Favourite Films of 2017
Hi!
Tiptoeing slowly into the film scene of 2018, I wanted to
reflect on the past year of movies and recommend some of my favourites should
you ever be looking for some 2017 greats. I couldn’t face attempting to rank
them as I loved all these films for many different reasons, so instead by order
of release date, my favourite films of 2017 were:
Hidden Figures
Kicking off with a film that most likely flew under the radar for quite a lot
of people, the plot is based on the untold stories of three black
mathematicians who were key to helping NASA win the space race against Russia,
whilst also overcoming the prejudices of 1960s America. The base of any good film is a
good screenplay, and this one written by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
(who also directed the film) certainly got this film off to a good start.
Whilst the plot is generally centred on the main character Katherine G.
Johnson, the subplots of each of the supporting leads Dorothy Vaughan and Mary
Jackson excellently enhance the overarching theme of the main plot and flesh
out the story world in order to progress the story but also subtly provide
context and reasoning for the struggles the three girls face both in their
professional and personal lives.
Beauty and the Beast
This fast became a spring favourite for my mum in particular – I must’ve seen
this film in all its forms; standard 2D, 3D as well as the same again in IMAX,
and enjoyed it each time. The cast was amazing – I haven’t really watched Emma
Watson in anything since Harry Potter so it was interesting to see her in a
different role, and to see her show off her singing talents. Josh Gad was also
a brilliant LeFou, himself and Luke Evans playing off each other really well.
Obviously the soundtrack was the showstopper of this film, with ‘Gaston’ and ‘Be
Our Guest’ being my absolute favourites. The arts team also deserve a special
mention for the CGI throughout; it was integral to the success that it was of a
high quality and they all contributed to make the film the success that it was.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
I walked into this film on my brothers birthday back in April knowing nothing
about the franchise besides the original film had a killer soundtrack and was
really positively received, but it had been stuck on my ‘I’ll watch it at some
point’ list since it’d been released; however after watching this one the
second I got home I was watching Vol 1. The cast and crew had a tough act to
follow, but this is definitely an exception to the ‘the sequel is always worse
than the original’ curse. The soundtrack yet again was perfect, living up to the expectation brought on by the first film. Each character was fleshed out even further, being given their own points to develop further whilst still working well as an ensemble cast.
Again, the thing that immediately springs to mind with this movie is the
soundtrack; a perfect mix of 70’s, 80’s and 90’s jams the songs chosen were an
integral part of making the film a success due to their relevance to the plot.
Editors Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos also did a brilliant job - both have
worked with director Edgar Wright on previous projects, Machliss on Scott
Pilgrim vs. the World and The World’s End, Amos on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
and Hot Fuzz; and you could tell that they really understood the directing
style Wright has. Speaking of Edgar Wright, like many I’ve been a huge fan of
him since the Cornetto Trilogy, and it was great not only to see him direct a
film with a much larger budget to his previous films but also see how his style
has developed whilst still keeping his trademark techniques. The standout
performance for me was Ansel Elgort who played main character Baby; I’ve not
seen him in anything since The Fault in Our Stars in 2014 (which I didn’t
really like) so it was great to see him in a role and genre completely
different to that.
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, this was in the run for big summer
blockbuster of the year. I managed to see the film in IMAX (I worked in a
cinema at this point so I took advantage of having free tickets wherever
possible) and I’m so glad I did because this is one of the only films where it
has made a big difference from standard screen. The cinematography throughout
the film was beautiful, the colours were really well balanced against one
another and the different shots used (especially the wide shots and the ones
from the point of view of the planes) were really well thought out. The minimal
dialogue was a surprise, yet I thought it still worked really well with the
sound design of the film and I can’t imagine it being done in the traditional
sense. Speaking of sound design, the use of the ticking clock throughout the
entire film really added to the building tension, and made total sense with
what each of the characters were facing. The editing of the film, done by Lee
Smith, was executed really cleverly - he essentially had three separate
plotlines (the soldiers on the beach, the civilians in the boat and the pilots
in the planes) which he had to splice into one another in a way that still made
sense to the overall plot. Another surprise of the film was the brilliant
performance given by Harry Styles in his debut acting role, I hadn’t known what
to expect from him as obviously he’s spent most of his life so far singing in
One Direction, it will be interesting to see where his acting career goes from
here on out.
Set at the annual ‘Essence Festival’ in New Orleans, the film is centered
around four lifelong friends as they are reunited from their busy lives for the
first time in five years. Hilariously funny and relatable to all (my grandma
and her friends loved it), the screenplay by Tracey Oliver, Kenya Barris and
Erica Rivinoja is incredibly well thought out. Again, a lot of eyes were on
this film as a comedy with four black female leads at the helm, but grossed
$100.1 mil in the domestic box office as well as another $109.9 mil worldwide
within a month of release, becoming one of the fastest grossing comedy films of
the summer.
Majorly hyped before release, the film itself had a lot of pressure to be
successful as it was one of the first female-lead superhero movies that’s been
released. It turned out to be one of the highest grossing films of the summer,
making $700 million at the global box office within one month of release. It
was such a relief and really refreshing to see that neither Diana or The
Amazons were sexualised throughout the movie (I loved the soldiers uniforms for
the Amazons - the costume designer Lindy Hemming made armour that was actually
practical and realistic whilst still maintaining individualism). The action
scenes were all really well written, and I remember looking round at peoples
reactions when we first saw her emerge from the trenches and everyone was fully
sucked into the film. The film built up really well so that you actually cared
what happened during the final fight sequence in the third act.
That concludes
my favourite films of 2017! Obviously I didn’t get a chance to see every film
so if there’s a big one I’ve missed that’s most likely the case, but hopefully
this has given you some good film recommendations if you’ve been looking for
any. I’m looking forward to seeing if we start hearing more about some of these
films as award season kicks in throughout the rest of January and February.
Best Wishes,
Mel // Film for Thought
Mel // Film for Thought
*Obviously one thing to consider if you
haven’t seen Baby Driver is that Kevin Spacey plays a central character - this
may make a difference to whether you watch or not considering the allegations
that have come out about Spacey since the film was released, however I thought
the film and all the hard work of the rest of the cast and crew deserved to be
recognised which is why I still included the film in this list.
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