The most high falutin’ best of the year list always belongs to Cahiers du Cinema who, when they aren’t going hardcore arthouse, are making bonkers mainstream selections. True to form, they’ve lived up to their reputation in 2017.
David Lynch‘s “Twin Peaks: The Return” has topped the list, which will once again stoke the Film Twitter fire and debate over, What is cinema? It’s a boring conversation and argument, so I’ll leave that to the turtlenecks and clove cigarette smokers to figure out. Elsewhere, Jordan Peele‘s “Get Out” gets so much much deserved, as does M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Split“…which, sure? It’s enjoyable enough, but really, there weren’t either other movies that were better this year? Stay crazy, Cahiers.
In holdovers from last year due to release date math, Pablo Larrain‘s terrific “Jackie” gets some love as does – wait, Ang Lee‘s “Billy Lynn’s Longtime Halftime Walk“? Actually, maybe I need a cigarette…. Full list below:
1) TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN
2) JEANNETTE: THE CHILDHOOD OF JOAN OF ARC
3) CERTAIN WOMEN
4) GET OUT
5) THE DAY AFTER
6) LOVER FOR A DAY
7) GOOD TIME
8) SPLIT
9) JACKIE
10) BILLY LYNN’S HALFTIME WALK
https://twitter.com/JordanCronk/status/938166437322964992
twin peaks the return is a tv show, and this is the worst list i have seen so far.
It’s an 18 hour film. But, boring argument as the man said
Thank fuck I’m not the only one who loved billy lynn.
Billy Lynn is hugely underrated.
Split is a major work for Shyamalan and reveals more substance on repeat viewings. I find it heartbreaking, particularly in how it examines trauma. As timely as anything else this year.
Exactly. For some reasons unbeknownst to me – hatred towards Shyamalan? – the film was treated as a minor, okayish film. Maybe not the cultured highbrow critics’s cup of tea, but with themes as dark and fascinating as any art house film they love to praise.
Why “Neluvov” by A.Zvyagintsev isn’t in the list?
Funny, I very much prefer seeing Split on that list than the extremely overrated Get Out. I’m happy the French got it right, because since the emergence of Get Out, American and British critics seems eager to destroy Split and diminish its impact. Why, can’t we have two great Blumhouse films? Can’t we have a deep, brilliant film that deals with survival, guilt, the abandonment and suffering of children at the hands of those who should protect them, and other very interesting psychological aspects, because Split is not considered politically correct enough for Americans? Plus, in the process, James McAvoy’s STUNNING acting as Kevin Wendell Crumb is being discarded because Daniel Kaluuya is in the “right” film?
Stay crazy, U.S.A.
Funny, I find that it’s Get Out that doesn’t belong in that list, not Split. But then I’m not obsessed with the “social relevance” of Get Out as Americans seem to be; as a film I found it enjoyable as an old episode of Twilight Zone, and with much less impact than some epis from Black Mirror.
Now, I found Split fascinating in its study of trauma and how human beings deal differently with it. And if anyone is looking for social relevance, there’s plenty to see in Split, with the dark and painful theme of the suffering of children at the hands of those who should care and protect them. Plus, James McAvoy’s performance in Split is magnificent; millions times better than the serviceable one Daniel Kaluuya gives in Get Out.
Stay crazy, Cahiers? No, more like thanks French critics for seeing the real impact of Split in 2017, something that American and British tried to diminish because they wouldn’t allow competition with their beloved Get Out.