The 2017 Jim Ridley Memorial Film Poll

Every year, we at the Scene poll a diverse assemblage of film fans, critics and experts about their favorite flicks of the year, and we present our findings in what we’re now calling the Jim Ridley Memorial Film Poll — named for the Scene’s late, great editor and brilliant film writer. Below, find the top 20 films of the year according to some of the country’s sharpest film buffs, and read their responses to our questions.

Films of the Year

1. Get Out

2. Lady Bird

3. Call Me by Your Name

4. Dunkirk

5. Phantom Thread

6. The Florida Project

7. Mudbound

8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

9. Good Time

10. (Tie) Nocturama

10. (Tie) The Shape of Water

12. Blade Runner 2049

13. (Tie) A Ghost Story

13. (Tie) A Quiet Passion

15. Mother!

16. (Tie) Faces Places

16. (Tie) Personal Shopper

18. Baby Driver

19. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

20. On the Beach at Night Alone

Participants: Jason Adams, Matt Baume, Danny Bowes, Sean Burns, Alonso Duralde, Ben Empey, Steve Erickson, Dr. Gangrene, Fem Furry, Zack Hall, Odie Henderson, Jordan Hoffman, Allison Inman, John Leavitt, Craig D. Lindsey, Thashana McQuiston, Victor Morton, Jake Mulligan, Noel Murray, Anthony Oliveira, Brian Owens, Matt Prigge, D. Patrick Rodgers, Mercedes Sandberg-Wright, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Graham Skipper, Sam Smith, Alice Stoehr, Scout Tafoya, Lisa Williams, Kristina Winters, Cory Woodroof, Ron Wynn

Have you walked out on any films this year?

No. But I almost walked out of that hideous Frozen short that preceded Coco. If I hadn’t been covering the New York Film Festival, I would have walked out of Wonder Wheel, aka I Love You, Great-Granddaddy. —Odie Henderson

No, but I think we need to adapt John Cleese’s system for when you can ditch a book you hate for application to the cinema. Cleese’s rule is 100 pages minus your age, with the idea being that older people have less time to waste on a book they’re hating — maybe an hour minus your age? But then again most cinemas will still give you a refund in the first 30 minutes, so if it’s minute 25 and you’re hating it, leave. —Anthony Oliveira

I have never walked out on any film in my life and have no plans to do so. But I also am getting more and more careful to restrict what I see in order to avoid things that might lead to walkouts, among them snide or frat-boy-style comedies, reboots of TV shows and films that weren’t that great in their original versions, the umpteenth sequel of something that worked best in one or two editions, and genre films that neither do justice to or offer any variation on whatever they purport to explore. —Ron Wynn

I didn’t, but I was deeply envious of my husband when he walked out of both The Emoji Movie and Home Again. —Alonso Duralde

Not “walkouts,” technically, but there are a bunch of films (Ingrid Goes West, Menashe, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, etc.) that I turned off at home and didn’t finish. I’ve never understood the “good enough for a rental” distinction. At home I could be doing practically anything else. —Michael Sicinski

Yes. The Belko Experiment. It is vile and the people who made it should be sent to prison. —Jordan Hoffman

After five minutes, I left a press screening of The Foreigner when I saw the film was being projected through a 3-D lens. (I don’t play that shit at all.) I also ducked out of a museum screening of Gaslight, mainly because I couldn’t handle the gotdamn, overdramatic, old-ass audience. —Craig D. Lindsey

What film do you think best embodies 2017?

Everyone’s going to say Get Out, and for good reason, but in the first year of the Trump presidency, let me make a semi-coherent, very specific case for Nocturama — a movie that defies interpretation in an age when cultural and political discussions have veered uncomfortably toward the binary. Bertrand Bonello gives you just enough intel on his sexy terrorists that you can’t write them off as idiot kids. At the same time, you can’t take a confident stance on their actions one way or the other. I’m almost certain this wasn’t Bonello’s intention — and this isn’t even largely why I loved Nocturama — but watching a movie about terrorism that you couldn’t pound into a what-this-says-about-the-world-right-now viral tract was one of the most perverse pleasures I had at the movies this year. —Matt Prigge

Get Out, because Jordan Peele masterfully shows how terrifying it feels like to have every aggression — micro and regular — piled upon you all at once. That’s what 2017 felt like to people like me, minus the film’s cathartic ending. —Odie Henderson

The Post. —Mercedes Sandberg-Wright

Logan. We’re all upset and tired, our mentors are dangerous and demented, and everyone just wants to get across the border out of this faintly fascist hellhole. —John Leavitt

The Disaster Artist. A thin line exists between exploring a celebrity’s experience and glorifying someone who’s potentially a huge skeezebag. —Lisa Williams

Faces Places. If you exude goodness, people will notice. There will always be assholes in power. Think globally, act locally is a cliché because it is true. —Jordan Hoffman

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It’s a movie about angry, hateful, self-righteous, self-loathing white people bitterly realizing that things won’t always go their way. Basically, it’s Trump’s America in a nutshell. (I wished these sensitive-ass, millennial critics who are all upset about the movie’s racist, misanthropic streak understood this — they do know America has became a racist, misanthropic place, right?) —Craig D. Lindsey

In 2017, as a country, we are fighting a war against racism and hate, and Bodied is the rap battle movie we all need right now. The film, produced by Eminem and directed by Korean-American music video veteran Joseph Kahn, stars a diverse cast of actors and rappers who are brutally honest and hold nothing sacred. Yet the characters manage to have a more productive conversation about race and identity through battle rap than our entire country has in all of 2017. I vote for rap battles to replace debates in politics from now on. Who’s with me? —Kristina Winters

Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We’re all like Luke Skywalker right now — jaded, tired, crotchety and with hope on the backburner. 2017 has been enormously hard to get through, but there are glimmers of hope here and there if you look for them. If we can seize those, and multiply them into the new year, we just might make it after all. Their Resistance learned a great deal about hope and how to fight their battles in that movie. Ours could, too. —Cory Woodroof

A Cure for Wellness. A nightmare that only ends when you go fucking insane. —Scout Tafoya

Detroit. It told a horrible story in excessive fashion, hitting you over the head time and time again with the ugliness and devastating impact of racism and injustice, but doing so in such graphic manner it left a feeling of hopelessness similar to the one experienced many days after watching the news. —Ron Wynn

Greg McLean’s The Belko Experiment is a nasty-spirited nihilist nightmare about corporations turning human beings into literal mush, and not even a dog mid-pee can be bothered to care. Sounds like 2017 to me. —Jason Adams

[shit emoji] The Emoji Movie. —Zack Hall

Get Out — a film in which white culture very politely uses institutional force to hollow out black people, commodify them, and suppress their ability to self-express, all while assuring them there’s nothing at all racist about what they’re doing. If only America 2017 had as happy an ending. —Anthony Oliveira

The Beguiled. This time, the women banded together and cut the rapist off at the knees. —Michael Sicinski

It’s a toss-up between Get Out and The Florida Project. The former does a pretty damn fine job of holding a mirror up to white supremacy, both systemic and overt, and the sunken place is a perfect metaphor for the powerlessness marginalized Americans experience. The latter is a wonderful and heartbreaking snapshot of the breakdown of the American Dream. —D. Patrick Rodgers

It’d be easy to make too much of how often Star Wars: The Last Jedi throws around the word “resistance,” but regardless of your political persuasion, it’s hard to downplay the movie’s message of hope. Turn to social media these days and everyone’s so angry and apocalyptic. The Last Jedi, though, argues for patience and temperance, suggesting that we need to listen to each other, to trust each other, and to value each other. It’s become a cliché to say that this movie or that movie is “what we need right now,” but boy howdy, did we ever need The Last Jedi. —Noel Murray

The Disaster Artist screams 2017 to me. Even though it’s a biopic about the best worst film from 2003, it’s the perfect metaphor for the ineptitude that poses as leadership in this country today … except Tommy Wiseau is more likable than anyone in Washington. —Brian Owens

I snarked at the end of the Virginia Film Festival that my two favorite films at that festival were both Russian (Zvyagintsev’s Loveless and Kalashnikov’s Road Movie) and that I welcomed our new overlords. But more seriously, among good movies, and if you include the critical reaction and conversation (both positive and negative) as part of “the film,” then it’d be Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which manages to tell nobody exactly what they want to hear about the state of America. —Victor Morton

Gerald’s Game. I think many folks feel like Jessie, cuffed helpless and struggling to survive. —Dr. Gangrene

I think when we look back at the shitshow of Trump’s America, Get Out is going to be the film that typifies everything awful about this country -- and also typifies our ability to ruthlessly examine ourselves. —Alonso Duralde

Which of the seemingly infinite numbers of films that used the music of John Denver this year did it best?

The pageant performance of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” in Logan Lucky plucked my heartstrings as a symbol of both regional solidarity and father-daughter bonding. —Alice Stoehr

Has to be Okja’s use of “Annie’s Song” during the chase scene at the market. —Cory Woodroof

Nobody will ever top “Rocky Mountain High” in the first Final Destination movie, so I don’t know why they keep trying. —Jason Adams

Logan Lucky in part because “Country Roads” is a much better record than “Annie’s Song.” But also because Soderbergh not only builds the movie’s plot around it, but he uses the song unironically and as the self-applied anthem it’s become, a key touch for a film that danced on the edge of, and didn’t always avoid, hixploitation. For the (us) obsessives, the film also starts with the backstory about the song and how it was written by a man who’d never been to West Virginia.  —Victor Morton

Okja. God I love Okja. —Ben Empey

I didn’t love the movie, but I loved the use of “Annie’s Song” in Okja. It was unexpected and added some needed beauty and grace to the film. —Brian Owens

Free Fire. —Jordan Hoffman, Graham Skipper

Logan Lucky. —Jake Mulligan, Michael Sicinski

Logan Lucky wins by both using a song none of the others did — “Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stones)” — and for using it the same way Ocean’s 11 used “Clair de Lune”: as an unexpected emotional coda to a fuzzy caper. Then again, Alien: Covenant used John Denver to lure stupid humans to their probably deserved deaths, which should not be undervalued. —Matt Prigge

Logan Lucky, because it incorporated “Take Me Home, Country Roads” into the narrative rather than the dreadful “Annie’s Song” that some of the other movies used. —Odie Henderson

Free Fire. John Denver kind of has to be used ironically, or he tips a film over into maudlin absurdity from which no film can quite recover. —Scout Tafoya

Alien: Covenant. —Dr. Gangrene

I actually had to look up which movies used his songs this year, and I’ve only seen two: Logan Lucky (the best white-trash heist flick no one saw) and Alien: Covenant (straight hot garbage). I’m going for Logan Lucky. —Craig D. Lindsey

I mean, obviously Free Fire. If I can’t fit it in my top 10, I want to give it some love somewhere in this poll, because Ben Wheatley is making some of the most interesting genre films out there right now. The diegetic John Denver 8-track booming out of that van during the final shoot-out can’t be beat. —Zack Hall

What are you most looking forward to in 2018?

I want A Wrinkle in Time to change my life. As a kid I could never get into the book, but everything I’m seeing about this movie suggests that it’s going to give me a lot to think about, and I’m delighted to see Mindy Kaling in the role of what looks like a deity. Aside from that film, I can’t wait to see if Peter Rabbit does the same thing to the furry fandom that Zootopia did. —Matt Baume

Annihilation. The books are so good, and I’m very curious how Alex Garland’s going to be able to pull it all off. —Zack Hall

Black Panther. A Wrinkle In Time. Proud Mary. —Odie Henderson

Annihilation, The Bell Jar, A Wrinkle in Time. —Lisa Williams

Whether promised biopics about a host of previously ignored great black figures ever get released, in particular films on Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye that have supposedly been coming for more than a decade. Also on TV the next edition of Luke Cage, to see if it matches the first one, and also whether the reboot of Shaft will prove as lame as it sounds and seems. —Ron Wynn

Winter releases, like The Commuter and Black Panther. Not much longer to wait! —Alice Stoehr

I am deliriously excited for 2.0, Shankar’s upcoming sequel to 2010’s Endhiran (also known as The Robot), starring Superstar Rajinikanth. The upcoming Tamil-language film is India’s first film shot in directly in 3-D, is the most expensive Indian film ever made, and will be released in a record 15 languages. 2.0 hits theaters in April 2018 and I’m debating camping outside the theater just to be first in line on opening day. If anyone has seen a clip from an random Indian action film, it’s likely they’ve seen the insanity that was Endhiran. If I could require all of Nashville to watch 2.0, I would. —Kristina Winters

Next summer’s commercial release of Let the Corpses Tan, which I saw at a festival this year and which also thus answers the question of “the most visual pleasure.” Tan approaches Citizen Kane (yes, really) by the measuring stick of “fewest number of indifferently composed and edited shots” — in both cases, near zero. Nothing in Tan is as it is for naturalistic reasons, and a lot of shots are downright impossible on such terms.  And after a while, the film’s sheer inventiveness in camera angles, sound editing, perspective game (without a bazillion euros worth of green screen) becomes its own subject. What will Cattet and Forzani think of next?! —Victor Morton

New films from Lynne Ramsay, Claire Denis, Alfonso Cuarón, Harmony Korine, Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, Wes Anderson and Pawel Pawlikowski. —Sam Smith

Probably Ant Man and the Wasp and Black Panther. The new Halloween looks intriguing as well. —Dr. Gangrene

You Were Never Here, Black Panther, JT LeRoy, New Mutants, Annihilation, Ocean’s 8, An Evening With Beverly Luff Lim, Mandy, Domino, Slice, The Predator, Luxembourg, A Wrinkle in Time, Destroyer, Apostle and the new Halloween. —Jason Shawhan

Wes Anderson has been on a roll lately, so I’m eager to see if his latest animated feature Isle of Dogs can stand up to his previous stop-motion effort Fantastic Mr. Fox, or his recent surprise hit The Grand Budapest Hotel. —Noel Murray

The killer animation slate (The Incredibles 2, Early Man, Isle of Dogs, the Wreck-It Ralph sequel, Smallfoot, Benedict Cumberbatch voicing The Grinch, that pop-art Spider-Man movie), Black Panther, A Wrinkle in Time, Slice (aka Chance the Actor), Avengers: Infinity War, Solo: A Star Wars Story, J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World sequel, Soldado, First Man, Widows, The Catcher Was a Spy, both of the Kelvin Harrison Jr. vehicles at Sundance with “monster” in the title, Adam McKay’s Cheney movie, the new Alfonso Cuarón film and most of all, if he’s finally finished, new Benh Zeitlin (Wendy)! —Cory Woodroof

A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther. —Graham Skipper

Definitive proof of Russian collusion, and subsequent impeachment. —Michael Sicinski

Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria with Tilda Swinton! I have no idea what to expect from that, and in the hands of someone lesser I’d think it blasphemous, but I cannot wait to see what that team comes up with. —Jason Adams

Black Panther. —Brian Owens

Black Panther, Isle of Dogs, The Predator, Annihilation. —D. Patrick Rodgers

So. Twin Peaks: The Return/Season 3/The Limited Event Series. Thoughts?

The greatest thing on TV since Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. —Jason Adams

It was the best thing in 2017 by a country mile. God bless Lynch and Frost. —Michael Sicinski

It was the best thing that happened this whole damn year. —Jason Shawhan

I truly don’t care about the cinema vs. television discussion, call it whatever the fuck you want, it’s the singular cinematic event of the century so far. (I have it on my television list, for the record.) It moved me, confounded me, delighted me, terrified me — sometimes all at once. I’ve never experienced anything like it, and I am welling up with tears just thinking about it. This is not to say that every single moment worked for me, but the heights are so staggeringly high, nothing else matters to me. It is a monumental achievement. —Ben Empey

It was a radical work full of beauty, compassion and style. Funnier and scarier than anything else I saw this year. I’m so happy I could watch it. —Alice Stoehr

Best film of the year. —Scout Tafoya

Probably the high point of both motion picture art and American storytelling in the 21st century, —Jake Mulligan

Brilliant. Bizarre. Baffling. It’s what got me through the summer. —Alonso Duralde

Total brilliance, and a welcome return to form for David Lynch. I just hope it gets someone with a lot of money to let Lynch run free on whatever he wants to do next. —Graham Skipper

I thought it was the best TV show of 2017 — and I also thought purists got too up in their feelings about those film critics who wanted to put it in their 10-best list. Honestly, don’t y’all have better things to do than to argue on Twitter about this bullshit? —Craig D. Lindsey

I refused to watch it. I watched one-and-a-half seasons of the show when it originally ran on ABC before I gave up for good. I am not a fan of David Lynch, and life is just too damn short. —Odie Henderson

Quite a treat. —Jordan Hoffman

It was the most interesting and vital work of the year for me, regardless of classification as TV or cinema. I got particular satisfaction at Lynch’s spin on the most depleted and tiresome trend in our popular culture right now: the nostalgic reboot. The anti-Stranger Things, it deepened a beloved mythology without insulting its audience’s intelligence, delivered iconic, classic performances from great actors, and offered the most downright weird audiovisual experience one could hope for in a narrative encompassing the collective unconscious, violence against women, quantum reality and a searing final statement on the power of trauma. What a bold move to release such a daring and uncompromised work of art in 2017. It got me through the year. —Sam Smith

Unpopular opinion from a die-hard Twin Peaks fan: David Lynch trolled us. I do love that bit when demon Sarah Palmer annihilates that dude after hitting on her at the bar though. —Fem Furry

I marveled every week at how Lynch took Showtime’s money and fans’ long-standing fascination with his and Mark Frost’s groundbreaking ’90s TV creation and used it to make what were essentially 18 hour-long avant-garde films. —Noel Murray

Are you pro-Porg or anti?

Extremely pro. What li’l cuties. —Ben Empey

Absolutely PRO Porg, but then again, I’m the guy who wrote a piece defending the Ewoks. Porgs are oh-so-cute, and I would love one for a pet. I bet they also taste like chicken. —Odie Henderson

The fuck is a Porg? —Scout Tafoya

Where to begin? They’re fine, but that much blatant cuteness is too easy and cheap. I’m more anti Star Wars fans who haven’t learned their lesson, blindly loving something before seeing what it actually is in context. (In this case: largely unnecessary to the narrative of THE LAST JEDI.) —Sam Smith

Mildly Pro-Porg, extremely Pro-Space-Nuns, brusquely and bustlingly cleaning up Luke Skywalker’s mess. They are a thumbnail commentary on the galactic saga’s unending battle of creation versus destruction — the wisdom Luke tries to impart to Rey — lived as an admirable and quiet mystical praxis. As Mrs. Lintott says in Alan Bennett’s History Boys, “What is history? It is women following behind, with the bucket.” —Anthony Oliveira

The Porg must be protected. —John Leavitt

I have no strong feelings about Porgs. Or the Borg. Or Pong. —Alonso Duralde

Pro! I’m a dad, so all things cute are OK by me. —Noel Murray

Pro. —Graham Skipper

Pro, of course. It’s the other white meat. —Michael Sicinski

I honestly give zero fucks about those little fuckers. —Craig D. Lindsey

Defiantly pro. I also love the amphibinuns. —Jason Shawhan

I don’t care what you watch on the internet, but I think it’s extremely important to protect net neutrality whether you’re for or against Porgography. —Zack Hall

I’m so in favor of these guys. They got just the right amount of screen time — which is to say, a few seconds — and they don’t have enough personality to become truly obnoxious like the Minions. —Matt Baume

What are your thoughts on MoviePass?

Its existence seems to indicate desperation on the part of exhibitors, but if it induces people to go to the movies more often, that can only be a good thing. —Alonso Duralde

Their customer service is a garbage fire, but I can’t complain given how much money they do save me, given how outrageously priced movies are now. If I see one movie per month I’ve made a profit off of using the service. And I do see way more than one movie a month. —Jason Adams

It’s a good deal, and I hope it scares exhibitors into treating their customer base and their own premises with a higher level of respect (that won’t happen). —Jake Mulligan 

Anything that gets folks to take a chance on movies they maybe wouldn’t have dropped the money on otherwise seems like a net gain in my book. —Zack Hall

It could potentially be a positive factor, though I think there should be more price tiers and options in the service, and it should also be more diversified in terms of approach, possibly offering different prices for different genres, etc. —Ron Wynn

I am cautiously optimistic. If you see at least one movie a month, then MoviePass is in your best interest, but for how long is anyone’s guess. I plan to just cancel when theaters start refusing to accept it, which we all know will happen eventually (AMC is already threatening just that). I already have trouble using it for Indian films with nonstandard pricing. —Kristina Winters

Everyone I know who has it has had problems. I think it’s a scam. —Odie Henderson

I don’t have a problem with it — anything that gets people going to the movies more where they still pay to see said movies is all right by me. —Graham Skipper

While I like the pricing, I doubt I’ll ever use it, primarily because it’s so phone-centric. The limitations of how to buy tickets are more than I care to deal with, I’ll just pay full price. —Dr. Gangrene

Regal and AMC are poking the bear by inching the price of a 2-D ticket closer to $15 in Nashville. It’s ridiculous, and greedier than the Tilda Swintons in Okja. MoviePass is a lifesaver for people who go to the movies a ton, but something’s off. This feels like it won’t last at the price it’s at. But it also feels like subscription-based tickets are the future. How this all clashes down the road will pretty much determine the future of moviegoing. So, no pressure, right? —Cory Woodroof

I’ve had it for years, and I’ve always wondered when it would all collapse, I really feel like I’m pulling one over. Especially since they scaled up and it costs $10/month, I can’t believe they are still in business. I think subscription theater services are the future though. —Ben Empey

Even if the film it represented ended up being trash, what trailer do you think did the best job this year?

The trailer for the horror comedy Better Watch Out was brilliantly constructed, in that it made you think you knew exactly what you were getting. But once you saw the movie, you realized there were still many twists and secrets left to discover. —Alonso Duralde

The only choice in this category is, of course, Best Friend From Heaven, which promises a dog (voiced desultorily by Kris Kristofferson) coming back from the dead to harass the woman whose neglect resulted in his death into finally tying the knot. —Anthony Oliveira

mother! —Lisa Williams

The Happy Hour trailer is its own little masterpiece, and made me very excited to see what would land in my No. 1 slot this year. —Sam Smith

Atomic Blonde. Never even got around to seeing the actual film. What else could it possibly do? —Michael Sicinski

Nobody cut a better piece of trailer art this year than the folks behind the trailer for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, who set its scintillating montage of heck over the perfect song in The Four Tops’ cover of “Walk Away Renée.” Honorable mentions? Those amazing Black Panther trailers. —Cory Woodroof

I never watch trailers, and I had to watch a bunch this year because I suddenly had to write about such matters, and they all uniformly depressed me. That being said, they shouldn’t. There’s an art to the genuinely clever trailer — think the ones for the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man or Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia — that was in short supply this year. Most of them were mere ads. —Matt Prigge

Three Billboards, which did turn out to be trash in my opinion. I got so fucking lit from the trailer, and I was sure it would be one of my favorite movies of the year. It looked fun, moving, tough, raunchy, all things I love. What I got was a racist/misogynistic/ableist cartoon with bad dialogue, parading as the opposite of all of those things. —Ben Empey

My wife drew my attention to the trailer for Happy Death Day, which looked like trashy fun. What a disappointment! Some movies are better off as two-and-a-half minute teases. —Alice Stoehr

The Atomic Blonde trailers were so complete and utterly a distillation of what that movie wanted to be that the movie could only be a disappointment. —John Leavitt

What will you miss most about Jonathan Demme?

Everything. —Danny Bowes

The humanity he brought to his movies and his brilliant use of music. —Odie Henderson

His ability to combine visual spectacle with memorable dialogue and intense action and reaction. —Ron Wynn

The dude knew how to direct a concert movie. Stop Making Sense, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, even his last one, Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids — they were all joyous, rousing, surprisingly intimate productions. —Craig D. Lindsey

The fact that you never knew what he would do next, and it would always be worthwhile, if not great. —Michael Sicinski

Everything. Everyone talks about what an incorrigible humanist he was, but his films almost always veered to the dark, to see if they could still find the good. I was about to say “except for Stop Making Sense,” but even there you have David Byrne & Co. killing themselves to entertain. —Matt Prigge

Knowing there’s a filmmaker out there with the tenacious range to make both The Silence of the Lambs and a Justin Timberlake concert documentary for Netflix. He will be dearly missed, and we should learn to appreciate artists more when they’re here. —Cory Woodroof

The possibility that he’d get his chance to re-remake The Truth About Charlie with Will Smith in the lead role like he wanted. —John Leavitt

Married to the Mob has one of the weirdest jokes tucked away in its background, and only people who took Latin would get it, and only people who dug production design would look for it. But the thing about his films is that all of them were made with that kind of meticulous unlimited love for everybody. A luta continua. —Jason Shawhan

Humanity. The way it seemed to make his world bigger, the way he drew everyone in and they seemed at home there. His camera was like a warm hug to everyone in front of it. —Scout Tafoya

I don’t know how to answer this. But I’m reminded of Tom Hanks’ first Oscar speech, for Demme’s Philadelphia: “The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels.” —Ben Empey

The prospect of a new film by him. —Graham Skipper

When I watched his Justin Timberlake concert film last year, I was struck by how much obvious joy he derived from human industriousness. He loved to watch people work, and frequently found angles that others might’ve missed, angles that showed people doing something amazing just outside the spotlight. —Noel Murray

The ensembles, the elation, the close-ups — the movies. —Alice Stoehr

That his films quite literally inspired love. Some of his best recent movies were about people whom I’d despise in real life, and who would despise me (thinking specifically of Rachel Getting Married and Ricki and the Flash), but in a Jonathan Demme movie, you couldn’t despise them. And not because he indulged them or shaved their despicable qualities, but because he loved them, warts and all, and it came through on the screen. —Victor Morton

The humanity and compassion he brought to almost every single one of his films. —Alonso Duralde

Of all this year’s releases that you saw, which yielded the most visual pleasure?

Call Me by Your Name pans from its sexual consummation out an open window into an Italian night — the zenith of a film that insists its sense of place is as important as the beautiful bodies that move through it, and which its fascination with sculpture blurs, until figures become landscape and landscape becomes figural. Thor: Ragnarok, which managed to conjure the joyful jumble of a frenetic pinball-game bonus round. —Anthony Oliveira

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Valerian served up delectable visual buffets, and Pixar’s Land of the Dead in Coco was the best visual backdrop. Also adored the work of cinematographers Rachel Morrison (Mudbound), Ed Lachman (Wonderstruck), Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk), Elisha Christian (Columbus) and up-and-comer Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) on their films. —Cory Woodroof

The Themyscira training and battle scenes in Wonder Woman certainly provoked an unexpected emotional response and sense of catharsis. —Lisa Williams

Jane. Seeing the unearthed footage of Jane Goodall in Africa, in all its grainy, saturated glory, was like a vision from beyond. I felt so lucky and astonished to be seeing each and every passing shot of this heroic woman, exploring her dream and at one with the natural world. Honorable mention to the landscapes and spaces of Call My by Your Name and Columbus. —Sam Smith

A Cure for Wellness or Zama. —Scout Tafoya

It’s not the kind of visual pleasure that’s ordinarily considered beautiful, but I loved the super-graininess of Good Time. I couldn’t figure out how they got the colors to look loud in that way, so I was surprised to learn later that director of photography Sean Price Williams shot it on 35mm but treated it like was 16mm. They beat the hell out of it, experimenting with how much they underlit shots, just to see what would happen. And so a roll around in the grime is borderline-Jordan Belson gorgeous. —Matt Prigge

Blade Runner 2049, Alien: Covenant, Sequence Break, Call Me by Your Name. —Jason Shawhan

I saw Bahubaali 2: The Conclusion on the biggest screen in town. The concluding chapter of S.S. Rajamouli’s two-part historical epic-action-romance-musical put every superhero movie to shame, with a fraction of the budget. I have never had a more thrilling theater experience — I think I forgot to breathe. If you didn’t see this CGI-laden glory on the big screen, all hope is not lost. You can watch both parts on Netflix — I suggest the Tamil-language option, as the Hindi-language option is dubbed. Turn it up loud and watch it on the biggest screen possible, preferably with all your friends. Then find me on social media so we can gush about how good it is together. —Kristina Winters

Dani and Sheilah Restack’s avant-garde opus Strangely Ordinary This Devotion (watch for it on the museum circuit); Blake Williams’ 3-D historical futurama Prototype (coming to theaters in 2018), and Blade Runner 2049. —Michael Sicinski

Thor: Ragnarok. After a decade of dour, flat, TV-ready superhero blockbusters, we finally got a movie replicating the balls-out, four-color weirdness of Kirby-era comics — and which was willing to drape the entire cast in a glittery, neon fantasmagoria. This is one of the few space operas with multiple costume changes. The first Thor movie had a lot of hedging that they’re not gods, but very rational, super advanced aliens. This movie has them shouting about being Gods of Thunder and punching dragons. A vast improvement. —John Leavitt

Timothee Chalamet boogying down to The Psychedelic Furs. Esther Garrel’s matted mattress-head. The sunlight glimmering in Armie Hammer’s wet eyelashes. The camera gliding across a town square in Crema, Italy, twisting to look up at a bell tower. Call Me by Your Name’s a visual feast that I hope to never stop feasting on, peach juice and all. —Jason Adams

Blade Runner 2049. —D. Patrick Rodgers, Graham Skipper

The Get Down Season 1, Part 2. This series is wonderful and incredibly underrated. —Fem Furry

I was having a dreary Sundance for the first few days, mired in what was looking like an unceasing run of well-written and well-acted indie films that were visually undistinguished. And then on the same day I saw Mustang (due out next year) and A Ghost Story, and was reminded of how cinema could be, y’know, cinematic. The sense of style and the willingness to tell stories through images as well as words was exactly what I needed right then. —Noel Murray

I loved Rachel Morrison’s work on Mudbound. —Odie Henderson

Call Me by Your Name is so sumptuously beautiful that I wanted to crawl inside and live in it. The beautiful Italian countryside, the interior of the home, the sweat dripping down the bodies of Timotheé Chalamet and Armie Hammer … all of it. My love for this film makes me want to flip up my collar, put on my high-top sneakers and dance like it’s 1983. —Brian Owens

Blade Runner 2049 was a pretty visually astounding world to inhabit for a few hours. —Zack Hall

The Shape of Water. Gorgeous film, beautifully shot, the underwater scenes were gorgeous, and the creature design was excellent. It was a modern-day fairy tale with a monster leading man. —Dr. Gangrene

I loved looking at the fake 1970s captured by Ed Lachman in Wonderstruck. —Alonso Duralde

What films did you cry at this year?

No spoilers, but in The Last Jedi there’s a visual callback to A New Hope that demolished me. I saw it coming a moment before it happened, and I was already gasping and in tears by the time I heard the famous lines being spoken. —Matt Baume

Their Finest, Marjorie Prime, Faces Places. —Alonso Duralde

Lady Bird, The Rider, Call Me by Your Name. —Scout Tafoya

Lady Bird. —Lisa Williams

I cannot tell a lie: Long Strange Trip. It did a number on me. —Jordan Hoffman

The finale of The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) has done it to me more than once, primarily by way of finding a physical symbol that perfectly encapsulates the film that precedes it (I’m speaking of the final shot), and that also unifies the competing senses — the great joy of belonging and understanding, and the profound grief of not — which define the film’s study of familial relations. Phantom Thread also sustains an emotional power that left me rather shook up as its end credits rolled, though I cannot recall with absolute certainty whether or not tears were flowing. A few other films left me on the same borderline, at one point or another during their running time: The Work, Strong Island and Song to Song. —Jake Mulligan

Call Me by Your Name had me crying walking down the sidewalk five minutes after I’d left the theater. I cried at the conclusion of Quest because I genuinely missed the Rainey family after spending that long and tumultuous decade with them. The Florida Project moved me to tears several times — and occasionally to tears of laughter thanks to Brooklynn Prince’s amazing performance. —Brian Owens

Manifesto, the art film where noted actress and God of Death Cate Blanchett performs various political and artistic manifestos. I saw it at the Park Avenue Armory in a fragile post-election state. Watching her sneering turn to rage at a funeral as she screamed to the camera (No more painters, no more writers, no more religions, no more Republicans, no more socialists, no more politicians, no more Democrats, no more armies, no more anything. No more anything. Nothing. NOTHING!) I never felt more connected to a work of art. —John Leavitt

Crown Heights and Detroit because they were brutal reminders of vicious and frightful things and incidents I’ve both seen and heard about my entire life, and attitudes that the current administration has empowered rather than discouraged. —Ron Wynn

The Japanese family drama Close Knit, written and directed by Naoko Ogigami, tells the story of a young girl abandoned by her mother, who moves in with her uncle and his transgender girlfriend. The film explores what it means to be a family and to find your true self. Knitting — both as emotional catharsis and an act of physical transformation — is woven throughout the film and becomes an integral part of an emotional climax on the beach, which left me a blubbering mess. This film, and Toma Ikuta in the lead role as a transitioning transgender woman, stole my heart. Kita Kita (I See You) is a uniquely charming love story from the Philippines, a refreshing change from a film industry drowning in formulaic rom-coms. The film, written and directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, features a Filipina tour guide living in Japan who is unlucky in love and goes blind from stress. Her Filipino neighbor attempts to support his fellow expat by cheering her up. From the get-go, with the unlikely casting of a model-gorgeous actress and a homely comedian, you immediately know you’re in for something different. When the twist happens, it is still as shocking as a knife to the heart. This one sinks in to you and doesn’t let go — I found myself crying only after the credits rolled. —Kristina Winters

Dunkirk, BPM and Strong Island. I’m becoming soft. —Michael Sicinski

I rarely cry at movies, but the times I recall coming closest were the closing montage in Dunkirk, the last letter-reading scene in Last Flag Flying, the sheriff’s letters in Three Billboards, and Rooney Mara eating a pie in A Ghost Story. In all four cases, there’s an undemonstrative quality in the face of horrific events — one more Nolan Noble Lie printed in one paper and another read aloud from another; the ironic way a last wish was granted; the earned wisdom of an easy villain who’s very far from that; and the sheer time the pie-eating takes, the character’s emotions thus marinating in the actress’s single-take tour de force of consumption.  —Victor Morton

The Florida Project and Good Time. —D. Patrick Rodgers

It, The Tigers Are Not Afraid and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. —Graham Skipper

The Lego Batman Movie, Call Me by Your Name, BPM, A Dark Song, Faces Places, Coco, Good Time, Columbus, Thelma, Phantom Thread, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2, Brigsby Bear, Wonder Woman, Okja, Detroit. —Jason Shawhan

Call Me by Your Name. I didn’t see it until the official theatrical release, by which point Michael Stuhlbarg’s big speech at the end had been hyped for 11 months. And I think for as much was said about how good it is, still not enough has been said — it is un-over-hypable, it is one of the most emotionally pointed performances in the history of cinema, bar none. I cried at Faces Places from the point where the woman sees her face projected on the side of her building and her own eyes well up with tears. I’m welling up with tears just typing it now. It is so beautiful and joyous, just like the film overall. A wonderful celebration of humanity. —Ben Empey

I am very easy to make cry. Here is a partial list: The Lego Batman Movie — the first film to take seriously the Bat mythos’ interest in found family and the Hedgehog’s Dilemma of Bruce Wayne. Spider-Man: Homecoming — a working-class hero refuses to give in to the corrosive culture of amoral scavenging that insists everyone is ethically bankrupt, so why not join them. Logan — learning to let go of heroes and fathers. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, ditto. Wonder Woman — doing good is not a function of what the world deserves, but a faith in love as transformative and redemptive. Murder on the Orient Express — double ditto. —Anthony Oliveira

The last 10 minutes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi overwhelmed me, unexpectedly, with the simple faith they expressed in people working collectively toward a greater good. I also turned into a puddle during the final scenes of The Florida Project, Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name, all of which earned their weepy payoff through careful development of character and place. I didn’t want to say goodbye to any of these movies. —Noel Murray

I got all watery at the tear-duct puppetry in both Coco and Wonder, a pivotal Rey/Luke confrontation in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the unbridled joy of sports in the Pearl Jam/Chicago Cubs project Let’s Play Two, Kenneth Branagh’s face when all the ships arrive in Dunkirk, when a random race car laments on forced retirement in Cars 3, the Ravager funeral in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (still a little misty), and when the credits rolled in Beauty and the Beast, which meant I could finally go home. —Cory Woodroof

Coco, BPM, Mudbound, Call Me by Your Name. —Odie Henderson

I cry easily and often, but two instances spring to mind for the audacity of the ugly-crying — Miguel singing “Remember Me” to Mama Coco at the end of Coco (which had the little kid seated to my right side-eyeing me as I shook with tears), and there are sentiments so movingly delivered during Michael Stuhlbarg’s speech at the end of Call Me by Your Name that I felt physically compelled to run from the theater (I managed to stay in my seat, but barely). —Jason Adams

What film(s) do you wish that more people had seen?

Nocturama. It’s on Netflix now, so that’s fantastic, but even still it is underseen. I just think it really speaks to the current moment and the way young people have such extreme beliefs and such passion but often channel them into misguided attempts at change and revolution to give their lives purpose. —Ben Empey

I have heard way, way too little about both Most Beautiful Island and The Lovers — the former is a terrifically tense little New York parable and the latter has Debra Winger. DEBRA WINGER. —Jason Adams

Éternité, Dawson City Frozen Time, Dark Night, Hello Destroyer. —Scout Tafoya

The Florida Project needs to be seen by everyone. Hopefully, as Willem Dafoe’s performance continues to collect awards, A24 will widen the release again and more people will catch this gem of a film. —Brian Owens

Strong Island. It has become a common talking point among film critics that films released via Netflix are not given the proper marketing push. But of the “Netflix Originals” I’ve seen to-date, this work — one of the strongest directorial debuts in a year characterized by strong directorial debuts — is perhaps the only one that, in my perception, has not yet reached an audience that befits its level of quality. —Jake Mulligan

The Thai blockbuster Bad Genius, only the second feature film from director Nattawut Poonpiriya, is a heist movie but with high school students stealing test scores instead of the usual score. While that doesn’t sound thrilling on paper, I can assure you that I spent more time on the edge of my seat during this caper than in any other film this year. It’s hailed by some critics as the next Train to Busan-type mega crossover hit from Asia, and you’re going to want to get in on this one early so you can be the cool kid and share it with all your friends. The Japanese indie 3ft Ball & Souls was made on such a shoestring budget that director Yoshio Kato literally built the set by himself in his backyard. It features four suicidal strangers who meet in a chat room and agree to commit suicide together by blowing up a giant ball of fireworks in a shed. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be) for them, they get caught in a Groundhog Day-style time loop and end up back where they started each time they pull the trigger. It’s the most life-affirming film about suicide you’ll see this year, by one of the brightest new talents in Asia, and everyone with a beating heart should see it. —Kristina Winters

BPM. I can’t say more than what others have said. It’s heartbreaking and intense and historical, and unlike other apparently big gay-interest movies of the year, it seems to actually be about gay sex and relationships. —John Leavitt

Columbus, Okja, Detroit, Captain Underpants, Imperial Dreams, City of Ghosts. —Cory Woodroof

Mudbound, Kedi, Happy Hour. —Sam Smith

I’d like to make the case for the season finale of Nathan for You, subtitled Finding Frances. More a feature-length documentary than an episode of television, it’s been praised by genius documentarian Errol Morris at length — no surprise, as Morris’ body of work inhabits the same surreal realm of human entanglement — but it doesn’t seem to have been taken seriously by a lot of cinephiles. Nathan Fielder and the show’s producers created something at once intriguing, hilarious and tender with Finding Frances. Whether or not the show continues, I hope Fielder keeps getting the resources he needs to make this kind of work. —D. Patrick Rodgers

The Poet and the Boy — Kim Yang-hee’s South Korean dramedy about a gentle, aging husband and would-be father who finds himself suddenly and bafflingly smitten by the young man who sells him doughnuts. Funny, charming, introspective and viciously devastating, and so far badly overlooked. —Anthony Oliveira

Where do I begin? Félicité, On the Beach at Night Alone, All This Panic, The Work, Staying Vertical and Nocturama, for a sampling. —Michael Sicinski

Brigsby Bear. As for TV, everyone should be watching Search Party. —Lisa Williams

A Dark Song. —Jason Shawhan

Practically everything in my top 10, except for the smash Dunkirk, I suppose (though the audience that did see Mother! suggests the smaller the better, in that case.) But among the other eight, I’m not sure how many people who didn’t see, for example, Kogonada’s quietly lovely Columbus would have liked it if they had. The film I think more people would like if they had seen it/had access to it would be Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, which, yes, is in Romanian but is as incisive a portrait as I’ve ever seen of a society so corrupt that it requires corruption to operate. And while it’s a harrowing experience, it’s as emotionally and narratively accessible as a 19th-century social novel. A slightly lesser though still very good film on that theme (No. 17 as I type, versus Mungiu at No. 2 — in these great critical distinctions) is the Swedish-Egyptian film The Nile Hilton Incident. And it has the advantage of an even more accessible and conventionally entertaining genre — the film noir or policier. At Sundance, I compared it to the great political thriller Z, which, at the time of its release was one of the biggest foreign-language grossers in U.S. box-office history. Check it out, folks.  —Victor Morton

I first saw Their Finest at the Toronto film festival in fall of 2016, and at the time pegged it as the kind of crowd-pleaser (like Brooklyn a couple of years ago) that cinephiles could enjoy alongside their parents. I actually showed it to my folks when it came out on Blu-ray, so I can confirm that it’s easy for people of many different generations and political persuasions to like. I wish it had been a bigger hit. But I expect it’ll be more discovered as time goes by. —Noel Murray

Their Finest, which is now on Hulu. And My Happy Family, which is now on Netflix. So get on it. —Alonso Duralde

Last Flag Flying. It got a bad rap and little promotion. —Odie Henderson

Brad’s Status — seeing Ben Stiller play a guy who constantly feels he’s a middle-aged failure, because he’s not living the successful life he thought he should’ve had by now, hit my ass deep. —Craig D. Lindsey

Lucky, The Finest, Thelma, Oklahoma City, A Ghost Story. —Mercedes Sandberg-Wright

Nocturama and Evolution (both now on Netflix) were really amazing, and I’m afraid they flew completely under the radar. —Zack Hall

Whose Streets? It documents the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement with black women and filmmakers at its helm and just hasn’t seemed to get the attention it requires. —Fem Furry

Everyone needs to seek out Small Talk, a Taiwanese documentary that I thought I would hate but instead became obsessed with. It’s about a young mom who wants to form a strong relationship with her daughter, and in so doing must untangle her complicated relationship with her own stoic lesbian mother. The film peels back the layers of their lives so unflinchingly that there were times I couldn’t believe what I was seeing — that two people could find a way to connect and understand each other after an entire lifetime of toxicity. —Matt Baume

Email arts@nashvillescene.com