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John Waters Reveals His Top 10 Films of 2017 - 'Baby Driver' Takes #1

by Alex Billington
November 30, 2017
Source: ArtForum

It's that time again! With the end of the year approaching, everyone begins revealing their own Top 10 best of the year lists. One of our favorite lists that kicks off this time is from filmmaker John Waters' - his Top 10 favorite films from this year. For 2017, Waters has chosen yet another (expected) eclectic mix of films, lead by Edgar Wright's musical action thriller Baby Driver (which is not really an eclectic choice) and ending with the biopic about the Finnish man who introduced kinky leather fashion to the gay world, Tom of Finland (watch the trailer). I always like hearing about Waters' favorites because he has such unique taste. Plus it's a good way to start the discussion about everyone's favorites as we get closer to the end of the year.

Waters includes a short one/two-sentence explanation with each pick, so head to ArtForum to read all of his thoughts on his Top 10 of 2017. I've included a few of his comments in quotes below for some of the films where he said some interesting things. Without further ado, here are John Waters' Top 10 Films of 2017:

1. Baby Driver (dir. Edgar Wright) "The best movie of the year is a popcorn thriller, an art film, and a gearhead classic that grossed over $100 million. It deserved to! Watching the star turn of Ansel Elgort was like seeing John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever for the first time."
2. I, Olga Hepnarová (dirs. Petr Kazda, Tomáš Weinreb)
3. The Strange Ones (dirs. Christopher Radcliff, Lauren Wolkstein)
4. Nocturama (dir. Bertrand Bonello)
5. Wonderstruck (dir. Todd Haynes) "Want an IQ test for your cinephile children? Just take them to see this beautifully made, feel-good kids’ movie about the hearing-impaired, starring a little girl who looks exactly like Simone Signoret. If your small-fry like the film, they’re smart. If they don’t, they’re stupid."
6. Graduation (dir. Christian Mungiu)
7. The Wizard of Lies (dir. Barry Levinson)
8. Lady Macbeth (dir. William Oldroyd) "The exact opposite of Get Out––here the bad white liberals actually win. Viciously funny and maybe the meanest movie of the decade."
9. Wonder Wheel (dir. Woody Allen)
10. Tom of Finland (dir. Dome Karukoski) "This dirty but dignified, oddly commercial biopic of the artist who inspired the modern-day s/m gay leather scene is now the Finnish government’s official entry in the 2017 foreign-film Oscar race. That’s what I call patriotic penis progress, and I hope it wins."

What do you make of Waters' Top 10 list? How many of these has anyone else even seen? As always, his list is full of some of the most oddball picks but nonetheless damn good films. Surprisingly, this year I've only seen three of these (Baby Driver, Graduation, Wonderstruck), I was expecting to be familiar with more of them but - nope. I have actually heard of most of them, and I want to see them at some point. I've heard that Nocturama is damn good, and I've also heard glowing things about Lady Macbeth. I'm not sure how Wonder Wheel made this list, but I honestly still haven't seen it. And if you're curious about I, Olga Hepnarová, it's a feature film about a real Czech woman who in 1973 drove a truck into a group of innocent people in Prague - you can watch the trailer here. As always, it's good to pick at least one of these you haven't seen yet to see.

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