Best of 2017: Part 1

In with the new but not before looking back to appreciate some of the old.

Political scenes continue to go downhill and drag the people they serve with them, Natural disasters ravage us harder, and any form of discourse regarding anything, from important sociological phenomena pertaining to human well being to banal issues of quality and trends surrounding the entertainment industry, continues to devolve to the levels of blind and unnecessary thrashing and lashing out that would better characterize the children of cavemen than the adults perpetuating a never ending cycle of toxicity.

In short, for reasons far too numerous to count, 2017 sucks, and if I can't forget that having spent the last month and a half of it on cloud nine deliriously happy that it brought me the love of my life, it had to have sucked pretty hard.

Outside of its positive contributions to my newfound love life however, one front where it surprisingly held up well on, was the theater going experience.

2017 has been an odd spread of highs and lows often within the span of the same month. We watched franchises previously thought untouchable take massive hits, usually reliable artists turn out clunkers, and the beginning of the collapse of the cinematic universe trend as we know it.

Amidst all the chaos however, experimentation, creative passion, and attention to detail ran rampant over a year that didn't always provide top notch classics but was surprisingly chock full of films unafraid to shake up the status quo and do something a little bit different.

While I can't say 2017 will be my favorite cinematic year in terms of sheer quality, it has been a much needed experimental one and with that said, here are the ones that I felt managed to rise above the others while leaving a personal impact upon myself that I won't be forgetting any time soon.

10. The Lost City of Z

A throwback to classic Hollywood cinematic epics of grand scope and human complexity, director James Gray’s masterpiece is a satisfyingly weaved old fashioned tale of the dangers of obsession and the worth of knowledge’s pursuit and the power it holds to evolve our perceptions.

Percy Fawcett’s contributions to cartography after the Age of Discovery preyed upon his appreciation of life and tested his thirst for knowledge as his growing obsession with discovering a lost Amazonian civilization while exploring and mapping out South America forces him to question whether his lifelong ambitions are worth achieving at the expense of the life that he’s built for himself.

It’s an adventure of staggering scope and detail brought to life by astonishing cinematography focused on a compelling narrative conjured to life by a director that’s just as proficient with actors as he is with his technology. Charlie Hunnam’s understated intensity and strong screen presence reinforce my belief that he’s an underrated actor waiting for the right breakthrough project and Robert Pattinson gives a performance that’s Oscar nomination worthy and easily the best job of his entire career thus far.

“The Lost City of Z” is a film for film fans, demanding of at least one silver screen viewing but worthy of attention period for sheer quality of execution and being a fine specimen of a lost style of the art form.

9. Darkest Hour

If this film were merely an hour and a half of Gary Oldman giving a one man show as Winston Churchill, it would already be an easy contender for one of 2017’s finest.

The man is an acting legend and gives one of the finest performances of his career; one so transformative and assisted by a bang up makeup job that you’d be remiss to occasionally forget that it’s him. The film is worth watching on his effort alone but is fortunately far from a one trick horse.

Joe Wright busts out his storytelling A-game, perfectly encapsulating the bleakness of an extreme war time scenario from the perspective of people protected from the horrors of the frontline yet nonetheless surrounded by an encroaching sense of dread driven by the worst of humanity that can only go away if an entire nation rallies itself to fight back at all costs.

“Darkest Hour” is a fine political drama but an outstanding tale regarding the necessity of sacrifice and unwavering conviction in the face of inhumanity that cannot be appeased and the folly of societal elitism and political agenda pushing in contrast with the will of the people, a message that may unintentionally ring truer today than it would have at the time of this film’s events actually occurring in history.

8. Get Out

One of the best and most authentic cases for diversity in storytelling at its absolute finest.

Jordan Peele proves his capabilities as a storyteller to go beyond the mere scope of humor in masterfully executing a collection of horror and thriller conventions under the pretense of a black man meeting the parents of his white girlfriend for the first time and delving thoroughly into perceptions of race relations that don’t get brought up often enough for proper study or discourse.

The movie to come from it exposes more subtle shades of profiling taken to their logical and dangerous extreme as an indictment of the notion that all racism appears outwardly malicious or fueled by hatred of our differences rather than an antithetical envy that perpetuates a cycle that puts true individualism at risk.

“Get Out’s” nuanced social commentary only serves as a terrific icing to strong foundation that never falters as a functionally entertaining horror movie first, with comedic underpinnings highlighting pieces of the larger statement, in service of its more philosophical musings.

7. Wind River

Taylor Sheridan rounds out his neo-western trifecta following the prior releases of 2015’s and 2016’s “Sicario” and “Hell or High Water” respectively, with a hunt for the murderer and rapist of a young woman on a Native American Reservation in Wyoming, headed by a family friend of the victim grappling with the recent loss of his own child and the assistance of a federal agent whose orders contrast with her need to see justice upheld in an area that doesn’t see it at the hands of governmental law enforcement often.

Taking up the director’s chair for this outing, Sheridan infuses “Wind River” with all of the raw and unflinching humanity expected of his work, turning the film’s eye to the plight of a people often overlooked by the country that they live in to tell a tale that never ceases to be gripping, visceral, or compelling to the second the credits roll.

The harsh yet gorgeous cinematography coupled with Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, and a host of terrific character actors giving some of the better performances of their already solid careers weave a film that may be one of the biggest emotional yet understated gut punches of the year that would make it painful to watch if it weren’t just so damn well made.  

6. Blade Runner 2049

With decades of development under its belt following up a cult classic that carved out a unique genre of science fiction all its own and boasting one of the most underwhelming marketing campaigns of the decade thus far, “Blade Runner 2049” had quite a bit going against it. Fortunately, it rose to the challenged and delivered even if it managed to come up unfortunately short of the financial success that it deserved.

Expanding upon the dystopia of “Blade Runner” with a globe spanning story further questioning the worth of non-human sapient life while elegantly questioning natures of perception and identity prominent across the legendary works of writer Philip K. Dick, Denis Villeneuve continues to prove his salt as one of Hollywood’s currently most versatile working directors.

The tale of K and his journey to find a place in a life that hates his very being at every turn is as visually beautiful as it is visceral and poignantly tragic, brought to life by stellar performances too relatably perpetuating of a cycle of inevitable destruction and self -loathing,  while wasting very little of its lengthy yet ultimately earned running time.

“Blade Runner 2049’s” only obstacle to being the best film of the year that nobody saw is that that very title actually belongs to the number one film on this very list.

Which we will get to, on Friday.