Metacritic 40 Best of 2017, a list by Chaz Larson

7.9

/24606/

79

/1229/

77

/502/

4.2

/63193/

99

/210/

83

/257/

95

/36/

3.5

age 13+

Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.

85

7.8

/14347/

77

/446/

76

/404/

4.2

/46592/

99

/144/

89

/56/

94

/23/

3.5

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

86

7.8

/352589/

78

/12327/

80

/12552/

3.9

/2639263/

95

/365/

86

/1860/

94

/53/

4.0

age 16+

In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

82

7.8

/796527/

75

/34983/

74

/17216/

3.8

/1709297/

92

/469/

81

/5361/

94

/53/

3.5

age 14+

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

81

7.4

/359479/

73

/15196/

73

/8867/

3.8

/2754308/

99

/401/

79

/2221/

93

/52/

3.5

age 16+

Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.

83

47

7.8

/861/

75

/67/

77

/19/

3.8

/1098/

100

/23/

89

/4/

92

/6/

age 13+

An in-depth look at the culture of Los Angeles in the ten years leading up to the 1992 uprising that erupted after the verdict of police officers cleared of beating Rodney King.

84

7.6

/144725/

75

/6074/

74

/2997/

4.1

/946456/

96

/318/

81

/958/

92

/44/

4.0

age 16+

The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.

77

7.4

/1538/

77

/73/

64

/65/

4.0

/4541/

97

/70/

59

/12/

91

/23/

3.0

A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.

89

9.1

/35684/

86

/742/

82

/205/

4.5

/16098/

96

/49/

94

90

/19/

An immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. Featuring testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides.

81

7.4

/159329/

72

/5673/

73

/3682/

4.2

/585600/

91

/359/

71

/915/

90

/51/

4.0

age 15+

In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker's meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his relationship with his young muse intensifies.

77

6.7

/7643/

68

/235/

66

/163/

3.6

/22906/

96

/115/

58

/40/

89

/26/

4.0

In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.

81

7.2

/23519/

74

/1194/

70

/444/

4.0

/136987/

96

/134/

80

/167/

89

/27/

3.5

age 13+

When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana - a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey, a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library.

81

7.2

/377/

73

/15/

72

/9/

3.7

/625/

98

/61/

75

/7/

88

/18/

4.0

For over a decade, this portrait of a North Philadelphia family and the creative sanctuary offered by their home music studio was filmed with vérité intimacy. The family's 10-year journey is an illumination of race and class in America, and it's a testament to love, healing and hope.

85

8.1

/598665/

79

/23913/

80

/10630/

4.1

/776149/

90

/408/

87

/2607/

88

/50/

4.0

age 17+

After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.

85

72

8.4

/3035/

78

/147/

71

/29/

4.2

/1410/

100

/9/

90

88

/4/

age 14+

The story of a teenager wrongfully charged with theft and jailed at Riker's Island prison for over 1,000 days.

79

7.2

/8382/

72

/260/

67

/207/

3.9

/9926/

94

/141/

76

/36/

88

/34/

3.5

A troubled family must face facts when tragedy strikes their son's desolate military post.

79

7.3

/124759/

72

/6119/

70

/2061/

3.8

/267349/

94

/254/

79

/721/

88

/43/

3.5

age 15+

When dictator Joseph Stalin dies, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. As they bumble, brawl and back-stab their way to the top, the question remains — just who is running the government?

82

7.8

/111872/

78

/8393/

75

/2662/

4.1

/623319/

99

/253/

89

/1264/

88

/38/

3.0

age 6+

Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.

76

36

7.2

/388/

67

/17/

66

/12/

3.5

/438/

100

/17/

71

/6/

87

/9/

Documentary on the great American Ballerina Wendy Whelan

85

7.8

/6184/

78

/319/

75

/148/

4.0

/11224/

98

/107/

86

/38/

87

/24/

4.0

age 8+

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

75

7.3

/470929/

73

/24404/

72

/12609/

3.7

/982267/

92

/466/

73

/3211/

87

/53/

2.5

age 16+

An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.

74

70

7.2

/7260/

68

/228/

69

/61/

3.6

/2992/

87

/46/

64

86

/15/

age 14+

The social and class divisions in early 20th century England through the intersection of three families - the wealthy Wilcoxes, the gentle and idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts.

79

7.4

/4363/

76

/276/

72

/91/

3.8

/3269/

98

/102/

83

/22/

86

/31/

3.0

age 16+

With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.

80

7.6

/34626/

76

/2227/

76

/941/

4.1

/137965/

100

/98/

84

/155/

86

/14/

2.5

Real zombies arrive and terrorize the crew of a zombie film being shot in an abandoned warehouse, said to be the site of military experiments on humans.

79

7.5

/2363/

73

/112/

68

/65/

3.8

/5913/

100

/62/

70

/21/

86

/14/

3.5

The true history of a collection of some 500 films dating from 1910s to 1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until being discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon Territory, in Dawson City, located about 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

83

7.4

/4472/

68

/131/

74

/81/

3.8

/4489/

100

/20/

86

/24/

86

/10/

4.0

age 15+

In a patriarchal society, an ordinary Georgian family lives with three generations under one roof. All are shocked when 52-year-old Manana decides to move out from her parents’ home and live alone. Without her family and her husband, a journey into the unknown begins.

74

6.4

/4315/

65

/278/

64

/94/

3.5

/5854/

100

/47/

57

/37/

86

/16/

3.5

age 13+

Examining the violent death of the filmmaker’s brother and the judicial system that allowed his killer to go free, this documentary interrogates murderous fear and racialized perception, and re-imagines the wreckage in catastrophe’s wake, challenging us to change.

86

8.0

/5916/

81

/439/

77

/125/

3.9

/6751/

100

/33/

89

/50/

86

/13/

4.0

age 9+

Coral reefs are the nursery for all life in the oceans, a remarkable ecosystem that sustains us. Yet with carbon emissions warming the seas, a phenomenon called “coral bleaching”—a sign of mass coral death—has been accelerating around the world, and the public has no idea of the scale or implication of the catastrophe silently raging underwater.

81

7.6

/37263/

72

/980/

73

/788/

3.9

/42861/

94

/181/

84

/63/

86

/33/

3.5

Zhenya and Boris are going through a vicious divorce marked by resentment, frustration and recriminations. Already embarking on new lives, each with a new partner, they are impatient to start again, to turn the page – even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. Until, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears.

82

7.5

/149244/

75

/9266/

73

/2566/

3.8

/256335/

98

/306/

88

/1349/

86

/47/

3.5

age 15+

Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family's expectations, and his true feelings.

81

7.5

/673546/

76

/46099/

74

/16487/

3.7

/2743754/

92

/395/

86

/4143/

86

/53/

3.5

age 17+

After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.

73

?

7.4

/263/

70

/5/

66

/5/

85

/4/

No Greater Love explores a combat deployment through the eyes of an Army chaplain, as he and his men fight their way through a hellish tour in one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan and then as they struggle to reintegrate home.

78

40

6.8

/358/

80

/3/

56

/5/

100

/11/

81

/17/

85

/5/

age 16+

Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives.

80

77

7.3

/4325/

70

/278/

73

/43/

97

/39/

86

85

/12/

Estranged foster-brothers Stephen and Andrew vie to take over the family business following the death of their father.

83

8.1

/34799/

78

/1851/

76

/393/

93

/144/

86

85

/54/

age 18+

The story of the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early ’70s through the mid ’80s, exploring the rough-and-tumble world that existed there until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and the renewed real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence of the area.

82

7.6

/40016/

78

/1703/

77

/961/

4.0

/135207/

98

/131/

88

/211/

85

/22/

3.0

age 16+

A young farmer in rural Yorkshire numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker.

82

7.8

/798797/

78

/48266/

76

/18433/

4.1

/3944850/

98

/403/

86

/6257/

85

/48/

3.0

age 15+

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

83

7.4

/57017/

75

/2442/

74

/1277/

3.8

/55380/

97

/202/

85

/314/

85

/44/

4.0

age 15+

In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.

67

6.3

/27248/

70

/1630/

59

/185/

88

/120/

38

84

/39/

age 17+

At a predominantly white Ivy League college, a diverse group of students navigate various forms of racial and other types of discrimination.

78

7.2

/14704/

70

/362/

69

/343/

3.8

/19454/

92

/108/

75

/30/

84

/23/

3.5

A restaurateur befriends a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived in Finland.

76

6.7

/134475/

66

/6778/

65

/2958/

3.7

/262407/

89

/287/

64

/656/

84

/41/

4.0

age 16+

A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, his nightmares begin to overtake him, and a conspiracy is uncovered—leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.

72

6.8

/710968/

71

/38229/

67

/16006/

2.9

/1478316/

91

/483/

41

/60437/

84

/56/

4.0

age 10+

Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.

82

7.4

/17579/

75

/827/

77

/1370/

4.0

/58199/

99

/138/

84

/54/

84

/26/

3.5

Paris, in the early 1990s: a group of young activists is desperately tied to finding the cure against an unknown lethal disease. They target the pharmaceutical labs that are retaining potential cures, and multiply direct actions, with the hope of saving their lives as well as the ones of future generations.

77

6.8

/85675/

67

/4529/

70

/2441/

3.8

/325007/

91

/286/

67

/813/

84

/46/

4.0

age 15+

Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife, only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away.

74

42

8.5

/87567/

80

/6/

50

/1/

4.6

/182988/

83

/45/

Picks up 25 years after the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town are stunned when their homecoming queen is murdered.

72

46

6.6

/444/

58

/9/

62

/17/

3.4

/1443/

100

/16/

83

/5/

A smart and innovative look at the possible futures of a young Chinese immigrant to Buenos Aires, told in the stilted language of an elementary Spanish textbook.

85

67

8.6

/1688/

77

/116/

73

/29/

100

/8/

92

83

/5/

The raucous adventures of some of music’s most legendary artists, as told by those who knew them best. Featuring animated interviews with former bandmates, friends and other erstwhile associates, who share uncensored anecdotes about these artists, brought to life with animated reenactments and woven together with live-action archival performance footage and photos.

80

7.9

/7168/

74

/462/

68

/67/

98

/46/

83