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Decider Lists
What a year for *erudite movie enthusiast voice* the cinema. As we prepare to say good riddance to the whirlwind of calamity known as 2017, film critics are having an immensely difficult time narrowing down their favorite films of the year to a paltry list of ten. Most of us have seen beloved cinematic standouts like Get Out, Wonder Woman, The Big Sick, Lady Bird, and Baby Driver, but there are a host of incisive, beautifully crafted films that comparatively flew under the radar. We hear a lot about Peak TV, but what about the widespread epidemic of Peak Cinema!?
To be fair, too many superb films to stream is a pretty terrific problem to have. As the calendar prepares to turn to 2018, Decider has rounded up a few of our favorite hidden gems of the year. Some of these films are available to rent on iTunes or Amazon Video, while others are streaming for free on Netflix, Hulu, or Prime!
Want to learn more about a few of the cinematic marvels you missed while you were out *takes off tiny opera glasses* enjoying the cinema? We got your back! Here are the 10 best movies of 2017 you probably missed.
'The Incredible Jessica James'
Few films are more fun than The Incredible Jessica James.
A fresh, funny addition to the rom-com genre, the movie gives former Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams a chance to show the world her multi-faceted comedic chops as she portrays the eponymous Jessica James. The plot — an aspiring playwright navigating life, love, and the like in NYC — is fairly straightforward, but the movie captures so many essential truths about pursuing an artistic career in the big city, and it does so with a rare combination of optimism and realism.
The “two romantically-damaged people on the rebound” relationship between Jessica and Boone (Chris O’Dowd) is a hilarious snapshot of dating in 2017. The two have chemistry for days and their playful banter is an utter delight. The Incredible Jessica James more than lives up to its title.
Related: ‘The Incredible Jessica James’ Is A Genuinely Funny Showcase For Its Dazzling Leading Lady
'Ingrid Goes West'
Ingrid Goes West had viewers buzzing at Sundance, and after a limited theatrical release this summer, it is now available on Amazon Video. And you need to see it.
Aubrey Plaza gives an amazing performance as Ingrid, a social media-obsessed lady who does just a bit too much Instagram stalking and dangerously blurs the lines between Insta and IRL. O’Shea Jackson Jr. proves himself a worthy romantic comedy lead and Elizabeth Olsen is also charming in a film that will have you backing away from scrolling on your phone…at least for a little while. — Lea Palmieri
Related: Weekend Watch: ‘Ingrid Goes West’ Will Make You Delete Your Instagram
'Creep 2'
Creep 2 is the ideal scary movie for people who loathe traditional horror films.
From the minds of Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice, the sequel to the 2014 indie hit is a destabilizing psychological thriller that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat. The second installment picks up after the events of the first as Duplass’ wonderfully deranged “Josef” welcomes a new character, Sara (Desiree Akhavan), into his sinister web of peculiar deceit. A unique, mesmerizing film, Creep 2 subverts the traditional trappings of the genre and instead sets its incisive gaze on the brutal, horrifying honesty of slow-simmering cerebral combat.
Creep 2 is now available to rent and will be added to Netflix on Saturday, December 23rd.
'Landline'
If you’re a fan of off beat indies and small character-driven stories, Gillian Robespierre’s evocative family dramedy Landline should shoot to the top of your queue. Now streaming on Prime Video, the earnest comedy takes us all the way back to 1995 to tell a story of two sisters — Jenny Slate and Abby Quinn — who begin to suspect that their father (John Turturro) is having an affair.
Also starring the one-two theatrical punch of Edie Falco and Jay Duplass, Landline is a deft exploration of both family and romantic relationships.
Related: Edie Falco Shines Yet Again In Amazon’s Indie ‘Landline’
'Beatriz at Dinner'
It’s almost hard to believe, watching Beatriz at Dinner, that it was written and filmed before Donald Trump’s election, since it speaks so directly to feelings of helplessness in the face of the indomitable will of a wealthy and defiantly amoral man. Salma Hayek plays a massage therapist who ends up stranded at a wealthy client’s home and ends up as a fifth- (or seventh-) wheel dinner guest, taking in the conversations and casual (though not cartoonish) awfulness of their experience of the world. Hayek is brilliant, playing so many angles to Beatriz. She’s shocked by these people, yes, but she’s also quietly provocative, then more loudly angry, then soul-sickened by everything. It’s a swirl of emotions that the rest of us could more than relate to this year.
Props as well to John Lithgow, whose unapologetically ruthless businessman mixes it up with Beatriz in some thrilling scenes, as well as Connie Britton, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, and Chloe Sevigny in pitch-perfect supporting roles. — Joe Reid
Related: Weekend Watch: ‘Beatriz at Dinner’ Showed Up Right on Time for the Trump Era
'Too Funny To Fail'
Director Josh Greenbaum delivered two of the most enthralling documentaries of 2017 with Becoming Bond and Too Funny to Fail.
Now streaming on Hulu, Too Funny To Fail takes a look back at the unbelievable rise and fall of the short-lived ’90s sketch comedy series The Dana Carvey Show. The stranger than fiction true story about how a sketch series from the minds of Robert Smigel, Louis C.K., Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Bob Odenkirk, and Charlie Kaufman (among others) devolved into a commercial disaster is as briskly funny as it is wholly fascinating.
Fans of SNL, The State, and Mr. Show will love learning about a group of renegade comedy nerds who infiltrated the status quo and snuck some of the weirdest, most inventive comedy ever created onto network television.
Related: Hulu’s ‘Too Funny To Fail’ Is a Must-Stream For Comedy Nerds
'Princess Cyd'
Princess Cyd centers on a teenage girl, the titular Cyd (Jessie Pinnick), who is sent to live with her aunt in Chicago (Rebecca Spence) for a few weeks. Written and directed by Stephen Cone, (The Wise Kids, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party), the sweet film follows Cyd and she falls for a local barista, Katie, and has ideological clashes with her aunt.
“Ultimately, Princess Cyd is another gorgeous, sweetly sensitive vision of the ways in which family, however defined, can bring us closer to the people we want to be,” Decider’s Joe Reid wrote in his review. “That friction between the generations can be loving even while it’s quietly combative. That coming out can be freeing.”
Related: Weekend Watch: ‘Princess Cyd’ Is a Breath of Kind, Generous Air in Awful Times
'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore'
It feels as though Macon Blair’s I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore premiered years ago, but it actually dropped on Netflix in February of 2017. The film follows Melanie Lynskey’s Ruth, a depressed woman whose home is burglarized. Fed up, Ruth takes matters into her own hands by teaming up with her odd, obnoxious neighbor, Tony (Elijah Wood), as the two embark on their own investigation of the home invasion.
Lynskey and Wood are predictably great as I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, which won the U.S. Drama Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, confidently toggles between comedy and mystery.
Stream I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore on Netflix
'Lady Macbeth'
This isn’t an adaptation of Shakespeare’s revered Scottish play, but instead it’s an adaptation of the archetype he created with that play’s female lead. The figure of the ruthless wife, whispering in her beloved’s ear, prodding him towards ever more ruthless and power-mad actions, all to increase her share of the kingdom has become a cliche in and of itself. It’s a juicy role to play on stage, but it’s one that’s flattened as many female characters as it’s enhanced.
Director William Oldroyd’s film, from a script by Alice Birch, follows a young woman in 1860s England, Katherine, who’s been married off to a man she doesn’t love at a country estate where she’s barely tolerated. Florence Pugh delivers one of the great scorched-earth performances of the year as Katherine, whose opportunistic attempts to raise herself out of the pit of her life sentence end up bringing chaos to the estate. Did Lady Macbeth help herself because nobody was going to bother to help her? Katherine’s story suggests yes. — Joe Reid
'Colossal'
A unique mix of sci-fi, horror, comedy, and drama, Colossal stars Anne Hathaway as Gloria, a recently dumped, out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City and move back home. Sounds more like a Greta Gerwig coming-of-age indie flick than a horror movie, right? Wrong. The next two acts follow a deranged, imaginative plot in which Gloria discovers she’s inexplicably connected to a giant monster that’s been terrorizing Seoul.
Also featuring Jason Sudeikis playing against type, Colossal is a one-of-a-kind film that’s refreshingly unafraid to revel in its own distinct weirdness. Watch it today on Hulu.
