The Best Movies of 2017, Part One: Missed Opportunities

I used to be the resident film critic back in university, specifically the University of Alabama at Birmingham (aka UAB), where I was paid for my efforts and averaged about a movie per week all throughout my time in college, including a few additional years as a Grad student. Around the time I entered Grad School, I also landed a paying gig reviewing TV, which I held until the end of last year. 

It was a good time in my life- anytime you can get paid doing something you love is- but all good things come to an end, it seems, and I no longer get paid to go to the movies anymore. As such, I no longer go as much as I used to, either. 

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It's not just a financial thing- the opportunities for watching stuff at home have risen steadily over the years, with streaming making it all too easy to just stay home and save money. 

Furthermore, living where I do, in Alabama, a lot of the sorts of movies I prefer to see in the first place don't make it around these parts, or if they do, it takes a while, and typically some sort of acclaim, such as award recognition or unusually high audience demand. 

Anyone who knows me knows I love independent film more than any other, as well as cult-oriented films in general. If those sort of films played around here more than they do, I'd probably go to the movies more frequently, simple as that. 

But they don't, so sometimes I have to wait to see them when they come out on home video or streaming. (I no longer do pay cable movie channels, like many people around my age.)

As such, there tends to be a lot of stuff that slips through the cracks, or which I just didn't feel as compelled to see as I would if I were getting paid to do so. Part of the reason I did this site in the first place was as a sort of "calling card" to let potential employers know that I did used to do it, and would love to do it again. 

Anyway, all of this is to say that I don't see as many movies as I used to, which is going to inherently make a "best of" list more subjective than most, as there's still a lot of stuff I haven't seen yet from last year. The following is a list of films you won't see on the list, as I haven't seen them yet. 

In the realm of blockbuster-type films, I skipped a good bit of such things in the theaters- most of them just aren't my thing. As such, I have yet to see these "big ticket" items, which I doubt would have made my "best of" list anyway. 

Underworld: Blood Wars, Monster Trucks, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Fifty Shades Darker, John Wick: Chapter 2, The Great Wall, The Boss Baby, Power Rangers, Life, The Fate of the Furious, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Going in Style, Unforgettable, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Cars 3, War Machine, Despicable Me 3, Transformers: The Last Knight, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The House, Dunkirk, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Girls Trip, Atomic Blonde, The Emoji Movie, Detroit, Kidnap, Leap!, Downsizing, American Assassin, My Little Pony: The Movie, American Made, Flatliners, Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarok, Geostorm, Only the Brave, Coco, Justice League, Murder on the Orient Express, A Bad Moms Christmas, Daddy's Home 2, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Call Me By Your Name, Pitch Perfect 3, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, The Greatest Showman, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ferdinand, All the Money in the World, Crooked House, Bright and Hostiles. 

Now, rest assured, I will end up seeing a lot of these, and already own a few (John Wick 2, Life, Dunkirk, Atomic Blonde, Flatliners, and Thor: Ragnarok), which I just haven't gotten around to watching. 

Of those films, only Dunkirk seems likely to have made my list, I would guess, though I have heard good things about Thor in particular. I'm just suffering from superhero burn-out at the moment, so...yeah. I'll watch those sorts of movies when I watch 'em. 

I am excited to see Blade Runner- I had the flu when it came out, and, as many of you know, it tanked and didn't last long in theaters, so I missed my chance to see it on the big screen, which is a bummer. It's possible that could have made the list, as critics seemed to enjoy it, even if audiences didn't. But critics aren't always on point, so we'll see...

As for my bread and butter, the indie films, there's a lot of stuff I haven't seen and want to there, as well. Here's a list of those types of films for your perusal.

100 Streets, The Book of Love, Alone in Berlin, Trespass Against Us, I Am Michael, iBoy, War on Everyone, A United Kingdom, A Cure for Wellness, XX, Lovesong, Collide, The Girl with All the Gifts, I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Bitter Harvest, The Shack, Catfight, The Sense of an Ending, Raw, T2 Trainspotting, Song to Song, Atomica, All Nighter, Wilson, The Zookeeper's Wife, The Blackcoat's Daughter, The Case for Christ, Colossal, Gifted, Aftermath, The Lost City of Z, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, The Outcasts, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, A Quiet Passion, The Promise, Phoenix Forgotten, How to Be a Latin Lover, The Lovers, 3 Generations, The Dinner, Lowriders, The Wall, Paris Can Wait, Wonderstruck, Everything Everything, Wakefield, Dean, Churchill, My Cousin Rachel, Beatriz at Dinner, All Eyez on Me, The Book of Henry, The Bad Batch, Okja, The Little Hours, 2:22, A Ghost Story, Wish Upon, First Kill, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Brigsby Bear, Fun Mom Dinner, Good Time, Ingrid Goes West, The Only Living Boy in New York, The Hitman's Bodyguard, Logan Lucky, Patti Cake$, Lemon, Home Again, Tulip Fever, Unlocked, Darkest Hour, Gun Shy, Brad's Status, Marshall, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Stronger, Loving Vincent, Woodshock, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, The Mountain Between Us, The Florida Project, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Outrage Coda, Happy Death Day, The Foreigner, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Blood Money, Leatherface, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Thank You for your Service, Jigsaw, All I See is You, Amityville: The Awakening, Last Flag Flying, My Friend Dahmer, Mayhem, Cook Off!, Mr. Roosevelt, Phantom Thread, Permanent, and Father Figures. 

I've already got a fair amount of these- pretty much all of the horror ones, as its my favorite genre- plus Okja, Logan Lucky, Darkest Hour, and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. 

Also, Phantom Thread and The Florida Project are in local theaters as we speak, so I will see those before too long. I couldn't say which one of these might have made the top list, but T2 seems likely- I loved the first one, and Thread and Florida seem like they'd be great, if all the award noms are any indication. 

Check out my following post for a comprehensive list of the films I did see, complete with my assessment of them and the reasons they didn't quite make the final 15 Top Movies of the Year.

Thanks for reading!