No matter what I think of anything, people can like what they like. This is just a year's worth of worthless movie opinions you can take or leave. I just want to talk about what clicked for me in a movie, and events that make me angry or frustrated do not necessarily mean I dislike a particular movie. Case in point, films like Ordet and A Christmas Tale are classics but struck me in a strange way or hit too close to home when I saw them for the first time. For those two in particular, I have far too much emotional baggage to attempt to review them. A film like Ordet leaves me speechless, and A Christmas Tale hits me with a few too many rough family memories of petty holiday get-togethers.
Logging the movies I see in a year is not something I usually do, and this was an interesting experiment to see how my viewing habits measure up. Unfortunately, I think that 2017 as a whole was not typical of an average movie-viewing year for me. I do not get out to the movie theater as often as I used to in the past several years. More often than not, I go to the theater with my nephew to see the latest Marvel superhero movie or something special like Shin Godzilla, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. Marvel movies are a tradition between the two of us going back to Thor, and there is a bittersweet feeling with our latest outing together to see Thor: Ragnarok. We have grown apart a little as he gets older and no longer stays with me after school to help with homework and watch television. He has friends of his own now and, I am told, even a girlfriend. He just turned twelve, and he reminds me a great deal of his father. My nephew is a lot more polite, but he cannot help that he has grown out of a few of the things that we used to enjoy together. It happens. Most of my movie viewing is done at home, but I made it to the theater a few times this year.
The big difference in my viewing this year was that this list pushed me to discipline myself a bit more to see new things, but there are some instances in which I feel like I am forcing myself to watch something when the mood is not right. I have developed a poor first impression of a few movies and come back to realize on a second attempt that the emotional atmosphere is very important to me. This is part of the reason that I missed Rogue One in theater and did not get around to it until almost exactly one year after its release. That holiday malaise. The movie-viewing mood has been unusual, and I still find myself falling back on multiple viewings of old favorites. With the state of my life and free time the past several years, a lot of my viewing leans toward movies and shows I have seen enough to know by heart. Much of that time is devoted to some classic favorite droning in the background. I run through Godzilla movies and episodes of MST3K a lot, and I come back to a lot of my favorite horror movies as many as two or three times a year regardless of the Halloween season. After joining Letterboxd a year or two ago, I see that I watch over 500 movies a year, but I think it is fairer to say that I listen to about 300 movies a year while I am doing something else and watch about 200 movies a year to make up the difference. If you look at my total for 2017 on Letterboxd, then that is mostly what you will see (surprisingly, however, one of my biggest comfort movies, Legend of the Dinosaurs, is not on the list despite the fact that I ran through almost the entirety of MST3K's KTMA season again). It is soothing to me to hear the sounds of giant monsters destroying cities or a guy and his robot friends cracking funny jokes during a movie. My television is almost always on. Even when I am out of the house, I will have my headphones in and listening to an episode of MST3K or some stand up comedy special on Netflix on my phone, or I am listening to a movie score of some kind that allows a movie to play in my head with the melody. Plus it cuts the social anxiety just a bit.
2017 has been a... different year. I think that part of my increase in first time viewings might have been as a result of trying to drown out the world more than trying to adhere to my viewing goal. Originally, it was set for 104 movies for the year, but I had that many down within about five months. I doubled it to 208 and had that knocked out before the end of the summer. Things slowed down a little with Halloween favorites like Poltergeist and Halloween III as well as November's MST3K Turkey Day marathon (which always sends me into watching a few dozen episodes again), but I hit a comfortable final goal of 260 movies with two days left to go in the year. I stayed true to some annual Christmas favorites like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, the Star Wars Holiday Special (with RiffTrax commentary, of course), MST3K's Winter classics like Jack Frost and their Santa Claus episodes, and RiffTrax essential Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, but none of those managed to get in my way of seeing about a dozen more new-to-me movies during the last two weeks of December.
My list for 2017 is a doozie, and I cannot think of a single movie on the list that I do not recommend. A large selection of these viewings came from group livetweets, many of which were with my fine friends in the Filmistines, and I make it no secret that they have far better taste in film than I do. Simply running off the list is exhausting and leaves me with such a large jumble of mixed thoughts about dozens of movies that I have a hard time focusing on one particular movie at a time, and my approach to this has been nowhere near as organized as this post suggests. It is a little overwhelming to attempt this feat when I initially thought that the list itself was all I was going to compile. It was not until around September that I thought that I should, for archival's sake, put something a little more thorough together outside of my obscure little #104for2017 Twitter hashtag. Here goes:
- THX-1138 (Laserdisc Cut)
- The Dragon Lives Again
- The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak
- The Long Good Friday
- Layer Cake
- Osen Chitai (Yellow Line)
- Hips, Hips, Hooray!
- Yoga Hosers
- The Low Budget Time Machine
- War of the Planets
- Invaders from the Deep (MST3K K01)
- The Woman in the Window
- M
- When Were You Born?
- Bad Girl
- Hollywood Vice Squad
- The Blancheville Monster (Horror Hotel)
- Tales That Witness Madness
- The Vulture
- The Killer
- The Hidden
- The Projectionist
- They Made Me a Criminal (Cinema Insomnia)
- Hello Down There
- Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars (MST3K K02)
- Coma
- Intrepidos Punks (Sleazy Pictures After Dark)
- Scanners II
- Larceny, Inc.
- The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
- Bikini Car Wash Company
- Lady Vengeance
- Odds Against Tomorrow
- Black Widow
- The Wrestler (1974)
- The Neon Demon
- Valhalla Rising
- The Wrestler (2008)
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
- Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare
- Hakujasho (White Snake Enchantment)
- Creeping Crawling
- Phantasm RaVager
- American Ninja 4: The Annihilation
- Heavy Traffic
- Tokyo Drifter
- Arrival
- Two Evil Eyes
- Munich
- Sweden: Heaven and Hell
- All Through The Night
- Action in the North Atlantic
- Miami Vice
- Belladonna of Sadness
- Fantastic Planet (original French version)
- Sorority Girls and the Creature from Hell
- The Forest
- In The Mood for Love
- Minbo (The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion)
- Infernal Affairs
- The Ruling Class
- Logan
- Kong: Skull Island
- Terror Is a Man
- 24 Hour Party People
- Zootopia
- Lost in Translation
- Get Carter
- Audition
- Possession (US theatrical cut)
- Unforgiven
- Blood and Black Lace
- Bloodbath at the House of Death
- Withnail and I
- Barton Fink
- Big Eyes
- Burn After Reading
- Evolution
- It Follows
- La Belle et La Bete (1946)
- Late Spring
- Hanuman and the Five Kamen Riders
- The Love Witch
- Monster of Frankenstein (Marvel animated)
- Cry Wilderness (MST3K)
- Avalanche (MST3K)
- Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (MST3K)
- Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II (MST3K)
- Carnival Magic (MST3K)
- The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t (MST3K)
- Amour Fou
- Heathers
- Ms. 45
- Beef
- Goodfellas
- Longitude
- Exterminators of the Year 3000
- Train to Busan
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- Lady Snowblood
- Lady Snowblood 2
- City Hunter
- Frank
- Hanyo (The Housemaid 1960)
- The Housemaid (2010)
- Something Wild
- The Glass Menagerie (1966 CBS Playhouse)
- Cromartie High The Movie
- Woman of Fire (1971)
- Beyond The Gates
- The Handmaiden
- Kubo and The Two Strings
- Sahara
- The Secret Life of Pets
- Fire and Ice
- Diary of a Telephone Operator
- Home
- Tamara
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- John Wick
- L’Atalante
- Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid and Ghost with the Legendary Riders
- When Animals Dream
- The Guyana Tragedy
- Le Samourai
- Nightmare City
- To Agistri (The Hook)
- Death Haunts Monica
- She Done Him Wrong
- Spasmo
- Paths of Glory
- The Barbarians
- Zombie Lake
- Black Belly of the Tarantula
- The Red Shoes
- Heat
- Tougher Than Leather
- Wonder Woman
- All The Colors of the Dark
- Five Dolls for an August Moon
- Hatchet for the Honeymoon
- The Duke of Burgundy
- Voodoo Island
- Gomorrah
- Gloria
- Fatal Call
- Attack of the Supermonsters
- Haunted House of Horror
- The Mission
- Nightwish
- Starhops
- Sector 7
- Baba Yaga (1973)
- The Fifth Cord
- Stagefright (Aquarius)
- Advantageous
- Man On Wire
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Phantom of the Opera (Hammer 1962)
- The Void
- Stoker
- Scorpion with Two Tails (Murder in an Etruscan Cemetery)
- The Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Amazons
- Martin
- Monsoon Wedding
- The Student Body
- Chungking Express
- The League of Gentlemen
- The Salvation
- No Man’s Land
- Seven Blood-Stained Orchids
- Three
- A Bay of Blood
- Okja
- Dead & Buried
- Jules et Jim
- Don’t Torture a Duckling
- The Trip
- The Trip to Italy
- Killer Nun
- Nymphomaniac
- Ixcanul
- The Secret in Their Eyes
- Cyberjack
- Lunch Wagon
- The Unholy Rollers
- A Taxing Woman
- The Double Life of Veronique
- Volver
- Out of Sight
- The Chase (AKA The Shanghai Killers)
- The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
- Vampire (1979)
- Raise The Red Lantern
- Play Motel
- Three Colors: Blue
- Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
- Border Cop
- Amuck!
- Strip Nude for Your Killer
- Homework
- Three Colors: White
- Spaced Out
- The Big Short
- The Young Nurses
- Narc
- 3 Dev Adam (Turkish Captain America and El Santo vs. Spider-Man)
- Three Colors: Red
- Miller’s Crossing
- Paris, Texas
- Inglourious Basterds
- Gerald’s Game
- Cult of Chucky
- Tremors 5
- Love & Peace
- Kamen Rider vs. Super Sentai Chou Hero Taisen
- Waxwork
- Maniac Cop
- The Devil’s Backbone
- Prince of Darkness
- The Lure
- The Devil’s Honey
- Alucarda
- Daughters of Darkness
- Machete Maidens Unleashed
- Dracula Istanbul
- Spontaneous Combustion
- Three Extremes
- Raw
- Don’t Look Now
- Thirst
- Fade To Black
- Messiah of Evil
- The Horrible House on the Hill (Devil Times Five)
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Midnight Run
- Michael Clayton
- Legend
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- Crest of Betrayal
- Marta
- Hero At Large
- Candy
- Gremlins: Recall
- Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
- Sada
- Ironfinger
- Ghost World
- Get Out
- Tabeta Hito (Nobuhiko Obayashi short)
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- A Christmas Tale
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- Force Majeure
- The Trip to Spain
- The Amphibian Man
- John Wick: Chapter 2
- Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
- Colossal
I have a great deal written down about several movies on this list, but it felt like a good idea to get the master list out of the way in its own section (since I yammered on a bit) before getting to the guts. I had hoped for number 260 on the list to be The Shape of Water, but weather, added theater distance, and seasonal holiday depression have kept me from making the trip so far. I am procrastinating a little now that I know that its local run is a bit longer than I anticipated, but I do intend to see it while it is still in theaters. I have little doubt that I will come out of it glowing from every seam, but chances are I will not see it until just after the clock strikes 2018.
Stay tuned as I try to organize this mess of random movie reviews I have written down into something more coherent and meaningful.
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