Supremes of Seventeen

This may go down as one of the hardest years for me to rank my top movies of the year. The challenge wasn't that there weren't enough good movies – there were a lot of good movies this year. But there were few that I found to be great, and there wasn't a movie that I felt captured the country's imagination (like La La Land did last year ¹ ). All that to say there wasn't a real stand out to me, until I saw the Safdie Brother's Good Time. I wasn't able to see this until recently, and I'm so glad I did before I made my list, because the movie literally took my breath away (I think I breathed a total of 3 times during the whole film).

Good Time wastes very little of your time, as it economically paints a heartbreaking picture of mental illness, criminal recidivism, and the sickeningly clever (and stupid) manipulation tactics that desperate men succumb to as they drag those around them down with them. It's a movie about familial mayhem, the power of influence (both good and bad), and the desperation that lurks in the hallways of mental illness. It won't be a movie for everyone ² , but it is a movie worthy of a top spot.

The Doug Jones ³ Honorary Top Ten Movies ⁴

1. Good Time directed by The Safdie Brothers
2. Get Out directed by Jordan Peele
3. Dunkirk directed by Christopher Nolan
4. Lost City of Z ⁵ directed by James Gray
5. Logan directed by James Mangold
6. Baby Driver directed by Edgar Wright
7. Darkest Hour directed by Joe Wright
8. Downsizing directed by Alexander Payne
9. mother! directed by Darren Aronofsky
10. Star Wars: The Last Jedi directed by Rian Johnson

The Offred ⁶ Honorary Top Ten TV Shows

1. Patriot (S1) ⁷
2. The Young Pope 
3. American Vandal
4. Black Mirror (S4)
5. Big Little Lies (S1)
6. Legion (S1)
7. The Leftovers (S3)
8. Stranger Things 2
9. Top of the Lake - China Girl
10. Glow (S1)

The Anthony Kiedis Honorary Top Five Albums

1. DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar
2. This Old Dog by Mac Demarco
3. Everything Now by Arcade Fire
4. Planetarium by Sufjan Stevens, Etc.
5. Best Buds by Mom Jeans. ⁸

1 – The best way for me to assess whether or not the country is being held captive by a movie's moment, is if both me and my 65 year old mother keep managing to find ways to talk about it. And I think that's what held back Get Out. It captured the imagination of many of us under the age of 40, but it didn't break into the older market, and that may make sense with an idea as bold and different as Get Out. La La Land tapped into a nostalgia that the older movie-goer could connect to, while telling a story that many millennials could latch onto.

2 – I don't think my mom would like this very much.
3 – My apologies to the fish man for not including The Shape of Water. Probably coming in at 11 or 12.

4 – I give my greatest apologies to Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman for not including The Killing of a Sacred Deer. I think Kidman is at the top of her game, and her performance in TKOASD was one of my favorites of the year, but I'm not sure how excited I'd be to re-watch that movie, because it's so tragic (in the Greek sense). It was edged out and would probably be close to 12-13.
5 – People may try to tell you this movie is boring, and it may be a little slow at times, but I think it's important to honor ambition and honor story tellers that are resisting CGI and taking people into the jungle to film actual movies in actual places. And I didn't find it boring at all.
6 – I haven't seen The Handmaid's Tale, Mindhunter, or Dark. I imagine these may break in to my list, and push out others

7 – Please see this show. It's been so massively underrated. There's nothing like it on TV or in the cinema. Delightfully strange.

8 – Came out in 2016, but I don't care. I'm getting old and it's hard for me to keep up with new music. So sue me.