With the #NationalBoardOfReview doing their own list, the time has come again for our founder, Eric Player, talk about his #TenBest favorite movies. The ol' #TenBest2017.
EDIT 2:58 PM - The National Board of Review announced their slate about an hour and a half after we published ours on this site, and it is gratifying to find that they took so much that we had to say into consideration. Where we differ will simply have to be viewed as an acknowledgement that the #NBR is, after all, only human.
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This has certainly been a year. I hear some time has passed. You know, since last year. And some stuff has happened since then. Yeah. So--
"The Best From Hollywood" will always be my broad statement to mean the American Film Industry. It is what I have been a fan of my entire life; No disrespect to the movies coming out of other nations, or the endless spider web of television production that streams in an unending wave you will never catch (go ahead, try to catch it all), but that just isn't what I study or follow. As diverse as I get is 'Movies in English,' so if you film in Germany but speak so I can hear, maybe I'll catch you.
Like usual, my list is my own. Everything in this business is, as always, subjective. Subject to who hasn't been booted out for being a wanker, mostly.
2017 wasn't a bad year; for movies, anyway. I did need to seek out about half of what I watched (legally) online this year, and half in the traditional theater. That was more about my own availability from work and personal influences, though.
Now then, in no order except what I think makes for a nice dramatic reveal, here again are the movies you should tell your friends you liked.
'I Am Not Your Negro' - "Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced." I haven't been this affected by a documentary in a long time. A powerful film that reminds you that everything that you try to put neatly in the past is still splattered all around you right in the here and now. Naturally a lot of the Civil Rights and racial tensions of 2015 onward enter into my interest in this film, and no doubt into the interests of the filmmakers in making it, but I have always had a certain fascination with the 1960s and with the Civil Rights era. And like ‘The Silmarillion,’ ‘A.I.,’ and ‘A Film Unfinished’ before it, the unfinished masterpiece aspect of this film, drew me to it.
Also, I love how the poster looks like an old 1960s nonfiction paperback.
Wind River - This film works on more levels than a Wes Anderson Establishing Shot. First off, it’s sort of a modern, Revisionist Western retelling of The Searchers, being that it is the third script in Taylor Sheridan’s trilogy about the American Frontier, and the first he has directed. Second, it is an Avengers side-story (for the casting, only). Thirdly, it is a powerful indictment of life without a cell tower nearby. Last, seriously, and most topically it is a stand-in for all the sexual assault and harassment claims that are going through business and government today, between its plotline on celluloid and the behind-the-scenes negotiations that went forward on behalf of the native tribes who funded the film to get Harvey Weinstein away from it. Also it destroyed me emotionally as a father.
Logan Lucky - So much to recommend this film. How “Ocean’s 11” might have looked if Danny Ocean had a seven year old daughter. And was robbing NASCAR. With the help of a hillbilly James Bond. While being pursued by a boxing champ FBI agent who was herself a million-dollar baby. And dagnabbit it destroyed me too as a father.
Thor Ragnarok - I’m kinda tickled that a director from a film I had on my list last year, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, is back directing a Marvel movie this year. Taika Waititi apparently got the gig on this one even before 2016 (makes sense), but I didn’t know who he was then and I’m happy to see the arc of my instincts, as it were. Thor’s exploits under Waititi remind me of 1980’s Flash Gordon, and I want to be very clear of the kind of compliment that is. DIIIIIIIVE into this raging fire. Fun is alive! It's a friend from work!
Baby Driver - Violence as music. Nice to see some of my adolescent fanboy music considered obscure and hip now. As for the violence, I would say maybe it is even a little too gory for what it is. But some folks like that sort of thing. And their requisite F-bombs, though this one made sure they only threw in just enough to get over the ‘legal limit,’ such as it is in the States, or on Kevin Spacey films. Also, I noticed the UPMs and Second Unit Directors got top billing in the end credits above anyone else. As it should be; those people did wonders in this movie.
Kong: Skull Island - A Monster Movie as Vietnam War Commentary, and that's why the helicopters kept attacking the monkey, in case you were wondering. I also loved the way the whole film played with the legend and the assumptions of the first film--because even in the 1930s the heroes were getting Kong's motivations all wrong, back then they were less immediately aware of it, however. In fact, you could say the entire film has a “USA Hubris” subtext. Men and nations are still throwing helicopters at monkeys that just want a banana and a nap.
Storks - Released last September (2016) but originally meant to come out in Feb. 2017, the same weekend as Get Out, essentially as counterprogramming to the Jordan Peele thriller. Instead, Warner Brothers, which also owned LEGO Batman, decided to go with that film. But releases early in the year being so fluid, and this being my list, I'm still counting it. It's better than any other animated theatrical release this year, yes I even liked it better than DM3, Cars3, or LEGOs Batman/Ninjago. It teaches the value of friendship, family, safe driving, and there's even a bit of magic and anti-consumerism thrown in for good measure. Also it seems pretty clear that as a dad, I am easy to reach and destroy emotionally. Do you agree? I agree.
Prevenge - A better Girl Power movie than that other 2017 release, and maybe I’m just being belligerent, because we all know the one I mean, but having 5 kids (and so seeing 5 pregnancies from the outside) and having sympathized if not empathized with 5 (and actually, with my cousins and sisters, many more) different losses of agency over the mother's body, I am picking this one instead. Though I must say, in regards to the ending, and the ultimate reveal regarding the nature of her condition: Yeah, that's something I occasionally thought to myself regarding my own significant other about her attitude/stresses, not that I'd ever say it out loud. I ain't got no death wish.
Get Out - Of all the choices on this list, it's of course been the longest since I sat down and watched this one, but what stayed with me about this movie was the way it communicated a sense of feeling completely out of place in the most ordinary of surroundings. I don't pretend to be able to relate on a racial level to the experiences of the main character, but having lived my entire life in a religious minority, one that I find outsiders alternately indifferent, hostile, or fascinated by, I could definitely relate to those elements where a day goes from ordinary to comical to uncomfortable, such as the "being paraded for the neighbors" scene.
Hostiles - I’m picking this one on faith, since it won’t be out for 3 more weeks. On the one hand, it looks like Unforgiven meets Silverado meets 3:10 to Yuma meets The Revenant. On the other, it has a Bond Girl (Rosamund Pike), a Batman (Christian Bale), guns, and hair!
Honorable Mentions:
Dunkirk - For the record, the only reason I didn't include Dunkirk on my main list was that I didn't see it in the theater, and haven't seen it yet. Both huge strikes against any man producing a personal Ten Best List, wouldn't you say? Not for lack of interest--I planned entire vacations around the release schedule of Nolan's World War 2 epic. I wanted to see it very badly, but properly. In the end, as has been mentioned, I could not swing it because, first and foremost, I'm a daddy.
The Post - The Kings and Queens of Hollywood and their teams signed on, rewrote, shot, and edited this for release in under eight months. It only misses my top ten tier for two reasons:
(1) It looks incredibly boring, and acted/edited with all the luster of a Golden Globes skit.
(2) See point #1*
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So that's it. Seriously. Those are the best movies Hollywood put out, or will, this year. 2017.
In my opinion, of course.
Eric C. Player is an independently poor filmmaker, and the president of Panther Pictures, LLC. He is a father, fan, storyteller, "Picker," and a graduate of BYU & Chapman University film schools. His films have played in theaters all across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and movies to which he was a contributing writer or producer are available on Netflix and Amazon. He has written and produced film and video content for more than twenty years. His 2016 short, Moment of Anger, received multiple honors including Best Short and Best Director at the Road House International Short Film Festival 2016 in Santa Monica, California. Eric C. Player on Imdb.
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*If any of the very powerful people who moved heaven and earth to make The Post read this, understand that I am riffing, and you DID make the list, after all. ;)
