Best of 2017 - Takeaways from the Movies of 2017

After every year, I take a look back at the movies and movie news throughout the year and reflect on all that happened. I reflect on the biggest stories, the biggest movies, and the ones that surprised us. These are five big things that I took away from the 2017 movie year.

5 – MATT DAMON’S TERRIBLE YEAR

Matt Damon has been one of Hollywood’s top talents for over twenty years now, since his breakout, Oscar nominated turn in Good Will Hunting (1997). He was even nominated for an Oscar just two years ago for The Martian (2015). Damon doesn’t have a perfect track record, but he’s usually pretty good about his movie choices. That was until this year, when Damon came out with three movies and they were all terrible, ugly misses. One bad movie happens, two is concerning, but three, well three is just troubling, especially in one year. The Great Wall was the best film Damon was in this year and that movie features a white man (Damon) protecting the Great Wall of China. What’s up, whitewashing? Then, Damon’s two biggest bombs were Suburbicon and Downsizing, two films who’s Oscar hopes were dashed quickly due to poor reviews and a terrible box office. This is going to be a tough hole to dig out of for one of Hollywood’s best, so let’s hope Damon’s next few projects steer him back on course.

4 – THE DISNEY/FOX DEAL

This might be the biggest actual story of 2017. Disney, who is already basically the king of the box office with Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, and their own animation studio, just became even bigger by purchasing 20th Century Fox. This means Disney now owns all the rights to Fox’s movie and television production, which include properties like X-Men, Fantastic Four, Aliens, the rebooted Planet of the Apes, and even The Simpsons. I have mixed feelings on this deal. I can’t wait to see what Disney and the MCU do with the X-Men and Fantastic Four, but I’m concerned as to how they will handle more R-rated franchises like Alien or even this year’s Deadpool 2. It’ll be interesting to see going down the line, but for now, Bob Iger and Disney own the multiplex.

3 – THE MOST UNPREDICTABLE OSCAR RACE IN YEARS

I’ve been following the Oscars closely for just over a decade and this year, it is crazier than ever. Around this time every year, we can narrow the field down to three films that could win Best Picture, like 2015, when it was a three-way race between Spotlight, The Revenant, and The Big Short. Sometimes, we can narrow it down to two movies, like last year when it was a race between Moonlight and Spotlight. Hell, sometimes, like in 2011, everyone knew The Artist was going to sweep it all by this time. But this year, I’d say there are around six movies that realistically have a shot of winning Best Picture, which is ridiculous. The top three contenders right now are Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Get Out, and Lady Bird, with films like Dunkirk, The Post, and The Shape of Water all coming close behind. The acting races are also up in the air as well, with Best Actor looking like a race between Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) and Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name), Best Actress is really anyone’s game, same goes for Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress looks like a battle between Allison Janey (I, Tonya) and Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird). Best Director is also just as confusing as Best Picture. This is going to be a wild couple months to see who picks up some important guild awards.

2 – MOVIE SEASON’S NO LONGER EXIST

Usually, the standard movie year would go as follows:

January, February, March, April- A dark time for cinema. Bad movies, low box office, and people catching up on the current year’s Oscar contenders.
May, June, July, August – Summer movie season. A time that brings the masses to the cinemas for loud, dumb, explosive films and gigantic popcorn.
September, October, November, December – Oscar season. The time when prestigious filmmakers release their films in hopes of Oscar glory.

Over the last few years, however, the seasons have begun to merge, and this year, they have officially vanished. Now, we have Oscar contenders coming out in February (Get Out), big budget blockbusters coming out all over the place (Beauty and the Beast in March, Fate of the Furious in April, Thor: Ragnarok in November), the worst of the worst movies coming out, well, all year. I know these things have happened in years before, but not all in one year. And even in 2018, we have Black Panther, Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris, and Annihilation coming out in February and Ready Player One and A Wrinkle in Time coming out in March. This makes the movie year, as a whole, far more exciting and it is something that I love.

1 – A24 SOLIDIFIES ITSELF AS THE BEST STUDIO IN THE GAME

Disney? Ha! It’s for tourists. A24 is where real movies are made. This is a studio that continues to take chances on convention, filmmakers, and stories, putting new and original material out all the time. 2017 started with a bang for the studio, as they solidified that they needed to be ranked with the big boys when they won Best Picture at the Oscars for Moonlight. This year was the studios most prolific and best year yet, with Oscar favorites Lady Bird, The Florida Project, and The Disaster Artist, challenging art-house fare with Good Time, It Comes At Night, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Ghost Story, and hidden gems like The Ballad of Lefty Brown, Menashe, and The Lovers. Whenever people say cinema isn’t original, I point them to A24. Since Spring Breakers back in 2013, they continue to impress me by their films and I cannot wait to see what they have in store in 2018.