Film Revues: 2018

I’ve decided to shake things up a bit. Because I missed out on reviewing almost everything in 2017 (except Logan), I thought I’d review, alphabetically, all the movies I saw in 2017. No word minimum; if I didn’t have much to say about a movie, oh well, I guess I won’t say anything. I don’t usually like to assign ratings, but since I’m listing off 40+ reviews, I’ll put a rating to make it easier to digest. And I’ll call out my favorite film of the year. This will serve as an alternate to my usual top 10. So, without further ado, all the films released in 2017 I saw, in release order:

*Note: not every date is accurate. I used IMDb’s Coming Soon section, and I realize some movies (especially at the end of December) didn’t come out on a Friday. But that’s the way it is.

Split

Released: 1/20/2017

M. Night Shyamalan is officially out of director’s jail. After a series of movies of declining quality, including The Happening (2008) and the The Last Airbender (2010), Shyamalan has had a couple of decent movies, including The Visit (2015) and this one. James McAvoy stars as Kevin, a man who shifts between 23 different personalities of varying characteristics and genders, and the girls he has kidnapped to help fulfill his master plan. McAvoy is great, and the movie itself is pretty decent, although there’s an iffy sexual abuse subplot. What Split is most known for is a pretty surprising ending that I won’t reveal, although I don’t think it really makes the movie any better. There’s also some sillier subplots involving a psychologist evaluating Kevin who makes some dumb decisions. In the end, it’s a generally entertaining, if slight, entertainment.

6/10

The LEGO Batman Movie

Released: 2/10/2017

The LEGO Movie (2014) was surprisingly good and funny, so naturally there were gonna be more. I didn’t see Ninjago, the other LEGO offering this year, but I did seek out The LEGO Batman Movie, which didn’t disappoint. Will Arnett, who voiced the Caped Crusader in The LEGO Movie, returns along with a large cast including Michael Cera, Ralph Fiennes, and Rosario Dawson. The movie is a deconstruction of Batman and his legacy, from the 40s through the recent Zack Snyder interpretation. It takes a bit of a scattered deviation in the third act, but is still blisteringly funny and highly rewatchable.

8/10

Fifty Shades Darker

Released: 2/10/2017

The previous entry was surprisingly not horrible, which isn’t to say it was good. But the follow-up is dreadfully boring. Describing the plot? She works for a rival business guy but then Mr. Grey wins her back because he’s, you know, rich and handsome and she wants to fix him. But her new boss also lusts after her. And they wear masks to a ball (so racy!). And just like the last movie, the “risky” sex is pretty tame. Why these things are bestsellers is beyond me.

3/10

John Wick: Chapter 2

Released: 2/10/2017

Keanu Reeves returns as the titular John Wick, in a film that basically picks up where the last one ended, and continues in much the same vein as the first. This time Wick’s house is blown up, sending him back into the extensive underworld of assassins he once inhabited. The movie expands the world in interesting and preposterous ways, and there is a nice Matrix reunion when Laurence Fishburne arrives. Lots of bloody and intense action, although it fails to feel like anything as exciting as the first.

7/10

The Great Wall

Released: 2/17/2017

Saw this for $1.75 at a second run theater. China’s great attempt at making a movie that would be a box office smash over here, and it didn’t perform well. Taking a weird Medieval setting, the Great Wall doesn’t protect Mongolia from human invaders, but monstrous ones. Matt Damon is there as well, looking for China’s great invention of gunpowder. It’s a fairly ridiculous premise, helmed by Zhang Yimou, usually a talented director. While there are some nice visuals, there’s nothing memorable about it.

3/10

A Cure For Wellness

Released: 2/17/2017

This was an utterly bizarre film that was heavily advertised, and made almost no money. Directed by Gore Verbinski, the film stars Dane DeHaan as a young executive who must venture to the Swiss Alps to discover why the CEO has not returned from a “wellness” center. Filled with fascinating imagery for a major studio release, A Cure For Wellness goes on for way too long (it feels its runtime), and the movie reveals major plot points long after the audience has figured it out. That being said, I enjoyed the atmosphere of this movie, and though it doesn’t totally work, it was one of the bolder releases of the year.

6/10

Get Out

Released: 2/24/2017

What to say that hasn’t been said? Jordan Peele’s directorial debut is a fantastic horror film around race relations in our modern times. It’s a film that’s chilling and also very funny, entertaining and engaging. Daniel Kaluuya stars as an African-American male who is meeting his white girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) family, and from there things get pretty weird. I go back and forth on my feelings about the film’s ending, but what is certain is how excellent this film is. I can’t wait for what else Jordan Peele has for us.

9/10

Logan

Released: 3/3/2017

Although 20th Century Fox is likely to be owned by Disney soon, I am enjoying their new strides into R-rated superhero territory. With 2016’s Deadpool proving that audiences were hungry for more adult content, here we get an R-rated X-Men movie where Wolverine’s claws really do cut people in half. The mostly bloodless violence of the previous films is washed away by a brutal opening scene clearly there to get out any parents who may have wandered in with their children. Hugh Jackman, playing Logan for the umpteenth, but supposedly final time, is fantastic as the grizzled and run down hero. Patrick Stewart gives a new spin on Xavier, who has Alzheimer’s and is losing control of his great brain powers. There’s also a fierce little girl that becomes the thrust of the plot as Logan reluctantly takes the little girl north to safety when it’s revealed she’s a little Wolverine prodigy. In a time when superhero movies are saturating the market, here is a refreshing take that stands out above the rest.

9/10

Beauty and the Beast

Released: 3/17/2017

I was not looking forward to this remake, an unnecessary live-action rehash of the classic 1991 animated film. Although Disney surprised with their Jungle Book remake in 2016, there is nothing added here that was missing from the original. Emma Watson is stiff as Belle, auto-tuned to death, the staging of the songs is unimaginative, and while the rest of the cast gives it their best, it always feels like they are operating in the shadows of the superior film. There are new songs, and Belle has a backstory (because what we needed was more backstory?), and the Beast’s magic mirror can now time travel or something. I dunno, the movie has some wonderful production design, but it’s a pretty subpar remake, and I dread the rehashing of Disney’s other properties coming soon.

5/10

Life

Released: 3/24/2017

A horror sci-fi space adventure that is essentially a remake of Alien, wherein a group of astronauts discover a new aggressive lifeform that slowly starts killing everyone off. It’s effective and skillfully made, though it has a pretty dumb twist ending. Enjoyable but forgettable.

6/10

The Lost City of Z

Released: 4/14/2017

A quiet film that spans decades of one man’s search for El Dorado, or the Lost City of Z. The film spends equal time in the jungles of Amazonia as it does in England, dealing with explorer Col. Percival Fawcett’s (Charlie Hunnam) personal life and the impact his obsession has on his loved ones. It’s an interesting film, although it tends to meander about. While gorgeous to look at, and with a great cast, it doesn’t always sustain interest and could’ve used some editing.

7/10

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Released: 5/5/2017

Here finally is a Marvel movie that delivers some heart, that is truly bizarre and decides not to tie into the larger business of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the interconnecting can be fun, it’s also wearisome, and here is a film that is allowed, based on its location deep in outer space, to stay separated. The plot is also wonderfully strange (our hero’s father is a planet?) and it subverted my generally low expectations for Marvel movies.

9/10

Wonder Woman

Released: 6/2/2017

The superhero movie everyone thought would fail ended up being the biggest hit at the box office in summer 2017. It also has the distinction of being the best DCEU movie, although when the field is populated by Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Suicide Squad, that’s a low bar to pass. Still, Wonder Woman succeeds but not bothering to tie too much into the DCEU and instead focus on Diana (Gal Gadot), her origin, and how she came to be. There’s some terrific action sequences, although the film devolves into a boring lightning villain battle at the end. Still, Wonder Woman proved to be a revolution in pop culture, and will probably stand out as one of the more memorable films to come out of our superhero saturated times.

8/10

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Released: 6/2/2017

I mean, it’s called Captain Underpants. What’d you expect? It’s generally fun and entertaining, but also a little too aggressive and in-your-face with your humor. Also, whenever Nick Kroll voices a villain (as he does in this movie and he did in last year’s Sausage Party), he gives me a headache.

6/10

The Big Sick

Released: 6/23/2017

Now here is a film full of heart and comedy, that draws from real life (the script was written by star Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon) and provides us with a fresh perspective on dating culture from a Pakistani in modern America. Kumail plays himself as he falls for a charming girl named Emily (Zoe Kazan). Unexpected events put their relationship to the test, and I dare not say anything more about this movie. I’ll say that Ray Romano and Holly Hunter are wonderful as Emily’s parents, and the film strikes a perfect balance between romance, comedy, and heartfelt moments. It’s definitely my favorite film of the year.

10/10 Best of the Year

Baby Driver

Released: 6/30/2017

I really love Edgar Wright’s filmography; from Shaun of the Dead (2004) to The World’s End (2013), his movies continue to surprise and delight with great characters and fantastic visual gags, some created seamlessly in the edit. So a film about a getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) set to a great soundtrack sounds like my cup of tea. And it almost was. Baby Driver has some fantastic scenes, with every chase and action timed to a song (machine gun fire becomes wonderfully percussive). But the film’s story falters, with a love interest (Lily James) who is underwritten, and a turn by one character near the end that doesn’t make much sense, given the threatening nature of the character up to this point. I enjoyed a lot of elements of this film, but I wanted to love Baby Driver, and sadly I did not.

8/10

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Released: 7/7/2017

The third reboot of Spider-Man, coming just 3 years after the terrible Amazing Spider-Man 2, had a lot to accomplish; not only were audiences fatigued from seeing the character done to death (this being the 6th movie since 2002), but the past films left so much ill will there was almost no desire for this one. However, Marvel did what they do best and pulled together a fairly entertaining, if slight, Spider-Man entry. Nothing achieves the weird visuals or inventiveness of Raimi’s films, but it slips right into the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite nicely, with Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) taking on the absent Uncle Ben role (mercifully Spider-Man’s backstory is dispensed with). Michael Keaton makes a great villain, and Tom Holland is a great Spider-Man. The film suffers from a lack of interesting action scenes, but the dynamic is still great and I actually look forward to another one of these.

8/10

War for the Planet of the Apes

Released: 7/14/2017

Who would’ve thought one of the best trilogies of the 21st century would be a Planet of the Apes prequel? Yet amazingly, this is one of the rare series that has gotten better with each movie, culminating in a near masterpiece of blockbuster filmmaking. The biggest criticism is the title, which misleads the general public into thinking they will get a war film when really the movie is a lot smaller and focused. Caesar (Andy Serkis) is back, and human population is still slowly dying out. When his clan is rounded up by a mad general (Woody Harrelson), he sets off to free everyone. An intense film that might be a bit predictable, but works on every level and brings this series full circle in a beautiful way.

9/10

Wish Upon

Released: 7/14/2017

Where to begin with this one; I’m a fan of the YouTube channel Red Letter Media, and in their 2017 recap video they mentioned how wonderfully terrible this film was. While it doesn’t quite rank with the best of the worst, it is hilariously bad. A teenage girl (Joey King) comes across a wish box, but when she makes a wish, a price is paid as someone close to her dies (an adaptation of the Monkey’s Paw tale). As she makes her wishes, the movie plays out some Final Destination-esque scenarios as we go through setpieces where people almost meet their ends, until they do in “unexpected” ways. With some unfortunate dialogue, some campy acting, and some hilarious death scenes (some of the worst effects work you’ll see), Wish Upon is the perfect movie to watch with friends while yelling at the screen.

2/10

Dunkirk

Released: 7/21/2017

Christopher Nolan is a problematic filmmaker for me, but I try to take him at face value. Here, Nolan sets out to do nothing less but place you in the middle of the amazing battle of Dunkirk, and the film is a directorial marvel. The film opens upon a few soldiers wandering an abandoned town before they come under fire from Nazi soldiers. From there, the film follows three primary threads over different time periods (if I have a criticism, it’s that this gimmick is confusing). While Nolan has a tendency to overcut between different scenarios, there’s no denying he is a master of tension building, and for nearly 106 minutes, your heartbeat is kept racing. Experiencing this in IMAX 70mm helped add to the experience.

9/10

Columbus

Released: 8/4/2017

Now here’s a film that bored me to tears; set in the city of Columbus, Indiana, the story follows a Korean businessman (John Cho) who comes to the town when his father dies there. He meets a college student (Haley Lu Richardson), and they form a connection and then spend an hour walking around talking about buildings. I’m all for languidly paced, contemplative films, but Columbus was a chore to sit through. The director is Kogonada, known for making special features on Criterion releases, and it’s obvious he admires the likes of Richard Linklater. But his characters are both so stiff and boring, and I couldn’t stand to hear them talk another minute about buildings. To be sure, Columbus has some interesting buildings, and there is some beautiful framing, but I think critics were fooled into thinking they should love this movie and would feel they would be labeled “stupid” for seeing it. It’s boring, don’t waste your time.

4/10

The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Released: 8/18/2017

It’s an action-comedy starring Samuel L. Jackson as the Hitman and Ryan Reynolds as the Bodyguard. There’s some interesting over the top action, and Gary Oldman is always a fun villain. But it’s pretty cheesy and stupid.

4/10

Released: 9/8/2017

It was the smash sensation of the fall, a horror film that grossed untold sums of money and cemented the sequel that will finish off the story. I enjoyed It very much, especially the stellar opening sequence. There’s a great cast of kids that bolster the story and the movie at times is reminiscent of Stand by Me (obviously, since both are Stephen King stories). Bill Skarsgard does a great job stepping out of Tim Curry’s shadow as Pennywise, and really the movie’s biggest shortcoming is the over reliance on jump scares. The clown runs at the kids from the shadows at every possible moment and it gets a little overblown. A little goes a long way sometimes, and this movie could’ve used more of that.

8/10

mother!

Released: 9/15/2017

Darren Aronofsky’s divisive film is definitely one you need to experience. Almost everyone I saw it with walked out mumbling they hated it. It’s a polarizing film, and I fall on the love it side. Once you figure out what it all means it’s pretty obvious and blunt, but boy is it a fun and wild ride. The second hour of the film keeps escalating and escalating to a frenzied pitch and it’s a ride I very much enjoyed. I can’t wait to do it again.

9/10

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Released: 9/22/2017

I was a big fan of Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), an enjoyable R-Rated Bond spoof that was bloody and inventive. So a sequel was definitely up my alley. What we get is a bloated, overlong so-so follow-up, that revives previously dead characters and kills off a whole bunch of others. While I admire it for some good action scenes, the film just goes on for way too long. It’s hard to really recommend, although Elton John is fantastic and is the best cameo of the year.

5/10

Battle of the Sexes

Released: 9/22/2017

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, in a movie that recounts the events leading up to the Battle of the Sexes tennis match of the 70s. It’s a story that is very relevant today, as Bobby Riggs conveys male chauvinism at its worst (although purportedly this was just for show), as Billie Jean battles the stigma that women aren’t as good as men. It’s a very entertaining film, with some fun performances by Stone and Carell.

8/10

Blade Runner 2049

Released: 10/6/2017

A Blade Runner (1982) sequel was the last thing we needed, but if it had to happen, better to have Denis Villeneuve helm it rather then Ridley Scott (who produces). Ryan Gosling stars as K, a Blade Runner who also happens to be a Replicant, a cyborg with a shortened life span. It’s a generally uneven film that has some consistently beautiful scenery and stunning scenes (the opening; a fight in an abandoned holographic casino stage). It’s a bit of a spoiler to even say Harrison Ford is in this, considering it takes him nearly two hours to show up. And then the movie kind of falters and becomes Ford’s film, which is the underlying point but is a little disappointing. Still, considering how unnecessary it was, it was pretty good.

8/10

The Florida Project

Released: 10/6/2017

Sean Baker is an interesting director; I hadn’t heard of him until Tangerine (2015), a film shot entirely on iPhones set in LA. It was a bold film, a little overwhelming but fascinating. The Florida Project is much in the same vein, following a run-down motel on the outskirts of Disney World in Florida, where a little girl runs free and wreaks childish havoc on the locals and patrons. Like Tangerine, it’s a loud movie, but it doesn’t have a real plot; instead it kind of follows the little girl, Moonee (Brooklyn Prince), as she experiences different events in the area. And it’s fascinating. Willem Dafoe is the hotel manager who has a soft spots for all the residents; were he not employed he would be in their situation. And Baker has an incredible ability to make you feel like you are part of the world you are visiting. It’s a remarkable achievement, at times funny and heartbreaking. The film is quite the journey, and is a ride I recommend taking.

9/10

Thor: Ragnarok

Released: 11/3/2017

I was excited for this Marvel film because it was directed by Taika Waititi, a New Zealand director most know for What We Do in the Shadows (2014) and Hunt For the Wilderpeople (2016). And while he does add energy and dry wit, he can’t help keep this film from feeling like an overall generic addition to the Marvel catalogue. Everyone is fine, except Jeff Goldblum who shines in his utterly bizarre and hilarious role. I really wanted this one to be good, but unlike what James Gunn can accomplish with the Guardian films, Waititi is more restricted handling one of Marvel’s biggest heroes.

7/10

Lady Bird

Released: 11/3/2017

A coming-of-age story told in the course of one girl’s senior year of High School, Lady Bird is a loving ode to finding yourself, and a great portrait of a mother-daughter relationship. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are a great daughter-mother duo, and the film addresses many milestone moments matter of factly. It didn’t quite register with me as strongly as some other films I’ve seen, but it was still a great experience, and I do recommend it.

8/10

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Released: 11/10/2017

Now this film I’m really conflicted on; I have enjoyed Martin McDonagh’s past work (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths), and the cast is phenomenal (Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, to name a few). The plot is intriguing, as a mother takes up ad space on three billboards calling out the cops on not solving her daughter’s rape/murder crime. The story has some great beats (Harrelson’s chief especially), but it tries to setup Rockwell’s character as a loathsome, despicable cop (allegedly he beat a black suspect in custody, with no evidence), and then sets him up for a redemption that is wholly unearned. It’s definitely an entertaining film, and there’s a lot to like, but it doesn’t add up to much and has a rather strange ending.

8/10

Wonder

Released: 11/17/2017

It’s pretty adorable. I will say going in I wasn’t expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised by the level of depth the movie lends to all it’s characters. The main character Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) is a deformed kid who has to deal with his first year in public school, in the fifth grade. Yet the movie becomes so much more, as it follows his sister, then his sister’s friend and one of his friends, providing everyone with a point of view. People feel jilted by other’s actions and the movie explains the reasons why the other characters acted that way. It’s better than you’d think.

8/10

Coco

Released: 11/24/2017

Pixar is no longer the reliable masterpiece factory it once was, but that doesn’t mean it’s movies aren’t worth checking out. And Coco is a pretty solid entry for them, following a young boy named Miguel on the Day of the Dead, when families honor and remember those that have passed on. Through a series of events, Miguel ends up in the afterlife where he meets his relatives, and must return before daybreak or be trapped forever. It’s a twisty movie with some great emotional gut punches, but overall feels like middle-of-the-road Pixar. It caves to the surprise villain trope, too often leaned on by Disney films these days, and that robs it of some of its emotional eft.

8/10

The Man Who Invented Christmas

Released: 11/24/2017

My acquisition of a Movie Pass has meant I have started seeing more things just because. So I ended seeing this retelling of how Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) wrote A Christmas Carol. The movie deals with the challenge of making writing dramatic by having the various characters, including Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), come to life in his mind as he writes the story. But the movie also becomes a weird story about Dickens confronting his father and his past and exorcisizing his past demons. It’s a slight and forgettable movie, and I never would’ve seen it without my Movie Pass.

6/10

Darkest Hour

Released: 11/24/2017

I was afraid this Biopic about the month when Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) was named Prime Minister would be merely a showcase for Oldman’s incredible acting chops. Fortunately, it is much more than that. Darkest Hour is almost a great double feature with Dunkirk, as both tell different sides of the same coin, one being involved in the political ramifications, the other in the immediate danger. Oldman is, of course, fantastic and the film is entertaining on its own right.

8/10

Call Me By Your Name

Released: 11/24/2017

Set in Tuscany in the 80s, here is a film that you want to just bask in, to relax with these characters. The film concerns one summer when an American student comes to live with a family that hosts an assistant. Their son, Elio (Timothée Chalamet) falls for the assistant, Oliver (Armie Hammer), and what follows is a graceful, fascinating, and beautiful portrait of first love. Thankfully, the film dispenses with what are becoming the usual tropes of gay romance films, including disapproving parents, hiding their love (though there is a little of that), and even the AIDs epidemic. While all these things are reasonable to have, it subverts expectations to not have. The film ends with a stunning monologue, and a mesmerizing close-up I won’t soon forget.

9/10

The Disaster Artist

Released: 12/1/2017

I had pretty high hopes for this biopic about the making of one of the best worst movies ever made, The Room (2003). The buzz coming out of festivals was pretty massive, so it was with some disappointment that this film, based on the novel supposedly written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell (it’s come to my attention Sestero’s then girlfriend co-wrote a significant portion of the book and didn’t receive credit, but I can’t find her name dammit), was not all that special. Having read the book before seeing the movie, I was mostly disappointed by how much of the on-set drama was left out of the movie. I feel this is probably because they had to get Tommy Wiseau’s permission (the creator of the original disaster), so they couldn’t portray Tommy in a negative light (which the book certainly does). Maybe the book isn’t totally accurate, but it feels more honest to how a bad film set goes (speaking from experience), whereas this film sugarcoats Tommy’s character as a dreamer who just wants to succeed. James Franco does a good impression of Wiseau, his brother Dave is underwhelming as Sestero, and the rest of the cast is full of fun cameos. But for what I was hoping, this fell a little short.

6/10

The Shape of Water

Released: 12/1/2017

Guillermo del Toro’s latest work is a fantasy/fairy tale of a mute woman (Sally Hawkins) who falls in love with a giant fish man. She works in a secretive government facility, where the villainous Michael Shannon tortures and beats the fish man, captured from the jungles of South America. Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Stuhlbarg round out a fairly significant supporting cast. Visually the movie is stunning, and the plot is nice, but this is del Toro who always follows the same templates in his movies. Still, it’s a delightful movie, and highly enjoyable.

8/10

I, Tonya

Released: 12/8/2017

Margot Robbie is fantastic as figure skater Tonya Harding, in what one critic for The Playlist has aptly described as “the Goodfellas of figure skating.” I couldn’t agree with that statement more, as director Craig Gillespie and a fantastic cast that includes Allison Janney and Sebastian Stan take us on a whirlwind tour of Tonya’s life. It’s not a happy story, but it is told well, and breaks the mold of regular biopics by allowing different characters to tell their side of the story, and have other characters state this might not necessarily be true. Besides some iffy CGI, everything in this movie is great.

9/10

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Released: 12/15/2017

Well, what to say about this that hasn’t already been said by countless other critics, bloggers, and friends? One of the most divisive films of the year is a Star Wars picture, one that either delighted or angered fans. I loved it, besides some shared gripes about certain detours, and found it to be refreshing and an unexpected journey. Director Rian Johnson said he conceived of the film as having to test all the characters by putting them through hell, and boy does he do that spectacularly. There are some great moments here that stand out as some of the best in the entire series. It’s not a perfect movie, but it was a damn entertaining one and exceeded my very high expectations.

9/10

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Released: 12/22/2017

A sequel to the 1995 “family” film that gave me nightmares, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a fun, but slight, adventure film that finds a pretty innovative way of keeping the story going. The game is recovered, but because kids play video games it transforms itself into a game cartridge, and sucks in the unwitting players into its world. Four teens are transformed into video game avatars, as portrayed by Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black. Black steals the show portraying a vapid valley girl, and Johnson and Gillan do their best to embody high school insecurities inside of gorgeous bodies. Only Hart is farthest from his teenage counterpart, screaming his way through situations when the person he is supposed to be is portrayed as rather calm. That said, it’s a pretty fun movie, and if you are a fan of the original you may like this one (or you may yearn for the darker, scarier tone of the original).

7/10

The Post

Released: 12/22/2017

Steven Spielberg rushed out this retelling of the Pentagon Papers, a huge news story that exposed a trail of lies about the Vietnam War spanning Richard Nixon back to Harry Truman. Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep star. It’s about what you would it expect; pretty good, a little slow, about an important event, and a little on the nose about the importance of newspapers in our day and age. But give credit where credit is due, Spielberg rings some real tension out of whether these papers will be published or not.

7/10

Molly’s Game

Released: 12/29/2017

Aaron Sorkin makes his directorial debut with this amazing true story about an Olympic-class skier who ends up running some of the highest stakes poker games in the U.S. Jessica Chastain stars as Molly Bloom, and the cast includes Idris Elba as her reluctant lawyer, Kevin Costner as her harsh dad, and a host of other players. The movie spans 140 minutes but never feels its length, thanks in large part to Sorkin’s snappy dialogue that keeps the show moving. Of course in classic Sorkin terms everyone’s a smartass, except when they’re not. But it works for this world, where you have to be smart to stay ahead of the game.

8/10

Phantom Thread

Released: 12/29/2017

Paul Thomas Anderson returns with what is supposedly the final performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. If that is so it’s unfortunate, for he is a magnetic performer, a person who is just interesting to watch in every respect. He portrays Reynolds Woodcock, a dressmaker in 1950s London, who is smitten with a young immigrant, Alma (Vicky Krieps). Lesley Manville is fantastic as his sister, and Anderson weaves an engaging portrait of these two lovers and their highly dysfunctional relationship. It’s easily Anderson’s most accessible film since There Will Be Blood (2007), his last outing with Day-Lewis, after some bizarre turns with The Master (2012) and the incomprehensible Inherent Vice (2014). Johnny Greenwood provides a beautiful score and Anderson is his own DP, composing some engaging shots. Overall it’s a fascinating character study and a lot more entertaining than you might think.

9/10

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Every Movie in 2017 I Saw...Reviewed

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