My Year in Movies 2017
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a senior figure on the Senate Finance Committee, worried that the recent tax cuts by Republicans would be wasted on people going to the movies. He had reason to be concerned. I went to the movies 133 times in 2017*. In general, I do not budget for movie outings. How much I spend is how much I spend. I like to think my +$1000 on movie ticket stubs, millions of popcorn kernels, and the occasional ice cream sandwich helped promote the local movie economy. However, this was ancillary to my theater-going aims.
2017 was an exceptionally good movie year…and I was in need of exceptionally good movies. Living in D.C. was hectic, professionally and personally. Movies were my respite — perhaps even a coping mechanism — from life. Sure, thoughts and ruminations about life would sometimes intrude my movie watching…but those good films, you know, the ones where you just wish time would freeze and the ending credits would never come, were a separate universe unto themselves. Just as my work and personal life bled into the movie watching, so too did good movies affect my everyday life. In 2017, movies impacted how I viewed and experienced the world in significant ways. If only Senator Grassley knew of the positive impact of movies, he may have advocated for tax deductions (maybe even tax credits!) for going to the movies.
List of Movies I saw in Theaters in 2017
New Releases: The Red Turtle, Elle, Toni Erdmann, The Lego Batman Movie, John Wick: Chapter 2, Kedi, Neruda, Get Out, Kong: Skull Island, Raw, Tickling Giants, Truman, Personal Shopper, Frantz, After the Storm, Wilson, Ghost in the Shell, Colossal, The Lost City of Z, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (x2), Finding Oscar, Dean, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Chuck, The Wedding Plan, Alien: Covenant, Obit., Norman (x2), Citizen Jane, Their Finest, Angkor Awakens, Wonder Woman, A Quiet Passion, Band Aid, It Comes at Night, Beatriz at Dinner, The Women’s Balcony, The Hero, Moscow Never Sleeps, Abacus, The Beguiled, Graduation, The Big Sick (x2), The Last Laugh, Baby Driver, Maudie, The Little Hours (x2), Moka, Restless Creature, A Ghost Story, City of Ghosts, Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, Lady Macbeth, Dunkirk (x2), Atomic Blonde, Detroit, Brigsby Bear, Menashe, Landline, Wind River, Good Time, Sami Blood, Ingrid Goes West, Logan Lucky, It, Mother!, Battle of the Sexes, American Made, The Trip to Spain (x2), Marjorie Prime, Blade Runner 2049, Human Flow, The Florida Project (x3), Columbus, Dina, The King’s Choice, Lucky, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Square (x2), Last Flag Flying, God’s Own Country, Lady Bird (x2), Three Billboards Outside, Ebbing Missouri (x2), Mudbound, The Meyerowitz Stories, Darkest Hour (x2), Call Me by Your Name (x2), The Disaster Artist (x2), The Shape of Water (x2), I, Tonya (x2), Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Downsizing, Molly’s Game, All the Money in the World, The Post, Phantom Thread, Hostiles, A Fantastic Woman, The Insult, Loveless, Bombshell: The Hedy Lemarr Story
Classic Screenings: All About Eve (1950), Blazing Saddles (1974), The Graduate (1967), The Godfather (1972), All The President’s Men (1976), Zodiac (2007), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Unforgiven (1992), The Princess Bride (1987), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), North by Northwest (1959), The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Name Dropping at the Movies
I saw Demetri Martin, Menashe, Bob Woodward, and the Sung family from the Abacus documentary at the movies in 2017. Malia Obama and I also happened to be two of five people at a night time screening of My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. There is no better third party booster than Malia Obama to validate the coolness of going to the movies by yourself.
Sometimes, going to the movies by yourself also means you’ll be the only one in the theater — a de facto private viewing. I experienced that twice in 2017 with Last Flag Flying and Downsizing.
Best Acting Performances
- Gary Oldman — Darkest Hour
- Brooklynn Prince — The Florida Project
- Margot Robbie — I, Tonya
- Isabelle Huppert — Elle
- Timothée Chalamet — Call Me by Your Name
- Saoirse Rona — Lady Bird
- Harry Dean Stanton — Lucky
- Sally Hawkins — Maudie & The Shape of Water
- Richard Gere — Norman
- Aubrey Plaza — Ingrid Goes West
- Florence Pugh — Lady Macbeth
- Barry Keoghan — The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Bill Skarsgård — It
- Robert Pattinson — Good Time
- Cynthia Nixon — A Quiet Passion
- Daniela Vega — A Fantastic Woman
Theme of the Year
2017 was the year of the Daughter and Mom. Brooklynn Prince and Bria Vinaite in The Florida Project, Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird, and Margot Robbie and Allison Janney in I, Tonya. These mother-daugher relationships were the centerpieces of at least three superb films this year. Based on my own life, I’m usually more emotionally drawn to father-son relationships in movies (see Nebraska and There Will Be Blood). But 2017 showcased the special bonds — both constructive and destructive — between moms and daughters that was a joy to watch.
Best Nude Scenes
Two great nude scenes this year from Toni Erdmann and The Little Hours had nothing to with sex and everything to do with hilariously underscoring some inane social premise. For Toni Erdmann, it was the work brunch from Hell; for The Little Hours, it was the convent life. A well placed nude scene can completely disrupt social norms and the ennui of life, adding an awkwardness and vulnerability that is both jaw dropping and poignant.
Best Inanimate Object
The Wilson Volleyball award for best acting by an inanimate object goes too…the peach in Call Me by Your Name! Known as “the peach scene,” the fuzzy fruit takes on a forbidden quality for Elio as he explores the boundaries of his sexuality. The peach hits the spot, being sweet and messy, literally and figuratively. Whoever cast that peach in the movie really knows how to pick fruit!
Best Cry
The Cry Scene of 2017— end of The Florida Project. It’s when the adult world came crashing into the childhood youthfulness and innocence of Moonee. It’s the moment when she was the most powerless and vulnerable, her idyllic world popped and was faced with harsh realities and losses. It was a fight or flight moment and it broke my heart the three times I saw it in theaters.
Best Movies of 2017
Honorable Mentions: Darkest Hour, Maudie, Toni Erdmann, After the Storm, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, The Big Sick, The Trip to Spain, Kedi, Lady Bird, Ingrid Goes West, Band Aid, The Post, The Shape of Water, Loveless
Top 10
10. Good Time
Robert Pattinson has come a long way since Twilight (Kristen Stewart too for that matter).
9. I, Tonya
This was Margot Robbie’s Wolf of Wall Street and she nailed the triple axel performance.
8. Columbus
It’s hard to believe this is the same town where Vice President Pence grew up.
7. Detroit
The most blood boiling and infuriating movie of the year. My theory: any movie title that’s an American city (e.g. Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, Columbus, Philadelphia, Fargo) will be great a movie.
6. Lucky
The aging-and-emotionally-inept-man-comes-to-some-sort-of-epiphany-or-not is my favorite movie genre (see Alexander Payne movies). Harry Dean Stanton’s final film explores that moment in life beautifully. What a way to go.
5. Raw
Whoever said feminism and cannibalism don’t mix well together clearly has never seen Raw. The coming-of-age movie genre is one of my favorites, and Raw had a gruesomely novel take on it that left me wincing and in awe.
4. Obit.
No movie affected me more in my every day life than Obit. I now read the NYT obituary section and it’s the most life-affirming addition to my life.
3. Call Me by Your Name
Gender, sexuality, age, and the emotional pit-a-patter that comes from discovering your first love was on great display.
2. Dunkirk
Simply put, this is why I go to the movies.
1. The Florida Project
Sean Baker’s movie encapsulated the joys and adventures of childhood juxtaposed against poverty and single parenthood. It was filmed from the vantage point of the child — literally at the lower level. Along with Moonee and her friends, we went exploring the magical ecosystem of wizard buildings, abandoned houses, and cows, as well as met all the enchanting humans, like the boobed woman, pervy old man, and Brazilian brats. It played like a fantasy and took place right next to Disney World, but in many ways, was strikingly worlds apart. Not since Tatum O’Neal’s turn in the 1973 production of Paper Moon has a child been so boisterously fantastic as Brooklynn Prince, who (outside of Gary Oldman) put in the best acting performance of the year. Without a doubt, The Florida Project was my favorite movie from 2017.
*2017 is not exactly CY17 but more all the movies I’ve seen between the Academy Awards in 2017 and 2018. As such, there is some overlap into 2018.
