2017 in films - according to Film Excess

The 10 Best Films:

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi/Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi - Rian Johnson

2. Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan

3. The Square - Ruben Östlund

4. War for the Planet of the Apes - Matt Reeves

5. It - Andy Muschietti

6. Wonder Woman - Patty Jenkins

7. Thor: Ragnarok - Taika Waititi

8. Beach Rats - Eliza Hittman

9. Kong: Skull Island - Jordan Vogt-Roberts

10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - James Gunn

Other good, recommendable movies of the year (in alphabetical order):

The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear/Den Utrolige Historie om den Kæmpestore Pære - Amalie Næsby Fick, Jørgen Lerdam, Philip Einstein Lipski

The Killing of a Sacred Deer - Yorgos Lanthimos

mother! - Darren Aronofsky

Murder on the Orient Express - Kenneth Branagh

The Year's Worst:

1. It Comes at Night - Trey Edward Shults

Other failed, mediocre or poor films (in alphabetical order):

Annabelle: Creation - David F. Sandberg
Baby Driver - Edgar Wright
Blade Runner 2049 - Denis Villeneuve
Logan Lucky - Steven Soderbergh

[19 titles in total]


Notes:

With just 19 2017-released titles reviewed yet, the first appraisal of the year in movies (no 2017 TV-series, documentaries or shorts reviewed yet) is admittedly slight, overlooking most worthwhile - as well as awful - titles of the year. But these will follow in the coming updates to the 2017 lists, the first one arriving in about a year.
2017 did already deliver 4 masterpieces that were all phenomenal cinema experiences as well: Rian Johnson's off-the-charts amazing, emotionally riveting, best Star Wars movie to date, Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Christopher Nolan's best movie to date, the truly intense, impressionistic WWII thriller Dunkirk; Swede Ruben Östlund's incisive societal critique and satirical drama The Square, and finally Matt Reeves' superbly created, affecting, adventurous War for the Planet of the Apes.
These are followed by Andy Muschietti's seriously eerie Stephen King-adaptation It; Patty Jenkins' great franchise-starter Wonder Woman, - the first great female superhero movie, perhaps ever? The list is rounded off with some of the year's good pics: Taika Waititi's disarming, stylish Thor: Ragnarok, Eliza Hittman's engrossing youth sex drama Beach Rats, Jordan Vogt-Roberts' gleeful Kaiju FX-actioner Kong: Skull Island and finally James Gunn's light-hearted, colorful escapade sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2.
As is obvious, the big Hollywood studios showered us with some welcome, satisfying escapism this year.
Trey Edward Shults' ponderous, frustratingly directionless It Comes at Night takes the cake for now as the year's worst, (and only downright bad 2017 film seen so far.)
Among the greats who served something under my expectations this year are master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh with his 'retirement'-breaker heist dramedy Logan Lucky, Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve with his huge-budgeted, impressive but ultimately cluttered Blade Runner 2049 and British great filmmaker Edgar Wright with his teen-focused, perfunctory Ansel Elgort love-letter Baby Driver.

Previous annual lists:
  
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2013 in films - according to Film Excess    
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

What do you think of the 2017 lists?
What are your favorite and least favorite 2017 titles?

Beach Rats (2017) - Hittman and impressive talent Harris Dickinson create a solid winner about a closeted young gay man

♥♥♥♥

+ Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year

A deliciously manipulated, great poster for Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats

We follow teenager Frankie for a summer, in which he experiences a loss in the near family, does drugs and tries to navigate the expectations he perceives from his male friends with his own conflicting desire to be intimate with older men.

Four pulsating, large hearts go out to this intimate, impressively crafted portrayal of some of the difficulties of youth specific to being a young gay man. It is the second feature by writer-director Eliza Hittman (It Felt Like Love (2013)).
Beach Rats has a subtle but infectious humor but still takes its protagonist's struggle and journey dead serious. Harris Dickinson (The Medium (2016)) is fearless and phenomenal in the lead, and you never guess for a second that he is actually British. The film is fixed in a Brooklyn environment close to an amusement park and the beach, an evocative and somewhat nightmarish setting for the punches of youth, and Dickinson and his fellow cast members all ring absolutely true. In fact nothing in Beach Rats breaches the confines of complete realism, although some audiences will be more acknowledging than others of this, naturally.
Beach Rats is a sensitive story, which made me thank heaven that I am not myself a teenager anymore. Nicholas Leone's electronic score is used skillfully to underpin the emotions of our protagonist, and Hélène Louvart's (Dark Night (2016)) 16 mm cinematography distinguishes the film aesthetically and always serves the narrative commendably. Beach Rats is sensorily oriented and thankfully doesn't shy away from the corporeal focus of the story's center, but its probing of sexuality and bodies remains tasteful, which is also highly commendable. 
SPOILER The ending doesn't reach an ending of the journey for Frankie, - in fact it leaves him at a very vulnerable and unsure point, - and I wouldn't have minded it giving us just a hint at some possibly hopeful future for him.
Beach Rats may make you think of Barry Jenkins' great Moonlight (2016) and David Gordon Green's masterpiece George Washington (2000). I am already looking forward to revisiting it someday, and to see the next works by Hittman and whatever the very talented Dickinson will next grace us with.

Related posts:

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
Moonlight (2016) - Jenkins and McCraney's powerful and personal coming-of-age romance drama

Dickinson gives a so-called selfie interview for Verge in this video

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 457k $ and counting
= Unknown
[Beach Rats premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Hittman won the Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance for the film and is working on her next feature now. Beach Rats is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Beach Rats?