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Best films of 2017: More lists! POST

Best films of 2017: More lists!

It’s hard to pick clear favorites from the latest roundup of the last year’s best films according to my circle of Christian friends and peers.

 Phantom Thread [video] POST

Phantom Thread [video] (2017)

There is a certain fascination in how fascinated Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis are in material that is not fascinating.

 The Shape of Water [video] POST

The Shape of Water [video] (2017)

Not the year’s better film starring Sally Hawkins as a handicapped dreamer with an inarticulate, seemingly almost subhuman lover.

 Mudbound [video] POST

Mudbound [video] (2017)

The more firmly rooted in a sense of time and place a film is, the more revelatory it often is of the present.

 <em>Call Me By Your Name</em> Q&amp;A POST

Call Me By Your Name Q&A

Last week controversy erupted over my “Reel Faith” video review of the Best Picture–nominated movie Call Me By Your Name, a gay-themed coming-of-age drama about a same-sex relationship between characters played by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer.

 Tolkien and Lewis disliked <em>Snow White</em>. You know who wouldn&#8217;t have? POST

Tolkien and Lewis disliked Snow White. You know who wouldn’t have?

Indeed, it would be impossible to imagine Tolkien — a brilliant worldbuilder and a famously purist curmudgeon who disliked Lewis’s own Narnia stories, a sentiment contrasting greatly with Lewis’ enormous esteem for Tolkien’s Middle-earth — being anything but appalled by Disney’s silly dwarfs, with their slapstick humor, nursery-moniker names, and singsong musical numbers.

 Best films of 2016: More lists! POST

Best films of 2016: More lists!

I’m pleased to note that my three top films of 2016 achieved a striking consensus in this group of cinephiles.

 Manchester by the Sea [video] POST

Manchester by the Sea [video] (2016)

“Some people can’t get over something major that’s happened to them at all,” says filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan says. “Why can’t they have a movie too?”

 Moonlight [video] POST

Moonlight [video]

One of the year’s most critically acclaimed films, Moonlight isn’t easy to watch, but is it worth it? I think it is.

 Hidden Figures [video] POST

Hidden Figures [video] (2016)

An important story you probably don’t know about, starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe as NASA “computers” (really!) during the 1960s space race, when NASA’s Langley Research Center was still segregated.

 Silence [video] POST

Silence [video]

Martin Scorsese’s Silence is simply one of the year’s most difficult and necessary films.

 Passengers [video] POST

Passengers [video]

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence in space. How bad could it be?

 Loving [video] POST

Loving [video] (2016)

So much better and more satisfying than the courtroom drama it could have been.

 Arrival [video] POST

Arrival [video]

I try never to spoil anything, but honestly, just skip this video and go see it. I mean, then come back and watch the video, of course.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [video] POST

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [video] (2016)

It’s the Star Wars prequels for Harry Potter. Actually, it made me wish I was watching Doctor Strange again.

John Paul the Great professor defends <em>Rogue One</em> POST

John Paul the Great professor defends Rogue One

Thomas P. Harmon, professor of theology and culture at John Paul the Great Catholic University, has written a thoughtful essay for Catholic World Report responding to my critique of the moral murkiness of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

People keep lying about computer &#8220;creativity&#8221; POST

People keep lying about computer “creativity”

Nearly 15 years ago the British futurist Ian Pearson predicted that by 2010 the world’s highest-paid celebrity would be an artificial “synthespian.” That didn’t pan out, but now journalists and PR people are trying to hype A.I. entities as filmmakers behind the camera.

 Ice Age: Collision Course [video] POST

Ice Age: Collision Course [video]

The tipping point has been reached where I now wish that even the original Ice Age had never been made in the first place. Yes, even if it means no Scratt ever.

 Jason Bourne [video] POST

Jason Bourne [video]

You know his name. David Webb. You did know that was his name, right?

 Ghostbusters [video] POST

Ghostbusters [video]

The new Ghostbusters is perhaps more important than good, which isn’t a great place to be.