Ah, the annual Top 10.
Yeah, it was a good year.
As ever, there are some films I didn’t catch that haunted me as I wrote this list.
Foremost,SilenceandToni Erdmann.
- I also never got toSunset SongorKrisha.
Made in America, andI Am Not Your Negro.
Image via Amazon Studios
Everybody has their own way of doing Top 10 lists.
I’m not saying these are the best movies made this year.
And I love them.
Image via A24
But I love the ten movies you’ll find below just a little bit more.
That’s what this list si all about for me, movies I absolutely love.
I wish I had fifteen spots this year, but I didn’t.
Image via Drafthouse Films
I wish we didn’t have to rank the movies, but folks love rankings.
Last year I told you you’d be better off picturing the numbers as dancing monkeys.
Same rules apply this year, but let’s keep things current and picture trash fires instead.
Image via A24
Ok. Great year at the movies, check.
Hard to narrow the list down, check.
Rankings are goofy, check.
Image via The Orchard
Right, that covers it.
Let’s get on with it then…
Related:The 25 Best Movies of 2017
10.
Paterson
Jim Jarmusch’sPatersonis a poetic movie about poetry that’s lovely down to its beautiful bones.
Image via Magnolia Pictures
When you walk out ofPaterson, you take a piece of the mindset with you.
Eggers never caters to the lowest common denominator.
The Witch is very about the terrors of the devil (remember the baby remains?)
Image via A24
but it is also about the lurid attraction of sin and a sinister life, well lived.
Would you like to live deliciously?
Well you see, the thing is, Im afraid I might.
Image via Sony Picture Classics
The Invitation
Greif is a bitch.
Green Room
For a punk rock piece of violence,Green Roomis disarmingly quiet in its chaos.
Let’s all do ourselves a favor and not waste any more time debating ifGreen Roomis a horror movie.
Image via Summit
It scared the shit out of me, so it’s a horror film to me.
Maybe it doesn’t check your boxes to qualify.
The label is irrelevant, the effect is everything.
Imaga via A24
Saulnier is an absolute auteur of on-screen violence.
Theres an inherent stupidity to violence; a needless nastiness that most movies fail to grasp.
Saulnier not only gets it, he knows how to make his audience get it too.
I can’t shake Green Room and I think about it more often than makes sense.
That’s some damn fine cinema.
The writer-director spins another tender-hearted yarn about family, born and built.
Elle
Isabelle Huppertis exquisite.
I love, love, love Verhoeven’s work.
But I’ve never seen him to anything quite like this.
Verhoeven abandons the crude and bombastic for something a touch more refined and contemplative.
You’re never sure whether to fear her, respect her, or love her.
That tonal mystery applies toEllea whole, a film that has disgusted some, enchanted others.
La La Land
Oh,La La Land.
This movie gives me heavy sighs and heart eyes.
it’s possible for you to probably find me staring whimsically out a window, day-dreaming aboutLa La Land.
American Honey
Some movies just speak to you.
I sat totally enthralled for every single minute of the fim’s long runtime.
At a certain point, I caught myself thinking, “This movie’s going to end soon.
That’s so sad.”
I felt like I wished I could stay in the experience of watchingAmerican Honeyforever.
Just to check that it wasn’t a screening fluke, I watched the film again.
Same as the first go, I was transfixed for every one of its many minutes.
The spirit she captured is inimitable.
