The Top 10 Best Movies of 2017

The best of the best in a pretty fantastic year.

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Now that we've reached the end of my year in review, I think that now I can safely say that 2017 was a year where filmgoers became more aware of the movies they were watching and the people making them. While film companies languished over Rotten Tomatoes and how it was killing off movie revenues for their movies, viewers actually just started to care about the movies they were seeing. They weren't going to go see garbage movies, so when a movie did well at the box office or critically, that movie wouldn't leave the culture's frame of mind. Movies like Thor: Ragnarok, Get Out, Wonder Woman, Star Wars, and It were massive successes this year and were all pretty decent movies.

People also started to care immensely about the sexual harassment and culture of oppression going on in Hollywood. Personally, I think that a huge majority of celebrities are pretty self congratulatory about fighting a corrupt system that they themselves have corrupted and have known about for decades, but movie goers voted with their wallets. They supported the people that they believed were right and protested against the villains and sexual predators in Hollywood. To make a long story short, activism cam barreling into the film discussion yet again, but this time it's way more complicated than before.

If it sounds like I'm trying to sum up a huge situation in a paragraph, it's really because I am. I'm not here to talk about the people behind the best movies of the year or even about the string of controversies coming out of Hollywood. That's never been my job, but I'd be an idiot if I didn't at least mention it before we got started. Because at the end of the day, the movies speak for themselves. Whether a horrible person or a saint was cast in a movie, it still doesn't change the quality of a movie. If you're unable to separate the art from the artist, then you can't enjoy nearly as many movies, games, books, music, or television that you do.

Wow I really keep on getting off track here. Okay! I saw 34 movies this year, and these are the 10 very best out of an already very good year. I'm here to talk about movies! Movies, movies, movies! Not about Oprah trying to run for president and dear God no I'm talking about politics and the business again! Just go to the honorable mention before I have to talk about Harvey Weinstein!

HM: Wonder Woman

The best DC movie since The Dark Knight, Wonder Woman was everything that I could have hoped for. It proved that a female led and female directed action block buster could succeed and it completely dissuaded my fears that Ghostbusters would scare off producers from backing female led movies. Wonder Woman is not just a good movie, but it's a historical significant movie in my opinion. It defined the optimism of 2017 and showed people that like Wonder Woman, you can strive to do good just because it's the right thing to do. You don't need any other reason besides that. Good is good, so fight for what's right. It's certainly more interesting than the complicated motivations of the MCU or the drab and dour motivations of the DC Universe.

The action is great, the No Man's land sequence was truly spectacular, and it felt like I was watching an honest to God hero be a hero. The reason why it's not in my Top 10 has mostly to do with its ending The final third goes full DC and loses its color, introduces a lame villain, has a butt load of CGI, and just lessens the impact of the movie. If the ending was just as good as the first two thirds, it could easily be in my Top 5. But a bad ending, or at least a disappointing ending, is still a problem in a great movie. You could have a fantastic story, but if you can;t stick the landing it can hurt the final product, and that kind of happened for Wonder Woman. Still, it's one of the most talked about movies of 2017 and I think it has to do with its message and its overall quality. Good job Patty Jenkins.

#10: The Disaster Artist

As one of my most anticipated movies of the year, the question wasn't going to be if The Disaster Artist was going to be in my Top 10, but rather where. I'm actually pretty surprised that it ended up as low as it did.

Don't get me wrong, The Disaster Artist is a phenomenal movie. James Franco is great as Tommy Wiseau and the movie is a great dark comedy as well as a character piece, but there were just other movies that were better. Seeing a behind the scenes version of The Room that is based off of Greg Sestero's novel lends it an air of authenticity, but this is really just James Franco's show. He owns the role and if so good at being Tommy that it's frightening. I loved everything about this movie, and yet it's only just barely getting on my list. That's how good 2017 was.

#9: The Babysitter

I don't care of this movie is a steaming pile of trash, it's an entertaining pile of trash.

The Babysitter was a throwback to 80's slasher movies and movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Ferris Bueller's Day Off that succeeded in all regards. I was laughing my ass off and having a great time watching everything that happens here. It's self aware enough to know that it isn't anything special, but just dumb enough to still pull off some incredibly stupid moments. Seeing how each of our villains gets taken down is great, but the real star of the show is the dialogue between Cole and the high schoolers.

I never thought that a movie about satanic high schoolers would be so much fun and give way to some of the best jokes of 2017, but here you go. This is the kind of movie where you order in some pizzas, hang out with your friends, and just have a good time. That's exactly what I did and man did this movie impress me with its Evil Dead 2 sense of humor.

#8: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

I still don't believe that this movie exists. Why in the world did something think to resurrect the Captain Underpants franchise, a franchise that hasn't been relevent since the early 2000's? I don't know who that person was, but they deserve a round of applause for giving us one of the best kids movies of the year.

Once you get over the fact that you're watching a Captain Underpants movie and you actually have to hear the characters say Captain Underpants about a hundred times, you'll see that the movie has way more heart than you would expect. It understands kids movies in a way that I haven't seen in a while. It makes kids problems seem like legitimate problems and gives everything a goofy edge. Moments that would be insufferable in other movies works here because everything is done in an over-the-top, cartoony way. 

The best way I can describe it is comparing a fart joke in this movie with a fart joke in the Teen Titans Go! movie trailer. When a fart joke happens in the latter, it's long, unpleasant, and doesn't change all that much. It's the same joke for 20 seconds with the characters saying that a fart joke just happened. In Captain Underpants, we get a massive chorus of farts to a song that builds on itself until it reaches a climax of farts. Both are childish, but one is still funny to kids and adults. And that's the best praise I can give Captain Underpants; it can allow adults to feel like kids again and enjoy stupid humor with them. So kudos Dreamworks for making adults actually enjoy Captain Underpants!

#7: Get Out

If Wonder Woman was the feel good and optimistic movie of the year, Get Out was the stark and unpleasant reminder that our world is still kind of garbage. Get Out is a painful and deep look at modern day liberal racism in the guise of a horror movie that managed to become so well received that it may be the first horror movie since Black Swan (if you count Black Swan as a horror movie, if not than The Sixth Sense) to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. 

Get Out is really one of those movies that's hard to describe accurately. It can mean so many different things to different people, and it's a movie that you just need to see to really understand it all. I can talk it up as much as I want, but none of that will do the movie justice. Find it, sit down, watch it, and you can easily see why this was one of the most unsettling and honest depictions of racism in years. 

#6: The Shape of Water

Who would have thought that one of the great cult movie directors and monster makers of our generation would make the best romance of the year? No seriously, who would have thought that a love story between a mute woman and a fish man would be as beautiful as this? 

The Shape of Water is a gorgeous movie to watch. From it's underwater beginning to it's underwater ending, you're mesmerized by what you're watching. It feels like you're watching something really special and it's done with a cast that knocks it out of the park. Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, they're all fantastic here. The Shape of Water is peppered with little tiny moments of beauty that just build constantly until you have something that you're saddened to see end. But it ends on such a perfect note that you don't have any objections to it. 

If I could change one tiny thing about the movie, I would probably want more moments with Sally Hawkins and the fish man just spending time together. Maybe like an extra scene or two of them just living life together to show how much they truly love each other. That's a nitpick to an already fantastic movie though. Get out to the theatres, find it, watch it, and love it. Just be ready for fish sex. 

#5: Blade Runner 2049

If you wanted to see the best movie that no one saw, you need to check out Blade Runner 2049. A sequel that arguably is better than the original, Blade Runner 2049 is a movie that commands your attention. Once you get through the first couple of scenes, you're absorbed into the world and forced to see it through Ryan Gosling's eyes. Everything about 2049 is spectacular to watch and lets the world come alive in a truly spectacular way. It honestly feels like the world of 2049 is more interesting than its plot, but that is not even close to being a slight against the plot. 

The actual story is gripping, deeply personal, and throws the audience for a couple of loops that they never would have seen coming. I was actually surprised watching it and engaged with what I was seeing. I felt like I was being treated like an active participant and not spoon fed information. I noticed things, put ideas together, questioned scenarios, and all of that allowed me to care about about this world and the replicants than I ever did in the original Blade Runner. I don't know how they made a movie better than one of the greatest sci-fi cyberpunk movies ever, but there you go. 

#4: It

And here's the highest grossing horror movie of all time! I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty skeptical going into It. It's a remake of a Stephen King miniseries with mostly unknown actors and it's based on a massive novel that had a lot of... weird things about it. When I left the theatre after watching It, I was floored. I loved the characters, the scares, and of course, Pennywise. 

It's so rare to see a horror movie succeed as well as It did, but it became the definite version of the story in my opinion. Characters were more focused, the scares were deeply personal, and again, Pennywise is just terrifying. I might think that the Babadook is a more terrifying monster, but Pennywise is just as manipulative and evil as the Babadook could ever be. It did something that few horror movies could do. It became a pop culture phenomenon. 

With word that It Chapter 2 is going to be released in 2019, this duology is probably going to conclude on a fantastic note. If the sequel is just as focused and as polished as this movie, then I think we could have one of the greatest horror stories ever put to film on our hands. 

#3: Dunkirk

I had a hard time placing my Top 3 movies of the year. There always comes a certain point in a Top 10 list where it just comes down to how I feel on a particular day about a movie, but Dunkirk embodied one of the three things I look for in a movie; technical proficciency. 

Dunkirk, more than any other movie this year, is an experience. You're able to watch the struggles on soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk, British citizens rush to save them, and pilots try to defend them all in the span of an hour and a half. It's not perfect with its multiple time periods, but the story and continuity hardly matters in this case. Dunkirk wants you to empathize with its characters, and it does so through it's cinematography, it's sound design, and it's sets. 

War movies tyically aren't all that interesting to me unless the subject that they're covering is noteworthy enough. Dunkirk was a major historical moment with a lot of tension, fear, and horror that resulted in a monumental defeat for the British, and all of those feelings are put forward here. It's an oppressive movie to sit through and I mean that in all of the best ways. If I could go back and watch Dunkirk in IMAX, I would. This is what movies can be. They can tell stories solely through their visuals and I can't think of a better example of that this year than Dunkirk. 

#2: Logan

Logan has the single best story of the year. The fact that I was able to care so deeply for Wolverine, Professor X, and X-23 by the end of this movie as someone who cares very little for the course material is nothing short of a miracle. Logan goes through such a painful journey in a painful world and brings us along for the ride. 

I know that a lot of people jokingly say that this is just a movie version of The Last of Us, but that should never be considered a bad thing. Both that game and this movie are championed for their stories and it's easy to see what makes them work so well. Not only is this a movie about surviving in a world that's out to get you, but it has Logan and Professor X reflect on their lives and the people who they were and became. There's a lot of introspection here, way more so than what I would have expected out a superhero movie this year. 

If you ever hear someone say that superhero movies can't be emotionally compelling or tell a satisfying story, show them Logan. Not only will they be moved by it, but they'll also be impressed with its absolutely brutal action. The action here is ultra violent and gives the movie it's R rating without question. The action is nuts, but I can't say that any other movie this year had as good hand to hand combat or blockbuster action than Logan. And for the longest time, I was ready to put Logan as my favorite movie of the year, a testament to its excellence. But then, I rewatched what would eventually be my #1 movie and gave the slightest edge to it. That movie is...

#1: Baby Driver

Edgar Wright strikes again!

With a simple premise, Edgar Wright is able to make a movie that just feels like a rush of adrenaline to the system. On the surface, Baby Driver is a simple heist movie about a young man that's trying to get out of the getaway car driver business and has to go through one last chase, but everything else about it is just classic Edgar Wright. 

The character interactions, the shots, the jokes, the action, everything about Baby Driver just fits together perfectly. There are these little blink and you'll miss them moments that may seem superficial on the surface but say so much about the character saying them. Even when nothing is being said, the car chases are some of the most exhilarating car chases I've seen in years. The stunts are outstanding and everything just builds up to an explosive and great ending. 

But the real star of the movie is the soundtrack. Baby Driver is almost like a rock 'n roll musical with how well the action syncs to the music and how much of it defines the characters. Whether it's Baby restarting a song so his driving blends in perfectly with it or the way that everything is deathly quiet whenever Baby isn't listening to his music. There is so much attention to detail with the soundtrack that it deserves a dissection of its own. 

From "Hocus Pocus" to "Brighton Rock", from Bats to Buddy, Baby Driver is the most stylish and entertaining movie of the year. I know that technically there are other more polished and more refined movies that say deeper and more meaningful things that came out this year, but no movie floored me as much as Baby Driver. It wouldn't be my list unless I was true to myself, and I can't deny that Baby Driver was my favorite movie of 2017. I may not know what kind of a year 2018 will be, but I can at least say that 2017 had at least one kickass movie that won my heart.