Top 20 Films of 2017

Honorable Mentions:

Brigsby Bear

Patti Cake$

Logan Lucky

Wind River

IT

It Comes At Night

The Top 20:

20. Coco

Pixar's latest gem Coco is a vividly-tuned celebration of music and passion. It's is so rich with themes of family, legacy, memories, and yes -- death. But for a film that does approach the subject of death so often, it's incredibly full of life.

19. The Lost City of Z

The beautifully shot Lost City of Z is a sweeping, sprawling epic of exploration and relentless desire that hearkens back to classical adventures of the past. It's one of the most under-the-radar films of the year, and it shouldn't just be hidden away, so go seek this one out.

18. Ingrid Goes West

Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen star in this California dreamin' excursion of social media age antics and web celeb obsession. It's over-the-top, thoroughly absorbing, and rich in relevant substance. It's practically a moving postcard with a lot of baggage. And actually, the film's use of "All My Life" by K-Ci & JoJo alone was enough to get my click of approval.

17. Baby Driver

A playlist-inspired action flick with a high-octane spin, Baby Driver is a film that fires on all cylinders. The flashy editing and kinetic camerawork... The escalating conflicts within each beat of the narrative... The way the rock & soul music synchronizes with the exhilarating tempo of the chase sequences and shootouts...  It's all crafted with stylish precision.

16. Personal Shopper

Kristen Stewart gives a captivating performance in Personal Shopper, an unorthodox ghost story that consistently intrigues and perplexes. What's in the mind and what isn't? Grief, trauma, delusion, and paranormal activity all seem to be at work. It's the type of film that will make you think, while coming up with your own theories about it, which means it's worth watching more than once. The end is unsettling and ambiguous, and given the nature of the film, you wouldn't expect anything else.

15. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Yeah, I enjoyed it. 

14. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The crew of ragtags-to-lovable heros return for another round of space escapades. From the dazzling visual effects to the charming, sometimes Looney Toons-esque camp -- to the well-curated soundtrack of classic rock & soul songs that pop against the film's arcade colors and cosmic splash aesthetic -- to the zany sense of humor -- Vol. 2  is a rollicking, gooey, extraterrestrial fun time.

13. Thor: Ragnarok 

Taika Waititi makes an impressive leap to blockbuster fare with the wildly warping blast of cosmic revelry that is Thor: Ragnarok. Simply put - it's a smash. Oh, and Korg rules.

12. John Wick: Chapter 2

As Kanye West once said in a song, "Any rumor you ever heard about me was true and legendary." The same could be said of John Wick. The guy keeps reiterating his desire to retire, but for the sake of us all -- let's hope he doesn't.

11. Wonder Woman

Dashing in as one of the most fantastic superhero journeys of the year, Wonder Women is a triumph in so many ways. It's a film worth rooting for. It'll give you chills, and it'll make you want to pump your fist. It has a shining, glorious soul.

10. Dunkirk

A technical marvel. An expertly crafted World War II thriller that leaves you breathless. Dunkirk is a very straightforward, matter-of-fact tale of rescue and survival that's told with minimal dialogue, and it's just as impactful as anything Christopher Nolan has ever done.

9. Logan

Not your usual Wolverine movie, Logan is a dark and grisly swan song for Mr. Claws that slashes with potent violence and pierces with affecting tenderness. This film honors the end of an era. The last of a dying breed.

8. Good Time

Robert Pattinson gives the best performance of his career in Ben and Josh Safdie's wickedly intense and tenaciously dirty New York City crime-drama. This thing is jarring, the stakes are high, and it's chalked full of danger. Every maximal scene is designed to get your heart racing. It's a visually stylish adrenaline rush, through and through.

7. Blade Runner 2049

Denis Villeneuve delivers an astonishingly-realized dystopian epic. The picture is so sublime and provocative that you just have to sit back and stare in awe. The soundscape is hypnotic too, as the reverberating post-Yeezus score virtually sends waves into your head and swallows you whole. I found the pure artfulness, innovation, and neo-noir vibes of it all to be mesmerizing.

6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

A darkly comic, potently tragic, and thoroughly entertaining display that features a prominent, tour de force performance from the great Frances McDormand. It's a small-town story, but it burns with resonant and relevant themes, sending smoke signals of scathing commentary on abuse of power, racism, predators, hypocrisy, and misplaced priorities.

5. The Florida Project

A spirited and empathetic juxtaposition of childhood wonderment against the backdrop of working-poor struggles within the fractured cracks of America. It's winsome, observant, transient, and as enchanting as it is harsh. The last 10 minutes breathtakingly set off fireworks of swirling emotion that will turn you into a blubbering mess.

4. Lady Bird

Greta Gerwig's directorial debut is a coming-of-age comedy gem that's spunked with a consistently delightful energy. It flaunts a well-written script, memorable characters, and a superb turn from Saoirse Ronan. Everything about this film is brilliant.

3. Get Out

Jordan Peele's feature directorial debut is one of those wildly blended cinematic experiences that you don't often see pulled off with this much success. It's all at once an effective horror film, a sly commentary on race relations, a searing satire on the terrors of white supremacy, and a psychological cult escape thriller. This film will make you jump. It'll make you squirm. It'll make you laugh. It'll make you sweat. And it'll make you desperately want to yell "Get Out!"

2. The Big Sick

Co-written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick is a semi-autobiographical dramedy that is as pleasant as it is poignant. The film is about the complicated relationships we encounter, the doozies that life drops, the intricacies of family and culture, and the power of comedy that can sometimes help us through it all.

1. The Shape of Water

Weird, wet, wild, and wonderful. The Shape of Water is a deeply majestic fairytale that would only come from the mind of visionary director Guillermo del Toro. The film is definitely filled with a melancholy undercurrent of social themes, but what shines through the most is del Toro's obsessive ode to French and golden age Hollywood cinema, creature features, and outcasts. In the end, it becomes quite clear that The Shape of Water is love.


FADE TO ZACH
Will return.

Be sure to Like Fade to Zach on Facebook!

And Follow me on Twitter: @Fade_to_Zach

[Review] Bright

Netflix's "first Blockbuster" is more like a C-film that you'd find at the bottom of a DVD bargain bin in a sketchy Pawn Shop that somehow has managed to stay in business all these years. It's called Bright -- a title so vague and uninspired that it sounds like a script placeholder that no one ever bothered the change. The film haphazardly takes the concept of a buddy cop movie and smashes it together with magic and fantasy elements, and the results are appalling.

This monstrosity is set in what appears to be a modern-day L.A. -- except humans live alongside fairies, orcs, and elves (it's never really explained how this came to be). Will Smith plays a cop who reluctantly teams up with a gravelly-faced Orc (played by Joel Edgerton). The Orc is frowned upon and bullied by the humans at the precinct -- not sure why, because he looks like he could kick everyone else's ass, and possibly eat them. Anyway, the plot sees the mismatched cops cruise around and get caught up in a weird web of characters and mystical forces that even Harry Potter would scoff at. They also beef with a villainous, suit-wearing elf that resembles Elrond on acid.

When the movie begins with Will Smith talking to his wife (who ends up disappearing for the entire time) about how a fairy threw a handful of its own shit into his cousin's eye when they were little, you know exactly what you're in for. This is one of the ugliest, most unfunny, obnoxious, ridiculous things you could possibly see. Bright is a movie that looks like it smells bad. It's the pink eye of hybrid flicks. Director David Ayer and screenwriter Max Landis have somehow managed to create something even pukier and less engaging than Suicide Squad. This is type of thing what would happen if Dungeons & Dragons poofed out a spellbound fart onto Training Day. And of course, I wasn't expecting the dialogue to be good here, but the dialogue is remarkably horrendous here. Although I did get a kick out of Will Smith forcibly shouting "We have a MAGIC WAND!" with a straight face. Unfortunately, the film's stabs at social commentary sound like your Facebook friend who just recently found out that people are treated unequally in this country.

But Bright's biggest crime is that it's boring. Once all the initial amusement and head-shaking stuff wears off, this just turns into a messy, tone-deaf slogfest with erratic logic. I'll be honest with you, I didn't even know what was going on the entire second half of the two-hour duration. I have to at least admire the film for trying something... different, but I'm going to go ahead and say that this one did not work. From now on whenever a new buddy cop movie comes out, my guess is that probably we'll probably be saying "Hey, at least it's better than Bright."

( 3.5/10 )

Be sure to Like Fade to Zach on Facebook!

And Follow me on Twitter: @Fade_to_Zach

[Review] The Shape of Water

Weird, wet, wild, and wonderful. The Shape of Water is a deeply majestic fairytale (an adult one) that would only come from the mind of visionary director Guillermo del Toro.

This story dives into the life of Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a woman who's been mute since she was an infant. She works a thankless nightshift job as a janitor at a secretive laboratory that happens to be cruelly researching an amphibious humanoid that looks a lot like the Creature from the Black Lagoon (or Abe Sapien from Hellboy, depending on who you ask -- he's played by Doug Jones). The gentle Elisa befriends the beast, and what unfolds is a strange, surreal, and sublime tale of love and loss.

As you'd expect with a del Toro film, the imagery is exquisite. With its Cold War Americana backdrop, stream of high-concept fantasy, and old-fashioned essence, the lush production design is like stepping into a whimsical museum from a dream. Glowy aqua blues and greens uniformly flood the color palette, while the nifty editing builds a steady flow (the art of the scene transition is strong here and shouldn't go unnoticed). The narrative punches in with the rhythm of a ticking clock or a heartbeat, and it eventually launches into exhilarating thriller mode, not unlike the "Lockjaw" episode of "Hey Arnold" where Arnold and his grandma free a tormented turtle from an aquarium.

Sally Hawkins (who was also superb in this year's Maudie) gives an absolutely ravishing lead performance. She's so expressive, so emotional, so convincing -- without uttering a single word. Her face says it all. This thing also contains a top-notch (and I mean top) supporting cast. Richard Jenkins greatly plays Elisa's friendly, closeted, repressed artist neighbor. The always pleasant Octavia Spencer clocks in as Elisa's best and funniest co-worker. Michael Stuhlbag (who might be in a total of 3(!) Best Picture nominees this year) is perfectly cast as a sympathetic scientist. And frequent scene-stealer Michael Shannon broods in classical villain form. The true monster, indeed.

The film definitely is filled with a melancholy undercurrent of social themes, but what shines through the most is Guillermo del Toro's obsessive ode to French and golden age Hollywood cinema, creature features, and outcasts. In the end, it becomes quite clear that The Shape of Water is love.

* 9.5/10 *

Be sure to Like Fade to Zach on Facebook!

And Follow me on Twitter: @Fade_to_Zach

[Review] Call Me By Your Name

After last year's steamy shocker A Bigger Splash, director Luca Guadagnino returns with another sultry outing  -- curiously titled Call Me By Your Name. It's a lush, well-acted relationship drama that is as intimate as it is vast.

Set in the summer of '83 -- somewhere in Northern Italy -- the film revolves around a young man named Elio (Timothée Chalamet) wasting his days away in the countryside. But his monotony breaks when one of his father's (played by the ever-impressive Michael Stuhlbarg) graduate students, Oliver (Armie Hammer), comes to visit -- and Elio slowly develops a crush on him. And you can pretty much tell where this thing is heading. In other words, things are about to get heated.

First off, this film is beautifully shot with its scenic landscapes, rustic architecture, and sun-soaked colors. It moves at a patient, wistful pace (maybe too patient for some) like a lazy afternoon. Narrative-wise, the film is significantly reminiscent of 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color with its carefully observed dynamics and formative themes of sexual awakening, desire, first love, heartbreak, and memories that never quite distinguish. It's all backed by a gorgeously delicate soundtrack from indie singer-songwriter darling Sufjan Stevens. The songs themselves might make you well up.

Newcomer Timothée Chalamet (who also appeared in Lady Bird this year) and Armie Hammer both give tremendously humane performances. But it's definitely Chalamet that emerges as the shining standout in a role that feels so natural, so assured that it doesn't actually quite affect you until the very end -- during the film's staggeringly emotional closing scene that linger and lingers, and lingers...

( 8/10 )

Be sure to Like Fade to Zach on Facebook!

And Follow me on Twitter: @Fade_to_Zach

[Review] Darkest Hour

Believe it or not -- Darkest Hour is approximately the third film this year that involves the events of Dunkirk (the underrated Their Finest and of course Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk are the others). And believe it or not -- that's Gary Oldman playing Winston Churchill under all that makeup, padding, and prosthetics, as he gives a truly transformative performance in this well-crafted WWII drama.

It's the year 1940 -- on the cusp of wartime -- and Britain is in need of a new Prime Minister. Stepping in (or should I say waddling in) to take on the enormous task is the self-deprecating, eccentric, and huffy Winston Churchill. The film follows him as he administers orders, despite the little faith his peers have him. "A drunkard at the wheel," they say. And he just might be.

Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), the film is handsomely shot and stocked with rich drama. And while it still has that standard period piece and biopic feel to it, it avoids being too stuffy or run-of-the-mill, for the most part. While Dunkirk hit the frontlines, Darkest Hour dives into the behind-the-scenes action with smokey vigor. The film's pace does slow at times, but there's an ever-present sense of urgent tension beneath it all.

The supporting cast sees the always consistent Ben Mendelsohn clocking in as King George VI, and Kristin Scott Thomas solidly plays Clementine Churchill, but this film is undoubtedly a showcase for Gary Oldman. He's virtually unrecognizable without being distracting, and he practically cannonballs into this chewy role with bumbling, animated, and theatrical enthusiasm, while conveying just enough depth, nuance, and rousing speeches -- you know -- all the stuff that the Academy really likes.

Darkest Hour is far from my favorite film this Oscar season, but I certainly respect it.

( 7.5/10 )

Be sure to Like Fade to Zach on Facebook!

And Follow me on Twitter: @Fade_to_Zach