C. Redmond’s Top Films of 2017

By Christopher Redmond

Mailed on December 30, 2017

Dear Readers,

Dear Readers,

After publishing over 1,000 articles, I trust that Dear Cast and Crew is more than the sum of our lists. We try to appreciate the craft and characters behind-the-scenes that make movies magic. But at the end of the year, people still want to know what raised the bar for cinema writ large, and what failed to clear the baseline of quality control. So here we go.

BUT FIRST.

This year I’m including my full diet as a film critic. Not a list of the films themselves (could do that later, should I?), but a statistical overview of my cinematic caloric intake. Some personal metrics to help you gauge what kind of pool I’m fishing from. Because there may be an ocean of options out there, but let’s be honest: we’re all fishing from a certain pool.

And as always, this list represents my personal highlights from the past year and does not reflect an editorial consensus from the other writers on the site. You’ll also notice we don’t have a review for my #1 film on the website, but my essay will be available shortly.

Total films: 160

Venue:

Theatre: 58 (37%)
Netflix: 33 (20%)
TV: 64 (40%)
Advance screeners: 5 (3%)

Release Dates :

New: 137 (86%)
Recent: 4 (2%)
Classic: 19 (12%)

*New releases mean widely available in past 18 months, Classic films mean 10-years-old or more.

New vs. Old

First-time viewing: 151 (94%)
Repeat Viewing: 9 (6%)

Specialty Genres :
Canadian: 14 (9%)
Documentary: 11 (7%)
Foreign: 8 (5%)
Animation: 3 (2%)

TOP 10 Films of 2017

  1. Get Out
  2. The Lost City of Z
  3. Raw
  4. The Square
  5. Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Contractually Obligated mention of Tony Clifton
  6. Dunkirk
  7. Mudbound
  8. Battle of the Sexes
  9. The Florida Project
  10. Les Affamé

Better Than They Needed to Be

Spider-Man: Homecoming g
Patriot’s Day
Wonder Woman

Inexplicably Underseen

Mother!
Wind River
Colossal

Overrated Everywhere Else

Lady Bird
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Logan Lucky

Unapologetically Awesome

The Last Jedi
Atomic Blonde
Blade Runner 2049

Didn’t Disappoint

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
War for the Planet of the Apes
The Trip to Spain

Extra Special Indies

Personal Shopper
Sleeping Giant
Hello Destroyer

Fantastic Foreign Fare

First They Killed My Father
Toni Erdmann
Train to Busan

Wasted Potential

Alien: Covenant
Detroit
Live By Night

Avoid At All Costs

Baywatch
Bad Batch
The Little Hours
Geostorm

This Year I Finally Saw (and Loved)

North West Mounted Police (1940)
The African Queen (1951)
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
Road House (1989)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Point Break (1991)

Sincerely,

Christopher

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