- Pink Flamingos (72, A-): Deliciously, gloriously depraved for a wonderfully perverse 90 minutes. Specific, genius, and fucking committed. – 12/1/17
- The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (17, B+): Looks so fully at Martha, Sylvia, their movement, and all their legacies with love and bitterness and anger. – 12/3/17
- Lady Bird (17, B+): Even richer the second go-around. Almost hard to talk about as a film when this feels so like lives being lived. – 12/4/17
- BPM (17, B): Undeniably moving, but I wish the political ensemble of the first half hadn’t shrunk to the personal tragedy of the second. – 12/5/17
- The Room (03, F): Having a linear narrative at all is more than I expected. Wiseau has ideas, and they’re all terrible. Race to the bottom for everyone involved. – 12/5/17
- Kidnap (18, C+): More technically ragged and emotionally tough than the pseudo-Taken this was sold as. Surprising narrative velocity. – 12/5/17
- I wanna make a crack about the end credits original song but this tepid acknowledgement is all it deserves
- Una (17, B (now C)): Didn’t love every formal choice, but the script and its interpretation are riskier than I expected. Creepily timely. – 12/9/17
- The Disaster Artist (17, C-): Sees Tommy as tortured, eccentric underdog rather than aggressive, genuinely troubled, talentless weirdo. – 12/9/17
- Structure only makes him problematic when he rifts with Greg. Foxcatcher, Florence went deeper on similar themes
- Most Beautiful Island (17, B): Dialogue, shaping not always great. But dodges abstraction, maintains quotidian and heightened tensions. – 12/12/17
- Girls Trip (17, B): The comedy we need, but could we ever deserve it? Even funnier on rewatch. Please nominate Tiffany Haddish. – 12/12/17
- The Birds (63, B): Some parts didn’t age well, some maybe didn’t work then. But solidly acted, better crafted & structured than I realized – 12/12/17
- Rat Film (17, B): Defines pest control and colorist from so many personal, historical, science-based POVs. Sound, montage impress. – 12/16/17
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (17, C-): I don’t resent the ideas introduced but find them poorly handled in themselves. Scared, in some ways. – 12/17/17
- Stale flabbiness, weak moralizing kinda neat if you think it’s about the incompetence of the Democratic Party.
- Absolutely no sense of economic storytelling. Images often gripping. Meanwhile, the plot lumbers on.
- I have legit qualms with The Last Jedi and by far my pettiest one is the fucking pants Kylo wore in his shirtless scene. Driver’s attractive but not wearing *that*. Show his belly button, Rian Johnson. Shit was weird.
- Girls Trip (17, B): Local boyfriend @tsodeman13 had a great time watching this with me, Pretty sure Jada was his fave. Love you boo! – 12/17/17
- The Work (17, A-): Empathy as physical, psychic healing, as a radical act of care, as a first step. Continuously, endlessly powerful. – 12/17/17
- The Shape of Water (17, B-/B): Doesn’t fill out everything it needs to, but still a lovely experience in many ways. What a year for Sally! – 12/17/17
- Princess Cyd (17, B+): So this is what it looks like when a film loves its characters without sanding down conflict. Ridiculously gorgeous. – 12/18/17
- Wonder Wheel (17, D): Allen half-baked *and* overwrought. Storaro fine when he isn’t overdoing it. A long, pitiless thing. Temple’s nice. – 12/19/17
- Stronger (17, C+): Gyllenhaal, Maslany do detailed work. Glossy score. Film doesn’t push as hard as it promises. Slight next to Still Alice. – 12/19/17
- Victoria & Abdul (17, C-): I apologize for the bashing of this sight unseen. That said, looks worse than I expected. Easy politics. – 12/20/17
- Battle of the Sexes (17, B-): Finds a warm, lovely film around Billie. Bobby not so much. Limited in some ways but Christ that felt good. – 12/20/17
- The Wound (17, B/B+): Formally and narratively remarkable study of masculinity and repressed desires among three closeted men. – 12/22/17
- It’s a Wonderful Life (46, A-/A): Extraordinary value of the ordinary. Realized with astonishing grace. Honors politics we desperately need. – 12/24/17
- That being said, this absolutely should’ve been the ending https://t.co/bM8scOaNxn
- White Christmas (54, C?): Too little life outside of Dean Jagger or Clooney, but a pleasant watch all the same. – 12/25/17
- A Christmas Carol (84, B?): Scott delightfully interprets Scrooge in ways I haven’t previously seen. More gothic flourishes than I’m used to. – 12/25/17
- Ghost in the Shell (17, C/C+): More visually captivating than expected, even with cribbed images. Second half Americanization kills compelling ideas – 12/27/17
- A Woman’s Life (17 A-): Sees Jeanne, and the ways money and men have burdened her. Free of false dramatics. Rich emotions. – 12/27/17
- Woodshock (17, B): The Mulleavys keep finding sonic & visual ideas for their gauzy aesthetic. Not great on narrative, but an impressive experiment. – 12/28/17
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (17, C-): I don’t inherently dislike Johnson’s concepts, but they’re unconvincingly told. Visual storytelling is banal and flattens the actors. – 12/29/17
- Darkest Hour (17, C): Politics could be tougher, visual tics could be less overbearing. Liked it more than expected, but not by much. – 12/30/17
- Free in Deed (17, B+): Finds emotional potency, rich ideas about religion and relationships in a risky, unusual narrative. Evocative sound. – 12/30/17
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