Moments of 2017

Inspired by the now defunct Film Comment "Moments Out of Time" series and the great Roger Ebert's year end recap, this Moments of the Year list (19 years running now!) represents indelible moments of my film-going year. It can be a line of dialogue, a glance, a camera movement or a mood, but they're all wondrous examples of a filmmaker and audience connecting emotionally.


- Rooney Mara listening to “I Get Overwhelmed” by Dark Rooms on the headset her husband (Casey Affleck) carefully places over her head, and the way her eyes try to avoid showing the emotion welling up inside her.  “A Ghost Story”

- The casting of Peter Verby as a psychiatrist in Josh and Benny Sadie’s “Good Time”. He’s the type of real life person who would be at home in a Frederick Wiseman documentary.

- In “Call Me By Your Name”, the needle drop onto the Psychedelic Furs “Love My Way”…. the impetus to get Elio (Timothee Chalamat) onto the dance floor.

- A flash of lightning in the sky and a long, slow pan down the city landscape, eventually settling on an alleyway as a man (Denzel Washington) creeps in the shadows.  “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

- A handheld shot of a man hustling through a crowded newsroom and laying a piece of paper on the desk of a copy editor, muttering “you’ve got ten minutes”…. and then pencil begins making marks on the paper. The distillation of the urgency and intelligence of Steven Spielberg’s “The Post”


- “What is this… a compatibility test? Like what some people do with Vonnegut or “The Big Lebowski?”  Zoe Kazan in “The Big Sick”

- In Charlie McDowell’s “The Discovery”, Will (Jason Segal) turning back to the woman (Rooney Mara) and child on the beach, beginning to say something when the film cuts to black and leaves us imagining what life comes next for him.

- A chimpanzee gently taking bananas from the silent hands of Jane Goodall.   “Jane”

- Really the whole performance of Willem Dafoe in “The Florida Project”, but especially the way his glances and body language slowly evolves as he begins and ends a conversation with a man talking to his group of kids, culminating with an outburst of anger that’s so real, startling, humane.

- A man (Alex Brendemuhl) watches his wife (Marion Cotillard) frantically run after an ambulance and the painfully altered reality that snowballs into damning focus for both.  “From the Land of the Moon”

- A potion being dipped into the water and lifeless fish gently rising to the top.  “The Lost City of Z”

- Fred Armisen’s appearance in “The Little Hours”. One scene is enough to send this film over the top as one of the year’s best comedies.

- In “BladeRunner 2049”, Two women- one real (Makenzie Davis) and one not (Ana de Armas)- intertwining and meshing their bodies. A spectacular piece of visual trickery made all the more poignant for the ways it exudes sensuality and dare I say ‘human’ emotion.

- “First They Killed My Father”. An explosion reflected in the black pupil of a little girl (Sareum Srey Moch) and the frightening confusion that begins.

- In “Columbus”, an explanation told from behind glass, gently withheld from us as Casey (Hayley Lu Richardson) describes her feelings to Jin (John Cho).


- An overhead shot of bullets ricocheting off a shield.   “Wonder Woman” and her battle for no man’s land.

- A girl, ambling slowly over to a hospital window and a young boy on the bed saying “I want to try and see to….” before his body rolls off the bed and thuds on the floor. Yorgis Lanthimos exploring the myths of the nuclear family and how easily they come undone in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”.

- The way Florence Pugh constantly squirms, writhes and bites her teeth in the background as the people around her try to ascertain the truth. Call it the ultimate bit of modernity infused into a Victorian domestic drama.  “Lady Macbeth”



- The fight in the fog and judging where the creatures are by the sound of the ‘whistle arrows’. “The Great Wall”

- The boorish way Kristen Stewart relents and tries on the harness dress after being urged on by the dresser… and then she seductively commands the screen for the next few minutes in wordless glances in the mirror at herself.  “Personal Shopper”

- The reaction of Nick Offerman to the line reading by Lee (Sam Elliot). Sci-fi schlock from the paper turned into poignant and real commentary.  “The Hero”

- Taylor Sheridan never met a row of speeding cars he didn’t like….. The swooping crane shot as four cars zoom across an Indian reservation in “Wind River”.


- In “The Lost City of Z”, several men jump overboard their small boat and the piranha attack that begins. That’s the reason they couldn’t catch fish in their nets.

- In Dee Rees’ “Mudbound”, the final voiceover from Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) and the moment he sees his son peer out from behind the doorway.

- “I’m gonna create some weird shit.”    “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”

- Partially obscured by a mesh screen, the thousand yard stare emitted by Connie (Robert Pattinson) from the backseat of a cop car.   “Good Time”


- Two men fighting, and then the muffled reverberating sound of a plate glass window from the inside as their bodies slap against it.  “Gold”

- The reserved, almost pathetic stare Lady Bird (Sairose Ronan) gives her mom (Laurie Metcalf) before retreating back into a dressing room and wondering if this is currently the best version of herself.  “Lady Bird”

- After spending an entire movie choking back her emotions, the way Jane Banner’s (Elizabeth Olsen)
body convulses into a wave of deep sorrow, lying on a hospital bed murmuring “she ran six miles”.  “Wind River”

- “Well, my story line’s disappearing. What. The. Fuck.” Alison Janney in “I, Tonya”

- The sunset in the sky behind Carey Mulligan as she showers for the first time in her exterior homemade bathroom.  “Mudbound”

- Casey (Hayley Lu Richardson) and her mad dance illuminated by the headlights of a parked car. “Columbus”

- With the camera poised inches from her face, the way Brea laments her pain is too much to endure on that given day and is she really invisible? Luckily, her documentary gives visibility to the invisible.  “Unrest”

- And the scene of the year: after finding “never cursed” sewn into the lining of a wedding dress, the cut to a fire-lit bedroom and Reynolds (Daniel Day Lewis) seeing his mother in the corner of the room and the short but heartbreaking confession he begins to mumble…. And we thought fathers were the problem in Paul Thomas Anderson’s universe.   “Phantom Thread”


Welcome 2018!