Love for the near-misses
“Beach Rats,” with Harris Dickinson and Madeline Weinstein, is among 2017’s underrated films.
“Ex Libris: The New York Public Library”: Our greatest living filmmaker — never mind just documentarian — is Frederick Wiseman, so for him a subject like New York’s Public Library is about how we continue processing the world. It’s people with tools extending civilization, passing on knowledge, however they can. Humane, fascinating and beautifully resonant.
“Good Time”: This nerve-jangling New York crime movie is like a great boxer: outof-nowhere jabs, fleet, colorful, and a tad crazy. Robert Pattinson erased whatever “Twilight” crumbs were left in him, playing an ambitious low-life for indie kings the Safdie Brothers, but the whole tilt-a-whirl around him thrills too.
“Beach Rats”: Eliza Hittman followed up her acclaimed adolescent drama “It Felt Like Love” with this sensitive, attuned, emotionally suspenseful character study of a closeted Brooklyn teen (a magnetic Harris Dickinson) hiding in a pack of muscled delinquents. Universe, let Hittman make whatever she wants.
“Harmonium”: As the cracks widen in this patiently fracturing family tragedy, triggered by a mysterious stranger’s visit, Japanese director Koji Fukada turns everything into tension: meals, strolls, a getaway, a friendly chat. The stifled air of secrets, faith and hidden passion paints an unforgettable picture of domestic discontent.
“Strong Island”: Yance Ford’s reexamination of his brother’s shooting death 25 years ago outside a Long Island auto repair shop sets a high bar. Stylistically composed but bone-deep on issues of regret, injustice, race and the reclamation of a family member’s life, it’s a quietly harrowing journey.
Yes, please: Women calling the shots on movies. Movie-loving girls in cinema houses everywhere, seeing names like theirs after “Directed by,” and getting inspired.
No more: Biopic filmmakers, how about refraining from real footage of your subject over the closing credits — for the actors who worked so hard to suspend disbelief, it’s like a bubble bursting. Let their portrayals be what audiences walk away remembering.