The Top 10 Films of 2017 as selected by F&TVReview will be named two at a time beginning with: Get Out and Colossal. As a side note–when adding an actors other credits, they will usually be films or TV shows that I recommend and if in boldface–they are must sees.
Get Out (Universal 2017)
Written & Directed by Jordan Peele.
104 minutes.
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya (Chris Washington), Allison Williams (Rose Armitage), Bradley Whitford (Dean Armitage), Catherine Keener (Missy Armitage), Caleb Landry Jones (Jeremy Armitage), Marcus Henderson (Walter), Betty Gabriel (Georgina), Lakeith Stanfield (Andre Logan King), Stephen Root (Jim Hudson), Lil Rel Howery (Rod Williams).
This is one of those films that I’d heard a lot about long before I finally saw it. I’d heard nothing but good things and formed an impression based on the limited knowledge that I had. I couldn’t stop thinking of Peele as a comedian. I had even seen the trailer, but was still expecting Shaun of the Dead–you get the picture. Of course I was wrong. It is a tightly scripted mad scientist movie with a tongue in cheek twist, and it is played dead pan by an incredible cast led by Daniel Kaluuya (Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits, Kick Ass 2, Black Panther)
and Allison Williams. Lil Rel Howery does the broad comedy and dramatic support is in good hands with Lakeith Stanfield, Betty Gariel, and Marcus Henderson pouring on the creepy.
Bradley Whitford (A Cabin in the Woods, Saving Mr. Banks) is perfect as the mad scientist with Catherine Keener (Johnny Suede, Living in Oblivion, A Late Quartet, Being John Malkovich) as his wife who makes a tea cup into a nightmarish symbol of possession.
The plot is carefully paced as the strangeness that slowly increases engulfs Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya who was deservedly nominated for an academy award for his performance) as his fiancé (Allison Williams in a performance that is astonishingly underplayed which makes the Fruit Loops and glass of milk even creepier) just keeps shrugging his complaints off as situational jitters. His run ins with the black servants (at first the only blacks except himself) and one of the black guests at a family gathering set off a clock that once it begins ticking, the story moves faster and faster toward the unexpected–or possibly dreaded finale. There is always the danger of using a formula and winding up with the same old, but in this case Peele’s originality takes off and carries us into an unfamiliar place. Finally, a new horror film that decorates the clock with the wit and originality.
GLF
Colossal (NEON 2017)
Written and Directed by Nacho Vigalondo.
110 minutes
Cast: Anne Hathaway (Gloria), Jason Sudiekis (Oscar), Austin Stowell (Joel), Tim Blake Nelson (Garth), Dan Stevens (Tim), Hannah Cheramy (Yung Gloria), Nathan Ellison (Young Oscar).
Colossal was a complete surprise. I hadn’t heard about it or read any reviews, and the trailer I saw on a friend of mine’s phone before we went to see it (we were in a noisy restaurant so I really couldn’t hear anything) led me to believe I was going to see a monster movie. Colossal is about a monster, but it’s the one in each of us. There are so many ways to unleash it. To let it rage and tear though everything good. I think we are learning that more every day. The trigger here is booze, but the days of Wine and Roses was never like this.
This is a tour de force that pushes Anne Hathaway (Get Smart, Les Misérables, Ocean’s 8), and Jason Sudiekis (Horrible Bosses) to new heights. It may well remain their best performances for a long, long time. Gloria is dumped by her boyfriend in New York because all she does is drink and party. She goes back to her home town and moves into the house where she grew up.
Sudiekis has never been better as her childhood friend and the two begin an alcoholic dance of doom that is further exacerbated by Gloria’s gradual realization that she is in fact the Godzilla like monster that is leveling Seoul, South Korea on the nightly news. Powerful support is lent by Austin Stowell (Bridge of Spies) and Tim Blake Nelson (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, As I Lay Dying), as Joel is seduced by Gloria and Garth has his own anger issues and drug problems. They are both as astonished and horrified as Oscar seems to be as Gloria breaks the news to them about Seoul in a hilarious show and tell with tablet and phone in the playground where she takes her nightly drunken strolls.
Nacho Vigalondo’s script is both original and fascinating. Although it works through a fantastically unreal conceit, it is brilliantly accurate. Yes, it is drama and horror and comedy–but none in the way that we usually think of them. And that is its genius.
GLF