My top 10 films of 2017

Remember the Oscars? Remember how it seemed like the entire cast and crew for ‘La La Land’ got up on stage, only to be told that there had been a mistake and ‘Moonlight’ was the real Best Picture winner? 2017 in film was a bit funny like that. Expectations were smashed, up became down, Warner Bros made a good DC movie. It was a year that saw Disney purchase the majority of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, a year when a black writer/director broke records with the highest-grossing original debut in ‘Get Out’, where ‘Game of Thrones’ continued to show that big-scale spectacle is no longer the exclusive domain of cineplexes. In short, there was something for everyone in 2017, and it was harder than usual to whittle the list down to the obligatory arbitrary 10. Here are my favourites of the year, in alphabetical order…

Baby Driver

After 'Scott Pilgrim’s lacklustre box office and 'Ant-Man’s creative difficulties, 2017 finally saw Edgar Wright return to our screens. ‘Baby Driver’ was an R-rated original musical action film unlike anything else released in 2017, and reaffirmed Wright as one of the most stylish directors working today. Boasting 2017's strongest (and most diverse) needle-drop soundtrack, it also features the outstanding action scene of the year, a foot chase set to the acrobatic yodelling of ‘Hocus Pocus’ by Focus.

Blade Runner 2049

Who saw this coming? It would have been enough for ‘Blade Runner 2049’ to be a competent sci-fi that didn’t embarrass the original. Instead, Denis Villeneuve and his creative team fashioned an elegiac, beguiling masterpiece that, whisper it, might even be better than the original. Visually astonishing, particularly in IMAX, it manages the sequel tightrope of honouring Ridley Scott’s original while expanding the universe and giving fans a whole new set of questions to debate over the next few decades.

Dunkirk

A film-making marvel, Christopher Nolan strips the story of Dunkirk back to its raw elements to find the humanity amongst the statistics. The evacuation of over 300,000 Allied soldiers becomes a trio of plot strands focusing on the air, sea and land battles from those involved’s point of view. The effect is bewildering, helped by the crew’s further evolution of filmmaking with IMAX cameras and a structure that constantly ramps up the tension.

The Handmaiden

The year’s best adapted screenplay sees Park Chan-wook transporting Sarah Waters’ Victorian-set novel ‘Fingersmith’ to early 20th century Korea, bringing his usual skill for weaving violence, eroticism and strong female characters. Fun side note: I watched the film in Birmingham's Electric Cinema, a former adult moviehouse and therefore the perfect setting for one of the year's most sexually explicit films.

It

Yes, by going mainstream the more esoteric elements of Stephen King’s doorstopper were lost along the way (child orgy I’m looking at you). But Andy Muschetti’s re-tooling cleverly channels the current trend for 80s nostalgia to craft a charming coming of age story that also happens to feature child murder and one really messed-up clown. Chapter 2, due in 2019, will have a tall order to match the charisma of part 1’s cast.

Jackie

A study on grief doesn’t make for Friday night viewing, but ‘Jackie’ was one of 2017’s most emotional cinematic experiences. Director Pablo Lorrain redefines the word ‘intimate’ by often getting literally inches away from star Natalie Portman’s face, every anguished beat on her face amplified. It helps that the former Star Wars queen has never been better, her Jackie Kennedy working as a pitch-perfect impersonation, as a study of her all-American sweetheart persona and as the politician’s wife fighting to secure his legacy while under almost relentless media scrutiny. An unsettling triumph.

La La Land

Ignore the backlash; ‘La La Land’ remains an utter delight from start to finish. Reworking the golden age of Hollywood for the 21st Century allows the film to indulge in moments of pure cinematic fantasy (does Los Angeles really produce skies that shade of purple?) while keeping an indie feel that sells later, devastating plot beats. And I can guarantee that you will have heard at least one person humming 'City of Stars' during the early months of the year.

Logan

Joining ‘Blade Runner 2049’ in the pleasant surprise category, a spin-off threequel to the X-Men franchise (a series that is best described as ‘patchy’) somehow turned out to be the best superhero film of the year. Director James Mangold and star Hugh Jackman, who was playing the Wolverine for the eighth time, turned out a dark, gritty Western that plays like ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ meets ‘Unforgiven’.

A Monster Calls

‘A Monster Calls’ seemed to slip under the radar at the start of the year, but it ranks among 2017’s very best. A mini family classic, the performances from Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver and, in only his second feature credit, Lewis MacDougall are all awards-worthy, and the Monster’s stories are all gorgeously animated. Perhaps most impressive is how it uses its fantastical framework to examine some incredibly dark issues with humour, compassion and, in its most devastating final scenes, honesty.

Okja

Video on demand services like Netflix and Amazon Video continued to knock on Hollywood’s door in 2017, with Okja the strongest result yet from the new source of funding for filmmakers. An odd mix of comedy, thriller and polemic, the strongest argument for VOD films yet is that ‘Okja’ feels like a film that would struggle to get made in the systems of old, and Okja was 2017’s most charming CGI creation.