Thursday, December 21, 2017

10 Off My Head: The Remnants of 2017

.
I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the year's almost over! Not that I'm convinced 2018 is going to be any better, at least as far as The Real World is concerned, but I say good riddance to the garbage fire of 2017 all the same. Anyway as far as Entertainment goes I'm doing better than I normally am by this point in having seen the things I want to see - you're not going to be getting any Top 10 lists any time soon from me, let's not go crazy, but as I sort through what I have seen there isn't enough to smother me with anxiety like I normally feel come the holidays. That's a nice feeling for a change!

Most of what I've missed so far are the usual things I miss on first runs - foreign films, documentaries. (You can see a list of everything that I have seen down in the right-hand column, by the way.) But I figured I'd take stock of what I still need to see by making a list for myself, and I'm gonna share it with you! Oh what fun! And then at the end y'all can tell me what you need to see in the comments...

10 Movies of 2017 That I Still Have To See

THE POST (dir. Steven Spielberg) -- This is the big one, obviously. I'm not convinced it will shake up my favorites of the year or anything, but I'm looking forward to it. I very much like this talky old-fashioned adult-drama period of Spielberg's career - if it's anything like Bridge of Spies, which I expected to dislike and ended up adoring, we'll be just fine. Anyway this won't be on this list for much longer since it's out in theaters tomorrow and I might just go first thing in the morning!

THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (dir. Albert Serra) -- This came and went in March I guess? All I know is I was made ecstatic by its gorgeous trailer but then it was gone before I even realized it. Very much want to catch up with this.

DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (dir. Bill Morrison) -- People I trust have been bowled over by this documentary that from what I gather sorts through the history a bunch of long-thought-lost Silent Film footage about a small mining town in the Arctic.

EX LIBRIS: NEW YORK CITY LIBRARY (dir. Frederick Wiseman) -- Uhh it's a documentary about a library. So duh. I already have my review's title written: "There Will Be Bookshelves." I'm seeing this next week thanks to MoMA's "The Contenders" series.
.
AFTER THE STORM (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda) -- I don't know anything about this movie except it stars Hiroshi Abe and I've seen it pop up here and there among people's faves and I have literally had a review copy of the blu-ray sitting beside my bed for about four months. I made a promise to myself I will finally stick it in the blu-ray player over the holidays. Let's see if I stick to that!

FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (dir. Paul McGuigan) -- Annette Bening gave the best female performance on screen last year in 20th Century Women, so there's that. She's on my good side. And then there's Jamie Bell who is always great (and I have been told by people who have seen the film that Jamie's in his underwear in it). I think it's a little weird how the trailer obscures the fact  (like actively covers up) that Gloria Grahame started dating Peter Turner when he was under-age.

YOUR NAME (dir. Makoto Shinkai) -- Japanese animated movie that I keep seeing on Year End Lists and thinking somebody accidentally deleted the "CALL ME BY" part of the title. This is also playing at MoMA soon.

FELICITE (dir. Alain Gomis) -- Another one I don't know much about save I have heard enough people who know things say this thing's worth knowing.

GRADUATION (dir. Cristian Mungiu) -- This played at the New York Film Festival way back in 2016 and I missed it then, only to hear a bunch of people rave about it, and now here fourteen months later I'm hearing about it again since it was technically a 2017 release.
.
DOWNSIZING (dir. Alexander Payne) -- Given how much foot Matt Damon's crammed in his mouth over the past few months and given the fact that I have come to actively dislike Alexander Payne's movies (after loving him so much at the start of his career) I'm kind of dreading this one. The trailers are obnoxious. But whispers of it being much weirder than it's letting on are giving me a little hope. This also opens this weekend, so thank goodness for MoviePass.

---------------------------------------------

So what movies are y'all trying to catch up on?
.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

“Your Name” was good, though I think Shinkai’s most memorable film is his 40 minute Long visual delight “Garden of Words”

Pierce said...

Your Name hasn't opened in the Twin Cities yet. I want to see Movie Stars, because I love the idea of Annette Bening as Gloria Grahame. A few others haven't opened yet, either. I blinked and missed Goodbye Christopher Robin, too.

BoyPiranha said...

have you seen The Untamed? Its a really good mexican horror movie! I think this review does a good job of promoting the movie: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/17/the-untamed-review-amat-escalante-tentacular-sex-monster

Jason Adams said...

I hadn't heard of that, BoyPiranha, but it sounds right up my alley! Thanks for the heads-up -- I'll definitely be watching it!

BoyPiranha said...

I would love to know your thoughts on it!

NATHANIEL R said...

Grahame didn't date Turner when he was underage. They met when he was in his 20s. She was obviously into younger men given her romantic history but the scandal about her being in to *underage* men comes from director Nicholas Ray's claims that he found her in bed with his son when his son was only 13. Nobody knows if that part is true or not but since she married that previous step son 8 years later (after a different failed marriage) the accusation stuck.

Jason Adams said...

NAT - thanks for the sorting of that out!

It's funny, - I saw the trailer for FSDDIL the other day and I thought to myself -- "Hey Jason, you wrote that thing about GG the other day and meant to google your accusation, which you only knew based on hearsay and you don't even remember where you heard it; maybe you should figure that out."

Thanks for doing my work for me :)