Half-Year Review: Movies
Half-Way Review: The Five Best Films of the Year So Far
June marks the half-way point of the year, meaning we’ve had half of the year’s films, TV shows, albums, books and more. So what are the best of the bunch at the moment? Below are the five best films of the 2017, so far.
5) Logan
Dir: James Mangold
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant.
Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has been the face and USP of the X-Men cinematic universe and took his last bow after nine appearances in this somber, one-of-a-kind film. Featuring appropriately brutal fight scenes like never before, a swearing, senile Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart’s best X-Men performance by far) and moments of tender yet harsh humanity, this is the Wolverine movie fans deserve.
4) Moonlight
Dir: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Mahershala Ali, Shariff Earp, Duan Sanderson, Alex R. Hibbert, Naomie Harris.
This is understated, beautiful-shot, first-class cinema. The shocking and, frankly hilarious, manner in which it won the Best Picture Oscar should not mar the film’s quality. Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali earned Oscar nominations for supporting roles, with the latter winning, while the three different actors playing Chiron at different ages all embody the heart-breaking, internal fight the character goes through.
3) Manchester by the Sea
Dir: Kenneth Lonergan
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Matthew Broderick.
This film, featuring an Oscar-winning turn from Casey Affleck, never really boils to a point of tear-jerking climax, like many films in the same vein would. Instead, it simmers, always threatening to boil over yet never doing so, adding more and more emotion until the film ends. And because it never does boil over and provide that cathartic release of tears in a big crescendo of emotion that films like this usually have, it stays with you long after the credits finish.
2) Get Out
Dir: Jordan Peele
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones.
In one of the best directorial debuts in cinema history, Jordan Peele’ psychological thriller/horror will keep you thinking long after you’ve watched it. It’s strange and eery from the start and grips it’s haunting talons into you as soon as Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris steps into his white girlfriend’s family home. Of course, it has much to say about the state of racial equality in America, but is never preachy: on the contrary, what it does have to say is new, unusual and interesting. If justice is done, this film will surely be a major front runner at next year’s Oscars.
1) La La Land
Dir: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, J.K. Simmons, John Legend, Finn Wittrock.
Speaking of Oscars, the number one spot goes to the film who won six Academy Awards at this year’s ceremony, including Best Actress, and, some would say, was robbed of the Best Picture crown. Like a 50’s musical made today, it starts with a glorious LA-freeway musical number and continues to be a bright, musical masterpiece until it’s very end. And it’s ending is one of the best endings in recent cinema; melancholy defined, yet heartbreakingly realistic and beautiful.
