31 December 2017

2017 Superlatives.

If the influence of Netflix bears any fruit herein, it's that I no longer feel the need to cling to numerical limits. 2017 has been a brutal year across the board, and I have unlimited love for anyone who would A) think that they might find some joy in my hierarchical foolishness, and B) actually read the whole thing. 

Everyone is dealing with too much. But in an ideal, non-fascist world, I think these selections would make for a great party and a great broadcast.



ACTOR
Claes Bang, The Square
Damien Bonnard, Staying Vertical
Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
John Cho, Columbus
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Michael Fassbender, Alien: Covenant
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Kyle Mooney, Brigsby Bear


ACTRESS
Eili Harboe, Thelma
Anne Hathaway, Colossal
Lee Min-hee, On The Beach At Night Alone
Alice Lowe, Prevenge
Melanie Lynskey, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
Rooney Mara, A Ghost Story
Haley Lu Richardson, Columbus
Octavia Spencer, The Shack
Michelle Williams, All The Money In The World


SUPPORTING ACTOR
Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards...
Benny Safdie, Good Time
Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name
Jason Sudeikis, Colossal
Steve Zahn, War for the Planet of the Apes


SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Betty Buckley, Split
Beanie Feldstein, Lady Bird
Betty Gabriel, Get Out
Mia Goth, A Cure for Wellness
Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip
Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Good Time
Sophia Lillis, It
Sigourney Weaver, (Re)Assignment
Taliah Lennice Webster, Good Time


DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit
Macon Blair, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
Bong Joon-ho, Okja
Liam Gavin, A Dark Song
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name
Kogonada, Columbus
Alice Lowe, Prevenge
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Joao Pedro Rodrigues, The Ornithologist
Ridley Scott, Alien: Covenant


EDITOR
William Goldenberg and Harry Yoon, Detroit
Han Mee-yeon and Yang Jin-mo, Okja
Gregory Plotkin, Get Out
Elisabet Ronaldsdottir, Atomic Blonde
Evan Schiff, John Wick: Chapter 2
Lee Smith, Dunkirk
Andrew Weisblum, mother!


CINEMATOGRAPHY
Bojan Bazelli, A Cure for Wellness
Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
Peter Flinckenberg, Woodshock
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Call Me By Your Name
Rui Pocas, The Ornithologist
Brian Sowell, Sequence Break
Dariusz Wolski, Alien: Covenant


SCORE
Nathan Barr, Flatliners
Ola Flottum, Thelma
Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
Van Hughes, Sequence Break
Clint Mansell, The Foreigner
Mark Mothersbaugh, Thor Ragnarok
Toydrum, Prevenge
Benjamin Wallfisch, A Cure for Wellness


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Justin Benson, The Endless
Macon Blair, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
Rebecca Blunt, Logan Lucky
Kevin Costello and Kyle Mooney, Brisgbsy Bear
Ephthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Liam Gavin, A Dark Song
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Steven Sears and Bill Watterson, Dave Made a Maze
David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer, Ingrid Goes West
Nacho Vigalondo, Colossal


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled
James Ivory, Call me By Your Name
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Endless Poetry


FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Bad Black
Bloodlands
BPM
Okja
On the Beach At Night Alone
The Ornithologist
Park
The Square
Staying Vertical
Thelma
The Untamed


DOCUMENTARY
Beware the Slenderman
Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?
Faces Places
Filmworker
Industrial Accident
Mansfield 66/67
Obit.
The Road Movie
78/52
Whitney: Can I Be Me?



PRODUCTION DESIGN
Paul D. Austerberry, The Shape of Water
Conor Dennison, A Dark Song
Trisha Gum and John Sumner, Dave Made a Maze
Dan Hennah and Ra Vincent, Thor: Ragnarok
Jeremy Hindle, Detroit
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Endless Poetry
Chris Seagers, Alien: Covenant
Eve Stewart, A Cure for Wellness
Hugues Tissandier, Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets



COSTUME DESIGN
Miyako Bellizzi and Mordechai Rubinstein, Good Time
Olivier Beriot, Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets
Mark Bridges, Phantom Thread
Patricia Doria, The Ornithologist
Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, Endless Poetry
Giulia Piersanti, Call me By Your Name
Mayes C. Rubeo, Thor: Ragnarok


ANIMATED FEATURE
Birdboy (Los Psiconautas)
Coco
The Lego Batman Movie


VISUAL EFFECTS
Alien: Covenant
Blade Runner 2049
A Quiet Passion


UNDISTRIBUTED
Bad Black
Bloodlands
Industrial Accident
Insomnium
Park
Show Yourself
Those Who Make Revolution Only Halfway Dig Their Own Graves
We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew
Without Name



BEST FILMS


1 Call Me By Your Name
To know that your first love matters. To live your life amidst literature, and music, and art, and beauty, and those meals, and to find yourself unmoored by the deepest kinds of love and hornitude, and to know that in the end, it matters.

2 A Dark Song
As if Clive Barker and David Simon had collaborated.

3 Colossal/Get Out
Unjust systems, concealed in the soft touch of love, that feed on everything distinctive and kind and interesting about you.

4 Phantom Thread
The best Joseph Losey film since the death of Joseph Losey.

5 BPM/Columbus/Dave Made a Maze/Lady Bird/Thelma
Dismantling the structures, figuratively and literally, with which the customs of the past have shaped us and how we live with others.

6 Alien: Covenant/Faces Places
The innate strength of humanity is to adapt and transform ourselves, and the spaces in which we live. But our flaws cannot be escaped. Teach the children well, to be sure. And leave the curmudgeonly old men behind.

7 Blade Runner 2049/The Endless/Sequence Break
Innovation and escape. A new way of looking at the linear and removing oneself from its matrix. Resourceful thinking and a willingness to embrace the strange and unusual.

8 The Square
"Tesla of Justice."

9 I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore/mother!/The Ornitholgist
Stumbling around in a cosmic melodrama with no clear rules and no way to win. But always hope. Always faith in the process. The best religious pictures of the year.

10 The Beguiled/A Cure for Wellness/The Killing of a Sacred Deer
How to dismantle the patriarchy. Expansive, historical, gruesome, and deeply deeply satisfying.





WORST FILMS:

1 Transformers: The Last Knight
2 Boo 2: A Madea Halloween
3 Rings
4 The Snowman
5 Caniba
6 Friend Request
7 Beach Rats
8 Fifty Shades Darker
9 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
10 Fate of the Furious

A brief update.


I interviewed comedian Dave Stone.

I reviewed the exceptional Norwegian film Thelma.

And I reviewed The Square.