2017 was a tough year for a lot of people for obvious reasons. On the upside, I do think these dark times are a necessary every once in a while because it helps direct society towards real change and can lead to better times in the near future. Better writers than I have talked about 2017 as a experience so I won’t get into it.
Instead, I’ll talk about what was truly great in 2017: THE MOVIES!
In this post I will be talking about my TOP 15 MOVIES OF 2017. Why a Top 15 and not a Top 10? Cause 2017 was just that good of a year for movies, damn you! Below I will talk about the 2017 releases I have seen that I enjoyed the most. True, some of these are movies I caught at the start of 2018 because they didn’t receive a wide release until after December 31st, but otherwise the only rule for a movie to be considered for this list is that I HAD to have seen it in a theater. I can’t claim to have seen everything of course and like all lists this is purely subjective. These are the movies I personally enjoyed the most and are not necessarily the best movies …. because honestly when talking about Art the concept of Best is really silly.
But, before we get to the list –
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
These are the movies that I sadly missed in theaters or worse, were never even given a proper theatrical release. As we streaming giants like NETFLIX continues to expand their presence in all aspects of narrative storytelling I expect my Top Films of the Year list will have to change sooner rather than later to allow some quality movies in contention.
But not yet…
Honorable Mention #1 – OKJA.
What was the best thing NETFLIX released in 2017? Whatever you were about to say I just want to politely tell you that theonly correct answer is Bong Joon Ho’s OKJA. This film ultimately got buried by the service in between stand up specials, endless boring Marvel series and whatever that Will Smith Ork Racism movie was, which is a shame because it’s a stone-cold perfect film from start to finish. Bong Joon Ho’s movie is wild, weird, colorful and emotionally devasting. Had this been released in theaters I do think people would have been talking about it today and we’d be hearing genuinely deserved talk about Oscar nominations. Visually it is a complete delight and is up there with Bong Joon Ho’s greatest work. There’s a scene in the final act that absolutely destroyed me. Watch it! Embrace it! Love it! Then find someone to hug.
Honorable Mention #2 – GET ME ROGER STONE.
This NETFLIX documentary is unquestionably the most terrifying film of 2017. If anyone is wondering how we got to the social & political horror show of the last few years you MUST watch this documentary. Roger Stone is described as “the malevolent Forrest Gump” and watching this documentary it’s shocking how this asshole has been at the forefront of ruining politics and social standards since Richard Nixon. He’s one of the “masterminds” behind the victory of our current President and this doc gives the viewer complete access to the evil souls who sold out their control for a win. It’s horrifying. It’s sickening. Roger Stone is amoral. It’s a must see for educational reasons alone.
Honorable Mention #3 – MASTER OF NONE : THANKSGIVING.
This is not a movie. True. It’s an episode of a NETFLIX Original TV Series. That does not belittle the powerful effect this episode had on me. Having finally caught up on MASTER OF NONE I was taken aback just by how good it was and while I wasn’t crazy about how the series ended (the Italian Girl was a non-character and brought out the least authentic aspects of the series) but the THANKSGIVING episode was perfection! In 30 minutes, you get a fully realized window into an entire life thanks to Lena Waithe’s personal writing and I had an emotional experience so complete I was shaken. I’be been trying to get the process started on a new short film and whenever I’ve been struggling with ideas and need inspiration I’ve turned to a rewatch of this epsiode. Whether MASTER OF NONE gets a third season or not one thing is for certain and that is that this is going to be a new annual watch of mine every Thanksgiving. Wonderful!
Honorable Mention #4 – IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD.
I didn’t have the pleasure of catching this on the big screen. It was playing at some theaters near me and I just never took some time to swing by and watch this. What a loss! Sunao Katabuchi’s masterpiece is a quiet and absolutely breathtaking work of art! Following a decade in a young woman’s life as she enters an arranged marriage set during WWII is a complete slice of life that is equal parts emotional, beautiful, painful and stunningly uplifting all at once! What starts as a seemingly aimless view of a simple life – the episodic nature focuses on such mundane moments of life so effectively that a five minute sequence about how our hero spreads meal rations out to two dinners is beautiful filmmaking – slowly morphs into a haunting story about growing up during a war. Then when all hope seems lost it surprises you once again by filling you with hope anew! IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD is one of the best movies of the year and would have been high High HIGH on my list had I done the right thing and paid to see this in a theater. Watch this now!
Those were the HONORABLE MENTIONS. So now let’s get to the real deal…
THE TOP 15 FILMS OF 2017!
15. ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD. (Ridley Scott.)
What a difference a reshoot makes! This gloriously sick film almost got buried when revelations came out about Kevin Spacey’s long history of sexual assault. Spacey, under a ton of old-man makeup, had performed the central role of J. Paul Getty when the movie originally shot in the summer and his presence would (righftully) have buried the film. Then, a mere SIX WEEKS before this movie was due to be released in theaters, Ridley Scott announced he was bringing the whole gang back together to reshoot all of Spacey’s scenes with Christopher Plummer taking on the role and he was going to keep the original release date. While it was later revealed Mark Wahlberg used these reshoots as an opportunity to grossly cash in (he’s the weak link in the film), Scott and his cast + crew worked their magic and aside from one shot early in the film the reshoots are absolutely seamless. As a positive on top of doing the right thing, the film is all the better for the reshoots! Christopher Plummer is chilling as J. Paul Getty the shrewd billionaire who has the money to spare thousands of times over but refuses to pay the ransom to free his grandson… but Plummer is also charming too in the role. He never feels like a cartoon charicature of a greedy wealthy white man who cares about no one but himself (a role already filled by the President) but instead comes across as a fully realized human being with emotions and goals all his own… they’ve just been corrupted by the allure of complete wealth. Getty is the corrupt, empty heart of the film and every scene with Plummer is an absolute delight! The rest of the film regrettably can’t live up to the Getty scenes but thankfully Scott is on his A game professionally and the rest of the film still delivers minor thrills. Michelle Williams is phenomenal & the actor playing the kidnapper Cinquanta (Romain Doris) steals the show whenever he’s on screen. Add in some great cinematographry, smooth editing, a strong adult driven script and you’ve got a great movie. Regrettably, Wahlberg is miscast & doesn’t add much to the film and a sudden action scene near the end does continue Ridley Scott’s third act problems but, otherwise it is a great watch.
14. COCO. (Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina.)
It’s heartbreaking to say mainstream movies that are respectful to Mexican heritage are almost nonexistent. 99% of the time if an American made movie deals with Mexico it’s going to be a movie about gun toting drug cartels. COCO is not that movie. Pixar’s best since Inside Out is a complete treasure from start to finish! I spent seven years of my childhood living in Mexico so seeing the country represented so well on screen in an authentic way that didn’t approach cultural appropriation moved me entirely. Narratively, it plays a little too close to the Pixar Rulebook but when the rulebook work this well that’s not detrimental to the overall success of the film. I hope Pixar delivers movies like this more often and takes a break on those never ending sequels.
13. I, TONYA. (Craig Gillespie.)
My Unpopular Opinion: Allison Janney is the one negative in this. The movie leans so heavily on Janney’s comedic sensibilities that all her scenes which should be heart wrenching and cold ultimately feel played for laughs. Every scene with Harding’s mother should be terrifying & unpleasant but the movie instead goes for the feeling that you’re hanging out with a loveable misanthrope. It’s the one element of the movie that feels wrong. Thankfully, everything else in this Tonya Harding biopic is superb! It looks great, it moves fast, has a superb grasp on all the other characters and the decision to focus on the at-the-time-pushed-under-the-rug horror of how fully domestic abuse destroys is powerful! Margot Robbie is captivating from start to finish and she has scenes in here that stick with you for days. I’m fascinating and in love with this modern reappraisal of maligned women from the 90s and I, TONYA is going to be an essential film about how corrosive pop culture can be. While the film doesn’t give Nancy Kerrigan any focus (a flaw) the human look it provides Harding is honest & real.
12. DUNKIRK. (Christopher Nolan.)
Wow! Christopher Nolan’s ambition continues to astound. Shooting a movie almost entirely on 70MM in a time when going smaller and digital is the norm is already ambitious enough. Deciding to make it a World War II movie starring mostly unknowns is even more ambitious. Then on top of that deciding to remove almost all dialogue and make it a 100 minute editing experiment that jumps around in different timelines is unbelievable! As long as Nolan is allowed to make his movies on as big a canvas as possible we can be promised unique cinematic experiences! While I have a deeper emotional connection to some of his other films I truly think DUNKIRK is the best movie in Nolan’s insanely impressive body of work. This is the kind of movie that will be inspiring new film buffs for decades!
11. THE BIG SICK. (Michael Showalter.)
We need more romantic comedies. The genre got a bad name from the movie star & grossout hijinks driven nonsense released in the 90s & 00s but when romantic comedies work they are divine! Kumail Nanjiani & Emily V. Gordon’s true life story is wonderfully adapted into being a near-perfect romantic comedy that is about something! This character driven story is going to become a lovely classic and there’s just so much about this movie I love talking about with others! I love that even though Zoe Kazan has to be out of the movie for 2/3rds of the running time this is still very much her story! I love that when Ray Romano & Holly Hunter come in at the half way point they naturally dominate the film with their heart and humanity! I love the scene when Kumail bonds with Emily’s parents over cheap fast food, whiskey & embarrasing high school photos! I love Kumail’s parents who in their own way just want the best for their son! I love Kumail’s complete disasater of a roommate! Oh boy…. there’s a lot to love.
10. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. (Luca Guadagnino.)
A strong movie that works magically for two hours… then in the last ten minutes is elevated into the stratosphere of wonder by one actor delivering a superb monologue! Mind you, all the performances in Luca Guadagnino’s romantic delight are phenomenal – Timothée Chalamet is a real find, Armie Hammer is pure charisma & the chemistry + sexual tension between the two is riveting – and I was on board with the beautiful 35MM picture from the very start. Still, when Michael Stuhlbarg launches into a quiet monologue about first loves and the effect of aging in the third act it destroyed me. When Stuhlbarg’s quietly affecting monologue is followed up with a crushingly perfect final scene and a credit sequence for the ages is when you know you have seen the best final ten minutes of any movie in 2017. While I’ve never read the novel upon which the movie is based on, special commendation has to go out to 89-year-old James Ivory’s screenplay which is emotionally profound. I need to read his script and take endless notes! Guadagnino’s direction feels effortless and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s lush color palette shot on 35MM photography – they apparently used the same lenses for EVERY shot and they get such versatility out of it that my mind is still blow- is picturesque and subtly effective! Your first love is a ageless and unforgettable one. I can’t wait to revisit this movie in the near future and cry in private.
9. THE FLORIDA PROJECT. (Sean Baker.)
I don’t think a more visually colorful film was released in 2017. The 35MM photography by Alexis Zabe is breathtaking! I also don’t think there was a movie released in 2017 humane than Sean Baker’s THE FLORIDA PROJECT. Based on the description, I was really worried that this movie was going to amount to nothing more than “misery porn” where the message is simply being poor sucks (no shit) and you should feel bad so give me an Oscar, but Baker instead chose to tell a story that is equal parts innocent and tragic. It’s human but real AND cinematic. He found an inspiring way to get his message across – the poor aren’t forgotten, they’re in plain sight and simply ignored– and still feel dreamlike and uplifting at the same time. The cast of nonprofessional actors are fearless and while I rarely agreed or approved of their actions I also empathized and felt for them. Willem Dafoe is especially wonderful as Bobby and continues to show why he might be our most under appreciated actor. Dafoe projects such warmth and humanity in every scene that it’s insane to think how in other movies he so easily plays the most terrifying of villains. It’s also surprisingly funny and how can you not love the purple motel?!
8. YOUR NAME. (Makoto Shinkai.)
Anime is like every other narrative medium: it can tell ANY story and often gets misunderstood by the worst examples of what makes it unique. Makoto Shinkai is an artist like any other. He just happens to work in the anime medium. Anime is loaded with superb storytellers who for the uninformed have long lived under the shadow of Hayao Miyazaki. Examples of the underloved include Hideaki Anno, Maasaki Yuasa, Hiroyuki Imaishii & Kazuya Tsurumaki. Until last year you could have easily included Shinkai in that list. But, in 2016 his new movie became a national phenomenon in Japan. It was the Titanic of anime. I’ve long been a fan of his work (TBH: I wrote a script that is 100% inspired by his film FIVE CENTIMETERS PER SECOND and it is one I hope to return to now that I’ve got years of experience to add to a re-write) and for the first time I had the pleasure or catching his new movie in theaters this year. Boy, did it deliver up to the hype! Shinkai has taken all his previous obsessions – lovers being separated by space & time, how technology has changed the way we communicate, animated environments that are so hyper realistic that the real world seems hollow– and worked them into a narrative that perfectly meshes his artistic sensibilities with a thrilling three-act story that just flows. This is one of the best movies of this & any year! He also found a way to make “fan service” work and that is… impressive.
7. LOGAN. (James Mangold.)
Fact: The X-MEN movies aren’t really good. I mean the ones directed by Bryan Singer that allowed him to continue his main profession of being the longest lasting “open secret” predator in Hollywood never get any better than “just okay”. Honestly, the only GOOD X-Men movie before 2017 was Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class which is a pure joy of pulp silliness carried by a strong cast and the flawless scene of Michael Fassbender drinking Bitburger & hunting Nazis. Still, the X-MEN series has always had one secret weapon that helped make even the worst of the entries bearable – Hugh Jackman’s performance as Logan a.k.a. The Wolverine. Since the series launched in 2000 Jackman has been the angry yet soulful center it needed. Having played the part for almost two decades, Hugh Jackman decided it was time to let the role go and Fox (at the time they were free of Profit-All-The-Time-Disney) allowed him & director James Mangold go wild in giving his version of the character a final send off. I expected the movie to be good (I enjoyed most of THE WOLVERINE when it was allowed to be the character driven movie Mangold wanted but it lost me when that Mecha Samurai showed up) but I certainly never expected the movie to be great! LOGAN is a bonafide masterpiece! Having literally grown up with Jackman’s version of the Wolverine (Important Note: I don’t read or care for comics) made this soulful farewell to the character a real experience that cut deep! Jackman gives the best performance of his career and is helped by his stellar fellow actors – Patrick Stewart is the best, Boyd Holbrook is a superb villain, Stephen Merchant is pure empathy – but none more so than Dafne Keen as Laura. What a find! Comic boom movies are mostly overrated but LOGAN highlights that when these movies truly focus on character they can deliver like all other genres can! There are no more guns in the valley for this Wolverine.
6. THE POST. (Steven Spielberg.)
Martin Scorsese is my personal favorite living director. Hayao Miyazaki IS the greatest living storyteller. But, Steven Spielberg is the BEST living filmmaker! He DECIDED to make this movie in the summer of 2017 and somehow RELEASED it that December! When I watch movies I’ll often study the way the director frames their shots, move their cameras, block their actors and like an oblivious and overly confident fool I’ll tell myself “Yeah, I can do that.” I can’t do that when watching a Spielberg movie. He directs in a way that is so fresh, so built through experience, so original, so untethered from the usual shot/shot-reverse-shot form of storytelling that it’s both inspiring and terrifying. It’s wrong how much we take Spielberg for granted simply because he’s been at the top of his game for so damn long! THE POST is his 32nd feature film & I would argue half of those 32 movies are genuine stone-cold fucking masterpieces! JAWS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC, E.T., THE COLOR PURPLE, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, JURASSIC PARK, SCHINDLER’S LIST, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MINORITY REPORT, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, MUNICH & LINCOLN are the ones off the top of my damn head! I’ll add THE POST to that list! We need Free Press and we need strong women in roles of power & Spielberg’s movie handles both of those themes deftly and what some people call “schmaltz” I call perfection!
5. LADY BIRD. (Greta Gerwig.)
My favorite Noah Baumbach movies are MISTRESS AMERICA and FRANCES HA. No joke, I’d argue FRANCES HA is the greatest American movie of the past decade. So I’ve often wondered why I’m not so crazy about the rest of his body of work. Now I know. Those two were co-written with national treasure Greta Gerwig and with her solo movie I see where the beating heart & soul of those movies came from. LADY BIRD is warmth. This movie feels for everyone and even the characters you’re supposed to hate – like the cheating boyfriend – are revealed to be real wounded people who are also lost and need love and encouragement like we all do. It’s a quietly powerful film that snuck on me when I saw it a second time with family. Everyone in this picture deserves being praised – Laurie Metcalf is astonishing, Saoirse Ronan has never been better, Beanie Feldstein sneaks up on you, Stephen Henderson only has about six lines as Father Leviatch & brought me to tears – but especially Gerwig as director who is just phenomenal! I can’t wait to see what she’ll write &/or direct next!
4. BLADE RUNNER 2049. (Denis Villeneuve.)
Denis Villeneuve’s sequel does not equal the 1982 original… at least not yet. Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER is a very weird cineamtic tonal poem that slowly reveals itself to be something much deeper and human on every rewatch. It’s messy for sure and a lot of it is simply Scott throwing ideas into the air to see what happens but the movie is still a masterpiece that is forever evolving. The BLADE RUNNER I watched in 2015 was not the same BLADE RUNNER I watched in 2017. Villeneuve’s BR 2049 is a more traditional narrative that spends 165 minutes dealing with all narrative tangents so it’s a more complete experience. It’s great but it can’t match the original. At least that’s how I feel after two watches. I’m hoping to be proven wrong. Villeneuve has quickly become the most exciting director of the now! PRISONERS, ENEMY, SICARIO, ARRIVAL & now this have showcased a strong, classical filmmaker who knows how to frame a shot, tell a story and cut deep thematically! There’s a twist regarding Ryan Gosling’s character that had me cheering and the last act is flawless! Throw in Roger Deakins best cinematography to date, some excellent performances (this is Harrison Ford’s best work in 30 years) and one hell of a soundtrack makes this a movie worth revisiting again & again! Needless to say, I’m pumped for Villeneuve’s next movie which is supposed to be an adaptation of my favorite book/inspiration for what may soon be my first tattoo, DUNE!
3. THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER. (Yorgos Lanthimos.)
I don’t want to say too much about this movie. You NEED to experience it for yourself unfettered with prior knowledge. I’ll simply say this; while I liked Yorgos Lanthimos’ previous film, The Lobster, a good deal I was not prepared for how much I would love his newest! I won’t say anything more. Just tell me when you watch it and then let’s grab a beer to try and wrap our heads around it!
2. PHANTOM THREAD. (Paul Thomas Anderson.)
PTA does it again. I want to say I don’t know how but I do. Few filmmakers put more thought into every camera shot, every line of dialogue, every look between characters more than Paul Thomas Anderson. Few filmmakers also play by their rules more than PTA. You hear “drama about a fashion designer and his muse in 1950s London” and already my eyelids start to get heavy. Two minutes in I was 100% captivating in this beautiful world of lace, fabric, measurements and Welsh rarebit that I could have taken up residence! The camerawork + lighting is flawless and showcases the pure glory of shooting on film! Nothing else looks like this and we’re at a loss because of that. The movie intentionally moves slow but covers a gamount of tones and emotions. Daniel Day-Lewis, in what may be his last film role, gives a thrilling performance as the fashion designer of a thousand rules, Reynolds Woodcock. But, as good as he is the movie truly belongs to the find of Vicky Krieps as his newest muse, Alma. PTA’s newest masterpiece (one of many) is kinky in the best ways possible and truly about the relationship between art, romance and what it takes to find balance between the two. I haven’t found the balance yet myself but this film inspires me to do so.
1. mother! (Darren Aronofksy.) TIE
Darren Aronofksy’s allegorical masterpiece IS the movie of 2017! What starts out as a black comedy about the worst house guests imaginable slowly evolves into a drama about domestic abuse before freakishly mutating into the most bat-shit insane final act put to film in recent memory! This movie is making people angry and it should. This film is also super inspiring and it should do that too! Before seeing it, I thought Aronofksy had made a classic home invasion movie and he did… in a way…. but what he ultimately delivered was an experience that meant so much more and was so much more memorable! In a role that is not part of her usual wheelhouse, Jennifer Lawrence gives her best performance of her career! She’s not the tough cool extrovert she’s played in the past but instead is a meek, tortured introvert who is constantly gaslit & trodden over by her inattentive narcissist husband played by Javier Bardem. You could say this movie is about relationships. You could also say it’s about man. You could even say the movie is about history. I know what I think it’s about but what about you? P.S. This movie has THE BEST use of Kristen Wiig!
1. THE SHAPE OF WATER. (Guillermo Del Toro.) TIE
Love is strange. Love is weird. Love is perverted. And love is beautiful. I’m having a tough time deciding if this or PAN’S LABYRINTH is my favorite Guillermo Del Toro movie to date. Since PAN’S LABYRINTH is only one of the best movies ever made you can tell how much I adore this picture. It’s just flawless. I’m crazy for the Aquatic Creature. I’m Gaga for Sally Hawkins as the funny, weird & horny Elisa Esposito. I’m over the moon for Michael Shannon doing more of his Nelson Van Alden thing. I want more of Octavia Spencer being awesome! Michael Stuhlbarg continues to do no wrong! I need more of that green/teal coloring! I just need this movie injected into my veins. Two fun facts: It has the Best Scene of 2017 (just think Black & White) AND I had my biggest cry at the movies this year …(just think Richard Jenkins standing in a doorway saying “I have no one to talk too.”). With all the garbage cinematic universes going on I would happily welcome a Consensually Horny Monster Cinematic Universe.
1. ALIEN: COVENANT. (Ridley Scott.) TIE
Very Unpopular Opinion: As a lifelong fan of the ALIEN series, I think ALIEN: COVENANT is the best entry in the series since Ridley Scott’s 1979 original! Yes, I said THE BEST. While I understand James Cameron’s ALIENS is a stronger film, from where I stand I find Scott’s messy (VERY MESSY) 2017 sorta-prequel to be a more exciting and enjoyable experience! I grew up loving the “True” four Alien movies. Scott’s original is unequaled, Cameron’s sequel is one of the best action movies ever made, David Fincher’s ALIEN 3 is bleak but so fascinating & Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ALIEN RESURRECTION is too damn weird, colorful & goofy to ignore. When Ridley Scott returned to this world with PROMETHEUS I adored it because the movie looked amazing, had a killer first act and was willing to go off in a wild new direction. It had problems but the pros outweighed the cons. So when I heard the second “prequel” was going to feature actual Xenomorphs I couldn’t help but be disappointed. More of the same? Bummer. When I went to see the movie on opening day I didn’t know what to expect but I certainly did not expect to find the weird & sexy mess of a movie so wild that I actually went back and watched it again that SAME DAY!
I understand why people HATE the movie. It’s clear as day that Scott has zero fucks left for the actual Alien itself and the scenes where the Xenomorphs show up while looking great & featuring solid action sure do feel a bit tired & by the numbers. Honestly, I think the Alien itself is pretty much done. The Beast has been so omnipresent in comics, video games, toys, FACEHUGGER PLUSHIES , etc that there’s little the Classic Alien itself can add besides some cheap nostalgia and a couple bugs hunts (I had zero interest in Neill Blomkamp’s tiresome sounding ALIEN:RETCON project). Thankfully, Ridley Scott is on my wavelength. He’s interested in something much more sinister and captivating – he’s interested in the ACT OF CREATION and specifically experiencing it through the Android DAVID (Michael Fassbender).
DAVID was introduced in PROMETHEUS and was the best part of that movie by a large margin. Fassbender’s chipper & servile yet frustrated & curious Android was intentionally the most human in a movie full of genre stereotypes. Where everyone else was after the silly pursuit of meeting their creator, David was past that shit already cause he’d met his creator & was not impressed. He found humans to be vain, foolish, petty, racist & often do really dumb things (like write lists of favorite movies). David simply wanted to do his own thing and try out some experiments to see what wild things would come forth. Why bother about the past & inane questions like where you come from when you can create something new?
ALIEN: COVENANT is that character arch heightened, bolded & underlined. Other than the wonderous opening prologue with David, the movie misdirects us for the entire first act by introducing us to another crew of weary space travelers who do all the things people in horror movies shouldn’t do like answer that SOS call to explore an unknown planet and go around touching shit. The movie even throws the audience a bone by giving us a new Ripley played by Katharine Waterson who says all the right things and if these dummies had only listened to her they would have lived. They don’t. The humans go around touching shit, putting their faces in places they shouldn’t and ultimately start dying in gloriously gruesome ways. Which is great! The MedLab scene with people slipping in blood all over the place is a PERFECT horror set piece!
Then about 50 minutes in, with the audience foreplay out of the way, David returns to the picture and takes it over entirely. He’s weird, he’s arch and even though he hasn’t seen a human in a decade he seems aloof. The only other character he is attentive towards is his “brother”, a newer more docile Android model named Walter (Fassbender again) and this relationship leads to the best scenes in the movie! The lengthy & quiet homoerotic moments between the two Fassbenders were something wonderful to see in a STUDIO movie! I can understand why these scenes turned a lot of people off because they’re unlike anything else in modern blockbuster filmmaking! That made me love them all the more. Yes, David teaching Walter how to play the flute and intimately saying by candlelight “I’ll do the fingering” is supposed to be funny… and kinda kinky in a super perverse way. I loved it!
Ultimately, ALIEN:COVENANT is a nihilist anti-human picture that sides with the Android who comes out victorious in the end over the parasitic sickness that is humanity While I don’t agree with David on the idea that humans are a gross & “dying species grasping for resurrection” I totally get where he’s coming from and love a movie that has the courage and tenacity to go there! If that narrative has to be smuggled into a never-ending studio franchise so it reaches a much wider audience then all the better! Whatever flaws COVENANT flaws has in regards to story (and it does; the third act action climax with a Xenomorph on the ship is okay but rather tepid aside from the bits with David) I’m gonna cherish it for giving me a character and story as fascinating as David. It’s the second best entry in my favorite film franchise of all time. WIth any luck, Ridley Scott will get a chance to finish his story with one final movie. I hope he simply calls it DAVID.
So that’s my TOP 15 FILMS OF 2017 List. Yes, I cheated at the end with three movies being tied for number one but list-making is always an arbitrary process. Ask me to make this list six months from now and I bet you it would be entirely different. Either way, this is my list on my barely-used corner of the internet so I’ll damn the rules & let Chaos Reign.
I hope all three…. maybe two… of you who read this thing enjoyed it. I don’t really plan to use this Blog all that much and wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t return to it until I felt the urge to write a TOP FILMS OF 2018 list. But, if there is a slight demand/interest maybe I’ll return.
In the meantime, let’s make a damn movie!