The Blu-ray Community Top 25 Films of 2017 (Please Read 1st Post)

[BreakfastClub211]

As I'm in the UK there's still some great films to come out, but I don't want to wait just to see if they'll go on the list as I'm going to count them on my personal 2018 list (but not on the official BR one), so here's mine:

1. Battle of the Sexes
2. Dunkirk
3. A Ghost Story
4. Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond
5. T2: Trainspotting
6. Beauty and the Beast
7. American Made
8. The Big Sick
9. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
10. It
11. Free Fire
12. The Disaster Artist
13. Atomic Blonde
14. Logan
15. The Meyerowitz Stories
16. mother!
17. Blade Runner 2049
18. Get Out
19. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
20. Wonder Woman

[the one who knocks]

1. Dunkirk
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. I, Tonya
4. The Shape Of Water
5. Brawl In Cell Block 99
6. Blade Runner 2049
7. Split
8. Logan
9. War For The Planet Of The Apes
10. Roman J. Israel, Esq.
11. The Disaster Artist
12. Baby Driver
13. Get Out
14. The Big Sick
15. Brigsby Bear
16. Ingrid Goes West
17. I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
18. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
19. Shimmer Lake
20. Lady Bird
21. Logan Lucky
22. Wind River
23. The Beguiled
24. Molly's Game
25. The Post

[AKORIS]

01]Star Wars The Last Jedi
02]Baby Driver
03]Get Out
04]Kingsman: Golden Circle
05]Logan
06]It
07]John Wick 2
08]Split
09]Guardians of the Galaxy 2
10]Brawl In Cell Block 99
11]1922
12]Wonder Woman
13]A Cure For Wellness

[sandman slim]

Don't see any lists (yet) with a movie that will be placing high high on my own list: Super Dark Times. Absolutely astounding movie, & absolutely unbelievable that it's only available in the US as a DVD-R from Amazon. Seek this one out, guys.

[Holmes]

1. The Lost City of Z

[Show spoiler]In the early 20th century, British geographer and soldier Percy Harrison Fawcett traveled several times to South America to map uncharted expanses of jungle. Over time, and despite ridicule from the Royal Geographical Society, he became possessed by the idea of discovering an advanced indigenous civilization and their city. His life, including a final journey to Brazil with his teenage son still shrouded in mystery, is dramatized in director James Gray’s classical, literate, and transporting epic. Rarefied beauty and a certain wild-eyed spirit combine in Gray’s film as Victorian-era codes and traditions slip away amid the Amazon’s verdant majesty. Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam enjoys his most challenging and nuanced film role to date as Fawcett.

2. A Cure for Wellness

[Show spoiler]Director Gore Verbinski is one of the most distinctive stylists operating in mainstream movies today; with Pirates of the Caribbean, he created a billion-dollar franchise by reviving the long-dormant pirate film with a supernatural twist and a fey, post-Keith Richards hero, and his other credits include the frightening, hypnotic The Ring and the psychedelic animated Western Rango, one of the strangest and most counter-culture-minded pictures ever advertised as a family entertainment by a major studio. His tenth film, the story of a jaded Wall Street executive dispatched to retrieve his firm’s CEO from a sinister institute in the Swiss Alps, is an opulent and twisted symphony of Gothic atmosphere, Agatha Christie-esque mystery, and gruesome viscera.

3. Phantom Thread

[Show spoiler]Daniel Day-Lewis, who delivered iconic performances in such films as My Left Foot, Gangs of New York, and Lincoln, claims this is his final role before retirement. If so, it would end his career on an incredibly high note. He reunites with There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson to portray a domineering fashion designer whose highly controlled life in 1950s London is upended when he meets an enigmatic Luxembourgian woman, inviting her to live with him as a muse and mistress. Anderson expertly submerges the audience in an idiosyncratic milieu of high fashion and absurd-glamorous wealth, and the film craftily defies expectations as it reveals its central love story’s shifting power dynamic.

4. T2 Trainspotting

[Show spoiler]A culture-defining hit in England, an enduring cult favorite in the United States, and simply one of the coolest films ever made, Trainspotting chronicled—with kinetic energy and sensational music—the at times hilarious, frequently disturbing misadventures of heroin-addicted Scots. Two decades later, it receives a poignant and worthy sequel; the characters, including Ewan McGregor’s protagonist Renton, are reunited in a much-changed Edinburgh for a kaleidoscopic caper as they also wrestle with nostalgia, regret, resentment, and other symptoms of midlife malaise.

5. Detroit

[Show spoiler]After the widely lauded The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow turns her intense, journalistic gaze from the Middle East and the War on Terror to Detroit in the sixties. Beginning as a panoramic view of the city’s notorious 1967 riots (incited by a heavy-handed police raid of an unlicensed black bar), the film then zeroes in on the Algiers Motel, where a small group of African American youths and two white girls are beaten, debased, and otherwise terrorized by a few members of the Detroit police force and a National Guardsman. Angry and claustrophobic, Detroit is scarier than most horror films, and despite being set half a century in the past, it is topical in its pointed examination of police brutality and tense race relations.

6. Good Time

[Show spoiler]After a heist gone awry results in his disabled brother's arrest, an inept thief, played with convincing frenzied desperation by Robert Pattinson, races against time to raise bail money, resulting in a madcap evening of dangerous deceits and violent encounters...culminating in a conflict over a Sprite bottle full of LSD. Set to a pulsating electronic score, this is a combustible, neon-lit suspense film long on colorful personalities and nocturnal menace, and it has an underlying heartache for its characters and their perilous socioeconomic situation in an ambivalent, crowded metropolis.

7. The Beguiled

[Show spoiler]As the Civil War rages nearby, a mostly abandoned girls boarding school in Virginia exists in a precarious stasis. The fragile idyll is disrupted entirely when one of the few remaining pupils discovers a wounded Union soldier in the forest; his presence as he convalesces plants rapidly growing seeds of smouldering desire and toxic suspicion in director Sofia Coppola’s elegant, foreboding, and well-acted period chamber drama.

8. The Florida Project

[Show spoiler]Set in an out-of-the-way Orlando motel, this is a profoundly moving story of childhood and summertime haunted by poverty. The fiery six-year-old protagonist, Moonee, and her young mother, who sells perfume to tourists and occasionally sleeps with men for money, live at the stucco-clad motel, the Magic Castle, which is revealed as a complicated and eccentric ecosystem unto itself. Willem Dafoe delivers perhaps his finest performance yet as the motel’s beleaguered manager, who nobly strains to be his marginalized guests’ confessor, conscience, and safeguard.

9. Logan

[Show spoiler]After playing Logan/Wolverine for seventeen years (including seven feature-length performances and two cameos), Hugh Jackman bids farewell to his signature role in grand and devastating fashion, portraying an older, ailing version of the character traumatized by a life of conflict and loss. Also Patrick Stewart’s final outing as the psychic Charles Xavier, Logan is a bold and riveting enterprise: a savage, plaintive, nearly apocalyptic road movie brazenly pushing, even obliterating, the boundaries of what an X-Men film can do.

]



10. Molly's Game

[Show spoiler]After an injury sidelines her Olympic ambitions, skier Molly Bloom moves to Los Angeles and becomes acquainted with the world of underground poker, improbably rising to run an exclusive regular game frequented by movie stars and billionaire entrepreneurs. This is the directorial debut of playwright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The Social Network); he acquits himself with surprising confidence behind the camera and delivers his usual high-wire blend of acerbic wit, rapid-fire conversation, and well-researched detail on the page. And in Bloom, triumphantly played by Jessica Chastain, he finds an enigmatic subject who navigates a federal investigation, mob intimidation, and outsize male egos with considerable intelligence and resolve.

11. Downsizing
12. Mudbound
13. A Quiet Passion
14. Brad's Status
15. War for the Planet of the Apes
16. The Disaster Artist
17. Free Fire
18. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
19. Lady Bird
20. mother!
21. 47 Meters Down
22. American Made
23. Atomic Blonde
24. Battle of the Sexes
25. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

[The Debts]

Lost City and Wellness in your top three? Noice.

[NoFro]

I think this is going to be an interesting year as I can't think of a clear front runner. Superhero films are a dime a dozen, Star Wars would have had a good shot but TLJ has been a very divisive film, Dunkirk doesn't seem to have been as enthusiastically received as most Nolan films despite a lot of praise, and of the smaller films there doesn't seem to be any one film with an amount of buzz that will allow it to break out into the mainstream and be seen by a greater number of users.

I've seen 30+ eligible films and, as I don't torrent, I expect I'll be able to make that around about 50 by the deadline through purchases and cinema visits. I currently have 18 films that I'd happily put in a top 20 so once I've seen an additional 20+ films I should be able to make a list of very worthy films.

I'm glad that T2: Trainspotting has already placed quite high on a couple of lists as it was excellent.

[robomole]

I know I have a couple of strange choices that many might say should be on a list of the year's WORST films haha. But these were the films that entertained me the most and gave me the best time at the movies! This was an odd year for me that was filled with films that gave me high hopes, but ultimately disappointed me. Things like Blade Runner 2049, Thor Ragnarok, Star Wars The Last Jedi, Justice League, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. All films that if you asked me before they came out if I thought they would make my list I would have said absofreakinlutely haha. I seemed to hate a lot of movies that others loved for some reason. But hey that's part of the fun! While I obviously enjoyed all the films on my list. The Top 3 are special to me. They are films that became instant classics in my household! Thanks for reading!

#1

Now right off the bat I need to admit some bias. Kenneth Branagh has been my favorite actor/director since middle school. So it would be difficult for him to make a film I didn't like. Still Murder on the Orient Express unashamedly sits at the top of my list. What you can't ignore, besides that mustache, is the incredible cast. That alone would get me in the theater. Also, I've always been attracted to a good ol'fashioned murder mystery. This film delivered in just about every way it could have. Incredible and memorable performances especially by Kenneth Branagh who had a very daunting task taking on Hercule, not Hercules he do not slay de lion, Poirot. Almost like James Bond we all have our favorite actors that took on the role. Branagh delivered something bold and different all the while being perhaps the most accurate to Agatha Christie's novels. The cinematography was out of this world! Long takes galore that take you all over the magnificent sets and let you stare into the soul of each suspect. Very much looking forward to Death on the Nile!

#2

This film is the definition of fun at the movies! Engaging characters, amazing stunts, well written, well shot, well directed, well everything! Nowadays that's incredibly rare for an action flick! This movie goes from funny to dramatic to thrilling to moving at will so flawlessly. The unique artistry of choreographing the action to the beat of the soundtrack brought the film to another level. A great time at the movies!!!

#3

This movie was the surprise of the year! The return of Stephen Soderbergh that "introduced" us to newcomer Daniel Craig like we've never seen him and co-starring NASCAR drivers? Sign me the hell up! The film was funny and unexpectedly moving. This redneck Ocean's 11 shouldn't work but man it's one of my favorite films of the last few years. It has a charm about it that grips you from beginning to end.

4. Wonder Woman - From Lynda Carter, to the comics, to the cartoons, Wonder Woman has always been my crush*cough* I mean one of my favorite superheroes! She has been very long overdue for her chance to make it to the big screen. Love him or hate him, Zach Snyder knocked it out of the park casting Gal Gadot in Batman v Superman. While I loved that film, even the ones that didn't couldn't help but at admit she was a highlight of the film that stole the scenes she was in. Luckily her solo film didn't disappoint. She radiated such love and strength. It was a very moving experience for many to finally get a Wonder Woman film, and one that turned out so well! Chris Pine and the rest of the cast led by Patty Jenkins, all do their part to make this film one of my favorites!

5. The Disaster Artist - The film about a disaster actor making a disaster film that was so bad it was good and got a book written about it that was adapted into an amazing film starring James Franco with an incredible performance. What??? If you haven't seen The Room go see it. Is real Hollywood film. The Disaster Artist is a surprisingly heartwarming and hilarious film that somehow captures the madness that is Tommy Wiseau. A must see!

6. Dunkirk - I've never seen a film that is more driven by the sound design! Hans Zimmer's downright stressful score and the sound effects are what make this film. Very thrilling and intense, the story is told through sound and visuals with very little dialogue. I promise this film isn't only on my list because Kenneth Branagh is in it.

7. The Greatest Showman - Hugh Jackman in a musical and I'm there. Very fun and uplifting film.

8. Darkest Hour - Gary Oldman shows off why he's one of the best actors of all time. His incredible performance drives this film.

9. Logan - Hugh Jackman in a Wolverine movie and I'm there. He doesn't sing but the film is surprisingly moving none this less. A superhero film for adults.

10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Sam Rockwell rocks this film! The characters have such depth and complete arcs that make for a satisfying film. I'll see anything McDonagh writes!

11. I, Tonya - Who knows how much of this story is true but who cares? Robbie and Janney give amazingly funny yet grounded performances.

12. Beauty and the Beast - Hermione trades in one castle for another and sings rather well while doing it. I liked Cinderella a bit more *cough*Kenneth Branagh shout out*cough but this is another worthy live-action Disney adaptation that works!

13. Kingsman: The Golden Circle - I don't care if you think it sucked I think it's great! Funny, outrageous, and great action make this one hell of a good time!

14. Happy Death Day - Yeah it's a Groundhog Day horror film but it's well executed and quite endearing!

15. The Killing of a Sacred Deer - A very heavy film that was a worthy follow-up to last years The Lobster. This film will turn your mind into scrambled eggs in the best way possible.

16. Mother! - This pretentious Biblical allegory isn't quite successful, but its a haunting and beautiful work of art. Razzies be damned!

17. Lady Bird - It's a typical coming of age story that doesn't bring much new to the table. But it doesn't have to because it's too freakin well made and acted!

18. The Shape of Water - A little creepy and fantastical for it's own good, but this film is a beautiful masterpiece for the eyes!

19. The Lego Batman Movie - It's a movie with a bunch of funny Batman references. So yeah.

20. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie - This hits me right in the nostalgia. I read and devoured every flip-o-rama story I could get my hands on. This adaptation is charming, funny, and satisfying.

1. Murder on the Orient Express
2. Baby Driver
3. Logan Lucky
4. Wonder Woman
5. The Disaster Artist
6. Dunkirk
7. The Greatest Showman
8. Darkest Hour
9. Logan
10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
11. I, Tonya
12. Beauty and the Beast
13. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
14. Happy Death Day
15. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
16. Mother!
17. Lady Bird
18. The Shape of Water
19. The Lego Batman Movie
20. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

[thewerepuppygrr]

Originally Posted by The Debts

Think you might make more from previous years?

Hoping to do more if people want them.

[Jacob Anderson]

1. Thor: Ragnarok
2. The Disaster Artest
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
4. Logan
5. Spider-Man: Homecoming
6. John Wick: Chapter 2
7. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
8. Wonder Woman
9. War for the Planet of the Apes
10. It
11. Justice League
12. Get Out
13. Kong: Skull Island
14. The Lego Batman Movie
15. Baby Driver
16. Only The Brave
17. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
18. Three Billboards
19. Dunkirk
20. Lady Bird
21. The Big Sick
22. Logan Lucky
23. Wonder
24. Molly's Game
25. Gifted

[Foggy]

Reserved, don’t know if I’m going to be able to do my usual effort with images and everything this year but I’ll try.

#1 Good Time

Directed by Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Written by Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie
Starring Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Taliah Webster
Synopsis: After a heist goes awry, a bank robber spends a night trying to free his mentally handicapped brother from being sent to Riker's Island prison.



Write-up: As restless and woozy as a night fuelled by double digit Jagerbombs, and filled with about equal parts bad ideas, the tactile and pulsating thrill ride of Good Time makes for the year's most unique and peerless experiences of the year. A wondrous odyssey driven by a perturbed industrial score, grungy neon visuals that seem to cross the paths of Taxi Driver and Gasper Noe and a fretful and sneaky performance by Robert Pattinson as a truly charismatic yet deplorable chancer. The result is a film that becomes less describable in words than simple impact.

#2 Phantom Thread

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Daniel Day Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville
Synopsis: Set in 1950's London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who became his muse and lover.



Write-up: As particular and meticulous as it's leading character, Paul Thomas Anderson's demanding and enigmatic gothic romance is an excerise in restraint but a wealth of extraordinary turns and surprises. Following Daniel Day Lewis' mannered yet eccentric fashion designer haunted by his mother and finding solace within women, he finds himself bitten off more than he can chew with Vicky Krieps Alma, as their relationship turns from idealistic to poisonous as the film goes on. Featuring a wry macabre screenplay and lavish work by Anderson and an utterly transcendent performance from Lewis, Phantom Thread will go down as classic of cinema for time to come.

#3 Dunkirk

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan
Starring Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy
Synopsis: Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in WWII.



Write-up: A stripped down World War II epic that removes facades of limp and rote character motivation and audience pleasing, gratuitous blood-letting brings to the surface one of the more honest and enriching emotional responses on screen, pure empathy. Dunkirk provides expertly thrilling sequences designed not simply to divert or entertain, but to rock you to your core. It's a film that asks to reflect yourself within what's on screen, creating the years most immersive cinema experiences. It's characters may only be vessels for our viewpoint, but it's not hard to sympathise with what happens when you see what they see.

#4 Call Me By Your Name

Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Written by James Ivory Based on the novel by André Aciman
Starring Timotheé Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg
Synopsis: In Northern Italy in 1983, seventeen year-old Elio begins a relationship with visiting Oliver, his father's research assistant, with whom he bonds over his emerging sexuality, their Jewish heritage, and the beguiling Italian landscape.



Write-up: For some reason, I adore films about very smart, very academic and well spoken people finding themselves in situations that they can't explain, leaving them speechless. But it takes a special film also leaves that audience just as speechless. Call Me By Your Name is such a warm, joyous yet heart clenching, it's surprising that a film that feels so young and free comes from a screenwriter in his late 80's, yet less surprising that the film itself is so much more wise beyond it's years.

#5 Lady Bird

Directed by Greta Gerwig
Written by Greta Gerwig
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges
Synopsis: In 2002, an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California



Write-up: Blunt and honest teen comedy that takes aspects we're all familiar with, whether it's our own adolescence or from the films that have captured them, and moves the focus on to the communication, or perhaps lack of that fulfill these moments. Greta Gerwig's film slices through nostalgia with a more piercing look at the entitlement we have all been guilty of and reminds us of the importance of connection with those in our lives, and it melts your heart in the process.

#6 Baby Driver

Directed by Edgar Wright
Written by Edgar Wright
Starring Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jamie Foxx
Synopsis: After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.



Write-up: Edgar Wright's energised Jukebox Musical-on-wheels is a film less concerned with reinventing the genre, much like his early work, instead reminding us how distinctive and refreshing a genre film can be with a real voice and genuine craft behind it. The result is a film that feels distinctive, singular and a pure thrill to behold. Load with personality and charm to boot, Baby Driver is a film that feels comfortable within itself and a crowd pleaser on it's own behalf, culminating with a genuinely surprising tense final 30 minutes.

#7 The Shape of Water

Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Written by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor
Starring Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer
Synopsis: At a top secret research facility in the 1950s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.



Write-up: Brazen and gleefully bizarre, Guillermo Del Toro's newest, and perhaps his best and strangely most accessible film to date, is a meticulous crafted fantasy. With a keen and staggering eye for detail, the gothic storyteller carefully creates a world built on a very particular tone that encapsulates the mature fairytale story allowing the audience to be taken wherever it may go. Ultimately becoming a film that feels genuinely magical without expense to it's themes or it's audience.

#8 Blade Runner 2049

Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Written by Hampton Fancher & Michael Green Based on characters from the novel by Philip K. Dick
Starring Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Harrison Ford
Synopsis: A young blade runner's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.



Write-up: A bold, brilliant and beautiful follow up to one of greatest Science-Fiction films ever, one that's on nearly every level equal and even sometimes better than the original, and it flopped?! Man, screw 2017.

#9 Get Out

Directed by Jordan Peele
Written by Jordan Peele
Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Betty Gabriel
Synopsis: It's time for a young African-American to meet with his white girlfriend's parents for a weekend in their secluded estate in the woods, but before long, the friendly and polite ambience will give way to a nightmare.



Write-up: Wildly subversive and exceptionally entertaining, Jordan Peele's horror twist on Look Who's Coming To Dinner? is not only a deliciously deranged take on paranoia amongst liberal America, but also a film that isn't afraid to use it's genre to push it premise and ideas to exaggerated absurdity to create one of the most talked about films of the year.

#10 The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Written by Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan
Synopsis: Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.



Write-up: Almost utterly uncomfortable throughout it's entire two hour runtime. Yorgos Lanthimos' startling domestic parable ramps up implications and offers very little stable answers, creating a stomach churning sensation of moral claustrophobia that becomes increasingly more and more distressing. You have to let it sit for a while, but when it's effect clicks, it completely rewarding.

#11 It Comes At Night

Directed by Trey Edward Shults
Written by Trey Edward Shukts
Starring Joel Edgerton, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Riley Keough
Synopsis: Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorises the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrive seeking refuge.



Write-up: Pessimistic and hopeless thriller from Trey Edward Schults doesn't make for easy viewing, but leaves an astonishing impact. A chiller that engrosses so much that it begins to make you question your own senses, from it's lucid aspect ratio to the shadows that engulf the characters, it culminates into a crushing final confrontation that leaves you in utter despair.

#12 Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Directed by Rian Johnson
Written by Rian Johnson Based of the characters created by George Lucas
Starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley
Synopsis: Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares for battle with the First Order.



Write-up: The second part of the new trilogy takes Star Wars both back to it's roots and into bold new areas, exploring nuances unfamiliar to the series. A more stripped back, character driven focus allows for a more stakes driven plot allowing for larger growth of characters, a tighter more thrilling ride all around. Add to that room to create new visuals and creations to the cannon, and a unique vision that allows Star Wars to become fresh again, and you have a film that can mark itself amongst the original films.

#13 The Florida Project

Directed by Sean Baker
Written by Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch
Starring Brooklynn Prince, Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite
Synopsis: Set over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Disney World.



Write-up: Harsh yet heartwarming drama revolving around Children who find solace from their hard situations utilising their imagination and wits amongst the cotton candied veneer of the poverty stricken Florida that is over shadowed by tourism giants. The film shines most when director Sean Baker focuses his attention on the banal banter amongst the children and their mischief at the expense of the warm-natured motel manager portrayed by Willem Dafoe.

#14 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Directed by Martin McDonagh
Written by Martin McDonagh
Starring Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson
Synopsis: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.



Write-up: Bitter and coarse black comedy revolving around institutionalised misogyny and brutality amongst middle America and less a protest but more a battering ram that comes to tackle it down in the course of justice. Frances McDormand's grumpy and tactless mother paves through a jangle of ill-behaviour with even worse attitude leading to a film that's not always clean cut (in many ways) but collides together with fascinating and not entirely predictable circumstances.

#15 mother!

Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Written by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer
Synopsis: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.



Write-up: Blunt trauma makes the intention of Darren Aronofsky's egregious yet utterly captivating experimental thriller. Starting from the Garden of Eden and moving straight through to the Book of Revelations with the space of four walls, the film encompasses all villainy, vanity and vain behaviour into a ruthlessly punishing and relentless experience that will remain unrivalled for a long, long time.

#16 Raw

Directed by Julia Ducournau
Written by Julia Ducournau
Starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella
Synopsis: When a young vegetarian undergoes a carnivorous hazing ritual at vet school, an unbidden taste for meat begins to grow in her.



Write-up: Macabre French gross out horror that makes for the biggest surprise finds of the year. It's a film that doesn't simply consolation within depravity but offers up a biting twist on the Coming-of-Age genre and pierces the flesh of social norms and taboos. Offering up an ostensibly grotesque modern vision of female desire and sexual awakening.

#17 Free Fire

Directed by Ben Wheatley
Written by Amy Jump & Ben Wheatley
Starring Cillian Murphy, Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley
Synopsis: Set in Boston in 1978, a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two gangs turns into a shootout and a game of survival.



Write-up: Farcical and emasculating satire on pulp action films sets up a confrontation amongst the largest egos and let's rip. The catch is, amongst this shootout, nearly no one can handle a gun themselves. What should be a quick battle of pride becomes a drawn out, messy hail of bullets where the only things taking shots are the characters' self-esteem. A nice breezy genre flick with a twist that flew under a lot of people radars.

#18 The Disaster Artist

Directed by James Franco
Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber Based on the book by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell
Starring Dave Franco, James Franco, Alison Brie
Synopsis: When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.



Write-up: Somewhere along the line, thankfully, the memo never quite arrived to James Franco and co that this film's mere existence is enough of a joke to warrant itself. Resulting in a film that's heartfelt as well as hysterical, the film expertly creates a sense of the absurdity that gave birth to the cult film whilst maintaining it's many mysteries. It's rough around the edges, but it's intentions shine through.

#19 Detroit

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Written by Mark Boal
Starring John Boyega, Anthony Mackie, Will Poulter
Synopsis: Fact-based drama set during the 1967 Detroit riots in which a group of rogue police officers respond to a complaint with retribution rather than justice on their minds.



Write-up: Beginning wide is context and slowly homing into a single corridor, the tension in Katherine Bigelow's film is masterfully woven that regardless of your feelings on the film itself, it's undeniable how well it's made. The dynamically shifts from documentary footage to pure unfiltered horror as the situations get more and more unbearably and inescapable. Many people said this wasn't the time for a film like this, but I don't think there will ever be a wrong time for a film like this.

#20 Logan

Directed by James Mangold
Written by Scott Frank, James Mangold & Michael Green
Starring Hugh Jackman, Dafne Keen, Patrick Stewart
Synopsis: In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X, somewhere on the Mexican border. However, Logan's attempts to hide from the world, and his legacy, are upended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.



Write-up: Soulful yet brutal conclusion to what has become a defining character of cinema over the course of nearly two decades. Logan surprises with both a deft yet dense world building and an often unflinching introspection to a character that hasn't truly been allowed to be explored fully on-screen like this before. Adding to that some skilfully grounded action set pieces and a bold nihilism to punctuate the drama, and you have a new standout in a genre.

#21 The Work

Directed by Jairus McLeary & Gethin Aldous
Synopsis: Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, three men from the outside participate in a four-day group-therapy retreat with a group of incarcerated men for a real look at the challenges of rehabilitation.



Write-up: Perhaps the most emotionally intense two hours of cinema the year. This verite style documentary chronicling one of America's most successful course of prison group rehabilitation session, mixing inmates with civilians, begins with a tribal chant echoing the Drill Sergeant from Full Metal Jacket and slowly transforms into something more terrifying like an Exorcism film, with people physically convulsing uncontrollably. A deeply affecting portrait of the damage people withhold deep inside and the spiritual catharsis of releasing it.

#22 A Ghost Story

Directed by David Lowery
Written by David Lowery
Starring Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Kenneisha Thompson
Synopsis: In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.



Write-up: Easily the year's most unique and singular films released. A truly lyrical ode on the real existential horror of the unavoidable reality of demise, the film continually strives to challenge the cinematic language by moving through time crumb by crumb and bounds at a time. Resulting with something that's both truly haunting and universally touching, it's not a film that wants to defy description, but simply begs to be witnesses.

#23 Coco

Directed by Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina
Written by Adrian Molina & Matthew Aldrich
Starring Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Barnal, Alanna Ubach
Synopsis: Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family's ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.



Write-up: I'm just happy to have another good Pixar film on one of these lists. Coco is inventive and joyous with it's celebration of both culture and life, offering audiences a mature but not daunting story regarding the importance of memories, whilst touching upon grief and dementia. It's an often colourful creation with a beating heart and soul underneath that is accessible to all.

#24 The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Directed by Noah Baumbach
Written by Noah Baumbach
Starring Adam Sandler, Elizabeth Marvel, Dustin Hoffman
Synopsis: An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.



Write-up: Noah Baumbach employs career bests out of a great cast (...and Adam Sadler) in his wry disfunctional family drama that beautifully captures and punctuates the frustrating lack of communication yet the necessity of connection between blood. The film is often hysterical, although occasionally too broad, but it's well-drawn characters and rich routine dialogue that makes it stick after watching.

#25 Logan Lucky

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Written by Rebecca Blunt
Starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig
Synopsis: Two brothers attempt to pull off a heist during a NASCAR race in North Carolina.



Write-up: A charming and cheerful throwback to a simpler era of filmmaking. Steven Soderbergh returns to the big screen following a brief hiatus with fun crime caper that places charismatic actors in the place of caricatures, and slowly peels back the laughs to reveal something more subversive yet more genuine, offering up a more honest and poignant commentary on current America that gets left unexplored by most.

[The Debts]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Reserved, don’t know if I’m going to be able to do my usual effort with images and everything this year but I’ll try.

Rob Schneider "you can do it" - YouTube

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by foggy

reserved, don’t know if i’m going to be able to do my usual effort with images and everything this year but i’ll try.

try-not.jpg

[Darth Marcus]

My Final List

1. Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan delivers his greatest work yet with a film that centers around the emergency evacuation of over 300,00 Allied soldiers who are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Nolan deftly and elegantly interweaves three separate story points in a way that feels both fresh and innovative, yet also avoids muddling down the narrative. Also utilizing IMAX cameras in ways we've never seen before, Hoyte Van Hoytema captures blistering dogfights with nail-biting intensity and immediacy. And each moment compounds upon another until we reach an emotional climax that resonates and inspires. Bolstering these moments is Hans Zimmer's brilliant score that both intensifies and elates the viewer experience. All of these facets culminate in war film experience like no other that focuses on themes of bravery, unity in survival, and hope in the face of obliteration.

2. Phantom Thread

If there's any film released in 2017 that can be called a work of art, Phantom Thread is it. Based in part on the life of fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciag, and based in part from some of his own interpersonal relationships, Paul Thomas Anderson stitches together one of his most deliciously and delightfully twisted works yet. Set in London during the 1950's, Reynolds Woodcock, played masterfully by Daniel Day-Lewis, is a fashion designer who designs immaculate dresses for high society as he moves on from muse to muse. That is until he meets his match in Alma, played wonderfully by Vicky Krieps, who can meet his stubborn and childish behavior step for step. Stealing every scene she's in is Cyril, played devilishly by Lesley Manville, Woodcock's sister who runs his business for him while he designs the dresses. Lending a sense of elegance is Johnny Greenwood's exquisite score, who is now not only one of the masterminds of the rock band Radiohead, but also a mastermind of cinematic scoring. Hard to categorize, as Paul Thomas Anderson's films often are, Phantom Thread is part beauty and fashion, part cynicism, part romantic comedy, and part madness. One thing is for sure, it's 100% unique.

3. Baby Driver

Edgar Wright's films have long been know for their precision editing and entertainment value, and while those same traits have been applied here, they're hyper-drive engaged. The music and editing are such an integral part of this film that they might as well be characters with moods, motivations, and actions of their own. Baby is a getaway driver paying back his debts, hoping to do one last job so he can spend his life with a beautiful girl. While the set up is nothing new, how it's told is wholly unique and eminently entertaining that when the drive is over, you want to take it all over again. Guaranteed to get your foot tapping and your pulse racing, Baby Driver is filled with so many delights and visual treats that you find new surprises no matter how many times you watch it, and that might just be its greatest asset.

4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

If JJ set the board, it was Rian Johnson's job to move the pieces forward, yet here he moves the pieces in ways you never saw coming. But they tried to warn you, after all. The trailers told you "this is not going to go the way to think." Causing a rift among Star Wars fans in a move that seems performed by Holdo herself, Star Wars: The Last Jedi refuses to play by the rules. It believes that the best answers don't come easy, that failure is the best teacher, and that learning on your own by the seat of your pants is the best way to learn. Filled with brave reinvention, thrilling action, immaculate sets and costumes, eminently empathic characters, and some of the best Star Wars work that John Williams has ever done, The Last Jedi continually revels in the unexpected. Rian Johnson understands that mystery and myth was always one of the biggest assets of the franchise, and for the first time in a long time, no single fan knows where the pieces of the story are going to go, and that is a wonderful thing.

5. Logan

Hugh Jackman has embodied the role of Wolverine for 17 years. And when it came time to say goodbye, what better way than to deconstruct the hero much in the way Clint Easterwood deconstructed the western in Unforgiven? Loosely based on the Old Man Logan comic, this futuristic version of Logan is dying, slowly being poisoned to death by the same adamantium that has encased his bone structure. For the first time in centuries, he's facing his imminent mortality. Logan is not a feel-good superhero story, in fact the argument could be made that it's not a superhero story at all. More than anything it's a story about a man who's lost everything, who doesn't fit in with the current world he inhabits, and who is constantly struggling to find meaning to it all. Also returning to the role he first portrayed 17 years ago is Patrick Stewart as Professor X who is, at a dark cost, losing control of his powers. And in a star-making turn in her first role is Dafne Keen as Laura, slicing and dicing through her role with primal and natural ability. When Logan ends it is both heartbreaking and satisfying, and Hugh Jackman gets to say goodbye to the character that made him a star in the best way possible.

6. Blade Runner 2049


7. The Shape of Water


8. The Lost City of Z


9. Wind River


10. Wonder Woman


11. Coco


12. The Post


13. War for the Planet of the Apes


14. John Wick: Chapter 2


15. Thor: Ragnarok


16. All the Money in the World


17. Darkest Hour


18. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri


19. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2


20. IT


21. The Big Sick


22. Get Out


23. The Disaster Artist


24. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)


25. Spider-Man: Homecoming

I didn't get the chance to see these films before the deadline:

Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name, Mudbound, Molly’s Game, Detroit, The Florida Project, I Tonya, Paddington 2 or Downsizing

[The Sovereign]

I know that I have some glaring holes in this, but it's now or never...

01. Blade Runner 2046
02. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
03. A Ghost Story
04. Good Time
05. The Lost City of Z
06. Logan Lucky
07. The Big Sick
08. The Shape of Water
09. Dunkirk
10. Darkest Hour
11. Molly’s Game
12. T2 Trainspotting
13. Wonder Woman
14. Coco
15. Thor: Ragnarok
16. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
17. Spiderman: Homecoming
18. The Disaster Artist
19. Atomic Blonde
20. Get Out

[MechaGodzilla]

If a film got two or three festival screenings in the US in 2016, but received its proper, wide theatrical release in 2017, does it count as a '16 or '17 release?

Asking because I'm going to attempt to put together a list (I say attempt because so far I've only seen 14 films from last year, but I'm hoping to catch up enough to where a list of 20 or 25 is possible before the deadline) and I'd like to include Your Name but don't know if it qualifies or not.

[montereypop]

1. Phantom Thread
2. Lady Bird
3. The Lost City of Z
4. The Florida Project
5. Foxtrot
6. Get Out
7. Dawson City: Frozen Time
8. Columbus
9. Nocturama
10. Mudbound
11. Song to Song
12. Dunkirk
13. Call Me By Your Name
14. Faces Places
15. The Other Side of Hope
16. Logan Lucky
17. Personal Shopper
18. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
19. Okja
20. The Meyerowitz Stories
21. Brawl in Cell Block 99
22. The Lure
23. The Post
24. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
25. Raw

[cgpublic]

As we wind down the hours to the deadline, my Top 25 will not reflect The Phantom Thread, simply because I was hoping to see it in 70MM, and that will most likely have to wait until tonight. All the same, here's cgpublic's Top 25, selected from the 45 eligible films I had the pleasure of screening over the past fourteen months or so:



The Top 25

1. Dunkirk
2. Blade Runner 2049
3. The Shape of Water
4. Good Time
5. The Florida Project
6. Darkest Hour
7. War for the Planet of the Apes
8. Alien: Covenant
9. A Cure for Wellness
10. Coco
11. Dawson City: Frozen Time
12. A Ghost Story
13. Lost City of Z
14. It Comes at Night
15. Atomic Blonde
16. Wind River
17. Hostiles
18. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
19. Spiderman: Homecoming
20. Wonder Woman
21. Your Name
22. T2 Trainspotting
23. It
24. John Wick 2
25. Logan

Bits & Bytes About My Personal Cinema Favorites 0f 2017

1. Dunkirk: "Time During Wartime" The cinematic stunner of my 2017 set, first screened in 70MM at NYC's Lincoln Square IMAX, the largest screen in North America, and then at home on UHD. Nolan's exploration of the human spirit under pressure, every frame embodied the collective confusion of wartime.

2. Blade Runner 2049: "More Sequel Than Sequel" Thanks to Deakins, the cinematography stunner of my 2017 set, screened first in Dolby Cinema, followed by Sony Digital 4K and then at home in UHD/Atmos. As a person who embraced the original back in 1982 as an impressionable young man, Villeneuve & Co. gave us a sequel far beyond the dreams of electric sheep.

3. The Shape of Water: "A Fairy Tale For Freaks" Screened in Sony Digital 4K, Del Toro dreams in cinema and then painstakingly details the wisps of his remembrances for the conscious world, and we are all richer for it.

Just Missed The Cut:

26. Kong: Skull Island
27. Okja
28. The Big Sick
29. Baby Driver
30. Split

Fine, Fun, Forgettable, Flawed or Just Not My Cup:

31. Get Out
32. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
33. Strong Island
34. Mudbound
35. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
36. Brawl in Cell Block 99
37. Colossal
38. Pilgrimage
39. Beauty and the Beast
40. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
41. Ghost in the Machine
42. The Mummy
43. Life
44. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
45. Going In Style

[starjedi]

1.The Shape of Water
2.Lady Bird
3.Dunkirk
4.The Disaster Artist
5. Blade Runner 2049
6.I, Tonya
7.Logan
8.Baby Driver
9.Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
10.Phantom Thread
11.Call Me By Your Name
12. It
13. War for the Planet of the Apes
14. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
15.The Florida Project
16. Get Out
17.The Big Sick
18.your name
19.Molly's Game
20.The Lost City of Z
21.Good Time
22. Thor Ragnarok
23.Wind River
24.Detroit
25. Spider-Man Homecoming

[Hucksta G]

Will be updated up to the deadline. Please let me know if something doesn’t count.

1. mother!
What a loaded film. Every performance is brilliant. If you don't already like Aronofsky, this isn't the film to change you're mind. This film is open to so many interpretations. Please watch it first before you read anyone's and make up your own mind. It's more fun like that. I take it as the history of religion (Christianity) through mother! Nature's point of view. Or it could be seen as an allegory for Aronofsky's failed relationship. I've read all sorts, seems like everyone comes away with something different. Which is awesome. Could tell some of the audience didn't like it, especially the old ladies next to me who kept uttering 'ridiculous.' Look forward to watching it again. I'm sure there's much more to unpack.
2. Good Time
Robert De Pattinson over here. A great film with a pumping score and gritty aesthetic. I don't think Heaven Knows What ever got an NZ release but I hope that's remedied soon. Felt like it came out of the late 70s slash early 80s.
3. Dunkirk
The most intense theatre experience I've had since Land of Mine. Haunting imagery. I'm not sure which has the better sound design, this or Baby Driver. Didn't expect to like it with all the criticisms I've seen of lack of character work but I loved it.
4. Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Probably the best ensemble of the year both cast and performance wise. This McDonagh brother is three for three for me, with three of the best films of the 21st Century to his name. A very angry film that balances its dark humour well, though often I heard audience members laugh at stuff I’m pretty sure wasn’t supposed to be funny.
5. The Disaster Artist
You can just feel the love that went into this film. My face hurts from laughing and smiling so hard. While James Franco probably gives my favourite performance of the year, Dave Franco proves he has some acting chops. Can't wait to own this to watch it again. Makes me want to be friends with Tommy Wiseau.
6. Blade Runner 2049
Every single shot in this could be displayed in your most prestigious art gallery. Sure it's a long film but I love every minute spent in this dystopia. Keeps the feel and atmosphere of the first film very well. A couple of characters don't get much time spent on them when they feel like they should have. Think I'll have to rewatch it to gather my full feelings on it. Feels timeless much in the same way the first film does. Job well done to everyone involved. I would be interested to hear Johannsson's score some day.
7. Phantom Thread
Impeccably made in every aspect; the score, the writing, the directing, the acting, the cinematography. Mesmerising to watch, a PTA film through-and-through. Krieps gives the performance of the film in a film full of some of the year’s best, she should be at the front of the best actress discussion. My only real complaint is I didn’t feel as emotionally attached as I had hoped but can see that changing with inevitable rewatches.
8. Lady Bird
Heartfelt and funny. While it treads some familiar coming of age ground it still feels like a breath of fresh air. The performances all felt authentic and there’s a good sense of time and place created. The trailer didn’t do much for me but the film very quickly won me over. Looking forward to hanging with these characters again. Good dialogue too, some great lines in there.
9. The Last Jedi
Wow, not the direction I expected them to go at all but I don’t know what I expected. I loved it. The cast is so great, I hope we see more of Benicio. So many beautiful shots in the third act. Only complaint would be some of the humour felt out of place for a Star Wars film but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh. I hope I don’t die before the next one. Also take note Marvel, this is villains done right.
10. A Ghost Story
Definitely not a film for everyone but I don't think I've seen a film quite like it. Sad, beautiful and haunting. Score of the year so far. Affleck and Mara are two of my favourite current working actors.
11. Lost City of Z
Love me a good old fashioned tale of obsession. Beautifully shot with solid performances from Hunnam, Miller and Pattinson but particularly Hunnam.
12. Personal Shopper
A much different and better film than I was expecting. Kristen Stewart is wonderfully believable in her role. I was engaged with all the different elements of the film. Some scenes sent a shiver down my spine, others almost unleashed tears. Suz thought the thriller element didn't work and that it was obvious who was sending the texts but I thought Stewart's character's reaction to the texts was totally believable for her character, experiencing trauma.
13. Get Out
Both horrific and hilarious, this film works on both levels. Part of what makes this a better horror film than most is the interesting characters, the script and the performances. Direction is spot on too.
14. Super Dark Times
The thing that struck me the most was how natural and age appropriate the acting and dialogue was. The Stand By Me meet Donnie Darko comparisons are apt but I'd throw in some Bully and Mean Creek into the mix too. Loved how 90s it was. Some beautiful shots in there too and atmospheric. Surprising amount of humour to it too but this is still a super dark time. I understand the complaints about the third act but I honestly wasn't expecting it to go in that direction so it worked for me.
15. Brigsby Bear
While there are certainly some dark undertones to this film it's still the happiest and funniest film of the year. I love the synth score. Dope as shit (sorry couldn't help myself). Also I see people criticising this for not adressing the dark aspects of the back story but since this is from James's POV - who doesn't seem to let it get him down- I think it works. I like that this concentrated on the comedy and light rather than the drama and dark.
16. The Salesman
Riveting, so well acted and well written with direction that proves you don't need overbearing music or forced dialogue to feel.
17. The Florida Project
One of those it starts out funny but the more it moves along and the more you think about it the more truly sad it is. A bit too loose in some parts for me but the acting is phenomenal across the board. Bobby is a particularly sympathetic character.
18. Brimstone
Not your daddy's western. Well shot and acted and bleak as hell. Unflinching, often uncomfortably so. An underrated gem, not for the faint of heart. That said it can be silly but I really liked it.
19. The Big Sick
Very heartfelt and genuine with natural performances and a likeable cast of characters. Only complaint was it felt a little long.
20. Okja
So many emotions and they are all conveyed so well. Okja looks so lifelike which adds to its impact. Gyllenhaal gives the wackiest performance of his career. And Seo Hyundai carries the film so well, looks like she'll be one to watch. I really gotta stop eating meat.
21. Wormwood
A good story and thoroughly convincing documentary. Eric Olson makes for a sympathetic documentary subject, I hope some day he finds peace, he could easily have come across as insane but he comes across all too sane which helps add to the doco’s effectiveness.
22. LA92
Gotta agree with Mr Rodney King; why can't we just get along? Amazing footage and expertly edited. I knew this had happened I just never knew to what extent. I just wish humans would learn a bit more from history *sigh*. Would have liked to have known what happened to some of the key players afterward but maybe I shouldn't be lazy and do a google. The footage of King addressing the media and the people of LA was the most powerful part for me.
23. Wind River
Solid thriller. Beautiful and haunting score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, fitting for the film. Renner's best performance since The Hurt Locker. I'm always interested in Indigenous issues so it was good to see a portrayal of a modern Native American reservation on screen, a setting and a struggle that's not shown enough in American cinema.
24. Trainspotting 2
Wasn't necessary but it stayed true to the original while being a different beast. Enjoyed it a lot. You'd have to be quite familiar with the first one though. I'm happy as that it didn't suck. Bravo team. Even better upon second viewing.
25. Baby Driver
Saw this Feat q&a with Edgar Wright, moderated by Peter Jackson. Had a lot of fun with this one, missing half a star because I thought it dragged slightly in the middle. The editing and choreography are brilliant. An onslaught of noise.

Great year. I could have kept going until 50 in my rankings and still been happy with the list. It pains me to leave off so many and that I predict at least those last three won’t make the final cut as I see a few more.

Dropped Out After New Additions
Call Me By Your Name
Logan Lucky
Detroit

Five Movies I Still Need to See in Order of Preference
Brawl in Cell Block 99 [doubt I'll get to see this before the deadline]
Hostiles [no hope of seeing this before deadline
The Square [doubt I'll get to see this before the deadline]
The Post
Darkest Hour