At the beginning of each month I recap the movies I watched the previous month. You can find December’s log further down this post (with some comments on P.T. Anderson’s “Phantom Thread”) but before we get to that here is a wrap-up of everything I watched in 2017. According to my Letterboxd diary that came to a grand total of 191 movies. That beats my 2016 total by five and averages out to just under sixteen a month, a pace I credit to my continued adherence to a largely television-free diet. I’m going into my third year doing this now and I don’t miss TV much at all, especially as eschewing it has afforded me the time to watch and re-watch so many great or obscure or fondly remembered movies that I’d never be able to otherwise. Television is a waste of time, people.

I tried to make a list of the top ten movies of 2017 but when I did so I realized that I didn’t really see ten films that I would consider truly great, just a lot of pretty good ones. That said, there are some notable awards contenders, including “I, Tonya,” “Ladybird,” and “Call Me By Your Name” that I haven’t been able to log yet, and it’s reasonable to say that at least one or two of those would’ve made the list. Nevertheless here are the top six best films from 2017 that I saw.

1. “Blade Runner 2049”
2. “Dunkirk”
3. “Phantom Thread”
4. “Get Out”
5. “Molly’s Game”
6. “Coco”

You can see the running inventory of every 2017 movie that I saw and how I ranked them in this Letterboxd list. For more insight into how I spent my movie time in 2017, have a look at this “annual report” of my movie watching activity. It includes this grid of posters from all 191 movies.

I also saw twenty films in December, making it out to theaters four times. The highlight was “Phantom Thread,” the latest by P.T. Anderson and, reportedly, the last screen appearance that Daniel Day-Lewis will ever make. Anderson’s films tend to be about the courts that men of power convene around themselves and this is one of his best explorations of that milieu. It’s hilarious and chilling and rapturous and deeply, deeply messed up all at once. Don’t read anything about it; just go see it.

For the record, here’s the full list of everything I watched, including December’s twenty movies.

January

• “X2” I used to think this movie was a real achievement but on rewatch it felt surprisingly labored.
• “Trafic” More wonderment from the amazing Jacques Tati.
• “Barbarella” I’d always wanted to see this; it stank to high heaven.
• “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto”
• “2046” Intriguing but deeply flawed follow-up to “In the Mood for Love.” My brief review here.
• “Fight Club” It’s been over a decade since I watched this and it really holds up. The best work Fincher has ever done.
• “Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island” The final battle is stunning.
• “Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple”
• “Rashomon”
• “Captain Fantastic” Blech.
• “The Handmaiden” Watched it again; amazed by it again.
• “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” Sometimes you find yourself watching an Ivan Reitman film that is not “Ghostbusters.”
• “Green Room”
• “Kung Fu Panda”
• “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years”

February

• “Stray Dog” Nothing seems to age quite as poorly as depictions of police work do, even in a Kurosawa film.
• “La La Land”
• “13th” Must watch.
• “Up”
• “The Nice Guys” Pretty sure this confirms that I’m not a Shane Black fan.
• “Superman” Still magic, to me.
• “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” I cried the first time I saw this; many years later, I was surprisingly not as moved.
• “To Be or Not to Be” Sublime and delicious.
• “Robin Hood”
• “The Scarlet Pimpernel”
• “The Lobster” A very good descent into a really messed up situation.
• “La La Land”
• “Raw Deal” Not the Schwarzenegger one.
• “T-Men” Cracking good noir featuring the beautiful camerawork of John Alton.
• “The Lego Batman Movie” Not impressed.
• “20th Century Women” Annette Bening was amazing. Read my review on Letterboxd.
• “Green Room” Re-watched.
• “The Adventures of Robin Hood”
• “In a Lonely Place”

March

• “Now You See Me 2” I watched the first one and figured I may as well watch the second. Life lessons.
• “Keanu” Had some really good laughs but overall kind of flimsy.
• “Prince of the City” Lumet’s superb, hard-hitting redo of the better known “Serpico
• “John Wick: Chapter 2” As good or better than the original.
• “Logan” Starts off really strong but can’t deliver on its promises.
• “Gotcha!” I was shocked how many of the moments and lines I still remembered from watching it in theaters as a kid. That said, not a good movie.
• “He Walked by Night”
• “Midnight Special”
• “Get Out”
• “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”
• “Le Deuxième Souffle”
• “The Edge of Seventeen”
• “Jane Austen’s Mafia!”
• “Everybody Wants Some!!” Genial but disappointing.

April

• “Trainspotting” Pretty sure it’s not just nostalgia that makes this seem still incredibly alive today.
• “Blue Is the Warmest Color” An impressive, mesmerizing ride, but ultimately did not leave much of an impression.
• “The Fate of the Furious”
• “Five Came Back” Illuminating history lesson, but not for everyone.
• “The Last Seduction” Crackerjack.
• “T2 Trainspotting” Not entirely successful but a valiant attempt.
• “Perfect Friday” A tidy little romp.
• “The Shallows” Yeah actually not bad at all.
• “Louis C.K. 2017”
• “Love & Friendship” Re-watched this and enjoyed every minute of it.
• “Elle” I’m not smart enough to understand why this was so widely praised.
• “Straight Outta Compton” Plasticized and unconvincing.

May

• “Jennifer’s Body” It had all the elements to be a cult great but it really, really wasn’t.
• “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”
• “The Best Years of Our Lives” Affecting.
• “La La Land” Re-watched this for the third or fourth time and still find it magical.
• “Children of Men” Only seems to get better and more relevant with age.
• “How to Train Your Dragon”
• “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey”
• “The Lost City of Z”
• “Armored Car Robbery” Proto-“Heat.”
• “Café Society” Sometimes you get good Woody Allen, sometimes you get bad. This was bad.
• “Grand Piano” This is literally “Speed” at a classical music concert and somehow it pretty much works.
• “Over the Moon”

June

• “Crime in the Streets” The adventures of young Cassavetes.
• “Mifune: The Last Samurai”
• “Primer” Impressive.
• “Dressed to Kill” Time is not on DePalma’s side.
• “Drunken Angel”
• “Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King”
• “Wonder Woman”
• “The Matrix” There’s very little about this movie that doesn’t hold up.
• “Cars 3”
• “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” Still liked it.
• “Dial 1119”
• “Macbeth” I’d heard some mediocre reviews but I thought this was fantastic.
• “Scandal”
• “Train to Busan” Superb zombie fare.
• “The Brady Bunch Movie” I blame The Next Picture Show.
• “Mrs. Miniver” Amazing piece of wartime melodrama.
• “A Very Brady Sequel”

July

• “Back to the Future” Not without its problems but still a wonderful ride.
• “John Wick: Chapter 2” About as a good as any B-movie sequel that’s short on ideas has a right to be.
• “Sing” Cynical but affecting.
• “Star Trek Beyond” On second watch, even thinner and more desperate than the first time.
• “Throne of Blood” Great.
• “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” Clearly owes a debt to the Coen Brothers but not bad.
• “The Iron Giant” I tried really, really hard not to cry.
• “On Dangerous Ground” Tedious but also weirdly interesting film noir.
• “The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 1: Battles Without Honor and Humanity” Pretty much what I expected “Gangs of New York” to be.
• “Rocky” Undiminished by time and even sequels.
• “The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 2: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima” Not sure I’m going to make it to the next installment in this series.
• “Dunkirk”

August

• “The Rules of the Game” Still figuring this one out.
• “Dunkirk” Saw it again, this time in full 70mm IMAX, and it was stunning.
• “Three Days of the Condor”
• “Groundhog Day” There’s a whole other, parallel narrative here if you just watch Bill Murray’s priceless facial expressions.
• “The Phenix City Story” Half a movie.
• “Supersonic” Historically, a highly selective document, but entertaining for sure.
• “The Godfather” As close to perfect as you can get.
• “The Godfather: Part II” Okay, even closer to perfect.
• “Up in the Air” Just stupid.
• “The Caine Mutiny” Dated and preachy.
• “Nosferatu” Mesmerizing.
• “The Most Dangerous Game” Pulpy good fun.
• “Victim” A bracing experience even many decades later.
• “Spider-Man: Homecoming”
• “The League of Gentlemen” You can see the debt that countless other heist flicks owe to this, but it hasn’t aged very well.
• “The Kid with a Bike” Amazing, riveting, heartbreaking filmmaking.
• “Elevator to the Gallows” Jeanne Moreau sulking on the streets of Paris is all anyone needs.
• “Nocturnal Animals” I just hated this movie.

September

• “Logan Lucky”
• “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” Demonstrates that the logical outcome of fan service is a descent into bureaucracy.
• “Colossal” A blithely ridiculous premise that almost works.
• “Silence” Grueling but, as with everything Scorsese does, still worthwhile.
• “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” Still amazing. Not as rich as volume 2, but stunning in its own vibrancy.
• “Hot Fuzz” Okay I get it now. I didn’t before, but I see the appeal.
• “She’s Gotta Have It” A document of pure directorial ambition.
• “Tango & Cash” They really made this movie.
• “Raging Bull” Unbelievably beautiful.
• “Smithereens” A fantasy of rotten New York.
• “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” A masterpiece.
• “Free Fire” Not a masterpiece.
• “Moana” Hey, this movie is really, really good, people.
• “A Face in the Crowd” An amazing, sadly prescient story of a megalomaniacal TV personality who comes to abuse his outsized influence on the American public.
• “Star Wars” Fun.
• “American Graffiti” Actually, this would’ve been the perfect movie to see at a drive-in.
• “Chi-Raq” There’s not a frame that here that’s anything less than riveting—it’s hearbreaking, shocking, hilarious, and ridiculous all at once.

October

• “Obit.” A wonderful look at death. See more of my thoughts in this post.
• “Jerry Before Seinfeld” Genial enough.
• “Mr. Turner” Mike Leigh really knows how to make a movie.
• “Eagle vs Shark” Cute emergency.
• “Masterminds” Could’ve been better.
• “Blade Runner” Gets better on every viewing.
• “The Debt”
• “Blade Runner 2049”
• “Gran Torino”
• “Shaun of the Dead” Caught this at a revival showing after forgetting how good it is.
• “Sicario” Still brilliant.
• “Baby Driver” Fun but airless.
• “Zatôichi Meets Yojimbo”

November

• “Girls Trip” I had high expectations; I was disappointed.
• “Arrival” Rewatched this along with Villeneuve’s back catalog. I liked it more than the first time.
• “Too Funny to Fail: The Life and Death of The Dana Carvey Show” Funny/sad story.
• “Brawl in Cell Block 99” Didn’t care for it.
• “Wheelman” A terrific B-movie.
• “The Immigrant” In theory James Gray makes the kinds of movies I should like. In practice I don’t like them.
• “Trading Places”
• “War for the Planet of the Apes” Turns out this is the best trilogy of the past decade.
• “Criss Cross” Delicious noir.
• “The King of Marvin Gardens” A bit too pat.
• “Boy” Super-fun.
• “Blade Runner” Umpteenth rewatch.
• “Zoolander” Useless.
• “Ghosts of Mars” Flimsy but not all that bad really.
• “Band Aid” Terrible title for a surprisingly good indie rom-com.
• “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” Great trailer for a not great movie.
• “Wonder Woman” Rewatched and it still feels like a mess, though a terrific one.
• “The Sound of Music” Magical.
• “Spider-Man: Homecoming” Shrug.
• “Intimidation” Nasty good noir from post-War Japan.
• “Coco” I’m not crying you’re crying.
• “The Warped Ones” Flashes of brilliance but only flashes.

December

• “The Big Sick” Really pleasant, though I’m shocked that so few people have mentioned how poorly this movie treats Pakistani women.
• “Thor: Ragnarok” You’ve got your beautiful messes and you’ve got your messy beauties. This is probably the latter.
• “Planet of the Vampires” Cheaply made, weirdly made sci-fi horror film that presaged “Alien”
• “Personal Shopper” Elegant but incredibly shallow. I hated it.
• “The Disaster Artist” I liked it.
• “Little Caesar” Original gangsta.
• “Rocco and His Brothers” Visconti’s epic tale of a rural family contending with urbanity in post-War Italy.
• “Young Mr. Lincoln” Young Mr. Lincoln sure was a jerk.
• “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Thumbs down; more to be said later.
• “The Freshman” Not the Marlon Brando/Matthew Broderick one; the Harold Lloyd one. It’s better.
• “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” I really disliked the first installment but for some reason this didn’t annoy me as much—even though it’s pretty trashy.
• “It’s a Wonderful Life” Magical.
• “Le Samouraï” Re-watched for the first time in years. Amazing.
• “The Public Enemy” Another original gangsta!
• “Holiday” I love, love, love this movie.
• “Phantom Thread”
• “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” Better than I heard, though still not great.
• “The Little Hours” Amusing.
• “Blade Runner 2049” Re-watched it and confirmed it’s great.
• “Ingrid Goes West” Pretty good though at the end it cops out in a major way.

If you’re interested, you can peruse the 186 movies that I watched in 2016 in this blog post. You can also follow along with my film diary over at letterboxd.com. Here’s wishing you a happy new year of movie watching!

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