My Top 10 Favourite Films of 2017

In many ways, 2017 was a year of regeneration for popular cinema. Despite the continuing blight of forced franchise-building and the existence of The Emoji Movie, there was also a shocking outpour of artistry in studio tentpoles: Get Out, Logan, Wonder Woman, Baby Driver, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, among others, all provided the year with a ceaseless procession of ambitious and intelligent blockbusters, and Netflix provided a flawed but ambitious and well-crafted alternative in Okja, which has all the excitement and visual prowess of a studio tentpole while also packing much more of a personal vision. In an era where so many alternatives to the inconvenient and expensive world of cinema entertainment exist, studios saw losses on many pictures, but where the product delivered, audiences showed up. In that sense as well as many others (most notably the #TimesUp movement), this was also a year of upheaval. For the industry, there's work to be done, and lessons to be learned, but for moviegoers, there was a wealth of riches to experience. Here, from A to Z, are my ten favourites of this lot.

Movie review: "The Florida Project"

THROND'S CHOICE

dir. by Sean Baker

written by Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch

A couple years ago, Sean Baker took the festival circuit by storm with his thrilling, energetic comedy-drama Tangerine, a film about a transgender sex worker getting back at her cheating pimp/boyfriend. Tangerine featured a street-level, D.I.Y. vibe: its cast was comprised entirely of non-professional actors, and it was shot on three iPhones. Baker's new film, The Florida Project, has switched to conventional film stock and features Hollywood star Willem Dafoe, but it has the same down-to-earth authenticity which marked his debut, with naturalistic acting from what's still mostly a cast of unknowns, and the same delightful sense of humour.

What's different in The Florida Project, more even than the cameras and Dafoe, is an increase in ambition. Tangerine was largely a comedy, but while the new film is still very funny, it has much more on its mind than just its subtle progressive politics. The Florida Project is an often poetic look at the shadow of decadence, a portrait of people living on the margins and both the forces and cycles which work to keep them there. Its build is a little slower than that of Tangerine, but its cumulative emotional power is much greater, and if the earlier film demonstrated Baker's promise, this new one codifies him as an auteur to keep an eye on.