly as expected or more so, it turns graphically raw and more so. The balance between parody, comedy, and horror is delicately distorted and perhaps not perfectly so. This is no Adventures in Babysitting (1987), but something more along the lines of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) meets The Shining (1980) but of course not a crisply and cinematographically beautiful. Instead the McG uses some interesting and unusual photographic techniques that enhance the gyrating and nerve-wracking excitement. There are a number of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003, TV) comments by some of the evil characters in an attempt to lighten the gruesome horror, but still the movie remains pretty harsh in its destructive display as well as our boyish protagonist who apparently develops a pretty wicked sense of cynicism along the way. At some point, the movie sort of descends into a horror movie with cute side remarks, but the scenes become more repetitive in a scripted, forced manipulating sort of way. Sometimes it’s a wonder when under stress scriptwriters and real people think go upstairs or into another room. They never seem to think about getting away, like really far away. Nevertheless the wry humor keeps coming to soften the idiotic decision-making at times. Overall, The Babysitter does what it set out to do, entertain with a dizzying array of corny, witty, and sometimes over the top gruesome. [Reviewed 11/14/2017]. 7/10.

Bright (Netflix, 2017). Wil Smith stars in this alternative universe of humans and magical creatures living set in Los Angeles. This is a rather harsh look at human prejudices and violence against others with particular relevance to today’s political and social upheaval. A sometimes difficult to watch movie for its dark look at ourselves but incorporates some fascinating wry banter and offers some hope for redemption in the movie and ourselves. [Reviewed 12/22/2017]. 8/10.

The Foreigner (2017). Jackie Chan’s debut as a serious, former intelligence operative out for revenge against Pierce Brosnan’s character who Chan believes knows who killed his daughter. This is both a raw action thriller of Chan’s presence on the screen and a character-driven one of Brosnan’s character who seems to be got in the crosshairs. This is a morally distasteful, but well directed and scripted movie. [Reviewed 10/15/2017]. 8/10,

Gifted (2017). Family Drama. A very decent movie about the difficulties of raising a gifted child. Avoiding stereotyping, this relatively balanced family drama presents the fine balance between intellectualism and normalcy and the human emotional issues they underlie the moral difficulty with intelligent children. [Reviewed 4/15/2017]. 8/10.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017). Action Thriller. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson star in this dramatic comedy action thriller with Reynold’s character is compelled to be a bodyguard to Jackson’s character who is a key witness to a murderous politician. This is a graphically violent action thriller with a comic repartee between Reynolds and Jackson that mostly keeps it together. A great summer film. [Reviewed 8/20/2017]. 8/10.

Home Again (2017). A romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon who is confronted with an older ex and a younger man. A great female movie that offers up smoothly balanced humor along with a long in coming feel-good movie script that entertains while depicting the contemporary choices, challenges of older women in facing up to family responsibilities and the individual needs as a female often overlooked by the more immature, self-focused males of most generations. [Reviewed 9/10/2017]. 8/10.

John Wick: Chapter Two (2017). Action Thriller. Keanu Reeves reprises his role as a nasty but superb assassin in this John Wick on steroids. There’s more bloody killings with the action ramped up, but goes over the top in the death count. This is Aliens (1986) compared to Alien (1979). [Reviewed 2/12/2017]. 8/10.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017). Simply put, the sequel is better than the 1995 original. What really makes a huge difference is that the sequel has a consistent emotional tone unlike the more erratic original which waivered between comedy and horror and serious drama. The humor is also more rich in terms of gender bending and the solid comedy derived from the script instead of the singular efforts of Robin Williams in the original. Karen Gillian also deserves some credit for her performance and her ability to capture both her Jumanji character as well as the meek, nerdy high school girl. The only seemingly faint weaknesses come in the form of the overly dramatized motorcycle scene and the rhino scenes which could both been more carefully scripted in a more realistic formula (too many motorcycles and the practical speed of rhinos versus helicopters) and the to be expected but quite poignant moments as well as attempts at coming of age attitudinal changes that in a few places almost came across more superficially brief than genuine. Nevertheless, this sequel succeeds well in this depiction of a video game and tantalizing use of special character powers and game lives. The pacing, the fun irony, the action, the human messages, and the performances all come together in this entertaining and captivating movie. [Reviewed 1/7/2018]. 9/10.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017). Sequel to the action adventure spy thriller. A hyperkinetic, dizzying comical spy movie with a gruesome, sadistic undertone but with several emotional reflective, redemptive scenes. [Reviewed 9/23/2017]. 8/10.

Leap! (2017). Animation Young Children. A captivating, enjoyable young children’s animated feature film about a girl who wants to dance and a boy who wants to become an inventor end up in Paris seeking their dreams. The balance of realistic animation hits the dream world imagination of children and yet offers up a visceral and gorgeous panorama of exciting, sensory sights of foreign lands and impossible incredibly rich physical moves. In the tradition of great children’s storytelling. [Reviewed 8/26/2017]. 8/10. 1.

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017). Christopher Plummer stars in a feel good movie about Charles Dicken and his creative efforts in publishing A Christmas Carol. A creative, imaginative, and delightful movie with stylized characters from Dicken’s mind as well as a reflective and emotional look at Dickens, his family in a richly presented period drama with whimsy. [Reviewed 12/5/2017]. 8/10.

Megan Leavey (2017). Military. This true-life movie about a coming of age young woman who ends up in the Marines along with a German Shepard is a credible, solid, and emotionally meaningful movie with a strong military bent and single riveting action scene that appears to faithfully depict Megan’s selective life experiences. An uplifting movie. [Reviewed 6/17/2017]. 8/10.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). Action Adventure. A decent sequel with a good storyline, great special effects all presented in an entertaining way. Yet the rhythm of the movie and the inconsistency of the presentation of the jokes and humor seem to be a bit off. Yet this is one of the few sequels of recent years that seems to be able to retain some sense of quality. [Reviewed 5/28/2017]. 8/10.

Rough Night (2017). Comedy. Scarlett Johannsen gets to celebrate with four of her friends in this raunchy dark comedy. While this movie appears to follow similarly situated gutter movies, there are a number of times that the director, scriptwriter, and actor take a fresh approach in various scenes, offer up a more substantive, emotional touch in places that make this movie rise above in its movie genre. [Reviewed 6/16/2017]. 8/10.

Taking Earth (2017). Sci Fi. This is a low-budget movie about an alien invasion seeking one boy on the planet earth. Distinctively different in tone and emphasis, the human story is made more prominent than the accompanying action while the wonderful photography and well-matched sound track imbue the movie with a rich fullness. [Reviewed 8/15/2017]. 8/10.

Unlocked (2017). Action Thriller. A biological weapon is about to be unleased and only a female agent has the skills set to locate it in this double twisting thriller. A well-executed movie with good editing, sound and music track that smartly coincides with the movie’s tenor of each scene. [Reviewed 9/2/2017]. 8/10.

Your Name (2017). Fantasy. This Japanese animae offers up a nice twist to the body switching romance drama that has two weaknesses of dropping the audience a third of the way through the storyline and being a little dull on the animation side for this type of contemporary animae. However, this movie takes the switching body genre a lot further and delightfully so. We've had 13 Going On 30 (2004) or even Back to the Future (1985) movies, television episodes Charmed (Season 2, Episode 5, 2005). What sets this switchy movie apart is its continued focus on switching and the rather random uncertainty and outcome that sets up several rather emotional scenes from the heart with plenty of tears. Additionally the close calls in this movie echo the romance comedy classics Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and Serendipity (2001) along with a touch of the lightly haunting SPOILER - The Lake House (2001). [Reviewed 4/8/2017]. 8/10.



Good But Failed to Make the Grade

American Assassin (2017). A top assassin Michael Keaton trains a young man seeking revenge and they both have to face the lethal ghost. A decent movie but with a rather irritating main character and missing the emotional intensity and connection that it could have achieved. Includes one amazing explosive climatic scene/sequence worth experiencing. [Reviewed 9/15/2017]. 7/10.

Atomic Blonde (2017). Charlize Theron stars in this action spy thriller. Even with some of the best physical action scenes in decades, Charlize can’t overcome an overly cumbersome, but predictable plot outline and some decent but typical fight scenes in the beginning. [Reviewed 7/30/2017]. 7/10.

Beauty and the Beast (2017). Fantasy. The wonderful 1991 animated version doesn’t quite translate to live action with the dubbed singing, the less than pretentious Gaston as a live actor, and the special animated fantasia becoming more CGI special effects that doesn’t quite have the same charm. [Reviewed 3/26/2017]. 7/10.

Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack (2017). Sports. This juvenile cheerleading movie has a decent if predictable storyline with its distinction being how the leading character sustains her hold habits in a rather human way much perhaps to the dismay of a number of audience members. But her performance is much more memorable for being so. [Reviewed 8/2/2017]. 7/10.

A Christmas Prince (2017, Netflix). This typical, but entertaining holiday movie involves a female journalist who goes undercover to get a scoop on the expected new King of a fictional country, Aldovia. While not brilliant, it meets the Christmas holiday movie standard of having a good, fun time and therefore a watchable yearly event. [Reviewed 11/18/2017]. 7/10.

The Discovery (2017). Occult. Robert Redford headlines this Netflix film about the discovery of an afterlife and its resulting consequences and the search for what it’s like. This new quantum twist regarding death is a slow-paced movie that doesn’t quite have the gravitas of the substance nor the engrossing detail that enraptures its audience. Nevertheless, it is entertaining and satisfying by the end. [Reviewed 3/31/2017]. 7/10.

Kong: Skull Island (2017). Action Adventure. John C. Reilly almost single handedly saves this show from its admirable re-imagined Kong movie but it’s consistent use of cute scenes that somehow the director or scriptwriter required to kill off humans becomes pretty manipulative and unpersuasive. Visually stunning, fantastic photo images, this huge monster/army movie falls under the weight of added too much unnecessary and pretentious death scenes. [3/21/2017]. 7/10.

Megellan (2017). When a signal is picked up from outer space, a one-man mission is set up to investigate. This well directed and acted low-budget movie is almost a great movie but missing any sense of a satisfying ending. [Reviewed 11/4/2017]. 7/10.

Logan (2017). Superhero. Hugh Jackman’s character isn’t very appealing in this video game like ugly violent movie that doesn’t really embrace much in the way of meaningful relationships nor emotional connections. [Reviewed 3/7/2017]. 7/10.

Security (2017). Antonio Banderas plays an armed forces Captain who ends up as a mall security guard and having to protect a young girl who is a key witness in a corruptions case from Ben Kingsley and his band of military operatives. This is an average, sometimes over the top action thriller with moments of tender heart. [Reviewed 10/22/2017]. 7/10.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). The title sort of says it all in a fashion. There didn’t seem to be much new about this episode, except that the audience is introduced briefly to some cute cuddly alien creatures, though even in trailer scene in the upcoming Annihilation (2018) has some even more startling creatures. The theme of self-sacrifice is seen over and over again and the same scenario is repeated like three times throughout the movie. The inclusion of the light charm and witty dialogue from the original Star Wars franchise (1977) is sort of like attempting to bring together the raw grit of Daniel Craig’s James Bond’s character from Casino Royale (2006) and Roger Moore’s light-hearted James Bond from Live and Let Die (1973). There are also logical lapses in the storyline in order to maintain the pace and action, such a necessary delay in reacting to a lethal obliteration of the rebel cause or the cavalier ability of a single rebel fighter to take down a monstrous weapon. The movie sort of has cross between Karate Kid (1984), Gettysburg (1993), and the more formidable fantasy epic Excalibur (1981). The storyline is deliberately somewhat convoluted but for the most part predictable and Princess Leia (?)…well that’s whole other quandary. [Reviewed 12/28/2017]. 7/10.

Wonder Woman (2017). Superhero. A nice feminine superhero blockbuster try; but something emotively and distinctively intimate remains missing in this female directed, but male written superhero version. [Reviewed 6/3/2017]. 7/10.

Wonderstruck (2017). A dual storyline about two deaf children living 50 years apart and a special connection that develops between them. A nicely performed movie that suffers from some weaknesses in the script. [Reviewed 11/18/2017]. 7/10.

Woodshock (2017). Kirsten Dunst stars as Theresa in this independent art film about the grieving process of a young woman who lives in a timber harvesting town. Theresa’s role in the assisted suicide of her ailing mother at the beginning of the movie lingers in the background. The movie incorporates the use of heightened audio sounds and photographic shots of nature along with a sound track to enhance the cinematic experience and pacing. Yet unlike the trailers, the movie seems to revolve around the meaningless lives of people living in a timber town and the aftermath of a possible important life altering mistake. As a consequence, the movie seems to plod through its visual and audio digital footprints in a languid, almost boring pace like those characters on the screen, only heightened by the editing and addition of environmental sounds and music and artful depictions of nature -- Even the swishing, sparkling crisp tinkle of musical tones and glittering splashes of light from a carwash. There is also a lingering unspoken relational tension between Theresa, her husband, and the medicinal dispensary owner as a underlying theme to the movie. At the same time, there is a sense of decay, an almost empty refrigerator with uneaten cake and spoiling eggs. The totality of this movie is a slow slog through a meditative photographic lens that seems to lead towards an ambivalent and meandering course to an inconclusive ending unlike an analogous but more striking and straightforward storyline like one of the best of its drama genre Another Earth (2011). [Reviewed 1/2/2018]. 7/10.


Disappointments

Armed Response (2017). This science fiction military thriller stars Dave Annable, Anne Heche, and Wesley Snipes who enter into a top secret high-tech operations center where part of their team has mysteriously gone silent. Even with a great concept, the script lets the movie way down with its use of a major flashback as a reveal and a mounting number of unreasonable flawed script decisions that seem to pile up. [Reviewed 8/28/2017]. 5/10.

El Camino Christmas (2017, Netflix). This supposed comedy about a young man seeking his father ends up in a rather disreputable town and finds himself in a bunch of trouble. Much more dramatic than comedic or romantic for a Christmas movie, this movie offers up some unlikeable characters, little romance, and whole bunch of cursed mishaps. [Reviewed 12/9/2017]. 6/10.

Dunkirk (2017). A supposedly epic war movie that only comes across as disappointing, disjointed, chaotic, and sometimes overly unrealistic in the plot sequences. The emotional connection to the characters is lacking at times and the audience isn’t given sufficient time with each scene to really absorb a vicarious attachment to the movie. [Reviewed 7/21/2017]. 6/10.

Queen of Spain (2017). Penelope Cruz is sparkling and dynamic in this otherwise plodding, serio-comedic movie about a movie production in Franco Spain just after the end of World War II and that can’t offer up the same charisma as it leading character. [10/25/2017]. 5/10.

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017). A lot of appealing cute jokes can’t make up for the ragged storyline that remains rather juvenile, brainless, and rather bleak and unredeeming. Oddly unsatisfying compared to the original Toby Maguire’s 2002 origination movie that focused on the real turmoils of teenage angst. [Reviewed 7/7/2017]. 6/10.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). This supposedly sci fi epic seems overly playful, a non-serious coming of age sci fi movie of a selfish, adolescent male jerk and youthfully over-ranked major. Apparently the movie’s target audience is juveniles and adolescents based on the sci fi comic series. As such, the movie contains in your face cynical behavior and pranks, even a flying yellow school bus of sorts. The movie does hold out some impressive creative and distinctive features such as some serious set and character designs with some tribute to the breakout sci fi movie Avatar (2009). Some of the alien landscapes are a wonder to behold. But it’s hard to distinguished between what is real, what is virtual reality and what’s supposed to be real but appears virtual or a product of special effects which only serve to diminish the immersive reality of the movie by implication. Eventually the playful dialogue at some point comes as a relief from the darker edges of the movie. There meaningful elements of love and forgiveness in this movie. There’s a rather exotic and tender moment regarding illegals that for at least male members of the audience really hits home and for those that empathize with slave trafficking. There is eventually an underlying powerful, emotive theme that is well crystalized leading up to the climax of the movie. Yet there is also a somewhat predictable and the typical unbelievable climax scene of unbelievable bravery and shooting and the somewhat unlikely logistical and physical exit shot at the end of the movie. In short, while there is a credible amount of amazing visuals, the storyline has some big holes in that really detract from the movie. [Reviewed 1/4/2018]. 6/10.



Terrible

Before the Dark (2017). This low budget sci fi movie is about the possible teleportation of human beings, an essential way to save some of the human race from the end of planet earth. While the quality of the photography along with the soundtrack was decent enough, the rest of the movie has flat acting, little character development, a confusing and unconvincing story outline. [Reviewed 11/22/2017]. 3/10.

One Under The Sun (2017). Sci Fi. This movie begins with a rather different, special, and potentially great sci fi outer space low-budget movie with good editing and natural performances, except for a wooden, weak secret antagonist organization confronting a survivor from a trip to Mars. But it ends up to be a wrecked landing by the end of the movie because the script can’t hold up its end of the bargain of a strong finish and collapses tiredly at the end in a spaced-out blur. [Reviewed 4/3/2017]. 4/10.

The Villainess (2017). This at times South Korean hyperkinetic version of La Femme Nikita and Point of No Return is loaded down with distracting flashbacks and an overly cumbersome, confusing storyline. [Reviewed 11/24/2017]. 4/10.


Haven’t Seen Yet

All I See Is You (2017). A blind wife is given an experimental drug to help her see and her life dramatically changes.
Darkest Hour (2017). British Prime Minister Winston Churchill faces a dark period in the history of the world. Gary Oldman stars with an Oscar worthy performance.
Downsizing (2017). A comedy drama about being able to live small, literally small. Starring Matt Damon and Christoph Waltz.
The Florida Project (2017). A revealing drama about some impoverished children living in a cheap apartment complex near Disney World, Florida.
A Ghost Story (2017). Surrealistic occult. [Purchased].
The Greatest Showman (2017). The biographical movie with Hugh Jackman as the founder of the Ringling and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus, released during the same year of the actual Circus’s farewell performance.
In Search of Fellini (2017). A coming of age movie. [Available for rent or purchase].
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). Nicole Kidman and Colin Ferrell star in this mystery, horror, thriller about a doctor who must face and live with a horrific decision for his family.
Loving Vincent (2017). An animated feature about the life and death of painter Vincent Van Gogh. [Available for purchase 1/16/2018].
Marshall (2017). A biographical movie about Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.
mother! (2017). Darren Aranofski’s horror vehicle.
Personal Shopper (2016). Kirsten Stewarts as a personal shopper ends having contending with a sinister spirit.
Phantom Thread (2017). A picturesque period movie set in the 1950s about an elegant fashion designer who discovers inspiration in a young woman.
The Post (2017). A dramatization of the famous Washington Post and the publication of the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War.
Three Billboards of Ebbing Missouri (2017). A mother pays to put up three billboards calling for the sheriff to investigate the possible murder of her child.
Victoria & Abdul (2017). The Queen befriends a servant in this period comedy.
Wonder (2017). A movie about a boy with a face deformity starring Julia Roberts.

[oscar jubis]

Tab, thanks for the post. There's a lot of sincere movie love in it,
and love for the little movie that manages to capture your fancy. I think it's great that you found a little movie like "Residue" to recommend that few have seen because it has barely had a release. I am more interested in other movies on your list that raise higher expectations from me such as your top 2.
Glad that you liked Lady Bird as much as I did.

We disagree on Dunkirk being "overly unrealistic" but I may be swayed by your argument that "the audience isn't given sufficient time" (to become oriented to the settings and moved by the characters, I presume).

Thanks again, it's a long post and there may be more to say about it in the future.

[oscar jubis]

I've written many posts over the years that deal in various ways with the element of subjectivity in the experience of cinema and in the evaluative decisions that provide listings or rankings of the best films. I am interested in spectatorship and audience reception and other aspects of film culture. I teach courses in film studies to film majors and non-majors, and I also manage an art cinema. I have a great many opportunities to observe audience response and to discuss films with all kinds of people. I finally watched one of the films released in 2017 that have received the best reviews: Call Me By Your Name. I think it's a good movie and it's important to make that clear before I proceed because the comments that follow may be misconstrued. It belongs to a category of movies that depend to considerable extent on the beauty and vibrancy of its setting and the attractiveness of its protagonist. The word "travelogue" is used pejoratively, or at least with a bit of sarcasm, to refer to certain movies. Paris Can Wait and Under the Tuscan Suncome to mind (because I like Diane Lane perhaps). Unlike Call Me By Your Name, these movies typically do not get listed in Top 10s. My opinion may be controversial but I think that the reason this movie is so enjoyable, an opinion based on many conversations with people who have seen it (at "my theater" and elsewhere) is that Timothy Chalamet and the countryside and small towns of Northern Italy are beautiful. I also think that that if the central (impossible) romance involved people of the opposite sex, the film would be too conventional and common to list it among the best. I think that there are people who value the film because we don't have enough same-sex romances in cinema and this is a good one and a beautiful, idyllic one. It doesn't break new ground...it lacks the sense of experimentation, the feeling that the filmmakers are open to any possibility, that you find in last year's Moonlight for example. I notice how that film chose not to exploit Miami for its picturesque, sunny, tropical environs in order to give a more realistic and complete impression of my city and I am grateful for that.

[Chris Knipp]

Oscar, I don't wave around my credentials, as you do, but I have some. I've always been interested in your knowledge, your passion, and your views. But being a film teacher and working in a cinema, yea, even talking to a lot of people about their reactions to a certain movie, doesn't privilege your evaluation of it, necessarily.

On this issue of the film Call Me by Your Name's specificity or its only appealing because it's gay, that is kind of an offensive stand, frankly. First of all, it is truly a gay love story, and to envision it's being recast otherwise (with less audience success) is absurd. I have to quote myself - from my revidw of Call Me by Your Name:

And this one has a special resonance. I can find no better way to end than the conclusion of Jordan Hoffman's own admirably specific Guardian ( https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/23/call-me-by-your-name-review-italian-romance) review: "Call Me By Your Name is a masterful work because of the specificity of its details. This is not a love story that 'just happens to be gay'. The level of trust and strength these characters share brings a richness that is not necessarily known to a universal audience. But the craft on display from all involved is an example, yet again, of how movies can create empathy in an almost spiritual way. This is a major entry in the canon of queer cinema." Hoffman calls this film "a major addition to the queer canon." Maybe, if he chose to, André Aciman, the novelist whose book the film is fairly closely based on (I've read it), and who's clearly gifted in describing matters of the heart, and is married to a woman, might be able to describe a love story with, say, an older female scholar intern who seduces Elio, Olivia instead of Oliver. But he didn't choose to. And imagining that another, different movie wouldn't be as good does not strengthen your argument that this is a good and not great film. Time will tell. For me, it's up there among my favorite and best of 2017. And I've seen most of the ones on anybody's lists - though still not all.

Timothy Chalamet is beautiful? Well, okay, maybe, but it's mainly that he delivers a great performance. Under the Tuscan Sun is a popular travelogue kind of flick, not really on the same level as Guadagnino's best effort so far. As for Paris Can Wait, I can't remember it - not a good sign. Guadaginio's film is beautiful, and its setting, the novel's, is lush, warm, pulsating with life, Italian. But it ain''t a travelogue.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for the persuasive reply. I agree that Call Me By Your Name cannot be reduced to the label "travelogue". I like this movie too. There is a lot of affection on display, and I'm not referring exclusively to scenes involving the two young men. I like many other things about it, such as the way it ends with a long shot of Chalamet with his back to the dining table as Mafalda, the maid, is setting it for dinner. He faces the fireplace which provides a constantly changing illumination of his tear-streaked, chiseled face. On the other hand, i didn't like the verbiage of the previous scene; it shows the professor delivering a long speech about taking advantage of our youth and treasuring relationships, no matter how fleeting, etc. There's no denying the film goes out of its way to be pretty and to take advantage of scenery, such as grassy hills and waterfalls. A lot of shots in this film look like postcards. I don't mind. I just take notice that Call Me By Your Name shares indulgences with movies that are dismissed by critics as superficial and commercial because of the very same strategies. The sequel will have the same writer and the same director.

[Chris Knipp]

Glad I persuaded you a bit. Yes, the final shot, a kind of tour-de-force, I like too. It stands in, somehow, if not adequately, for the many pages of the novel which follow up in sad summary about Elio in decades to come. I agree with you about the scene with Elio and his dad as being ponderously, lump-in-the-throat-ishly explicit about how lucky Elio and Oliver have been, etc. (I have to check to see if the book has this speech in such words or gives it such disproportionate emphasis. ) Funny how this is so often singled out as being wonderful. I have encountered people who, like us, don't much like it. I don't agree with you quite, in your tarnishing this film by association with more commercial or travelogue-y ones of Italy; I think it's of a piece with Guadagnino's lush, summery style seen in his previous two pictures, the first of which at least, I Am Love/Io sono l'amore, is impressive in many ways, if over the top - I didn't like A Bigger Splash much at all, thought it a misstep. I can still see how you'd find the depiction of the setting a bit generic.

I thoroughly love this movie. But having reead, and both hated and loved, the novel, I am well aware that it simplifies. I liked that it left out all the young narrator's to-me tedious ruminations and does-he-or-doesn't-he frets about Oliver throughout the first half of the book. As I've repeatedly said, there is a follow-up on Elio that the movie leaves out. Naturally, it's all simplified. In the book, there is no travelogue or outdoorsy sequence when the guys go on a trip together. They just go to Rome. And the impression is it's all hot and heavy indoors. The film leaves the impression that the had less sex than they do in the book, despite their brief period together.

What we need to do is accept the movie on its own terms, its own vividness, its rhythms of hot summer days, affections, hesitations, sparring, and consummation. The intensity of everything, heightened by the loud keyboard music, even the format of the opening and closing credits, just right, and quite distinctive. There is a strong impression, confirmed by cast and crew, of this filmmaking that hit a sweet spot. The two main actors, Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, stand out, also vivid and intense and absolutely giving their all and having a great time doing so. Hammer has even said he felt devastated when they had to go their separate ways, and the chemistry and friendship between these two straight actors is visible whenever they appear together at festival Q&A's as they did at the NYFF when I saw it first last September.

I don't think we know about a sequel, do we? And it's unlikely James Ivory will be back for it, isn't it? I don't think a sequel is a good idea, but the thought of it reflects both the audience appeal of the two actors and the movie and the fact that Guadagnino left a lot of follow-up out. He left a lot out, period. But that's what happens in film adaptations of novels. The important thing is that the movie tells the story clearly. Unlike say Raoul Ruiz's Proust film which nobody could possibly make real sense out of who has not read Proust, recently, taking notes.

Under the Tuscan Sun is an American's clichéd, simple version of Italy. Guadagnino is Italian. But the setting is intentionally generic, "Northern Italy," because that is specified in the novel.

[oscar jubis]

As far as my credentials, I would like to "wave them around" as Chris says. I Made a great deal of sacrifices to obtain a Master's degree and then a doctorate in Film Studies from the University of Miami (one of the top 50 universities in the U.S. and #1 in my state. My family also made a sacrifice because my income was well below the poverty level for 5 to 6 years. The stipend offered by the university during the doctorate was 15k per year only, and only for 3 years while I was also teaching at the school. I dedicated extra months to complete the dissertation when I wasn't able to earn much. I stopped going out, including eating out for years in order to subsist. I did not travel either because I could not afford it. I spent my time reading and writing books about all aspects of cinema, and working at the "arthouse" on campus (which I still do, for pennies, just to keep it open after the dean argued that it doesn't make a profit. I have an expert opinion and a great deal of knowledge about visual art, especially cinema, and I will wave my credentials around because it is my right and because I have earned it.
Oscar Jubis, Ph.D.

[Chris Knipp]

Congratulations. That's not your credentials, though, it's your badge of honor. You have suffered for your art. It is worth enduring poverty to do the work one loves. But it was hard on your family. I hope they are happy as you are.

[cinemabon]

Chris, I search in vain. Please put a link to your review of "Call me by your name" so I can read it.

[Chris Knipp]

Sure, cinemabon. Just click on the title logo below. My review can be found in the Festival Coverage section for the 2017 New York Film Festival. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4375-New-York-Film-Festival-2017&p=36068)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/cmbyn.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4375-New-York-Film-Festival-2017&p=36238#post36238)

[Chris Knipp]

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL (Steve James 2017) (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3668&view=previous)

In view of its Oscar nomination, I've added it to my 2017 Best Documentaries list. Steve James, the eminent documentarian, adds authority to it, his own work here understated.

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL DIRECTED BY STEVE JAMES
RECEIVES OSCAR® NOMINATION FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

THIS IS THE FIRST OSCAR NOMINATION FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
FOR DIRECTOR STEVE JAMES WHO IS ALSO A CONTENDER FOR THE
DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD

January 23, 2018 - Los Angeles The FRONTLINE (PBS) documentary ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL, directed by award-winning filmmaker Steve James (Life Itself, Hoop Dreams) and produced by Mark Mitten (Life Itself) and Julie Goldman (Life Animated, Buck), has been nominated for an Academy Award® in the Documentary Feature category.
This nomination marks first Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary Feature for Steve James; Mark Mitten’s first Academy Award® nomination; and Julie Goldman’s second Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary Feature. For the acclaimed PBS documentary series FRONTLINE produced out of WGBH/Boston, this is a first Academy Award® nomination.

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL chronicles the Chinese-American Sung family’s fight to clear their names after their small bank in New York City’s Chinatown became the only U.S. bank indicted for mortgage fraud related to the 2008 financial crisis. The documentary follows how the bank’s indictment and subsequent trial forced the Sung family to defend themselves — and their bank’s legacy in the Chinatown community — over the course of a five-year legal battle.

“I’m so pleased and grateful. This is such a wonderful recognition for all of the ABACUS team, but especially for the Sung family. It has been a joy being able to follow their story,” said director Jame
-Publicity release from David Magdael & Associates (Jan. 23, 2018).

[cinemabon]

Sure, cinemabon. Just click on the title logo below. My review can be found in the Festival Coverage section for the 2017 New York Film Festival. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4375-New-York-Film-Festival-2017&p=36068)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/cmbyn.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4375-New-York-Film-Festival-2017&p=36238#post36238)

Am I incorrect in saying this is only the second gay-themed romance film (Broke Back Mountain) to be nominated for best picture?

[Chris Knipp]

Moonlight last year.

This article (http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/history-lgbt-gay-lesbian-trans-films-oscars) says many LGBT films have gotten Oscar noms, but Best Picture "isn't the most flattering place to start." Many Best Actor gay roles.

[Chris Knipp]

Rex Reed's Lists for 2017.

Just looked to see what Rex Reed has been saying. His best and worst lists are worth a look. I agree with most of the worst, at least the ones I've seen. Some of his Best list are good movies overlooked by most critics in their list-making. The thing about Rex Reed is that he is an independent eye not swayed by the crowd of critics, many of whom are looking over each other's shoulders. . See his detailed explanations
of his Best choices HERE (http://observer.com/2017/12/rex-reeds-10-best-movies-and-10-worst-movies-of-2017/).

Rex Reed's Best of 2017

1-The Post
2-Call Me by Your Name
3-Lady Bird
4-The Finest
5-Brad's Status
6-I, Tonya
7-Mudbound
8-Film Stars Don't Die i LIverpool
9-Novitiate
10-Stronger
Rex Reed's Worst of 2017

1-Mother!
2-The Disaster Artist
2-Get Out
3-The Layover
3-The Cure for Wellness
4-It
5-Downsizing
6-Suburbicon
7-Colossal
8-Fallen

I haven't seen The Layover, Suburbicon, Colossal or Fallen, though if Reed is right, it's just as well. I regret that The Cure for Wellness is a flop, because I'm a fan of Dane DeHaan, but it lacks a relatable plot. I labored in vain to like mother!, The Disaster Artist, It, and Get Out. They all were distasteful. Downsizing was an obvious stinker from the start. In his best list, he favors the warm and uplifting, without sacrificing quality. However, I would find it hard to omit Dunkirk and Phantom Thread.

[oscar jubis]

It's award season and time to celebrate the rich accomplishments of 2017. Top 10s and "best of" lists have been ubiquitous, as usual. There are so many movies (and series, programs, etc.) vying for the attention of the increasingly distracted audience always pressed for time to catch (discover) the new thing. It's a whirlwind. Generally speaking, we live in a world in which neither audiences nor critics spend enough time with a movie to get to know it the way the great films deserve. Film reviewing is an exercise in rationalizing first impressions. It's always been that way but now there's more of it and everything's faster. I'm thinking about how unprepared I am at the moment to say which are the best movies of 2017 in a conclusive way. This is true for many reasons, one being that time has a way to change the importance of an accomplishment and esthetic judgements become clearer. I like many 2017 movies but no new movie was more important to me than the 2017 release of the version of The Sage of Anatahan that Josef von Sternberg edited in 1958, five years after a censored version flopped in its limited theatrical release. It's his last film. I am very happy that The Library of Congress, the Film Foundation and other institutions collaborated to restore it and re-release it. As for new films, I will soon post a list of titles that show promise.

[Chris Knipp]

The 2018 Village Voice Poll
Published Feb. 13, 2018. A notable thing is that Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama made the top ten. It made about $30,000 at the box office in the US. This is an independent and smart poll without being distractingly eccentric. D'Angelo pointed out "neither Nocturama nor A Quiet Passion placed in the top 50 of Indiewire’s poll." See the Voice page HERE (https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/02/13/the-village-voice-film-poll/).


Best Film:
1. Phantom Thread (348 points)
2. Lady Bird (326 points)
3. Get Out (318 points)
4. Call Me by Your Name (305 points)
5. The Florida Project (289 points)
6. Dunkirk (202 points)
7. Personal Shopper (169 points)
8. Nocturama (165 points)
9. A Quiet Passion (161 points)
10. The Shape of Water (152 points)

Best Lead Performance:
1. Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird (121 points)
2. Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name (108 points)
3. Cynthia Nixon, A Quiet Passion (101 points)
4. Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread (86 points)
5. Kristen Stewart, Personal Shopper (85 points)
6. Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water (81 points)
7. Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread (77 points
8. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (72 points)
9 (tie). Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out (52 points)
9 (tie). Robert Pattinson, Good Time (52 points)

Best Supporting Performance:
1. Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird (199 points)
2. Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project (147 points)
3. Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip (132 points)
4. Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread (101 points)
5. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me by Your Name (74 points)
6. Allison Janney, I, Tonya (56 points)
7. Barry Keoghan, The Killing of a Sacred Deer (52 points)
8. Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (49 points)
9 (tie). Mary J. Blige, Mudbound (43 points)
9 (tie). Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water (43 points)

Best Director:
1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread (65 points)
2. Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird (52 points)
3. Jordan Peele, Get Out (51 points)
4. Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk (49 points)
5. Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name (42 points)
6. Sean Baker, The Florida Project (41 points)
7. Bertrand Bonello, Nocturama (37 points)
8. David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return (31 points)
9 (tie). Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water (22 points)
9 (tie). Dee Rees, Mudbound (22 points)

Best First Feature:
1. Jordan Peele, Get Out (42 points)
2. Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird (15 points)
3. Kogonada, Columbus (10 points)
4. Eduardo Williams, The Human Surge (6 points)
5. Julia Ducournau, Raw (5 points)

Best Documentary:
1. Agnès Varda and JR, Faces Places (20 points)
2. Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous, The Work (11 points)
3. Bill Morrison, Dawson City: Frozen Time (10 points)
4. Errol Morris, Wormwood (8 points)
5. Ceyda Torun, Kedi (7 points)

Best Screenplay:
1. Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird (22 points)
2. Jordan Peele, Get Out (17 points)
3. Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread (14 points)
4 (tie). Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (4 points)
4 (tie). Terence Davies, A Quiet Passion (4 points)
4 (tie). James Ivory, Call Me by Your Name (4 points)
4 (tie). Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (4 points)4 (tie). Ruben Östlund, The Square (4 points)

Best Animated Film:
1. Lee Unkrich, Coco (21 points)
2. Nora Twomey, The Breadwinner (13 points)
3. Chris McKay, The LEGO Batman Movie (11 points)
4. Makoto Shinkai, Your Name (8 points)
5. Sunao Katabuchi, In This Corner of the World (6 points)

The Voters:
Simon Abrams, Sam Adams, Siddhant Adlakha, Florence Almozini, Mallory Andrews, David Ansen, Ali Arikan, Sean Axmaker, Jason Bailey, Miriam Bale, Abbey Bender, Sheila Benson, Christian Blauvelt, Danny Bowes, Charles Bramesco, Sean Burns, Monica Castillo, Daryl Chin, Jaime Christley, Jake Cole, Sherilyn Connelly, Adam Cook, Jordan Cronk, Mike D’Angelo, Freja Dam, Morgan Leigh Davies, Peter Debruge, A.A. Dowd, Diana Drumm, Alonso Duralde, Bilge Ebiri, David Ehrenstein, Eric Eisenberg, Kate Erbland, Steve Erickson, Chris Evangelista, Molly Faust, David Fear, Jon Frosch, Cynthia Fuchs, Noah Gittell, Tim Grierson, Karen Han, Jesse Hassenger, Eric Henderson, Odie Henderson, Aaron Hillis, Jordan Hoffman, Eric Hynes, Caryn James, Ren Jender, Don Kaye, Ben Kenigsberg, Jonathan Kiefer, Nellie Killian, Dan Kois, Michael Koresky, Peter Labuza, Tomris Laffly, Joanna Langfield, Josh Larsen, Richard Lawson, Manuela Lazic, Will Leitch, Diego Lerer, Craig D. Lindsey, Phillip Lopate, Willow Maclay, Calum Marsh, Ben Mercer, Sean Mulvihill, Angelo Muredda, Noel Murray, Vikram Murthi, Sophia Nguyen, Michael Nordine, John Oursler, Gerald Peary, Sasha Perl-Raver, Ray Pride, Matt Prigge, C.J. Prince, Kristy Puchko, Jeff Reichert, Katey Rich, Vadim Rizov, Joshua Rothkopf, Mike Rubin, Nick Schager, Alan Scherstuhl, Michael Sicinski, David Sims, Matt Singer, Josh Spiegel, Emma Stefansky, David Sterritt, Elizabeth Stoddard, Alice Stoehr, Anne Thompson, Luke Thompson, Scott Tobias, Kyle Turner, Kathleen Walsh, Chris Wells, Matthew Wilder, Alissa Wilkinson, Alison Willmore, Charles Wilson, Kristen Yoonsoo Kim, Lara Zarum, Alan Zilberman, Esther Zuckerman

[oscar jubis]

I've seen enough 2017 releases to feel good about posting a canon for the year. Of course, no one has seen all the worthwhile films, much less give them the attention, alertness, and reflection they deserve. Of course, this list is a snapshot judgement since I will continue to explore and think about these films and will continue to watch the many I've missed. I have decided to exclude documentaries. The four that could compete with the fiction films listed are: Dawson City: Frozen Time, Faces Places, I Am Not Your Negro and Ex Libris.

Best Movie of 1954 is Anatahan(Restored, uncensored cut)


2017 Top 10
Mudbound
The Death of Louis XIV
Twin Peaks
Phantom Thread
The Florida Project
Lady Bird
A Quiet Passion
The Red Turtle
The Shape of Water
The Woman Who Left


The Lost City of Z, War for the Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner 2049, A Quiet Passion, Dunkirk, The Beguiled, Good Time, Graduation, Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, Marjory Prime.

* (Restored, uncensored cut of 1954 release)

[Chris Knipp]

BAFTA Awards. (Found in Variety (http://variety.com/2018/film/news/bafta-awards-2018-complete-winners-list-1202702940/).)

(CK comment:)
I do not think these are all good choices, though by accident, some are. Particularly, I think it is unfortunate to choose Three Billboards as "Outstanding British Film." How nice it would have been to choose God's Own Country, or even the very silly and mainstream but at least superficially British Paddington2. How can they choose I Am Not a Witch when they could have chosen Lady Macbeth? The Handmaidenwhen they could have chosen Loveless or The Salesman?

BAFTA FILM AWARDS (winners in bold)


BEST FILM
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito, Peter Spears
DARKEST HOUR Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh

DIRECTOR
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino
DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh

LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
FRANCES McDORMAND Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya
SALLY HAWKINS The Shape of Water
SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird

LEADING ACTOR
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Phantom Thread
DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out
GARY OLDMAN Darkest Hour
JAMIE BELL Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET Call Me by Your Name

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour
LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird
LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread
OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape of Water

SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World
HUGH GRANT Paddington 2
SAM ROCKWELL Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
WILLEM DAFOE The Florida Project
WOODY HARRELSON Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling
LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Alice Birch
PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE GHOUL Gareth Tunley (Writer/Director/Producer), Jack Healy Guttman & Tom Meeten (Producers)
I AM NOT A WITCH Rungano Nyoni (Writer/Director), Emily Morgan (Producer)
JAWBONE Johnny Harris (Writer/Producer), Thomas Napper (Director)
KINGDOM OF US Lucy Cohen (Director)
LADY MACBETH Alice Birch (Writer), William Oldroyd (Director), Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ELLE Paul Verhoeven, Saïd Ben Saïd
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER Angelina Jolie, Rithy Panh
THE HANDMAIDEN Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim
LOVELESS Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky
THE SALESMAN Asghar Farhadi, Alexandre Mallet-Guy

DOCUMENTARY
CITY OF GHOSTS Matthew Heineman
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Raoul Peck
ICARUS Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk
JANE Brett Morgen

ANIMATED FILM
COCO Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
LOVING VINCENT Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart
MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE Claude Barras, Max Karli

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
GET OUT Jordan Peele
I, TONYA Steven Rogers
LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME James Ivory
THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh
MOLLY’S GAME Aaron Sorkin
PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King

ORIGINAL MUSIC
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer
DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli
DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer
PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood
THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Roger Deakins
DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel
DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis

EDITING
BABY DRIVER Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker
DUNKIRK Lee Smith
THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory

PRODUCTION DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
THE SHAPE OF WATER Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau

COSTUME DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran
DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran
I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson
PHANTOM THREAD Mark Bridges
THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira

MAKE UP & HAIR
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn
DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji
I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee
VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips
WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten

SOUND
BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth, Theo Green
DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten
THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

VISUAL EFFECTS
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson
DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees tbc
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees tbc

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
HAVE HEART Will Anderson
MAMOON Ben Steer
POLES APART Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low

BRITISH SHORT FILM
AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster
COWBOY DAVE Colin O’Toole, Jonas Mortensen
A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Patrick Campbell
WORK Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell
WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
DANIEL KALUUYA
FLORENCE PUGH
JOSH O’CONNOR
TESSA THOMPSON
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMETj

[Chris Knipp]

I'm adding one to my Best Documentaries list:
Abacus (Steve James, Mark Mitten and Julie Goldman 2017)
It's Oscar-nominated, I've seen it, I liked it, so why not? An important theme, the power of big money, and Steve James is an honorable filmmaker.

[oscar jubis]

I just watched COCO for the second time in five days. It doesn't seem that there are any critics who put any animated films in their top 10s. I think there are a lot of critics who adhere to the genre theory that argues that live action films are better than animated films, and that certain genres are inherently inferior than others. I love Pixar's Coco and Inside Out and I would have a difficult time justifying leaving them out of a list of major films of the past few years. That thought extends to The Red Turtle, which actually is in my Top 10.

[cinemabon]

Roger Deakins' recognition long overdue. I've been watching interviews of him on YouTube. Such an unassuming man and yet extremely knowledgeable man who has helped so many directors achieve more to their projects than they first envisioned. He brings so much depth and experience. I've admired him for a long time.

[oscar jubis]

Roger Deakins and his brother reportedly walked four miles to see a movie from their little town near Devon, UK. That's how you learn to respect the art form. He spent his teens painting. That's a good way to lear framing, composition, and the use of light and color. Worth admiring, for sure.
Did you watch Coco?

[cinemabon]

I have not seen Coco yet and as you know, I'm a huge fan of animation in all of its forms. I missed it in the theaters (a minor family crisis over the holiday break) and look forward to catching it on DVD. I'd have preferred "Loving Vincent" since I saw the doc on how it was made. I did not see that film either; therefore, can't judge one over the other. (my bad - the current colloquialism) I'm somewhat familiar with the Mexican holiday though should brush up on the custom before I see it. Thanks for the info on Deakins. Such a soft spoken man. In the group of cinematographers, he spoke last. When he did, the others just sat and listened as if it was time for the professor to speak. That's posted through the Hollywood Reporter, which runs a YouTube program prior to the Oscars about Directors, Set Designers, Costume, Cinematographers, Editors and so on. Very informative.

[cinemabon]

FYI - years ago I used to hang with an independent writer who submitted articles for the "Reporter" and often called me to attend certain premieres as he understood my penchant for Sci-Fi. While in Hollywood, he also introduced me to a variety of people - Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, Mel Brooks, Ron Haver, many, many others; including Francis Coppola (went to the premiere of "Apocalypse Now - A Billy Graham Presentation" in Westwood. Gene Hackman tried to steal my seat. I read the trade every now and then. Makes me feel as if I'm in touch, which I'm not.

[oscar jubis]

I have not seen Coco yet and as you know, I'm a huge fan of animation in all of its forms. I'm somewhat familiar with the Mexican holiday though should brush up on the custom before I see it.I'm only superficially familiar with the custom but no preparation is required to appreciate and share in the joy of Coco. You and the fam will love it. Check it out. It's spectacular in 3D but good'ol 2-dimensional will do.

Back to the thread's topic, I have no doubts, in the midst of a second viewing, that David Lynch and David Frost's 17-hour, made-for-cable
Twin Peaks: The Return
is clearly the best movie of 2017. It is also a work of art at the vanguard of audiovisual culture and not something that a general audience would enjoy. It's clearly the most influential and consequential of the ten 2017 releases I listed earlier.

[Chris Knipp]

And I must see it, and thanks for the reminder. I found Lynch very simpatico seeing his early life story in The Art Life (http://chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3633&view=previous) this time last year.
Busy with the San Francisco film festival now though.
Hoping to review more of the films; it's still on for six more days.
Again I remind you all that fans of animation should rush to see Isle of Dogs

[cinemabon]

Having seen smidgens of it here and there (I only just got Showtime back); I wondered, Oscar, what you thought of the ending. I've read several interpretations. Unfortunately, Chris said he hasn't seen it. (Did you see the original, Chris?) The first series which aired decades ago starred Kyle MacLachlin, who also starred in the Lynch production, "Blue Velvet," fresh off his debut in "Dune." The first series attracted an unusual crowd of murder mystery and sci-fi/horror fans as Lynch played to several audiences (ABC network TV). The first series ended (mostly due to ratings) with no resolution. That they brought it back spoke more to Lynch wanting closure, I believe. I'm certain fans of the series must have hounded him to death.

Speaking of death, many actors connected to the series either died during or just after the shooting concluded (Harry Dean Stanton and others). Even David Bowie is featured with a dubbed voice. Twin Peaks - the Return is available to stream. Lynch premiered the series at last year's Cannes. The audience responded with a five-minute standing ovation.

Interesting choice, Oscar.

[Chris Knipp]

"Twin Peaks" ? Yes, I followed the original on TV.
I don't think figuring out the ending is a very worthwhile activity. Willing suspension is the best way to enjoy the wild invention that is David Lynch.
There has been some discussion of whether this new extension can be a "film" to list as a "best film" of the year and, indeed, accepting TV series as "films" seems like a bad direction. But I might make an exception in the case of Lynch, as one would accept other miniseries that could be considered artistic long films, such as Olivier Assayas' 2010 much-admired Carlos, starring Edgar Ramírez.

[cinemabon]

Spielberg just argued to the contrary, decrying "Netflix" as undermining the award process. Several outlets carried the story. Here's a link to one: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2018/03/23/steven-spielberg-says-netflix-films-dont-deserve-oscars/

[Chris Knipp]

But now three-time Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg has said that films made by Netflix should not be awarded Oscars simply because they have had a short cinematic release, and called the service: "a clear and present danger to film-goers". - Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2018/03/23/steven-spielberg-says-netflix-films-dont-deserve-oscars/).

Good for him. That is a different issue, though, from whether or not "Twin Peaks" is a film, I thought, which is about length. Format. Rather than presentation method.

[oscar jubis]

Having seen smidgens of it here and there (I only just got Showtime back); I wondered, Oscar, what you thought of the ending. I've read several interpretations. Unfortunately, Chris said he hasn't seen it. (Did you see the original, Chris?) The first series which aired decades ago starred Kyle MacLachlin, who also starred in the Lynch production, "Blue Velvet," fresh off his debut in "Dune." The first series attracted an unusual crowd of murder mystery and sci-fi/horror fans as Lynch played to several audiences (ABC network TV). The first series ended (mostly due to ratings) with no resolution. That they brought it back spoke more to Lynch wanting closure, I believe. I'm certain fans of the series must have hounded him to death.

Speaking of death, many actors connected to the series either died during or just after the shooting concluded (Harry Dean Stanton and others). Even David Bowie is featured with a dubbed voice. Twin Peaks - the Return is available to stream. Lynch premiered the series at last year's Cannes. The audience responded with a five-minute standing ovation.

Interesting choice, Oscar.
Apologies for taking so long to respond to your query, and also for not providing my interpretation of the ending; being lazy I guess since it would require stringing many thoughts together.I am happy Lynch again decided to make it strange in unexpected ways, to continue moving forward with his characteristic aesthetic. Again, he gives us a series the public is not quite ready for. He breaks with narrative convention in a more pronounced way in this series and you can thank technology (CGI, etc) for the means or tools to do it. The 2017 series incorporates purely avant-grade, basically non-narrative, expressionistic image-making and the sound designed and mixed by David Lynch himself is a crucial element in achieving the emotional, cognitive and physical effects the material aims to elicit.

Thanks for the post.

[cinemabon]

Let ambiguity and nihilism reign supreme!

[Chris Knipp]

I'm watching the new Twin Peaks now. But with 18 55-minute episodes, it's a lot to watch and I hope I can cancel my Amazon-Showtime free trial in time. 7 days to watch 18 hours. Julie Muncy, a Wired writer, has a piece in Polygon (https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/31/15713068/twin-peaks-vhs-technology) about intentionally crude effects and new technology used in the series. Frankly, I think the straightforward noir-soap scenes, are better and more important than any of the surreal effects, though they are necessary Lynchian embroidery, of course.

Watched John Krasinski's new monster movie A Quiet Place today. Miraculously simple and effective - the word-of-mouth hype I've been hearing was justified.

[Chris Knipp]

A little research can't hurt since we're talking about the continuation of something that began 25 years ago.
"An academic definition of Lynchian might be that the term 'refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and he very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former's perpetual containment within the latter.' But like postmodern or pornographic, Lynchian is one of those Potter Stewart-type words that's definable only ostensively --i.e., we know it when we see it. Ted Bundy wasn't particularly Lynchian, but good old Jeffrey Dahmer, with his victim's various anatomies neatly separated and stored in his fridge alongside his chocolate milk and Shedd Spread, was thoroughly Lynchian. . ."
-from "David Lynch Keeps His Head," in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace, 1997, which I thought it might be time to get out and read again.

[Chris Knipp]

By the way ~ Kazuo Miyagawa

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/Fw.jpg
Floating Weeds

A retrospective is being held of the cinematography of Kazuo Miyagawa (1908-1999), whose contribution to the world's lensing is unbelievably important, it turns out (Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Ichikawa). It's at MoMA and the Japan Society in New York. See this MoMA announcement:

https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/4955?locale=en

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images//y4u6.jpg

I finished TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN (2017). Learned a word. Tulpa. http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Tulpa (http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Tulpa)
This is pivotal for the whole plot of Dale Cooper's multiple personalities. The series could be calledTulpa-ing. More than the "irony" of the "macabre and the mundane" the focus seems to be on the spiritual and the paranormal.

[Chris Knipp]

Ending of Twin Peaks: The Return explained.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/4t5.jpg
Photo: Suzanne Tenner/Showtime [Vulture] Sheryl Lee and Kyle MacLaughlan in TPR, E.18

Even somebody like me who doesn't look for "meanings" of things might need help following "The Return," and that's why I looked up "tulpa (http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Tulpa)," which seems like a key concept in the plot concerning multiple characters, most notably Dale Cooper and and his new avatars all played by Kyle MacLaughlan. But, it turns out, there are multiple other "tulpas," which are defined on that website as "conjured duplicates of individuals." They appear in Dale's case to be more like messed up or garbled clones.

You will find a Vulture piece (http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/twin-peaks-the-return-finale-ending-explained-by-mark-frost.html) by Devon Ivie based on a book by Mark Frost called Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier (https://www.amazon.com/Twin-Peaks-Dossier-Mark-Frost/dp/1250163307?ascsubtag=[]vu[p]cj9eeltt500jw56y64tzeeawdwpunqv[d]D[r]google.com[z]m&tag=vulture-20), itself a sequel to the [I]Times bestselling Secret History of Twin Peaks. I think she (Ms. Ivie) notes that the newly reborn Cooper, when he picks up who he thinks is the 25-years-older Laura in Odyssa (Texas, though it's left vague), goes over some kind of space-time-spirit zone at a certain mileage point, which may be where things go wrong with finding Laura's mother in Twin Peaks.

Cinemabon and others seeking the "meaning" of all or parts of Twin Peaks: The Return might be helped by consulting a fan or reference website called Twin Peaks wiki (http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Twin_Peaks_Wiki).

[oscar jubis]

Let ambiguity and nihilism reign supreme!

Yes, perhaps ambiguity is right. But perhaps fragmentation and even incompleteness are words that come closer to characterizing the series as a piece of narrative. I don't think the word "nihilism" applies here. In Lynch's diegesis, there are characters who are invariably sympathetic and guided by the desire to do good. There is a clear "good side" to root for and a degree of optimism that they may prevail.

[Chris Knipp]

I was thinking the same. It occurred to me that surrealism is not the art of nihilism. There is hope in it and in Lynch's world.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/GOBB1.jpg
Nihilistic?

[oscar jubis]

I looked up "tulpa (http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/wiki/Tulpa)," which seems like a key concept in the plot concerning multiple characters, most notably Dale Cooper and and his new avatars all played by Kyle MacLaughlan. But, it turns out, there are multiple other "tulpas," which are defined on that website as "conjured duplicates of individuals".
These conjured duplicates in Lynch's films at least since (and perhaps most memorably in) Lost Highway partake of very old traditions of character splitting, alter egos, and doppelgängers (a term made famous in the 19th century and still widely used). Stevenson's "Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) is a key work in this tradition. In cinema, the convention goes back to Melies, who doubled himself 9 times for "One-Man Band" (1900).

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/Quilty.jpg

Thanks for the historical footnote. The Tulpas in The Return aren't doppelgängers to my mind, because they exist in separate universes or on separate planes. Nabokov made interesting and important use of doppelgängers. They are central toLolita and Despair. Claire Qulity is a mocking, pursuing doppelgänger of Humbert Humert. It is best if they cross paths. One's doppelgänger is someone one is astonished to meet. Does that happen in Twin Peaks: The Return? No. With Nabokov the author is famously always visibly at work. With David Lynch not. It's as if he's channeling the unconscious. Therein lies the difference between doppelgängers and tulpas. But in artistic terms they are certainly related, they are both doubles. I hope you have all read Lolita, one of the greatest masterpieces of American literature of the second half of the twentieth century (1955, when it caused a shock and thrill you can't even imagine). But at least you've all surely seen Kubrick's adaptation (1962, when it caused only mild excitement of the casting of an unknown, Sue Lyon as the nymphet). In Kubrick's film the encounter between Quilty and Humbert, in a brilliantly improvised sequence by Peter Sellers as Quilty, to my mind is the highlight, which transcends the otherwise pedestrian adaptation (as many more parts of the movie Clockwork Orange transcend Burgess' hard-to-read novel). You can't adapt the novel Lolita, can't do it justice, but Lynne's more pedestrian version is just as good or better if you really want to revisit the shadow of the novel on the screen. James Mason, though great is too strong an actor for the devious, secretive Humbert Humbert. The Web is loaded with academic papers about this stuff. Here's one, comparing the encounter between Quilty and Hubert in the book and both movies) that comes up right away:
http://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue%204/PDFs/ArticleRichards.pdf

From the University of Florida. Maybe you actually wrote it, Oscar, as this dude's double.

[Chris Knipp]

You must confront your shadow self- your doppelganger- to pass through the black lodge. The implication is everyone has a doppelganger.
Tulpas are artificial doubles created with a specific purpose.
You can have a doppelganger (Mr C) and a tulpa double (the Dougie Jones whose head popped)

Tulpas are created by a person's will. doppelgangers are a result. not controllable

-reddit comments (http://https://www.reddit.com/r/twinpeaks/comments/6whpb4/s3e16_tulpas_v_doppelgangers/)

[Chris Knipp]

You must confront your shadow self- your doppelganger- to pass through the black lodge. The implication is everyone has a doppelganger.
Tulpas are artificial doubles created with a specific purpose.
You can have a doppelganger (Mr C) and a tulpa double (the Dougie Jones whose head popped)

Tulpas are created by a person's will. doppelgangers are a result. not controlable

-reddit comments (http://https://www.reddit.com/r/twinpeaks/comments/6whpb4/s3e16_tulpas_v_doppelgangers/)

[cinemabon]

Why did I know you two critics would be able to link Stanley Kubrick to this series? Interesting historical facts, though. BTW - just because I watched ONE Stanley Kubrick doc in my YouTube account, my inbox is flooded with Stanley Kubrick docs on all of his films. Who knew YouTube had such a plethora of Kubrick docs waiting for someone like me to watch them all... as if ANYONE had the time to do that! My Covfefe agrees with your tulpas.

[oscar jubis]

I still don't have a firm opinion on Spielberg decrying Netflix.
Let's give Chris all the credit for linking Kubrick and Lynch via Nabokov. I found the comments very interesting and the links take you on intriguing paths.
I don't see reason to leave out a great piece of audiovisual narrative because of length, or "platform" or format. It's become increasingly difficult to separate what premieres in theaters from what debuts on broadcast TV or available via streaming. There are a number of made-for-TV films or series in my canon. They include Dekalog , Berlin Alexanderplatz,An Angel at My Table (1990), The Boys of St. Vincent, etc. Others that I need to watch (test) one more time before listing include Pride and Prejudice (1995), Angels in America (2003),and Mildred Pierce(2011). My listing of Twin Peaks: The Rturn in 2017 coheres with my desire to acknowledge my appreciation of these works.
I think it would be interesting to open a thread to discuss movies from the current millennium that have been maligned in some way, under appreciated, or "mismarketed", ignored, etc. I teach film history and one constant is that there are myriad films of all kinds which today are hailed as great achievements and widely viewed that were considered terrible or barely released at all when they were new. I have a couple of films I want to bring up that fit into these categories. One fits into the definition of "film maudit". Any interest in that kind of thing. Can you think of films you know that you think are great that few have seen? Or that you think it's been completely misunderstood?

[Chris Knipp]

It's good to be liberal, Oscar, but you can be too liberal, and then the world crumbles into chaos. "Dekalog" is great and profound, but it's a series of films, not a film. They certainly have validity as feature films. It's an "anthology series," in current jargon.

Cinemabon, at first I thought it was Johann talking with the fanboy talk, but then you say you haven't the time. I am not busy since the SFIFF ended so I could devote many hours to first "Twin Peaks: The Return" and then "Babylon Berlin." Which, incidentally, in my view are not movies, but TV series. My friend says this is "the golden age of television" and so, there is a plethora of great series. I think if we want to argue about this, the thing is, that there is a certain limit to what can make sense at one sitting, a rhythm and a flow that makes the experience of a feature in a theater satisfying. They can be long. Oh boy, can they ever. But we don't have to call something that's in 18 episodes a film. But call it that if you like. I just would hold back.

[cinemabon]

I'm such a colloquial pussy (but don't grab me). I have Pride and Prejudice (1995 Colin Firth) on "fast dial" on my laptop. Whenever I feel subservient or submissive too much, I pull it up and fantasize I'm Mr. Darcy, prancing around with too much pride. Just as Jeremy Brett epitomized Holmes, so too does Firth with Darcy. Nobody does it better (to quote Carly). The golden age of TV? Perhaps if you discount the 1950's when you had writers like Rod Serling cranking out things like "Requiem for a Heavyweight." Nothing like access to Broadway in which TV studios drafted talent in those days. Now they just turn to modeling agencies. Too cynical?

[Chris Knipp]

Cinemabon, the original TV Golden Age of the Fifties that you refer to was really special and I loved what little I saw of it. Everything was so simple and direct then. But now the quantity of good stuff is astounding. Even Emily Nussbaum, the excellent New Yorker TV writer from whose column I learned about "High Maintenance" and "The Deuce", can't keep up with it all. I learned about "The Good Wife," "Black Mirror" and "Babylon Berlin" from Peter. You cannot totally discount the claim that this is a new TV Golden Age. I am no expert, but some say it all began with David Chase and "The Sopranos" in the Nineties. And then he followed up with "The Wire" and lately, "The Deuce" (which I like a lot). And I don't think the casts are fielded from "modeling agencies." Yes, too cynical.

With HBO and Showtime access and a subscription to Netflix, I can watch a lot of this stuff on my computer screen. Other series I have enjoyed: "Mr. Robot." "Silicon Valley." "Bored to Death." Plan to watch: "The Americans." "Billions." ""Halt and Catch Fire," "The Leftovers."

I understand that "Twin Peaks: The Return" crowns all these, in a class by itself, and David Lynch's original "Twin Peaks" is considered to be a great influence on the best, most imaginative TV done since.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/halt2.jpg
HALT AND CATCH FIRE

[cinemabon]

Ok, ok... I concede that Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO have given us an incredible array of new TV shows that rival any historical period in TV history. As a sci-fi and mystery fan, I've been overwhelmed with the level of choice. On the quality side, there's Game of Thrones and Westworld along with Barry this season. Stranger Things and the Crown on Netflix. Altered Carbon was one of the finest sci-fi shows I've ever seen in a theater or on TV and no one's talking about it. I watch the Expanse and Lost in Space (new, released last month). I have Australia's Mrs. Fisher on fast dial (silly, I know) but there's also the weighty "Marcella," one of the finest murder mystery shows since Helen Mirren did Prime Suspect (and yes, I have all of those on fast dial, too). Documentaries and Science shows are of equal value to me and I have several series that I follow. Most recent? Hidden Houses is a retro English doc that delves into the history of Welsh manor houses. I could spend a whole paragraph on "Did you know..." The stand up comedy on Netflix is a standard Saturday night fare for me. Of course, so is Bill Maher and John Oliver on HBO.

This plethora of choice leads us off on our own merry path. No longer left with a handful of network choices, I can peruse the internet, go to my apps, and watch in the car, in the waiting room of the dentist office, in my bed before I fall asleep or in-between writing inspirations. I have my over-sized cell phone, my tablet, my living room big screen TV with Roku and my laptop. When we're together, my wife and I have a slew of shows that we parse like an open can of caviar, savoring each episode and counting down until we have to scramble for another series we like.

I wouldn't say this is a new golden age. I would say we're in the diamond jubilee; and the choices are so many that it makes my head swim on a daily basis.

[Chris Knipp]

I have watched the two first seasons of "The Crown" with great pleasure and admiration. I have started "Stranger Things" inspired by "Skam," the great Norwegian 4-season TV series, where a lead character, Isak, mentions it. It's good but I haven't gone on, yet. Why didn't you say which shows you and your wife Parse like a can of caviar (what does that mean, exactly?)? Aprropos of something you said, "silly" series can be addictive too, and my favorites have been "Doc Martin" and "Weeds."

[cinemabon]

We're big murder mystery fans but we also like some fantasy stuff if there a number of seasons, i.e. Beauty and the Beast or Lost Girls (Each has close to a hundred episodes, which we go through slowly as if we were sipping fine cognac, as opposed to cheap California wine). Some, like The Crown, are seasonal and usually cram those into two or three weeks. Altered Carbon only had one season but it was very excellent. My son recommended Marco Polo. Told on a grand scale, I loved the personal side of the show (backstory) and hoped it would continue. Evidently, it cost too much. Still, I found it very entertaining. I watched the new Star Trek Discovery on CBS All Access this year and paid the extra three dollars so I could watch without commercials. At the end of February, when the season ended, I cancelled my subscription. I'm not interested in watching golf, basketball, or the other two shows CBS offered through the subscription. This fall, in October, when the series returns, I'll renew my subscription and start watching Star Trek on a weekly basis. The quality of those shows went unmatched by any other subscription series. The money they spent was clearly up on the screen. I also loved the variety of characters, including the gay lovers featured in the main story. I'm only sorry they killed one of them off and sent the other one packing at the end of the season. So much for being gay. Evidently, it's still a fatal disease.

Speaking of fatal gays, I see Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Zachary Quinto, Jim Parsons in the all-star cast revival of "Boys in the Band" on Broadway. I'd wager the entire run is sold out the first day.

[oscar jubis]

I'm glad you like that adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" and thanks to you (and Chris) for all the comments about tv series that you've seen that are really good. Good to learn. especially for me, who hasn't seen most of them. There's just so many movies and so many other things to do. I'm doing a lot of running and cross training these days and spending time outdoors. I'm also "seriously" dating because it's time I have a "serious" relationship again and it takes time to do that.

[cinemabon]

Good luck. For Lori and I both, this is our second marriage. My first one lasted one year. For Lori, her first lasted eight. We just celebrated our thirty-second wedding anniversary, so for us, the second time was the charm. I think we made all of the mistakes with our first marriage and learned our lessons. TMI?

[Chris Knipp]

Oscar, I'm glad you're seriously running (as well as dating). I remember looking you up online when I first came to this site and found you listed as an accomplished masters runner with good times in road races and as a former road racer myself I was pleased to see that.

It is especially useful to compare notes on TV series because the scene is so rich now; as I said, even Emily Nussbaum, the excellent New Yorker TV columnist, often protests, or pleads, that she has missed some and just can't consider them all.

[oscar jubis]

Good luck. For Lori and I both, this is our second marriage. My first one lasted one year. For Lori, her first lasted eight. We just celebrated our thirty-second wedding anniversary, so for us, the second time was the charm. I think we made all of the mistakes with our first marriage and learned our lessons. TMI?Congratulations! I miss the romance, but it gets more difficult to find as you get older.

[oscar jubis]

The goal is 5k under 22 minutes or about 7 minutes per mile which I aim to accomplish this year. I have a personal best of exactly 18 minutes (I was 30,I think). I completed a couple of marathons, and a really fast half marathon in my 30s. As long as my joints allow me to run I'm going to enjoy it. Most 57 year olds (including my 2 younger brothers) cannot run anymore.

[Chris Knipp]

You are lucky. I was forced to quit before that, not willingly, I assure you. I didn't last that long, less than 15 years, but they were some of the best. When foot trouble forced me to stop I did aerobics for 8 years, then yoga, now I just walk every morning. I think Walt Stack (https://www.si.com/vault/1975/12/15/613740/the-old-man-and-the-bay), the legendary San Francisco runner, did not even start doing his ridiculously intensive morning routines till he was your age, 57, and continued how long? 25 years? I ran one of my first marathons, the defunct Sonoma Wrong Turn Marathon, and it was announced Walt was there to celebrate his 70th birthday by running his 70th marathon. He lived to be 87 but he was ill in a nursing home for some years. All that drinking may not have been good for him, but he certainly enjoyed himself.

[oscar jubis]

Glad you walk daily. Thanks for telling us about Walt Stack. I may one day do another half but never a whole marathon. I'm focused on a sub-22 5k. I'm about a minute slower at the moment. November is my target month to reach this goal. Then I will probably set my sights on a 10k for spring, maybe a sub-45.

I just watched what may be the most neglected film "released" in 2017: THE TEACHER, the most recent collaboration between Jan Hrebejk and Petr Jarchovsky (Cozy Dens, Divided We Fall, etc.). The "distributor" is Film Movement which means that it might as well be a direct-to-disc release. Anyway, the premise concerns a widowed teacher, well-placed within the Czechoslovakian Communist party, who abuses her power to the detriment of her students and their parents. The Teacher uses an intricate but legible flashback structure and reminds some viewers of 12 Angry Men in terms of its plot and character development.

[Chris Knipp]

I feel good these days, I am living a cleaner life than when I was running a lot. Good you're working for the faster 5K.

I have not seen that film. It came to NYC in late Aug. when I wasn't there and may not have lasted long. I see it can be watched on Amazon though.

[oscar jubis]

I feel good these days, I am living a cleaner life than when I was running a lot. Good you're working for the faster 5K.

I have not seen that film. It came to NYC in late Aug. when I wasn't there and may not have lasted long. I see it can be watched on Amazon though.
I'm glad to hear you're feeling good and all. I'm working towards doing the race at 7 minutes per mile. Just a few months away, I figure.

As far as the 2017 "runner-ups" list: phenomenal films just short of top 10 status, I am downgrading "Good Time" for its cynicism and replacing it with the Slovak film The Teacher. Now, as far as the TOP 10 films proper: I listed them in alphabetical order initially but now, with the perspective time allows, two of the 10 seem to stand out: THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV, the French film by Catalan director Albert Serra with a mesmerizing performance by Antoine Doinel (half kidding) and the intelligent and emotional MUDBOUND, a film produced by Netflix that is emblematic of the criticism the company has received for, among other things, failure to give films a respectable theatrical release that still confers respect and authority and makes a great film stand out among the gargantuan stream of audiovisual production in different formats and windows. Director Dee Rees seems to be particularly adept at handling group scenes and calibrating a performance to suit the whole drama. I will continue to explore these two marvelous movies.

[Chris Knipp]

I was very disappointed with Good Time, after the hype. Mudbound for me was too hellbent for tragedy. Couldn't watch it at home. In a theater I'd have stuck it out. It was top-rated for that year. I guess Serra is really good at doing people dying but it seems to take them awfully long. I saw both his dying-famous-men films. "Antoine Doinel" is NOT well, I can tell you. He has not taken care of himself. He is younger then me.

Look for some new film reviews coming from me of:

Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Julien Faraut) narrated in English by Mathieu Amalric
Madeline's Madeline (Josephine Decker)
A Whale of a Tale (Megumi Sasaki)

These are all coming out in the next few weeks and all have high critical ratings.

Of recent films I've seen in theaters I find MCQUEEN leaves the greatest glow. I also think SORRY TO BOTHER YOU is a great comedy. I did not get the other Oakland movie, BLINDSPOTTING, didn't see the point of it quite. In a similar vein looking forward to BLACKKKLANSMAN by Spike Lee. The new TOM CRUISE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE is great, but then, it disappears in the corners of your mind among all the similar films. He is in remarkable shape. I wonder what he can do a 10K in. Isn't he about your age?

_______________________


I guess you are saying you're going to run a 10K in 43.7 minutes, but is it normal to calculate a kilometer race in minutes per mile? I guess here maybe it is. I think I did do about that once, but when I was younger than you are now. Ten-Ks are hard, aren't they?

[oscar jubis]

I guess you are saying you're going to run a 10K in 43.7 minutes, but is it normal to calculate a kilometer race in minutes per mile? I guess here maybe it is. I think I did do about that once, but when I was younger than you are now.
I didn't mention 10k races. Just a 5k (3.1 miles) at 7 minutes per mile (under 22 minutes total). In the US, runners talk only about minutes per mile even when the races are measured in kilometers. Last year, my best was 22:20. This year I am going to achieve my goal time. I am confident. I plan to lower my weight to 140 lbs. and do a lot of hill running to strengthen my legs.

I watched Aki Kaurismaki's THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE a couple of times and I think it's a major achievement. I want to place it in my 2017 Top 10 like you did. However, I could not move any of the films out of my existing top 10 to make room for it. I am watching several Kaurismaki films that did not open in the US. I especially liked his version of Hamlet set in 80s Finland with the protagonist being the son of a greedy CEO not a king. It's called Hamlet Goes Business, with the great Katy Outinen as Ophelia but no Falstaff to be found.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for the information, Oscar. Love Kaurismäki. You are replying to a message I posted a year ago.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for the information, Oscar. Love Kaurismäki. You are replying to a message I posted a year ago.
I am certainly a late responder. I am thinking about this 2017 list and that film by Paul Thomas Anderson that came out #1, best film of the year, on a lot of polls, including the one run by the Village Voice. I've written recently on the pleasure and important to promote good films that may be forgotten, or at least neglected or under-appreciated. I was noticing how I probably did that when making my list and leaving PHANTOM THREAD just outside the top 10 while including films that, unlike PHANTOM THREAD, are likely to be forgotten: a 1954 Sternberg restoration, and animé, and a TV series too weird for today's taste. The specificity in the relationships between the three principals and the delicacy of the feelings between artist and muse make P.T. one of the great achievements in recent times. It's only fair to admit it even though it doesn't need to be reiterated (Group think was right this time. The metacritic score must be in the 90s.) My 2017 list has been edited to reflect this change in attitude.

2017 Top 10

Mudbound
Twin Peaks
The Death of Louis XIV
Phantom Thread
The Florida Project
Lady Bird
A Quiet Passion
The Red Turtle
The Shape of Water
The Woman Who Left

[tabuno]

I had watched the trailer back in 2017 but ultimately didn't watch the movie. Now during this whole Pandemic outbreak, my basis for selecting and judging films has probably become somewhat distorted. However, I hope at some point I will get around to watching "Phantom Thread" now that it's been recalled into my consciousness.

[Chris Knipp]

Just 90% I think, PHANTOM THREAD. It is a good one. "A TV series too weird for today's taste." Really? I doubt that. Bbut there is only one David Lynch. There's just nobody that original. There was quite a buzz about the revived TWIN PEAKS a couple years ago, and well deserved.