2017 Annual List of Favorite Film Experiences

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

With each
passing year, I find it harder to keep up with new release films, as well as
the growing queue of ones on my “To See” list. On the other hand, it feels like quality films are sequestered till the end of the year (nothing
against summer blockbusters, but with a few exceptions, many are forgotten by
the time you get back to your car) and the growing appeal and abundance of
quality television fostered by its broader canvas for in-depth storytelling and
character development is another distraction.

But that brings me to one of my favorite things about
the holiday season in Los Angeles. The last six weeks or so of the year is filled
with many appealing options as films jockey for exposure ahead of the awards season. And I have a great
deal of appreciation and gratitude (and a bit of jealousy) for the many artists
and others who have the passion to make these visions come to life for us to
enjoy.

All the best
for a wonderful 2018 and hope that you get a chance to see some of the films
below that moved me in some way, sometimes filling me with emotion or awe, or provoking
long-lasting thoughts, or just trigger the desire to re-experience and see it
again. So, here they are, in no particular order.

Cheers, Ed

P.S.–I’ve gotten many requests to also review favorite meals of the year, so that might come in another post. 🙂

Indelible Coming of
Age Tales

Call Me By Your Name — Northern Italy, summer, 1983. Having read
the André Aciman novel, this was my most anticipated film of 2017. And it
did not disappoint. This beautifully told and lushly shot coming of age romance
features a remarkable and revelatory (and perhaps best of 2017) performance by
newcomer Timothée Chalamet (also in Lady Bird), who achingly captures the
universal yearning, passion, heartache, and torment of first love. Kudos also
to Armie Hammer and director Luca Guadagnino. While many moments stand out,
including the empathetic and compassionate speech by father Michael Stuhlberg
(also in Shape of Water) that is the dream of every LGBT kid, it’s the minutes-long
reactive close-up on Chalamet as the credits roll and song of yearning plays
that devastatingly endures. My favorite of 2017.

Lady Bird — Sacramento, 2002. A semi-autobiographical coming
of age in the suburbs tale featuring the humorous, turbulent, and affecting
relationship between mother and daughter by Greta Gerwig in her directorial
debut. With a fabulous performance by Saoirse Ronan as the head-strong teen who
calls herself Lady Bird, a terrific Laurie Metcalf as her mom, and HW alum
Beanie Feldstein ’11 as her best friend, this is the rare comedy that is smart,
witty, and endearing.

Compelling Period Piece True Stories

Dunkirk — Dunkirk, France, 1940. A visually and viscerally compelling
piece of filmmaking about the miraculous evacuation of 300,000 British troops
from the doomed beach at Dunkirk, masterfully crafted by director Christopher
Nolan via three intertwined timeframes (a week on the beach, a day by sea, and
an hour in the air) that intersect and fold back and ultimately,
come together in the end.

The Post — Washington,
DC, 1971. Spielberg + Streep + Hanks = a highly timely and relevant telling of
the Washington Post’s saga to publish the Pentagon Papers. Resonant on so many
levels with urgent themes of today—the need for a free press, the role of women
in a man’s world, and a judicial branch independent from an overreaching
executive branch—all told with briskly entertaining and thrilling pace.

All the Money In The World — UK/Italy, 1973. I’ll admit
that I was initially attracted to this pic to see how director Ridley Scott erased Kevin Spacey and recast
Christopher Plummer in the role of billionaire J. Paul Getty and reshot major
portions of his film six weeks before its release date. Hats off to him for
pulling off a very engaging thriller depicting the notorious kidnapping of
Getty’s grandson. Michelle Williams is spot-on as the mother who goes toe-to-toe
with her infamously frugal father-in-law who refuses to pay ransom for her child.

Dark Master Works By An Irish Playwright and a Black
Comedian

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — Ebbing, MO, present day.
Loved this very dark dramedy whose story emanates from a tragic event in a
small town. There’s plenty of levity and wonderfully drawn characters via Martin
McDonagh’s clever screenplay that mixes revenge, redemption, and moral
ambiguity, featuring a trio of tremendous performances by raging mother of
deceased raped daughter Frances McDormand, small town police chief and target
of McDormand’s ire Woody Harrelson, and racist, violent, alcoholic mama’s boy police
officer Sam Rockwell.

Get Out — Suburban countryside, present day America. A
creepy, twisted, funny, scary, and subversive version of “Guess Who’s Coming to
Dinner” crossed with a little bit of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” for the
post-Obama era. A brilliant, provocative, and unnerving nexus of sophisticated horror,
comedy, and extremely biting social satire by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut.

Strange and Untraditional Love Stories

Phantom Thread —London, circa 1950s. I love Paul Thomas
Anderson, and he’s made one strange but riveting movie here. A gorgeous Jonny
Greenwood score swings from elegantly jazzy to intensely haunting, setting the
mood for this darkly humorous film featuring hard to describe relationships (I
hesitate to call it a love story) between an obsessively demanding and
fastidious fashion designer (Daniel Day-Lewis supposedly in his last film
role), his muse, and his ever-lurking sister/business partner and their
respective emotional/psychological (and ultimately perverse) gamesmanship. And
one may not listen to water-pouring or toast-buttering, or mushroom omelet
eating in the same way again.

The Shape of Water — Baltimore, circa 1962. Mix in a large dose of Cold War
thriller and Creature from the Black Lagoon, plus a little Busby Berkeley, and
you either get a political allegory (marginalized “others” whether mute, black,
gay, or non-human vs. the Man) or romantic fairy tale. Leave it to Guillermo
del Toro to bring us the more “romantic” one in this strange love stories category,
an oddly beautiful and enchanting interspecies romance between two mute and
isolated beings, one a cleaning woman (a wonderful Sally Hawkins) and the other a Creature
From the Black Lagoon-inspired merman kept in a top secret government facility.
Arguably, the “monster” in this story is the intensely sadistic government
agent played with gusto by Michael Shannon.

**Bizarre Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction Tales**

I, Tonya — Portland,
OR, 1994. A stellar Margot Robbie plays the hard scrabble, trailer-trash, and
ultimately disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in this unbelievably
crazy but true story of her life leading up to the infamous incident before the
1994 Winter Olympics. Told in zippy mockumentary style that is fun to watch,
Allison Janney as her zany, abusive mother leads a supporting cast of inept characters involved in Tonya’s dysfunctional life. Directed by Craig
Gillispie who also directed the offbeat gem, Lars and the Real Girl.

The Disaster Artist — Hollywood, 2003. Another
bizarre, but true real life story about the enigmatic writer/director Tommy
Wiseau who made one of the most absurdly bad films ever that eventually turned into
a cult classic (The Room). Humorously portrayed by James Franco, who also
directed this offbeat but unexpectedly poignant movie about making a movie,
though it’s ultimately more about the importance of friendship, having dreams, and
America’s fascination with celebrity and movies. (And the side-by-side
comparison of scenes from the actual The Room and recreations in Franco’s
film are hysterical.)

Docs About Felines and Cheating Russians

Kedi — Yes, this a documentary about cats, but it’s not
just about cats. Rather it’s a meditative and heartwarming look at the
community of felines that inhabit the streets of Istanbul, delving into their
centuries-long symbiotic relationship with humans in the old city. The city is
teeming with cats that are neither feral or domestic, each with different
personalities and lives they share with the people they adopt. And therein lies
the heart of this film, as the locals share their bonds and therapeutic
experiences with these complex creatures, ranging from the mundane to the
profound.

Icarus – Putin + mysterious deaths +
performance-enhancing drug conspiracy = A fascinating and crazy documentary
that plays like a spy thriller. It starts out as an odd personal experiment by
the filmmaker/amateur cyclist mimicking Lance Armstrong’s doping regimen, but
through sheer dumb luck and serendipity, he develops a friendship with Gregory
Rodchenkov, the affable, eccentric, and charismatic camera-loving head of Russia’s Anti-Doping Lab…and,
as it turns out, the country’s mastermind behind its decades-long state-sponsored
doping program. It then becomes a terrifying race to uncover the world’s
biggest sports conspiracy, implicating everybody including the Russian president (resulting in the NY Times exposé) while trying to
save whistle-blower Rodchenkov’s life from the clutches of Putin.

Docs about Life and Death

Obit. —While it may sound morbid, this behind-the-scenes
look at the NY Times’ obituary staff writers is enlightening and fascinating,
and in fact, quite lively (even its peek into the “morgue,” the paper’s clipping archive). Beyond celebrities and notables, who makes the editorial cut
in the pages of the NY Times obit section? And how does one get appropriately
celebrated in death, warts and all. Now you can find out.

Chasing Coral – A wake-up call to the accelerating world-wide
death of entire coral reef ecosystems by “coral bleaching.” This remarkably
emotional doc follows a team of biologists, including a self-proclaimed “coral
nerd” in a race against time to document this die-off with powerful visual
evidence, and the result is an inspirational eco drama that moves you to act
before it’s too late.

Others Worth Mentioning

Baby Driver (the soundtrack and editing alone are worth the thrilling
112 minutes of this stylish heist story about a young getaway driver); It (I don’t generally like horror
films, but this retelling of Stephen King’s classic was one of the most
engaging and well told of its genre); Star
Wars: The Last Jedi (my favorite of the series); Loving Vincent (every frame of the film was hand-painted in the
style of Van Gogh); Mudbound; Spider-Man:
Homecoming (loved Tom Holland as the new Peter Parker); Beach Rats; The Big Sick; War for the Planet of the Apes;The Only Living Boy in New York; Wonder Woman; Spielberg;
Battle of the Sexes; Stronger