Movies I've Seen in 2017

[shadowfireflame]

A guide for me to keep track of everything. Please ask if you’re interested in any of them! :)

Previous years: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

::: Animation :::

• Captain Underpants: the First Epic Movie (very enjoyable and even subtly progressive, plus Weird Al song!)
• Kubo and the Two Strings (cute and a little profound)
• Moana (impressive visuals, solid movie but not amazing)
• The Secret Life of Pets (so bad I fell asleep and couldn’t finish, wow)
• Sing! (not bad but goes off the rails a lot with a random storyline)
• Trolls (genuinely very good! Great cohesive message and tone)
• Voltron: Legendary Defender (on Netflix; clearly a kids’ show but still fun)

::: Documentaries :::

• Casting JonBenet (unusual exploration of the JonBenet Ramsey murder from the perspective of actors auditioning to play the Ramsey family)
• The Elephant in the Living Room (heartbreaking and very well-made documentary about exotic pets in the US and how in many states there are no legislations against it whatsoever)
• Icarus (well-done documentary about the Russian sports doping conspiracy)
• The Keepers (a great Netflix documentary series like Making a Murderer, about the murder of a nun and a buried Catholic sex abuse scandal, that is fascinatingly filmed but the content is completely infuriating)

::: In-Theater Movies :::

• Baby Driver (amazing; the use of music alone is phenomenal)
• Bladerunner 2049 (fantastic atmosphere, acting, and music; very enjoyable)
• The Dark Tower (such a disappointing adaptation of Stephen King’s epic series, totally missed the mark)
• The Disaster Artist (funny fan tribute to the makers of The Room, great performances from the brothers Franco)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (I didn’t like the first one, but this one was great! Fixed all the issues I had with the first one, had interesting female characters with growth, and actually made it a commentary on rape culture, wtf?!)
• Logan (finally, an R-rated Wolverine movie!)
• Logan Lucky (very good acting from Daniel Craig and Channing Tatum in particular)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (I’m a big fan of this series and enjoyed this a lot)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (quite enjoyable film solidly in the Marvel universe; Michelle completely stole the show)
• Thor: Ragnarock (tonally uneven but still lots of fun)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (such impressive emotional acting and CGI covers a lot of plot holes)

::: Other Films :::

• The Andromeda Strain (from 1971, a fascinating hard sci-fi movie that focuses on the scientific process, based on Michael Crichton’s novel)
• Beauty & the Beast (2017; I love Emma Watson, but this live-action remake just didn’t work for me)
• The BFG (actually awful??? How is Spielberg this bad?)
• Colossal (surprising and haunting movie with Anne Hathaway, has to be seen to be believed; try not to see spoilers before you watch it)
• Cooties (slapstick horror-comedy with Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, and Alison Pill, not hysterical but not bad)
• Dad’s Army (with Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Gambon, and Mark Gatiss-sweet and fun, and a bit feminist)
• Death Note (the Netflix 2017 remake. I’m a huge fan of the original, and this wasn’t actually that bad! It missed a lot of nuance and style but was still enjoyable)
• The Discovery (with Robert Redford; fascinating setup but can’t completely fulfill its premise)
• Dr. Strangelove (absurdist 1964 movie with Peter Sellers but still feels very relevant)
• Dunkirk (interesting movie with almost none of the usual “Hollywood” feel of a war film)
• Everything, Everything (completely implausible but with a really appealing lead in Amandla Stenberg)
• The Founder (good movie but a bit obvious and the stakes didn’t feel very high)
• Ghost in the Shell
• Gifted (sweet and pretty much exactly what I expected with math, family drama, and custody issues)
• Girl on the Train (very slow but intriguing)
• Hail, Caesar! (very, very strange but not very good)
• Hidden Figures (important story of female African-American mathematicians at NASA)
• The House (with Will Farrell and Amy Poehler, had funny moments but could have been better)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (sweet Taika Waititi New Zealand movie)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (infuriating but amazing movie starring Oprah Winfrey about a black woman whose cells were taken without her consent to be used in medical research)
• John Wick Chapter 2 (enjoyable sequel, very beautifully filmed sequences)
• King Charles III (a fictionalized account of what might happen after Queen Elizabeth II’s death *cries* The acting was great but the plot wasn’t particularly believable)
• Kong: Skull Island (a good cast but kind of silly writing)
• La La Land (sort of poignant, I guess, but I found it dull)
• The LEGO Batman Movie (sweet movie with a good message)
• Life (2017 alien movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds; I didn’t find it scary in the slightest and I’m easily frightened)
• Maudie (fascinating movie about a Nova Scotia folk artist who had such a difficult life but made really beautiful and happy paintings anyway)
• A Monster Calls (visually beautiful and emotionally resonant film)
• Moonlight (the Academy Award Best Picture winner! I found it a sweet and moving character study, but I felt like it was too sanitized)
• Morgan (good creepy atmosphere; reminded me of Deux Ex Machina)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1974; entertaining even knowing the mystery’s solution beforehand)
• Office Christmas Party (silly and funny; I enjoyed it)
• Polytechnique (disturbing movie by the director of Arrival about a massacre on women attending a Montreal university in 1989)
• The Riot Club (heavy-handed attempt to show the warped mentality that goes into secret elite university clubs)
• The Room (one of those so-bad-it-becomes-unintentionally-brilliant kinds of movies)
• Split (with James McAvoy; brilliant acting but sad that we have yet another evil character with inaccurately portrayed dissociative identity disorder)
• Suicide Squad (certainly not good, but not as bad as everyone was saying)
• Temple Grandin (intelligent and sensitive film about autism and animal husbandry with Claire Danes)
• Why Him? (funny Father of the Bride-style movie with James Franco and Bryan Cranston; reminded me of the British show Cuckoo)

::: Film (Non-English) :::

• The Host (great Korean movie where the monster isn’t the really scary villain, mindless bureaucracy is)
• In the Arms of My Enemy (interesting French historical movie about brothers and love)
• The Mermaid (slapstick comedy action romance drama (!) from China)
• Train to Busan (well-done zombie disaster movie from South Korea; made me tear up at times)
• Twenty (comedy from South Korea)
• Yossi (moving film from Israel, the sequel to the amazing but sad Yossi & Jagger)

::: TV / Drama :::

• Black Mirror (excellent as always)
• The Good Place (fun and suprising)
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (excellent as always)
• Stranger Things (season 2, very enjoyable)
• The Windsors (silly but fun parody of the British royal family)