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MY FAVORITE THINGS FROM THE MOVIES OF 2017

The action scenes in Atomic Blonde, Baby Driver and John Wick: Chapter Two.

Allison Janney in I, Tonya -- the film is much more impressive than actually enjoyable (I have a low tolerance for scenes of spousal abuse, and this movie has lots of them), but I have to be grateful for any film that finally gives Janney such a strong chance for an Oscar nomination, and possibly even the statuette itself (if you think of the film as the Whiplash of ice skating, then she is definitely its J.K. Simmons).

The big narrative and tonal shift in Colossal -- it may have doomed its box-office chances, but it made it an infinitely more interesting movie.

Blade Runner 2049 - probably my favorite film of the year (though I might like it even more if it weren't so long), and particularly for the remarkable cinematography of Roger Deakins and production design of Dennis Gassner. I especially enjoyed the critic who wrote, roughly, "this was the first film since Road to Perdition that legitimately made me feel bad for other cinematographers."

Caleb Landry Jones, one of the most distinctive and memorable personalities in contemporary movies, in American Made, The Florida Project, Get Out and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The central visual conceit of David Lowery's A Ghost Story, that Casey Affleck's spirit should appear as an old-style ghost costume of a sheet with holes cut for the eyes -- an idea that shouldn't work but works remarkably well.

Christopher Plummer as two varieties of Scrooge - the one Charles Dickens created in the otherwise borderline-intolerable The Man Who Invented Christmas, and a real-life one in All the Money in the World, in which his last-minute performance is something of a miracle, both because of its quality and because he's in the film a lot.

The continuing trend of actually shooting movies on film instead of "capturing" them digitally, including Dunkirk, The Florida Project, Hostiles, The Lost City of Z, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Murder on the Orient Express, Phantom Thread, The Post and others surprisingly too numerous to mention.

Dunkirk - so much to recommend, but especially Hoyte van Hoytema's 70mm IMAX cinematography, keeping alive the great old tradition of big screen spectacle.

Elizabeth Marvel in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) -- as Noah Baumbach is my favorite contemporary film maker, it is impossible for me to be remotely objective about his work, but in this film Marvel is a particular standout, seeming immediately like someone you would know in real life but would never see in a movie (and how many movie characters have such believably boring occupations as "facilities manager at Xerox"?).

The ending of Life -- not a dazzlingly original movie, to say the least, but it is arguably at least as good an Alien movie as this year's actual Alien prequel.

Ezra Miller as The Flash in Justice League -- talented as he is, when I first heard that DC was planning to cast him in a superhero vehicle I was skeptical, to say the least, but now, frankly, I can't wait for that franchise to start.

The final moments of The Post -- by far the weakest of Spielberg's unofficial "American ideals" trilogy (following Lincoln and Bridge of Spies), but I really enjoyed the way the film's ending made it the Rogue One to All the President's Men's A New Hope.

 

Geena Davis in Marjorie Prime, her first substantial movie role in 15 years.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok -- so many things to enjoy in all three, including Kurt Russell's "Ego," Tom Holland's Peter Parker and Taiki Waititi's vocal performance as Korg, but especially the reminder that one of the things that makes the Marvel movies work (when they do work, which is most of the time), is that when they try to be funny, they manage to be funnier than most official "comedies" released in the U.S. these days.

Jackie Chan kicking ass in The Foreigner, because he's Jackie Chan, dammit, and Martin Campbell is probably my favorite "hired hand" director of the last few decades.

Kong: Skull Island -- one of the most purely entertaining films of the year (John C. Reilly's "Skull Crushers" scene is a particular comic highlight), and a huge improvement over the 2014 Godzilla; it makes one actually look forward to new entries in this latest franchise "universe."

Melissa Leo in Novitiate, getting a role worthy of her talent for the first time since her Oscar win for The Fighter -- even if she does have to enact one of my least favorite cliches in contemporary movies, the sweeping-everything-off-your-desk-in-frustration move, the gesticular version of "You just don't get it, do you?"

Michael Fassbender's double role/performance in Alien: Covenant.

Michael Stuhlbarg's big scene at the end of Call Me By Your Name, which made me sob. If Armie Hammer gets nominated instead of Stuhlbarg, I will be unsurprised but still greatly annoyed.

Morgan Freeman in Just Getting Started -- hardly the best showcase for his talents, and not exactly a return to form for Bull Durham writer-director Ron Shelton, but at a time when Freeman's performances have threatened to open a gravitas hole in the fabric of the universe, it's a rare treat to see him be loose and goofy.

My Friend Dahmer's evocation of teenage life in the late 1970s, which seemed eerily true to my memory of the period, and its especially convincing teen characters (played by Alex Wolff, Tommy Nelson, Harrison Holzer, and Ross Lynch as Dahmer). Sheri Linden's Hollywood Reporter review had perhaps the best take on the film as a whole: "it's not the ghastliness of the story that grabs hold of you and won't let go -- it's the soul-crushing sadness."

Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer -- so good, and virtually no one saw it.

The opening credits sequence of the theatrical version of Errol Morris' Wormwood -- would that the rest of the intermission-less 240 minutes was so utterly gripping and memorable.

The prosthetic makeups in Bright, Darkest Hour, The Shape of Water and Wonder, for reminding us that computer animation and motion capture are not the answer to everything (I'm looking at you, Beauty and the Beast).

 

Sam Elliott in The Hero -- who knew?

The studios' new method of alerting audiences that a film is a sequel -- along with Roman numerals, colons and subtitles, we now have the casting of charismatic Australian actress Ruby Rose (John Wick: Chapter Two, Pitch Perfect 3, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, XXX: Return of Xander Cage).

Vince Vaughn in Brawl in Cell Block 99. A warning for those who are thinking of seeing this film but are sensitive about on-screen violence: much of the film plays as if its writer-director saw the elevator scene from Drive and thought "That's it?"

"You're the triple-X from 2005!" - perhaps the most delightfully goofy moment in the surprisingly enjoyable XXX: Return of Xander Cage.

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MY TEN FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK RELEASES OF 2017

 

In the interests of full disclosure, I should probably mention that of these ten releases, six I own but haven't actually listened to yet (I may have been too busy listening to Damnation Alley over and over again to play anything else), so this list should be more accurately titled "Ten Soundtracks of 2017 That I'm Happiest Got Released."

 

DAMNATION ALLEY (Intrada)

DAVID SHIRE'S APOCALYPSE NOW (La-La Land)
DIE ANOTHER DAY (La-La Land)

THE RED PONY/THE HEIRESS (Intrada)

STANLEY & IRIS/PETE ‘N’ TILLIE (Varese Sarabande)

STAR TREK: VOYAGER (La-La Land)

THRILLER (Tadlow)

TWO FOR THE ROAD (Kritzerland)

THE WHITE BUFFALO (Quartet)

THE WILD WILD WEST (La-La Land)

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Since Jerry Goldsmith’s Damnation Alley was the biggest soundtrack Holy Grail I’d still been waiting for, I guess it’s time to make a new list (well, lists) of the unreleased CD soundtracks I’d still most like to see happen (re-recordings are fine):

 

FEATURE FILM SCORES:

 

THE COTTON CLUB - John Barry

DADDY’S GONE A HUNTING - John Williams

THE DON IS DEAD - Jerry Goldsmith

ENDLESS NIGHT - Bernard Herrmann

THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH - Bernard Herrmann 

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (complete) - John Barry

NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE - Elmer Bernstein

THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD - Jerry Goldsmith

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS - John Williams

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI - Jerome Moross