25 Off My Head: Siri Says 2017

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Well I wasn't planning on doing this today but I'm not feeling as precious about list-making as I normally do right this minute and since Siri, upon asking her for a number between 1 and 100, went and gave me the number "17" on her very first try... well it seems fated. With the Oscars just passed let's just turn ourselves full-steam forward to the year ahead, and drop 2017 in the bin, then. I didn't have this prepared, I forced myself to make this list fast so it's as true a snapshot of me right at this moment as I can muster without too much thought gone into it. I'm not even going to allow myself to ramble on the movies, lest I start second-guessing, but you can click the film titles to be taken to their original reviews. So yeah. Here, in ascending order, are...

My 25 Favorite Movies of 2017

Runners-up: Lady Macbeth, mother!, Atomic Blonde, Raw

Gerald's Game, The Belko Experiment, Their Finest, Coco

25. Most Beautiful Island 

24. The Lovers

23. Frantz

22. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

21. Stronger

20. The Beguiled

1919. Brad's Status

18. Beatriz at Dinner

17. God's Own Country

16. Happy End

15. The Florida Project

14. The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected

13. Casting JonBenet

12. Get Out 

11. B.P.M.

10. The Square

9. A Fantastic Woman

8. Good Time

7. A Quiet Passion

^^6. The Shape of Water

5. Lady Bird

4. The Killing of a Sacred Deer

3. A Ghost Story

2. Phantom Thread

And to the surprise of everyone drumroll please

My Favorite Movie of 2017 was....

1. Call Me By Your Name 

There's a good chance that when the dust settles Call Me By Your Name will end up being my favorite movie of all time. Who knows what the future holds, I know it's awfully early to proclaim such a thing, but the effect this movie has on me, from the very first frame to the last, from that first viewing to the most recent, uh, fifteenth, it's an emotional freight train. 

You guys know. You've watched it over these past few months. (Or you've turned away in horror from it. One of the two!) Even having been familiar with the book beforehand, even with all my hyped-up blogging leading up to its release, I had no idea it was going to hit me so hard, and there are times when I know well enough to be a little embarrassed by my own, uh, emphatic cheerleading for the movie. Even a simple nobody self-proclaimed critic such as myself does understand the need to keep some critical distance between one's self and the movies - some wiggle room to see all the nooks and crannies. I haven't been able to do that with CMBYN. Maybe it will come with more time. 

I sure hope not. Fifteen viewings in the film's still lost none of its power to wallop me but good. Every sunny corner of it shines with melancholy summer and heartache and sweat - of those songs we once sang together on darkened streets, our heads swimming. It's a swoon, and it's all mine, again and again and again. It is, quite simply, the reason I have been watching movies for all these years.

If you want to share your own faves

in the comments please do!

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Listen To Team Experience

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You know who has good taste? ME. As do the people I associate with. I mean since I have good taste it would make sense that my good taste in associates would bear such fruits, right? Right. The logic stands, and Lucas Hedges agrees. Anyway me and my good-tasting friends at The Film Experience voted on our favorite movie things of 2017 recently, and the results went live this weekend - click on over to the the results of the 6th annual Team Experience Awards. We picked some good stuff, of which I think we can be most proud. For instance I might haggle with the order of our Top 10 but I can't with any of the movies that made it. Go us.
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10 Off My Head: The Remnants of 2017

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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.
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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.
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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.

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

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2017

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Sorry our "Siri Says" series (say that five times fast) has been a bit off the past couple of weeks - today is not the day we usually do this (they normally fall on a Tuesday) but we were busy with other things yesterday, and I wasn't planning on having the time today but on a whim I asked Siri for a number and she gave me something too interesting to pass up - she gave me 17. Now I'm not even going to go near picking movies for 1917 because that's a lost cause, but what about picking my favorite Movies of 2017 so far? 

I can do that! And since I'm always so bad about getting my awards out on time, this might actually stanch that bleeding. And we're talking the calendar year here, anything I have seen between January 1st through the present, or thereabouts - so nevermind the lopsided Oscar season, and a few listed below haven't actually come out yet (one is out on Friday!) but I saw them at festivals (several from Tribeca) or early screenings.

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2017, So Far

A Ghost Story

(dir. David Lowery)

-- released on July 7th, 2017 --

Beatriz at Dinner

(dir. Miguel Arteta)

-- released on June 9th, 2017 --

Good Time

(dir. The Safdie Brothers)

-- released on August 11th, 2017 --

The Lovers

(dir. Azazel Jacobs)

-- released on May 5th, 2017 --

Get Out

(dir. Jordan Peele)

-- released on February 24th, 2017 --

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Runners-up: Lady Macbeth (dir. William Oldroyd), Thirst Street (dir. Nathan Silver), Permission (dir. Brian Crano), My Friend Dahmer (dir. Marc Myers), Nobody's Watching (dir. Julia Solomonoff), Hounds of Love (dir. Ben Young), A Quiet Passion (dir. Terrence Davies)...

... Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau), Personal Shopper (dir. Olivier Assayas), Frantz (dir. Ozon), The Belko Experiment (dir. Greg McLean), Colossal (dir. Nacho Vigalondo), Free Fire (dir. Ben Wheatley), Sleight (dir. JD Dillard), Prevenge (dir. Alice Lowe)...

... Wonder Woman (dir. Patty Jenkins), It Comes at Night (dir. Trey Edward Shults), Beach Rats (dir. Eliza Hittman), The Beguiled (dir. Sofia Coppola), Okja (dir. Bong Joon-ho), The Little Hours (dir. Jeff Baena), Atomic Blonde (dir. David Leitch) 

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Haven't seen: T2: Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle), My Cousin Rachel (dir. Roger Michell), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (dir. Luc Besson), Girl's Trip (dir. Malcom D. Lee), Detroit (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Columbus (dir. Kogonada)

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What have been your favorites of 2017 so far?

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