BAM’S FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2017
‘The Shape of Water’
Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy”) makes a magical addition to his catalog of glorious grown-up fairy stories with a “Creature from the Black Lagoon” variation on “Beauty and the Beast’s” “tale as old as time.” Sally Hawkins is quietly radiant and irreverently funny as a lonely mute custodian at a secret government lab who falls in love with the formidable Amazonian Amphibian Man (an elaborately made up and costumed Doug Jones, whose wordless performance is nearly as good as hers) who is brought in as a Cold War asset.
‘Lady Bird’
Coming-of-age stories have become a go-to subgenre in contemporary cinema, but rarely has one been executed with such compelling grace as writer-director Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut, which manages to be both timelessly universal and authentically specific to its 2002 setting. Not only is Irish actress Saoirse Ronan a lock to receive her third Academy Award nomination before her 24th birthday for her finely tuned portrayal of the title character, headstrong high school senior Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, but Laurie Metcalf also deserves an Oscar nod for her turn as Lady Bird’s strong-willed and unsentimental mother, Marion. This is the first film I’ve ever seen that came close to capturing the nuances of the kind of relationship I had with my mother at that age, which is a pretty strong argument for the need to have more women writing and directing movies.
‘Wonder Woman’
More than 75 years after the fearless Amazon princess made her bow in DC Comics, Wonder Woman finally made it onto movie screens in her own feature film this year. Nine years after Marvel Studios’ “Iron Man” ushered in the current golden age of comic-book movies, “Wonder Woman” became the first to showcase a female lead, and it was an immediate critical and commercial smash. Thanks to Gal Gadot’s truly wonderful breakout performance and Patty Jenkins’ vibrant direction, “Wonder Woman” was more than worth the too-long wait.
‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’
Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s latest darkly comedic crime drama boasts many of the hallmarks of the English-Irish playwright and filmmaker’s previous work: Razor-honed and often profane dialogue, sudden and staggering eruptions of violence and a strange set-up punctuated with dramatic plot twists. But this time, the Oscarnominated screenwriter has grounded his fantastical story in emotional reality, and superb performances by Frances McDormand as a single mother angrily mourning the murder of her daughter and Sam Rockwell as the hot-tempered small-town cop who is supposed to be investigating the horrific case bring his damaged but relatable characters roaring to messy, unpredictable life.
‘The Breadwinner’
After co-directing the fantastical Oscar-nominated animated epic “The Secret of Kells,” Nora Twomey, co-founder of the overachieving Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, marks her solo feature film directorial debut with her sobering yet stirring adaptation of Deborah Ellis’ best-selling children’s novel, which is set in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2001, as the city has fallen under oppressive Taliban rule. The gorgeously rendered film follows the bright and spirited Parvana (Saara Chaudry), an 11-year-old girl who disguises herself as a boy so she can provide for her mother, older sister and baby brother after her father is unjustly sent to prison.