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Top 20 Of 2017: Part 1 (20 - 11)

Well, it’s finally that time again, we might be a couple months into 2018 but we’ve finally caught everything we needed to for last year and it’s now time to count down The Top 20 Movies Of 2017.

Honestly quite a surprising year, a lot of films I expected to make the list didn’t and a few I wouldn’t have placed so high beat them out, but we’ve dragged this out enough, let’s get started.

Honourable Mentions go to;

T2 Trainspotting – The original is my favourite movie of all time and this is a great follow-up that deals with regret and maturity whilst not actually growing up.

Lady Macbeth – One of the best performances of the year

from Florence Pugh and one of the best examples of an emotionally abusive relationship I’ve ever seen.

Spider-Man: Homecoming – Parker finally joins the MCU with a hilarious coming of age tale and one of Marvel’s most sinister villains.

Baby Driver – Edgar Wright’s love letter to musicals and crime dramas still holds out as one of the year’s best edited pictures and a killer soundtrack to boot.

Killing Ground – Still an absolute gut-punch of a film, Daniel Power delivers more shocks and horror in his debut than most can deliver in their entire career, here’s hoping he can keep it up for the future. * 20: Brawl In Cell Block 99

After making me squirm with Bone Tomahawk, S. Craig Zahler could’ve went in any direction he wanted, and the fact that he chose to do a prison grindhouse flick with Vince Vaughn is an interesting choice to make. Zahler’s already trademark style of slow-burning mortality into an explosion of ultra-violence works just as well here as it did in Bone Tomahawk and he’s quickly proven himself to be a genre director worth keeping an eye on, after bringing a new edge to Vaughn here I’m excited to see what they do in their next feature together.

19: Lady Bird

Teenagers can be assholes. Teenage daughters can be real assholes. And Teenage daughters trying everything they can get run away are a breed of assholes unto themselves. Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut captures a coming of age story with enough genre defiance and harsh charm to stand out amongst the crowd. Anchored by one of the best performances in Ronan’s career, there’s something special in what Gerwig has put together here and her insane acclaim is well earned for it.

18: I, Tonya

Part biopic, part true-crime story, part documentary, all fun. Having known nothing about the Tonya Harding incident I went into this film blind and came out not really knowing much else but being honestly surprised by the level of stupidity that surrounded it all. It’s rude, it’s crude, it’s heartbreaking and it proves Margot Robbie has the chops to pull off a leading role, this is honestly something I never would’ve expected to work but Goodfellas On Ice seems to pulled it off.

17: The Shape Of Water

Speaking of not expecting to work, a 60s romance monster movie where the monster is the romantic lead, only Del Toro could’ve pulled this off but he does so quite spectacularly. For every moment of graphic violence or sexuality, there’s a tenderness and theme of loneliness that ties it all together and allows this strange, emotional tale to unfold. Sally Hawkins – in her first but not final appearance on this list – is as enchanting as ever as Elisa and Doug Jones provides emotions to a merman but both help shape this as one of the most bizarre but brilliant films of the year.

16: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

I love the MCU, it’s ten years strong and the journey to Infinity War has been rocky but stable once it found its footing, but despite that this is the first year since 2013 where an MCU movie hasn’t made the Top 10. Out of the three released this year Guardians Of The Galaxy was the strongest, what it lacked in freshness from the first movie it made up for bringing this group of oddballs closer together and building upon the cosmic elements of the MCU, all culminating in arguably the best ending to a Marvel movie to date. Vol. 2’s biggest problem is that it’s Vol. 2, but it’s still the Guardians and their still a fantastic bunch of A-Holes.

15: God’s Own Country

I tried to get into Call My By Your Name but it couldn’t sit right with me, mostly because I knew I’d already seen the best Gay Romance of 2017 already with God’s Own Country. Depicting a love as harsh as the Yorkshire countryside its set in, this tale of breaking down armour and accepting love in its purest form between a self-destructive young man – Josh O’Conner in a career making performance – and a Romanian immigrant, it can be hard viewing at times but it’s worth it to follow these two and see them make it. It might be Yorkshire’s answer to Brokeback Mountain, but it earns the comparison.

14: Get Out

Who would’ve thought we’d see a horror movie get a Best Picture nomination in the 21st Century? Well Jordan Peele does just that with a social horror movie as intense as it is intelligent, his challenging of liberal racists, stereotypes and the placement of black people in modern culture would’ve lent enough for a satirical horror by itself but the use of psychological torment and The Sunken Place shows that Peele has a talent to watch out for. There are so many layers to this film that I still haven’t uncovered but I’d be more than happy to find them all and see just how bad Peele can make me feel.

13: John Wick Chapter 2

I was a little late to John Wick but it was a surprisingly strong action movie with enough style, world-building and set-pieces to make it stand out in the genre. Chapter 2 takes everything that made Chapter 1 work and improves upon it, the style is as sleek and brutal as ever, the world-building is incredible with an entire continent of Assassins opened for exploration and the set-pieces are bigger with a mirror maze standing out for just how unique and disorienting it can be. Reeves has got himself a solid franchise on his hands, if Chapter 3 can deliver he’ll have one of the best Action Trilogy under his belt and for good reason.

12: Mudbound

Mudbound I wanted in my Top 10 because it more than earns its place there, this is easily the best Netflix movie put out there and deserved more Awards love. An examination of race, trauma, family, self-destruction, friendship and hate in Wartime America, there was little else as powerful as this film and the absolute powder-keg it carried across its run-time made for uneasy viewing just waiting for it all to go off and it went off in a brilliant horrific fashion. There is an importance to this movie and it more than deserves to be seen by more people even with the Netflix moniker over its head.

11: mother!

When it comes to controversial movie I usually fall into the positive side because I’m a hipster dickhead that likes to be different. With mother! though I can absolute see why people despise it but all the reasons its hates it why I loved it, the ever growing uncomfortable feeling as this house is swarmed, the shock and horror Lawrence goes through trying to hold herself together, the biblical allegory taking to its most literal and disgusting extreme. There was no other movie like mother! this year, hell I don’t think there ever has been a film that gets under your skin like this only to knock you on your fucking ass and call you a bitch. Aranofsky has made uncomfortable films before, but this was a whole other level and I was excited to follow him there.

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