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2017 IN REVIEW – My Favorite Films of the Year
Alright, so I had intended to get this done a while ago – weeks ago, in fact, but at least before the Oscars. Naturally, life, as it does, gets in the way of ambitions, and so I’m releasing it as soon as I could.
2017 was a terrible year, but it wasn’t all bad in terms of the films that came out. In fact, there were quite a few that I loved this year, and… well, here they are! Below are the films from 2017 that either I personally enjoyed the most or that resonated with me the most. As such, I do not call them “the best,” but I do consider them to be exemplary. Unlike my previous two lists, each film is categorized roughly into the genre I think it (mostly) fits into (there’s always going to be overlap), and then in the usual ascending order of quality within the genre.
Even with all these, I can’t say I’m not relieved this is all over, finally. I kinda want to go back to reviewing films now, and 2018 is already well underway now… Read more…
2017 IN REVIEW – The Worst Films of the Year
They can’t all be winners, and, as with any year, 2017 had some real stinkers. For the most part, I actually tried avoiding a lot of some of the apparent worst, but a few managed to either slip by me or, God help me, I sought them out just out of morbid curiosity.
The movies below are listed according to an admittedly somewhat arbitrary order based on gut instinct and memory, but while some of these may shift around a bit over time and even from day to day, you can bet these are all pretty terrible, with the top contenders being… well, some of the worst movies of 2017.
2017 IN REVIEW – The Films Between Two Extremes
Okay, so I’m very behind. I have decided on dropping the whole review of films I hadn’t seen yet thing with 2017. It took me way too long, and, with this year in particular, I just wasn’t feeling it. December and January were hard months for me – as was most of 2017 – but I also felt as though I’d seen most of the films I wanted to, even while reviewing the ones I had missed. And so, I break with a longstanding tradition and skip straight to talking about the films I have seen, starting with the films that I neither felt were awful nor were among my favorites.
Below you’ll find the 50 films(!) that fell within this category along with a brief-ish summary of how I felt about them – and how critics in general felt about them with the included Rotten Tomatoes score. These are not intended to be reviews, and I also warn you that in the interest of finishing this by Oscars night, I did not double check my writing, so I apologise for the roughness. But then again, nobody’s apologizing to me about the roughness that was 2017, so… screw it. Here we go!
2017 IN REVIEW – Worst. Year. Ever…?: An Introduction
I’m starting to think that there’s something to my elders’ arguments that the world is becoming a worse place the more time goes on. 2017 was worse than 2016, for sure. At least for me. … And probably for the rest of America, come to think of it. But, you know, as disappointing, horrifying, sad, and stupid as the whole year was, it’s not like there weren’t some bright spots throughout the year, particularly in the world of film.
Of course, I’m actually mostly kidding about seeing the world as getting worse and worse, but it’s worth pointing out that 2017 was the first year in which I did not break a new record for most movies watched over the previous year, and it’s unlikely that I will be able to amend that by the end of this year in review series, either, even taking into account that I will continue to add movies to that list until the very end.
2017 was also the year I learned to be a lot more discerning due to financial and personal matters – I recently lost my grandpa after a two month long fight with an infection we became aware of in October. Yet it was also probably the year in which I rewatched the most films while they were still in theatres, just because I liked them so much. (Probably because the rest of the year was so miserable…) As a result, I didn’t have nearly as many “bad movie nights” as I did in years past, either because I just didn’t want to spend the money or because I was already in a bad mood, and if I was going to watch a bad movie, I sure as heck wasn’t going to do it without the help of a guy and his robot friends to provide color commentary… or lots of beer.
Again, though, this was actually a pretty darn good year for watching some pretty darn good films if you knew where to look – or if you had patience, as was often the case for me, as the most expensive theatre near me was usually the only one to carry certain films for a few weeks. (Thankfully, I, Tonya appears to be exiting that exclusivity window by this weekend, so yay!) It was a particularly good year for Disney, who apparently made so much money that they decided to assimilate Fox, which is great for their Marvel universe, Star Wars, and their bottom line, but probably also pretty detrimental to the film and television industry as a whole. … Ugh, there I go getting negative again! Seriously, though, it wasn’t a bad year at all, and I actually am grateful that my local theatres are showing more and more non-mainstream films like Lady Bird, Ingrid Goes West, and The Lost City of Z instead of making me wait for DVD, VOD, or just outright pay friggin’ $14.00 for a ticket.
So, yeah, like with previous years, I’ll be writing a series of articles covering both the films I watched and even the films I didn’t, which you will be seeing first. I won’t be able to cover all of those, of course, but I’ll try to cover the ones that standout to me and maybe even watch a few as I go along and throw them on the final lists of viewed films, even. The list of films I haven’t seen will be divided into three sections of roughly the same number of films each (ex: 25 films across January – May, 25 across June – October, and 25 across November – December). The lists of ilms I have seen will similarly be published in three parts: first a chronological list of films that were neither awful nor great, a ranked list of the worst films I saw, and, finally, a ranked and genre-categorized list of my favorite films of the year (because I don’t believe in making great sci-fi flicks, period dramas, indie comedies, and superhero flicks against one another unless it’s based on the level of dislike I had for them).
Here’s to hoping 2018 both doesn’t suck as much as 2017 while still providing just as many pleasant surprises, if not more.
2016 IN REVIEW – My Favorite Films of the Year
Alright, finally! The end of the series. I’m sorry, guys, but I saw so many films this year, I’m actually thinking of returning to a limited Top 10 format or something. Regardless, as I said before, when I first started, 2016 has actually been pretty good for movies, even if you’re not really into indies and such.
As have done in the past, I’m choosing to instead order everything here by genre (roughly) and according to my favoritism, not necessarily how objectively great it is. Why? I feel it is unfair to compare certain genres against each other, firstly, and as for the second point, I find it’s weird to pretend like my opinion is fact, and so I’m instead going to be straightforward and say, “I enjoyed this one better.” Sometimes it’s just a gut feeling, you know? Still, all of these movies are great, and you can pretty much take their being here as a full endorsement should you ever see it available for streaming or rental and are curious. I, of course, also provided the Rotten Tomatoes score, in case you still don’t trust me, though.
Seriously, though, I can’t wait to get back to normal reviews. After a brief burnout recovery, of course…. Read more…
2016 IN REVIEW – The Films I Didn’t See (November – December)
Alright, the last of the films I didn’t see this year! From here on out, it’s nothing but films I’ve seen. These are the last two months, when studios try to cram in every Oscar contender and pretender, even up until the final days of the year. There aren’t many of these that I actually feel compelled to see, now that I think about it. Perhaps 2016 seemed like such a crappy year because it was a lot more spread out? Or perhaps it was just the fact that it ended with Collateral Beauty? Regardless, there are some films here that look alright, but I think I saw at least most of the good ones, with some room for obvious outliers. Read more…
2016 IN REVIEW – The Films I Didn’t See (August – October)
Alright, so now we’re at the tail end of the summer and beginning of the Oscar season. Lots of documentaries made it onto this list. Also, a lot of Jamie Dornan, too, for some reason. Despite being a shorter time span than the last entry, this list contains a lot of films, mostly because it’s just closer to the present, and I didn’t have enough time to watch them all, rent them, or they’re not even out yet to rent in the first place. As always, however, I do reserve the right to watch any of these and include them on my final lists.
2016 IN REVIEW – The Films I Didn’t See (January – July)
Normally, I break down the year into three 4-month long pieces, but I actually saw so many films this year, the early half was pretty lopsided, resulting in a very small list of films from January through April and then an increasingly longer list of films for the other two parts. As a result, I have chosen to instead divide the year by the number of films, roughly 40 – 50 each period. That means that the first part will be from January through July, encompassing a large part of the dumpster ground that is late winter and into the first half of the summer blockbuster season.
So, yeah, here are the films I managed to avoid or just missed out on entirely, organized by release date and along with their Rotten Tomatoes score. Some of them look worthwhile and, as a result, may end up on my list of films I actually watched, as per usual, while others look absolutely terrible… and may also show up on a later list of films I saw, depending on my mood. The purpose of this, however, is to just reflect on the year that was and acknowledge that, even as an amateur film critic, I still don’t manage to see everything, despite what people I know may think. Read more…
2016 IN REVIEW: The Year That Was…
Well, that certainly was a year, huh?
2016 was, for many, a total shit year. I don’t even have to go into all the details of why that was the case, and so… you know, I won’t. Needless to say, though, much of it was heartbreaking. Much of it was disappointing. Much of it was just plain stupefying. Personally, I even lost a job due to layoffs halfway through the year and spent the better part of my admittedly short period of unemployment thinking I’d finally had a glimpse of the end. (Anxiety and depression is fun, you guys!) The political climate this past election also unleashed in me something unexpected, having grown tired of all the bickering and willful ignorance of any nuance to either side. People I knew were being outright nasty towards people, sometimes even going so far as to disown them. This climate even seemed to spill-over into the world of films, which could no longer, for example, be an exciting new entry in a beloved series that, for whatever its faults, was still a solid entry that was easily enjoyed. No, no… now movies are either perfect or they’re absolute garbage with a political bent that has its crosshairs set on your personal belief system! I was in danger of growing completely misanthropic as a result.
Perhaps that’s why I saw so many movies this year…? Last year, I reached another personal record of 143 films by the end of my 2015 in Review series, which concluded in February. As of this moment in writing, however, between rentals, streaming, and theatrical releases, I have seen a whopping 164 films from 2016, and that’s if I didn’t forget any. And that’s not even going to be the final number, as I traditionally discover a few that intrigue me or that I forgot during my “Films I Didn’t See” subseries and thus follow up on before the end. Yeah, I think I might have a problem…
At the very least, though, because of this, I know that 2016 wasn’t all bad. Personally, I have been enjoying being an uncle to my nephew, who at age 1 already has a huge, delightful personality. My period of unemployment was honestly very brief, despite the issues compounding that, and I found a job that is not only expanding my resume but is also something I’m actually quite good at, and I like the people I work with, too. I turned 30 this year, which… well, at least it wasn’t as painful as I had feared. And, before this, I also made a huge personal milestone by pretty much completely and publicly coming out of the closet… And, so far, despite a few exceptions I made by excluding a few people who I’m certain would make some family members’ lives problematic by knowing this, it’s actually been relatively smooth compared to my expectations. Not… perfect… but much better than anticipated. And, you know, the same can be said about 2016 – at least when it comes to the films released this past year, provided you knew where to look and didn’t put too much stock in every big, anticipated film.
And so, I begin my 2016 retrospective as I do pretty much all of my previous annual retrospectives, by laying out what to expect from this series. I make no promises regarding the promptness, as I have a job and a life outside this blog. However, think of this as a time when you can reflect along with me about what you watched and what you may have missed. I obviously mostly saw films from earlier in the year, regardless of whether it was in the theatre or once it was released. As noted above, I reserve the right to be intrigued by the films I note that I have not seen, to then see them, and thus add them to my review and rankings of films I did see once I reach those articles. As such, I will first begin by recounting the various films I managed to miss over the course of a few articles – covering as many as humanly possible, though I’m sure to miss a few. I will then move on to covering the films that were neither my favorite nor my most hated. Capping off the year in review will then be My Worst of the Year list, followed by a list of My Favorite Films of the year, divided by genre. (Note: Not “THE BEST,” but rather my subjective favorites.)
Here’s a rough outline of how this will all go down:
- 2016 IN REVIEW: The Films I Didn’t See (January – July)
- 2016 IN REVIEW: The Films I Didn’t See (August – October)
- 2016 IN REVIEW: The Films I Didn’t See (November – December)
- 2016 IN REVIEW: Everything in Between That I’ve Seen
- 2016 IN REVIEW: The Worst Movies of the Year
- 2016 IN REVIEW: My Favorite Films
2016 was a heck of a stupid year, but hopefully the world of film was at least one of many bright spots in all of the darkness you may have experienced. And, if not, I hope we can retroactively change that through this series.
Here’s to 2017. May it not suck.
…Please.
2015 IN REVIEW: My Favorite Films
Alright! Final entry in my 2015 in Review series! Gosh, this was a hard year to review. I broke another record for number of films I saw before finishing this review series: 144 films from 2015, either seen theatrically, streaming, or rental. I don’t think I’ll be breaking that record any time soon, but that’s what I said about 2014, too, so…
Anyway, I’m about ready to start reviewing movies again on an individual basis. I did this series while going through a particularly tough time, personally, which is why it’s taken so long to do. I had the goal of finishing by the end of January, and that simply didn’t pan out, and I was so busy with stuff outside of this site, including doing a bunch of work on the weekends, that I just wore myself out! No worries, though. I’ve finished, and while I know the stuff I wrote was roughly edited, I’m still pretty happy with what’s there.
These movies below are all, in my opinion, good to great, but all of them were pretty much my favorites from throughout the year. As a result, as with last year, I am separating them out, roughly, into genres and then ranking them based on level of their being my favorite from the past year in that genre. (There’s obviously genre overlap, so I have divided based on what I believe is the main draw of the film, such as Jurassic Park being in the Action/Adventure section rather than the sci-fi, ’cause we’re all watching it for the action, right?) As such, you will probably see some admittedly lesser films ranking above objectively better films or films that were generally considered mediocre appearing here because I simply just liked them a lot. Again, they’re my favorites, not necessarily the best – though I did see all the Oscar Best Picture nominees, once again! I have included the Rotten Tomatoes score next to the release date, though, so you can easily compare whether I’m crazy or whether you should see the movie. In general, though, I do believe these are great films, and I hope you enjoy them, too!
But, seriously, I’m glad to move on from 2015 finally…
Read more…
The Viewer's Commentary 