Mike@Nite’s Top 10 Movies of 2017

As some of you may know, I'm a pretty big movie geek/nerd/snob/insufferable jerk. And like any good movie geek/nerd/snob/insufferable jerk, I have some favorite movies of the year I'd like to share with you.

Now just because your favorite movie didn't make the list doesn't mean I didn't like the movie, and there's still a few movies from the year that I still really want to see but haven't gotten to yet. So, just consider this a list of favorites that will hopefully put some more stuff on your radar.

Honorable Mentions - I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore, Your Name, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Get Out, Brigsby Bear

10. Raw - A terrific debut from director Julia DuCournau, Raw is one of the best horror films of the year about a girl discovering her own cannibalistic tendencies. It is not for the squeamish.

9. Logan Lucky - Director Steven Soderbergh returned from retirement with a low-key Southern riff on his own Ocean's Eleven, and the result is maybe the funniest movie of the year. A terrific cast, which includes Daniel Craig like you've never seen him before, help elevate an already great screenplay.

8. Good Time - Robert Pattinson fully sheds the image of Edward Cullen in this dark comedy/thriller from the Safdie Brothers. Heavily indebted to Martin Scorsese's After Hours, this is one of the most viscerally exciting movies I've seen all year.

7. The Shape of Water - Guillermo del Toro delivers his best work in years in this very sincere love story that only he would be capable of making. Sally Hawkins may give my favorite performance of the year without saying a word.

6. John Wick: Chapter 2 - This action sequel expands the scope and the ambition of the original while never losing focus on its emotional core. Keanu Reeves is one of great and most unappreciated action stars of our time and he is a force of nature in this movie. His subway fight with Common is an all-timer.

5. Mother! - Director Darren Aronofsky returned this year with probably the most divisive non-Star Wars movie of the year. The way this movie builds and builds is masterful, Jennifer Lawrence does the best work of her career, and its final act is out-of-this-world bonkers.

4. A Ghost Story - Who would have thought you could feel so much emotion from just a bedsheet with two eyeholes cut out? Sometimes funny, sometimes inspiring, sometimes soul-crushing, and with one of the most exhilarating final sequences I've seen in any movie, A Ghost Story will make you question your place in the universe.

3. War for the Planet of the Apes - The final film in the rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy has cemented the three films as the best franchise of the decade. Andy Serkis will never get enough credit for his motion-capture performance as Caesar. In a career that includes Gollum, Supreme Leader Snoke, and King Kong, Caesar is far and away the best work he's ever done.

2. Baby Driver - Edgar Wright, arguably my favorite working director, stepped out of the realm of comedy to make this cool-as-hell, toe-tapping action thriller (that's also still really funny). Featuring the best soundtrack you'll hear this year and some of the most exciting action sequences to go along with it, Baby Driver is probably the most rewatchable movie of the year.

1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Martin McDonagh, the writer/director behind In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, is the mind behind this dark comedy/drama that confronts the state of America in 2017 with no apologies. It's a movie that forces you to deal with your own beliefs on serious issues, and one that doesn't pull any punches when it comes to punishing its characters. Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harrelson all give great performances, so many of the scenes are incredibly powerful, and there's a ton of truly funny moments.