Best Movie of 2017

[Broadwaywest]

With the year coming to a close, thought it would be cool to have a best film you've seen this year thread.

Mine would be Park Chan Wook's The Handmaiden. I saw this film back in October and have not stop singing it's praises ever since. It encapulates so much of what makes going to the cinema great. It's a romance, thriller, period piece, and many things more. While both being very touching, funny, and very dark all at the same time. For those who are fans of his such as Oldboy and Lady Vengence, know that he shoots violence like no one else in cinema today. Well, he can do the same with sex. This film two of the most beautiful sex scenes that I have seen in a long time. Also, the plot and pacing of this film is so intricate, one false move and whole thing really could have collapsed, but it never does. Also, the look of this film is stunning from look of the film, the way he shoots certain scenes, to the costume design. Although, I've some other equally as well crafted and acted films this year. Nothing has compared to the awe I had while watching The Handmaiden.

[Auggie27]

The film that made me lean forward as few do was "Moonlight."  For me it's the stunning third act that re-frames everything that has come before, and instantly tosses out so many tropes and cliches about coming-of-age storytelling. To create a tale with so much genuine emotion, that eschews sentimentality, is remarkable; this movie also manages to be gritty and poetic.  

[gypsy101]

shouldn't the thread be called Best Movie of 2016?

[gypsy101]

delete

[henrikegerman]

More than ever, I'm over all the awards season fractiousness about what's "the best?"   This year there were great movies that I truly loved and feel blessed to have seen.   That doesn't always happen.   And that's all that matters.

I get that awards season is important for the industry and that it can be fun. I appreciate fully that at best it's a fabulous celebration.  Fine!

But to say that Naomie Harris's performance was "better" than Michelle Williams's?  Or vice versa?  

To accept that amazing work like Linda Emond's or Alan Rickman's will be overlooked because their movies came out far too early and weren't widely seen?

To quibble over the relative merits of three extraordinary awards buzz movies, work that is so far from the junk that not atypically gets best picture oscars, and each so special in its own way (yes I'm speaking of Manchester, La La Land, and Moonlight)? 

To endure all the silly backstories, the shallow political and reductio ad absurdum identity politics debates that the media will doubtlessly invent to sensationally force what should be a fun celebration into a bloodbath in order to sell ads?

That's a madness not to be bought into.  

I'd much rather simply be grateful for having seen Viola Davis, Isabelle Huppert, Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, Amy Adams and Emma Stone (among others) act their hearts out  in performances that I will never forget than to join in petty rancorous debate about who did "the best" job. 

[tazber]

The VVitch

[Auggie27]

I re-watched "Manchester" yesterday, and to add to the comments above: What Michelle Williams offers in about 11-12 minutes of screen time, total, is remarkable, unique. A truly supporting role. Davis's support is almost close to the lead performance, since her character's weight in the storytelling is so central from the top. It only makes the idea of competition among these actors harder to discuss, justify, warm to.  It's always been this way (remember Beatrice Straight in "Network?" Closest, perhaps, to what Williams gives). It's not going to change.  Minutes of playing time should not enter the decision. Still, when you think that Jennifer Hudson as Effie White was "supporting" in a role that won Jennifer Holiday Best Actress, it does give one pause.   Jennifer Hudson didn't "support" nobody.

[madbrian]

I have not yet seen Manchester By The Sea, but of the movies I have seen, my favorites for 2016 would be, in order:

Hidden Figures

Arrival

La La Land

Moonlight

[hork]

My new favorite movie of the year is A Monster Calls. After being completely unmoved by Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight, I was starting to worry I'd become dead inside, but this movie destroyed me. I spent the entire closing credits just uncontrollably sobbing. I think the only other movie to ever do that to me was Dear Zachary.