Best Movies of 2017

December 31, 2017

jmunney Best in Film 2017, Best of 2017, Cinema , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

These movies are gooood

CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots

This ranking was originally posted on News Cult in December 2017.

There are several women-centric films on my 2017 best-of list, with multiple ladies and women appearing right there in the titles. As this has been the year of #MeToo, is this female presence a trend, or just a coincidence? My gut says the latter, as any year’s cinema is deep, wide, and collaborative, and therefore resulting from a multitude of sources. But fresh storytelling resonates with me (and with most critics, I believe), so it makes sense that those who have been previously silenced are highlighted among the best when they are finally able to tell their stories.

Great movies that didn’t quite make my list include Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049, Detroit, The Florida Project, Get Out, Happy Death Day, Logan, Logan Lucky, Okja, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Victoria & Abdul, and War for the Planet of the Apes.

10. The Disaster Artist
James Franco finds his perfect passion project in revealing and gussying up the making of the best worst movie of all time. The ethos of the confused but accidentally brilliant The Room and its fandom are inherently infused in this mix of the conventional and the once-in-a-lifetime.

More

Best TV Shows of 2017

December 30, 2017

jmunney Best of 2017, Best of TV 2017, Television , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

CREDIT (Clockwise from Top Left): Michael Gibson/FXX; Showtime; AMC; Kelsey McNeal/ABC

This ranking was originally posted on News Cult in December 2017.

In recent past best-of-year lists, I have pointed out the impossibility of watching every single program that airs on television. The medium is now saturated to the point that not only could one average viewer be watching a completely different set of shows than another average viewer, but so could one professional critic be similarly disconnected to another critic. It naturally follows then that no best-of is any more “correct” than any other. But this has been the case all along. The value of such year-end curating is not a matter of accuracy, but of insight and personal style. Thus, I encourage readers to seek out as many best-of lists as they find edifying, from as diverse a group of critics as possible. Think of each as the best according to a particular palette. Here is my contribution to that cornucopia.

(Shows that were top 10-worthy this year that I didn’t have enough room for include Baskets, BoJack Horseman, The Carmichael Show, Legion, Rick and Morty, Riverdale, Silicon Valley, Speechless, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Young Pope, and You’re the Worst.)

10. Review (Comedy Central)
If this list were determined by density of entertainment value alone, the three-episode final season of Review would easily take the top spot. Andy Daly’s career-defining work as “life reviewer” Forrest MacNeil brought his combination of explosive hilarity and existential despair to its logical eternally continuous endpoint. Great series finales tend to be either ambiguous or definitive; Review’s is somehow both open-ended and forcefully conclusive.

More