Top Ten Movies of 2017

I have seen, I believe, 79 new films that came out in 2017. Of the nine films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, four also appear on my Top Ten List, The Shape of Water,  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Post, and Lady Bird. I loved all four of these movies, but my number one is still Wonder Woman. This is a lovely film that, of course, gets no respect from the Academy. All I can say is, "and now I know... that only Love can truly save the world." 

See my lists below for Best Picture, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor.

I have seen all of the nominated performances except for Christopher Plummer, nominated for Best Supporting Actor in All the Money in the World. I am declaring a tie between Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and Frances McDormand (Three Billboards) for Best Actress. They are both to die for. My Best Actor pick honors Harry Dean Stanton, who recently died at age 90 and was working right up to the end. Lucky is a nice little movie about a 90-year-old man living in a small western town. It's a nice sendoff for Stanton who had many memorable roles over the years. For Best Supporting Actress, I pick Leslie Manville, who was amazing as Daniel Day Lewis' ever-present personal assistant in Phantom Thread which is otherwise a beautiful but perplexing film. For Best Supporting Actor, I pick Willem Dafoe, a hard-working character actor whose face will be familiar to everyone. In The Florida Project, he has a wonderful role as the Manager and child wrangler of the Magic Kingdom Motel. 

    

There were some very good films released in 2017 that have no nominations and that no one has seen. Among my recommendations are,

• Battle of the Sexes, a retelling of the famous tennis match between Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell).
• Colossal, about an out-of-work young woman (Anne Hathaway) in New York City with a strange connection to a Godzilla-like creature that is destroying Seoul.
• The Big Sick, based on a true love story of a Pakistani-American man and a "white" woman who spends most of the movie in a coma. Nice turns by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano.
• Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to the iconic Blade Runner is way better than it had any right to be. But it is the antithesis of Jason Bourne, having no 2-second cuts, so you have to sit and watch some people talk to each other. Try it!
• Molly's Game, you would think a movie starring Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba written and directed by Aaron Sorkin would have a built in audience but no. And it's really good!
• Abundant Acreage Available, Amy Ryan, my vote for most underrated actress in Hollywood, stars as a woman fighting for the family farm after her father dies.

Best Picture:
1. Wonder Woman
2. The Shape of Water
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. Lady Bird
5. The Florida Project
6. The Post
7. Blade Runner 2049
8. Battle of the Sexes
9. The Big Sick
10. Molly's Game
Honourable Mention: Baby Driver, The Beguiled, Lucky, Abundant Acreage Available, Wind River, Colossal, The Zookeeper's Wife

Best Actress:
1. Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Maudie)
1. Frances McDormand (Three Billboards)
3. Jessica Chastain (Molly's Game, The Zookeeper's Wife)
4. Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)
5. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)

Honourable Mention: Amy Ryan (Abundant Acreage Available), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes), Meryl Streep (The Post), Daisy Ridley (The Last Jedi), Aubrey Plaza (Ingrid Goes West)

Best Actor:
1. Harry Dean Stanton (Lucky)
2. Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049)
3. Tom Hanks (The Post)
4. Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq)
5. Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)
Honourable Mention: Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver), Jeremy Renner (Wind River)

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread)
2. Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)
3. Robin Wright (Wonder Woman, Blade Runner 2049)
4. Beanie Feldstein (Lady Bird)
5. Lucy Davis (Wonder Woman)
Honourable Mention: Allison Janney (I, Tonya), Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water), Holly Hunter (The Big Sick), Lily James (Baby Driver, Darkest Hour), Kristin Scott Thomas (Darkest Hour)

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project)
2. Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water)
3. Michael Stuhbarg (Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water, The Post)
4. Bob Odenkirk (The Post)
5. Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Blade Runner)
Honourable Mention:  Chris Pine (Wonder Woman), Idris Elba (Molly's Game), Harrison Ford (Blade Runner 2049), Steve Carell (Battle of the Sexes), Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards),
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards), Ray Romano (The Big Sick), Adam Driver (Logan Lucky, The Last Jedi)

The last Jedi

This review contains spoilers but I feel that it is safe to write a review since most of you have seen The Last Jedi by now. A lot has been made of the divergence between the Rotten Tomatoes rating of The Last Jedi by reviewers (91%) and by the audience (50%). The audience rating makes no sense based on other ratings and, of course, on the US box office which is $539 million so far. I think Rotten Tomatoes is being trolled by people who object to the power of their reviews and also maybe by people who are upset because this Star Wars isn't a simple remake of previous movies. To me, the fact that the writers and director of The Last Jedi are letting the story and the characters evolve makes the movie much better. Anyway, most of the cast from The Force Awakens are back, minus Han, plus Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Laura Dern as Admiral Holdo, and Benicio Del Toro as a mysterious, well, Benicio-Del-Toro-type.

The Last Jedi picks up at the moment that The Force Awakens ends, with Rey holding out Luke's lightsaber, hoping he will take it back. What happens next is the beginning of unhappiness for some Skywalker fans including possibly Mark Hamill himself. What we see is a bitter, old Luke Skywalker, 30 years after Return of the Jedi and, more recently, after his disastrous effort to train a new generation of Jedi including Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren. To me, this seems right and proper, and Luke training Rey is a nice juxtaposition to when Yoda trained Luke long ago.

Meanwhile, as usual, the Rebellion is in danger of being snuffed out forever. The Leia-Holdo-Po triangle is very well done as we say farewell to the General/Princess. She will be missed. I just hope they let Chewie live forever! The weakest part of the movie is the Casino-raid subplot. I know we need Finn and Rose to fall in love, but that section is a distraction from the main plot lines even though Del Toro is a joy as always.

There were definitely some things I didn't expect, like Leia still being alive at the end and Leader Snoke not. It will be interesting to see how they deal with Leia in Episode 9 since they have said they will not use CGI. I'm not too choked up at losing Snoke. He was a bore. And the one scene with no sound in Space was a shock. I love that some theatres made an announcement that this was not a technical problem.

The biggest disappointment is the too brief 2 minutes of skyping with Maz. One can only hope she will be back with a bigger role in Episode 9. And how is it possible that Po didn't meet Rey before? Finn continues to drive me crazy. What would he do without Rey and/or Rose to save his bacon?

All in all, I found The Last Jedi to be very satisfying. I am enjoying the leadership of the rebellion by a bunch of strong, capable women, Leia, Maz, Holdo, Rey, and Rose. When will the bad guys realize they need to recruit some evil women?