Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in Loving
Happy Not Quite New Year! Late to the party as ever, I thought I’d add to the mountain of ‘best of 2017’ lists with this list of ten films I saw at my local cinema (the excellent City Screen in York) in 2017.
It’s not a best of – I’d be here all day trying to work that one out – and they’re not listed in order of merit, just in chronological order of when I saw them. They’re simply ten of the films that either particularly stood out for me, or I just wanted to say something about.
Here we go then…
The One That Still Had Lust For Life
T2 Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 2017)
This was one I’d almost forgotten I saw last year – which is no reflection on the quality of the film, which I really liked. Despite being very much of the generation for whom the original Trainspotting was a big deal, I’d only ever seen it once, when it was first shown on TV. I can’t honestly say it left a major impression on me at the time, but I re-watched it prior to seeing T2, and was bowled over by how good it was – the energy, the confidence, the absolute mid-90s zeitgeistiness of it all, and the pitch-black darkness too. I certainly shan’t be leaving it 20 years before my next re-watch.
And I really enjoyed T2 – I thought it did about as good a job of following the original as could have been done. At the heart of it was Renton’s ambivalence at being pulled back to his old town, and his bad old ways – resentful, resistant but also relieved – which powered the film’s overall sense of bittersweet nostalgia.
The way they used Spud’s story to work the original novel into the film may have seemed contrived or trite to some, but I thought it was a nice touch, and his ‘get to work’ montage set to Blondie’s Dreaming is the scene I most remember nearly a year on.
The One I’m Really Glad I Caught
Loving (Jeff Nichols, 2016)
I was really sorry to see John Patterson hang up his boots as the Guardian Guide’s film columnist last year. His weekly column was always informed, insightful, and above all infectiously enthusiastic. I’m particularly grateful to him for highlighting films which might otherwise have passed me by – reissues of little known classics such as Cutter’s Way, or new movies with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it theatrical release, like Jeff Nichols’ Loving.
I loved this understated, beautifully acted, quietly moving drama. It’s the kind of film that goes unhurriedly about its business, and draws you in without you even realising it. It tells the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving – an interracial couple in 1960s Virginia who got married at a time when such marriages were illegal in the state, and whose challenge to this law eventually led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1967.
Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton do a fantastic job of conveying the Lovings’ quiet decency, and the deeply felt love, pride and frustration that lie beneath their calm exteriors – a scene where Mildred receives some unexpected good news over the phone, movingly underplayed by Negga, has stayed with me in particular. Of all the films I saw last year, this is one of those I’m most looking forward to seeing again.
The One With The Killer Soundtrack
Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)
The first 30 minutes of Baby Driver definitely count as one of my favourite cinematic experiences of 2017. In my head now, it’s just a blur of dazzling scenes, expertly cut to tune after tune after tune, virtuoso bubblegum pop cinema from a director in his absolute element.
As the film progressed and the plot took over, it couldn’t quite live up to the promise of that fantastic first half hour – but it was a still a hugely enjoyable film throughout, and so good to see a witty, entertaining, crowd-pleasing mainstream movie that existed by itself, and not as part of a huge franchise.
The One Where Marvel Made a Teen Movie
Spider-Man:Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017)
Thor: Ragnarok was a blast, and great to see in a cinema full of people laughing out loud – but of the two Marvel films I saw this year, I think it’s actually Spider-Man I enjoyed more.
It wasn’t perfect – it was a bit baggy in places and the showdown at the end was underwhelming – but I liked the fact that this was Marvel’s take on a high school movie. Placing the focus on Peter Parker’s everyday teenage problems, and recruiting a talented and diverse young cast to play his peers, gave the film a fresh, energetic feel – the requisite superhero set-pieces were the least interesting parts of a film that thrived on its dialogue and characters.
Michael Keaton’s Vulture had a promising set-up – as a blue collar worker turning to crime when the Avengers’ activities cost him his job – which wasn’t really followed through, but elsewhere the writers had great fun reducing the usual Marvel superheroics to background noise in the everyday life of Queens residents, with Captain America’s cheesy educational videos a particular highlight: “I’m pretty sure this guy is a war criminal now, but whatever…”
The One That Was Literally Awesome
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)
There’s one word I’ve seen more than any other in reviews of Dunkirk, and that’s ‘immersive’. And who I am to buck the trend – what I remember most about seeing this film is how completely it drew me in to its story.
I came out of the cinema feeling that it was the best film I’d seen that year. With a few months’ hindsight, I’m not sure I’d still say that – other films have stayed with me more – but there’s no denying that the spectacle of the set-pieces, and the vigour and skill with which Nolan tells the story produced a real sense of awe in me, unlike anything else I saw in 2017. For once, a film that could justifiably be described as awesome.
Kudos as ever to Nolan for trusting his audience’s intelligence too – letting characters’ motivations and identities reveal themselves gradually through actions as much as words, and not hurrying to spell everything out with clunky stretches of exposition. I think it’s partly this – that as a member of the audience you are slightly leaning in at the start to understand everything that’s happening – that helps to pull you into the film, and makes it so…what’s that word again?
The One That Was Worth The Wait
My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004)
This film had been on my ‘must watch’ list for a very long time, but I’m glad I ended up with my first viewing being on the big screen (it was shown as part of Picturehouse’s Criminal Acts season, marking 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales).
This beautifully shot tale of a love affair between two young women in a small Yorkshire village was spellbinding, capturing both the ennui of small town life and the overpowering magic of young love – taking place over the kind of long, languid summer that exists only in teenage memories.
Terrific performances from the two leads – of whom Emily Blunt has of course gone on to much bigger things, but it’s a shame that co-star Natalie Press hasn’t had similar mainstream success. As tomboyish Mona, she is a compelling mix of vulnerability, naivety and frustrated, sometimes vindictive anger.
And of course, there is Paddy Considine, simmering away in the background as Mona’s older brother, a recently born again Christian who’s renounced his violent, drunken past. No prizes for guessing how that works out…
The One That Surprised Me
Wind River (Taylor Sheridan, 2017)
I went into this film expecting a solid, well made indie crime drama – but this was one of those happy occasions where a film exceeds your expectations, and it ended up being one of my viewing highlights of the year.
I loved the atmospheric stillness of this film – set against the snowy backdrop of the Wind River Reservation, where a young Native American woman has been murdered, prompting a rookie FBI agent to be called in to investigate.
Writer/director Sheridan expertly draws out the tensions created by the investigation – between the FBI and the local authorities, between the law enforcers and the suspicious, closed-ranks local community, and amongst the different branches of the authorities themselves.
The sense of slowly building menace had me gripped, and the few, well-judged explosions of violence provided some real shocks. This was all grounded in an intelligent, insightful script peopled with well-drawn, three-dimensional characters, and which hearteningly subverted some of the hoary old cliches of masculinity.
The One That I Finally Saw On The Big Screen
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
My goodness, what a film this is. I’d been wanting to see Close Encounters on the big screen for a long time – I came to it late, only seeing it on TV for the first time in my mid-twenties. I’ve watched it a couple of times since then, and it’s a film I love a little more every time I see it.
Watching it this time – and the cinema is definitely the best place to be fully awe-struck by its wide-eyed, wondrous finale – I really appreciated the way Spielberg tempers his sky-gazing optimism with a sense of ambivalence at Roy Neary’s actions.
He resists – at least maybe until the last section – the temptation to unambiguously cheer Roy on as he single-mindedly pursues his UFO obsession, clearly showing the cost to his family, and hinting that Roy’s compulsion doesn’t just spring from some psychically-implanted extra-terrestrial message – it’s also a very convenient way to opt out of his responsibilities as a husband and father.
It’s this bit of real-life grit that grounds the giddy excitement of Roy’s quest to uncover the truth – even as we’re rooting for him in that race to Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, we’re aware of what he’s chosen to leave behind.
The One That Was Really Bloody Good Fun
Paddington 2 (Ben King, 2017)
Probably the most purely enjoyable film I saw at the cinema this year.
Paddington 2 is what happens when you put a film in the hands of intelligent film-makers who don’t think crowd-pleasing is a dirty word. It’s not just that it’s populated with so many genuinely lovable characters, or that it’s laugh-out-loud funny whatever your age. It’s the level of thought, wit, care and attention to detail that’s gone into every aspect of the film – I know I’m not the only one to be struck by the echoes of Wes Anderson, from the humour, to the intricate set designs, right down to the pretty-in-pink prison outfits.
It helps too that everyone on screen seems to be having a whale of a time – none more so than Hugh Grant as the endearingly ridiculous villain Phoenix Buchanan.
All this, and a timely, sincerely meant message about the value of kindness and the importance of community too. Just grand.
The One That Ended The Year In Style
In Between (Maysaloun Hamoud, 2016)
The last film I saw at the cinema in 2017, and a fine end to the year.
This lively, engaging story of three young women sharing a flat in Tel Aviv was honest, empathetic, and both heartening and saddening in its depiction of the clash between its protagonists’ desires and the constricting patriarchal culture which they have to negotiate.
I like films where you just enjoy spending time with the characters, and this was very much one of those, with the flatmates – cool and confident lawyer Leila, enigmatic aspiring DJ Salma and devoutly religious student Nour – a compelling and very likable gang that you come to really care for.
Let down, controlled and abused by the men in their lives, the support and solace they find in each other is deftly and touchingly portrayed. This naturalistic, understated film is also brave enough to leave the trio’s stories unresolved – a wordless final scene of solidarity providing temporary succour before they head out into an uncertain future.
The Fountain Down The Road 