Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Written by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson
IMDb Link
With no resolution to her daughter's murder case in sight, Mildred (McDormand) challenges the police department by renting three billboards that depict simple descriptions and a single question, in an effort to publicise her daughter's case and see justice served.
The movie plays with the idea of justice, however, juxtaposing strong idealism with just as strong emotion that sways it, showing a strong understanding of how much our emotions of anger and hatred conflict with those of calm and love. On its own, that might sound a little cheesy, but the film frames it so naturally, simply showing the cause and effect of these emotionally-fuelled actions in order to prove its point, building investment in such comprehensively fleshed out characters so that we can move through the emotional spectrum with them, understanding their actions as they are taken but feeling catharsis when we see them learn and grow.
Martin McDonagh's writing is expected to be excellent at this point, but in Three Billboards it is positively masterful. He combines his usual sharp wit with soul-crushing realism, scant moments where characters stop being clever to remind you that they are people, or at least that they're learning to be complete human beings. This is the greatest strength in McDonagh's writing in this film: not the clever jokes and deftly hurled insults, although they are amazing, but in the sheer detail he injects in to his characters to make them feel real, a broken person trying to keep themselves together, antagonistic banter broken up by heavy realisations, people characterised initially by their terrible actions becoming more empathetic than other films actual protagonists. This extends to the side characters as well, who are given enough flavour to feel like the real people you see from time to time but never really know well, dealing with their own lives as a reminder of how the world continues to move around these events.
All of this is presented excellently by the powerful performances of the cast. Frances McDormand is brutally honest as the mother whose actions are her way of crying because all she wants is her daughter back. The rare moments where she stops being hard and rude to everyone around her are tempered with a dissolution of the facade, and we see the loss beneath. McDormand is absolutely immersed in the role, every second on screen she embodies Mildred as she is in that moment. Likewise, Harrelson is the perfect counter to her, calm and fatherly to the community, caring but never emotionally loud; even his attempts to be angry at another officer over his dinner being interrupted feel feigned, as all he really wants is to show care to the people around him. On the other side there's also Rockwell, running perfectly parallel to McDormand, you feel his every emotion and you see how he sees himself compared to how we see him, and how the emotion that clouds his judgement slowly recedes. It's all made real by Rockwell.
The Short Version: Three Billboards is a powerhouse of acting and writing, filled with charged moments and electrifying dialogue that meaningfully contrasts the funny with the depressing and the absurd with the realistic. This is a fantastic way to start off the year.
Rating: 9/10
Published January 1st, 2018
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Friday, 29 December 2017
2017: The 10 Worst of the 366
I didn't watch that many bad movies this year; of the 368 watched, only 66 of them had a rating lower than a 5/10. I also don't like to dwell on bad films too much; trying to write a series of reviews of the worst films I've ever seen ended up just being unnecessarily draining. So, I've consolidated the worst of 2017 and the worst of the rest in to one list of sheer awfulness.
*These films are in no particular order.
Not Cool (2014)
Some college
students come home for Thanksgiving and we see a pair of relationships develop
and diminish. A movie made by YouTube vlogger Shane Dawson, Not Cool is loud, edgy, and offensive,
and it tries so hard to be. The film is an assault on the senses, as any
potential comedic moment is immediately escalated to its most extreme
possibility: a character making a crack about switching lives with a homeless
man is immediately responded with a plain-faced statement that the homeless man
eats his own faeces. A girl excited to see her boyfriend takes literal seconds
to turn in to an awkward glory hole blowjob scene with lots of yelling and
crying. It’s a constant bombardment of shock humour that ends up working
against itself and numbing you to anything the film tries to do. To make the
viewing that much worse, the film tries to have it both ways by including poor
attempts at melodramatic relationship drama, that may have been a comedic
attempt, but fails like everything else in the movie to evoke anything other
than sheer disgust. The film’s only redeeming factor is Cherami Leigh as one of
the main characters, whose calibre of acting is noticeably better than everyone
else in the movie, and makes the scenes she is included in almost bearable.
Jason is
resurrected for the fourth time to lumber around a boat for an hour before
stopping off in Manhattan for a few minutes, killing a dozen or so teenagers
along the way. All of the Friday the 13th
moves are varying levels of bad, but Jason
Takes Manhattan is by far and away without a shadow of a doubt the worst of
the bunch. Every single scene comes across as lazily forced through, no actor
emotes, no plot thread is given meaning, and no attempt is made to contribute
to the series’ weird and inconsistent lore or its horror icon Jason. It’s just
awful exploitation without even the decency to be creative like the previous
two in the series or the two that follow. I will, however, say one thing in its
favour: Axing someone with a guitar is a clever flourish that redeems the movie
for a solid ten seconds.
Fred: The Movie (2010)
The original
YouTuber movie, Fred is a feature
length story about an internet caricature, so it’s essentially a poorly-written
joke for children stretched out over about eighty minutes. It isn’t outright
offensive like Not Cool, but it’s
incessantly annoying, goes nowhere, and even doubles back on the one character
arc it actually set up. The plot is just mentally disturbed Fred going on a
journey to the home of the girl he obsesses over. It’s played like a comedy,
but the root of the story sounds like some paranoid thriller along the lines of
When a Stranger Calls. There’s
nothing to this movie and nothing likable here, save for the concept of John
Cena as Fred’s imagined father, who comes along to offer life lessons and
perform wrestling moves.
The Emoji Movie (2017)
It’s not
just that this is a cynical, soul-sucking advertisement masquerading as a
movie, it’s also that it isn’t even trying to be better than that. The movies
that The Emoji Movie blatantly rips
off, such as The LEGO Movie and Wreck-It Ralph get away with being
blatant advertisements because they also have the decency to layer a well-made
movie on top of it; the movies are good in spite of the built-in and hackneyed
nostalgia-driven product placement, not because of it. The Emoji Movie has a mostly meaningless and otherwise tonally and
thematically inconsistent script, lazy if pretty animation, and a cast that
seems to want people to forget that they are talented. I felt physically ill by
the end of my experience with the film, a trip on nobody’s nostalgia that uses
references several years out of date and without any heart or soul to it that
suggests the people making it at all cared about what they were inflicting upon
the world.
Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (2002)
There are
thankfully precious few action films as bad as Ballistic: Eck vs Sever. The movie has a super spy Ecks out of the
job after the death of his wife go after another super spy Sever when he finds
out that his wife is actually alive and in danger from Sever. It also turns out
that Ecks’ best friend is the man who faked Eck’s wife’s death and at the same
time faked Eck’s death so that he could be with Eck’s wife, and it is revealed
that she was pregnant at the time of their dual fake deaths and has been
raising Eck’s son in secret, and that Eck’s best friend has injected the kid
with nano-machines will stop his heart. Sever’s involved because she kidnapped
Eck’s son and is trying to reveal the evil truth about Eck’s best friend. It’s
an incredibly convoluted plot that feels like the action movie equivalent of a
bad soap opera, with everyone and their mother faking their deaths and lying to
each other. It’s made that much worse by some of the worst editing I have seen
in a film all year, as the film doubles back on several pieces of the film, revealing
Eck’s wife to be alive by stating a different woman’s name, then having Ecks
later be surprised by the alias of his wife, revealing and re-revealing the
unnecessary twists in the story, and cutting between scenes in some of the most
jarring ways that it all adds up to a hilariously awful experience played to a
soundtrack of grunge and Matrix-style
synth.
Tooken (2015)
A friend
jokingly lent me a copy of this, undoubtedly in the hopes that it would one day
ruin my evening. One night, I guess my curiosity and self-hatred got the better
of me. Admittedly, I laughed a total of three times, which is more than I can
say for some of the other ‘comedies’ on this list, but it’s otherwise an
aggressively unfunny attempt to spoof the Taken
series that goes nowhere and tries so hard to be funny that it never stops to
see that it was never funny in the first place.
The Amazing Bulk (2012)
This is an actual scene from the movie. Enough
said.
Baby Geniuses (1999)
A movie
about babies that is often completely inappropriate for babies. I wish I could
say the plot is in the title, but there are so many additional unnecessary plot
details that just leave you questioning your very existence as you watch the
film: babies are supposedly geniuses until the age of two, and this genius is
exploited by an evil corporation to sell baby toys, while a pair of twin
super-powered geniuses get swapped and lead to a revolution of babies against
the corporation. I wish it were some obnoxiously self-aware comedy, but Baby Geniuses is horrible from beginning
to end; tone deaf comedy that combines a myriad of poorly executed poop and pee
jokes with far too many jokes about babies imitating adults. On top of a lot of
bad ideas that should have never made it past the writing stage, it’s all
executed with the most awful of effects to makes the babies look as if they are
talking.
Smosh: The Movie (2015)
I don’t know
how I did it, but this year I somehow managed to watch three movies based on
YouTube sensations. This movie isn’t as outright offensively unfunny as Not Cool, but it doesn’t have John Cena
physically abusing the ire-worthy main character. It’s also incredibly niche;
rather than edgy or scream-y humour, Smosh:
The Movie tries to get laughs by utilising other YouTubers for an easy reference
in weird and strangely specific ways. The people from Smosh try to get a video
removed from the internet by going in to the internet, encounter a bunch of
YouTube names and somehow also change time when they change the video, rather
than removing it. It’s so bizarre and nonsensical that I almost recommend this
one for the spectacle of weirdness that it is, but I found only one joke funny
in the entire film, and it was literally the last joke.
The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)
I almost
forgot about this movie, and really wish I had. This is an attempt to create a
movie franchise out of a card series that was originally a gross parody of the
Cabbage Patch Kids cards. It’s also a gumbo of random gross-out and feel-good
ideas that don’t mix in any way, with an 80s aesthetic so exaggerated Kung Fury is making fun of it. The film
is in the same category as Baby Geniuses,
where the concept of the movie seems designed for kids but there’s a hefty
amount of mature humour that clashes with the childish stylings. This is
worsened by what is easily one of the shallowest attempts to moralise at the
end of a film to give it some sort of lesson.
Honourable Mentions
Vampires Suck (2010)
Collateral Beauty (2016)
Published December 30th, 2017
2017: My 10 Favourites of the Rest of the 366
Just like with my list of favourites of 2017, this list represents the films that appealed to me the most on a personal level. It's a lot of comedies and work from my favourite directors that I hadn't got around to yet.
*These moves are in no particular order
*These moves are in no particular order
Evil Dead II (1987)
Sam Raimi is
a master of combining horror with comedy. One minute you’re laughing youre head
off, the next you’re trying to keep your lunch down. While I think he perfected
this combination in Drag Me to Hell,
it was a blast to see him figure out the balance over the course of the Evil Dead trilogy, and Evil Dead II is my favourite of the
three, mainly because I think it strikes the balance most closely to perfect as
Drag Me to Hell did. This was
absolute cheese, from the horrifying smiling deadites to the absolutely
hilarious scene of Ash fighting his own demon-possessed hand while it’s still
attached to him, all the way up to the all-important moment where Ash gears up
and drops his iconic “Groovy” for the first time.
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
This is such
an incredibly smart and stupid film, blatant in its silliness as it cleverly
satirises rock band documentaries. It’s simple in its goals, and it executes
them near-perfectly, getting a laugh out of me just about every minute.
Duck Soup (1933)
“Will you
marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.” Duck Soup is some of the most sublime
comedy I’ve ever seen, running at a mile a minute and never stopping to let the
audience breathe. Joke after gag after pun, the film takes any singular set up
and gives it a Marx Brothers spin, from simple joy in clever pranks to lightly
scathing social satire. The film rarely worries about the impact of any one
joke because it’s always making new ones, and the few times it sticks to a joke
it’s because the joke is solid gold.
Some Like it Hot (1959)
This is one
of the funniest movies I have ever seen. The comedic timing of this film is
absolutely perfect, starting slow and then escalating each scene as they slip
so seamlessly from build-up to punch-line. The set-up is gold: two musicians
have to get out of town after witnessing a mob hit so they disguise themselves
as women and join an all-women travelling band. It’s as silly as it sounds, and
almost never failed to get a laugh out of me. The dialogue is fast and clever,
dropping punch-lines to long set-ups so nonchalantly you could blink and miss
them, happy to continue dazzling with its fantastic dialogue and equally
tremendous performances, particularly from Jack Lemmon. A side note: White Chicks copied this movie beat for
beat and I never knew it until now.
Boy (2010)
Taika
Waititi is one of the best directors working today. He has this great sense of
humour, a straightforward, slightly glum but uplifting body of work, and seems
to specialise in either making something ridiculous relatable or exploring with
a silly grin what we are capable of. Boy leans
towards the latter, as we are witness to a lovely yet sobering story of a young
boy living in a New Zealand country town whose father suddenly returns home
after a number of years. It’s heartbreaking to see the child comes to terms
with the fact that his father is not the hero he built up in his head, and just
as moving as we see the father broken down and finally admit to his mistakes so
that the family can all learn to grow and work together.
The Invisible Man (1933)
Classic
horror is downright campy and I love it for it. With this in mind, it was hard
to choose between this and House on
Haunted Hill, but The Invisible Man
won out for the maniacal performance from Claude Rains as the Invisible Man.
The film is filled with what people used to find scary, and standing from my
own position I found it absolutely charming in how dramatic yet tame it was by
today’s standards.
Time Bandits (1981)
This movie
is about a history-loving child who falls in with a group of time-travelling
little people; that is literally the best idea for a story I’ve ever heard.
This film is hilarious and whimsical, an adventure yarn with a slant for a
younger audience that is a delight from start to finish. It’s got a lot of
heart, with important character growth and some clever metaphor to boot, with
an appearance from all of the surviving members of Monty Python; what’s not to love?
Colossal (2016)
Colossal combines some considerably
uncomfortable gaslighting with a unique use of Kaiju and superb performances
from its leads for an undoubtedly novel experience. The film uses its strange
gimmick to considerable effect, finding ways to justify its existence while
searching for meaning beyond the personal story of the main character.
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
John
Carpenter has been one of my favourite directors since I watched They Live a few years ago. The man has a
complete lack of subtlety that is layered in its own way, and his early work
pushed the envelope on what you could get away with showing people, something
that Assault on Precinct 13 is a
prime example of. Even now, 41 years after its initial release, I was not
prepared for and completely shocked when a character in the film mercilessly
gunned down a little girl going for ice cream. Films simply don’t do that, even
now and especially not then, and Carpenter knew it. This film starts slows and
then turns in to tight tension fuelled by morally grey action and builds to a
blatant but considering the context fair
questioning of how we position people in society.
Superman (1978)
Superman is
the ultimate superhero, and this movie is a love letter to everything that
makes Superman who he is. This film knows the idea of a man who so strongly
believes in the good things like ‘truth, justice, and the American way’ is
incredibly corny, so they contrast it with a more cynical world and audience
stand-in with Lois, who scoffs at this ideal and the way Superman upholds it
despite the fact that so many others have discarded it. Superman is a wonderful showcasing of what makes the iconic
superhero great, and it left me grinning ear to ear every time the guy did
basically anything, because the film puts so much emphasis on the fact that
Superman is a hero by virtue of the fact that he does heroic things for no
other reason than that they need doing.
Published December 30th, 2017
Published December 30th, 2017
2017: The 10 Best of the Rest of the 366
In 2017, my goal was to match my original goal of watching 366 films that I've never seen before (at this point, I've overshot my mark and watched 368, but more film is always better). Many of the films that I watched are considered among the greatest of all time, and deserve some sort of recognition as such.
*These films are in no particular order
*These films are in no particular order
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
A man and
his son go in search of a lost bicycle: to say that this is the plot of Bicycle Thieves is both true and a
massive oversimplification. The film is an emotionally breaking piece of human
conflict that shows how important things become when we have nothing, how far
we are driven when we are desperate, and how cold and uncaring the world is when
we need it the most. It is at once a reflection of post-World War II Italy, the
way life and society were re-shaped in the wake of such brutality, and an
experience so universally sympathetic that its ending will haunt even the
coldest heart. It is also one of the best crafted films I have seen this year;
shots emphasise the emotional and societal positions of its characters, or
subtly stress the importance of particular movements or objects, and all in aid
of reinforcing the film’s incredibly poignant message. It’s not just a movie
with ubiquitous themes, it expresses them in the most efficient and effective
ways possible.
After Hours (1985)
If you’ve
ever had social anxiety or paranoia, especially if it borders on agoraphobia,
then I have the movie that will confirm all your fears and make you never want
to leave the house or interact with another person again. After Hours is a black comedy about Paul Hackett, a word processor
who becomes mildly bored with his life one night and calls up a girl he met earlier
that evening to hang out. From there, absolutely everything that could go wrong
does, and everything that you couldn’t even account for manages to go wrong
too. This is one of the funniest, most anxiety-inducing movies ever made,
always keeping you just enough off-kilter to make you uncomfortable and never
sure whether to laugh or yell in frustration, so cleverly fatalistic in its
writing and packing one of the greatest movie endings of all time.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
This is the
best film that I may never watch again. Sergio Leone’s final film is a
sprawling story set over the life of a gangster in New York. The film is
meticulously crafted and brilliantly acted, telling a series of vignettes that
blend in to one another perfectly and create an incredibly comprehensive
overview of the existence of one character. It’s also almost four hours long.
This may be one of the greatest films I have ever seen, but I’d have to plan my
life around seeing it again… I’ll probably watch it again.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
I have now
seen the reasons that
this I considered one of the greatest musicals of all
time. A musical about the changing times and back-stabbing in Hollywood, the
film is ire disguised by delight, and crafted so perfectly. The film is filled
to the brim with incredible numbers that are so meticulously choreographed and
so thoroughly detailed that it’s worth watching the movie them alone. Combine
that with clever and deceptively cynical dialogue, as well as Meta commentary
about the cutthroat nature of the whole industry, and you have one of the
greatest films about Hollywood ever made. As an aside: Gene Kelly is perfect.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Here’s the
other greatest film about Hollywood. Sunset
Boulevard is one of the great films that didn’t personally resonate with
me, but as I watched it I saw a film that had been imitated hundreds of times,
shots that have since become cinematic shorthand for noir style, and a cynical
story of the delusion and impact of Hollywood. While the film didn’t entirely
suck me in, I have to respect the influence this film has had on filmmaking,
particularly noir, and regardless of how I feel about the rest of it I doubt
I’ll ever forget the film’s opening and closing scenes.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Soul-crushing
tribulation. This movie earns its spot in no small part due to the unbroken
shot of Solomon struggling to stay alive, as we the audience are forced to
watch for minutes on end. Director McQueen knows exactly what he wants to show
people and how to make sure they see it, and this scene is a microcosm of all
the films successes, how it is able to create a situation so difficult to look
at but unable to look away from.
The Seventh Seal (1957)
My first
exposure to Bergman’s work, The Seventh
Seal was the film that put him on the world stage. The image of a crusader
knight playing chess with death is burned in to cinema, a striking tableau of
Bergman grappling with the meaning of life and the nature of life and death.
The parallel of ancient Christian values and their waning in those times as
they were happening around Bergman is a particular metaphor that just fit, and
is a reminder of the cyclical nature of history as much as the film meditates
on that possibility for life.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
A movie that
manages to prey on our sense of paranoia so subtly that as everything slowly
pieces together you realise it’s too late to stop anything and you’re left
simply reeling at the pure horror of circumstance you witnessed. This isn’t
scary in the way most modern audiences would be accustomed to, but the film
elicits some of the most genuine horror with its slow burn and incredibly
clever script, supported so precisely by the camera. Trapping the audience with
a pregnant woman, leaving us as helpless as her, as we learn along with her all
too late of the intent of the people in her life, leaves you feeling cold and
defeated at the world. Alternatively, if you call the events that will unfold
before they happen, you still have to watch helpless as the most vulnerable of
people is subjected to a living nightmare of paranoia and gaslighting. The film
is true horror in the classical sense, and it contains some of the most subtle
scares, moments that will delay the fear just so that a person will feel terror
much more intensely.
Rashomon (1950)
Kurosawa’s
work has never resonated with me personally, but it’s impossible not to
recognise his technical contributions to film. Combine that with an examination
of the subjective nature of storytelling and portray it all through
Kabuki-style overacting and you have one of his greatest movies. Rashomon is absolutely brilliant
storytelling, and Kurosawa’s composition of movement and positioning are always
at the forefront of the subconscious, reinforcing the shifting power levels as
a story is told again and again from different perspectives to create
conflicting tales of lust and violence. This is piece of filmmaking history,
one that I found more engaging than the others of Kurosawa’s that I’ve seen.
The Mirror (1975)
Tarkovsky’s
work is, by its very nature, difficult to engage with. It’s personally
important to Tarkovsky himself, effectively a method by which he tried to
figure out the meaning in his life by reflecting on it through the lens of a
camera. This is also why his work is so important to the development of
Arthouse film. The Mirror is a
meditation on a single life, looking back from the end of it, and expresses
itself through a stream of consciousness that subtly and cleverly shows the
strange way in which we remember life. Everything’s all out of order, images
get placed in the wrong spots, figures and ideals get conflated in odd ways;
the choice to use the same actress for main character Aleksei’s mother and wife
is particular stroke of genius. The whole film is incredibly niche and
profoundly crafted, and this combination makes for an ethereal experience.
Honourable Mentions
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
2017: My 5 Favourite
Some films appeal to you more as a piece of entertainment than as a piece of art. Some films appeal to you on a personal level for reasons related entirely to your own life experiences. These are the sorts of films I consider my favourites; not necessarily better than the best, but the best combination of factors to maximise its appeal to me personally.
*These are in no particular order
*These are in no particular order
This new Planet of the Apes series have been some
of the best blockbuster filmmaking over the last decade, due in massive part to
the excellently written character of Caesar and Andy Serkis’ often awe-striking
performance as the ape. War for the
Planet of the Apes leaned in to this strength heavily, giving us a
surprisingly muted and personal tale that operates entirely on the actions of
Caesar. Serkis gives his strongest performance yet, showing us a Caesar coming
to grips with his own mortality and how much he values the burning ideology of
his younger self, dealing with the challenges of maintaining your identity and
purpose when you lose what matters most to you. It’s an absolutely sterling
work from Serkis, and from everyone involved in making Caesar the most real of
apes ever put to CGI.
Taking a set
of middling movies muddled by their inanely maudlin and melodramatic lore and
framing them with a certain self-awareness of how alien it all sounds to us was
a strange stroke of cleverness. Thor has never felt more accessible or human as
a character, despite being as far from humanity as he ever was, and it’s all in
the choice of tone taken by director Waititi. It’s not just the usual Marvel
sense of playfulness, it’s an almost altogether dismissal of seriousness in
favour of joke and spectacle first. For me, that meant a lot of simple,
effective and relatable New Zealand humour mixed with some gorgeous setpieces
and the best writing a Thor movie has
ever had (not that that last one is saying too much).
Considering
how much I love movies, it should be no surprise that I love movies about
making movies. The Disaster Artist is
James Franco’s best work, both as an actor and as a director. Just the concept
of him acting and directing both in and out of character is an impressive feat,
but seeing it pay off so well on screen is a sight to behold, as he immerses
himself in the mannerisms and speech patterns of Tommy Wiseau, and works with
the people around him re-create the story that lead to one of the most
infamously bad movies of all time.
It was a
tough choice between this, Get Out (2017),
and It (2017), as both of them are
some of the most effective horror from the last couple of years, but Raw ultimately won out for me because of
how utterly unique the experience with the film is, and despite the best
efforts of The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017),
Raw still holds the title of most
uncomfortably horrifying scene of the year. The movie is gross and engrossing;
you can’t look, but can’t look away, as the film grows steadily more horrifying
but continues to draw you in.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
For all its
flaws, this was one of my best cinema experiences of the year. The film space
opera at its finest, with story driven by melodramatic character action in an
incredible vision of colour and movement played out with a background of
powerful orchestra. The visuals and the music meld to create a magical symphony
of emotions and themes carried by the weight of all the films that came before
it. The performances vary, but hit their hardest where it counts the most, and
are enhanced by the lighting and framing of each and every shot, which also
help to reinforce the themes and arcs of the movie. The Last Jedi is challenging, in a way Star Wars movies rarely are, and the skill put in to how the movie
looks, sounds and feels simply dwarf any issues I had with the experience.
Published December 30th, 2017
Published December 30th, 2017
2017: The 5 Best
In 2017 I watched 368 films for the first time, and many of those were classics considered some of the greatest films of all time. So that I don't have to pick and choose between the best of the classics I watched and the best new films I watched, I created two lists for my best. This is a list of the 5 best films I saw at the cinema this year, films that were released in Australia in 2017.
*This list was originally supposed to be in no particular order, but as it is it's pretty representative of how I'd order the films if I had to, going from 5 to 1 moving from top to bottom.
*This list was originally supposed to be in no particular order, but as it is it's pretty representative of how I'd order the films if I had to, going from 5 to 1 moving from top to bottom.
The Big Sick (2017)
Inspired by
real life events of Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon, The Big Sick is as heart-breakingly
human as it is funny. This film seems incredibly personal, a life’s troubles
shared with bare honesty and humour that cuts to the core of the stories it
shares. Every actor’s performance is top notch and tempered by dialogue so real
it’s unbelievable. Special consideration goes to Holly Hunter, who manages to
destroy your very being with a single, cold sentence.
Dunkirk (2017)
Nolan’s best
film is purely experiential. The sound design and visuals are immersive,
creating a strong illusion of presence that allows you to feel just as if you’re
right in the middle of every scene in the film. From the very first gunshot
that pierces the silence and your eardrum, you’re in for a moment-to-moment
fight for survival, and the film keeps you in the thick of things until the
very last moment, engaging you with the pure instinct in human nature.
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Casey
Affleck’s Oscar-winning performance carries an extremely tragic and moving
movie that pulls no punches and remains engaging as it wavers between hope and
hopelessness. Affleck achieves near to the pinnacle of naturalistic
performance, restrained and believable and never the bit melodramatic.
Silence (2016)
Martin
Scorsese’s piece on the oppression of a couple of Christian missionaries in
feudal Japan is one of the most fully realised and challenging looks at the
faith ever made. It forces an expansion of ideas surrounding the lengths people
go to for their faith, and grinds you down with its viscerally harrowing
experiences. It also features sterling performances from Andrew Garfield and
Adam Driver and some of the most naturally beautiful visuals of the year.
Moonlight (2016)
Moonlight earned its title of Best Picture at
the Academy Awards. It is film crafted in a way unlike anything I’ve ever seen,
at once ethereal and yet disturbingly real, a piece of human innocence dashed
against the rocks of society told with such amazing heart. I’ve come back to it
a couple of times since originally seeing it, and it’s unforgettable how
universal this film makes a singular experience by appealing to that which is
simply human, while also presenting it with almost unparalleled technical skill.
Honourable Mentions
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
The Florida Project (2017)
Get Out (2017)Published December 30th, 2017
The 366 of 2017
Back at the
start of 2016, I made a resolution to watch 366 films that I had never seen
before, equivalent to one for each day of the leap year; I slightly exceeded my
goal, seeing a total of 369. In 2017, I doubled down on this resolution, and
added the caveat that I had to review every film I watched at the cinema, with
an equivalent to at least one film watched per week. Once again, I exceeded my
goals in both areas, watching 368 movies and reviewing all of them that I saw
at the cinema, as well as a handful of other movies that I felt compelled to
review after a re-watch, and an attempt to grapple some of the worst films I
have ever seen. Here is a list of all 368 movies I watched this year, along
with the ratings I gave them and links for the movies I reviewed.
A note about
my rating system:
· I use a scale of 1-10, with .5 marks
in between. 0/10 is not a rating I give; 1/10 is my lowest rating, and
essentially denotes that a film was watched.
1. Assassin’s Creed (2016) – 3.5/10 Review
2. Apollo 13 (1995) – 7.5/10
3. Annie Hall (1977) – 8.5/10
4. Quantum of Solace (2008) – 6/10
5. The Deer Hunter (1978) – 8.5/10
6. Max Steel (2016) – 3/10
7. The Edge of Seventeen (2016) – 7.5/10
Review
8. The Hangover Part II (2011) – 5/10
9. The Ides of March (2011) – 7/10
10. Passengers (2016) – 5.5/10 Review
11. A View to a Kill (1985) – 5.5/10
12. Doctor Who (1996) – 5.5/10
13. American History X (1998) – 8/10
14. The End of the Tour (2015) – 7.5/10
15. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) –
5/10
16. Moana (2016) – 8/10 Review
17. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) –
9/10
18. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) –
10/10
19. Colourful (2010) – 8/10
20. Collateral Beauty (2016) – 2/10 Review
21. Premium Rush (2012) – 6.5/10
22. Red Billabong (2016) – 3/10
23. Signs (2002) – 6.5/10
24. Split (2016) – 7/10 Review
25. Superman (1978) – 8/10
26. Casino (1995) – 8/10
27. Princess Mononoke (1997) – 9/10
28. Requiem for a Dream (2000) – 8/10
29. Only God Forgives (2013) – 5/10
30. Do the Right Thing (1989) – 8.5/10
31. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (2017)
– 5/10 Review
32. The Happening (2008) – 4/10
33. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – 10/10
34. The Three Musketeers (2011) – 4.5/10
35. Frost/Nixon (2008) – 8/10
36. The Lobster (2015) – 7.5/10
37. The Red Turtle (2016) – 8.5/10
38. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
(2016) – 3/10 Review
39. Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of
Dimensions (2016) – 4.5/10 Review
40. Anchors Aweigh (1945) – 7/10
41. Lion (2016) – 7.5/10 Review
42. Nerve (2016) – 5.5/10
43. Cooties (2014) – 5.5/10
44. Moonlight (2016) – 10/10 Review
45. Insomnia (2002) – 7.5/10
46. The Birth of a Nation (2016) – 6.5/10
47. Justice League Dark (2017) – 6/10
48. Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014) –
6.5/10
49. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
(1948) – 8.5/10
50. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
(2003) – 4/10
51. Manchester by the Sea (2016) – 9/10 Review
52. Snowden (2016) – 6.5/10
53. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987) –
1/10
54. Tombstone (1993) – 8/10
55. Snow Angels (2007) – 6.5/10
56. Coach Carter (2005) – 7/10
57. Crank (2006) – 6/10
58. District B13 (2004) – 7/10
59. Fred: The Movie (2010) – 1.5/10
60. Fences (2016) – 7.5/10 Review
61. Chi-Raq (2015) – 7.5/10
62. 99 Homes (2014) – 7.5/10
63. Smosh: The Movie (2014) – 1/10
64. Hidden Figures (2016) – 7.5/10 Review
65. Nocturnal Animals (2016) – 7/10
66. Baby Geniuses (2000) – 1/10
67. Mud (2012) – 7.5/10
68. Crank: High Voltage (2009) – 5.5/10
69. Silence (2016) – 9/10 Review
70. Barton Fink (1991) – 7.5/10
71. Hitman (2007) – 5/10
72. The Great Wall (2016) – 5/10 Review
73. Orphan (2009) – 5.5/10
74. The Damned United (2009) – 8/10
75. L.A. Confidential (1997) – 9/10
76. Fifty Shades Darker (2017) – 3/10 Review
77. Your Name (2016) – 8/10 Review
78. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) – 5/10
79. The Little Rascals (1994) – 6.5/10
80. The Twilight Samurai (2002) – 8/10
81. Trainspotting (1996) – 8/10
82. The Ring Two (2005) – 4.5/10
83. Logan (2017) – 7.5/10 Review
84. Headshot (2016) – 6.5/10
85. Dead Snow (2009) – 6/10
86. 12 Years a Slave (2013) – 9.5/10
87. The Graduate (1967) – 8/10
88. Kong: Skull Island (2017) – 7/10 Review
89. Shoot ‘Em Up (2007) – 5.5/10
90. Drive Angry (2001) – 5/10
91. Sleepy Hollow (1999) – 6.5/10
92. Basic Instinct (1992) – 5/10
93. Full Metal Jacket (1987) – 9/10
94. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
(2004) – 7/10
95. Jasper Jones (2017) – 6.5/10 Review
96. Devil (2010) – 4.5/10
97. Duck Soup (1933) – 9/10
98. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) – 8/10
99. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
(1990) – 8/10
100. Power Rangers (2017) – 4.5/10 Review
101. Life (2017) – 6/10 Review
102. Beauty and the Beast (2017) – 7/10 Review
103. This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – 9/10
104. Misery (1990) – 8/10
105. The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) – 7.5/10
Review
106. The Bye Bye Man (2017) – 3/10
107. Touch of Evil (1958) – 9/10
108. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
– 7/10
109. Rambo III (1988) – 4/10
110. Ghost in the Shell (2017) – 5.5/10 Review
111. The Mirror (1975) – 9/10
112. Speed Racer (2008) – 4.5/10
113. Buried (2010) – 7/10
114. Monster (2003) – 8/10
115. The Fate of the Furious (2017) – 6/10
Review
116. The Amazing Bulk (2012) – 1/10
117. The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) – 3.5/10
118. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) –
7/10
119. Rashomon (1950) – 9/10
120. Manhunter (1986) – 6.5/10
121. Red Dragon (2002) – 6/10
122. Sing Street (2016) – 8/10
123. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) –
7.5/10
124. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017)
– 6.5/10 Review
125. Get Out (2017) – 8/10 Review
126. Skiptrace (2016) – 5/10
127. Philomena (2013) – 8/10
128. The Butterfly Effect (2004) – 3.5/10
129. Death Race 2000 (1975) – 6.5/10
130. Raw (2016) – 8/10 Review
131. Death Race (2008) – 5/10
132. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) –
8.5/10
133. A Dog’s Purpose (2017) – 5/10
134. Alien: Covenant (2017) – 6.5/10 Review
135. The Boondock Saints (1999) – 5/10
136. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) – 6/10
137. Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) –
6/10
138. The Ladykillers (2004) – 6/10
139. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) – 7.5/10 Review
140. Super 8 (2011) – 7/10
141. Monsters (2010) – 6.5/10
142. An Open Secret (2014) – 8/10
143. Manhattan (1979) – 8/10
144. Sideways (2004) – 8/10
145. The Evil Dead (1981) – 7.5/10
146. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men
Tell No Tales (2017) – 4/10 Review
147. Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) – 8/10
148. Crash (2004) – 6/10
149. The Help (2011) – 7/10
150. A Cure for Wellness (2016) – 5/10
151. Wonder Woman (2017) – 7.5/10 Review
152. The Boat That Rocked (2009) – 6.5/10
153. The Artist (2011) – 8.5/10
154. Baywatch (2017) – 4.5/10 Review
155. The Guest (2014) – 7/10
156. In the Loop (2009) – 8/10
157. Man on the Moon (1999) – 7/10
158. Judge Dredd (1995) – 4.5/10
159. The Mummy (2017) – 4/10 Review
160. 20th Century Women (2016)
– 7.5/10 Review
161. Swiss Army Man (2016) – 6.5/10
162. Twins (1988) – 5.5/10
163. Get Shorty (1995) – 7.5/10
164. 1408 (2007) – 6.5/10
165. Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire
(2017) – 4/10
166. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) –
8.5/10
167. Solomon Kane (2009) – 6/10
168. Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki (1991) –
7/10
169. On the Waterfront (1954) – 9/10
170. The Fog (1980) – 6.5/10
171. The Elephant Man (1980) – 8.5/10
172. Kedi (2016) – 7/10 Review
173. Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
– 2/10 Review
174. La Dolce Vita (1960) – 9/10
175. Logan’s Run (1976) – 6/10
176. Stake Land (2010) – 6.5/10
177. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) – 8/10
178. Halloween (2007) – 5.5/10
179. Ghosts of Mars (2001) – 4/10
180. The Beguiled (1971) – 7.5/10
181. The House (2017) – 5/10 Review
182. 50/50 (2011) – 8/10
183. Dark City (1998) – 7/10
184. The Thing From Another World (1951) –
7.5/10
185. Okja (2017) – 8/10 Review
186. Magnolia (1999) – 8/10
187. Vampires Suck (2010) – 1.5/10
188. Aftermath (2017) – 5/10
189. Gorgo (1961) – 4.5/10
190. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – 7/10 Review
191. Blair Witch (2016) – 5/10
192. The Da Vinci Code (2006) – 5/10
193. Free Fire (2016) – 6.5/10
194. The 9th Life of Louis Drax
(2016) – 5/10
195. The Big Sleep (1946) – 8.5/10
196. Moneyball (2011) – 8/10
197. It Comes at Night (2017) – 7/10 Review
198. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) –
7.5/10
199. The Invention of Lying (2009) –
5.5/10
200. On the Town (1949) – 8/10
201. Dial M for Murder (1954) – 9/10
202. Baby Driver (2017) – 8/10 Review
203. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) –
8/10
204. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) – 9/10
205. The Boss Baby (2017) – 5.5/10
206. Wild (2014) – 7.5/10
207. Brokeback Mountain (2005) – 8.5/10
208. Gambit (2012) – 4/10
209. Unforgiven (1992) – 8.5/10
210. Dunkirk (2017) – 9/10 Review
211. The Circle (2017) – 4.5/10
212. His Girl Friday (1940) – 8/10
213. War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
– 8/10 Review
214. When Harry Met Sally (1989) – 8/10
215. Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (2002) –
1.5/10
216. Species (1995) – 4.5/10
217. Rush (2013) – 7.5/10
218. It (1990) – 6.5/10
219. The Big Sick (2017) – 9/10 Review
220. Hard Eight (1996) – 7.5/10
221. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) – 6/10
222. Atomic Blonde (2017) – 6.5/10 Review
223. Valerian and the City of a Thousand
Planets (2017) – 5/10 Review
224. My Girl (1991) – 6.5/10
225. Annabelle (2014) – 4/10
226. Colossal (2016) – 7.5/10
227. Logan Lucky (2017) – 7.5/10 Review
228. I, Daniel Blake (2016) – 8/10
229. I Am Heath Ledger (2017) – 7/10
230. Godzilla Raids Again (1955) – 5/10
231. After Hours (1985) – 10/10
232. Tooken (2015) – 1/10
233. Bicycle Thieves (1948) – 10/10
234. The Great Escape (1963) – 8.5/10
235. Henry V (1989) – 8.5/10
236. The Dark Tower (2017) – 4.5/10 Review
237. American Made (2017) – 6.5/10 Review
238. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) –
2/10
239. Death Note (2017) – 4/10 Review
240. Evil Dead II (1987) – 8/10
241. Army of Darkness (1992) – 7/10
242. Darkman (1990) – 7/10
243. The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) -5.5/10
Review
244. The Invisible Man (1933) – 8/10
245. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
– 7/10
246. The Return of Godzilla (1984) –
5.5/10
247. Disgrace (2008) – 7/10
248. King Kong (1976) – 5/10
249. It (2017) – 8/10 Review
250. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) – 8/10
251. 13 Assassins (2010) – 8/10
252. City Lights (1931) – 9/10
253. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – 7.5/10
254. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) –
4.5/10
255. Mother! (2017) – 7.5/10 Review
256. Dark Star (1974) – 6.5/10
257. The Emoji Movie (2017) – 1/10 Review
258. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) –
5/10
259. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) –
3.5/10
260. Everybody Wants Some! (2016) – 7.5/10
261. Cast Away (2000) – 7.5/10
262. Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of
Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) – 7/10
263. Trick ‘r Treat (2007) – 7/10
264. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) –
6/10 Review
265. 47 Meters Down (2017) – 5/10
266. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s
Apocalypse (1991) – 9/10
267. Tusk (2014) – 5/10
268. The Book of Henry (2017) – 2.5/10
269. Sunset Boulevard (1950) – 9.5/10
270. Flatliners (1990) – 5.5/10
271. Flatliners (2017) – 4/10 Review
272. Personal Shopper (2016) – 7/10
273. Despicable Me 3 (2017) – 4.5/10
274. A Ghost Story (2017) – 7.5/10
275. Gerald’s Game (2017) – 7/10 Review
276. Absolutely Anything (2015) – 4.5/10
277. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – 9/10
278. When a Stranger Calls (2006) – 3.5/10
279. Pandorum (2009) – 4.5/10
280. Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – 8.5/10 Review
281. Scream 2 (1997) – 6/10
282. Captain Fantastic (2016) – 7.5/10
283. The Mountain Between Us (2017) –
3.5/10 Review
284. The Beguiled (2017) – 7.5/10
285. Annabelle: Creation (2017) – 6/10
286. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) – 8/10
287. Wrong Turn (2003) – 3.5/10
288. Happy Death Day (2017) – 6.5/10 Review
289. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) – 5/10
290. The Chinese Connection (1972) – 7/10
291. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) –
8/10
292. Daddy’s Home (2015) – 4.5/10
293. Friday the 13th (1980) –
5/10
294. Boy (2010) – 8/10
295. Friday the 13th Part II
(1981) – 4/10
296. Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – 8/10 Review
297. Payback (1999) – 6/10
298. Friday the 13th Part III
(1982) – 3/10
299. Cars 3 (2017) – 6/10
300. Michael Clayton (2007) – 8/10
301. Halloween II (1981) – 5/10
302. The Benchwarmers (2006) – 3/10
303. Halloween II (2009) – 3/10
304. The Seventh Seal (1957) – 9/10
305. Fantasia (1940) – 9/10
306. Bronson (2008) – 7.5/10
307. Brigsby Bear (2017) – 7/10
308. Leaving Las Vegas (1995) – 8/10
309. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) –
6.5/10 Review
310. Wind River (2017) – 7.5/10
311. Lord of War (2005) – 7/10
312. Gangs of New York (2002) – 7/10
313. Friday the 13th Part IV:
The Final Chapter (1984) – 4/10
314. Manhattan Night (2016) – 5/10
315. Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) –
5/10
316. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) –
7.5/10
317. Friday the 13th Part V: A
New Beginning (1985) – 3/10
318. Justice League (2017) – 4/10 Review
319. Time Bandits (1981) – 8/10
320. House on Haunted Hill (1959) – 7/10
321. Evil Dead (2013) – 6.5/10
322. Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) –
6.5/10
323. Nosferatu (1922) – 8.5/10
324. Mission: Impossible (1996) – 6.5/10
325. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) –
7.5/10 Review
326. Jason Lives: Friday the 13th
Part VI (1986) – 5/10
327. Shrek Forever After (2010) – 5.5/10
328. Not Cool (2014) – 1/10
329. Tampopo (1985) – 8.5/10
330. Friday the 13th Part VII:
The New Blood (1988) – 3/10
331. Fist of Legend (1994) – 7.5/10
332. JFK (1991) – 7.5/10
333. Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) – 6/10
334. Friday the 13th Part VIII:
Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) – 1/10
335. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
(1993) – 3/10
336. The Disaster Artist (2017) – 8/10 Review
337. Lazer Team 2 (2018) – 3.5/10
338. The Hunt (2012) – 8.5/10
339. Some Like It Hot (1959) – 9.5/10
340. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
(2013) – 5/10
341. Sword of the Stranger (2007) – 7.5/10
342. Wonder (2017) – 7/10 Review
343. Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
(2006) – 6/10
344. Psych: The Movie (2017) – 6.5/10 Review
345. The Last Man on Earth (1964) – 6/10
346. Dirty Dancing (1987) – 6.5/10
347. Get the Gringo (2012) – 6.5/10
348. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) –
9/10 Review
349. Doc Hollywood (1991) – 6/10
350. Little Women (1994) – 8/10
351. Paddington (2014) – 8/10
352. Ghost Ship (2002) – 3/10
353. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) –
7/10
354. Superman II (1980) – 7.5/10
355. Killing Gunther (2017) – 5/10
356. Tremors (1990) – 7/10
357. The Voices (2014) – 6/10
358. 17 Again (2009) – 5.5/10
359. Calvary (2014) – 8/10
360. Battle of the Sexes (2017) – 7/10
361. Mortal Kombat (1995) – 5/10
362. The Apartment (1960) – 9/10
363. The Florida Project (2017) – 9/10 Review
364. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
– 6.5/10 Review
365. The General (1926) – 9.5/10
366. Girls Trip (2017) – 6.5/10
367. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017) –
7.5/10
368. Bright (2017) – 5/10 Review
Total number of
ratings given by rating:
1/10: 8
1.5/10: 3
2/10: 3
2.5/10: 1
3/10: 12
3.5/10: 8
4/10: 14
4.5/10: 17
5/10: 36
5.5/10: 18
6/10: 24
6.5/10: 36
7/10: 39
7.5/10: 43
8/10: 54
8.5/10: 18
9/10: 25
9.5/10: 4
10/10: 5
Published December 30th, 2017
Published December 30th, 2017
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