15 Dec 2017

Film Review with Richard Swainson

From Afternoons, 2:07 pm on 15 December 2017
Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)

Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016) Photo: Financial Times

Richard looks back on the year in movies, giving us his top 10, his bottom 10 and what he reckons are the 10 most over-rated movies of 2017

The Bottom 10 (ordered "best" to least, with review rating):

10. Atomic Blonde (5)
  9. A Street Cat Named Bob (4)
  8. The Mountain Between Us (4)
  7. Viceroy's House (4)
  6. Gary of the Pacific (4)
  5. 47 Metres Down (3)
  4. The Man Who Invented Christmas (3)
  3. Rough Night (2)
  2. Fifty Shades Darker (1)
  1. Geostorm (1)

The Most Overrated 10 (rough order):

10. Baby Driver (7)
  9. Logan Lucky (6)
  8. Rosalie Blum (6)
  7. Churchill (6.5)
  6. The War for the Planet of the Apes (6)
  5. Split (5.5)
  4. Happy End (didn't review)
  3. Wonder Woman (6)
  2. Get Out (6)
  1. The Beguiled (6.5...but would revise this to 5.5 on reflection)

The Top 10 (ordered least to best, with review rating):

10.  Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, 2017)  (8) :
9. The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2016)  (8) :
8. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK,USA, 2017)  (8):
7. One Thousand Ropes (Tusi Tamasese, New Zealand, 2016) (8)
6. Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, USA, 2016)  (8)
5. A Ghost Story (David Lowery, USA, 2017) (8)
4. I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, USA, 2016) (9)
3. Twin Peaks: The Return (David Lynch, USA, 2017) (didn't review)
2. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, UK, 2017) (10)
1. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, USA, 2016) (10)

Other New Zealand films of note:

Waru
Pecking Order

And those I regret not seeing:

Call Me by Your Name
Lady Macbeth
Good Time
Human Traces (NZ)
The Party
Faces Places
BPM (Beats Per Minute)