This ranking features the best of the best movies of 2017 so far that we recommend a hundred percent. During these past ten months, moviegoers have been gifted with a couple of spectacular blockbusters, documentaries and indie films which just prove that filmmakers are continuing to find fresh new ways — whether big or small — to entertain, enlighten and excite.
For sure there are still great films to be expected in the months ahead, but for now, these are our top picks for the best films of 2017.
6) Baby Driver
Ansel Elgort stars as the earbud-wearing poker-faced youth who drives the getaway car for a gang of bank robbers (among them John Hamm and Jamie Foxx) who get increasingly psychotic under the command of the chillingly cool “Doc” played by Kevin Spacey. This movie is pure joyride from start to finish with its sweet, funny and utterly original script and dazzlingly choreographed car chases.
5) Beatriz at Dinner
Salma Hayek and John Lithgow go head to head in what looks like a battle for world’s soul in this dinner party drama. Hayek plays Beatriz, a healer/physical therapist who uncomfortably finds herself sitting across a table from a man who embodies everything she hates in the world. This timely social commentary is a raw depiction of what it means to speak truth against established power.
4) Dunkirk
The great Christopher Nolan delivers this masterful visual storytelling which follows the Allied troops’ attempt to reach the French city of Dunkirk before the Nazis can reach them. Brought to life by a gifted ensemble cast that includes Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance, this World War II thriller is an emotionally satisfying spectacle that honors the fact-based story.
3) Get Out
Director Jordan Peele’s thought-provoking, scary and funny breakthrough film seamlessly blends its sarcastic social critique into a just-about-perfect horror/comedy thrill ride. The movie follows Chris, a black guy with a white girlfriend, who spends a weekend getaway with his girlfriend’s family. At first, Chris thinks his girlfriend’s family’s overly friendly behavior as anxious attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the movie unfolds, it becomes apparent that his girlfriend’s family is becoming increasingly strange and he soon finds out a couple of bizarre discoveries that will lead him to a truth that he could never have imagined.
2) A Ghost Story
This movie by acclaimed director David Lowery is an exploration of loss, legacy and the fundamental human yearning for connection and meaning. Recently deceased, a ghost (played by Academy Award-winner Casey Affleck) returns to the land of the living to console his widow (played by Academy Award-nominee Rooney Mara) only to find himself unstuck in time, forced to become a passive observer as the woman he loves and the life he knew slowly slip away. The increasingly unmoored ghost sets out on a cosmic journey through history and memory, confronting the enormity of existence and life’s transcendental questions.
1) Logan
The year is 2029. The mutants are almost wiped out. A disheartened and isolated Logan is drinking his days away somewhere in the Mexican border, making petty cash as a driver for hire. His only companions are the outcast Caliban and an old and ailing Professor X, whose deteriorating mind is afflicted with seizures. But Logan’s plan to hide from the world abruptky ends when he meets a mysterious woman with a strange request — that Logan escort to safety a young girl with extraordinary abilities. Logan must now protect the girl and face off against the dark forces on a live-or-die mission, one that will set the world-weary x-man formerly known as Wolverine on a path towards fulfilling his destiny.
