You know what? 2017 was pretty solid, all things considered. It couldn’t get any worse than 2016’s nonsense I guess. Sure, wasn't a vintage film year but it had it's moments and when it was good, it was monumental.

With representation, diversity, and equality as imperative as ever; we had some truly enormous movie moments to warm our hearts throughout the yeat. With box office records dropping left, right, and centre for black and female directors and with the #OscarsSoWhite movement but a distant memory; 2017 felt like the start of something both special and massively overdue.

Away from the screen, 2017 will be synonymous with truly horrendous allegations against some of the most powerful men in Hollywood but, as absolutely devastating as those stories are, the seismic shift they have caused within the industry cannot be ignored. If some positivity can be gleaned from these horrific incidents, it’s that the movements they've birthed have finally encouraged change and, for all the world’s many current problems, Hollywood can finally stand up and be counted as a force for positivity and equality. And how often have we been able to say that?

As for the films themselves, it’s been a mixed bag. For every up, there have been many downs and as the industry continues to find its bearings in an ever-changing landscape, cinema attendances have been hit hard. With a number of notable big-budget bombs on their hands and with Netflix and Amazon breathing heavily down their necks, the major studios will have to think quicker and a little smarter to survive.

While the blockbuster corner of the industry licks its wounds from a string of flops, it’s taken a company that looked dead and buried not too long ago to show everyone how mega-budget franchises should be done. For the third year in a row, Disney clocked in with a staggering $5 billion at the box office. A truly remarkable achievement…and that’s before you add the impending release of The Lasi Ledi into the equation. Both impressive and terrifying in equal measure, The Mouse’s bid for world domination appears to be going very well indeed. With Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar entries on the horizon, pepare yourselves for much of the same in 2018.

Though I’m not a massive fan of lists, it does seem the done thing these days, so what the hell, eh?

Let’s get this 2017 retropective party started…

There are few event filmmakers quite like Christopher Nolan in the game today. He may not be the most prolific director in Hollywood but when a new Nolan movie drops, the world listens.

Driven by an urgent and ominous score; Dunkirk mixes grand, IMAX-worthy scale with deeply personal storytelling to offer a unique take on a battle rarely visited on the big screen. Nolan’s decision to work with minimal characterisation is frustratingly impersonal at times, but there’s little doubting the film’s devastating and overwhelming impact.

"This is war stripped down to the bone and at its most impersonal but, while Dunkirk’s faces are unlikely to leave a lasting impression, their quiet heroism certainly will."

This is probably the most personal entry into the list. Peter Parker is my boy and has been since the day I picked up my first Spider-Man comic many, many moons ago. With five films and two separate incarnations in little over a decade, I wasn’t entirely convinced the world needed another go at old web-head; but step forward Marvel Studios mastermind, Kevin Feige, to take Spidey back home to where he belongs and prove everyone (me) wrong.

As a collaboration between Sony and Marvel, Spider-Man: Homecoming offers up the definitive version of the superhero, while breathing new life into a character many considered a busted flush after The Amazing Spider-Man 2. With Tom Holland stepping into the webbed spandex with consummate ease, the relative newcomer leads a young, talented cast through a wildly fun and pleasantly inventive action adventure that sets our hero up nicely for a bright new future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"Bolstered by a fantastic villainous turn by Michael Keaton and an infectiously energetic John Hughes vibe, Spider-Man: Homecoming is an entirely fresh take on an old-fashioned superhero movie that, in one fell swoop, has rejuvenated your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man for a whole new generation."

For one in possession of outrageous levels of talent, the lack of commercial success for Edgar Wright is, quite frankly, baffling. It’s certainly not for the want of trying, but in his fifth feature the director has a fully-fledged hit on our hands.

In his best film since Shaun of the Dead, Wright has his hands firmly on the wheel and his foot flat to the floor, in a wildly enjoyable slice of high-velocity genre cinema. Fuelled by a kick-ass soundtrack, Baby Driver creates a heady mix of adrenaline-pumping car chases and nail-biting heists to create the kind of physical action flick rarely witness in this day and age.

"Every inch an Edgar Wright film, Baby Driver feels like a pivotal moment for the director and, after a few engine stalls, is surely the moment he finally rolls up to the big time. All this and he did it without a Cornetto or a Simon Pegg in sight."

It’s been one hell of a year for the superhero genre. The Justice League dumpster fire aside, it’s been arguably one of the finest comic book movie years ever, and sitting pretty stop of that pile is Old Man Logan himself.

With Hugh Jackman’s seventeen year run as Wolverine finally coming to a close, Logan channels its inner Western to tell a somber and ultra-violent tale of loss, regret, mortality, and redemption. If that doesn’t sound very comic-booky to you, then you’ve been reading the wrong comic books my friend.

"Hugh Jackman delivers a career-defining performance and a fitting end to a character arc seventeen years in the making. With his Wolverine well and truly put to rest, Jackman can finally retire the character with his head and claws held high.

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing in the wrong hands but, if treated with care, you’ve got cinematic gold. Shameless though it is, La La Land is an unadulterated love letter to a Hollywood era of technicolour sets and outrageous song and dance numbers.

Steadfastly determined to let the classic Hollywood musical die the death many had predicted, Damien Chazelle's clear passion for the genre allows La La Land to break free of pastiche to blossom into a glorious, spellbinding piece of good old-fashioned cinema. You know, like the kind they don’t make anymore. Except they do.

"With its director and co-stars bringing everything they have to the table, it’s hard not to be in awe of such an expertly and bravely put together film that simultaneously harks back to the golden age of the musical, while paving a path for the genre’s future."  

When Rise for the Planet of the Apes was released back in 2011, I don’t think anyone imagined for a second that we’d be sitting here, six years later, looking at the culmination of one of the great cinematic trilogies. Yet, here we are at the end of one hell of a journey, and it feels like the franchise is only just warming up.

As it is, War for the Planet of the Apes succeeds in offering up high concept action without sacrificing brains. This is mega-budget filmmaking with genuine smarts as Matt Reeves appears unafraid to use his lofty blockbuster platform to ask some incredibly poignant questions of the human condition.

"Through Reeves’s highly focused direction, full blooded performances by Andy Serkis and Woody Harrelson, and some of the finest motion capture in cinema history; War for the Planet of the Apes operates both as a pitch-perfect conclusion to Caesar’s journey and an ideal platform from which to build the franchise’s future."

Coming-of-age films are my bag. There’s something about the genre that just clicks with me and, while The Florida Project is unlike any other coming-of-age drama you’ve seen, it’s precisely this idiosyncracy that makes it so special.

Vivid, gritty, and heartbreaking; The Florida Project strips back the genre to its bare bones in a lo-fi look at life on society’s fringes. Continuing the decidedly indie approach that's served him so well previously, Sean Baker makes full use of his signature ad-libbed dialogue and one-and-gun style to paint a wonderfully fluorescent picture of the American society’s frayed edges, all through the carefree eyes of a infectiously precocious child.

"The Florida Project paints an oddly fluorescent picture of poverty and desperation; succeeding in finding colour amidst America’s dark extremities through an enchanting, authentic, and tenderly told tale of those cut adrift from the world Disney once imagined."

Anyone who claims Get Out isn’t a horror is just plain wrong. While many will dress the film up as anything but to gain a few cool points, Get Out is horror to its core. Visceral, immediate, socially conscious, and genuinely terrifying; Jordan Peele’s debut may initially feel like an extended Twilight Zone episode, yet it runs far deeper than that, functioning as a blistering attack on a very modern form of racism.

Horror has been on something of a roll in recent years and Get Out continues this winning streak by serving up genre thrills while continually engaging your brain cells.

"Unwilling to compromise its political message or its blood-soaked mayhem, director Jordan Peele has re-written the horror rule book and pulled together a movie that satisfies on many, many levels.

I think it’s safe to assume few were clamoring for a Blade Runner sequel in any way, shape, or form; but, after 35 years of threats, we finally got one and...against all the odds...it’s a beauty.

Denis Villeneuve continues his hot streak by digging deep into the Blade Runner mythos to produce a sequel that simultaneously pays homage to the original, while doggedly forging its own path. Despite its dismal box office performance (which, in itself, feels like nice little not to the original’s financial failings), Blade Runner 2049 will go down as one of the most ambitious, visually impressive, and thought-provoking pieces of blockbuster cinema in years.

"Blade Runner 2049 is an overwhelming and highly-intelligent piece of science fiction cinema and, while few were initially clamouring for a continuation of the Blade Runner story, what Denis Villeneuve has produced will go down as one of the greatest sequels of all time."

Moonlight is about as personal as filmmaking gets. As a semi-autobiographical account of Barry Jenkins’s formative years, Moonlight was a true labour of love for the director and, while this personal approach could've easily lead to the film becoming impenetrable, nothing could be further from the truth.

Putting the Academy Awards controversy to one side for a moment, Moonlight is a film about and for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality; and a beautifully universal cinematic experience that's fully deserving of both that Best Picture Oscar and its place at the top of this list.

"With its stereotype challenging and reluctance to pander to conventional expectations, Moonlight is a singular vision from writer-director Barry Jenkins and an incredibly moving piece of cinema to boot. Supplemented by a small but talented cast, the film takes aim at preconceived notions of race, gender, poverty, and sexuality with a subtlety of tone that speaks to grand universal truths, while keeping things as personal as possible. Regardless of who you are or where you come from, there’s a little Chiron is all of us and the sooner we embrace it, the better."

So there you have it folks. That was 2017.

Bring on 2018...