"I cannot start my day with a confrontation" The 2017 ILX Film Poll Voting Thread - Ballots Due Sunday, March 4th at 7pm EST.

Saw and was inspired by too few new films to vote, though they didn't include Get Out or The Work or The B-Side or, I expect of greater relative interest to me, Mudbound or BPM or Ex Libris or The Four Sisters. I typically enjoyed the half-Varda and to a lesser degree Soderbergh and Winterbottom, but found them less interesting slight returns to somewhat familiar territory (same for the 2016 Assayas, which I saw that year too, though it might be worth a second look), and the Grateful Dead movie I more than willingly sat through four hours of was as advertised both long and a little strange but not quite a trip. Lady Bird was not without its minor charms, but I suspect I would have enjoyed a lot more with Gerwig rather than Ronan in front of the camera, and ultimately I was tempted to deem it the vaguely-indie coming-of-age-comedy cognate of the comic-book/sci-fi films whose artistic merit appears to have been inflated by whatever cultural importance there may be in their being helmed by and/or starring women and/or African-Americans, less interesting or substantive than, say, the more adult Columbus. Same goes for The Florida Project, which I found too aggressively awful in content, milieu, and lack of any particular point I cared to discern to be attentive to the extent to which it may have been well made by anyone other than the adult leads. While I'd felt similarly about previous McDonagh work, the somewhat-accidentally-seen Three Billboards felt sufficiently meatier in its storytelling and mild convention-subversion to overlook the complications and light weight; I suspect Wind River probably was too. The Hong movie seemed a bit more interesting than those I'd seen previously, but not enough to bother me that I was dragged out of it early on content grounds. My favorite 2017 film (excluding 2016s not seen in that year like Cameraperson or especially Robinson Devor's fairly compelling Pow Wow) was probably The Other Side of Hope, which felt most of and responsive to the moment.

Same goes for The Florida Project, which I found too aggressively awful in content, milieu, and lack of any particular point I cared to discern to be attentive to the extent to which it may have been well made by anyone other than the adult leads.

????????

not entirely wrong

Lady Bird was not without its minor charms, but I suspect I would have enjoyed a lot more with Gerwig rather than Ronan in front of the camera, and ultimately I was tempted to deem it the vaguely-indie coming-of-age-comedy cognate of the comic-book/sci-fi films whose artistic merit appears to have been inflated by whatever cultural importance there may be in their being helmed by and/or starring women and/or African-Americans

entirely wrong

Saw Good Time last night! Lovely nerve-shredder. I cried at the end

entirely wrong

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 19, 2018 11:25 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It may be that I'm just insufficiently suburban in origin, female in gendering, millennial in generation, or Catholic in upbringing to have more than modest feeling for a film that competed with food and drink, etc. for my attention as many increasingly do, but even putting aside the fact that for all her very good work Ronan never entirely registered as Sacramentian, the whole thing just felt less real than even the comic-book take of Ghost World, for which I had less feeling even before a recent screening highlighted its fairly reactionary/not a little creepy script. Part of that may also have to do with the slightly peculiar lightness with which Gerwig's (or, I suppose more appropriately, her teenaged/post-collegiate characters') happy-go-lucky vision/persona treats life's difficulties, but again I find that treatment more convincing when she embodies it herself.

The slightly peculiar lightness is a sensibility I've encountered more than a few times in adulthood, and only rarely have I seen it incarnated onscreen as fully as Gerwig does. Couple this sensibility with the editing and Ronan's acting chops and the result was a small miracle.

Ronan never entirely registered as Sacramentian

I didn't exactly feel that (someone like Christine could exist anywhere in the US, and it's up to the movie to show us what kinds of people there are), but if Ronan's own origins were creating some interference, that could work in its favour given that Christine is always dreaming of being away from Sacramento.

Yeah, sorry, I just saw a very good performance of teenaged suburban American identity rather than someone actually acquainted with it. It wasn't necessarily the specific geography I was hung up on, though I do tend to care about such things, but I did, like Richard Brody (who offhandedly appears to agree with me about Gerwig's absence), miss the absence of much specificity - https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/greta-gerwigs-exquisite-flawed-lady-bird.

absence/presence

Voted.

Sent mine!

GG was not going to play a 17-year-old. Ronan's fine.

Not going to vote until the deadline, but I generally vote for anything I’ve seen prior to the poll even if its UK release was later as I don’t like to get left out of the US voting current and risk the lower placement or missing out of things I loved.

Really appreciate Cherish’s list upthread - I’ll definitely try to see at least one of those before voting. Any other suggestions for probably-missed films? The more intense the better. I have limited patience for slowcore atm

'limited patience for slowcore' waaaait we saw A Ghost Story like yesterday and you LIKED it

but yeah we're going to watch something tonight and it might as well be from that list, although I'm angling for Paddington 2

I DID NOT necessarily know what I thought of it beyond disconsolate crying.

Someone save me from Paddington 2

On body & soul was good!

From the fest here I liked kékszakállú and the forest of lost souls

I also recommend voting for twin peaks

By the Time It Gets Dark is pretty slowcore, fyi. Also my least favorite of the four.

Have you guys seen Wonderstruck?

I have not! It is not on my radar at all. Would you recommend? Thanks for the advice too. Definitely going to try and watch On Body and Soul and Berlin Syndrome before the deadline.

For now we are watching I Am Not a Witch, but everything mentioned is getting added to the list.

Paddington 2 is great, unless you hated Paddington 1

Paddington 2 is so deeply moving and emotional that it transcends traditional categorization

Would you recommend?

I do recommend it! It's a kids's movie, really, but carefully and cleverly designed for film buffs -- with its two story lines filmed in two distinct styles.

I think you'll really like the other two also. I'm always happy to pass on good movies!

Wonderstruck doesn't really work, but I kinda admire Haynes for trying it.

I’ve not gotten around to some key movies yet but I want to vote for Ex Libris. Hmmm...

Wonderstruck is a minor work by Haynes, still pretty good though.

Yeah. I went in with no expectations and was surprised how much I liked it. It's a very simple story, sure, but visually fun. And that young deaf actress is extremely good.

I Am Not A Witch was superb and you should all subscribe to the BFI player and see it. Really unusual and risk-taking but it pretty much all comes off. And it's totally hilarious

also, [Mr Peanutbutter voice] I *loved* Paddington 1!

Paddington 2 is, then: great

accurate

i spose this is better than stanning for the bloody 'days of empire' movies

Bump. Theoretical final week of voting. Work just threw some stuff at me though so I'll know by Saturday.

btw deadline was bumped a week last year...

I apologize to wins for telling him to blow me on last year's thread. I deserved his opprobrium.

I've forgotten how the weighting works. If you put fewer films on your ballot, will the ones that are left be given more juice?

No, you're just denying the films lower on the ballot any points. 1=40, 2=36, etc...

voted!

we've been seeing filmz

call me by your name is an excellent movie about summering in italy and it features a lot of really excellent birdsong

Haha morbius I don't doubt it, no need to apologise tho cmon

imago/tt and any others looking to catch up over the weekend, I v much recommend watching Dawson City, Frozen Time - a highlight of my cinemagoing last year and deserving of a place

(fundamentally tho I recommend everyone stop playing themselves and vote for twin peaks obv)

excerpted from a major film journal's year-end request email:

...if you could send me a top ten, ranked, of your choice for annum 2017, based on films that premiered (in festivals or cinemas or on Showtime), that would be great...

some of us have seen only 2/18 of TP:TR, categorization be damned

Vote for it anyway

saving it for TV poll

everyone i know that saw Dawson City: Frozen Time said they liked it but found the music super treacly and almost unbearable

I can't call the music to mind- it was a sigur ros guy right?

Simon's quote is unsurprising I think serious venues are quite aware of how undistinguished a year 2017 is once you ignore the filmic event of the year

Obviously it's excellent to be more bothered about whether things are filed correctly tho 😎

I have two episodes left in TP:TR and it wouldn't even occur to me to vote it best of the year.

i still haven't recovered from xyzzzz calling the nothing factory better than arabian nights and i doubt i can tbh, that's the kind of cognitive dissonance you don't come back from

everyone i know that saw Dawson City: Frozen Time said they liked it but found the music super treacly and almost unbearable

― flappy bird,

This is another one I sorta liked but started looking at my watch after 50 minutes.

BPM, The Other Side of Hope, Phantom Thread: all distinguished.