We’ve got you covered on 2017’s best movies
This year gave us the good, the bad and the ugly, but our critic gives you the great.
This year, cinema gave us the good ( The Post), the bad (yet another Transformers disaster) and the ugly (the complete waste that was The Dark
Tower). After sitting in a darkened theater — and booting up the trusty Apple TV — throughout 2017, here’s a countdown of the films that not only were of the highest quality but also stuck in the soul. 10. Spider-Man: Homecoming
This slot came down to Hugh Jackman’s Western-tinged Wolverine swan song Logan and Tom Holland’s web-swinging, John Hughes-y delight, but the superkid won out by being real: Most of us can’t relate to having claws popping out of our hands but have freaked out over a high school date. The best stuff is when teenage Spidey’s out of the costume, juggling whether to hang with his BFF or Iron Man, and finding his archenemy way too close to home.
9. Wind River
Taylor Sheridan’s snowy crime thriller got caught up in the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and the filmmaker had to wrestle back control of his movie from the Weinstein Co. It’s too bad, because the gripping mystery deals with real-life issues on Native American reservations and features career-best work from Jer- emy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. The ending is bone-chilling, and Renner and Gil Birmingham will wrench the heart as two men powering through tragedy.
8. Mudbound
The Netflix standout is a deeply affecting look at racism in the South, centering on a pair of World War II veterans — a white pilot (Garrett Hedlund) and a black tank commander (Jason Mitchell) — who return home to Mississippi. Both deal with PTSD and prejudice and struggle with the color divide, yet they become friends, finding sorrow and hope in equal measure.
7. Lady Bird
A year in the life of a Catholic school girl (Saoirse Ronan) is a quirky and
hilarious but also surprisingly deep journey about finding one’s identity while transitioning out of childhood. Director Greta Gerwig celebrates being weird, the universality of outsiders and how hard it is to be a parent — summed up in Laurie Metcalf ’s glorious performance as a memorably opinionated mother.
6. I, Tonya
Margot Robbie is a sequined force of nature as disgraced figure-skating champ Tonya Harding in the most bonkers biopic you’ll see this side of Sid and
Nancy. The actress plays the title character from awkward backwoods teen to rebellious Olympic hopeful who wound up tapping into America’s love for celebrity trainwrecks before it was cool.
5. The Lego Batman Movie
It’s totally not The Dark Knight, and therein lies the low-key brilliance of the animated Bat-flick. Lego Batman celebrates its hero (exquisitely voiced by Will Arnett) as a macho, metal-loving bro in love with punching bad guys and saving the day, yet the movie whole- heartedly deconstructs the iconic character as a dude who can’t deal with having loved ones around.
4. Blade Runner 2049
It was an embarrassment of geek riches with new Star Wars, Alien and
Blade Runner movies, though the latter raised the bar on sci-fi cinema. 2049 took the noir storytelling and neon futuristic facade of the 1982 original and crafted an engrossing, sprawling epic that opened up the franchise’s mythology and fearlessly delved into themes of memory and revolution.
3. Get Out
It’s the most indelible movie image of 2017: tears streaming down Daniel Kaluuya’s shocked, unmoving face as his character is taken into the “Sunken Place,” a metaphor for racism and one of the most creative and stunning aspects of director Jordan Peele’s masterful first feature. Wielding biting commentary, the movie manages to be funny, disturbing and rousing all in one.
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy is full of small-town characters you wouldn’t quite consider likable: The heroine of the piece is an ornery, vengeance-focused mom (Frances McDormand) so irked by the investigation into her daughter’s murder that she firebombs the police department. As brutal as it is, Three Billboards is as much about needed redemption as it is righteous fury.
1. A Ghost Story
David Lowery’s haunting drama is one of a kind — from its View-Master perspective to Rooney Mara eating a pie in tearfully cathartic fashion to Casey Affleck wearing a white sheet for most of the movie. The wildly non-linear tale of a phantom stuck to the home he adored is a poignant examination of life and death, everlasting love and how the world moves on long after we’re gone. The movie’s 87 minutes last in your mind far beyond when the credits end.