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| Nicole Kidman appears on two film in this year's top 85 |
If you're familiar at all to this website, then this type of list should already be familiar to you. If not, just read part ones from previous years to get a rough idea of what critics lists are included and how the points tally is created, as its very similar to what happened this year.
The top 85 for 2017 featured yet another increase in the amount of lists collected (430 lists). It also once again features stories from a diverse set of countries, genres, and filmmakers. So, without further ado, here is the (significantly delayed) results for the 2017 countdown. I'm sure the placements won't be controversial in any way!
85. BRISGBY BEAR (dir: Dave McCary)
40 points
We begin this year's countdown with a strange comedy centered around the adventures of a man trying to finish the story of a beloved children's entertainment program that was only viewable for him. Kyle Mooney plays the starring role, in a movie which he co-wrote with Kevin Costello.
83(tie). THE HUMAN SURGE (dir: Eduardo Williams)
40.5 points
A film for lovers of endurance and the experimental, Williams' debut features consists of following the lives of three group of wayward Millenials from Mozambique, Argentina, and the Phillipines trying to make a life out for themselves. The film's script was reportedly only fifteen pages, and doesn't feature that strong of a narrative, which allowed Williams to use various filming techniques to show what was (for him) the disconnect of our modern technological age. The film was pretty divisive among its release (Rotten Tomatoes has a 50% score for it), but has since gotten a minor cult following.
83(tie). JANE (dir: Brett Morgen)
40.5 points
It seems like we have a new Jane Goodall documentary once every decade or so, and the 2010s is no exception. This time, Goodall tells her story, in her own words, with the help of archival footage from National Geographic that (until recently) was thought to have been lost. How it didn't get an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary is a mystery.
82. HOSTILES (dir: Scott Cooper)
41 points
Christian Bale stars in this acclaimed Western (more of the "revisionist" kind than the ones popularized by Howard Hawks and John Ford) about a U.S. Army captain named Joseph Blocker, who is sent on a tense mission to escort a Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) that he despises back to his tribe. The film also features performances by Rosamund Pike, as well as by Scott Cooper himself.
81. KEDI (dir: Ceyda Torun)
41.5 points
Do you like cats? Then this Turkish documentary is just for you, as it's got nothing but cats as they spend their days doing various things in the city of Istanbul.
80. GIRLS TRIP (dir: Malcolm D. Lee)
43 points
A group of four longtime friends re-unite for a wild and unforgettable trip to a festival in New Orleans. Featuring a breakout performance by comedienne Tiffany Haddish (who went on to receive a New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actress, among other accolades), Girls Trip ended up becoming one of the year's highest-grossing original comedies with over $100 million in the box office domestically.
79. PRINCESS CYD (dir: Stephen Cone)
43.5 points
Jessie Pinnick plays the titular Cyd, a teenager who visits her aunt (Rebecca Spence) in Chicago for the summer in a much acclaimed coming-of-age story that also covers such topics as sex and sexuality.
77(tie). BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK (dir: Anocha Suwichakornpong)
44.5 points
A movie about Thailand's past, as well as the nature of historical filmmaking itself. The second feature by Suwichakornpong finds a female filmmaker trying to dramatize the deadly police attack on students at Thammasat University in Bangkok with the help of one of its more-famous demonstrators, which itself is dramatized over-and-over again.
77(tie). BEACH RATS (dir: Eliza Whittman)
44.5 points
A young man (Harris Dickinson) goes through a tough summer that features his dying mother, various wild outings with friends and tons of flirting online with much older men.
75(tie). RAT FILM (dir: Theo Anthony)
45 points
From a movie filled with figurative rats to one that features plenty of actual rats, Theo Anthony takes up his time in this documentary analyzing one of urban society's most infamous creatures and the various treatment towards them. Between this and Kedi, 2017 sure proved to be a year which showed that giving specific animals a lot of attention could create some magnificent art.
75(tie). INGRID GOES WEST (dir: Matt Spicer)
45 points
A darling at 2017's Sundance Film Festival, Ingrid Goes West stars Aubrey Plaza as a woman who moves to Los Angeles in order to make it big as a social media influencer. Elizabeth Olsen, O'Shea Jackson Jr., and Wyatt Russell also feature prominently in this movie.
74. WORMWOOD (dir: Errol Morris)
48 points
Released on Netflix in December, this four hour documentary (featuring dramatized events starring the likes of Peter Sarsgaard) concerns the conspiratorial nature behind the 1953 death of a U.S. Army scientist. This marks Errol Morris' first appearance on the top 85 since Tabloid's #65 position in 2010.
73. THOR: RAGNAROK (dir: Taika Waititi)
52 points
Featuring the likes of Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett making their debuts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ragnarok was made notable for not only being one of the funniest Marvel movies, but also one which makes the best use of Chris Hemsworth's Viking god yet. It's also the third straight appearance for a Waititi film in the top 85, following Hunt For the Wilderpeople in 2016 (#29) and What We Do in the Shadows in 2015 (#60).
72. THE RIDER (dir: Chloe Zhao)
53.5 points
This film (about an injured cowboy in the Old West) has been playing a lot on the festival circuit, and has received quite a bit of acclaimed from those who have already seen it. Expect to see this move pop back up again on the 2018 countdown once it gets released commercially in the spring.
71. IT (dir: Andy Muschietti)
54 points
Buzz had been building for years on this revamping of the classic 1990 TV adaptation of the Stephen King novel starring Tim Curry, and for the most part it delivered--both in the box office (its the highest grossing "horror" movie of all-time) as well as in terms of quality.
70. MOLLY'S GAME (dir: Aaron Sorkin)
54.5 points
The true story of Molly Bloom, who ran a high-stakes poker game for over a decade, comes to the big screen with a lead performance by Jessica Chastain
69. BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (dir: S. Craig Zahler)
57 points
A brutal movie in which Vince Vaughn plays a prisoner that is forced to kill a certain individual while in prison in order to avoid having his wife (Jennifer Carpenter) get killed. Features a delightful performance by Don Johnson as the warden of Cell Block 99.
68. THE BEGUILED (dir: Sofia Coppola)
60 points
Mired by controversy, such as the choice to not include a notable slave character, this remake of 1971 vehicle directed by Don Siegel features Colin Farrell as a Union soldier crashing in a home of various Confederate woman, led by Nicole Kidman (in a year which saw her appear in several movies on the countdown).
67. TONI ERDMANN (dir: Maren Ade)
60.5 points
After appearing at #4 on the 2016 countdown, Ade's masterpiece (the critical darling of Cannes 2016) re-emerges as the first movie to appear on the countdown in back-to-back years due to some 2017 premieres in various new markets.
66. A FANTASTIC WOMAN (dir: Sebastian Lelio)
63 points
Winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the movie centers around a young transgender woman (played by Daniela Vega) living in Santiago, Chile.
65. LUCKY (dir: John Carroll Lynch)
65.5 points
The on-screen career of Harry Dean Stanton comes to an end with this laid-back and amusing look into the world of a 90 year old man going about his days in the American southwest. Also stars David Lynch, Ron Livingston, and Ed Begley Jr.
64. FOXTROT (dir: Samuel Maoz)
66 points
An Israeli movie about the aftermath of a husband and wife finding out that their son gets killed in the line of duty as a soldier. The film would earn the Grand Jury Prize at 2017's Venice Film Festival.
63. THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (dir: Aki Kaurismaki)
67.5 points
Kaurismaki, the political filmmaker (whose last movie, Le Havre, appeared at #40 on the 2011 countdown), returns with another movie focusing on recent migrants in Europe. This time, he uses the mid-2010s refugee crisis as inspiration for a story about a Syrian (Sherwan Haji) staying as an employee of a Finnish restaurant owner (Sakari Kuosmanen) in order to avoid getting deported back to his home country during wartime.
62. THEIR FINEST (dir: Lone Scherfig)
68 points
The Battle of Dunkirk proved to be a big inspiration for well-received movies in the year 2017, with three movies in the top 85 involving said historical topic. The first of such movies on this list concerns the effort to make a propaganda movie about it during wartime, starring Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin.
60(tie). THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (dir: Albert Serra)
69 points
You gotta admit: the title of the film tells you exactly what you need to know about the plot, and I give them credit for that.
60(tie). MARJORIE PRIME (dir: Michael Almereyda)
69 points
The director of Experimenter (#44 on the 2015 countdown) presents us with this futuristic sci-fi story about an old woman named Marjorie (Lois Smith) who speaks to a hologram of her dead husband (Jon Hamm) in order to better live out her final days. The movie also features Geena Davis as Marjorie's daughter and Tim Robbins as Davis' character's husband.
59. LOGAN LUCKY (dir: Steven Soderbergh)
69.5 points
Retirement? What retirement! Less than five years after Soderbergh announced that 2013's Side Effects would be his last feature film, he returns to the big screen once more. Starring Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, the movie centers around a duo of West Virginia brothers who work towards completing a money-robbing scheme at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
57(tie). JEANETTE: THE CHILDHOOD OF JOAN OF ARC (dir: Bruno Dumont)
72 points
The formative years of the legendary Maid of Orleans, as told via the heavy-metal rock opera format.
57(tie). GOD'S OWN COUNTRY (dir: Francis Lee)
72 points
2017 featured quite a lot of notable gay romances on screen, and this one is a notable example. Josh O'Connor stars as an English farmer who develops a relationship with the Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) that his family had hired.
56. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (dir: Raoul Peck)
73 points
Was this Oscar-nominated documentary a 2016 movie or a 2017 movie? It was counted as a 2016 movie for the Oscars, yet most theaters outside LA and New York didn't play it until February 2017. Either way, this biography of James Baldwin (narrated by Samuel L. Jackson) received praise in both years' countdowns (#26 in 2016, #56 here).
55. THE DAY AFTER (dir: Hong Sangsoo)
74 points
The prolific Korean filmmaker manages to make another successful collaboration with actress Kim Min-hee, this time in this tale about potential infidelity. Expect to see this also pop-up in 2018's countdown, since this only played in festivals in the United States.
54. COLOSSAL (dir: Nacho Vigalondo)
75.5 points
Anne Hathaway's most notable role since the 2012 double bills of Les Miserables (for which she won an Oscar) and The Dark Knight Rises has her play a woman who can control the mind of a giant, Godzilla-esque monster that ravages mainland South Korea.
53. LA LA LAND (dir: Damien Chazelle)
78 points
Yet another re-appearance of a highly rated 2016 movie, this time by the famous musical who appeared at #3 on that year's countdown.
52. THE WORK (dir: Gethin Aldous, Jairus McLeary)
79.5 points
A documentary about three men who go inside Folsom Prison to speak with convicts while also taking part in a group therapy retreat.
51. YOUR NAME (dir: Makoto Shinkai)
85.5 points
A Japanese anime about a teenage boy and girl who switch bodies and now attempt to meet each other for the first time. The movie was both a critical and commercial, becoming once of the highest-grossing movies in Japanese box-office history as well as one of the most successful non-English language movies ever.
50. GRADUATION (dir: Cristian Mungiu)
87 points
Released at Cannes 2016, this drama (from the director of Beyond the Hills, which placed #41 in the 2013 countdown) centers around a Romanian doctor attempting to incur favors in order to send his daughter to a good university.
49. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 (dir: Chad Stahelski)
87.5 points
After coming out guns-ablazing with a thrilling debut (#70 in the 2014 countdown), the John Wick series upped the ante to deliver a sequel that featured even higher stakes and even more mercenary killings. Let's hope that the third entry in the series (set to be released in 2019) continues with the goods.
48. DARKEST HOUR (dir: Joe Wright)
88 points
A.K.A. that movie where Gary Oldman finally wins his Oscar wearing heavy make-up in order to portray Winston Churchill during his early days as Prime Minister as well as the battle of Dunkirk.
46(tie). WONDERSTRUCK (dir: Todd Haynes)
91 points
A story set in two time periods: the 1920's (where a young deaf girl tries to live with her actress mother in New York) and the 1970's (where a young deaf boy runs away from home to figure out who his father was). This is arguably Haynes' least-acclaimed work of the 21st Century thus far. However, that's a testament to his greatest where a 46th position can be seen as a "step-down" for him.
46(tie). LADY MACBETH (dir: William Oldroyd)
91 points
A breakthrough performance by Florence Pugh is just one of the many highlights of this period piece about the wife of a British aristocrat involving herself in various scandals.
45. ZAMA (dir: Lucrecia Martel)
91.5 points
The famous Argentinian filmmaker came back with her first movie in nine year, based on the novel of the same name, and it appears to not have disappointed. Expect to see this again in the 2018 countdown after it makes releases across the globe.
44. OKJA (dir: Bong Joon-ho)
98.5 points
A pro-environmental movie from the director of Snowpiercer (#14 in the 2014 countdown). It's about a girl (Seohyun An) who tries to rescue a genetically-created animal with the help of a group of environmentalists (led by Steven Yeun). Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton also star.
43. ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE (dir: Hong Sangsoo)
107 points
As you can tell by his now-2nd appearance on the list, Hong was really on a roll in 2017. This time, he has Kim Min-hee as an actress contemplating what to do next in her relationship with a married man (definitely not an autobiographical film, I'm sure).
42. WESTERN (dir: Valeska Grisebach)
111.5 points
A group of German construction workers encounter various challenges while working and living in the Bulgarian countryside. Despite not yet premiering for commercial release in the United States, this Grisebach drama (which some reviews describe as possessing the same spirit as some of John Ford's best features) made quite a splash overseas and in the festival circuit. In the eight year history of this list, it currently stands as the highest-placed movie on a top 85 to not get commercially released until the following year (beating out Under the Skin, which placed #49 in 2013 before gaining a top-5 slot in 2014, so this movie's probably gonna own).
41. WIND RIVER (dir: Taylor Sheridan)
114.5 points
The last few years have been pretty good for Taylor Sheridan. After writing two critically acclaimed films (2015's Sicario, which was #9 on the year-end countdown, and 2016's Best Picture nominated Hell or High Water, which placed at #6 on the year-end countdown), Sheridan decided to pursue his first effort as writer-director. And although it wasn't as well-received as his earlier efforts, his police drama about the investigation into the death of a Native-American woman (starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen), still managed to get quite a bit of praise.
39(tie). SONG TO SONG (dir: Terrence Malick)
120 points
Malick's late-period effort of prolific output continued in 2017, as he explored the world of music culture in the Austin scene. A star-studded cast graces the screen, featuring Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, and Ryan Gosling (among others).
39(tie). MOONLIGHT (dir: Barry Jenkins)
120 points
This 2016 drama's Best Picture win in early 2017 may have been surprise, but it's continued praise and top-ten placements (this time from international critics who were just seeing it released in their home countries for the first time) was anything but surprising. It placed #1 in the countdown last year, after all!
38. RAW (dir: Julia Ducournau)
1285. points
A young French woman (Garance Marillier) starts her time as a medical student and encounters significant problems after eating meat during a hazing ritual.
37. THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) (dir: Noah Baumbach)
130.5 points
A series of stories about an old artist patriarch (Dustin Hoffman) and his three children (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel). This film, which controversially played In Competition at Cannes before premiering on Netflix in the fall, was notable for many things including what was possibly Sandler's most-praised effort in years.
36. COCO (dir: Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina)
141 points
Winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, this movie is a celebration not only of Mexican culture but about the power of music and the arts.
35. DETROIT (dir: Kathryn Bigelow)
143 points
The award-winning writer/director combo of Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow collaborated again to dramatize the story of the 1967 Detroit riots. During its release, the movie proved a bit polarizing as it was mired in a bit of controversy, including its portrayal of the black characters suffering.
34. THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (dir: Yorgos Lanthimos)
154.5 points
Start with the writer-director of Dogtooth (#15 in the 2010 poll) and The Lobster (#11 in the 2016 poll), feature the return of the director's collaboration between him and Colin Farrell, add Nicole Kidman onto the mix, and you have a creepy movie that's sure to be talked about for years to come.
33. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (dir: Matt Reeves)
159 points
The final film in the modern trilogy detailing the events that took place before Planet of the Apes, it features Andy Serkis' Caesar leading his troop of primates to battle against a human army led by a general played by Woody Harrelson.
32. COLUMBUS (dir: kogonada)
159.5 points
After years of making shorts and being best known for various Criterion DVD extras, kogonada finally made his feature film debut, to great success. Set in the famous architecture town of Columbus, Indiana, the drama stars John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson as two people with tumultuous lives that develop a special relationship over time.
31. EX LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (dir: Frederick Wiseman)
170 points
There are few certain things in life. The Sun rising the East, for instance. Snow being produced in the winter is another. At this point, you can probably add Frederick Wiseman creating a great, lengthy documentary centered around a specific location onto this list as well.
That's it for now. Come back tomorrow for the exciting reveal of this year's top 30!
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