Screenword’s own Rachael Kaines selects her favourite films of 2017.
1 – Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)
Could you imagine anything better than spending a summer somewhere in Northern Italy, reading, swimming, and falling in love? Me either.
2 – Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
Amazingly, the 2016 Oscars actually got it right for once. Moonlight is a beautiful and measured exploration of loneliness that will permanently ingrain itself on your consciousness.
3 – Toni Erdman (Maren Ade)
The only time that “three hour-long German comedy” should be met with absolute glee.
4 – War For the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
The final instalment in this remarkable series is truly spectacular. This trilogy restores my faith in (nearly) original blockbusters.
5 – The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook)
Much more accessible than most of Park Chan-wook’s other movies, but still as exquisitely fucked up.
6 – Manchester By the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
Incredible performances and a devastating story guarantees Manchester By The Sea lives past the 2016 Oscar hype.
7 – Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
Nolan does a war film. What we really get is a survival movie, that was undeniably one of the most intense cinema-going experiences of the year.
8 – Blade Runner (Denis Villeneuve)
Denis Villeneuve proves yet again that he’s one of the most exciting directors working now, by surprising us and getting a sequel to the much loved, and incredibly influential, Blade Runner.
9 – Get Out (Jordan Peele)
Satirical horror labelled as a comedy. But it’s a documentary. Jordan Peele has given us the most exciting debut of the year.
10 – A Ghost Story (David Lowery)
Casey Affleck wears a sheet for an hour and a half and it is somehow profoundly, and fundamentally, moving.