Frank Avella's Best Films (& Performances) of 2017

It's been an eclectic film year, wildly better than 2016. Below are my selections for the Best of 2017 as well as a host of other pics that could have cracked the top 13 in any other year.

In addition, I've listed my acting and directing selections.

Outstanding Films of 2017

1. "Dunkirk"

When I first saw Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, "Dunkirk" in IMAX back in July, I was completely enveloped. It was a wholly immersive event. I felt the fear, the desperation and the ever-evolving camaraderie these boys had with one another. And that 'every man for himself' drive to survive. I immediately saw the film a second time and was no less impressed (and didn't have the structural puzzle to figure out). I wondered if any other film this year would match the transcendent experience. And no film has. "Dunkirk" is an ambitious project that expertly blends epic storytelling with small, nuanced moments of humanity. Cinema doesn't get much better.

2. "Phantom Thread"

Paul Thomas Anderson, like Christopher Nolan, is one of the best American filmmakers working today. With his latest peek into Americana, he offers a cinematic poem, inviting audiences into a unique and spellbinding, very often perverse, world they may be unfamiliar with (or at least pretend to be) - that of desire and adoration and submission and domination...and love. Oh and there's also the world of 1950s fashion-which is captured impeccably. Daniel Day-Lewis, arguably (and I will make the argument, our greatest living screen actor, in (according to him) his final film performance, is what you'd expect, astonishingly good. You won't want to take your eyes off of him, unless Lesley Manville is commanding her side of the screen, or Vicky Krieps demands her wicked space. Do yourself a favor and let this film wash over you.

3. "The Post"

A film I wanted to (and did) watch again almost immediately, Steven Spielberg's masterful and timely suspense-drama, "The Post" is simply great filmmaking with magnetic and mesmeric work from a kick-ass ensemble and tech team. Meryl Streep is, once again, astonishing as socialite and Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham, the woman who forced a freedom of the press Supreme Court reckoning via her allowing publication of excerpts of the Pentagon Papers in the early '70s. Tom Hanks excels as Post Editor Ben Bradlee (although Jason Robards owns that role). No film is as important to our current political climate.

4. "Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri"

This black comedy is much subtler and more character-sympathetic than we've come to expect from playwright/screenwriter/director Martin McDonagh ("In Bruge"). Is "Three Billboards" a real portrayal of a Midwest small town? No. Is it supposed to be? No. It plays more like an alternate universe capture where no scene ends the way you'd expect it to and character sympathies are constantly in flux and shifting, which makes it one of the boldest, most refreshing films of 2017. I especially admired how it examined the often soul destroying effects of loss - This text will be the linkespecially the loss of a child. "3B" also happens to boast an incredibly gifted ensemble of actors led by the fierce Frances McDormand, in her best screen role to date (yes, including "Fargo.")

5. "Mudbound"

Dee Rees weaves a remarkable tapestry of life on the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s. Based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, "Mudbound" is about two radically different families that must confront their own demons and raise children in a hotbed of racism and fear. The heart of the film involves the close friendship between two soldiers (Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell, who both deserve more recognition than they're getting) seeing one another through PTSD in the slave-minded south. Carey Mulligan and Mary J. Blige, respectively, play the long-suffering mothers of both boys. "Mudbound" packs an emotional punch that left me devastated, yet hopeful.

6." I, Tonya"

I fell ass over skates in love with Craig Gillespie's "I, Tonya" and its deliberately nasty, deceptively mean-spirited, fittingly fake-news approach and super-dark comic style. Margot Robbie leaps into the skin of Tonya Harding, in a career-making turn. Sebastian Stan kills in as her abusive husband Jeff Gillooly. And Allison Janney fearlessly plays the worst mom since Faye Dunaway decided to take on Christina Crawford's questionable version of Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest."

Clever-helmer Craig Gillespie and deft screen writer Steven Rogers run roughshod over the mocumentary format, break the fourth wall and give Harding her due in an invigorating way, digging deep into the trashy, depraved underbelly of the U.S.A. Yes, many Americans are violent and misogynistic and vulgar and profane. The film has offended some prissy PC crix who feel the style is inappropriate. I find their faux sensitivity inappropriate.

7. "The Shape of Water"

"The Shape of Water" is dizzyingly original and fantastical and just plain exhilarating. Guillermo Del Toro has created a cinematic work of art that is enchanting and boasts a performance by Sally Hawkins that is nothing short of miraculous. Oddball girl, with non-conformist friends, meets strange creature and seeks escape from the evil U.S. government flunkies out to annihilate anything they don't understand. Things haven't changed much since the 1960s, have they?

8. "Lady Bird"

Greta Gerwig's smashing solo writer/director debut stars a captivating Saoirse Ronan as a high school senior looking for acceptance and validation from her fellow students and her family, especially her judgmental mother (a stirring Laurie Metcalf). One of the things "Lady Bird" gets so right that I have rarely seen onscreen is how humans often jerk from one extreme emotion to another, sometimes mid-second, based on a look, a sentence, a miscommunication or a clarification. In Gerwig's world, like in the real world, we are not behaving inconsistently when we behave inconsistently.

9. "God's Own Country"

In a year of terrific LGBT-themed films, Francis Lee's slow burn to chemically explosive love story remains my favorite. It tells a simple tale without judgment or compromise. "GOC" is bold and messy, dense yet sparse. Josh O'Connor fully embodies the gruff 'n rough farm boy who is tamed by the brooding Romanian (a potent Alec Secareanu) hired to help tend to the sheep and cattle. The intimate scenes are refreshingly real and raw but never gratuitous. And the tenderness that emerges is palpable.

10. "BPM (Beats Per Minute)"

Egregiously overlooked when the Oscar Foreign-Language Film short list was released, this stunning achievement by director Robin Campillo chronicles AIDS activism via the machinations of ACT UP Paris. Act One documents the angry group plotting and planning and, well, acting up. Act Two allows us to get much closer to the two leads (Arnaud Valois & Nahuel P�rez Biscayart) and truly feel for their struggle. Campillo is bold in his filmmaking style as well as his depiction of sex between men.

11. "Detroit"

Since Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar for "The Hurt Locker," she has continued to push herself as an artist and as provocateur - but she doesn't provoke for the sake of provoking - she asks important political and social questions. "Zero Dark Thirty," one of the best films of this tumultuous new millennium, was maligned and smeared. And her follow up (also written by the brilliant Mark Boal), "Detroit" has been deemed too polemic and 'unnuanced' (their created word) by the blogisphere. Serious bullshit is what that is. Apparently telling the truth is didactic. This latest and misunderstood gem happens to be a timely, explosive and uber compelling look at the 1967 Detroit riots. Certain people may not be comfortable with it's unrelentingly "one sided" portrayal but, alas, that's the way it was (and still is in many places) in our lovely country. It's exemplary work by an artist bent on challenging herself and her audience.

12. "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool"

Buoyed by luminous work by the continuously underappreciated Annette Bening and the remarkably versatile Jamie Bell, "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" is a charming and lovely valentine to femme fatale and Oscar-winner Gloria Grahame in the last two years of her life. Based on the affectionate Peter Turner memoir, "Film Stars" explores the deep bond between a young British actor and a one-time movie star now struggling to pay her bills. Bening superbly captures the allure and grace of Grahame without ever resorting to mimicry. And the film has some profound things to say about perception and empathy.

13. "Call Me By Your Name"

Timothee Chalamet's hypnotic performance and James Ivory's loving and intelligent screenplay are just some of the ingredients that make Luca Guadagnino's film so rich and rewarding. And while the film may play it too safe in terms of guy-on-guy sexual situations and nudity, it has much to offer as a deep and affectionate exploration of one teen's coming to terms with his unconventional yearnings and desires. Chalamet gives us a heroic young gay (some have argued bi) figure that is refreshingly devoid of self-hatred and self-pity. I debated including this one because of a borderline homophobic marketing campaign, but in the end, it should be about the film.

Runners-up:

"Battle of the Sexes," "Downsizing," "The Disaster Artist," "Hostiles," "Get Out," "Molly's Game," "Wonder Woman," "War for the Planet of the Apes," "Nocturama," "Thor: Ragnarok," "Foxtrot," "Our Souls at Night," "Darkest Hour," "Faces Places," "Akron," "All the Money in the World" and "The Square."

Outstanding Achievement in Direction:

1. Christopher Nolan for "Dunkirk"
2. Paul Thomas Anderson for "Phantom Thread"
3. Steven Spielberg for "The Post"
4. Dee Rees for "Mudbound"
5. Martin McDonagh for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Runner-up: Guillermo Del Toro for "The Shape of Water" & Greta Gerwig for "Lady Bird"

Outstanding Lead Actor:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in "Phantom Thread"
2. Timoth�e Chalamet in "Call Me By Your Name"
3. Gary Oldman in "Darkest Hour"
4. James Franco in "The Disaster Artist"
5. Jamie Bell in "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool"
Runners-up: Tom Hanks in "The Post" & Josh O'Connor in "God's Own Country"

Best Lead Actress:

1. Frances McDormand in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
2. Margot Robbie in "I, Tonya"
3. Meryl Streep in "The Post"
4. Sally Hawkins in "The Shape of Water"
5. Annette Bening in "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool"
Runners-up: Jessica Chastain in "Molly's Game" & Saoirse Ronan in "Lady Bird"

Outstanding Supporting Actor:

1. Sam Rockwell in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
2. Bob Odenkirk in "The Post"
3. Willem Dafoe in "The Florida Project"
4. Michael Stuhlbarg in "Call Me By Your Name," & "The Shape of Water"
5. Garrett Hedlund & Jason Mitchell in "Mudbound"
Runners-up: Sebastian Stan in "I, Tonya" & Christopher Plummer in "All the Money in the World"

Outstanding Supporting Actress:

1. Lesley Manville in "Phantom Thread"
2. Allison Janney in "I, Tonya"
3. Holly Hunter in "The Big Sick"
4. Hong Chau in "Downsizing"
5. Julianne Nicholson in "Novitiate" & "I, Tonya"
Runners-up: Rosamund Pike in "Hostiles" & Laurie Metcalf in "Lady Bird"