So this year I saw 240 movies, which were released in 2017 that I saw in 2017. This breaks my record from last year by a significant margin, for a few reasons: I had better access this year to both screenings and screeners, due in part to the advent of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle and the Film Scribes podcast. I’m also writing in more places this year.
Also, my friends in the film publicist world, both the local Allied reps and various national folks, went the extra mile this year, which is greatly appreciated. And I’d also liked to thank the Online Film Critics Society governing council, especially Dewey Singleton, for really coming through with delivering better access this year for OFCS members.
For the purposes of this list I’m including official, Oscar-eligible 2017 releases, as well as films I saw at film festivals that do not have a specific release date in any other year, whether 2016 or 2018 (so that omits Chappaquiddick and Thoroughbreds, which you can look for on next year’s list.) You can read the 2016 version of the list here, 2015 here,
As always, you can read all of my reviews at Rotten Tomatoes and on my Splice Today author page, and you can read my expanded Top Ten list article here, and my look at the year’s top documentaries here. You can also listen to and subscribe to the podcast, and come to our event at the Prince Theater on January 9.
Thank you all, once again, for reading my reviews this year and listening to the podcast. Even after more than 20 years, I still can’t believe that I actually get to do this.
Without further ado..
The Big List 2017:
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
- Get Out
- The Florida Project
- Lady Bird
- Call Me By Your Name
- Dawson City Frozen Time
- Coco
- The Post
- The Shape of Water
- Baby Driver
- Princess Cyd
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- Wonderstruck
- Marjorie Prime
- Lucky
- Let’s Play Two
- Wonder Woman
- The Disaster Artist
- Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
- mother!
- Mudbound
- Icarus
- Risk
- Logan Lucky
- Wormwood
- Wind River
- Alaska is a Drag
- Long Strange Trip
- The Breadwinner
- Lady Macbeth
- Get Me Roger Stone
- The Work
- Jane
- Obit.
- BPM (Beats Per Minute)
- Columbus
- Battle of the Sexes
- The Big Sick
- The Beguiled
- It
- I, Tonya
- Spider-man: Homecoming
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Dunkirk
- American Made
- The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected
- Last Flag Flying
- A Ghost Story
- Blade Runner 2049
- The Lego Batman Movie
- The Greatest Showman
- Atomic Blonde
- Detroit
- The Square
- Nocturama
- Faces Places
- One of Us
- Quest
- I Called Him Morgan
- Colossal
- The Little Hours
- Five Came Back
- A Gray State
- Ex Libres The New York Public Library
- Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond
- Long Shot
- Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
- May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers
- All The Queen’s Horses
- Oklahoma City
- Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent
- The Force
- Darkest Hour
- A Quiet Passion
- Girls Trip
- Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Logan
- John Wick Chapter 2
- Okja
- Their Finest
- The Hero
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Blackcoat’s Daughter
- The Hitman’s Bodyguard
- Brad’s Status
- Dean
- Marshall
- Menashe
- First They Killed My Father
- Rough Night
- Strong Island
- Gilbert
- Step
- LA 92
- Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
- 11/8/16
- Loving Vincent
- Last Men in Aleppo
- City of Ghosts
- Beauty and the Dogs
- The Wall
- Human Flow
- Gook
- Brigsby Bear
- The Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis
- The Ballad of Lefty Brown
- At the Drive In
- Let It Fall: Los Angeles, 1982-1992
- Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
- Tickling Giants
- Thelma
- Gifted
- Gerald’s Game
- Graduation
- Personal Shopper
- All the Money in the World
- Victoria & Abdul
- Brawl in Cell Block 99
- Murder on the Orient Express
- Ingrid Goes West
- After the Storm
- The Last Laugh
- Dina
- Gaga: Five Foot Two
- AlphaGo
- Cries From Syria
- The Fate of the Furious
- Crown Heights
- The Problem With Apu
- My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea
- All These Sleepless Nights
- The Women’s Balcony
- The Man Who Invented Christmas
- Megan Leavey
- The Lost City of Z
- It Comes at Night
- Contemporary Color
- Kedi
- In the Fade
- The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
- California Typewriter
- Philadelphia and the Invention of Movies
- Disgraced
- Whitney: Can I Be Me
- Elian
- Ferdinand
- Karl Marx City
- Alien: Covenant
- Roman J. Israel, Esq.
- Phantom Thread
- Molly’s Game
- I Love You, Daddy
- Wait For Your Laugh
- The Lovers
- The Lure
- The Incredible Jessica James
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
- Beatriz at Dinner
- Wonder Wheel
- Mobile Homes
- The Death of Louis XIV
- Kong: Skull Island
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Goon: Last of the Enforcers
- England is Mine
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- A Bad Moms Christmas
- A Cure For Wellness
- Raw
- Donald Cried
- Land of Mine
- Landline
- Bright Lights: Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
- The Final Year
- Cars 3
- Boss Baby
- Justice League
- Chasing Coral
- The Dinner
- Patti Cake$
- Carrie Pilby
- Whose Streets?
- Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
- I Don’t Feel At Home in this World Anymore
- Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House
- Holy Air
- Scaffolding
- Bloody Milk
- Everything, Everything
- Good Time
- Power Rangers
- Lemon
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
- Lost in Paris
- The Zookeeper’s Wife
- Voyeur
- Nobody Speak: Trials of a Free Press
- Rebel in the Rye
- The Human Surge
- Beware the Slenderman
- To the Bone
- Person to Person
- All Eyez on Me
- T2: Trainspotting
- War Machine
- King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
- Despicable Me 3
- The Last Word
- The Bad Batch
- Sister of Mine
- The Glass Castle
- The Great Wall
- The Hatred
- Wilson
- Snatched
- Split
- Song to Song
- Free Fire
- Sweet Country
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
- CHIPS
- Pitch Perfect 3
- Fun Mom Dinner
- Most Beautiful Island
- Table 19
- The House
- Going in Style
- The Space Between Us
- Goodbye, Christopher Robin
- The Circle
- Downsizing
- Baywatch
- The Mummy
- Fifty Shades Darker
- Bright
- Suburbicon
- The Dark Tower
- The Only Living Boy in New York
- Fist Fight
Did not see (reputedly good): Hostiles, Stronger, A Fantastic Woman, Foxtrot, Citizen Jane: Battle For the City, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rat Film, LBJ
Did not see (reputedly bad): Transformers: The Last Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, The Emoji Movie, The Book of Henry, The Snowman, Daddy’s Home 2,
Stephen Silver, Writer 