We put a brave face on things, but 2017 was a bad year at the movies. With nonsense like Dumbkirk and Grinding Nemo pulling down most awards at the Oscars, it made last year's surprise Moonlight win feel like a dream. We're back to the old darkness, with small bits of light provided by (incrementally) more diverse casting, non-actors, Olivier Assayas and, of course, #KSTEW.
2017 was slightly stronger than I indicated in my earlier Top 10 for the Sonoma Index-Tribune. So read on for new entries in the Top 10! As you read through a hierarchy topped with beautiful dresses, listen to this by Marlon Williams. As the artist has said of the tune: "I don't know what this song is about, and I don't want to know."
Best Supporting Actor
We can all only dream to have a boyfriend as delightful as O'Shea Jackson in Ingrid Goes West, his attachment to Batman fanfic not withstanding. Ben Safdie was unbelievably good at absorbing all manner of abuse in Good Times. What a delight it's been watching Timothee Chalamet flit about in Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name, reading fine literature and flashing those vulpine features softened only by the haircut all the boys had at my middle school. It's incredible that Lil Rel Howery did not even get an Oscar nom for his role as Get Out—he is the truth telling friend we all desperately need before making weekend plans, and the WTT awardee for Best Supporting Actor.
Best Supporting Actress
In the battle of best supporting moms I'll take Holly Hunter in The Big Sick over Allison Janney in I, Tonya over Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird. And the better lady movie of the year was Lady Macbeth, which had a great mute performance by Naomi Ackie. The best uses of breakfast foods came from Get Out, where Allison Williams deconstructed Froot Loops and milk, and Girls Trip, where Tiffany Haddish repurposed a grapefruit and banana to uproarious effect. But my award must go to the grand dame of the breakfast table, my old so-and-so, Lesley Manville in Phantom Thread. Please come run my life Cyril!
Best Actor
In the auto-nominations category, we have WTT's daily inspiration Channing Tatum in Logan Lucky. Of course I have to praise the dual android, poetry-spouting Michael Fassbender in Alien: Covenant, proving that quoting "Ozymandias" makes you sexier than Ryan Gosling's Blade Runner 2049 replicant. Gael Garcia Bernal was back to his best as a voice in Coco and live action in You're Killing Me Susana. Vin Diesel was so pleased to be starring in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage you couldn't help but grin along. But 2017 had only one acting performance: Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread. What a man, what a man, what a mighty mighty good man. The ultimate expression of WTT motto NO MEDIOCRE.
In the auto-nominations category, we have WTT's daily inspiration Channing Tatum in Logan Lucky. Of course I have to praise the dual android, poetry-spouting Michael Fassbender in Alien: Covenant, proving that quoting "Ozymandias" makes you sexier than Ryan Gosling's Blade Runner 2049 replicant. Gael Garcia Bernal was back to his best as a voice in Coco and live action in You're Killing Me Susana. Vin Diesel was so pleased to be starring in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage you couldn't help but grin along. But 2017 had only one acting performance: Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread. What a man, what a man, what a mighty mighty good man. The ultimate expression of WTT motto NO MEDIOCRE.
Best Actress
Vicky Krieps was excellent as Day-Lewis's media naranja in Phantom Thread and in her way kicked as much ass as Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde (make her the next James Bond, dummies—the world demands more of Charlize beating the everliving shit out of everyone!). As time passes I grow more enamored of Aubrey Plaza's total investment in her roles—she was fascinating in Dirty Grandpa a couple of years ago and has much stronger material in Ingrid Goes West. Like Plaza, Bria Vianaite of The Florida Project comes out of left field, straight from Instagram to the cinema crackling with intensity that just isn't seen from more mannered actresses. But the award goes to the only thespian who reliably shakes me from my comfort zone (almost nodding off in an overpriced chair on the lefthand aisle of the cinema): Kristen Stewart. I feel her character in Personal Shopper in all my anxious texting, all my late, frustrated days.
Best Pictures
Coco - Pixar does its finest world-building ever in Coco—the Land of the Dead is a marigold-drenched wonderland in which the skeletal spirits of your ancestors sing, dance, and make art. It’s also happy news that, even without flesh, the dead can still drink tequila. When you (re)watch the film, remember to bring a box of tissues to the theater with you—as one character says, speaking to the afterlife or the best Pixar films: “This place runs on memories.”
Lost City of Z - From Aguirre, the Wrath of God to The New World to this film there is something endlessly appealing about pushing upriver into the unknown. The fact that none of these dumb, self-mythologizing white boys would ever return only adds to the romance. Director James Gray adapts the wild excellence of David Grann's book and, especially on the big screen, you can feel the Amazon wrap its arms around you as Percy Fawcett follows the lure of little voices to his destiny.
Dawson City: Frozen Time - In this superlative documentary, Bill Morrison provides a meditative mélange of photographs, documentary footage, silent films, and early talkies from Dawson City, a turn-of-the-century gold rush town in the Yukon that was the end of the line for thousands of reels of early movies. The doc includes amazing nuggets, like the reason Jack London turned back for home before reaching Dawson City (scurvy) and the origin of the Trump family fortune (brothels). By the end, you almost can’t imagine cinema history without this small town—if not for the future moguls who intersected there, we might never have had the chance to watch Snatched, 2017’s worst film.
Call Me By Your Name - You try to think of yourself as the kind of person who would never cry while listening to a Sufjan Stevens in public but then you do, and it's Luca Guadagnino fault. CMBYN also deserves credit for spawning the most enjoyable meme of the year, moves so cold even those of us who are more rhythmically challenged can't help but try to duplicate them—see, we're just doing the Armie! There's also the outstanding mood of doomed love and wistfulness and regret—all while the romance is still happening!—capped with a great dad talk and an amazing winter lookbook.
Wind River - Writer/director Taylor Sheridan is among the best at leading us to the dark places in our society and this trip to the Wind River Indian reservation is no different. As a young man (and potential murder suspect) on the rez explains: “I wanna fight the whole world.” Despite the bracing violence in the film, it’s fascinating to watch Jeremy Renner’s tracker Cory as he moves from hunting mountain lions that prey on livestock to hunting death itself.
Good Time - Josh and Ben Safdie direct what is, for a few minutes at least, a straightforward picture about two brothers, Connie (Robert Pattinson, very good) and Nick (Ben Safdie, extraordinary) bumbling through a bank heist. From there straight through the end, the plot goes spectacularly off the rails—the hilarious, truly inconceivable twists are so uproarious that you run the risk of peeing your pants from the sheer giddiness. Future filmmakers must take notes on how to craft a proper thriller that never comes up for a breath.
Get Out - The film was nominated for a Golden Globe in the “Best Musical or Comedy” category but, crucially, director Jordan Peele has called the film a documentary. The power of the piece is the utter believability of the ills that befall Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris, a black man trapped in the hell of a long weekend with his white girlfriend’s parents. While often very funny, Peele’s film is heavy on bitter truths. A cop car appears twice and both times you immediately fear for our hero—across the country, police have generated a well-earned, gut-level fear from their constituents in minority communities.
Logan Lucky - With little else to recommend it, 2017 can at least be remembered fondly for Steven Soderbergh’s return to filmmaking. Like Good Time, the criminals in this robbery picture are not overly bright but possess a desperate ingenuity. It’s so fun to watch country-fried narrative threads spread in many directions before being tied back together. Logan Lucky boasts a brilliant climax at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, which Soderbergh photographs in popping bright colors to capture the rainbowed American glory of all those glittering stock cars.
The Florida Project - Sean Baker famously shot his debut feature Tangerine on an iPhone and returned to shoot The Florida Project on even more beautiful 35mm. This film, set in the strip mall and cheap motel squalor outside Disney World, is about people pushed too far in an unnatural, lavender-and-fuchsia landscape. Much has been made of performance from seven-year-old spitfire Brooklyn Decker as a free-roaming child but the startling, discomfiting acting by newcomer Bria Vinaite as her mother is indelible. As with Sasha Lane’s Star in last year’s American Honey, the finest recent acting has been done by untrained presences like Vianaite.
Phantom Thread - Easily the best PTA picture, thanks to the cast—all of which has been lauded above—and the relative restraint of the director. The film is not about wild tracking shots and enormous amounts of acting. The most exciting set pieces are of Daniel Day-Lewis at work—cutting, sewing, staring down the lines. In addition to motivating future breakfast orders, Phantom Thread shows the ways in which idiosyncratic artists, whether the subject or the maker of the film, help show why it's worthwhile to keep fighting through the cruelty and banality of life—think of the couture we'd miss if we died today!
Personal Shopper - Any film is bound to be excellent when the best French director, Oliver Assayas, works with the best American actress, Kristen Stewart. Assayas wrote the film for Stewart when they were working together on the magisterial Clouds of Sils Maria, and the script addresses fashion, the supernatural, and the burden of being a talented personal assistant. Surrounded by jittering wraiths and glittering couture, Stewart moves through Paris and London with the radical coldness that sets her apart from her contemporaries. The cinematic sound from 2017 that will linger longest in the ears is the skittering of Stewarts’s fingers over her phone as she composes text messages to a ghost.
