2017 Media Round-Up: Movies!

[sabotabby]

I see very few movies. And most of those movies, I don't like. I will eventually go on at great length about which TV I loved, because TV is far less formulaic than film is these days, but that's a longer post to write, so movies first.

Not all of these are 2017 because that would be an even shorter list. But only 2017 movies can qualify for the year's best.

Okja: This is completely vegan/animal liberation propaganda and I am fully biased but I don't even care. It's about a girl and her giant, genetically modified, probably sentient pig. When young Mija finds out the plan for the pig she and her grandfather have raised for the last ten years, she must journey from her home in the Korean countryside to rescue Okja from the Mirando Corporation in New York City, aided by the Animal Liberation Front. Ahn Seo-hyun as Mija turns in an incredible performance, the special effects are surprisingly believable, and its message of compassion, though anvillicious, is important and beautiful. Two caveats: First, there's an unnecessary anti-GMO subtext, and second there is a really horrifying (animal) rape scene towards the end that IS completely necessary, and rather accurate in terms of what happens to farm animals, but traumatic to watch. Also, animals die, though not Okja.

Pride: I somehow missed seeing this when it came out in 2014, but I rectified that error this year so it goes on the list. It's the true story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, who fundraised and later travelled to come to the aid of striking miners in 1984. This is how to do intersectionality and solidarity properly, and it's an absolutely gorgeous, powerful film.

Death Race 2000: Lest you think that I only watch earnest political movies, I also watched this 1975 Roger Corman movie about running over pedestrians with souped-up cars and fucking loved it. Okay, so it also has a political subtext—an interesting one, especially in the context of Death Race 2050, the 2017 remake, which I did not like despite an absolutely hilarious Bechdel Rule reference. While the former allows a space for revolutionary organizing and the potential of building a better (or at least slightly less horrifying) world, the latter is pure nihilism, with both the rebels and the government portrayed as equally terrible, and the only solution being individual, heteronormative escapism. It's odd to think of a film made in 1975 as being far less progressive than one made in 2017, but there you have the historical dialectic as a spiral rather than a straight line. Also it's a movie about people running down pedestrians in cars. I don't know if I mentioned that. You get points for babies and old people.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: However, I did love 2017's unabashed remake of 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, er, or, you know, the brand new Star War. It probably tops last year's Rogue One for me and also Return of the Jedi (yes, one of the new ones is better than one of the originals, fight me), mainly for its focus on non-Skywalkers and for its deconstruction of every trope that the franchise has been beating into popular culture since 1977. There's no shortage of good thinkpieces that you can read about it and probably have but anyway Rose Tico is my new favourite after Leia and haters can STFU.

But the best movie of 2017, by far, was Get Out, Jordan Peele's complex, harrowing, and completely hilarious horror-comedy film about white supremacy in America. If you haven't bothered to see it yet, read absolutely nothing about it, see it, then read the analysis of all the layers and symbols and clever filmmaking tricks (there are many) and then see it again with the knowledge of what is going to happen in it. It should be taught in film school as an example to do absolutely everything right with a fraction of an average movie budget and almost no special effects or famous actors. It's a movie for film geeks that manages to be entirely entertaining even as it brings home hard truths about race and politics.

Annnnd, that's it, really. Biggest disappointments were Wonder Woman, which I expected to love based on the hype but which I found formulaic, and Blade Runner 2049, which was only really good because of the visuals and soundtrack and also because it really annoys geeks when you tell them you didn't like it. The film I'm saddest about missing is Armando Iannucci's Death of Stalin, which only played at TIFF this year and I'm desperately hoping will be released in theatres (or better yet, on Netflix) because I am dying to see it as it sounds like everything in life that I love.

Comments

[mistersmearcase]

Oh my god, we watched Wonder Woman a couple of weeks ago because it had been such a thing, and it was just so very boring. I kept losing the thread of the minimal plot because the writing had somehow annoyed me to sleep, which I didn't know was a thing.

[sabotabby]

It was painfully overhyped. Friends of mine cried. I expected to love it, only to find that it was another paint-by-numbers origin story that ended with the good guy and the bad guy zapping CGI at each other. I mean, it was perfectly competent in the way that Marvel movies are and DC movies typically aren't, but every beat was so fucking predictable I almost went to sleep too.

[kore]

I LOVED Last Jedi and really did not expect to. I was like crying nonstop during the last half-hour of the movie. LUKE. REY. LEIA. Kylo and Hux being ridiculous, LOL! The standoff between Luke and the army! The little crystal foxes! Rey lifting the rocks! The last sparks of the Rebellion all crammed in the Falcon! Fuck man, I got all teary just at the theme music and giant yellow crawl right at the start. As T said, "I didn't think I'd get to see good Star Wars movies again in my lifetime!"

it really annoys geeks when you tell them you didn't like it

LOL yeah the the male geeks go on about how oh you probably didn't like the first one. Then I'm all bitch, have my paperback of "Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream)" which was ONLY available when the movie came out, and my CASSETTE of the soundtrack from when they couldn't get the Vangelis music and it had to be redone by an orchestra. Fucking fake fanboys.

[sabotabby]

I'm told that cinematic language isn't a thing and visuals don't matter, and I was clearly not paying attention to the titles or dialogue, which explains everything, and also I should see the shorts. I'm like, if you're relying on dialogue, titles, and tie-in material, you haven't made a good movie.

[lapinlunaire]

OKJAAAAAAA.

I didn't really see it as anti-GMO subtext, just anti-evil-corporations-creating-GMO-pigs-and-killing-them. But I can see where you're coming from :(

The spoiler!scene still makes me upset when I think about it. The whole movie broke my heart, actually.

Get Out was amazing, do you have any links to the layers you're talking about? I could read about this movie all day.

[sabotabby]

I think they should have made it a bit more overt with it being about how she used fear of GMOs to hoodwink people, not that the GMOs were inherently bad.

I should try to track down the thinkpieces. There was one really amazing one about the scene where she's drinking milk from a straw and how it has all of these different meanings.

[minoanmiss]

I loved Wonder Woman but I'm not about to claim it was the most original movie in the history of ever. I loved it because... it was a much better done version of that formula than the usual awful ones. Which is kind of damning with faint praise, I know.

I wish I had the emotional strength to see Get Out. I'm so glad it was made.

I'm really looking forward to TLJ.

[sabotabby]

That was the thing; I was expecting it to break the mold and instead it just did the mold...reasonably well?

Get Out is intense. I can only imagine it's hella triggery for someone who's experienced racism.

I hope you like TLJ as much as I do!

[50ftqueenie]

I fucking loved Get Out and I really want to see Pride. I also enjoyed the heck out of Thor: Ragnarok.

[sabotabby]

I've heard it's good. I've been kind of burned out on superhero movies but it sounds like the kind of thing that would cheer up my heartbroken self right now.

[50ftqueenie]

Thor: Ragnarok is surprisingly funny. It makes good use of Chris Hemsworth's underrated skills as a comic actor, resulting in a lot of good comedic banter between Hulk and Thor.