Films (2017)

Time for my yearly film review.

2017 was a fairly uneven and peculiar year. It was fraught with disappointment, yet wonderful surprises kept popping up along the way, and there were in fact many fabulous gems that I will surely treasure forever.

Part of the reason the year felt so strange was a heightened realisation of how polarizing some films can be. Some of my favourite moments this year turned out to be other people’s most despised (and vice-versa), and sometimes this was a rather startling realisation indeed. Case in point: Aronofsky’s “mother!”. The most visceral and heart-rending cinematic experience I’ve had in years was met with either nonplussed indifference or downright hatred from basically everyone else. Sure, it’s not a film for the masses (and it was doubtless very wrong to have marketed it as such), but I was deeply baffled by the extremely negative reactions it incited. I guess for many people cinema is only meant to make you feel good; alas, for me, that’s hardly the beauty of it.

The reverse happened with Scorsese’s “Silence” and Nolan’s “Dunkirk”. Both feature in numerous best-of-year lists, and I can’t for the life of me understand what all the fuss is about - admittedly they’re technically impressive, but also utterly devoid of everything else that makes a film great (for me, at least). Joining these two, as my year’s biggest disappointments: “T2 Trainspotting”, a sad and pointless sequel which was little more than an exercise in nostalgia and had absolutely none of the original’s magic; the latest entry to the Alien series (“Covenant”), which nullified the thought-provoking premise of “Prometheus” (which I loved, by the way) and turned the series into even more of a joke - if that’s possible; “Baby Driver”, clearly a film aimed at a different generation that surely found it so damn cool - I found it so damn boring; and, unexpectedly, Woody Allen’s “Wonder Wheel” - whilst I’m usually an unconditional fan, this one felt profoundly uninspired (and again, it is being hailed by many as Allen’s best film in years, so go figure).

On a considerably more positive note, besides the aforementioned “mother!”, 2017 had many delights in store: “Toni Erdmann” was as endearing as outright hilarious (quite a feat from a German film), and one of the best things I’ve seen this year; “The Handmaiden” was a sublime erotic psychological thriller, which beautifully transposed the Victorian setting of the original novel to Korea under Japanese colonial rule; “Get Out” proved that there is still vitality in the horror genre and that it’s possible to tackle delicate - yet fundamental - subject matters with incredible wit; “I Am Not Your Negro”, the documentary based on James Baldwin’s memoir, which tackles similar issues but in a much more encompassing - and incendiary - way, is absolutely essential viewing; “Valerian”, the most unexpected surprise of the year, a delightfully insane visual orgy that - astonishingly - made enough sense to actually work; “Blade Runner 2049” was, against all odds, a masterpiece, and further confirmation of Villeneuve’s genius (as previously with “Arrival”, I saw it three times and marvelled at its brilliance in every single occasion); “The Square” was a terrific satire of the contemporary art world - and society in general - that fell short of the greatness of (Östlund’s previous film) “Force Majeure” by only a slight margin; “Lucky”… what a beautiful love letter to an incredible actor (the late - and dearly missed - Harry Dean Stanton); and, last but not least, the Hungarian drama “On Body and Soul”, which floored me completely only a few days ago - impeccably acted by Alexandra Borbély, it is magnificent in its portrayal of autism, social anxiety, and introversion.

In closing, a few words about the cinema-going experience itself. Despite my efforts to avoid the “shopping centre” variety (i.e. those where the consumption of popcorn is allowed) at all costs, even the few remaining “sanctuaries” are becoming home to people for whom the film viewing experience is apparently an activity involving all the great staples of social interaction: loud conversation, mobile phones, and being fashionably late. It’s just horrible and getting worse all the time. Is it really so hard for people (well, let’s just say for adults, for crying out loud) to sit silently for a couple of hours, and enjoy (and let others enjoy) a film in peace and quiet? I know I’m getting old, but this drives me insane. Which only justifies my decision to have at last fulfilled a longtime dream of mine - having a dedicated home cinema, with a decent projector and screen - so I can get most of the pleasure, without any of the annoyances.

Anyway, here’s my list for 2017, ordered as usual by release date in Portugal. Ratings are purely subjective and reflect my relative enjoyment of these films; they do not intend to be an objective assessment of their “quality” (whatever that may be). As Kubrick once said, the truth of a thing is not so much in the think of it, but in the feel of it.

Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan) ****

Little Men (Ira Sachs) ****

Silence (Martin Scorsese) **

Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) ****

Split (M. Night Shyamalan) ****

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade) *****

20th Century Women (Mike Mills) *****

T2 Trainspotting (Danny Boyle) **

A Man Called Ove / En man som heter Ove (Hannes Holm) ****

Life (Daniel Espinosa) ***

Denial (Mick Jackson) ****

The Handmaiden / Ah-ga-ssi (Chan-wook Park) *****

Irreplaceable / Médecin de campagne (Thomas Lilti) ***

Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders) **

Get Out (Jordan Peele) *****

Perfect Strangers / Perfetti sconosciuti (Paolo Genovese) *****

Song to Song (Terrence Malick) ***

Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott) **

The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra) ****

The Distinguished Citizen / El ciudadano ilustre (Gastón Duprat, Mariano Cohn) ****

United States of Love / Zjednoczone stany milosci (Tomasz Wasilewski) ***

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) *****

Glory / Slava (Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov) ****

Heal the Living / Réparer les vivants (Katell Quillévéré) ***

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) ****

Wakefield (Robin Swicord) ****

The Midwife / Sage femme (Martin Provost) ****

Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd) ****

Polina, danser sa vie (Valérie Müller, Angelin Preljocaj) *****

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan) **

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Luc Besson) *****

London Town (Derrick Borte) ***

A Woman's Life / Une vie (Stéphane Brizé) ***

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright) **

Wind River (Taylor Sheridan) ****

Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz) **

Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh) ****

Detroit (Kathryn Bigelow) ****

Sea Sorrow (Vanessa Redgrave) ***

mother! (Darren Aronofsky) *****

Good Time (Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie) ****

Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve) *****

Victoria & Abdul (Stephen Frears) ***

Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman) ****

The Other Side of Hope / Toivon tuolla puolen (Aki Kaurismäki) ****

The Party (Sally Potter) *****

The Square (Ruben Östlund) *****

C’est la vie! / Le sens de la fête (Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano) ****

Lucky (John Carroll Lynch) *****

Verão Danado (Pedro Cabeleira) **

The Day After / Geu-hu (Sang-soo Hong) ****

BPM / 120 battements par minute (Robin Campillo) *****

Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater) ****

Wonder Wheel (Woody Allen) **

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson) ***

Based on a True Story / D’après une histoire vraie (Roman Polanski) ****

On Body and Soul / Teströl és lélekröl (Ildikó Enyedi) *****