2017 has been a year that started as strong as any year in recent memory when it comes to movies. From the January and February box office smashes of Split (which I didn’t like) and Get Out to the successful continuations or reboots of franchise movies such as Kong: Skull Island, Alien: Covenant, War of the Planet of the Apes, and Logan to the captivating Life and Wind River, we had about ten movies heading into September, whereas in a typical year, we might have half that many. Now, if I asked a typical moviegoer to name five non-animated movies released before September, the five could not include any of the ones I have just listed. They may have said Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Dunkirk, Spider-Man Homecoming, and Transformers: The Last Knight. Wonder Woman was fun and well-made, but it offered nothing that any other superhero-origin movie hadn’t already provided in the last ten years. Spider-Man Homecoming, I didn’t even give it a chance.
Category Archives: Year of Release
An Education (2009)
Set in 1961 England, Carey Mulligan’s (Shame, Drive) breakout performance in Lone Scherfig (One Day, Their Finest) is a movie that resonates in a way that is entirely independent of its time frame and location. Does this mean it’s a timeless classic? Well, when I think of timeless classics, I think of films that are very different from An Education. This beautiful film was on pace to be a timeless classic, one where everything is fine and dandy and one that I probably would not have enjoyed as much if not for a late twist. The setting of 1960s Europe doesn’t pique my interest. If, as I write this in 2018, in my early 40’s when I am much more into the independents than the big blockbusters, the synopsis for this film doesn’t attract, I can only imagine what I thought going into it back in 2009. I’m unsure what piqued my interest in this movie or even got me past the first 15 minutes.
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
I love a good prison movie. Similarly to how I enjoy films set on trains, edgier (i.e., PG13 or greater) sports movies, alien movies, shipwreck movies, or survival movies set in the jungle, there is something about a good prison movie that perks my intrigue, keeps me interested, and has me thinking about it long after it’s over. The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Hurricane, Rescue Dawn, Escape from Alcatraz, Lock Up, Murder in the First, Midnight Express, Brokedown Palace, Dead Man Walking, The Longest Yard, Felon, Law Abiding Citizen, Death Race, and others. So what could a prison movie offer that we haven’t seen before on the silver screen or television dramas like Prison Break or Oz or television documentary shows like Lockup or Locked Up Abroad? There are plenty of options for getting your prison fix. But you haven’t seen something in S. Craig Zahler’s (Bone Tomahawk) Brawl in Cell Block 99. Could it be that it’s the most brutal prison movie ever made? You could argue that it is. It certainly could be the goriest. If you have yet to see the horror-western Bone Tomahawk, prepare yourself. I had heard about it but still wasn’t ready for what I saw. I was not too fond of it. But I am going to go back and watch it again. And the reason for that is how much I really enjoyed Brawl in Cell Block 99.
Dunkirk (2017)
Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception) might be the best technical director we’ve ever seen. His precession is perfect. His attention to detail is unmatched. His brain operates so that it is always ahead of his actors and two steps ahead of his audience. We’ve seen technical masterpieces throughout his already storied career. At 47, he already has masterpieces like Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar all underneath his belt. According to Rotten Tomatoes, his “worst” movie is Interstellar, which still has a 71% fresh rating. That means his “worst” movie still had five out of every seven critics gave the movie a positive rating. However, for all of the positives associated with Nolan’s films (and there are many), he has failed to capture the often-needed emotional component with every single one.
Lady Bird (2017)
I think if you told someone that Saoirse Ronan (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Lovely Bones), the actress who won audiences over with her innocent portrayal of a conflicted young Irish immigrant navigating her way through 1950s New York City in 2015’s fabulous Brooklyn (which earned her a Best Actress Nomination) is the same person playing the lead role two years later in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, they’d look at you funny before looking at pictures of her from both movies, recalling scenes from each, and then of nodding their heads and saying, “Yeah, I guess that is the same actress.” While a movie I didn’t resonate with and was definitely near the bottom of the Best Picture nominees in the lackluster 2017, I did appreciate her performance. It was just as honest and genuine as the one she gave in Brooklyn. Similarly to 2015, her work in this movie is likely the third or fourth-best of the year and landed Ronan her second Academy Award nomination.