Yesterday is Done: 17 from 2017

This was an exhausting year, about which, I do not have any interesting or insightful thoughts, at least that pertain to anything other than my personal life. But I did go to the movies, so there’s that. Here’s to the cinema that made it somewhat bearable.

The List

17. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) / Song to Song // Directed by Noah Baumbach / Terrence Malick

16. Nocturama // Directed by Bertrand Bonello

15. A Cure for Wellness / Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets // Directed by Gore Verbinski / Luc Besson

14. After the Storm // Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

13. The Wound // Directed by John  Trengrove

12.  Graduation / Person to Person / Atomic Blonde // Directed by Cristian  Mungiu / Dustin Guy Defa / David Leitch

11. Get Out / Lady Macbeth // Directed by Jordan Peele / William Oldroyd

10. War for the Planet of the Apes / Star Wars: The Last Jedi / Thor: Ragnorok // Directed by Matt Reeves / Rian Johnson / Taika Waititi

9. Raw // Directed by Julia Ducournau

8. I, Tonya / Gigi Gorgeous: This is Everything / Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds // Directed by Craig Gillespie / Barbara Kopple / Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens

7. Ingrid Goes West // Directed by Matt Spicer

6. Phantom Thread / Antiporno // Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson / Sion Sono

5. Okja / Wonderstruck / Princess Cyd // Directed by Bong Joon-ho / Todd Haynes / Stephen Cone

4. The Shape of Water / God’s Own Country / Professor Marston and the Wonder Women / SKAM  Season 3: Isak + Even // Directed/Created by Guillermo del Toro / Francis Lee / Angela Robinson / Julie Andem

3. The Boss Baby // Directed by Tom McGrath

2. The Ornithologist / Paris 05:59: Theo and Hugo / BPM // Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues / Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau / Robin Campillo

1. Lady  Bird // Directed by Greta Gerwig
Gerwig renders her world with such care and detail, it’s as if they’ve always existed, waiting to be found. (H/t to Annie Baker, who had similar sentiments about my beloved Frances Ha.)

The Performances

• Saoirse Ronan + Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
• Nahuel Pérez Biscayart + Arnaud Valois, BPM
• Aubrey Plaza, Ingrid Goes West
• Florence Pugh, Lady Macbeth
• Daniel Craig, Logan Lucky
• Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip
• Luke Evans + Rebecca Hall + Bella Heathcote, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
• Ahn Seo-hyun, Okja
• Sally Hawkins + Richard Jenkins + Doug Jones, The Shape of Water
• Jessie Pinnick, Princess Cyd
• Barry Keoghan, The Killing of a Sacred Deer
• Eili Harboe, Thelma
• Karin Konoval, War for the Planet of the Apes
• Cara Delevigne, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
• Daniel Day-Lewis + Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread
• Charlize Theron, Atomic Blonde
• Ami Tomite + Mariko Tsutsui, Antiporno

The Cinematography

• Raw, Ruben Impens
• The Shape of Water, Dan Laustsen
• BPM, Jeanne Lapoirie
• War for the Planet of the Apes, Michael Seresin
• Battle of the Sexes, Linus Sandgren
• I, Tonya, Nicolas Karakatsanis
• Princess Cyd, Zoe White
• God’s Own Country, Joshua James Richards
• Atomic Blonde, Jonathan Sela
• Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson

The Screenplays

• Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig
• Get Out by Jordan Peele
• The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
• War for the Planet of the Apes by Mark Bomback and Matt Reeves
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Rian Johnson
• Graduation by Cristian Mungiu
• Okja by Bong Joon-ho and Jon Ronson

The Auteurs

• Margot Robbie’s I, Tonya
• Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, Timothee Chalamet, and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird
• Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, and Robin Campillo’s BPM
• Daniel Day Lewis, Vicky Krieps, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread
• Aubrey Plaza’s Ingrid Goes West

The Directors

• Juia Ducournau, Raw
• Robin Campillo, BPM
• Bong Joon-ho, Okja
• Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
• Angela Robinson, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
• Francis Lee, God’s Own Country / Stephen Cone, Princess Cyd
• Matt Reeves, War for the Planet of the Apes

The Needledrops

• “Smalltown Boy” — Bronski Beat // BPM
• “You’ll Never Know” — Renee Fleming // The Shape of Water
• “Every 1’s a Winner” — Hot Chooclate/Gun // I, Tonya
• “Feeling Good” — Nina Simone // Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
• “Annie’s Song” — John Denver // Okja
• “Ma che freddo fa” — Nada // Raw
• “Home is Where it Hurts” — Camille // It’s Only the End of the World
• “Love My Way” — Psychedelic Furs // Call Me By Your Name
• “My Way” — Shirley Bassey // Nocturama
• “5 fine frøkner” — Gabrielle // Skam — 3.8 “The Man of My Life”

Best of Queer Cinema

Honorable Mentions

Rami Malek in Buster’s Mal Heart, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Manifesto, Daniella Vega in A Fantastic Woman, Thelma, Logan  Lucky, Good Time, Beach Rats, The Salesman, Staying Vertical, Murder on the Orient Express, Michelle Pfeiffer in mother!, Claes Bang in The Square, Brad’s Status and Beatriz at Dinner by Mike White,Diane Kruger in In the Fade, Holly Hunter in The Big Sick, Melanie Lynskey in I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore

The Worst of 2017

• 4 Days in France // Directed by Jérôme Reybaud

• Becoming Bond // Directed by Josh Greenbaum

• Catfight // Directed by Onur Turkel

• The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography // Directed by Errol Morris

• Personal Shopper // Directed by Oivier Assayas

 

Favorite Films I Watched for the First Time in 2017.

Time is a flat etc etc, see you next year.