The Top 17 Best Films of 2017

17) Molly's Game
Starring: Jessica Chastain
Written and Directed By:  Aaron Sorkin
STARS:  3 out of 4

Brief Description: Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut is neither perfect, nor earth-shattering, but his own words and dialogue make for an automatically compelling story. Based on the interesting book and real life of Molly Bloom, a former Olympic skier turned underground Poker game runner, Molly's Game is a solid movie that is worth a rental. The floor of any Aaron Sorkin project is so high that he's turning everything he touches into Must-See entertainment.

16) The Greatest Showman
Starring: Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron
Directed By: Michael Gracey
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: My enjoyment of this film comes down to two things: 1) I'm familiar enough with the real P.T. Barnum to know what a terrible person he was to the point where Hugh Jackson's portrayal of the man was an outright lie more than viewing him through rose-colored glasses and 2) I'm a sucker for catchy music. I really enjoyed La La Land, and the same people behind that film come back with a vengeance with The Greatest Showman. The songs are so catchy I had to pause in the middle of this description to go watch some scenes on YouTube.

15) Spielberg
Starring: Steven Spielberg
Directed By: Susan Lacy
STARS: 3 out of 4

Brief Description: You can't be as big of a movie fan as I am and not enjoy one or ten Steven Spielberg films. Heck, you can't even be a casual movie goer and not enjoy a handful of his films. Despite the obviously slant towards this being a puff piece, I really enjoyed the look back on Steven Spielberg's life and career and just how much he's influenced everything. It's also weird because the film made me respect the director a lot less. He was widely (and rightfully IMHO) criticized early in his career for not being able to make a good, serious, prestigious film. Spielberg tried to prove everyone wrong (mainly with Schindler's List), but after revisiting many of those films, like List, I've to believe that argument more and more.

The Death of the Superhero Origin Story

Despite the ten hour run time, Captain America: Civil War was a really good movie, and despite my general aversion to Marvel superhero films and movies that have too long of a run time, I thoroughly enjoyed the latest installment set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There are a lot of things the film did right, but the one thing I want to harp on is the origin story of its two new characters.

By far and away, the best part of Civil War was its introduction of Spider-Man into the fold. Not only does Tom Holland, a 19-year-old actor, actually look like a high school student (as opposed to early 20's Tobey Maguire and late 20's Andrew Garfield), but the character acts like one too.

After the flop of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony leased the rights for Marvel to use the character in its MCU. Marvel didn’t waste any time and added the web-slinger as its 76^th superhero involved is this internal struggle. Whether it was because Marvel didn’t have the appropriate amount of time to add any more scenes (the rental occurred in the midst of pre-production of Civil War), the film was already too long, or because the general public already fucking knows how Peter Parker became Spider-Man by now, Civil War smartly skipped over Peter Parker’s entire origin story and introduced the character as already being a crime fighter for six months. By the time Tony Stark introduces himself to Peter Parker and Aunt May, Uncle Ben has already passed and the high schooler is already jumping off of buildings and kicking ass. Civil War doesn’t tell us why this character exists, only that he does and that he’s ready to join hashtag Team Stark.

Trailer Preview: 2014 Films

THE GOOD

Guardians Of The Galaxy (Release Date: August 1)

WHY IT'S GOOD: The "Guardians of the Galaxy" is one of Marvel's "weirder" properties, and that's putting it nicely. When this project was first announced, it seemed like a silly idea for a movie. However, this trailer puts all doubts to rest. The trailer not only perfectly explains who these characters are and gives us some semblance of this world, but also makes you genuinely excited to see this funny, action-adventure blockbuster. 

Neighbors (Release Date: May 9)

WHY IT'S GOOD: Because it's downright hilarious. Even though Seth Rogen neither wrote nor directed this film, it still looks like a film that will go up with his other comedy classics. 

The Boxtrolls (Release Date: September 26)

WHY IT'S GOOD: This is an example where the movie doesn't necessarily excite me, but I can recognize a great trailer for what it is. Not only is the song incredible and perfect (Ritchie Young's version of "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands"), but the trailer does something bold. It sets up this world while marking it very hard to criticize it. By showing the incredibly, intricate detail Laika put into this movie, it's difficult to just say the movie is "bad", because the backlash of "look how hard they worked on this film" will blow up in your face. When you watch a movie, you care about the story and the characters. If neither are there, who cares about the detail you see on-screen? But this trailer puts the hard work and effort the people making this movie front and center, which can only help the movie and whatever criticism it may take.