Top Ten of 2017

I had trouble this year putting together a top ten that I felt really excited about. My top two are hands down my favorite movies of the year and the two that struck the strongest emotional chord. After that we get into a few movies that I responded to strongly and then there's the movies that I perhaps admire more than feel enthusiastic about. I'm not entirely sure it's the movies that are changing.

10. Logan dir. James Mangold - Here's a director I admired much more early in his career until he went mainstream, but this unconventional take on the comic book superhero movie is refreshing.

9. Blade Runner 2049 dir. Denis Villeneuve - Expands on the themes first explored 35 years ago in Ridley Scott's original film. What does it mean to be human versus a synthesized human? It's a veritable masterpiece of technical filmmaking while also having an engrossing story.

8. The Square dir. Ruben Östlund - Biting satire about the intersection of the world of modern art and the human foibles that come with trying to live up to the moral standards that are explored in that art.

7. Call Me by Your Name - dir. Luca Guadagnino - Beautiful story of first love, self-discovery, growing up, and gorgeous Italian vistas.

6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri dir. Martin McDonagh - 

5. Lady Bird dir. Greta Gerwig - A really tremendous first feature from Gerwig who paints a portrait (along with a stunning performance by Saoirse Ronan) of the American teenager.

4. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool - dir. Paul McGuigan - My rather unconventional choice to include in a top ten, and so far up the list too. But I was completely drawn in by the romance between aging Hollywood icon Gloria Graham (beautifully portrayed by Annette Bening) and her much younger beau played by Jamie Bell.

3. The Florida Project dir. Sean Baker - A movie that forces audiences to confront a forgotten class of people who live on the margins of society. The underclass, the poor, the destitute - however you choose to refer to them, they exist in our country and they raise children in conditions that we lament from our lofty middle and upper class economic positions. But Baker attempts to show us that even these children whom we believe to be disadvantaged have imaginations as rich or even richer than any others. Living just outside Walt Disney World Resort and financially barred from entrance (an irony considering these children could benefit from Disney magic perhaps more than the well-off children who frequent it), they nevertheless make vivid use of their surroundings to create a rich and developed fantasy world of their own.

2. Wind River dir. Taylor Sheridan - Even on a second viewing, Sheridan's crime thriller about suffering through grief was deeply, deeply moving. Jeremy Renner gives what I consider to be his best performance. If this movie had been released in December, I think it would have found its way into several Oscar categories.

1. Coco dir. Lee Unkrich - This movie is magical, emotional, moving, uplifting. It's simply perfect. And frankly I'm getting a little tired of Pixar making the year's most perfect movie.

90th Academy Awards - final predictions (all 24 categories)

Alongside my final predictions for tomorrow night's winners of the 90th Academy Awards, I'm including my initial predictions I made on the day of the nominations announcement, just to compare side-by-side how my thinking has changed (if at all) over the last six weeks.

Best Picture

The Shape of Water

I've waffled a little bit on this one, but ultimately I'm sticking to my guns. Three Billboards could upset, and there's a strong contingent predicting a win for Get Out. And Dunkirk has its supporters. But in the end, I think the fairy tale love story with the most nominations will win.

Everything I Saw in the Second Half of 2017

This list shows the dates I watched any movies or TV episodes from July - December 2018. Movie titles are followed by year of US release, followed by the media format I used. A star denotes something I had seen before.

I watched 75 feature films, my highest rate of viewing since 2012 (when I watched about 30 extra movies in order to post a horror movie review a day in October of that year). Total for the year is 154, breaking a downward trajectory in that number over the last 5 years.

48 of the films I watched I saw for the first time, once again breaking a 5 year decline.

I watched 27 films I'd already seen and I saw 23 films in the theater.

How'd I Do? 90th Academy Awards Edition

Top 8 categories: 35/44 (79.5%, so that's lower than the last two years)
Acting: 16/20
Overall: 82/107 (76.6%, definitely higher than the last three years and most likely my best ever)

Picture 7/9

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Shape of Water

Lady Bird

Dunkirk

Get Out

The Post

Call Me By Your Name

I missed: Darkest Hour; Phantom Thread
Predicted: I, Tonya; The Florida Project

Where I went wrong: I was unimpressed by Darkest Hour and thought it might miss on this nomination and I was just hopeful for The Florida Project. I never imagined Phantom Thread would be nominated.

90th Academy Awards Nomination Predictions

Ok, here we go with my nomination predictions for the 90th Academy Awards which will be announced the morning of January 23.

Predictions in all categories are listed in the likelihood I believe they have for a nomination

Picture

Let's start off with the deadlock guarantees:

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Shape of Water

Lady Bird

Dunkirk

The category can have anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees. Since they started that practice for the 84th Awards there have always been either 8 or 9 nominees. Because of the preferential voting system the Academy uses in this category, it is very difficult to wind up with 10 nominees.

My next three are very safe bets:

Get Out

The Post

Call Me By Your Name

After that it gets murkier. I'm going with a 9 nominee field this year rounded out by:

I, Tonya

The Florida Project

I'm going out on a limb with that last one. Darkest Hour is probably more likely to be nominated than either of my last two picks and The Big Sick has a strong following, but I just can't believe enough people will stand behind those mediocre films masquerading as great.

From My Collection: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T Movie Review

Way back in the mid-1950s Theodore Geisel wrote a screenplay. If you don’t know who Geisel is, you probably know him by his pseudonym Dr. Seuss. Yes, that Dr. Seuss. The one who wrote about fifty children’s rhyming books between 1937 and 1990, all of which take place in fantastic worlds populated by bizarre creatures from the mind of a genius. His screenplay, for which he also conceived the story, is The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

It is a scarcely remembered movie, with barely even a cult following, that I first came upon as a freshman in college, where the Film Society made it the first in a Halloween double feature with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I loved it that first time I saw it and again the next year again (when I became president of the Film Society I could no longer justify the $250 rental fee with only about $20 in ticket sales). But I returned to it again recently with my son, who is well-versed in many of Seuss’s books.

Everything I Saw in the First Half of 2017

28.6 Baby Driver (2017) [cinema]

27.6 "Twin Peaks: The Return - Part 8" (2017) [Showtime streaming]

21-22.6 Frantz (2017) [DVD]

21.6 Alien: Resurrection (1997) [DVD]*

19.6 "Twin Peaks: The Return - Part 7" (2017) [Showtime streaming]

17-18.6 Alien 3 (1992) [DVD]*

15.6 The Great Wall (2017) [Blu-Ray]

13-14.6 A Cure for Wellness (2017) [Blu-Ray]

13.6 "Twin Peaks: The Return - Part 6" (2017) [Showtime streaming]

10-13.6 Aliens (1986) [Blu-Ray]*

7.6 Alien (1979) [Blu-Ray]*

6.6 Wonder Woman (2017) [cinema]