Gang: Here’s my take on the 2017 films !

Let’s keep it short and semi-sweet: my favorite films from top to bottom (Blade Runner 2040-whatever is the bottom)

Top of the Line:

The Post: Could not be a more important film about the need for a free press and the courage to blow the whistle on the liars {regardless of political party}. I realize that if Nixon had his own network (which he wanted when he talked to Roger Ailes) things may have worked out differently for Nixon and the nation. Quick note: I heard someone famous on NPR speak to the need for real news and that young folks need to decipher the difference. That person said that the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal are the two great levelers. Why? Because they are upholding journalistic standards, the rule of law and are not insulated from libel or prison {for not revealing sources}. The Washington Post is no slacker either.

The Shape of Water:  So if you are not into magical realism—this is not for you—but it was for me. It is a parable of what we fear and how we treat those things/ ideas we fear; verses, those who are open to seeing things that are both different in even perhaps threatening (because they are so different). The most creative picture I saw all year.

Lady Bird: And now for the opposite—stark realism. This is a mother, daughter, andculture ( I use that word loosely) that is high school. Lady Bird is a rebel with a cause, she just doesn’t quite know what it is, but she knows it is not community college in Sacramento. It is about the adult realists who don’t want to see dreams quashed vs. a dreamer who sometimes needs to be quashed to learn what is what and what really is ‘the best’ she can be.

father slice of life for a senior in high school who feels trapped by the expectations presented to her by a mother who never knows when to stop pushing and chiding, and an adolescent world populated by the cool

The Darkest Hour and Dunkirk: This is a twofer in the best way. I am not sure which to see first, but I know they are both necessary. I, for one, really didn’t know that much about all this drama ( I know, I should have.)  The two films show the psychology of facing defeat and what kind of enormous courage it takes when all seems lost (Atticus Finch speaks of this in Mockingbird). Sometimes that bravery comes from the common folk, and cowards are the ones who have much to lose. Dunkirk shows its audience the spectacle of what those same ordinary people can do in extraordinary circumstances. A side note: Our wars today are not at all like this. There are no clear battle lines, no uniforms, no white flags of surrender, no real nations at war—today, wart is far more dangerous. It is about a religious fanaticism that claims death is a ticket to nirvana and leaders who will gas their own people to stay in power. {Oh, wait! I guess there are similarities to WWI and II.}

Call Me by Your Name: Again, this takes the audience into a world that until the last 20 years, (okayBrokeback Mountain. However, this film follows a very different path. It explores sexual identity—especially when that identity is just blossoming. For many people there is a clear answer to that question of sexual orientation—in this film, that answer is not so clear. The only way to know is to live both lives…for a while.

maybe 10) many folks would not feel comfortable seeing (think

The Phantom Thread: You know, sometimes everything about a film is wonderful: the actors, the setting, the intrigue of the plot…it all seems to be quite beautiful. But the sum of its parts equals a unbalanced equation. If you have ever read Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” the gothic tale will seem familiar. As a teacher, I wanted my students to ‘experience’ the wicked, tortured nature of Emily, but as a filmgoer—well—I just think it is all so terribly sad. Not ‘sad’ in a Trump way, just pathetic. I guess, there are people like those portrayed in this film—lots of them, I suppose. And it is worth discussing—just not over dinner.

I want to add two other films that I liked besides Star Wars, which I like because it is ‘the force’ in me.

Marshall: This gem came in the summer, and I just felt that it was overlooked. Too few understand what Thurgood Marshall overcame to become one of the most revered lawyers and eventually Supreme Court judges in recent American history. It is not about Brown v. Board of Education; it is what happened right before…Oh—and a last entry:

Roman J. Israel, Esq.: Not the best film Denzel Washington has been in, but a very interesting one. He plays a man who is obsessed with the details. Stuck in his ways—it just so happens his ‘ways’ are the moral high ground too many people avoid because it is just too steep a journey.