Best movies of 2017

[oscar jubis]

Amherst is a great college. One thing I'd hate if I wrote movie reviews is not to be able to analyze resolution and closure. A couple of years ago,I turned down a gig writing reviews for a weekly. The guy they got is very good though, a friend of a friend. I watched The Florida Project again and my admiration for it keeps increasing. I love how the ending yanks the rug from under the viewer. It's jarring and I had to think about it and discuss it with peers to come to a final decision about its appropriateness.I'm watching Dunkirk next week, finally.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. Hope you like Dunkirk. Recently I really liked Kaurismäki's Other Side of Hope and Novitiate is worth watching especially if you're interested in Catholic history. Big role for Melissa Leo too. People are talking about McDonagh's Three Billboards a lot, Frances McDormand always gets a lot of attention. You mentioned turning down the reviewing job; obviously it would not be to your taste.

[Chris Knipp]

DAVE AND JAMES FRANCO IN THE DISASTER ARTIST

New movies this weekend, Dec. 1, 2017 (NYC):

The Darkest Hour (Joe Wright) 11/22/17 - Metacritic 74%
Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino) 11/24/17 - Metacritic 95%
The Disaster Artist (James Franco) 12/2/17 - Metacritic 76%
The Other Side of Hope (Aki Kaurismäki)- Metacritic 84%
The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro) Metacritic 85%
Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) - Metacritic 53%

Also showing in NYC :

Thelma (Joachim Trier, at Village East) - Metacritic 74%
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo), at the Metrograph - Metacritic 80%
6-film K Aki Kaurismäki retrospective, at Film Forum
Naples '44, new doc at Film Forum
The Florida Project (Sean Baker) Metacritic 92%
Three Billboards. . . (Martin McDonagh) Metacritic 87%
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) - Metacritic 94%
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos) Metacritic 73%

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND KATE WINSLETT IN WONDER WHEEL

[Chris Knipp]

HANKS AND STREEP IN THE POST

They're talking about (Dec. 22nd release). . . a production whipped off "at warp speed" partly by a bare novice screenwriter, now ready to grab top honors. See Variety's recent "in contention" story.
The Post
Coming Soon
In theaters wide January 12, but it will qualify for 2017 Oscars. It has been named Best Film by the National Board of Review.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson | See full cast & crew »

A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.

Definitely not the best movie of 2017 but it will win the Oscar and I'm okay with that, says one writer. So Call Me by Your Name is pushed out and once again a great gay movie won't get top honors in straight Hollywood. I guess I was dreaming. But Timouthée Chalamet is winning breakthrough performance awards.

[Chris Knipp]

The Indiewire poll and Indiewire lists for 2017.
'
A file to check against to see if a certain film qualifies as a 2017 US release is Mike D'Angelo's list of all New York City 2017 Commercial Releases, which he has on his site HERE. (Received from Indiewire today 12/4/2017.)

Indiewire also has a Best Undistributed category, where you can list or find any films shown at festivals or public screenings but not theatrically released here. Indiewire's poll also has a category at the end (TV series not being allowed otherwise) for "anything from the year in moving images that you'd like to highlight." In that category I'd certainly have to list the outstanding Norwegian teen TV series "SKAM," whose four seasons I watched this summer, up to their end-day June 24, 2017.

Indiewire's Dave Erlich already has his top 25 list out:

1. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
2. DUNKIRK
3. A GHOST STORY
4. PERSONAL SHOPPER
5. THE FLORIDA PROJECT
5. COLUMBUS
7. LADY BIRD
8. FACES PLACES
9. THE POST
10. PHANTOM THREAD
11. A QUIET PASSION
12. OKJA
13. WONDERSTRUCK
14. GOOD TIME
15. THE BEGUILED
16. GET OUT
17. THELMA
18. THE BIG SICK
19. FOXTROT
20. A FANTASTIC WOMAN
21. LADY MACBETH
22. MOTHER!
23. BABY DRIVER
24. THE LURE
25. ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

I think I should see Columbus. I've been meaning to. This also reminds me of some movies I've almost forgotten, like The Lure.Even though D'Anglo walked out of it. I can eliminate many of these titles either because I haven't seen them, or because I didn't like them.
Haven't seen:

COLUMBUS, THE POST, PHANTOM THREAD, FOXTROT, A FANTASTIC WOMAN.

(I may bet to see The Post and Phantom Thread before year's end though.)

Actively disliked, or couldn't even bear to watch:

A QUIET PASSION, OKUJA, WONDERSTRUCK, GOOD TIME, THE BEGUILED, MOTHER!

Don't think I could really list among the very best of the year, probably (but not sure yet):

FACES PLACES, THELMA, BABY DRIVER, THE LURE.

Definitely consider among the best:

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, DUNKIRK, PERSONAL SHOPPER, THE FLORIDA PROJECT, LADY BIRD, GET OUT, LADY MACBETH, ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

So that last is, for now, my partial default list.

Other films that are being mentioned this end of year:

KEDI, EX LIBRIS

[Chris Knipp]

Vanity Fair's2017b 10 Best List. From VF film critic Richard Lawson.

1. B.P.M.
2. FACES PLACES
3. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
4. THE LOST CITY OF Z
5. GET OUT
6. PHANTOM THREAD
7. PERSONAL SHOPPER
8. PRINCESS CYD
9. A GHOST STORY
10. BEATRIZ AT DINNER

I haven't seen PT Anderson's Phantom Thread yet but probably will on Christmas Day in NYC when it officially comes out. I haven't seen Princess Cyd and didn't know what it was. (Lawson's description isn't very helpful either.) I'm glad to be reminded of The Lost City of Z, and think it's worth mentioning. I respect James Gray a lot, and am a fan of Chrlie Hunnum. However I don't think he they hit it out of the park.

[Chris Knipp]

SKAM.


"EVAK" - ISAK AND EVEN ARE BOYS IN LOVE IN SEASON 3 OF THE SERIES, "SKAM"

Today I wrote:

Indiewire also has a Best Undistributed category, where you can list or find any films shown at festivals or public screenings but not theatrically released here. Indiewire's poll also has a category at the end (TV series not being allowed otherwise) for "anything from the year in moving images that you'd like to highlight." In that category I'd certainly have to list the outstanding Norwegian teen TV series "SKAM," whose four seasons I watched this summer, up to their end-day June 24, 2017.

So tonight I was inspired to write this IMDb "Comment" about the 2015-2017 Norwegian teen TV series, "SKAM." It moves and was one of my year's best experiences but it's not a movie.

(See also Variety film critic Boyd van Hoeij's excellent essay about the series for The Atlantic.)

I discovered this amazing and unique Norwegian series, "SKAM," pronounced "scum" and meaning "shame" (I never figured out why), directed by Julie Andem, set around an Oslo high school, this summer (2017) with S3 (Isak & Even), which got more global attention and was published on more platforms and more commented on by fans because of its appealing and destined-to-be-classic gay teen coming-out love story, and then watched S1 (Jonas & Eva) & S2 (Noora & William), moving on just in time for the current, ongoing S4 (Sana) up the the end, seeing the final episode of S4 on its actual final real-time day The Eid (Eid al-Fitr ) June 25. The real-time, of- the-moment quality was essential to the authenticity of the series and its proximity to the present teenage generation. (We are told that the series was made up as it went along, with input from teens, and nobody knew during S3 who was going to be featured in S4.)

Amazingly all this that I watched was not officially published but local fans' artisanal publications on various platforms with homemade but spot-on idiomatic English subtitles (including all the text messages and explanations of wordplay, maybe the best subtitles ever). It was easy to get hooked and hunt for more and more wherever you could find them. There was nothing like it ever. It was so good and these kids and their talk were so fascinating it made you study the texts and want to learn Norwegian (which I loved the sound of, but found pretty baffling). All this came at kind of a serendipitous time right after I'd devoured all but the last not yet translated of Karl Ove Knausgård's addictive 6-vol. series of autobiographical novels, "My Struggle," so I was used to living vicariously in Norway.

Besides being innovatively naturalistic with its real-time scenes and online broadcast, heavy use of SMS etc., it also boldly covers a social range using appropriate actors, notably Tarjei Sandvik Moe as "Isak," who became a global gay heartthrob, yet was a an actual 15, 16, 17-year-old student at the Hartvig Nissens high school featured in the series. And what a compelling, watchable young actor he is! We live through his lies and dodges, double-takes and self-discoveries moment by moment.

Each of the 4 seasons is the love story of one couple, all connected with the others through the school. S1 is an ordinary (cute) couple, and the boy, Jonas (Marlon Langeland of the imposing eyebrows) spoils their love through excessive jealousy of the beautiful Eva (Lisa Teige). S2 is a screwed-up couple, a snobbish, particular girl and a rich, spoiled, damaged top dog. Noora's and William's story is painful and as true as Isak & Even's. When N & W finally connect, it's super-intense, but also fragile. S3 is Isak, the gay-questioning boy who has to come out to himself, while pursued by the older, more sure Even, who yet has psychological issues. Their first dates are romantic, a scene based on Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet. Then, after the requisite heartbreak and Isak's difficult coming out to his (totally accepting) pals, who sort of knew it all along, as did Emma (Ruby Dagnall), the girl he was stringing along and using as a facade, "Evak" wind up moving in together and being the most loving and stable couple of all, a pearl of a romance cultivated in adversity. Also interesting, a microcosm of the school social groupings, is Isak's loyal little posse of Jonas, Magnus and Mahdi and himself, who talk of nothing but sex though only one, Jonas, of S1, may know anything about it so far. Maguns is the one who has to get laid.

S4, though it continues with all the former characters, focuses primarily on the most baddass and arguably the most complex and interesting character, the Muslim, hijab-wearing Sana (the excellent Iman Meskini), who as time goes on very much finds a boy she loves, Yousef, who's from a Muslim family, but sadly, her religious beliefs don't allow her to be with him when she discovers his attitude to God.

The joyous party at the end both celebrates the young actor's esprit-de- corps and underlines that "SKAM" is throughout very much an ensemble piece, with no minor characters, because they all count, Chris, Vilde, Isak's gay roommate and scold Eskild, the bus groups, the top dog boys, everybody. Mostly to these kids, adults don't count that much, and mostly are seen only from the neck down, till we get to Sana's parents, who do count for her - we can't forget the hilarious, wise school "nurse", more an offbeat counselor, Dr. Skrulle, whose little scenes of totally sui generis advice-giving are priceless.

I confess, I have watched some episodes three, four, or more times, and each time gets better and I marvel more at the wit, adorableness, and how, say, Isak and his posse play off each other when they're together. These kids are incredible. You may think of the UK series "Skins," which is remarkable in its own way, but it is totally different, bent on grimness, and dark humor and absurdity, and not as real and true, or as helpful. Because watching "SKAM" can be healing and enlightening, as well as touching and fun. And it's basically about togetherness and love.


ISAK AND SANA IN BIOLOGY


GIRL POSSE NOORA, VILDE, SANA, CHRIS AND EVA

[cinemabon]

Chris, I search in vain. Please put a link to your review of "Call me by your name" so I can read it.