Best Movies of Summer 2017

The 2017 summer movie season is officially over! This was a great summer movies. I saw 41 movies over the last four months (49 total if you include the movies that were released this summer that I saw earlier this year at Sundance), and most of them were good. Some of them have made their way into my ten best movies of the year, others have made it on the bottom ten. This list is going to countdown those movies, along with giving recognition to some great performances. Here are my picks for the best movies of summer 2017.

NOTE: I did not include the movies I saw at Sundance when making this list. So movies like Wind River, The Big Sick, Patti Cake$, Step, A Ghost Story, Brigsby Bear, The Little Hours, and Landline were not considered for these rankings, even though some would have been near the top.

TOP 5 MOVIES

5 – WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

Matt Reeves’ climactic conclusion to the Apes prequel trilogy is a true sensation. Andy Serkis is a marvel as the legendary Caesar and deserves any and all awards attention. This is part action film, part prison drama, part Shakespeare, and fully brilliant.

4 – LOGAN LUCKY

Steven Soderbergh returns to the director’s chair for this twisty caper that should have been called Ocean’s 7-11. The all-star cast of Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough, and Hilary Swank are all excellent, all bringing their best. Soderbergh hasn’t lost a step as a director, crafting a funny, tricky, wildly entertaining movie.

3 – WONDER WOMAN

The best comic book movie of 2017 is one of the best comic book movies of all-time. Director Patty Jenkins saves the DCEU with a pitch perfect origin story that is serious and dark but also a lot of fun. Gal Gadot gives a star-making performance as our Amazonian princess. She’s strong, badass, and stands for the humanity of all men. The No Man’s Land scene is one of the best scenes of 2017 and one of the best in any comic book movie ever made. This is a fantastic movie and the definition of a perfect summer blockbuster.

2 – DUNKIRK

It was really hard to choose the top two movies of the summer, as I feel that not only are these the two best movies of the summer, but the two best movies of 2017 so far. Christopher Nolan has created one of the most unique and best war movies of the 2000’s. He throws us right on the front lines to give us an intense, cold, terrifying look at the Battle of Dunkirk. This is the best movie of the year on a technical level, with masterful editing, visuals, and music. This is Nolan’s best film since Inception and a true testament to him as a filmmaker.

1 – DETROIT

I didn’t think any film was going to beat Dunkirk as the best movie of the summer and of the year and just two weeks after I saw Dunkirk, I was blown away by Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit. This is a movie that looks at the race riots in Detroit, Michigan in the 1960’s and one fateful night at a motel and it couldn’t be more timely. Bigelow has made an epic, pulse-pounding, compelling masterpiece that keeps you riveted and on the edge of your seat for the three hour runtime. This explosive piece of filmmaking, coupled with the best ensemble of the year have come together to make not only the best movie of the summer but the best movie of 2017.

BEST OF THE REST

BEST DIRECTOR – Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk

Runner Up – Kathryn Bigelow for Detroit

Much like their films, it’s a coin flip as to which one is best, as both films are masterpieces. Bigelow and Nolan are both masters of their craft and deserve Oscar recognition at the end of the year.

BEST ACTOR – Robert Pattinson in GOOD TIME

Runner Up – Sam Elliot in The Hero

Pattinson gives the best performance I have seen in 2017 and a man desperate to get his brother out of prison.

BEST ACTRESS – Selma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner

Runner Up – Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman

I’d usually choose the star-making performance of Gadot here, but Selma Hayek gives one of the best performances of her career as a lower-class, spiritual maid in a room full of upper-class scumbags.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – John Lithgow in Beatriz at Dinner

Runner Up – Will Poulter in Detroit

Lithgow goes toe-to-toe with Hayek in an impressive performances that gives empathy to a character who would usually come off as despicable.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip

Runner Up – Selma Hayek in The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Both are scene-stealers in their films, but Haddish adds a nice level of depth to her character, giving the breakout performance of the summer.

BEST ENSEMBLE – Detroit

Runner Up – Logan Lucky

Logan Lucky‘s all-star cast hits all the right notes, but Detroit features a diverse cast of up and comers and veterans and that all step up to the plate and crush it.

BEST SCREENPLAY – Dunkirk

Runner Up – Ingrid Goes West

Christopher Nolan has crafted one of the best war movies in recent years and it all starts with his tightly wound, time-bending screenplay that puts us on the front lines.

BEST COMEDY – The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Runner Up – Girls Trip

Tough battle between both films, but Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson are the comedy duo of the year in a film that has just as much comedy as it does action.

BEST ACTION MOVIE – Baby Driver

Runner Up – Atomic Blonde

Edgar Wright reinvents the action movie with this slick action movie that features some of the best chase sequences in recent years.

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE – Cars 3

Runner Up – Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

This was a relatively weak summer for animation, but Cars 3 proved to stand head and shoulders above the rest, as well being the best in the Cars franchise.

BEST HORROR/THRILLER – It Comes at Night

Runner Up – Annabelle: Creation

It Comes at Night is a thinking man’s thriller and one that will haunt you for days after you see it.

BEST INDIE – Beatriz at Dinner

Runner Up – Ingrid Goes West

Beatriz at Dinner is a smart, topical movie that features two of the year’s best performances.

UNDERRATED (Movie I liked that nobody else did) – Alien: Covenant

Runner Up – Snatched

Snatched got hated on because a lot of people don’t like Amy Schumer. The movie is very funny and very sweet. Alien: Covenant, though nowhere near as good as Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), is a fun, creepy, epidemic horror film with enough blood, gore, and Fassbender to be awesome.

OVERSEEN (Movie that made a bunch of money but didn’t deserve it) – Despicable Me 3

Runner Up – Transformers: The Last Knight

Both franchises need to die.

UNDERSEEN (Movie that should have been seen by more people) – Detroit

Runner Up – Megan Leavey

More on Megan Leavey below. Detroit is the best and most timely movie of 2017 and has made less than $20 million at the box office. This is an absolute travesty.

BIGGEST SURPRISE – Megan Leavey

Runner Up – The Hitman’s Bodyguard

I thought Megan Leavey was going to be a melodramatic piece about a woman and her dog. But with a stellar lead performance by Kate Mara, this is an emotional powerhouse about a true American hero.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT – All Eyez on Me

Runner Up – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

I was super excited for Valerian, but it disappointed on a number levels. But it was nowhere near the disaster that was All Eyez on Me, which is a cinematic debacle.

5 WORST MOVIES