As we drag ourselves, bloodied and limping across the finish line of 2017, there’s little to celebrate at year’s end in the world outside the movie theater, except for Fyre Festival which is still the greatest and funniest thing ever. But inside the popcorny passageways of our local multiplexes and the hallowed halls of our local arthouses, it’s been a different story — one that may not have led to the kind of clear consensus winners of previous years (even awards season seems unusually open) but that points to a general breadth of quality that is, we believe, reflected here in our Best Films of the Year poll.
As has become customary, we’ve gone to extensive mathematical and scientific lengths to compile a snapshot of where The Playlist’s tastes have landed, and if, for the first time since 2014 when we started doing this collective list (in addition to our individual lists which run later in the month, if you’re wondering) we did not have a clear, streets-ahead winner, the way “Under the Skin,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Moonlight” ran away with their respective polls, we instead had a bit more of a nail-biter. The number 1 choice went pretty much down to the wire, while at the other end, a welter of titles contended for a foothold, with often just a single point or two in it.
That was also partly because this was the biggest Christmas poll we’ve ever conducted with over 30 regular contributors submitting their top tens to us, which were then aggregated into the list below. As ever, timing makes the placement of certain films tricky: who knows if “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” might have cracked the top 25, or if “Phantom Thread” would have been higher, if more of us had been able to see them in time (we tried to contact Disney-Lucasfilm and Annapurna to suggest they move the release dates, but I guess maybe they were out of battery because they numbers they gave us didn’t seem to work).
The only other trends we can really note are that in contrast to previous years, no animated films and no documentaries made it into the final lineup (though Agnes Varda‘s “Faces, Places” came pretty close) — but before you complain too volubly about our narrow-mindedness, remember both those categories have the whole own Best of 2017 lists to come (and genre-hounds can get a Best Horror fix here). There are also fewer foreign-language titles than in previous years, but whether that’s down to the wider sample group or to the strength of English-language indie cinema (often helmed by international directors, it should be noted) we’ll leave for you to judge.
Okay, then! Draw the blinds and put your phones on silent and check out our 25 Best Films of 2017 — one reliable repository of joy and comfort in a year without much of either, except for the failure of the Juicero Press.
Click here for our full coverage of the best of 2017, including Best Cinematography,Posters,Trailers, Horror, and the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2018
25. “Beach Rats”
Under the crackling firework stars of Coney Island’s boardwalk aimless, delinquent teenagers hang out, smoke blunts and chase girls without concern or care. In Eliza Hittman’s sinewy and sensuous sophomore effort, “Beach Rats,” [our review] these halcyon days are painted in colors of kaleidoscopic ecstasy. Yet, this romantic radiance belies the bruising pain of its protagonist Frankie (a spectacular Harris Dickinson), a conflicted adolescent who’s having the worst summer of his life. With his father on his deathbed, Frankie grapples with grief while trying to come to terms with his own thorny sexuality. Frankie cruises for older men, but has a girlfriend, hangs out with homophobic meathead bros and insists he’s not gay. This complex and heartbreaking dichotomy, this turmoil of identity, would be enough to make a fascinating movie, but Hittman’s crafts a gorgeously haunting film, sensual in its raw, fearless depiction of gay sex and grueling in its emotional stakes. Juxtaposing the mask of blissfulness with a carnal machismo, Hittman creates a fully formed, complicatedly erotic, voluptuous and tortured movie. Its empathy for its distressed and confused lead character is limitless, its capacity to embrace and fear for him is wrenching. Beautifully observed and thoughtfully realized, with “Beach Rats,” Hittman stakes her claim as one of our freshest indie auteur voices with an incredibly vibrant and alive film. — Rodrigo Perez
24. “It Comes at Night”
As a young horror fan, spurred by my overactive imagination pumped full of genre classics, I might have been scared of evil supernatural forces that are out to get me, convincing me to check under the bed or breathlessly turn the lights back on to check that there was nothing there. However, now that I’m in my thirties and have a family of my own, my nightmare quota is entirely filled with terrifying scenarios of horrible things that might happen to my wife and child: Freddy Krueger ain’t got nothing on cancer. Perhaps that’s why I responded so strongly to Trey Edward Shults’ apocalyptic horror/drama [our review]. Instead of using its premise, of a world besieged by a mysterious deadly virus, as an excuse for yet another gritty and grimy zombie flick, it focuses on what a family might be forced to do in times of utmost crisis, and how they might lose their loved ones even if they make all the right decisions. As the palpable paranoia and distrust grows between two families, Shultz commands an increasingly tense technical approach, from the gradual tightening of the aspect ratio, to the claustrophobia that rules the third act. Instead of scrutinizing its characters as figures detached from the audience, he makes the characters put a direct mirror onto us, forcing us to face what kind of monsters we’d be willing to become in the name of protecting our families. — Oktay Ege Kozak
23. “God’s Own Country”
Unassuming in its quiet grandeur, Francis Lee’s “God’s Own Country” [our interview with Lee] is a masterwork of compelling nuance. A tender love story, the film showcases as much of the beauty of the land the characters inhabit and the way life is lived on it, as of the central romance. Utterly engrossing and flooded with empathy “God’s Own Country” follows a young farm hand trying to numb himself with alcohol and casual sex, when he finds his life upturned by the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker. For a film that possesses scenes of nature in all of its might, with greenery that spills across the screen and fog rolling in continuously, there’s so much thats also intimate and delicate, grounded brilliantly by stars Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu. Secareanu brings a silent sturdiness and warmth to his character and O’Connor is a revelation as a young man who, if body gestures and haunted looks are to believed, has never before witnessed the tenderness he suddenly experiences. The film leaves us with memories of newborn lambs, sexual exploits that visually blend body and earth, and a young man salting his lover’s spaghetti to his approval — a small, wildly intimate move that stuns both O’Connor’s Johnny and us — it’s startling in its stripped-down beauty. Immersing us in the airy dampness of the setting and the quiet splendor of it love story, “Gods Own Country” is intent on making us feel as cared for as it characters. — Allyson Johnson
22. “Baby Driver”
Unconventional auteur Edgar Wright has a lot of fun making his films. If you’re into zombies, video games, or mocking stodgy British suburbs, he’s probably created one of your favorite films in the past decade — but musical opus “Baby Driver” [our review] might be his best work yet. This soundtrack-heavy send-up follows Baby, a hearing-impaired getaway driver with a tragic past, a sick iPod collection, and a presciently toxic relationship with Kevin Spacey. Baby struggles to overcome his trauma and win the girl despite his criminal past, leading to unexpected hilarity and sick custom beats. Easily the funnest, foot-tappingest movie of the summer, “Baby Driver” pulled off some serious cinematic feats as it merged genres, toyed with formal protocol, and convinced us all to tolerate lead Ansel Elgort. The film’s outstanding ensemble cast, including Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, and Lily James, acts out Wright’s cheeky screenplay to a tee, hitting their musical and comedic marks as if they were spray-painted onto the set wall — which, in some cases, they were. Self-referential and entirely unique, “Baby Driver” showed us that filmmaking can be flat-out joyful, delivering an infectious eccentricity that sticks with audiences long after they stop nodding to the beat. — Lena Wilson
21. “BPM”
Dust particles floating in a dance club, the Seine turned blood-red as an expression of unrestrained outrage — this is the enormous, intricate canvas that instant LGBT classic “BPM” [our review] plays out on. The film captures the lives of HIV/AIDS protest group ACT UP in 1990s Paris with fearless authenticity, attuned to both to the vibrancy and anger felt by all involved. Director Robin Campillo’s own experience with ACT UP lends the film credibility, but he isn’t content to merely coast on it. The protest set-pieces in “BPM” are as nail-biting as any of 2017’s blockbusters, and the offbeat editorial impulses hinted it in Campillo’s 2013 effort “Eastern Boys” introduce some tantalizing arthouse flavor into the mix. Some might feel that the first half of the film, centering around ACT UP’s protest efforts, and the tail end’s focus on the relationship between the two protagonists is inconsistent and unsatisfying. We beg to differ; beyond being incredibly affecting (bring tissues), the trajectory of the narrative captures the contradictions of gay culture — a tension between radical values and a drift towards normativity — with remarkable intuition. Awarded the Grand Prix by the jury at Cannes, “BPM” is the queer epic that has been long overdue, and one of the most essential experiences to be had at the cinema this year. — Bradley Warren
