The Best Movies Of 2017

"The Florida Project," image courtesy of A24.

Although I wouldn't go as far as some film writers who have proclaimed 2017 a banner year for filmmaking, it ended up being a pretty decent one after all. My top three films were all ones from the heart - occasionally heartwarming, but just as often heartbreaking - and by filmmakers who had never cracked my top 10 before.

A few directors who I would consider old favorites made appearances on my list as well as a couple of pictures that were great examples of genre filmmaking. At least one film in my top 10 could cause you to have fall-outs with family and friends should you recommend it to them.

Most noteworthy, however, is that the best thing I saw all year wasn't on a big screen, but on television. Much like last year's remarkable "OJ: Made In America" - which would have been high in my top 10 but debuted first on TV - the most impressive piece of filmmaking I viewed was in weekly installments. Since I confine my lists to theatrical films, I am hereby creating a Grand Jury Prize category for works of art that operate in the spirit of filmmaking, but debut on the small, rather than silver screen. This year's recipient is:

Image courtesy of Showtime.

Grand Jury Prize: Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch)
I could write thousands of words on David Lynch's incredible 18-hour odyssey that Showtime executives were remarkably somehow convinced to finance. In fact, I already did - read more here. The third season of "Twin Peaks" cast a haunting visual and aural spell that I doubt will soon wear off.

Ten Runners Up

"Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," image courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.

20. Get Out (Jordan Peele) - Comedian Jordan Peele made his directorial debut in the horror genre, blending satire with screams and delivered one of 2017's most potent political commentaries. Reviewed here.

19. Wind River (Taylor Sheridan) - This gripping western posing as a murder mystery marks an impressive turn behind the camera for Taylor Sheridan, who penned the "Hell or High Water" screenplay. Reviewed here.

18. Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh) - This heist comedy appears to be a study of fools in over their heads that the Coen Brothers might appreciate, that is, until you realize that it has a little something more on its mind. Reviewed here.

17. Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater) - Richard Linklater provides a follow-up to Hal Ashby's classic "The Last Detail" and veers from being a comedy about a couple of old coots into a soulful meditation on aging and loss. Reviewed here.

16. The Lost City of Z (James Gray) - Seemingly possessed by the spirit of Werner Herzog, James Gray's exotic explorer movie follows a man's obsessive heart of darkness on a quest that is both mysterious and hypnotic. Reviewed here.

15. The Post (Steven Spielberg) - Steven Spielberg said that the election of Donald Trump as president made it urgent for him to direct a film on The Washington Post's release of the Pentagon Papers. The film is a riveting paean to the Fourth Estate in the age of the reprehensible phrase "fake news." Reviewed here.

14. The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro) - His best film since the masterpiece "Pan's Labyrinth," Guillermo del Toro's latest is a beautiful and bizarre fantasy about accepting outsiders, a theme that weighs heavy in 2017. Reviewed here.

13. Mudbound (Dee Rees) - Peele's "Get Out" is very good and deserving of its praise, but Dee Rees' powerhouse film is my personal favorite regarding race relations in a year when such things most desperately need pondering. Reviewed here.

12. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson) - The third saga in the popular series gets the dark middle chapter it deserves. Mark Hamill gives his finest performance as Luke Skywalker and the trilogy comes into its own, rather than relying on nostalgia. Reviewed here.

11. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh) - Bruisingly funny and surprisingly humane, playwright Martin McDonagh's third film is a deft exploration of grief, anger and forgiveness. Reviewed here.

Top Ten

Image courtesy of Netflix.

10. Okja (Bong Joon Ho) - The latest from Bong Joon Ho tells the story of a gigantic pig and involves evil corporations, a lovely animal rights theme, completely bonkers storytelling and the best use of John Denver in a movie possibly ever. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.

9. Baby Driver (Edgar Wright) - Moving beyond genre satire, Edgar Wright delivers his most fulfilling picture to date - a high octane action thriller shot like a musical that proves that the director has a mastery of film form. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

8. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan) - His best film since "Memento," Christopher Nolan's chronicle of the titular battle is a lean and impressionistic war movie. Beautifully shot and choreographed, "Dunkirk" is rousing and often terrifying. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of Annapurna Distribution.

7. Detroit (Kathryn Bigelow) - The year's second most misunderstood movie, Kathryn Bigelow took some flak for directing such a punishing film that depicts horrific police brutality against African Americans. It's a movie that pulls no punches - and thankfully. This is a film to which people should subject themselves, white America especially. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

6. Mother! (Darren Aronofsky) - That exclamation point is indeed warranted. The year's most misunderstood film is also the most insane picture released by a major movie studio in years. Kudos to Darren Aronofsky and Paramount for taking a chance on this one. Also, this is the rare movie in which I'd advise viewers to read up on before watching it - it leads to a richer experience. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of IFC Films.

5. Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas) - The great Olivier Assayas delivers a ghost story like no other. This distinctly European thriller is a thought provoking, rewarding and open ended rumination on grief and loneliness. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

4. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) - Daniel Day-Lewis goes out in style in Paul Thomas Anderson's visually lush and meticulous tale of a man and his obsessions and the two women who willfully engage in a power struggle with him. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

3. Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino) - First love and heartbreak have rarely been as gorgeously rendered as in Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of Andre Aciman's novel. Timothee Chalamet gives a star-making performance, while Michael Stuhlbarg plays the dad of the year and gives a speech for the ages. Breathtaking and haunting. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of A24.

2. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) - Representing the best actor-to-director transition in recent memory, Greta Gerwig's lovely "Lady Bird" isn't just a warm, funny coming of age story, but also a great film about child-parent relationships and an astute observer of human nature that makes me believe that its writer-director, who based the film on her own life, is wise beyond her years. Reviewed here.

Image courtesy of A24.

1. The Florida Project (Sean Baker) - A heartbreaking and hilarious look at how the other half lives, Sean Baker's film takes a humane look at how people exist below the poverty line - in this case, down the street from the "happiest place on Earth" in Orlando. Baker has drawn remarkable performances from the child actors in the film - especially pint-sized superstar Brooklynn Prince. And Willem Dafoe gives one of his finest performances as the manager of the hotel in which the film is primarily set who acts as mayor to its denizens and a father figure for the young children who are left to run wild as their mothers hold down jobs, most of which are low paying and some of which are illegal. The film takes a neorealist approach to the story, that is, until the end when it breaks off into a flight of fancy that left the audience with whom I saw the film in tears. This is one of the best movies ever made about childhood. Reviewed here.