Well, this has been a really fucked-up year for anyone still alive in a country that calls itself the United States of America yet it feels like it’s another country at this point. 2017 is insane in a lot of ways as we saw a shift from this idea of feeling free, secure, and content despite the fact that there were still problems to now feeling none of that and dealing with a shitload of problems. Being an American in 2017 is now filled with a sense of unease and uncertainty. You can’t really trust anyone. You’re filled with news that probably have no sense of truth. Everything feels off and chaotic. Plus, there is that sense that we’re all getting dumber as everything that happened in Mike Judge’s 2006 satire comedy Idiocracy is coming true and I think the ultimate question to all of this is…. How the fuck all of this bullshit happened?
For all of the shit that’s been happening, cinema has been a good escape in some ways though it also reflect of the things that are happening and what they predicted. In the year of 2017, I saw a total of 435 films in 280 first-timers and 155 re-watches. Definitely an improvement over the past 2 years, especially the year before which was horrible due to a lot that was happening as I’m glad that this year personally as far as film-watching is concerned was much better. Even as I was able to relax a bit more and take my time while I saw a total of 15 films in the theaters which was also a major improvement in comparison to the previous year. The highlights of course had been my Blind Spot choices for 2017 as here is how I rank them:
1. Hoop Dreams
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. Rear Window
4. Akira
5. The Big Red One
6. Swing Time
7. World on a Wire
8. Rio Bravo
9. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life (The Decameron) – (The Canterbury Tales) – (Arabian Nights)
10. The Lady Eve
11. Ninotchka
12. How Green Was My Valley
2017 was a showcase of so many great movies that I had never seen before as this list represents fifty of the best films that I have seen this year, pre-2010 as the list of films of the 2010s will be part of a future list. So here are the 50 best first-timers that I saw this year:
1. Rocco and His Brothers
2. Until the End of the World
3. Onibaba
4. Stroszek
5. Super Fly
6. Le Cercle Rouge
7. The Young Girls of Rochefort
8. Godzilla
9. Picnic at Hanging Rock
10. Stalag 17
11. Zabriskie Point
12. Dirty Harry
13. Son of Rambow
14. Lady Snowblood & Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance
15. Paper Moon
16. Blithe Spirit
17. Nanook of the North
18. Hobson's Choice
19. Samurai Rebellion
20. Hour of the Wolf
21. God's Country
22. And the Ship Sails On
23. The Flowers of St. Francis
24. Wings
25. Dream of Light
26. Umberto D.
27. Identification of a Woman
28. Fantastic Planet
29. The Holy Girl
30. Ballad of a Soldier
31. La Ronde
32. Harakiri
33. You Can Count on Me
34. Une chambre en ville
35. The Small Back Room
36. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
37. The Big Boss
38. Fist of Fury
39. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
40. The Confession
41. Island of Lost Souls
42. The King of Comedy
43. Rope
44. Jigoku
45. After Hours
46. The Burmese Harp
47. Chimes at Midnight
48. The Battle of Chile film series (Pt. 1) – (Pt. 2) – (Pt. 3) & Chile, the Obstinate Memory
49. Tokyo Twilight
50. Master of the House
There wasn’t much in 2017 that really stood out other than New Japan Pro Wrestling and any kind of association with the Bullet Club who are the hottest thing in professional wrestling for anyone that is paying attention to the world outside of WWE. The only other thing in 2017 that was good is Atlanta United as it was a joy to watch them on TV as I’m just glad that Atlanta has a soccer team and a team that is fun to watch. So in closing, let’s just hope we can survive the New Year and let’s make sure we embrace a new philosophy that we will need more than ever. The philosophy of…. DELETION!
© thevoid99 2017
3 comments:
Yay, Hoop Dreams! So many films on both lists that I still need to see. Great job by you getting to all those.
Great rankings. Love that Hoop Dreams took the top spot. What a great film.
@Wendell-Hoop Dreams was the film that really stuck with me as I knew it was going to be hard to top as far as Blind Spots and nothing ever did top it. It is one of the great documentary films..... ever!
@Alex-Indeed it is. It's a long film but I wish it was longer.
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