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Song of the Day #3,465: ‘Communication’ – Ace Marino

My final post on the best films of 2017 will focus on the comedies. It was a strong year for funny movies, including some I’ve already written about earlier this week (Lady Bird, Thor: Ragnarok, Get Out and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, to name a few).

The unlikeliest great movie of the year was The Disaster Artist (#5 on my top 20), James Franco’s dramatization of the making of “the Citizen Kane of bad films,” 2003’s The Room. I caught up with that bizarre film as homework for this one, and it is certainly worthy of the cult following it has amassed. Writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau is a uniquely fascinating character, and Franco captures him in one of the year’s best performances, nailing not just Wiseau’s otherworldly accent but his focused spaciness and hostile earnestness.

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Song of the Day #3,464: ‘The Last Jedi Theme’ – John Williams

The next category of 2017 films I’ll mention are ‘Superhero Movies.’ Though several of these films feature actual comic book superheroes, I’m using the phrase more broadly to include any movie about people (or apes) with extraordinary abilities.

First, a few movies I have yet to see: John Wick 2, in which Keanu Reeves kills the few people on Earth he failed to kill in the first John Wick; Atomic Blonde, in which Charlize Theron channels her inner Keanu Reeves (or maybe he’s been channeling his inner Charlize Theron); Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which I’ll eventually see because I love my daughter; and Good Time, which probably doesn’t fit in this category at all but deserves a mention somewhere so this will have to do.

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Song of the Day #3,463: ‘Redbone’ – Childish Gambino

Next up in my 2017 film recap is a group of films I’m labelling ‘Awards Contenders.’ These movies are either winning or at least in the conversation for the various critics prizes, Golden Globes, SAG, PGA, DGA, WGA, Oscars and you get the idea.

Studios often hold these award-bait movies until the very end of the year, so I still have quite a few to catch up on, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, Steven Spielberg’s The Post, Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying and Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name.

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Song of the Day #3,462: ‘Crash Into Me (Live)’ – Dave Matthews Band

The year is just about over and while I have a number of films left to see, I’m pretty close to a worthy 2017 top ten movie list.

This week I’ll write briefly about my 20 favorite movies of the year, grouped into four broad categories: Women Directors, Award Favorites, Superheroes, and Comedies. Several movies I’ll mention fall into more than one of these categories, and in those cases I’ll just pick the best fit.

First up is a category I’m thrilled to see well-represented, especially in the year of #metoo: Women Directors.

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