26. Kong: Skull Island – John C. Reilly + wall-to-wall monster fights … enough said.

25. Logan – Finally, a superhero movies that contains nary a blue beam of light, where each action sequence is different, and they all have narrative reasons for existing. Nor, thankfully, does it culminate in a big ol’ CG video game wank fest. This may have been higher on my list if they’d held off unleashing Wolverine’s bezerker mode until it would have had more impact, instead of wasting it right off the bat.

24. American Made – Tom Cruise is in full-on classic Cruise-mode in what’s sort of the Forrest Gump of drug movies.

23. The Foreigner – I’m a sucker for both forest-based, First Blood-like, traps-and-snares-type action, and plots that revolve around an unassuming seeming everyman who’s pushed into a corner and is forced to reveal and utilize his unique skillset, so this Taken-esque thriller starring Jackie Chan and directed by Martin Campbell was right up my alley.

22. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) – Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Dustin Hoffman star in one of Noah Baumbach’s better films. It’s particularly nice to see Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love/Funny People territory.

21. Win It All – Jake Johnson (who also co-wrote) does the hapless loser thing better than most, and his talents are on full display here. What makes this movie about a gambling addict putting himself further and further into the hole resonate with me are the numerous times when director/co-writer Joe Swanberg lets a scene play out a little longer than expected, usually resulting in a refreshingly surprising character beat.

20. Logan Lucky – Steven Soderbergh (thankfully) returns to movies with this slick, expertly constructed, wonderfully acted caper flick.

19. Table 19 – This funny, thoughtful, low-key character study about a group of unconnected people stuck at the back table of a wedding reception is sort of like The Other Guys of rom-coms.

18. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Frances McDomand’s foul-mouthed Mildred is the film’s obvious selling-point, and she’s great, but it’s the other characters who make this particularly interesting to me. Much to my surprise and appreciation, as soon as I thought I’d figured someone out, writer/director Martin McDonagh revealed another layer. I was also particularly taken with the narratively unresolved ending. My one quibble? Why didn’t Sam Rockwell’s character escape through the back exit of the police station?

17. Atomic Blonde – A synth-pounding, comicbooky, hyper-colourful, super-pulpy, ultra-fun, Cold-War-set espionage thriller. And, yes, the quasi-single take stairway fight sequence is worth the price of admission.

16. Alien: Covenant – I’m one of the apparent minority who liked Prometheus (it’s flawed, though its great moments far outweigh its bad ones), and Covenant did not disappoint. True, the aliens themselves are somewhat secondary – and, really, unnecessary – but they’re a one-note enemy anyway so I didn’t mind at all. Given that the story centres around the AI android David, this is essentially Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner sequel.

15. Wind River – A tight, sleek, lived-in, location-specific thriller from Taylor Sheridan (who previously wrote Sicario and Hell or High Water).

14. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore – Writer/director Macon Blair does his best Jeremy Saulnier impression (that’s a good thing) with this funny, hyper-violent, nicely-detailed tale about a woman who decides to fight back against a world of a-holes.

13. Brawl in Cellblock 99 – Probably the most grisly violent movie I’ve ever seen (seriously, there are a couple of holy-shit images of gore I’ll never get out of my head), but I couldn’t help but dig it all, big time. Vince Vaughn makes you believe he’s the toughest hombre on the planet, capable of snapping spines and limbs with ease. Sign him up for the next Jack Reacher movie.

12. Your Name – Frame by frame, this anime about body-switching teens is easily the most gorgeous movie I saw this year.

11. Brigsby Bear – Genuine whimsy is maybe the hardest tone to adequately achieve, and Brigsby Bear is one of the rare films that manages to get it just right. There’s not a cynical moment in this totally original, huge-hearted movie.

10. The Disaster Artist – I smiled and/or laughed from beginning to end at this James Franco-directed narrative that chronicles the bizarre creation of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult hit bad movie The Room.

9. A Ghost Story – After going full-studio, widescreen-big with Pete’s Dragon, one of my favourite 2016 films, David Lowery does a complete 180 with this small-scale, tiny budgeted ($150,000), 1:33 aspect-ratioed (i.e., a square), metaphysical character piece in which the main subject is a bed sheet with eye holes.

8. Detroit – Kathryn Bigelow’s recreation of the 1967 Detroit riots, which comes to focus on an infamously tragic incident in the Algiers Motel, was mostly dismissed by critics and audiences alike, partially, if not largely, because of political reasons I neither fully understand or upon which I don’t feel that I’m in a proper position to comment. I can only attest to my reaction to the movie itself, and, to that end, I can say that Detroit was easily the most harrowing and unenjoyable viewing experience I had in 2017. Nonetheless, I was absolutely riveted while watching the horrifically intense action unfold. It left me shaken, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind since.

7. Good Time – No film I saw this year crackled with more barely tamed energy than the Safdie brothers’ frantic tale about a low-level criminal’s desperate attempts to extricate himself from a mess of his own making.

6. Dunkirk – Say what you will about Christopher Nolan’s purported (by some) narrative/aesthetic deficiencies, but he’s the only filmmaker on the planet able to make original movies on the scale that he’s making them. He’s given access to seemingly limitless budgets and resources, for the simple reason that his movies keep making piles of money. However, when I heard that he was tackling WWII, I wasn’t at all excited. The topic’s been done to death, I figured. Do we really need another war movie? Well, it turns out that we do, because Dunkirk is glorious, epic, technically mind-boggling filmmaking at its finest.

5. The Big Sick – A stellar cast – with standout performances by Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, and first-time leading man Kumail Nanjiani – wonderful writing (by Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon), and great direction (by Michael Showalter, who conspicuously never seems to get mentioned in any of the praise for this movie) combine to make this the best (anti) rom-com in recent years.

4. Bladerunner 2049 – Director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins beautifully build upon and surpass the original (which, admittedly, save for the production design and the “Tears in Rain” scene, I’ve never been a huge fan of).

3. Ladybird – The first scene – particularly, the way it ends – brilliantly sets up Greta Gerwig’s tight, funny, moving coming-of-age tale, all of which is perfectly constructed for maximum audience engagement.

2. Call Me By Your Name – Similar to Luca Guadagnino’s remarkable first film I Am Love, Call Me By Your Name is a clarion call to unabashedly embrace and seek out love, with all the messiness and pain and joy that it entails. Shot on film with just a single 35mm lens, it’s a feast for the senses that packs a huge emotional wallop. It also contains one of the all-time great final shots.

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – This was the most purely transportive cinematic experience I had this year. Rian Johnson delivered on both huge spectacle and small emotional beats. I loved every single frame, especially the remarkable final image.