Disclaimer: These are films released in UK cinemas in 2017 (some may technically be 2016 films). I haven’t seen every single film this year but I have seen the vast majority of wide releases, and sought out smaller indies (most don’t come to where I live so despite my best efforts I couldn’t justify a long trip for every film I wanted to see).
2017 was a pretty good year for film. There was a huge number of excellent releases this year – some big, some small, but a lot have had an unexpected impact. With everything that was going on in the world, escapism was needed more than ever, as was politically and socially poignant commentary.
For my top 10, I’ve gone for the films I personally enjoyed the most – the ones that had the greatest effect on me, wrapped me up most in their stories, and played on my mind even after the credits rolled. These are my personal top 10 films – it was pretty hard to narrow down and then order my choices, so I reserve the right for future me to disagree with present-day me.
1) La La Land
Much like the rest of the world, this movie musical completely captured my heart and instantly became one of my favourite films. I’m a fan of musicals, films, and Damien Chazelle (I love Whiplash) so this was one of my most anticipated films of the last couple of years (I have been waiting for it since Whiplash). This is a love letter to the great musicals of yesteryear, but has a distinctive shot of indie temperament that colours it something different. It has the hyper-realistic musical numbers, but also wildly stripped back songs; it has characters professing their feelings in song, but also rising conversations around the dinner table. It is a film that has the power to make your heart take flight, but also the power to break it. It will wrap you up in its colourful embrace, and will leave you wanting to dive back into its world (I saw it four times at the cinema) as you find yourself humming the tunes for weeks after. Great songs, performances, story and visuals all add up to make this a musical masterpiece that celebrates the dreamers in a deeper way that most films dare to.
2) Dunkirk
This pipped La La Land to the post for my most anticipated film of the year, and boy did it deliver. It is probably obvious from some of my features that I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan, and thus have been patiently waiting for this since Interstellar. The film is a visceral experience that transplants you in the soldiers’ positions and manages a horrifically close level intimacy that creates vast empathy, and a feeling of truly experiencing the events yourself. It is an incredibly intense piece of cinema which becomes so much more effective than the history lesson it could have been. This being Nolan, the structure is also brilliantly clever and unconventional, with the tale being elementally split into three strands – the mole (the soldiers on the beach), the sea (the civilian boats) and the air (the RAF Spitfires) – the stories within which are intercut, but take place over differing lengths of time (one week, one day and one hour, respectively). This serves to ramp up the tension even further, allows for clever foreshadowing, and momentary cliffhangers. Despite the extraordinary technical feat of the film, it is the burning spirit at the heart of it that really grabs you, and lifts this to become one of the all-time greats of the genre.
3) Baby Driver
Once again, my anticipation for this film came from my love for its director, Edgar Wright. We haven’t had a film from him since the conclusion to his Cornetto Trilogy, but Baby Driver proved worth the wait. Defying categorisation, this crime-thriller-action-musical-comedy-romance is brilliantly entertaining and original. It features some of the best action scenes of the year, and car chases I have ever seen. It is the emotional throughline, though, and the way the film gets you to care about its characters that affords it the depth that makes it more than sheer surface-level entertainment. The standout element of this film though, is its phenomenal use of music. The fact that every movement, cut or action is done in time to the accompanying soundtrack makes for some awe-inspiring filmmaking that makes the film all the more compelling. The mash-up of genres is handled masterfully with the film flitting between moments of genuine hilarity and moments of charged tension with ease, to create an overall immensely enjoyable experience. It is also chock full of Easter eggs and minute details to keep even the most eagle-eyed viewer occupied through repeat viewings.
(Bonus) Thoroughbreds
It might technically be cheating to throw this into my Top 10 of 2017, which is why I’ve included it as a ‘bonus’ film in the position it likely would have taken up. This film technically isn’t released until next year, but since I saw it at this year’s London Film Festival, I couldn’t pass up the chance to include it. I had no idea what to expect going in (the trailer hadn’t been released) but what I was greeted with was a brilliant dark-comedy-thriller, which I found to be one of the most compelling films of the year. Featuring two of the most fascinating characters of the year debating back and forth on whether to murder one’s step-dad, the film is richly layered, and endlessly entertaining, with some hilarious moments, and some extraordinarily tense. It is incredibly unpredictable and proves itself to be a clever twisted noir that mixes the funny with the disturbing to provide a distinctively unique experience. It primarily depicts conversations but feels starkly cinematic, and features a fantastically unusual score. It marks the arrival of a writer-director to watch (Corey Finley) and cements the rising talents of its two stars. It is absolutely brilliant and I hope it finds its audience when it is released in March.
This is one of the films that breaks you and leaves you reeling for a while. It is a phenomenally powerful examination of grief and coping that will pull you in and leave you on the edge of tears (if not actually crying) for much of its running time. It also finds the time to be laugh-out-loud hilarious at just the right times; it is beautifully balanced. The incredibly script paired with some of the best performances of recent years makes this emotional gut-punch feel completely authentic, serving to heighten the strength of its emotions, as you never feel as though you aren’t watching real people. You are involved closely with these characters in a way that leaves you experiencing the devastating emotions alongside them. It is a quiet powerhouse that lingers in the mind long after the film has ended.
Sean Baker’s tale of impoverished families living in motels outside of Disneyland is much more joyful than the premise may suggest. He finds a way to make a film that is uplifting, as well as heartbreaking, by portraying this slice of life through the eyes of a six year-old. The film sweeps you up in her summer adventures, but it is the moments that we, as an older audience, witness, that bring the reality of the situation occasionally crashing back down. It is the humanity at the heart of the film that really grips onto you, and I really felt as though I was seeing a snapshot into these people’s lives, and that they live beyond the parameters of the films opening and closing frames, which, of course, the real families the film represents do. The film never feels exploitative of these real people, but instead feels as though it has a humanist purpose in shining a light on these lives, and ensuring the rest of the world knows they exist. The choice that we are mostly privy to events from a child’s-eye-view means that the focus is more on the characters than solely their situation, allowing them to feel more real, and be more than the statistics you might see online. It will fill your heart up and break it, but keeps a decidedly hopeful tone. Another one that is hard shake.
6) Wind River
Following his brilliant work as the writer of Sicario and Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan rounded out his ‘American Frontier Trilogy’ by stepping in to direct his own script, in a film I had high hopes for; those hopes were met. There is a classic feel to Sheridan’s films, and an almost poetic sense in how they play out, with Wind River being no different. Here, justice is the goal, and of course it is not in the traditional court-based sense. We get a feeling of real, flawed people with histories, whose actions lead to an unpredictable story that is entirely enthralling. Sheridan, again, commandeers his landscape to the extent it feels like another character in the tale; the film transports you to the titular American India reservation, and keeps you engrossed from its opening frame to the credits. It is a whodunit with real emotional pay-off, where you really feel as though you have been on the journey with the characters.
7) Get Out
Jordan Peele’s debut film sent a shock wave through pop culture to become one of the most talked about films of the year. It was one of the films that also had the biggest reactions in the cinema I was in, with a palpable atmosphere created by this film that is brilliantly entertaining, but is also underpinned by cutting social commentary. It is a brilliant horror film that scares and frightens, but also has great comic relief at the perfect moments. It keeps you completely engaged in what is going on, and never loses sight of its goals or commentary right through to the final moments (i.e. it never descends into the over the top stupid finales that a lot of good horrors get lost in). The commentary on race relations in America is sharp and present throughout – it is pointed in certain moments of dialogue, but is inextricably weaved into the plot – it drives the film. It is an important film that is also wildly original and entertaining. It makes you excited to see what Peele will do next.
This is a sun-soaked romance that escapes all Hollywood conventions to provide a film that is deeply felt, but also restrained and melancholic. The way the film comes at the romance from a coming-of-age angle also means it takes a lesser-explored perspective for an LGBTQ+ romance. The sense of longing swells from the film and threatens to overspill from the screen; this is the greatest source of tension in the film – desire and the self-imposed denial of it. It is incredibly gorgeous and tender, sure to touch the hearts of all who see it. It also removes the gay romance from a claustrophobic sense of societal judgment, and allows it to breathe in the liberal family’s home in the Italian countryside, allowing it breathe more, and explore a different angle. With its startling central performances (especially Timothée Chalamet) the film feels incredibly honest, allowing it to have a strong impact, and one that stays with you.
9) Good Time
The Safdie brothers’ neon-drenched nocturnal crime thriller takes the ‘heist gone wrong’ premise and injects it with an alarming freshness to create one of the most unique and effective thrillers of the year. There are intoxicating visuals and a distinct score which envelop you in this world; added to the fast pacing and character-focused nature of the film, it makes for a visceral experience. I was gripped from beginning to end, as the film not only pulls off the exhilaration of the chase and tunneled quest of the protagonist, but the emotional thread that lies beneath, ensuring you are fully invested. It also features one of the best and most interesting bank heist scenes I’ve seen; it is spectacularly understated, but masterfully rackets up the tension – a tension that rarely lets up through the rest of the run time. It is one of the most thrilling films of the year, and its unconventional telling allows it to feel loose and unpredictable; you might have seen your fair share of (botched) bank heist films in your time, but none quite like this.
I think my disdain for most unnecessary sequels has been fairly well documented on here, but when the team behind this one was announced (basically when I heard the names Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins), I couldn’t help but get excited. This is a rare sequel (and a belated one at that) that feels entirely tonally coherent with the original, without being a repeat, and thus comes out as something that is more than worthy to stand next to what has become a classic. The film stays loyal to the slow-burning, contemplative style of the original and allows you to sink into its world, whilst also giving you time to think about its deeply existential themes. It seems to have taken all precaution to preserve the original’s legacy whilst consciously building upon it. It is visually stunning, and will hopefully finally net Deakins his Oscar next year; it is worth watching even just for the cinematography alone. The film also asks questions, and doesn’t answer all the ones we already have, ensuring there is a lot to absorb during the run time, and once its over. I didn’t get up to leave the cinema straight away, and that, to me, is a sign of a good film.
Honourable Mentions: Logan Lucky, Stronger, 20th Century Women, It, Hidden Figures, Silence
