The 25 Best Films Of 2017 So Far

“My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea”
It’s such an exciting time to be a fan of animation, as this year has born up, whether you’re into something mainstream like “The Lego Batman Movie,” or more esoteric, international affairs like “The Red Turtle” or the aforementioned “Your Name.” And a real gem this year has been a lo-fi American indie, “My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea.” A first feature from graphic novelist Dash Shaw, it’s a sort of disaster movie/John Hughes hybrid, set in a heightened universe and executed with a distinctive, handmade style, and featuring a killer voice cast including Jason Schwartzman, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, Lena Dunham, Susan Sarandon and John Cameron Mitchell. It doesn’t 100% work, but its ambition, sharp writing, swift pace, dry wit and original imagery makes it one of the most striking animated movies we’ve seen in some time. [Our review]

“Wonder Woman”
Ultimately, the story it tells is just-another-superhero-story, and there are plenty of clunky dialogues and unconvincing plot turns if you choose to dwell on them. But in all the ways that matter, and a few new ones too, Patty Jenkins‘ “Wonder Woman” is a landmark film. By now we all know its record-breaking stats and its Rotten Tomatoes score in the 90s, which is unprecedented for a film in the DC Extended Universe. Gal Gadot‘s Amazonian demi-god has proven both progressively feminist in her badassery (though Robin Wright arguably takes that particular prize) and delightfully old-fashioned in her naive embrace of old-school values of simple justice, kindness and love. Best of all though, is how well it plays to female audiences: even the jaded critics like ourselves are not immune to the sheer giddy joy of seeing women so unambiguously celebrated and centralized in a mainstream blockbuster — until this month one of the final bastions of entrenched boys’-club mentality both behind and in front of the camera. [Our review]

“The Beguiled”
For kink and perversity, it may not hold a candelabra to Don Siegel’s 1971 version of this same story, but Sofia Coppola‘s Cannes Best Director win was by no means undeserved either. Her take on “The Beguiled” follows the fate of wounded Union soldier John McBurney (Colin Farrell) as he’s sheltered by a group of Southen females waiting out the Civil War in a school for young ladies. It’s a beautifully mounted slow simmer of seduction and sexual jealousy that comes gradually to a boil. And when it does, Nicole Kidman, playing the headmistress role, gets to do “understatedly deranged,” and utter instantly meme-able lines like “Bring me the anatomy book!” as only she can. Elle Fanning also stars, as the teenage temptress Alicia, but it’s Kirsten Dunst’s Edwina who provides the film with its sad little heart, proving once again that there is some special alchemy that goes on between Dunst and Coppola that can’t be replicated. [Our review]

“Okja”
Proving oddly divisive to a Cannes audience perhaps hoping for something more obscure than the relatively straightforward “E.T.” riff they got, Bong Joon Ho‘s “Okja” may be uncomplicated, but it’s not without depth. The globe-trotting adventure story of a young Korean farm girl and her pet super pig, which was developed by an evil multinational headed by Tilda Swinton‘s image-obsessed CEO, it’s mainly about loyalty, friendship, and respect for living things. But it does have bite: not only is there a viscerally upsetting forced mating scene (which jeopardizes the film’s suitability for younger viewers), but its anti-capitalist, pro-civilian-resistance agenda is writ large. Also featuring the battiest Jake Gyllenhaal performance in quite some time (many critics hated his tic-laden turn, though some of us dug its go-for-broke nuttiness) and some of the most lovable, textured creature design ever, the irony is that this Netflix movie entirely deserves to be seen flolloping and galumphing all over the big screen. [Our review]

“All These Sleepless Nights”
Teenagers euphorically dance and revel in slow motion, carouse under sheets, and check out, stoned in the early hours of a golden dawn. Beautifully shot, a restless camera blissfully tracks these kids and their ongoing wild times. It feels like a coming-of-age drama about twitchy adolescence, rebellious times and throw-caution-to-the-wind abandon. But “All These Sleepless Nights” surprisingly, almost shockingly, is an unconventional documentary by filmmaker Michal Marczak chronicling the lives of restless art school classmates in Warsaw in search of existential questions with potentially no answers. An experiential documentary, “All These Sleepless Nights” is far less interested in narrative as it is expressing, bold, free-flowing feeling. It might be just a gorgeous wash of cinema without a story, but its radiance is such that, Marczak’s film will leave you wide-eyed and wide awake.

There’s a bunch of other movies that we could have included here that ultimately weren’t quite as strong as those that made the list, or that Playlist staff was divided on. Among them were Olivier Assayas’ ghost story “Personal Shopper,” Ben Wheatley’s super-fun shoot-out “Free Fire,” M. Night Shyamalan’s surprisingly enjoyable return to form with “Split,” animation “The Red Turtle,” 2016 Cannes faves “Staying Vertical” and the Oscar-winning “The Salesman,” mermaid movie “The Lure,” Amma Asante’s strong “A United Kingdom,” So Yong Kim’s “Lovesong” and Bruno Dumont’s “Slack Bay.”

There was also Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ enjoyable, distinctive blockbuster “Kong: Skull Island,” the prolific Francois Ozon’s “Frantz,” cult horror in the making “The Void,” Salma Hayek starrer “Beatriz At Dinner,” Richard Gere on fine form in “Norman” and “The Dinner,” Terence Davies’ “A Quiet Passion,” Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Commune,” Zoe Lister-Jones’ “Band Aid,” “The Lego Batman Movie,” “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” and Sam Elliott in “The Hero.” Oh, and we traditionally do a separate list for documentaries, so keep an eye out for that in the weeks to come. Any others you enjoyed this year so far? Let us know your faves in the comments.