My top 15 films of 2017: 10-6

Last time, we had numbers 15 to 11 of the best of 2017. Just a quick recap:

15. A Ghost Story
14. Logan
13. The LEGO Batman Movie
12. Free Fire
11. Battle of the Sexes

Now here are numbers 10 to 6...

10. Get Out

Ah, here we go. Normal service has been resumed. Our horror film of the year. The directorial debut from Jordan Peele, what many have been calling a cross between Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and The Stepford Wives.

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is travelling upstate with his girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) to meet her parents for the first time in their five-month-long relationship. However, he is somewhat uneasy as to how they will react to him, considering that they are white and he is black. Things look to be going well, but then Chris starts to notice some strange goings-on and the Armitages' true colours are revealed.

Jordan Peele is most well known as a sketch comedian, so would not be the obvious choice to make a horror film. However, for a directorial debut, he hits it out of the park. It is, in his own words, “an expression of [his] truth, [his] experience, the experiences of a lot of black people and minorities”; he also described it as “a documentary”. This is certainly one of the most memorable directorial debuts in recent memory. In his words it is a "social-thriller" and other have seen it as a satire of white middle-class liberalism and post-racial America. He did highlight the influences of Ira Levin, the original writer of The Stepford Wives (as mentioned previously) and also Rosemary's Baby; there is also a touch of Night of the Living Dead with the rarity of being a horror film with a black protagonist.

Early on you have Rose trying to put Chris' mind at ease, telling him that her father, neurosurgeon Dean (Bradley Whitfield), would have voted for a third term for Obama; he later repeats that to him. The first sign that there is something strange going on is the incident when Rose hits a deer on the road and the police officer asks for Chris’ driving licence, even though he was not driving. That subtext leads to what is to come. Then there is arriving at the house, when Chris is introduced to the housekeeper and groundskeeper who are both black and smile at him in such a robotic way. Peele is dropping subtle hints here, by the way. He then bumps into them in the middle of the night; the groundskeeper is going for a run in his work overalls. Ok, that is especially weird because he is running straight at the camera. And then there is Rose's mother Missy (Catherine Keener), a psychiatrist who says she can cure Chris' smoking habit through hypnosis, involving stirring a cup of tea.

Chris is an intelligent character; he can detect that something is not right and the way that everyone is embracing him and the fact he is black makes him feel uneasy. He tries to tell his girlfriend, but she is effectively telling him that it will all be over soon. Kaluuya is fantastic in his first lead performance of his promising career. You have complete empathy for him. This is also an amusing supporting performance from LilRey Howery who plays the conspiracy theorist best friend.

This was a very successful film, with a budget of about $4.5 million and grossing over $250 million. It remained in the US Box Office charts for two months after its opening release. Despite this amazing success, I must address one thing – the Golden Globes. Who at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association thought that this horror, socio-political thriller was a comedy? What exactly are they laughing at?

And it was announced earlier this month that Jordan Peele is rebooting The Twilight Zone. Seems appropriate…

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

I am Groot? I am Groot? I am Groot. That means: "Were there any doubts about whether this film would be a hit? Were there any feelings or fears of second album syndrome? Thankfully no."

The Guardians of the Galaxy - Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket the raccoon (the voice of Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) - have had an encounter with a race known as The Sovereign and are not on the best of terms with them. However, they manage to escape their attack with help from 'The Living Planet' - Ego (Kurt Russell), who claims to be Peter's estranged father.

I think that not many people expected the first Guardians of the Galaxy to be a success; they were expecting it to be a flop. It was certainly a gamble from Marvel Studios, especially after the success of Avengers Assemble. It was not really sold to us in the same way. But a large part of its success was down to director James Gunn and his quirky mind. We loved the action, the snappy/witty dialogue, the funky soundtrack, the surprise; we loved the whole thing. Now though, we do have expectations for Vol. 2 and, fortunately, we just manage to reach them. Though it is not as much of a knockout as the first film, it makes a great second edition.

Once again Chris Pratt is entertaining as Quill. It is now hard to imagine anyone else in this role. I also thought Dave Bautista has certainly been given more funny moments; Drax has certainly learned to embrace a sense of humour whilst still having those same deadpan qualities as last time. With these films’ retro feel to them, it seemed only appropriate to have Kurt Russell appear in one way or another. Other notable appearances include once again Michael Rooker, who makes a very funny joke referencing Mary Poppins, and Karen Gillan, and also new additions such as Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Tommy Flanagan and even Sylvester Stallone. This does seem to be a franchise you could have a lot of fun making. It is such shame though that James Gunn did not get to fulfil his dream of having a cameo appearance from David Bowie. That would have been the most perfect thing ever.
The main theme of this film is family and different family relationships. All this time, Peter has never known who his real father is, telling people it was David Hasselhoff. And then he meets Ego and is initially not convinced by him, particularly about how Ego left his mother to die. Ego left Peter to be raised by Yondu, but Yondu keeps him because he was "skinny" and "good for thievin'". Ego eventually wins Peter over, but it all seems too good to be true. In a heated exchange between him and Gamora he believes that he has finally found his family, but she thought he already had, meaning the others Guardians. The conflicted relationship between Gamora and Nebula is also part of this theme – they are family so have some affection, but hate each other at the same time.

I mentioned how much we loved the first film’s soundtrack. Here is a taste of what there is this time:

• Mr Blue Sky – ELO
• The Chain – Fleetwood Mac
• My Sweet Lord – George Harrison
• Come A Little Bit Closer – Jay & The Americans
• Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang – Silver
• Surrender – Cheap Trick
• Father and Son – Cat Stevens

By the way, I might have said this already but I have to again; Baby Groot is adorably awesome. The scene where he has to retrieve the prototype fin; that was one of the funniest moments of the year. In the words of Taserface (he he he!!!), "It's too adorable to kill".

8. War for the Planet of the Apes

 

"Ape-ocalypse Now!!!"

When I reviewed Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I remember saying that there was still some way to go before we had come full circle in this franchise. We might be closer than I originally thought. This was a great follow-up and it was announced back in October 2016 there would be another film to follow.

Two years after the events of Dawn, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and the other apes have remained in the woods but they are now engaged in conflict with a human military faction known as Alpha-Omega, led by a man simply known as "The Colonel" (Woody Harrelson). Caesar is being haunted by visions of his past and following a devastating loss, he decides to avenge his kind. However, he learns that the Colonel has been imprisoning apes and forcing them to construct a wall.

This is a very dark film; dark as in subject matter and themes. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was the darkest and most controversial of the original series as it dealt with imprisonment, slavery, cruelty to animals, rebellion, violence and revenge – ultimately the apes rising up and overthrowing humanity. By that point, however, the original series was starting to run out of steam; fans had just glossed over Escape from the Planet of the Apes. War deals with difficult subject matter too, in a serious yet respectful way. Like Dawn this film is helmed together well by director Matt Reeves and he could have easily made just an everyday, run-of-the-mill war film - that is the title of this film after all. However, this is a war of attrition, of the mind and soul. This is a franchise that has flirted with other genres beyond sci-fi in the past; Beneath the Planet of the Apes had elements of horror to it. Reeves has noted the influence of many great war films from the past, including The Great Escape, Patton, Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Also, as previously mentioned in Logan, War has a wall...Was that the common theme for movie in 2017 to try to fit in?

Like Rise and Dawn, the best thing about this film is the lead performance from Andy Serkis and the performance-capture work from him. In Dawn, he introduced a way for the apes to communicate with each other - a form of sign language. That continues in this film and his diction has vastly advanced, but now it feels as if there is greater attention on his facial features and expressions, making him more three-dimensional. These range from compassion to fury. Everybody has noted one quote in particular from the Colonel when he is up-close to Caesar for the first time: "Look at your eyes. Almost human." And, as mentioned before, he is living with the consequences of the events that concluded Dawn. In some ways you look at Caesar and you see Andy Serkis. Sadly, even though he is still just “acting in another guise”, he will once again be overlooked by the Academy Awards, as he was for playing Gollum.

As for Woody Harrelson, do not go into the film expecting a rehash of his character Tallahassee from Zombieland. Think of him more like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now...but unlike Marlon Brando he is not overweight and he has bothered to read the script. His character is dangerous. There is also some comic relief provided by the character of Bad Ape (Steve Zahn), something that has not been present in the other films, and Karin Konoval is great the lovable orangutan Maurice.

In this rebooted series, there have been numerous nods and references to the original Planet of the Apes. That continues in this film particularly with an influence for the scarecrows in the original and the names of two characters, one of whom Caesar picks up on the trail. If you do not want spoilers, avoid the cast list on IMDB, but all I shall say is my eyes widened when they mentioned this character’s name near the end. And no offence to the originals but the motion-capture apes look more realistic and better than simply applying prosthetics to actors. I am not for one minute suggesting that the originals are rubbish as some critics have implied. It is still a great movie today and it seems too easy to sneer at the past. These reboots have kept its legacy going. If you are going to trash any Planet of the Apes film, make it the Tim Burton “reimagining”.

7. Dunkirk

You were expecting this to be number 1, weren't you? Normally it would be, considering how much admiration I have for Christopher Nolan. Well, usually the top two films in my lists are the hardest to separate, but this year so many films could have been number 1, highlighting what a great year it has been. A lot of people called this one of the definitive war films and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it "the first major Oscar contender of the year".

This film is based on the Dunkirk evacuation which took place during the Second World War. In May 1940, British and French forces attempted to rescue 400,000 Allied troops surrounded by the German Army from Northern France and cross the English Channel. This involved using any vessel that could be found, both naval and civilian.

This film has a non-linear narrative, following three major threads which last different periods of time. "The Mole" begins on land and covers a week, focusing on soldiers Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) and Alex (Harry Styles), as well as the two commanders-in-chief coordinating the evacuation - Colonel Winnant (James D'Arcy) and Commander Bolton (Sir Kenneth Branagh). "The Sea" covers one day, showing the Navy commandeering private boats to aid in the evacuation. One of those is the Moonstone owned by Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and he, along with his son Peter and their hand George, find a soldier (Cillian Murphy) sitting on a wrecked ship, suffering from shell-shock. "The Air" covers one hour and looks at how a trio of Spitfire pilots, including Collins (Jack Lowden) and Farrier (Tom Hardy), provide air support to the evacuees.

Christopher Nolan did say that he wanted to tell the story of Dunkirk because it never had been done before on film; there was a film with the same name from 1958 starring Richard Attenborough and some made prior to that...and Atonement and Their Finest (if they count). But those films are now probably secondary to Nolan's Dunkirk. It is the definitive film about the evacuation of Dunkirk in the same way that the definitive film about D-Day is Saving Private Ryan. Some of Nolan's inspiration for this film came from 1930’s All Quiet on the Western Front; in his words “war dehumanises” and its “intensity and horror have never been bettered”. A number of other war films are influences and also Alien, Speed and Unstoppable; these three inspired the accumulation of tension.
The action really is edge-of-your-seat, quite similar is some respects to Saving Private Ryan although that film had a lot more gore in it. There has never really been much of that in Nolan’s films, not even The Dark Knight trilogy. There are no limbs flying in all directions as there were in Spielberg’s masterpiece or blood gushing everywhere, but there are enough explosions to shake you into life if you dare think about nodding off. The likelihood of characters drowning creates enough tension itself. It is not just at ground level that the action is intense. The dogfights, in the style of Battle of Britain, offer an immersive first-person point of view that you could not possibly get from a virtual reality device or a video game. All of the action works in perfect tandem with the score from Hans Zimmer and, once again in a Nolan film, it was all real; little to no computer input.

This being a Christopher Nolan film, there is always going to be an ensemble cast and a largely British one for this film too. You have the regulars who have appeared numerous times for him before in Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy; there is even a cheeky cameo from another one (I will not give it away who, but listen very carefully to one radio message that Hardy has). Personally Kenneth Brannagh gave the best performance, hitting the correct tone at the appropriate moments and getting the stand-out lines. I must admit that I had concerns and raised eyebrows at the casting of Harry Styles and felt that some people would go and see this film for all the wrong reasons because he was in it. Mind you, his performance was decent enough, with Nolan comparing it to when he casted Heath Ledger  in The Dark Knight – the fact people were underestimating him too. Whether or not Styles continues with a career in acting is a possibility, although I bet a number of One Direction fans now believe that he was actually at Dunkirk. The other notable first-timer Fionn Whitehead is the main character for all the action to revolve around. He is the connection for the audience; he faces life or death choices which displays a sign of empathy from the audience.

Another reason to admire Christopher Nolan is his love of celluloid; this film was available in 35mm. It would have been interesting to see it like that and compare it to how it was in IMAX. I was somewhat surprised at the length of the film. It is just over 100 minutes long, making it Nolan's second shortest film after Following, even shorter than Memento. He believes that Dunkirk is perhaps more of a survival film than a war film, about the human spirit and will to survive. What ever it was, it served as a fitting tribute to those who gave their lives to save the world.

6. Detroit

A commemoration of the 50th anniversary of one of America's largest race riots.

Detroit is set to the backdrop of the 12th Street Riot that took place in the city in July 1967, after civil unrest and rioting cause a curfew to be put into effect and the National Guard to patrol the streets. At the centre of the action is the Algiers Motel, where three young African American men were murdered and nine others beaten. With his own moral stance is white Detroit PD Officer Phillip Krauss (Will Poulter), but there to diffuse the situation is black part-time security guard Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega).

I know this sounds obvious, but a subject such as this needs to be in the hand of filmmakers who treat it with respect and are open-minded (not one-sided). Fortunately we have the right duo behind this film, two Academy Award winners - writer/journalist Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow. As I am sure you all know, in recent years Bigelow made history by becoming the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director for The Hurt Locker and was then compared to Leni Riefenstahl by journalist Naomi Wolf for "glorifying torture" in Zero Dark Thirty. Much like that film, Bigelow and Boal have taken a true story and fictionalised elements of it.
Like Zero Dark Thirty, this film has people being tortured and beaten to get information out of them, but unlike that film you cannot misinterpret it in Detroit. The film is harrowing and intense. You might wince and have to look away at times. Part of that is down to Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography and the sound editing. The police play this interrogation or ‘death game’ with the hostages; they are not interested in the truth, what actually happened to call them to the motel (they believe it was a sniper), but instead getting a quick result. The ‘game’ starts as disbelieving – are they actually doing this?!? – and then it gets to the stage where you think something is going to go horribly wrong…and it does.

As for performances, there has been much praise for John Boyega as Melvin Dismukes. He is does not want any violence to break out, so acts as the peacemaker almost between the police, the National Guard and the hostages. Those aware of the true story will know what happens to Dismukes following the incident and in these situations Boyega is brilliant. As for Will Poulter, I remember seeing him in a few CBBC shows years and years ago and it is hard to imagine that this is the same guy. He has built a fairly good résumé for himself with his performances in Son of Rambow, The Maze Runner, The Revenant and now this. He is the fictionalised, racist cop whose actions were inspired by a real officer and he is scarily good. When we first see him, he is taking pot-shots at looters in a decimated neighbourhood. His alleged reason; he is keeping the peace, yet compares it to Vietnam. And then there is Algee Smith playing Larry ‘Cleveland’ Reed, the lead singer of the Dramatics. He starts as cocky and brash, but that façade vanishes at the motel and we see innocence from him. What started with their performance at the Fox theatre being abandoned leads to him seeking safe haven at the motel to escape further riots, before the police arrive.

It also begins with this animation/history lesson based on paintings by Jacob Lawrence about the "great migration" of African Americans from the rural south to the industrialised north, leading to the migrants living in ghetto-like slums and being policed by the white man. It comes across as innocent and almost out of place, a contrast to the rest of the film’s dark nature. However, it is very successful in its achievements and intentions. The moral of it: equality is "an illusion", change is "inevitable". I mentioned Barry Ackroyd before; I liked the vintage look of some moments, which well complimented the occasional archive material.

Please do not let the tough subject matter or themes put you off…or the fact it is directed by Kathryn Bigelow (seriously, most of my friends are not fans of hers). It is a powerful film and like most of her films it is meant to be taken seriously…unlike Point Break.

Next time: number 5 to number 1