The 11 Best Movies of 2017 (So Far)
Well, the year is halfway over (yes, seriously) and so far it's been pretty good, at least as far as cinematic confections are concerned. We've had high-speed car chases, lost cities of gold, and a few superheroes (both live-action and animated). Hopefully the next six months will be just as compelling, exciting, and strange.
'Get Out'
Few films were as scarily of-the-moment as "Get Out," the debut smash from writer-director Jordan Peele. But here's the thing -- "Get Out" deserved all the praise it received (and that impressive worldwide box office of $251 million). It was just that "Get Out" was playfully confrontational when it comes to the subject of race, even more of a hot button topic in post-Obama America. The filmmaking is so astoundingly great, the performances so cheekily dead-on (Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, and Catherine Keener were terrific), and the tone so wonderfully wacky (the laugh-to-scream ratio was nicely calibrated). It already feels like a classic.
'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore'
"I Don't Feel at Home in the World Anymore" is one of the odder movies you'll see this year -- and one of the best. This Netflix original, which took home the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance, stars Melanie Lynskey as a woman whose house is burglarized, so she teams up with a loser neighbor (Elijah Wood) to track down her stolen stuff. From there, things take some pretty bizarre turns, but Lynskey and Wood are so engaging and funny, and the movie has such crackerjack film noir atmosphere, that you never lose interest. Writer-director Macon Blair has, along with Jordan Peele, made one of the most assured and astounding debut films of the year.
'The Lego Batman Movie'
"The Lego Batman Movie" was a spin-off of 2014's wonderful "The Lego Movie," taking that film's version of Batman (Will Arnett) -- who was dark, brooding, and fostering a burgeoning music career -- and building (pun intended) a whole world around him. While expectations were sky high for this film, it met them by being a satisfying Batman movie and a genuinely great, very Meta, Lego movie. Putting the Batman/Joker (Zach Galifianakis) rivalry in the context of a strained romantic relationship was a legit stroke of genius.
'The Lost City of Z'
Adapting David Grann's nonfiction bestseller, about a quest to find the mythical city of El Dorado, into a narrative film seemed like a proposition as daunting as an expedition itself. But writer-director James Gray proved himself an apt explorer. Charlie Hunnam plays Percy Fawcett as a man desperately attempting to regain his social standing by attempting to uncover something that no one had seen before, half a world away. "The Lost City of Z" is a beautiful portrait of compulsion and obsession, and Hunnam's performance is more inwardly complex than outwardly showy. Sienna Miller deserves just as much praise as his put-upon wife. Plus, the final shot is an all-time stunner.
'Logan'
The best thing to happen to Wolverine's solo film series is this third and final installment. "Logan" was bleak and blood-soaked; a hard-R finish to a PG-13 franchise that rewarded the maturity of the audience by offering a morally complex, unhappy ending with equal parts tragedy and triumph. "Logan" featured Hugh Jackman at his most aching and complex, shifting the superhero narrative to a post-apocalyptic western feel and upping the emotionality. While it would have been nice to see the character end in a more spectacular fashion (and, honestly, that evil clone of his is problematic), it seems an appropriately downbeat conclusion and that final shot is one of our favorites of the year. It isn't a perfect film, but it is a very accomplished one. It's full of great moments that make it not just one of the best comic book films ever made, but also one of the best films of 2017.
'Colossal'
Anne Hathaway plays a drunk mess who returns to her hometown and discovers that she controls a giant, Godzilla-like monster that has been stomping through Seoul, South Korea. You know, that old story. Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo ("Timecrimes," "Open Windows"), the movie has a wonderfully kooky energy and a refreshingly exposition-free sense of magical realism, with the ultimate monster being (wait for it) another human being. To say more would be to spoil the many charms of this winning little film (which co-stars Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, and Tim Blake Nelson). "Colossal" is hugely entertaining.
'Okja'
Leave it to South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho to deliver the year's most unexpected masterpiece, in the form of "Okja," the direct-to-Netflix story of a young girl (Ahn Seo-hyun) who befriends a genetically engineered "super-pig" (created by the insidious Mirando Corporation, whose CEO is a manic Tilda Swinton). A relatively simple story along the lines of "E.T." or "The Iron Giant" soon explodes to encompass violent animal rights activists (led by pitch-perfect Paul Dano), a zany TV show host (Jake Gyllenhaal), and some of the more brutal slaughter-house sequences ever (it doesn't matter that the pigs are computer-generated; the pain is real). Through humor and horror, as it oscillates between surrealism and satire, "Okja" remains deeply affecting.
'Wonder Woman'
"Wonder Woman," after several dark and dour DC Comics-based missteps, exploded on the screen and captured the zeitgeist like few films -- superhero or otherwise -- ever have. (I walked by a theater in midtown Manhattan and some kids were pressed up against the glass door, looking at a standee, shouting, "It's her!") Gal Gadot is solid as Diana Prince, an Amazonian warrior thrust into the European conflict of World War I, imbibing the role with wide-eyed wonder and stoic purpose. While the opening is clunky and the climax too CGI-choked, the middle section of the movie, with Wonder Woman interacting with "modern" Londoners and traveling to the front, is some of the best blockbuster cinema in recent memory. Hopefully, other DC movies can learn from her sterling example.
'The Beguiled'
Sofia Coppola picked up a best director trophy at Cannes for her version of the Clint Eastwood Civil War thriller "The Beguiled," which pulses with steamy Southern Gothic atmosphere. The set-up is delicious: a wounded Northern soldier (Colin Farrell) stumbles upon an all-girls school and is taken in, only to find these Southern girls are more than he bargained for. Coppola films everything in luxurious close-ups -- Spanish moss, the rustic plantation house, Farrell's abs. All of the women (led by Nicole Kidman as a head mistress and Kirsten Dunst as a teacher, with Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence, and Elle Fanning offering fine support) give tremendously realized performances. Revenge has never been prettier.
'The Big Sick'
"Write what you know" is the advice given to aspiring storytellers and that is just what married couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon did with "The Big Sick." Detailing the earliest days of their relationship, and Gordon's real-life illness, in hilarious detail (Kumail plays himself while Zoe Kazan fills in for Emily), the movie is powerful because -- in its specificity -- it becomes something totally universal. Throw in some outstanding supporting performances by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter, along with sturdy direction from Michael Showalter, and you've got one of the more devastating romantic comedies ever.
'Baby Driver'
It's clear writer-director Edgar Wright has been thinking about this movie for a long time (just look at this Mint Royale video he directed back in 2002). "Baby Driver" is the kind of lovingly constructed, painstakingly put together romp that we just don't see very often these days. Ansel Elgort plays Baby, a getaway driver for a slippery Atlanta gangster (Kevin Spacey), who has to listen to music in order to perform so exquisitely. It's like a musical, except that instead of dance numbers, it's punctuated with car chases (although there are dance numbers, too). "Baby Driver" is, like many movies on this list, the work of a singular visionary, and with Wright behind the wheel, you know it's going to be a blast.
