Best (and worst) international and US films of 2017

I'd rate 2017 pretty high on good films--even from Hollywood.   I might note that some of the films I actively despised came from the intellectual indie side this year, as opposed to the usual commercial   box office silliness.

So, if you prefer wise, moving, thoughtful, surprising cinema, you may find these worthwhile.   Ranked in my order of preference:

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri--an examination of justice gained, justice lost, and justice deferred that never stops and ultimately takes on biblical proportions--fire and rain pour down.   In the end, Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell take to the road--how else can a morality tale end--with the line "we'll figure it out as we go."  Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) cannot be missed.  
2. Glory--a truly radical film from Bulgaria, where the women sweat through their new western business suits, and graft and organized crime are the only competing ideologies.   The ending of this film will leave you speechless--as an allegory and as a story of personal relationships.  One honest working-class man--Tsanko (whose speech impediment characterizes the loss of common ground all western nations now face)--finds cash on a rail line and reports it to the Ministry of Transportation, which turns the gesture into a media maelstrom.   No one notices that Tsanko has lost his watch (a Russian "Glory" from his father), his pants,  and perhaps even his pet rabbits.  His nemesis is Julia, the PR maestro who ignores real people (both Tsanko and her saintly husband who even holds the EU flag around her as she tries to administer fertility shots while at work).  By the time she realizes the damage she's promoted, it's too late.  WAY too late...perhaps for all of us democratic fools. 
3. The Square--the movie headlines Elizabeth Moss and Dominic West, who are fun, but the movie belongs to the Swedish cast (Claes Bang devours the role of intellectual cad) and Ruben Ostlund, the director who also did Force Majeure, my top-rated film of 2014.   Ostlund is quoted as saying "the social contract is dead," and he uses an elite art museum to shred the idea that we progressives actually care about any one other than ourselves.   Hopefully you won't see too much of yourself in this film, which won this year's top prize at Cannes...Palme d'Or for the Swedes!
4. Lucky--full frontal aging, and atheism, from Harry Dean Stanton.   Realism...it's a thing, right?   Truth.  It's a thing, right?  Also a great bit from David Lynch...about a lost 100 year old tortoise.   You really really really want his pet to return.   Gorgeous and RIP Stanton.
5. Get Out--borrows beautifully and gleefully from Tarantino, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and everything in between, to create a completely original vision of the horror of race relations in the US.   Things are so bad that white people are once again auctioning off black people, but this time to get strength, artistic skills, or just the patina of hipness.   As usual there's a lot of money involved so things really get out of control when one black victim stuffs his ears so he can stop listening to the hypnotic bullshit.   Funny, terrifying, and true--and the best movie on race since Django.   Thank you, Jordan Peele!
6. After the Storm--the Japanese director ‎Hirokazu Kore-eda's next film is The Shoplifters, which gets nominated for Best Foreign Picture and loses to Roma.   So go back and watch this one if you haven't seen it...it may be even better and won more awards at Cannes after it was released in Japan.  Typhoon 24 is descending on Japan, but that doesn't stop a very tall failed novelist from losing all his money at the track, shaking down high school students, and lying to his mother, ex-wife, son, and coworkers.   If you missed the reference, take a look at how you spend your days.   Joke's on us I guess.  
7. The Insult--if the acting wasn't so wonderful, this film might be depressing.   It paints a contractor's dispute as insoluble.   Then, it shows how many resources it takes just to keep the small incident from escalating.   Then it draws parallels with politics and political leaders who have no aptitude for, and a strong penchant against, reconciliation.  But then, like magic, two enemies recognize each other (all it takes is some fake "Bosh" or Liebherr products from China), generosity is extended, and some order is restored.   Sadly, only in this one neighborhood.   It's clear we're still screwed on the global level.
8. Wind River--wonderful Jeremy Renner as a Fish and Game tracker.   Authentic Wyoming, for a change.   Native American teen girls running for 6 miles in the high plains tundra.   Oil field trash that's really trash.   A perfect redemption film with a solid love story that proves that it's best not to underestimate the FBI...Elizabeth Olsen may not have the right clothes for a snowmobile ride, but she knows how to get the job done.
9. The Big Sick--as pure a love story as you can get, with a careful and thoughtful overlay of the fact that we live in the most racist country on the planet.  
10. Shape of Water--I could watch Michael Shannon all day being a man in a grey flannel suit...he's soooo bad.   But even he can't put a dent in a grown-up ET story.   Love and understanding will win.   I'm sorry if I find that message wildly appealing in these dark Trump days.
11. Columbus--two young people stuck in time (she because of an at-risk mom, and him because of a slowly dying dad) develop a friendship around the weird preponderance of modernist architecture in Columbus, Indiana.   Do the buildings heal, or welcome, or bridge?  Perhaps not, but the point is how hard it is for human relations to accomplish the same healthy goals.  Every word and truth is fought for, beautifully, in this Sundance-supported beauty.
12. The Party--one of my favorite film genres is "the worst family dinner of all time."   Celebration probably still tops that list, but The Party certainly deserves honorable mention.   This is a chamber drama in league with Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf or even Cat on a Hot Tin Roof--replete with a handgun that stays loaded for each new revelation.   It's also 71 minutes of acting fun, with Patricia Clarkson stealing the show ("parliamentary decisions can take so long so in this case I think murder is justified").   Timothy Spall and Bruno Ganz are perhaps a tad miscast as, respectively, a cancer-riddled drunk leading man, and a meditative healer--but still super fun to watch.   Kristin Scott Thomas gets victimized by her own good politics in more ways than you can anticipate.   Even Cherry Jones and Emily Mortimer contribute as a self-absorbed and somewhat silly lesbian couple.  But don't miss a word of Clarkson's one-liners!
13. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (Hymyileva Mies)--Juho Kuosmonen, the Finnish director, is, like 28 or something.   I have no idea how he has such a perfect eye for the fashion or gesture of 1962, but he does.   Olli Maki has a shot at the World Featherweight boxing title, but it's at the wrong time (he's in love), the wrong weight (he has to lose 10+ pounds in a month to meet the classification, with perhaps the wrong coach (who may be more interested in protecting his own reputation), and against the wrong opponent (the first Davey Moore, who so sadly would die after a defense fight barely a year later).   Film addicts note:   the last line asks "will we ever be as happy as them?" referring to an passing elderly couple.   Watch the credits--the couple is played by the real Olli Maki and his wife.
14. Rosita--A rent-a-wife program for lonely Danish widowers goes wrong when the son falls in love with the Filipina import.  It doesn't help as the community takes it for granted that it's all about sex.  Rosita has to weigh community, stability, attraction, pop music preferences, and more to find the moral high ground--and to get her own son back.   The men, of course, don't speak the emotional language, so all they can do is red card each other in one-on-one soccer confrontations--OK, that part of the film is a bit too familiar.   Otherwise, a great piece of work.
15. A Ghost Story--Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara have enough star power to get this freaky indie film into mainstream distribution.  I wonder what those audiences think?  The folks who showed up for Swayze in Ghost years ago must be really confused by the pioneer slaying, the futuristic office construction, and the hard truth that, when you die, the others in your life have no honest choice other than to move on.   You can wait, as the hospital-sheet covered specter in this film does, until the entire cycle of time repeats itself, and the only person you'll see is your ghostly self.  
16. Other Side of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen)--you couldn't tell this story this way in any media other than cinema.   Completely fanciful and straight-faced staging of intersection of separated Finnish salesman who buys an empty restaurant and ends up adapting the outcasts there along with a Syrian refugee.   The result is the most clear-end picture of the international and European refugee crisis available.   There's a tarted-up immigration hearing scene where the Finns come off very poorly; they determine that, since Aleppo is so large, the dozens of people killed daily by ISIS and others are not statistically significant enough to represent a threat of harm.   Ouch.  Great double feature with The Square--both are about looking the other way the people around us are literally being murdered.  
17. Jane--100 hours of lost video taken by Jane Goodall's husband during 1957-60 were refound by National Geographic in 2014.   This is the result, and they capture the bizarre juxtaposition of Jane's beauty with her attempts to join the chimpanzee community, led by Flo, who would make her famous.  This is some of the best nature photography in history, and it captures the first recorded use of a tool by a non-homo sapien, the violent put-down of a community that tries to split off, a polio outbreak among the chimps perhaps worsened by the community around Jane--and also her personal romance and family story (every one of us should wish for a mother like Jane's).
18. Logan Lucky--Channing Tatum and Adam Driver are so dumb they really are dumb, but, fueled on gummy bears and a complete faith in one another (well, partial faith), they rob the bad rich guys at the NASCAR Coca Cola 600.   Even they can't believe they pull it off, and in fact the last quadruple cross shows that there's more long game here than any viewer could imagine.
19. Loving Vincent--a thousand artists animated the Van Gogh, and the images are pulled together into what becomes a convincing analysis of what may have happened in this difficult and sad life.   Surprisingly thoughtful...and not just beautiful...in every moment.
20. Godless--Gana nurses dementia patients in Bulgaria--and steals their ID cards so she and her boyfriend can sell them to the local gangsters.  By which I mean the cops, the politicians--everyone.  Eventually, her patients begin to be destroyed as their identities are tied to crimes, and she recants. Trying to be ethical in a corrupt world is suicide.  Literally.  In a cave. 
21. Molly's Game--this one wins simply by sticking to the story and close impersonation of a very unusual original, the real Molly Bloom.   Apparently Gambler X is Tobey Maquire, which would certainly suggest that we all could avoid his films in the future...not a big sacrifice for me.  The moral of this story seems to be that if you have Kevin Costner as a never-good-enough dad, you'll be ready for anything the world throws at you--including a federal indictment.  I don't believe that moral for a second, but I really enjoyed watching the film play out!
22. Women Who Kill--two women break up, but continue their podcast (not their radio show!) on women serial killers.   One of the couple falls head over heels for a new girl--but then begins to see all the traits of the top 5 women murders in every cute action.   Soon, she's stalking her new love with the assistance of her ex.   It's not a good combo.   If you believe you're relationship-phobic, see this movie.   You'll realize you're not that bad...unless, for instance, you've got ex-lovers buried in your rooftop garden in Brooklyn.   
23. Truman--Ricardo Darin (Paul Newman-handsome and the star of must-see Argentine films like XXY, The Aura, and Nine Queens) and Javier Camera (most famous for disappearing into the fantasy vagina in Almodar's Talk to Her) have been friends forever, but Julian (Darin) is dying of lung cancer.   Tomas (Camera) arrives in Madrid for a four-day surprise visit from Montreal, initially full of judgment about what Julian should be doing.   But as they meet Julian's cousin, and son, and doctor--always accompanied by Truman the dog--Tomas learns that caring means being there--and not judging.   Joins a handful of honest films that face our biggest issue--death--with truth rather than romance (Away from Her, The Barbarian Invasions, and this year's Lucky are the other top films that come to mind).  Released in Spain in 2015 but not in the US until April 2017.
    
24. Maudie--worth it for Sally Hawkings (also on this list for Shape of Water) and Ethan Hawke, two actors who can deliver text, struggle with each syllable, and then make wonderful art with it.   And then the world falls in love with the art, and buys it for $5--Canadian no less.  Beautiful story of courage and hope and redemptive art...if that list doesn't make the film sound like a cliche.   It isn't.   See it!
25. Guardians of the Galaxy II--why put this on the list of top films for the year?   Certainly not for the close text analysis of the lyrics to "Brandy" by Looking Glass.  But because I think this franchise, led by Bradley Cooper's raccoon, is as close to Marvel formula perfection as any one will ever get.   Innocent family relationships, a huge dose of irony, and comic book graphics.   Everything else Marvel does (which is far too much at the moment) will be secondary.
26. Pitch Perfect 3--if you sing well enough, you can blow up yachts owned by Jon Lithgow!   And the Bellas do...again and again.  This is just a great franchise...thanks for all the good songs and fun.
27. The Florida Project--the negative with this gorgeous film is realizing that our future will be in the hands of the children of our unemployed, which may be our largest demographic.   So look forward to a future of bigoted, destructive, feral adults.   Hey, guess what?   That's what the US already is.   Bigoted, destructive, feral.
28. Winter Brothers--a Danish film that puts the art back in film. Half the film occurs in the black and white world of a mine, much of it involves hopeless fantasies of sex with a non-existent partner, and the best way to survive involves stealing industrial chemicals for toxic distilling. The central character eventually gets fired from his job, but should he just keep showing up? Best naked wrestling scene ever. And the "British" infantry training videos take fantasy to a new level.
29. Kedi--come to see this movie for Istanbul's sweet cats, but stay for the endearing folk who care for them.   Humans and cats come off very well here, which is refreshing and a good reminder during these dark days where lowlife is transcendent.   Meow.
30. Sami Blood--the Swedish-Danish-Norwegian co-production Sami Blood follows a teenage Sami girl in the 1930s who is sent to a state school, where indigenous students are converted into acceptable members of Swedish society. She buys the deal--but of course her family won't let her go, and the "real Swedes" will never accept her. Winner of the 2017 Lux Prize and nominated for the 2017 Nordic Council Film Prize.
31.  A Fantastic Woman--winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar, this is a defining film for transsexual grace and beauty.   While I preferred The Insult, Glory, or The Square as prizewinner, this is haunting.   Did people vote for it because they were subliminally excited by the topic?   Or because all things trans get the current gold star?   Probably both, but it's also a first class portrait.   The negative is that every one other than the central character behaves so poorly that you prefer not to spend any time with them.   The family of the departed is despicable.   The health officials assigned to protect the citizens harass them instead.   The stereotypes every one holds are laughable.  Fortunately, the camera barely leaves the heroine, who deserves our full gaze.  

Films I enjoyed that didn't make the top (or bottom) ranking

• Star Wars The Last Jedi--cutest animals in the series, even if they're just CGI puffins.  And yet another visit with all the Joseph Campbell cliches.   And some great graphics, led by white sand desert that turns red after footsteps.   But after all the sturm and drang, the story line has moved forward an inch.
• Fate of the Furious
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer--being a whacked out kid is compelling, but not quite enough by itself to get this into the top list.   Great acting...
• Lady Bird--Greta Gerwig is always fun, but I spent the whole film watching her younger proxy here, and unlike Francis Ha Ha, worrying that perhaps the Gerwigian story material has been exhausted.   
• The Sacrificial Lamb (Nigeria)
• The Meyerowitz Stories--not great, though Dustin Hoffman's Harold Meyerowitz is a classic study in a self-absorbed authoritarian father, and his three offspring are wonderful victims.   Worth watching, though Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney did this film much better in The Savages.
• The Ballad of Lefty Brown--doesn't do much for the stereotypes of the old Western, even if the sidekick has to take charge.   But Bill Pullman and most of the cast really make the most out of the tropes...we should all be so lucky to pull our own necks out of the noose so many times.
• I, Tonya--fun, but I already knew professional skating was a sexist disaster.   Still, seeing a mother stick a knife in the arm of her daughter at 10 paces catches you by the throat...
• Blade Runner 2049--Denis Villeneuve is one of the five greatest directors living, and this is his worst film.  He obviously enjoyed working with Ryan Gosling...fun to watch but all this does is answer the critics of the supposedly classic original:   no, that film didn't make any sense, either.  
• Jumanji
• 20th Century Women--It's 1979, Talking Heads are just releasing their first art fag music, and three Santa Barbara woman combine to try to teach a man and a teenager how to be feminists. The two guys (Billy Crudup and an amazing Lucas Jade Zumann) steal the show. Rotten Tomatoes ranked this movie very high, though critics have noted that it's disjointed and perhaps the whole conceit shows too many seams.   But high emotion and a lot of truth in between.   Technically this movie was released in 2016 but it never opened anywhere until late January.   How can you go wrong with this cast, all of whom draw your attention whenever they're on camera. 
• Young Karl Marx--I think we're getting a number of films that circle the topic of Utopia.   Black Panther is another that opened in the US the same week as this film.   In this case, Karl and Friedrich (Engels), along with their sparky gals, commandeer the workers' movement to create the Communist union.   Power to the proletariat.   Who wouldn't take this bohemian tour of Berlin, Paris, Brussels, and Manchester over Trump, MeToo and stupid Washington DC?   You can get your laundry done easier now...but that's the only good thing.
• The Meyorwitz Stories--Stiller, Hoffman, Sandler--some family huh?

Worst films of the year

1. A Quiet Passion--The film opens with a vision of 1840's Mt Holyoke College as an opt-out nunnery and then continues to get less and less accurate but equally as boring.   I believe the only research any one did for this Emily Dickinson biopic was to see a high school production of The Belle of Amherst.  Which is a shame because if there ever was a time when the world could use to be (re)introduced to one of the great philosophical wordsmiths, it's when we have President Trump who can't talk.  Dickinson was a beautiful voice from the utopian spirit of the middle 19th century--but that's not what we get here.   We get Cynthia Nixon imitating electro-shock therapy, caught between the anodes of abolitionism and atheism.   When Dickinson wrote "I am a nobody," one of the lsat things on her mind was children's doggerel.   And when she wrote "Because I could not wait for death," she wasn't standing in a funeral procession.   Don't degrade her intellect by implying these things.  Wow, did THIS film miss the mark.   Painful and embarrassing.
2. Mother!--yet another Hollywood exploration of how cool it is that older men, particularly if they have artistic pretentions, can fuck younger women.   The guy in this movie, played by Javier Bardem, is a prime example for the older guy who gets exactly what he wants, sulks when believes there's the slightest chance that he won't, lies at other times, and then just goes ahead as planned.  I can't believe Jennifer Lawrence and Bardem fell for this...what's the director's name?   Dan somebody?   Darren Arenofsky?   Mr. "Oh, I wrote this in five days?"  He's a complete fraud.   Dan--maybe consider investing a sixth day next time?   
3. Wilson--good news; word got out about how bad this film was, and no one went.   It bombed.  The New York Times review of Wilson ended with the sentence "the best you can manage is to feel sorry for it."   Indeed.   None of the actors have lines that coincide with their roles.   Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern in particular.   One moment they're cute as pets, and the next moment they're beating the shit out of family members and strangers.  Who wrote this crap?
4. Personal Shopper--this is in the category of a film that's so generally bad that it never gets anywhere near being good.   One friend commented "perhaps if there was more shopping the film might have been better."   Good point--a few of the expensive outfits were attractive.   But how does that fit with the stalker murder mystery that might be an occult visitation story line?   Or is this just intended to be a how-to film for buyers of deserted homes around Paris?   Or maybe the goal of the film was to capture the absolute longest single shot exposure to a text message exchange in cinematic history?   "Are you scared?  "I'm scared."   Please, I don't know who Kristen Stewart is but films like this won't help her career (the biggest budget item in the film was the cost of replacing dropped drinking glasses).   She should consider something with professional directors and screenwriters.   Great moped, and the black dress was handsome.  But certainly not anywhere near sufficient to make Lewis come back from the dead.
5. Happy End--Isabel Huppert needs to do a comedy where she's not the insane one.   Enough already.
6. Phantom Thread--Paul Thomas Anderson stole Daniel Day Lewis from us and stuck him in silly movies about inconsequential characters.   DDL has announced he's retired, so I guess we're never going to get him back after this felony.

2017 films I haven't seen yet, or plan to skip

• Beauty and the Beast
• 50 Shades Darker--don't miss the climax, as they say...oops, I did.
• John Wick 2--Keanu Reeves...
• Logan
• Lost in Paris
• The Disaster Artist
• Graduation--Romanian morality tale about cheating on exam
• Landline
• Summer 1993
• Last Flag Flying
• Loveless--Russian film suggesting cultural bankruptcy