Which superhero flick is among my favorite films of 2017? Is The Last Jedi anywhere on my list—and what did I think about it, anyway? “This is not going to go the way you think!”

Before we get to my favorites, allow me to share some preliminaries and pass out awards of questionable merit. Dim the lights!

Pre-List Musings

• MoviePass was a gamechanger this year. What, I can watch one movie in theatres a day for only $9.95 a month (or $7.50 a month for an annual subscription)? Easy decision. And Patricia and I thought $4-5 movie tickets in the Philippines were a steal.
• I’m not anti-franchise—just pro-creativity. You will find several sequels or spin-offs on my list of favorites this year. (Last year, my list featured none.) However, for each of those there were countless big-budget, phoned-in, and positively sterile films made in the name of franchise extension—and 2018 looks to be no different. Is more originality too much to ask for? Yes, apparently it is.
• Remember: favorite films don’t mean best films. If you want a list of what I consider the best films of 2017, it’d look something like this:

1. A Ghost Story
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. Dunkirk
4. Lady Bird
5. Mudbound

Represented among the above are movies of bold directorial vision, nuanced writing, and peerless execution behind the camera. In another year, most of the above might have slipped into my favorites list. But this year, only one did. I’ll be honest—some of the crowd-pleasers were just really, really good this year. And I’m not ashamed to admit that.

Lastly, before we jump into my favorites, some awards:

No, I Don’t Agree With Your Opinion:
King Arthur was tons of fun.

The Best Movie I Never Want to See Again:
Detroit. What an ordeal.

Least Favorite Movie:
“Let’s pay big bucks to watch an amazing sports team steamroll an awful one in a snoozer of a game. Some plays will make no sense, some players will bring the cringe-factor, and you will scratch your head a lot. But yeah. There’s a league to build up and money to be made, so why not, right?”

The cinematic equivalent of that paragraph is Justice League. (Steppen-who?)

Why?! Just Why…
“Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.”

Movie I’m Sad I Didn’t See This Year:
The Florida Project.

Boy, my movie posts are like going to see a real movie these days—too many trailers before the main event. Let’s jump to what you came here for!

My Favorite Movies of 2017

5. The LEGO Batman Movie (dir. Chris McKay)

Is it funny that I hated Justice League as much as I did and loved this with equal passion? The LEGO Batman Movie is a witty, warm-hearted, and buoyant film, and one of my favorite superhero movies in recent memory. It bounces up and down on the heads of genre tropes and clichés with gleeful abandon. It respects the Caped Crusader’s cinematic and comic book roots while blazing a new trail into left field whimsy. But most of all, it’s fun.

When it came to spandex and superpowers, 2017 did two things: 1) It gave us great movies like Wonder Woman, Spider Man: Homecoming, Logan, and Thor: Ragnarok; and 2) It gave me frightful fits of superhero fatigue (this particular brand of oversaturation is proving to be my kryptonite). In the midst of this genre overload, The LEGO Batman Movie and its blocky charms proved a welcome reprieve.

4. John Wick: Chapter 2 (dir. Chad Stahelski)

Okay, I bet you weren’t expecting this one. I certainly wasn’t. But here’s the feat: John Wick: Chapter 2 takes everything that was great about the original and builds upon that greatness. This includes the highly-stylized fight sequences, the imaginative world building, and the dry, self-aware humor. As Liz Baessler said of the original, “John Wick is an action movie that knows, intellectually, that it’s an action movie.” How true that is. As such, it divests itself of unnecessary melodrama, plots we don’t care about, and any forced preoccupation with realism. The result is neither parody nor self-serious shlock, but an entertainment all its own.

In playing the titular assassin, Keanu Reeves has found a role that perfectly suits his spare acting and martial arts abilities. (See The Man of Tai Chi, which Reeves directed and starred in, as another reference point.) Director Chad Stahelski utilizes him well in some masterfully staged set pieces, including one involving a mirror maze that hearkens back to Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. But make no mistake—John Wick: Chapter 2 is not concerned with homage. It knows what it wants to do and how to achieve it, and neither you nor I can do anything to stop it.

3. A Ghost Story (dir. David Lowery)

One of these films is not like the others. (Hint: it’s this one.) A Ghost Story is the antithesis of the modern-day blockbuster. Its shots sometimes linger for minutes on end, often without panning or dialogue. Its plot is as simple as they come: a man dies, and both he and his wife must come to terms with his passing. But wait—he must come to terms with his own death? Scratch that—things are not as simple as they seem.

Indeed, David Lowery’s film belies its modest trappings, including the comical white sheet Casey Affleck wears for most of the movie. What we get instead is something profound, unique, and panoramic in scope—a contemplative poem on the nature of death, loss, memory, change, time, life, and love. (Did I miss any capital “A” Abstract nouns? No? Good.)

For those with the patience to process its silence and reach beyond the simplicity of its images, A Ghost Story is a beautiful and meaningful movie. To give you a little taste, Rooney Mara eats a pie for five minutes and Patricia and I were deeply moved. Is your interest piqued? Wonderful. I’d tell you to go watch this movie, but this is really not a film to watch. It’s one to absorb.

2. Baby Driver (dir. Edgar Wright)

Let me tell you of my biases: I love percussion, I love music, and I love Edgar Wright. (Oh, and a good car chase too.) Clearly, Baby Driver is calculated to make me swoon. This movie about a getaway driver with tinnitus is exhilarating for many reasons, not the least of which is how tightly Wright interweaves music and visuals into the very fabric of his narrative.

Here’s what I said on July 1, 2017: “Baby Driver is a drummer’s dream. Even windshield wipers, gunshots, and tire screeches are on beat. Probably the most musical non-musical film I have ever seen.” There’s a song for everything here, including character entrances and exits (is this professional wrestling?) and to represent Baby’s emotions at any given moment. And there are plenty of great tunes for the driving sequences, which of course are terrific.

Now here’s a great idea for a doubleheader movie night: Baby Driver and A Ghost Story. One gets pulled over for speeding, the other for being too cautious. (The latter sounds a lot like my DMV behind-the-wheel test way back when…)

Without further ado, my favorite film of the year is… (drumrolls and gunshots please!)

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (dir. Rian Johnson)

First off, there be spoilers ahead. Secondly, no film on this list gets a free pass because of franchise bias. In 2015, The Force Awakens wasn’t #1. (That distinction deservedly belonged to Mad Max: Fury Road.) And last year, Rogue One didn’t make my end-of-year list at all. So why is The Last Jedi—arguably the most divisive Star Wars film up to this point—my favorite movie of 2017?

Let’s start with The Last Jedi’s relationship to the past and go from there.

For better or worse, The Force Awakens was an exercise in reflection—that is, mirroring the tropes and plot points of A New Hope onto a new canvas. The Last Jedi, however, is about refraction. While Rian Johnson appears to be recycling the plot structure of The Empire Strikes Back at first glance, his aims are more crafty and ambitious. He instead runs iconic themes from the entire original trilogy (OT) through a creative hall of mirrors that distorts and subverts the familiar in surprising ways. (To put it another way: J.J. Abrams manned the galactic Xerox machine, but Johnson prefers the paper shredder.)

For instance, we see AT-ATs march on the Rebel base like Empire, a master battling an apprentice like in A New Hope, and a variation on the Emperor’s throne room from Return of the Jedi. However, each of these scenes differs from its OT reference in context, outcome, and/or placement within the narrative so as to constitute something fresh using familiar parts. To use musical lingo, The Last Jedi is neither a cover nor mashup. Instead, Johnson is skillfully sampling the past to write a new song of the galaxy’s future.

Now here’s the genius: when you reference past mythology in this way, it deepens the meaning of those old themes, symbols, and stories. The source material sparkles anew with refracted light. That’s right folks—The Last Jedi enriches literally every other movie in the saga with its exploration and subversion of the old. Even the prequels.

But let’s talk more about subversion. Snoke dies early; Luke is frumpy. Yoda strikes at the symbol of old Jedi tradition; Rey’s parentage is not of noble blood. While some measure the film’s merits by the fulfillment of their expectations, puppet Yoda cackles and calls down the lightning— and I say bring it on. You see, I’m a futurist and no fanboy. I do love Star Wars, but I love great storytelling much more.

As we consider the future of this franchise, we need to ask ourselves: Is “more of the same” really what we want? And more than that, is it what Star Wars actually needs?  I applaud Johnson’s commitment to take risks, to make his movie and not “Star Wars by fan committee.” This movie isn’t completely about letting the past die, as Snoke tells Kylo Ren—but it certainly is about not letting the past get in the way of the future.

To be sure, I don’t think this was a perfect movie. For one thing, the casino sequence did run a bit long for me. (But was it meaningless? “The Last Jedi Isn’t for the Fans” makes the most compelling case I’ve seen that it wasn’t. Read it also for why The Last Jedi is a critique of fan culture.) Still, there’s so much more that I loved. The aforementioned “throne room” scene is one of the best action sequences in any Star Wars movie, the stuff of which younglings with their action figures dream. The sound and visuals are splendid (shoutouts to Holdo’s hyperspace kamikaze), the characters are richly drawn and well-acted (shoutouts to Mark Hamill), and Kylo Ren—a school shooter filled with millennial angst—is one of the most complex franchise villains around.

The stage is set for the ninth film in the Skywalker saga—but who knows how director J.J. Abrams will play this one? If Episode VII was about reflection and VIII was about refraction, here’s to hoping Episode IX strips away all the mirrors. Let the past die indeed, and let the bold light of the future gleam unchallenged.

Carlo’s movie block continues with his “5 Most Anticipated Movies of 2018.” But don’t forget to tell me your favorite movie(s) of 2017 in the comments. See you at the movies!

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